Read Jonah 4
Questions from the Scripture text: How did Jonah respond (Jonah 4:1) to God’s not destroying Assyria (cf. Jonah 3:10)? Whom did he address about this (Jonah 4:2)? Where had he said this would happen? What had he done, as a result? What did he know about God (cf. Exodus 34:6)? Now what does he ask of God (Jonah 4:3)? What is his reasoning for this? What does YHWH ask him (Jonah 4:4)? Where does Jonah go (Jonah 4:5)? What does he make? What is he watching to see? Who prepares what (Jonah 4:6, cf. Jonah 1:17)? What did He make it do? So that it might accomplish what? When did God prepare what, in Jonah 4:7? To do what to the plant? When did God prepare what, in Jonah 4:8? What did the sun then do? With what effect? What did Jonah again wish (cf. Jonah 4:3)? What does God now ask Jonah (Jonah 4:9a)? And what does Jonah answer (verse 9b)? With what intensity? What does YHWH say Jonah had done toward the plant (Jonah 4:10)? What does He point out about the map? Whom does YHWH say He should pity (Jonah 4:11)? What does He call the city? What does He point out about the number of its inhabitants? What does He say about their knowledge? For what else does He especially care?
What is God doing with Nineveh? Jonah 4 looks forward to the hearing of God’s Word, publicly read, in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these eleven verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that God is showing us that He delights to show mercy.
God’s message to Jonah is found in the two questions that punctuate the chapter. It is the same question twice (Jonah 4:4, Jonah 4:9a). Right angry you? Our translation smooths it out: “Is it right for you to be angry?”
Obviously, the answer in both cases, is “no.” But, Jonah stubbornly and aggressively insists upon his rightness to be angry (Jonah 4:9b).
Our wickedness is so dreadful. It can bring us to the point where self-interest actually makes us angry that people are shown mercy (Jonah 4:1) and hopeful that they may yet be destroyed (Jonah 4:5). His rebellion against the Lord from chapter one (Jonah 4:2, cf. Jonah 1:3) is now explained as having its origin in his desire for Nineveh’s destruction. Love for God and love for neighbor go together.
The irony behind the chapter is that it would be exactly right for YHWH to be angry with Jonah (just as it would have been right for Him to destroy Nineveh). It is the rightness of His wrath that makes the cross necessary for Him to show mercy. And that is the point of the chapter: God delights to show mercy (cf. Micah 7:18; Romans 9:23).
He even delights to show mercy to Jonah! Three times, we have God “preparing” something in this chapter: the plant, the worm, and the wind. But we had another “preparation” by God, earlier in the book: the great fish in Jonah 1:17. The impression that all of this gives is that the point of the entire episode in the book has not so much been God’s interaction with Nineveh and Assyria. That was a genuine interaction from the God Who cares even for the livestock of Jonah 4:11.
But the repeated language implies that the primary focus is His work in the life of His prophet. Jonah was His prophet in more than just this incident (cf. 2 Kings 14:25), and he obviously has significant spiritual issues. In the book of Jonah, the Lord has exposed what was in Jonah’s heart: a failure to delight in mercy the way that the Lord delights in mercy. And the Lord leaves us with His question in Jonah 4:11 unanswered because, in part, it is not the mercy toward those 120,000 ignorant persons, or toward the much livestock, that has been the main focus. Rather than being angry with His prophet, which chapter 2 makes plain God would have been right to be, He has made these extensive preparations to show the mercy of bringing his prophet to show mercy.
Did it work? We are not told. We are left wondering: did Jonah ever come to learn mercy? And it pushes us to ask that very question of ourselves: God has caused this to be recorded as a means by which He glorifies His own mercy and calls us unto mercy of our own; will we delight in His mercy and become merciful, also, ourselves? Will you?
Who is there that, if the Lord showed them mercy and gave them repentance, your heart would be in danger of being angry about that? How has God taken pleasure in showing you mercy? How does your heart respond to His mercy to you? How does your heart respond to His mercy to others? What are you doing out of mercy to others’ souls?
Sample prayer: Lord, forgive us for our failure to delight in You Yourself and Your mercy. And forgive us for the extent to which our hearts are inclined against others, even enjoying the prospect of their judgment. Just as You delight in mercy, show that mercy to us in Christ. Expose our own hearts to us, and delight to show the mercy of making us merciful like Yourself, we ask through Christ, AMEN!
Suggested Songs: ARP130 “LORD, from the Dephs to You I Cried” or TPH180 “Kind and Merciful God”
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