Jonah Has An Attitude

2/2/03

 

 

Frustration, hurt, disappointment that you can’t seem to get beyond, all lead to anger, resentment, and bitterness that will destroy your life and those around you, unless it is conquered.

 

Hurting people hurt people!

 

A lot of anger at the root seems justifiable.  But justifying anger will never set you free from it.

 

I want us to look at a prophet who was full of anger.  His anger caused him a tremendous amount of grief and those around him.  His anger seemed justifiable.

 

 Assyria—a great but evil empire—was Israel’s most dreaded enemy. The Assyrians flaunted their power before God and the world through numerous acts of heartless cruelty.  Nineveh, was Assyria’s capital.

 

Just in case someone might think that this story is a parable or metaphor, it’s not literally true, listen to what Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew:

 

Mat. 12:39 He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

 

Jonah 1

 

Anger will cause you to run.

 

1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai:

2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”

3 But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD.

 

Your anger makes life hard for everyone around you.

 

4 Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up.

5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.

 

Anger is consuming and blinding.  You become absorbed in yourself and you really don’t care that everything is falling apart.

 

But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep.

 

6 The captain went to him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish.”

7 Then the sailors said to each other, “Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.” They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.

8 So they asked him, “Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?”

9 He answered, “I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.”

10 This terrified them and they asked, “What have you done?” (They knew he was running away from the LORD, because he had already told them so.)

11 The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”

 

Unresolved anger takes away all reason and opens the door for Satan to have a great foot hold!

 

“If this is the way it has to be, then I don’t want to live.”

 

12 “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”

13 Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before.

 

The Lord has a way of bringing glory to Himself even when we mess it up!

 

14 Then they cried to the LORD, “O LORD, please do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, O LORD, have done as you pleased.”

15 Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. 1 6At this the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him.

 

The Lord Jesus loves us so much!  He wants to heal the hurt in our heart.  He wants to deliver us from the anger that is killing us.

 

17 But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.

 

Ambrose John Wilson in the Princeton Theological Review for 1927 mentions a case of a sailor on a whaling ship near the Falkland Islands who was swallowed by a large sperm whale. The whale was later harpooned, and when it was opened up on deck the surprised crew found their lost shipmate unconscious inside its belly. Though bleached from the whale’s gastric juices, he recovered, even though he never lost the deadly whiteness left on his face, neck and hands.

 

Jonah 2

 

1 From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God.

2 He said:

    “In my distress I called to the LORD,

  and he answered me.

    From the depths of the grave I called for help,

  and you listened to my cry.

3  You hurled me into the deep,

  into the very heart of the seas,

  and the currents swirled about me;

    all your waves and breakers

  swept over me.

4  I said, ‘I have been banished

  from your sight;

    yet I will look again

  toward your holy temple.’

5  The engulfing waters threatened me,

  the deep surrounded me;

  seaweed was wrapped around my head.

6  To the roots of the mountains I sank down;

  the earth beneath barred me in forever.

    But you brought my life up from the pit,

  O LORD my God.

7  “When my life was ebbing away,

  I remembered you, LORD,

    and my prayer rose to you,

  to your holy temple.

8  “Those who cling to worthless idols

  forfeit the grace that could be theirs.

9  But I, with a song of thanksgiving,

  will sacrifice to you.

    What I have vowed I will make good.

  Salvation comes from the LORD.”

10 And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

 

Obedient, but still reluctant.  Jonah has still not dealt with the real issue!

 

Jonah 3

 

1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:

2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”

3 Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very important city—a visit required three days.

4 On the first day, Jonah started into the city. He proclaimed: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.”

5 The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust.

7 Then he issued a proclamation in Nineveh:

“By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink.

8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence.

9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”

10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.

 

Now most evangelists would go on TV and report this tremendous event!  Not Jonah!

 

No matter how gracious and merciful God has been to you, unresolved anger will cause you to quickly forget God’s love and mercy and you will go right back where you were before.

 

Jonah 4

 

1 But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry.

2 He prayed to the LORD, “O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.

3 Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

4 But the LORD replied, “Have you any right to be angry?”

5 Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. 6Then the LORD God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine. 7But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered. 8When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?”

“I do,” he said. “I am angry enough to die.”

10 But the LORD said, “You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?”

 

The book of Jonah is unlike any other prophetical book in the Bible.  All the other prophetical books share the message God gave them, but the book of Jonah is about the prophet himself--Jonah had an attitude problem!

 

Do you have anger eating away at you?  Are you tormented deep down by anger and resentment?  The reason doesn’t matter!  It is imperative that you get released from this sin so that you can be all that the Lord Jesus wants you to be!

 

Eph. 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.