! Week 4: Proclaims (Jonah 4) Discussion Questions

1. How would you summarise the story (up to the end of Chapter 3) so far? 2. Is what happens in chapter 4 surprising? Why or why not? What would you have expected?

Read Jonah 4:1-5 3. How angry was Jonah? Why was he so angry that he wanted the Lord to take away his life (v.3)? 4. How do you think YOU would have responded to ’s repentance (and God’s compassion) had you been in Jonah’s place? 5. What sort of crimes or atrocities make you long for God’s vengeance rather than his compassion? 6. What do you make of God’s question in verse 4: Have you any right to be angry? 7. When Jonah goes and sits down to the east of the city, what is he waiting for? What does this show us about Jonah’s heart? How does this show Jonah’s failure to understand God’s love?

Read Jonah 4:6-11 8. What do we learn about God from the fact that he used the vine/worm/wind to teach Jonah a lesson? What was the lesson? 9. Back in chapter 2, Jonah was rescued by the merciful Lord. Why does he think that no one else deserves to be shown that mercy? 10. How might the be a challenge to Israel in it fulfilling its vocation? (See Genesis 22;18). How might this be a challenge to us (see Matthew 28:19-20 and Acts 2:38-39)? 11. Why did God care about the people of Nineveh? Who is God’s love for? 12. Many people picture God as either a smiley ‘Father Christmas’ who forgives everyone and everything, or a hard-hearted old man, looking to punish everyone as soon as they step out of line. How do these pictures fail and what is God really like? (Look at Romans 3:21-26.) 13. How does this entire story of Jonah show us that “Salvation comes from the Lord”? 14. What does the book of Jonah show us about the nature of God’s love? 15. How should all of this affect our dealings with (a) God, and (b) other people?

16. What has been the most significant part of this series for you?

St Bart’s Anglican Church ! !

! ! Talk 4/4 (Jonah 4): 25/5/14 “Jonah Protests” by the Rev’d Adam Lowe ! !

INTRODUCTION \\ A SURPRISE ENDING?

That’s a cute video, but it’s not of course how the story of Jonah really ends. The wayward prophet refuses God’s call, runs in the opposite direction, encounters a storm, is swallowed by a fish, prays from the depths, and is vomited onto dry land only to take hold of the mission entrusted to him by God, pronouncing God’s judgment on the people of Nineveh and then witnesses the remarkable and miraculous repentance of an entire city! And then:

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. (:10)

• If we finished at the end of chapter 3, this would be an amazingly good, news story: Jonah and Nineveh redeemed by God’s grace. • In fact the rejoicing that we saw in the video, is exactly what we might expect of a fourth and final chapter. Fireworks and celebration! • But instead, Jonah leaves the city sulking, holding onto the hope that there’s still time for the people of Nineveh to be wiped out. That’s the sad hope to which he clings.

2 • If there was any confusion as to why Jonah didn’t want to go to Nineveh, it’s now clear: he didn’t want them to be shown God’s grace, compassion, forgiveness, or love. At the heart of this prophet’s life is the problem that he can’t figure out God’s love. Jonah almost gets it. God’s love was the reason why he never wanted to warn Nineveh!

But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. 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 . I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, O Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” (vv.1-3)

• He sees it, he knows it from his own experience, but he doesn’t truly get it. • And because this is God’s word, this is for us as well, so we’ve got to ask the same question to: Do we understand God’s love?

And whilst the whole episode with the growing and dying vine, along with a worm and a hot wind might seem a little bizarre, chapter 4 shows us that: • God’s love is undeserved. • God’s love is generous. • God’s love is for everyone. 3

1. GOD’S LOVE IS UNDESERVED \\ BY EVERYONE

So firstly, God’s love is undeserved. Often we’ll hear someone say, ‘so-and-so didn’t deserve that to happen to them’. • There’s this assumption that: Bad things shouldn’t happen to good people. Good things shouldn’t happen to bad people. • It can be - for both religious and irreligious - a form of salvation by works. • That’s exactly what Jonah has bought into. Remember: Jonah is displeased and angry at the sight of God’s love to these people whom he has deemed as undeserving. He thinks God’s love is earned! • He can’t understand how God’s love would be given to those who don’t deserve it. • He selectively seems to have forgotten his rescue from God despite his own turning away. • The point of course is that neither of them deserve God’s love! Now, there’s no disputing that the people of Nineveh were a violent people. • They committed horrific acts of genocide and war. • Even by their own self-acknowledgement they weren’t good. 4 • We heard that in the decree of the king and his nobles in chapter 3:

Do not let any man or beast, herd or flock, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 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. (Jonah 3:7b-8)

Jonah sees the people of Nineveh, and says: God, I don’t understand your love, because you give it to people who don’t deserve it. • What Jonah thought as a contradiction in God’s character, is actually a core attribute of God’s love. • Jonah doesn’t want this to be true, because if it is, it means that he and Israel must also be undeserving. • No one deserves God’s love. • That might seem horrible, but it’s actually incredible news because it means that God’s love is not based upon our performance but God’s choice to love us! • That’s part of the point of the whole episode of the vine growing and withering. • God says to Jonah: you think you deserved that vine giving you shade, but based on what? You didn’t tend it or grow it! I provided it for you.

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• The message here for Israel is: here’s the problem, you think that you deserve my love and that the people of Nineveh don’t. But you don’t have my love because you have earned it, but because I chose you to be my people who would bless the nations. • Jonah, you want to understand my love, you must understand that it is undeserved.

It’s critical because it dictates how we understand salvation and how we treat others. • If we think we earn God’s love, we’ll feel like our efforts lead to our salvation. • !If we think we earn God’s love, we’ll look down on others who we think miss the mark. • Just think about how that affects our behaviour in the face of someone doing something evil: do we love and forgive them, or long for their destruction? • If this sounds radical, that’s because it is! • It was too much for Jonah to handle - he would prefer to die then face the reality of how far God’s love extends..

6 2. GOD’S LOVE IS GENEROUS \\ AS PERFECTED IN CHRIST

God’s love is undeserved but it is also immensely generous.

God’s love is not some soppy romantic form of love that comes and goes, but a real and gritty love that is poured out abundantly, with compassion, grace, and forgiveness (all the aspects Jonah himself identified). • How much has Jonah been showed all of as God has patiently called upon, waited for him, and rescued him! • He’s really been called three times. • Once in chapter 1, a second time in chapter 3, and now in the whole demonstration of the vine, God is giving yet another chance to to understand what is going on. • And if we want to understand what generous love is, we just need to look at the ! contrast between what breaks God’s heart and what break’s Jonah’s. • The experience of the vine really serves as a living parable to Jonah. • God provides the vine to shade him. Jonah is happy.

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• God takes away the vine and provides a scorching wind. Jonah wants to die (x2). • God is making a point to Jonah and explains it in verses 10 and 11.

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. But 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. (vv.10-11)

That word concern is an understatement in the English translation. In the original language the word means to grieve, or mourn, or have pity for.

Jonah and God are both concerned about someone. Who? • Jonah is concerned for himself. • God is concerned the 120,000 people from Nineveh. • Jonah is concerned about his comfort. • God is concerned about the Ninevite’s salvation.

Jonah’s action do not reflect someone who knows the love of God. • Jonah is happy when he’s doing well. 8 • He’s happy when he was saved. • He prays for his own salvation, but prays for another’s destruction. • He writes a song of praise when he’s been shown mercy. • But when a whole city has been saved from death, he’s angry enough to die. {B}

Ultimately what’s happening? • Jonah’s love is selfishly and inwardly focused. • !God’s love is generously and outwardly focused. Friends, the story finishes so abruptly that we don’t know Jonah’s response. It’s intentional. It’s meant to challenge the reader to examine their own life. It’s pushing us to ask the question - are our concerns, God’s concerns? What drives us to move passionately? Our own comfort? !Or those with no food or no God, or something else? In the book “The Rise of ”, sociologist Rodney Stark (who describes himself as neither a ‘man of faith’ or an ‘atheist) describes how two great plagues - one in 165AD and another 100 years later - dramatically show the distinctiveness of Christians.

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“The doctors were quite incapable of treating the disease. The bodies of the dying were heaped up one on top of another. The catastrophe was so overwhelming that we became indifferent to every rule of morality. Many pushed sufferers away even their dearest, often throwing them into the road before they were dead, hoping to avert contagion. As for the gods they seemed not to matter when one saw the good and the bad dying indiscriminately.”

But here’s what the Christians did: “most Christians in the plague . . . heedless of danger, took charge of the sick, attending to their every need, and ministering to them in Christ, and many departed their life serenely happy, for they were infected by their neighbours and they cheerfully accepted their pains. Many in nursing and curing others transferred their death to themselves and died in their neighbours’ stead. The best of our brothers lost their lives in this manner.”

• Those who follow Christ pour out their life generously because we follow the one who poured his life for us. • Jesus died the death that we deserved, so that we didn’t have to. He punishes sin and saves the sinner in one move on the cross. • God shows Jonah what his love looks like: it’s undeserved and generous. • Remember: Grace is a unmerited gift from an unobligated giver. • An undeserved and generous love.

10 3. GOD’S LOVE IS FOR EVERYONE \\ REMINDER TO US

But we also need to be reminded that God’s love is for everyone.

That was part of the real struggle for Jonah of course.

It wasn’t just because the Ninevites were undeserving. It wasn’t just because God’s love seemed too generous. It was also because Jonah wanted God to be exclusively Israel’s.

Just as Jonah himself had sought to escape from God’s mission for him to another people, Israel had forgotten their vocation that “through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me”. (Genesis 22:18) • But here God demonstrably reminds Jonah of their identity as a nation. • Salvation is from the Lord, and he wants to use his people in that endeavour. • It is such amazing news that even though we are far from perfect, even though we can struggle to understand the depth of God’s love, he wants us to be part of the rescue of the world!

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• He wants to use us to announce the good news of grace, that many may come to believe. • He wants us to be concerned with what he is concerned by. • We see that in that Great Commission: Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. (Matthew 28:19-20a) • We see that in the early church: The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off –for all whom the Lord our God will call. (Acts 2:39) • And we’re reminded by that here today. {B}

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3:16-17) ! ! !

12 Nineveh and Toowoomba are similar in their size (not sure about the cattle!). And as we finish Jonah, as it is left open-ended, it’s very much left to us.

And I wonder, when it comes to this great city, are our hearts moved for it? Do we long to see every person in Toowoomba come to Christ? Are we concerned for Toowoomba the same way God is? Or are we more concerned about ourselves?

We have this gift of grace to share. Will our lives be characterised by God’s concerns or Jonah’s?

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