HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!
SUMMARY OF JONAH 4
Jonah expresses his anger that God saved Nineveh. He asks to die. Jonah leaves the city and waits. The Lord provides a plant for shade for him. It grows and then dies. God asks him if he has a right to be angry about the plant. He still wishes for death. Jonah’s concern for the plant is the same as God’s concern for the people of Nineveh who also needed tending to grow in faith.
BSF Study Questions People of the Promise: Kingdom Divided Lesson 12, Day 5: Jonah 4
13a) That Jonah is playing God, deciding who should be saved and who should not.
b) Pride that he was better than the people of Nineveh. Anger that they were horrible sinners and God saved them when he was a prophet who was also saved. Anger that the Assyrians were his enemies (the enemy of God’s people). They should be judged, not granted mercy.
14a) Tenderly. By trying to explain to Jonah in a way he would understand about God’s infinite mercy for Nineveh.
b) “should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh” “you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity”
15) It really hasn’t. I’ve always understoon that God can forgive whoever he wants to forgive like he has forgiven me. It’s not on me to judge who he saves and who he doesn’t.
Conclusions BSF Study Questions People of the Promise: Kingdom Divided Lesson 12, Day 5: Jonah 4
I find it interesting how Jonah is playing God here and decides for God that Nineveh should not be saved. How many of us do this to our loved ones?
End Notes BSF Study Questions People of the Promise: Kingdom Divided Lesson 12, Day 5: Jonah 4
Most prophets are pleased with converts. Thus, Jonah’s reaction here is very different.
Without God’s mercy, Jonah would be dead. Yet, this same mercy granted to Nineveh overwhelms him with anger.
God questions us because we are in the wrong and He wants us to see it from a different (often His) perspective. Sure, we can be angry with God, but we are never right over God, and we must repent of that anger, which is often due to misunderstanding.
Jonah seemed to hope that God would still destroy Nineveh when he left. He did not understand God’s love for all of humanity.
Yet, if Jonah cared so much for a plant that he did nothing for, how much more is God’s caring and love for a people that He did everything for from the moment of their creation?
Fun Fact: This is the first time Jonah is recorded as being happy. And it’s all because of a plant.
Fun Fact: Jonah’s last words recorded in the Bible show him clinging to his ways and not God’s ways. Luckily, God always has the last word.
All of this prepared Jonah for God’s work. How is He preparing you today?
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It’s important to understand that Nineveh was the capital of Assyria at the time. It was a pagan city. God chose Jonah to go and speak to the people of Nineveh and rebuke them for their sins.