Well,
welcome back to another podcast from Struggling Well, and we're looking again at Jonah. We're taking a turn. We looked the last couple weeks at the impact of Jonah's message or Jonah's life on pagan sailors on the city of Nineveh. And those are chapters one and three in the book. But chapters two and four really really do focus on this prophet. And it's again, he's an unlikely kind of prophet. I mean, he's not somebody who's out there doing things in a joyous way for the Lord. He's begrudgingly serving God with what God gives him. And in chapters two and four, you see more about God dealing with Jonah than you do what Jonah's message was. And it doesn't look good for Jonah. I mean, it doesn't he's not willingly doing any of these things. And the first unwillingness to do it lands him in the belly of a great fish. And it's there that he prays in chapter 2. and the interesting thing is that he never mentions anything about his own sin that he had disobeyed God, that he had run from God, that he had been the cause of this turbulence on the sea that causes pe men to throw him overboard and everything else. And now he's in this belly of this fish. He never says anything in this prayer about God, I've sinned and so God, I'm sorry and I want to repent of my sin, which is very fascinating to me. It's a great prayer. It just doesn't talk about his responsibility before God.
Maybe Jonah is a little bit like me. this book is stirring me up like Job does and Hosea does. It stirs me up and it I feel this little bit of an attitude coming up and I'm not sure
towards Jonah or God.
I Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. It's like you know looking at the and I love this word the meta narrative the larger story over the entire Bible is wonderful and I love the whole story. fits together from Genesis to Revelation. But there are these minor prophets and these stories like this where I something stirs in me and I think my flesh is stirred. My sinful nature is stirred. But so I get a little annoyed at Jonah. Well, a lot annoyed because he's judgmental and he's he doesn't repent and you know he forgets about God, which is so often what I do. And that's where I think Jon and I are alike. But then I also am like God was there not another way I would have been the person probably at the cross who would have said been like Peter is there not another way
right because I think we all have this mindset that this loving gracious God I is going to make life work here on this earth to the to what our standards of making life work look like
and that's not what God is bound to at all
and for a lot of us myself especially is I forget what God is after, what the point is of creating man, the point of everything in the Old Testament that brings us to the New Testament. I forget the point of what happened in the garden that began this division between God and man. I forget what the point is. And then I get all bogged down into these stories the way I do. And I want to have the answer to my question. I want to know why and I want to know is there not another way.
Right? And I think that's one of the things that we all wrestle with is and I and we pray this lots of times. We pray God give us clarity. And I don't there's probably nothing wrong with that prayer, but that's not a promise that he has made that he will give us clarity on everything. And Jonah is one of those examples. This book doesn't end with clarity.
No,
this book ends with confusion. in my mind. you know, you mentioned Job. Well, Job goes through everything. We know why it happened. Now, that's disturbing why it happened. He never knows why it happened. That was his big question. God, what have I done? Tell me why this is going on. I'm not sure that I deserve this. And yet, even though God restores many things in Jonah and Job's life, he never answers that question. We do. We get it because we see scripture and we see This story unfolded in scripture. Job never understood Jo Jonah. I don't know what happens to Jonah.
Yeah.
We don't know what happens to Jonah.
The thing that we can see in the story though is that we can see that throughout it, God is near. It's not like he has to whail and carry on. Jonah, God is near. So Jonah is doing all these machinations and trying to get away from God. He's doing whatever he can to get to have not have to look in God's face. or hear him. And I love how when we look at chapter 2 and I think it's three or four times in chapter 4 where it says in my version ESV it says God appointed a great fish to swallow up no to swallow up Jonah or in some versions it says prepared. I think I like prepared that word because God is present. He's doing something and he prepares this great fish. And we just had a discussion with our two of our grandkids about was it a whale or what kind of fish it was and it doesn't matter because God prepared a fish that means like bam he made this fish to swallow up Jonah and then later on it says and when we get into chapter four there are three more times where God prepares something so it's not Jonah you know just struggling by himself God is right there and when I'm struggling I'm thinking God is absent but he's not he's right there. He's preparing something,
right? And many times we also hear when we do well, when we do right, God's with us, but when we do wrong or we aren't pleasing to God in our behaviors, God's far away. And in chapter 4 and verse one, it says that when so he's got this great revival. Nineveh repents and but it the revival the repentance displeased Jonah and I love exceedingly and he was angry. And he prays to God and he says and the prayer is actually a great prayer other than the fact that he said this God I knew this is what you were going to do when I was in my own country and that's why I made a haste to flee to Tarses. Listen to this description here. For I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love
and relenting from disaster.
From disaster. So he's got nailed. I mean in terms of God's character, he's nailed it. That is who God is. And yet he feels he has the right to be angry and displeased with God because God didn't do things the way Jonah thought he should.
It's crazy. I mean, I'm following along with you. He says all these things about God that we like I want to know that God is gracious and merciful and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. And yet in his pride, in his judgment, this is Jonah now. He doesn't want any of those attributes of God to be visited on people that he doesn't think are worthy of having
right
God visit. And to me, he's having this argument like if I were to say to you, Jimmy, I think you're a wonderful guy. You're smart. You're handsome. You're godly. You I enjoy being with you, but I am so angry at you for being smart. and kind and godly. I'm It really annoys me that you're that good.
How am I supposed to respond to that?
Well, thank you.
I mean, thank you, Suzi. That's wonderful. yeah. No, you're right. I mean, it just doesn't make sense. And then, so then he says, and he said this before, take my life. I'd rather it's better for me to die than to live. And then God's, this is the question God's going to ask him multiple times in chapter 4. Are do you do well to be angry? Which is just another way to say do you are you is this right? You have the right to be angry. And Jonah's like, "Yeah, I got the right to be angry." And it's like because you're being God. That's in essence what Jonah, I think, is saying. I have the right to be angry because you're being God.
And this is what I knew would happen.
Gosh, we're all so mixed up.
We are.
We don't want it. We don't want him to be gracious to people that we don't think deserve it, but we don't want him to discipline us. I we're
Yeah. And
thank you for the cross.
Thank you for the cross is right. I mean this is again to me an indicator of you can serve God and still find yourself in confusing places. I love clarity. I just don't know that God is bound to have to give me clarity. I mean all throughout scripture, even you know, you get down to the very presence of God himself in the person of Jesus, the word incarnate. He's here amongst us. And the disciples didn't get it. And Jesus says, "I got to go to Jerusalem cuz I got to die. That's why my father sent me." And all throughout it, they're going, "No, we don't want you to do that." And Peter is the most vocal of them. Jesus tells him to get behind him, Satan.
Peter lops off the ear in the garden and Jesus has to heal this guy's ear because that's not the way we're going to do this. And So even with the word of God, living word of God present with them, he's explained to them why he's there and they don't get it and they still think they have a better way. and this book is a reminder to me that this servant and we all we're not necessar we're not all prophets, not in the sense of biblical prophets, but we are servants. And God's called us to live a life that proclaims him to be lightened. darkness to proclaims him to the world. And he just doesn't do it. He doesn't do it. And he it ends with God asking Jonah a question that never gets answered. God says, "And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city in which there are more than 120, 000 persons who don't know their right hand from their left hand and so much cattle?"
And we don't know how Jonah response.
Are we going to get to the tree, the worm, and the wind? Oh, that's a good title for a book.
The tree, the worm, and the wind.
Or
Sure.
Do you want to do that now?
Sure. Let's go.
Go for it. So, everybody hang in. This is a little bit longer than our normal podcast, but there's just a few more things that we need to say to end this.
Well, it sounds like you have some things you want to say about the tree, the worm.
Well, the problem is I always have something to say. That's the biggest problem. But I think that's fascinating. There again, going to the place where God prepares. So there's Nineveh out there sulking. Oh god, you're wonderful. I hate it. And I'm not trying to make light of it. He was annoyed on so many different levels. But so then he builds himself this little shelter,
right?
And that didn't work so well. So then what does God do?
He prepares a tree.
He prepares a tree. And a little bit of research and into how he prepared the tree from a gourd is you'll see that this is a tree that has leaves that looked like hands. So, he was well shaded. What happens next?
Well, I mean, when that happens, he God does it to take away the discomfort that Jonah's in.
And Jonah's really pleased. He likes it. And so then you have a worm that gets prepared, attacks the plant, and the plant dies.
in that one little sentence where it says, "So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant, his comfort becomes his god.
It's not the one who prepared it, but the his comfort with that big leafed plant becomes what he's excited about,
right? And
he's still mad at God.
He's still mad at God, but he's never pleased about the fact that an entire city of people have repented and avoided God's wrath.
Yeah.
He's happy about a plant.
Okay. So, then comes the worm,
right? Worm eats the plant and Jonah just wants to die.
And again, it's God prepared. So, he prepares this great fish. Don't know what kind. Prepared this worm. Maybe it was a typical gourd leaf eating worm. I don't know. But he prepares this worm and then the sun comes up and God appoints this. It says 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."
Yeah. I mean, that's his whole that's Jonah's theme throughout the entire fourth chapter of the book. I would be better off if I was dead. And God is constantly asking him, "Do you have the right to be angry about a plant that you didn't create? About a worm that you didn't create, about the he has." And Jonah is upset. that with his personal life and way God is dealing with him personally and more so than God being concerned for the souls of men and women.
and that is a wrap on Jonah's attitude in the midst of all this. And we have to be careful that we don't develop that same sense that our personal comfort takes greater priority over what God's called us to do.
There is so much in these four chapters that We have barely touched the surface. But this is a rich, annoying, exciting, challenging little book.
and because it ends with a it doesn't end and Jonah everything went well and God delivered him a Jersey mics with chips and a Coke, it doesn't end that well. And so we don't really know anything more about Jonah, which of course for somebody like me, it makes me crazy because I want to know more of the story because I want God to tie it up in a neat bow. No bows. There are no bows here. And so, this is one of those books I believe that if we will take the time to sit with it, we're going to understand or get a glimmer of God's character, his presence, his preparation, and that his desire was to bring men back into relationship with him. And then we also get a look at our own nature through this. So, I think this is a book that if who have never read it before. It's four chapters. That's it. Like on two pages. It's worth reading, sitting with it. and if something stirs in your heart as it has in mind, then don't just stir over it because we can do that. Just like so this really annoys me, but instead go, God, what do you want to teach me so that I understand you more deeply than I ever have before?