Jonah chapter four and we're
going to be reading from verse five. So Jonah went out of the city
and sat on the east side of the city and there made him a booth
and sat under it in the shadow till he might see what would
become of the city. The Lord God prepared a gourd
and made it to come up over Jonah that it might be a shadow over
his head to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding
glad of the gourd. But God prepared a worm when
the morning rose the next day and it smote the gourd that it
withered. And it came to pass, when the
sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind, and the
sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted and wished in
himself to die. And said, It is better for me
to die than to live. And God said to Jonah, Dost thou
well to be angry for the Gurd? And he said, I do well to be
angry even unto death. Then said the Lord, Thou hast
had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured,
neither madest it grow, which came up in a night and perished
in a night. And should not I spare Nineveh,
that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons
that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand,
and also much cattle? Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. The closing scene of this astonishing
history of Jonah takes place in an open plain outside the
city of Nineveh. Jonah had taken up this location
as a vantage point from which to observe what God would do
with the city. He probably expected some development
at the end of 40 days. Perhaps Jonah thought that the
initial enthusiasm of the Ninevites for repentance would likely wear
off and God would have little option but to fulfil his threat
and destroy these Assyrians as they returned to their wicked
ways. Or perhaps he thought that at
least in some small part there would be some evidence given
of God's displeasure so that he at least might be able to
maintain face and not be embarrassed or ashamed that nothing occurred. However, what transpires seems
rather to be about the education of Jonah rather than any judgment
of the city of Nineveh. Instead of a catastrophic and
ruinous overthrow of the city and it raining down fire and
brimstone on the inhabitants that Jonah might have expected,
that Jonah might even have hoped for from his own narrow perspective. The Lord rather employs a gurd,
a pumpkin type of thing, a worm, just a little worm insect, and
a scorching east wind. to humble the prophet and to
teach him a lesson as far as the character and nature of God
is concerned. And the Lord uses these things
indirectly to gift to his church a beautiful testimony of saving
power and free sovereign grace. But before we turn to these thoughts,
I want to draw your attention to something that I'm sure you've
already noticed, but which is worth just mentioning again. And that is the patience of God
with respect to this man, Jonah. the condescension with which
the Lord deals with this troubled prophet. And I don't need to
supply too many examples because we've all been watching these
troubles of Jonah unfold throughout this little book. And here again
in the verses before us today, we might be surprised to realise
that Jonah has not yet got off his high horse. He has not yet
humbled himself and accepted the Lord's dominion and the Lord's
right to do with his creatures as he sees fit. Now surprised we might be, but
I think we should be grateful as well. Grateful that the Lord
is so long-suffering, because surely as he is showing an example
of his long-suffering character towards Jonah, we might draw
some comfort from the fact that he is patient towards us as well. How often we persist in asserting
our own self-will and following through with our own claims and
our own rights when the Lord has given us plenty of opportunity
to pause and reflect and back down from our high-minded attitude. There was a lingering pride in
Jonah that one might think had him overstep the mark numerous
times. and yet the Lord graciously,
kindly and patiently meets him to work through his issues. We have a very big God and we
often act very small. Jonah might have thought, surely
Jonah might have thought There are hundreds of thousands of
young believers in Nineveh and not a pastor among them. What work there is to be done
in the city. He might have thought that. Instead,
In a huff, he takes himself out of the city and he sits alone
in the desert, pouting. Surely he was a man ripe for
discipline. And yet here again, the Lord
shows kindness, the Lord speaks gently, and the Lord takes time
over him. What a loving father we have
in Christ, who does not treat us as we deserve, but is patient
to the point of indulgence with his self-important children. There are a number of lessons
that I think we can all draw from these verses today. Lessons that I trust Jonah learned
and lessons which I trust we all can draw some help and direction
from. The first one I want to show
you is a lesson concerning the sovereignty of God. Now I do
not think that it is possible to read the book of Jonah without
coming away from it, as we are about to do, with a clear view
of God's sovereign dominion in this world. And I want to begin
here, although in a sense it's kind of the culmination of the
Lord's lesson to Jonah. but I want to begin here nevertheless,
showing us that it is God's right to do with his own creation as
he sees fit. Paul picks up the same idea in
the New Testament in Romans chapter 9 where he speaks about the potter
and the clay. It's the potter's right to do
with the clay what he sees fit. It is the potter's right to make
with the clay what he desires. And this is what the lesson is
here in Jonah as well. I hope that none of us will deny
the Almighty Creator authority over that which is his own. And in this book we see his dominion
repeatedly demonstrated. The sending of the storm was
at God's direction. The preparation of the great
fish and the location of that fish exactly where it was needed. The care that God took with Jonah
inside the creature. These all showed the Lord's rule
over his creation and his power. So also here, in these last few
verses that we have, this is not a huge, mighty storm and
a great fish from the depths of the ocean. This is a gurd,
a pumpkin. It's a worm, a tiny little creature. And it is a wind that blows. And yet once again, these all
exhibit the Lord's hand to accomplish his own end. So that once again,
I say it is undeniable that the Lord has dominion over his creation. It is evidenced in this book.
And if we read this book with an eye to the truth of scripture,
then it must be acknowledged. Such is our God. But we can take this also a step
more. It is the general salvation of
the population of Nineveh that the richness of God's free grace
and sovereign salvation is most beautifully displayed. Now, praise the Lord that he
saved 3,000 souls on the day of Pentecost. When Peter stood up there, that
day when the Holy Spirit came, it's recounted in the Acts of
the Apostle, and 3,000 souls were saved, such as should be
saved. but let us pause, let us pause
and register that possibly a million souls now resided in Nineveh. And in sovereign mercy, the Lord
chose to deliver this heathen, idolatrous city from the grip
of Satan and from imminent disaster by the preaching of a single
hesitant, uncooperative minister. If this is not an act of sovereign
grace by God the Holy Spirit, I don't know what is. Let me enlarge upon this a little
bit further and let us consider Christ's love and pity to poor
lost sinners. Because this is what is before
us without question. Here in Nineveh, around 750 years
before his incarnation, the Lord Jesus Christ came to gather a
vast congregation of that blessed number of God's elect who had
been committed into his covenant care and for whom he would later
come and die. And though they were Gentiles,
and though they were not from amongst the tribes of Jacob or
of the children of Israel, Yet they were loved of God, they
were chosen in eternity, they were set apart in Jesus Christ
by God the Holy Spirit, ready to be revealed when they were
called and converted by the preaching of this Jonah, son of Amittai. In the eternal council, these
precious souls were cleansed in the blood of the Lamb of God,
slain from the foundation of the world. They were justified
with the righteousness of God. They were sanctified in the Lord
Jesus Christ. and out of the fallen sons and
daughters of Adam they were loved with everlasting love and pitied
by the Saviour in their fallen, corrupt state. This blessed multitude
in Nineveh was just as loved and pitied as was Jonah. Just as loved and pitied as much
as you and me who have, like them, been brought to repentance
and faith by the preaching of the gospel, just like them. The Lord's comparison, the Lord's
message, the Lord's lesson to Jonah was clear. Jonah You had
pity on a gourd. You had pity on a pumpkin. You had pity on a gourd, a plant
that grew up in a night and died, withered in a night. You wished
it preserved because it served your pleasure. So too, Jonah, says the Lord,
I shall pity this city. I wish it preserved because it
serves my pleasure and it delights my heart as do all the elect
of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ delivered
Nineveh because he had in that city a great number of his beloved
people whom he pitied in their need and graciously willed to
save and deliver. And these he powerfully and sovereignly
redeemed with blood according to his own good pleasure and
the everlasting purpose of the election of grace. There are some practical lessons,
kind of a little bit of a scattergun approach to our thoughts today.
Here's a couple of practical lessons that I want to draw from
these verses as well. I want us to think about not
only the eternal dimension of the way in which the Lord has
saved these people in the city, but some of the practical mercies
that the Lord gives to his people that are revealed here as well.
And I mentioned yesterday in the little note that I sent out
that the Gurd is a picture of God's providential care and mercy
shown to his people in day-to-day life. So that the Lord is careful
for the well-being of his people day by day in this life, in this
world. And we would be hard-pressed
to say that this helpful, pleasing, comforting gourd was in any way
a reward for Jonah's good behaviour. How could that possibly be construed? It isn't. And yet despite Jonah's
coldness, despite his sullen attitude, despite the fact that
he was nursing grievances towards God and wrestled in his inward
emotions with anger and grief, perhaps justifiably, perhaps
because of the state of his own people Israel, Do you see the goodness of the
Lord despite all of Jonah's truculence? God supplied a gourd to block
the heat under which the prophet laboured. It was an act of kindness
from the Lord and Jonah was very glad for the shade that it gave. When he'd run from the Lord,
the Lord had prepared a great fish to deliver Jonah from the
sea. And now, despite the prophet's
complaints, the Lord prepared a plant to sustain him under
the blazing sun. Big things little things, amazing
things, ordinary things are all to be traced back to the providential
hand of our kind and gracious God. And thus traced in our own lives
Let us be grateful for them. Let us be grateful for the big
things and the little things that the Lord gives us, the kindnesses
that he bestows upon us, and let us search them out. Let us,
as the hymn writer says, count our blessings. Let us be grateful. Jonah enjoyed
the comfort of the Gurd, but he does not appear to acknowledge
the hand of God in its provision. So let us learn from Jonah's
mistake and let us be slow to repeat his mistake. He who grants
us everlasting glory supplies our daily bread and is to be
honoured and is to be worshipped and is to be thanked for both. We've already remarked how the
Lord planned to teach Jonah a lesson from this experience, and how
that that would be to deepen his understanding of God's grace
and mercy, especially towards the Gentiles. And as is often the way of God's
dealings with his children, our lessons are most effectually
learned when passing through the trial of hardship. And let's
note that with respect to Jonah and let us make that leap as
far as our own experience is concerned as well. Here's the
point that I want to leave with you. Blessings and afflictions
are both prepared by God and both serve his ends. Having provided some respite
for Jonah with the gourd and the shade and the shadow that
it threw across the prophet as he lay there watching the city,
anticipating what might occur. Having provided some respite
for Jonah, the Lord now sent an affliction in the very thing
that was Jonah's comfort. You see, these Old Testament
prophets, they were in themselves object lessons for the people
of God. And in their lives, they served
to be examples to the church. Note this, that neither the comforting
good nor the afflicting worm happened by chance. The gourd
that brought comfort and the worm that took the comfort away
were both prepared by the Lord, actively prepared by the Lord
so that both blessing and trial comes by divine direction and
appointment. That was true for Jonah and it's
true for you and it's true for me. Our trials as well as our
comforts come from the Lord. As the gourd withered, the Lord
further aggravated the prophet's discomfort with this hot wind. Think bellows rather than fan. Without shade and under the hot
sun, Jonah fainted and he wished to die. Have you ever been so tried that
you wished to die? Have you ever been so tried that
you've thought to yourself, I can't go on, this isn't worth it, I
don't want to face another day? Such depths of trouble, such
deep valley experiences of sadness are not unknown to the Lord's
people. whether we take Jonah's case
as indicative or justifiable as another matter, but let me
just say the Lord's people have much hardship and suffering to
endure in this world, like the rest of humanity in its fallen
condition. And yet note how gently and tenderly
the Lord speaks to this, his troubled son. heavy as they may
appear to such as Jonah, a believer's trials are for our good. And Paul actually calls them
our light affliction, which is but for a moment and worketh
for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. If we could get our head around
that, how much difference it would make in our daily dealings
with the frustrations of our life and the frustrating people
that are around about us. And here's another point that,
this is back to the scattergun, here's another point that I want
to leave with you. The Lord was teaching Jonah,
I think, the value of a soul. When the Lord asked Jonah, does
thou well to be angry for the Gurd? He was teaching the prophet
the value of a soul. Poor Jonah had got so worked
up and bothered about the possibilities and the implications and the
consequences of all that was going on around about him, all
the implications and consequences of Nineveh's deliverance, that
he lost sight of a simple fact, that the Lord God views his elect
people as precious in his sight. Let us not detach ourselves from
the humanity of our existence here in our relationships and
our dealings with the people around about us. Yes, our doctrine
is important. Yes, our studies are important. Yes, these things that we hold
to and learn and appreciate concerning the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ and these cosmic, eternal, spiritual truths are all of the
essence of our faith, but we are men and women too, and we
live amongst men and women, and Jonah lost sight of that. Jonah had been privileged to
be the bearer of gospel tidings to this city, but the man spent
his time being angry and grieved and wishing himself dead because
he took to himself those things that were the Lord's and he failed
to act properly in those things that were his. He was minding
someone else's business. Now we believe in sovereign grace
and we know that the Lord is gathering into his church daily
such as should be saved. But we long to see many sinners. We long to see our family. We long to see our sons and our
daughters and our grandchildren brought to a knowledge of the
truth. We long to see the people around about us, our neighbours,
our friends, those we work with, those we rub shoulders with day
by day. Many sinners brought under the
sound of the gospel that they might be saved. Paul knew that
the Lord had many people in the cities where he preached and
because he had been sent, he preached with a burden so that
repentance would be granted and sinners would be saved. Now it might be too simplistic
to say that Jonah was concerned that the wrong type of people
were finding repentance in Nineveh. But may that never be an allegation
that can be levelled at us. If the Lord looked upon Nineveh
and felt affection and pity for the vast city with its infants
and with its wealth, ought not Jonah, ought not we his people,
share his sentiment? May the Lord save multitudes
today as he has done before and may he give us all a sense of
love and pity for those around us who are blind and deaf to
the gospel and cannot discern between their right hand and
their left hand. Consider the immense value of
a human soul. Consider the eternal dimensions
of a human soul, your soul, your eternal soul. May we all know the grace granted
to these Ninevites who found repentance and faith in Jesus
Christ under the preaching of the truth. May we all find that. Jonah does not directly answer
the Lord's question, but perhaps that's not too important. Jonah has rather done something
else and this is important. Jonah has opened his heart to
us in this letter. He penned this confession under
the direction of God the Holy Spirit and he left a record of
these most extraordinary events which otherwise would not have
been known. He uncovered his own sin and
anger and prejudice and ignorance in a way that many of us would
be ashamed to do. And I am of a mind to infer that
Jonah's repentance is here in this testimony that he wrote
and left as a gift to the church. Here's the final point that I
want to leave with you. We're not told any more about
Jonah's dealings with Nineveh. Whether he returned to the city,
whether he assisted the new converts there or not. But we shall see these men again
on the day of judgment when they will stand as a testimony to
the grace of God and against the generations who refuse to
believe the Lord Jesus Christ and receive his gospel. And we shall see Jonah again.
And I'm sure that when we do, he will be happier when we meet
him next. He will already have spent a
long time in the presence of his Saviour and he will have
gotten to know his new brothers and sisters in the Lord, who are neither Jew nor Gentile,
but one in Christ Jesus. These Ninevites and Jonah are
long ago in glory. And we who are alive and remain,
soon it will be our turn to enter into the presence of our Lord
with all those who have gone before. It is a great congregation
that already populates glory. And may we live to see yet more
and more saved by God's free grace and brought to a knowledge
of sins forgiven through the preaching of the truth as it
is in Jesus. Amen.