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Jonah & the Lord of Storms/Worms

Jonah

Apr 19, 2020


by: Jack Lash Series: Jonah | Category: Missionary | Scripture: Jonah 4:5–11

I. Introduction
A. Next week will be the last sermon in Jonah, making this our penultimate Jonah sermon.
B. Jonah 4:5–11 Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. 6 Now the LORD God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. 7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” 9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” 10 And the LORD said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”
C. Remember how, when Jonah refused to go to Nineveh and instead took at boat in the opposite direction, the Lord sent a storm to stop him?
D. Well, now in this part of the story the Lord kindly sends a quick-growing vine to provide shade for Jonah in the overpowering heat of the sun, making Jonah very happy.
1. But then the Lord sent a worm to chew the stem of the vine and it shriveled and ruined the shade.
E. We observed in our first sermon how God is sometimes audacious in His actions, calling us to go places we don’t want to go, and do things we don’t want to do.
1. Today we see the audacity of God in providing Jonah shade and then removing it just as quickly.
F. Jonah was understandably upset. But God challenged him about his anger, saying basically, “You have more compassion for this vine than you do for a city of lost souls.”
G. When we talked about God sending Jonah to Nineveh, we saw that God is not a respecter of comfort zones.
1. When we talked about God relenting on his judgment of the Ninevites, we saw that God is not a respecter of persons.
2. This week as we talk about God removing the shady vine He had sent for Jonah’s relief, we see that God is not a respecter of creature comforts.
II. Or God is the Lord of storms, worms, and all things.
A. He’s got many tools in His toolbox.
1. He has storms and waves and winds.
2. He’s got sunlight and shade.
3. He’s got worms and fish.
4. He’s got vines which grow up fast and shrivel even faster.
5. He’s got kings and prophets and sailors and nobles.
6. He’s got pandemics and allergies and tumors and genetic conditions.
7. He’s got teachers and parents and children and bosses.
B. He might use something as mighty as a storm which threatens our very lives.
1. He might use something as tiny and trivial as a worm which removes our shade on a sunny day.
III. But why does God send storms to disturb our lives and worms to eat away at our earthly comforts?
A. God has work to do in the lives of His children. It’s easy for us to think that God’s job is to help us do our work. But just as WE are trying to produce something good by our efforts in life, so God is trying to produce something good in His people by His efforts.
B. There are many things God does in us through difficulties. In Jonah’s case, He was confronting Jonah with his lack of compassion.
C. Or God might use painful tools to keep us from pride.
1. We are going to talk about this more when we get back to 2Corinthians, because we are coming to the section where Paul describes his vision of heaven and then says that afterward, God sent him a thorn in the flesh to keep him from growing conceited (2Cor.12:7).
2. If the apostle Paul, with all he had been through, was still prone to things like conceit, then obviously we are susceptible to things like this as well.
D. Part of the purpose of painful tools, is to expose our idolatry.
1. As long as we are comfortable, we are patient and calm. It’s when our securities are threatened or our smooth lives are disturbed that our sin comes to the surface and can see our idolatries.
2. So often we get angry at our kids and we walk away saying, “I can’t believe how forgetful she is!” or “Why doesn’t he listen?”
3. Or we walk away saying, “I need to be more patient” or “I need to get control of my temper.”
4. But are these really how we should be walking away? Shouldn’t we be focused on why we are reacting in anger? Shouldn’t we be walking away asking, “Why did I get angry, Lord? What is my idol here which you want me to see through my anger?”
5. Or sometimes God sets us up to be afraid. And we’re focused on the reason for our fear.
a. We think our problem is the circumstance, not our idolatry.
b. But we should be focused on why we are reacting in fear. What is our idol here?
IV. Sometimes we get angry with God when He sends storms to disturb our lives or sends worms to eat away at our earthly comforts. Just like Jonah.
A. This is because of a twisted understanding of what is loving.
1. The fact is, we need to be changed. And we are so privileged to have a heavenly Father who loves us enough to work to change us.
2. Would we be happier in the short term if God just let us have what we want? Maybe.
3. But God knows that our long-term happiness is dependant on having the right frame of heart, not having easy circumstances.
4. The fact is that there is only one thing that brings us real happiness, and that’s God.
5. This is why mankind was supremely happy in the garden of Eden, and why that happiness was shattered after we fell into sin. It’s because we lost God. We rejected and forsook our Creator.
6. But we lost so much when we lost God. And so mankind began a long quest to find an alternative. But everything we try is just a false god, a false hope.
B. Now, in light of this, is it really loving for God to give us the things we think will make us happy even when He knows that these things are only false and empty and will hurt us in the long run?
1. Folks, let us not be like children. Children only care about how painful or pleasurable something is. They don’t care about their long-term health. They don’t care about their long-term functionality. If it were up to them, they’d eat candy and junk food all day, and avoid good food.
a. Children don’t want to go through painful medical procedures no matter how important they are to their long-term health or functionality.
b. We must stop being like children.
2. We think of pain as our enemy. We think of embarrassment as our enemy. We think of hassle as our enemy. We think of failure as our enemy. We think of poverty as our enemy. We think of danger as our enemy.
3. And so our whole lives revolve around avoiding things like this.
4. But pain is not our enemy. Embarrassment and hassle and failure and poverty are not our enemies.
a. Sin is our enemy. Satan is our enemy. Unbelief is our enemy. Idolatry is our enemy.
b. God knows that. And that’s why He always seems to be initiating programs of idol-exposure and idol-destruction as He did with Jonah. That’s why He sends storms and worms into our lives.
C. But we hate storms and worms. When we want to flee from God, we want to be able to do it without interference. And we want to enjoy our shade without it being compromised.
1. So, sometimes our lives seem like a tug-of-war. We’re pulling in one direction. But it seems like God is pulling in another direction. And we get frustrated with God because He doesn’t seem to get with the program.
2. And you know what the key issue is in our dispute with God? He cares more about our eternal welfare than we do. We love our present selves, but He loves our future selves way more than we do.
3. Do you really want God to smooth the path before His children when they care more about their creature comforts than about people’s eternal souls?
D. We are so blessed to have a God who loves us enough to come after us, and confront us, and work with us, and discipline us! The Lord disciplines those whom He loves (Heb.12:6).
1. And we should be thankful. We should count all His efforts to address our sin as joy (Jms.1:2-3).
2. But so often we complain. And I am embarrassed to confess that I do too.
E. Have you ever repented of accusing God for not caring about you?
1. That’s what we do every time we complain about how terrible things are going in our lives.
2. I’m not criticizing telling others the facts about what is happening. We all want to know what’s going on in each other’s lives so we can pray for each other and help each other.
3. And I’m not criticizing humbly telling others about how you struggle with bad thoughts in the face of the distresses and difficulties of life. We need to pray for each other about that too.
4. What I am criticizing is being bitter toward God because we don’t like the way He’s running our lives.
F. But this is not only insulting to the One who is trying to love us, it is also a terrible witness.
1. It seems to me that complaining is fairly acceptable in the evangelical community in America.
2. But there are other places where Christians are careful not to complain. Why? Because they see how it dishonors the Lord, and to non-believers complainers appear to be announcing that God doesn’t do a good job taking care of His children.
3. As I said, I don’t mean we shouldn’t be honest about the circumstances of our lives with each other. But it’s very possible to do that without sounding like we’re complaining.
G. We don’t realize what a problem our sin is and how much havoc it wreaks on those around us and how it compromises our effectiveness to have an impact for Christ on the people around us.
1. And to parents let me say as an older parent that many of my failures and weaknesses which seemed so small to me when my kids were young, turned out to be much bigger than I thought when saw later how much they had negatively affected my kids.
2. I wish I had begun each day desperately crying out to the Lord: “Please, Lord, help me today. Help me be filled with Christ and not with myself.” But I didn’t because I had little idea how much havoc I could wreak when by living my life according to my own wisdom & resources.
V. In the story of Jonah we see how the Lord sometimes gives and then takes away.
A. In the story of the storm we see that sometimes God sends problems and then right when things are at their worst, He removes the problem, showing us His goodness, kindness and power.
B. But we see with the story of the shade & the vine that sometimes God does the very opposite.
1. Sometimes He gives something pleasant and enjoyable. And then, just when our hearts really latch onto this precious treasure, He takes it away.
2. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away (Job 1:21).
C. This is a strong theme in Scripture.
1. Nations prosper and then are brought low.
2. Job, who was given many children and much wealth and good health. Then God took it all away.
3. God created a pleasant world but then (in response to sin) imposes thorns, thistles & pain. Gen.1-3
D. God is willing to use His power to ruin and destroy according to His perfect wisdom.
1. Think about the havoc which the 10 plagues wreaked on Egypt – Exod.11-12.
2. But like a skillful surgeon, God knows just how much to use this power to accomplish His will.
a. Nebuchadnezzar given sanity and then it’s taken away for seven years – Daniel 4
b. The disciples given the power to cast out demons, and then in one case it is gone – Matt.17:14-21
3. And so it is with us: financial set-backs, health scares, relational shipwrecks
E. Sometimes God gives us something just for the purpose of taking it away. But always for our good.
1. Why did God send the shady vine to Jonah? Ultimately it was to take it away — so as to confront Jonah with his idolatry and lack of compassion.
F. One of the stories which helps us understand this is when God finally blessed Abraham and Sarah with a son, Isaac, and yet then told Abraham to sacrifice him (Gen.22). Perhaps the ultimate example of God giving and then taking away.
1. Why did God do this? Well, the story tells us. “Now I know you fear God.” (Gen.22:12)
2. Isaac was so longed for and long waited for, and on account of God’s promises so much was invested in Isaac, it was natural for Abraham and Sarah to cling to their son too closely.
3. And God needed to ensure that Abraham was devoted to God more than to the son God gave him.
4. The taking, or the apparent taking, solidified Abraham’s faith.
5. And it was similar for Jonah. God removed the vine in order to show Jonah that his allegiance to his own creature comforts was stronger than his allegiance to the will of God.
G. Times God has removed people from our congregation
1. It has been one of the hardest parts of pastoring for me.
2. I am personally invested in every person in the congregation, and it is painful for me to say good-bye. And of course, it’s even harder for me to have someone leave who is upset or unsatisfied with me as pastor.
3. But, the fact is that this has been one of God’s most effective tools for getting through to me, for breaking down my pride, for doing things in me which needed to be done. And for that I am eternally grateful.
VI. We see in the story of Jonah God’s work to instill a heart of love/compassion into His prophet.
A. The gospel begins with the love of God for sinners.
B. And in order for us to become God’s tools of love for sinners, which is what He wants for each one of His children, He’s got to instill His love in us.
C. But there is a barrier. In our flesh, we care more about our own comforts than about the eternal welfare of others, especially the ones ‘out there.’ We see that with Jonah.
D. The specific issue in our passage was the fact that Jonah cared more about his own creature comforts than about the eternal souls of the Ninevites.
E. It seems to me that this ought to hit most of us right between the eyes, including me.
1. The fact is, there are still Ninevehs all over the world: cities and cultures and people groups which have no Christian witness.
2. And our Lord has given us the assignment: “Go and make disciples of all (people groups).” – Matt.28:19
3. But how much do we really care about the souls of those who don’t know Christ?
a. How much do we care about unreached people groups around the world?
4. Is it not true that most of us care more about our TVs than about the unreached cities of the Middle East? Is it not true that most of us care more about our food than about the unreached people groups of Asia? Is it not true that most of us care more about our cars than about the unreached tribes of the Amazon?
5. Just like Jonah, we are often more concerned about our slight discomforts than we are about the eternal torment of the unbelieving.
6. And just as God confronted Jonah with that fact, so through Jonah, He confronts us with that fact.
F. Jonah didn’t just lack compassion for the Ninevites, he was angry at God for having compassion.
1. Jonah very much wanted God to care about his shade, but very much didn’t want God to care about the eternal welfare of the Ninevites.
2. He was upset that God was the way He was. He wanted God to be different. He wanted to reinvent God so He would be solidly committed to his earthly comfort.
3. How can I read this story and continue to think that God cares more about my earthly comforts more than He cares about the eternal lives of unbelievers?
G. But it’s so interesting here how the wrath in this story is not God’s wrath against Jonah but Jonah’s wrath against God.
1. God is very patient and even gentle in the ways He confronts Jonah.
2. “Do you do well to be angry?” Is that really the kind of attitude you want to have? Are you really seeing things the way you ought to see them?
3. Who are you, Jonah? Who do you want to be? Where is your heart? What do you really love? What is really important to you? Earthly comforts? The approval of your people?
4. Or do you want a hunger for God? Do you want to see My Kingdom come? Do you want to see My love spread through the whole world?
5. In this passage, God does not scream at His children. But He does probe. He does ask.
6. Do you do well to be angry?