The Compassionate of God

What Do You Hate?

When I was a kid, I hated rockmelon. My mom gave me some rockmelon, put it in my lunchbox. It sat out in the sun all day. By the time I got to lunch, I ate it because my mom had made it for me. By that stage, it was rancid and it made me so sick. So now I just can't really deal with rockmelon. What do you hate? I hate sandals with socks. If you're going to wear sandals, just lose the socks. We cannot do sandals and socks. What do I hate? I hate the rugby league game day mullet. It's the hairstyle that happens on impulse. The player decides that they're going to shave the sides of their heads, and if you said to them, "What were you thinking?" the answer is, "Not much, actually."

I don't know what you hate, but can you imagine hating a group of people so much that you would love to see them dead, and you would dance on their grave? It's hard to imagine that for people like us. How could you dislike someone that much? However, what if those people for generation upon generation had plundered and assaulted and humiliated and victimized your fellow citizens and your ancestors and parents and grandparents? It was institutionalized, if you like. That's what helps me to understand why Jonah does what he does. It's a mixture of fear and terror and anger and hatred towards the people of Nineveh.

The Problem with Jonah

So we've been studying this funny little book of Jonah. You can see it on page 917, the passage we're looking at, 917 of the Red Bibles if you got one there. A funny little book, it's full of flora and fauna—big fish, fauna; vines, strange vines that grow over Jonah, flora. But the point is that we are trying to get beyond the big fish. We're trying to get beyond the gardening illustration. We're trying to get to God and how we're supposed to relate to this God, and indeed how he relates to us.

So in case you've missed the story, it goes a little bit like this. God speaks to Jonah and he says to him, "I want you to go and preach." Preach? Who do you want me to preach to? To Nineveh, capital city of Assyria. Not a very nice group of people, bloodthirsty, warlike hawks, not doves. And so Jonah runs the other way. We understand why he runs the other way, but it's a dumb thing to do, because how can you run away from God? How can you run away from the one who made the oxygen you breathe, who made the muscle fibers in your calves that are helping you to run away, who made the boat that you're escaping in?

He runs because he's scared. Nineveh is an ancient walled city, about 12 kilometers around the outside. It's a large city, population of about 120,000, the last capital city of Assyria, on the Tigris River, near Mosul in modern Iraq. And it's a great city. Can you imagine walking into that city with a sign on your back saying, "The end is near, turn back to God before it's too late. If you don't turn back, you're going to be destroyed." Can you imagine that? It would be like going into an outlaw motorcycle gang clubhouse and saying, "It's over for you. It's all over." It would be unnerving.

He's afraid, but that's not the main reason he runs. The main reason he runs is because he dislikes them. They are a violent people. They were the sworn enemies of the true and living God. And Jonah knows that if he preaches, they might turn back to God, and if they do turn back to God, he knows God will spare them. And Jonah doesn't want them to be spared, he wants them to be destroyed. Imagine disliking someone that much.

So Jonah doesn't preach, he runs. And that run begins his slide. He goes down to Joppa. He goes down into the boat. He goes down into the water. He goes down into the fish. You can't get lower than that. But the amazing thing is, God never leaves him. God could have said, "Well, that's enough for you, Jonah, I'll get somebody else. You've shown your unwillingness, I'll just get somebody else." But the heart of God is unstoppable, even for Jonah.

Friends, this is great news. This is the character of God. God has been very, very kind to Jonah. But there he is, at his very lowest, in the depths of the underworld, he surrenders to God, and the fish spits him out again. And God's word comes to him again.

God's Compassion and Jonah's Anger

And so he walks into Nineveh with this five-word message—I know it's more than five words here in the English, but in the original it's just five words—"40 more days and Nineveh will be overthrown." And amazingly, they turn back to God, and God relents. Which is no surprise to Jonah, and it ought to be no surprise for us, because we know that God takes no pleasure in the death of anyone.

The Bible says that the wages of sin is death. And if someone rebels against God, who shakes their fist in God's face, who pushes God to the perimeter of life, and God casts them out, well, that would be just and it would be fair. But it doesn't satisfy God's heart, because God's heart goes out to everyone that he's made.

But God relents, and this gets Jonah really angry. And it's kind of like Jonah throws all the toys out of the cot. You look at chapter 4, verse 2: "But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. Verse two, he prayed to the Lord, 'O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That's why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.'" Jonah knows the character of God, that's what he's worried about. He's worried about the fact that God will relent.

In other words, "God, you are such a softie! One little tear down one little cheek and you turn up, you throw away the whole plan. I'm longing for Nineveh to be destroyed and you say, 'Preach to them.' But I know that if I do, they might repent, and I know if they do, if they do turn back to you, you're going to relent. God, you're a pushover! One little piece of sackcloth, one little piece of ash, no destruction, no judgment, no nothing! And here I am, I'm a laughingstock. They're my enemies, they're your enemies as well, and you do nothing."

Well, Jonah had a bad week. You might think your week's pretty bad, but I can guarantee you had nothing like this. You weren't half drowned, swallowed, vomited up, and then had to walk through a violent city preaching to your sworn enemies so that they get off scot-free.

Jonah's angry, but he's wrong, isn't he? And God picks Jonah up on his hypocrisy. Jonah's attitude to Nineveh goes a little bit like this: "You made them, you destroy them." And it's like God says, "Well, what if I try that little policy with you?"

And so you see in verse five, Jonah goes out to the east of the city. He's done his preaching. He goes out to the east of the city and he makes himself a little shelter, and he's wishing and hoping and watching. And it's hot and uncomfortable. And then God causes a vine or some sort of leafy plant to grow over Jonah. He's got his little pergola there and the vine grows over, and that makes Jonah happy. See, in verse six, he's happy for the shade. And then God brings a worm to eat it, verse seven, and it withers in the hot easterly wind. And then Jonah gets really hot under the collar. And God says to him, "Are you angry, Jonah?" And Jonah says, "Yes, I'm angry. I'm angry enough to die." That's pretty angry.

And God challenges Jonah on his meanness. It's as if God says, "Hey Jonah, look, I make a plant, which is just a thing, and I destroy it, and you're angry. And yet, I make people who are made in my image, and I save them. They're eternal, and I save them, and you're angry."

You see, God's deep desire is to save the people he's made. You can't meet a person anywhere that God does not want to save. Can't meet anyone on the planet, you can't meet anyone in Sydney, you can't meet anyone in Lavender Bay, can't meet anyone anywhere, can't meet any person in this week or any person in this world of any skin color, of any religion, of any nationality, of any culture that God does not want to save through Jesus Christ. It's like God's deep desire is this: "Go to heaven, please go to heaven." God wants his people in heaven. You can't meet any person that God does not want to save through Jesus Christ. His heart goes out to them. It's unstoppable.

Jesus, Greater Than Jonah

And God looked out on Nineveh, 120,000 people who it says in verse 11 didn't know their right hand from their left. That's like code for: as far as God is concerned, they've got no clue. They're lost people. Got no clue when it comes to God, and God's heart goes out to them, and he says, "I'll save them." And God looks out on our world, and let's face it, not much of a clue about God, not much of an idea, don't really know their left hand from their right hand, and God sends his son to save us.

And Jesus on one occasion stood up and said, "One greater than Jonah is here." True. One greater than Jonah is here. True. See, Jesus is far greater than Jonah. Jesus is more courageous than Jonah. Jesus didn't mind being called a fool to save people like you and me. Jesus was greater than Jonah because he was happy to give up his comfort, his comfort of being at one with God the Father in heaven, and to come to earth and empty himself and make himself nothing for our sakes. And Jesus' resurrection was far greater. Jonah came up out of the sea. Jesus came up out of the grave.

You can imagine the picture of Jonah coming out of the sea with seaweed in his hair, some bizarre and weird character. Jesus came up out of the grave, raised eternal, gloriously.

Jesus was far more compassionate than Jonah. Jonah's attitude is: "Save me, destroy them." Jesus' attitude is: "Destroy me, save them." His heart is unstoppable.

And a Christian believer is a lot like Nineveh. They may not know much, but they cry out to God. They may not even know their left hand from their right hand, but they cry out to God, "Oh God, is there some way you can save me?" And the free grace of God washes over them, and God does save through Jesus Christ.

And if you're one of those simple, garden-variety believers in God, that's how you find yourself this morning, just the basic average believer in God, nothing all that impressive. You trust in the Savior.

God's closing question is a really good one: "Should I not be concerned for that city?" For, unlike Jonah, we should be. There is no city we should not be concerned for. No city like Nineveh, no city like Sydney, no person, no person in the world we should not be concerned for. And having such a great model in God, and having such a great savior in Jesus Christ, we ought to be.

Closing Prayer

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word to Jonah and your word through Jonah to us. We thank you for the things we've learned over these last weeks, but especially we give you thanks today that although we've learned much, there is a better message through Jesus Christ: a message of grace and mercy, of his death for us, of his rising to new life, of peace with God, of the gift of your spirit, of the eternal future. And may you grant us a renewed concern for the people that you've made and the people you want to save. And we pray that you might teach us and lead us such that we have a heart after yours. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

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