On Anger – Jonah 4:1-9

A sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church, 12 Sept 2010

4:1 וַיֵּרַע אֶל יוֹנָה רָעָה גְדוֹלָה וַיִּחַר לוֹ.

3:10 Now, God saw their behavior, that they had turned away from their evil way. And God was made sorry over the evil which He had promised to do to them, so He did not do it. 4:1 But to Jonah, it was displeasing - a great evil- and it was infuriating to him!

Jonah’s perspective was not God’s perspective. God saw the repentance of the Ninevites and thought it was a good thing to withhold His wrath. However, Jonah saw the repentance of the Ninevites and thought it was a “great evil” for God to still withhold His wrath! Jonah felt wronged and he was mad!

“The greatest hurdle to overcome in discharging the missionary mandate was not the sailors, nor the fish, nor Nineveh’s king and citizenry, but rather Jonah himself – the recalcitrant and narrow-minded church... This is Jonah’s sin, the sin of a missionary whose heart is not in it. He who once pleaded with God for mercy from the desolate isolation of a fish’s belly now is angry that this God shows mercy to the nations.” ~ Johannes Verkuyl

¨ Are you mad at God for wronging you? Maybe you need to understand His perspective.

¨ We should repent of being like Jonah if we begrudge God’s mercy being shown to anyone!

4:2 וַיִּתְפַּלֵּל אֶל יְהוָה וַיֹּאמַר אָנָּה יְהוָה הֲלוֹא זֶה דְבָרִי עַד הֱיוֹתִי עַל אַדְמָתִי עַל כֵּן קִדַּמְתִּי לִבְרֹחַ תַּרְשִׁישָׁה כִּי יָדַעְתִּי כִּי אַתָּה אֵל חַנּוּן וְרַחוּם אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם וְרַב חֶסֶד וְנִחָם עַל הָרָעָה.

2 So he prayed to Jehovah, and said, “Oh please, Jehovah, wasn’t this my saying while I was still on my turf? Because of this I went ahead to abscond to Tarshish: for I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate god, slow to anger, and full of kindness, and you are made sorry over the evil.

Read the “Oh please” at the beginning with sarcastic exasperation. Jonah was infuriated with God’s response to Nineveh. But at the same time, he knew in the back of his mind that God would respond this way.

Jonah confesses that his understanding of God’s gracious character is the whole reason why he “went ahead to abscond to Nineveh.” This phrase is very difficult to translate accurately and make sense in English! I think that the Old American Standard Version is the best with this verse. There are two verbs here, one having to do with “being out in front” followed by an infinitive “to flee.” The idea is that he presumed to get ahead of God and run away.

3 וְעַתָּה יְהוָה קַח נָא אֶת נַפְשִׁי מִמֶּנִּי כִּי טוֹב מוֹתִי מֵחַיָּי.

3 And now, Jehovah, please take away my soul from me, for better my death than my life!”

q Jonah has already expressed his wish to die rather than to see God’s purposes fulfilled. (in asking to be thrown overboard from the boat to drown in the sea.)

q What a tragic mindset! Not only is it a patent lie that any person would ever be better off killing themselves, it is an awful thing to actively oppose God’s clearly-revealed will!

q The root of the problem was a lack of trust in God. Jonah couldn’t trust God’s judgment in deciding not to overthrow Nineveh.

It is never appropriate to ask God to take your life, although we may get so exasperated or tired or afraid that we may want to request it. Whenever we feel this way, we need to return to faith in God. He is all-knowing to make the best decisions, and He is all-powerful to carry out what is best.

Two things can be said in Jonah’s favor, however.

1. At least He’s still talking to God. So many people might avoid any communication with God while they are in the throes of a bad attitude like this. If you are one of God’s children and if you stay in communication with Him through prayer and Bible reading, He will get you back on track!
2. The second thing that can be said in Jonah’s favor is that his choice of words appears to indicate that he still counts himself as one of God’s people. His request is not that his life be extinguished, but that God would “take away” or “carry off” his soul. This verb is used to speak of sales, where a buyer carries the merchandise home with him – it is also used of marriage, where the groom takes the bride to be with him. Jonah is asking to be like Enoch or Elijah whom the Lord took up to heaven to be with Him. A childish request, perhaps, but at least better than committing suicide.

¨ Are you frustrated with God? Keep talking!

¨ Yield to God’s will; it’s pointless to oppose it and immature to try to escape it.

¨ Daily affirm your faith in God so as to prevent wrong attitudes from shutting you down like it did to Jonah.

4 וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה הַהֵיטֵב חָרָה לָךְ.

4 Then Jehovah said, “Does it make things right for it to anger you?”

Literally, this verse says, “Does-to-make-right he-burned to-you?”

q The main verb (to make good) is causative (Hiphil).

q Secondly, the verb having to do with anger is an active verb in the third person, so its subject should be “it” or “he,” not “you.”

Jonah had a choice. He could accept God’s plan or he could rebel against it. He chose the latter, and God gently chided him for it. “Is it going to cause anything good to happen for you to get angry when you see Me show mercy?” God asks. The obvious answer is, No, it doesn’t do any good! It doesn’t cause good things to happen when we get angry over God’s will.

Implied in God’s question is the principle that emotions should be in submission to our will. Before letting an emotion wash over us, we should first evaluate whether it is good for that particular emotion (such as anger) to be expressed. If after evaluation, we realize that the emotion is not going to cause good, we must choose to deny it so that it will not cause problems! If every time we got angry, we could hear a voice in the back of our head saying, “Will it make things right for you to get angry about this?” we’d probably live much happier lives! (EXAMPLES)

Now, there is a place for righteous, just anger expressed over things that are not God’s will.

q Righteous anger can cause good to happen, just as Jesus was angry at the moneychangers in the temple and cleared the court out, so that the Gentiles could once again worship God there.

q Likewise, it is righteous anger which causes pro-life advocates to pass legislation banning abortion procedures.

q That sort of anger causes good, but anger expressed against God’s will does not cause good.

Admittedly, it was difficult for Jonah to reconcile himself to the fact that God wanted to show mercy to Israel’s enemy, but he had a choice to either accept this fact and work with God or to become angry at God and rebel against Him. He knew about God’s character trait of mercy, but he rebelled against it and stomped off to fume about it.

¨ When God doesn’t do what we want Him to do, it is wrong for us to get angry at Him.

¨ We must control our emotions so that we become angry about the right things rather than the wrong things, so that the outcome of our anger may be to cause GOOD.

5 וַיֵּצֵא יוֹנָה מִן הָעִיר וַיֵּשֶׁב מִקֶּדֶם לָעִיר וַיַּעַשׂ לוֹ שָׁם סֻכָּה וַיֵּשֶׁב תַּחְתֶּיהָ בַּצֵּל עַד אֲשֶׁר יִרְאֶה מַה יִּהְיֶה בָּעִיר.

5 But Jonah went out from the city and he sat to the east of the city and he made a shelter for himself there, and he sat under it in the shade until such time as he might see what would happen in the city.

The phrase “in front of” is synonymous with “East of” - did city gates always face East? Anyway, Jonah steps outside the city and begins a vigil. If he’s in front of the city, then everyone who comes in or out can probably see him. (“Who’s that?” “Oh, that’s the Hebrew prophet who said that the God was so angry He would destroy our city... I wonder what he’s up to now?”). Keil adds that there were mountains on the East side of Nineveh which would have provided a good vantage point from which Jonah could overlook the city.

He builds a “shelter/booth,” weaving together sticks to make a canopy. This word (Succah) is the same word used for the booths the Israelites made for their annual Autumn feast when they remembered their pilgrimage from Egypt and how they dwelt in tents. Jonah was used to weaving a shelter out of twigs for the Succoth feasts, but he should have remembered what Succoth was all about – deliverance! Just as the act of building a shelter for the Succoth feast reminded the Israelites of their deliverance from slavery in Egypt, so Jonah’s act of building a shelter outside of Nineveh should have reminded him that God can deliver other people too!

Twice this verse mentions that Jonah “sat.” He was sitting and waiting. What was he waiting for? Hasn’t he already stated that He knew God would (and did) relent? What was the purpose of his vigil outside Nineveh? The verse says that he was specifically watching to see what might happen inside the city. Perhaps he was just waiting out the 40 days. Perhaps he was waiting to see what else the people of Nineveh would do – would they follow through on the fast? Would they ask Jonah to read the law to them? Would they make more reforms? Would they give up and return to their idolatry? Would God still overturn the city at a later date? I’m not sure what questions were going through Jonah’s mind. There is a legitimate place for waiting and watching to see the results of preaching in people’s lives, but somehow I don’t think Jonah was hoping for positive results. There are preachers who are this way still today, who really hope that their sermon condemns everybody and that the congregation gets the punishment they deserve. This is the totally wrong attitude. If we are ambassadors of Christ, we should hope that our audience is reconciled to God as a result! (II Cor. 5:20)

¨ When we deliver God’s word to other people, we should anticipate positive results from God rather than hoping that our audience will be condemned.

¨ We should seek the deliverance of all people from their bondage to sin and Satan, not just our people. We must be involved in missions, not just church.

6 וַיְמַן יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים קִיקָיוֹן וַיַּעַל מֵעַל לְיוֹנָה לִהְיוֹת צֵל עַל רֹאשׁוֹ לְהַצִּיל לוֹ מֵרָעָתוֹ וַיִּשְׂמַח יוֹנָה עַל הַקִּיקָיוֹן שִׂמְחָה גְדוֹלָה.

6 So Jehovah-God appointed a plant, and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to relieve him from his misery. And Jonah rejoiced over the plant with great rejoicing.

What sort of plant was it? The Septuagint says it was a bottle-gourd, but others say it was a Castor-oil tree (BDB) which also goes by “Elkeroa,” a common plant in Palestine which grows in sandy soil (K&D), and also by the Latin name Ricinus Communis or Palma Christi, or (in Egypt) the Kiki plant. This species “has large leaves... and it grows and withers rapidly” (Son). The point is that God got a shady plant to grow there for Jonah.

In the previous verses, Jonah was extremely angry and wanting to die. Now he has a huge mood swing to the opposite extreme. He is not just pleased or satisfied or happy with this plant, he literally “rejoiced over the plant rejoicing great.” He was so happy, he was partying! (The connotation of the word for “rejoice” actually has connotations of a noisy festival.)

These kind of mood swings, notes Fernando, “show the insecurity of one whose confidence and trust is in himself and not God. Those who trust in God have a quiet confidence, for their hope is not based on their abilities but on God’s mercy and care. Isaiah 26:3-4 says, ‘You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you...’”

Perhaps Jonah thought that this shade-plant proved God’s favor on his intentions to sit and wait for the destruction of Nineveh. What a jerk Jonah was to get all excited when God provided him with a little shade. And yet, how often we are so self-absorbed that all we think of is how happy we are when God blesses us with a little something. Let us learn a lesson from Jonah’s self-absorption and callousness toward Nineveh and realize how reprehensible it is for us to care only about God’s blessings on us while disregarding the rest of the world.

¨ We should not be like Jonah, who was so self-absorbed that he rejoiced over getting a bit of shade while still angry at God for not destroying Nineveh.

7 וַיְמַן הָאֱלֹהִים תּוֹלַעַת בַּעֲלוֹת הַשַּׁחַר לַמָּחֳרָת וַתַּךְ אֶת הַקִּיקָיוֹן וַיִּיבָשׁ.

7 Then God appointed a worm at the rising of the dawn the next day, and she attacked the plant and it withered.

8 וַיְהִי כִּזְרֹחַ הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ וַיְמַן אֱלֹהִים רוּחַ קָדִים חֲרִישִׁית וַתַּךְ הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ עַל רֹאשׁ יוֹנָה וַיִּתְעַלָּף וַיִּשְׁאַל אֶת נַפְשׁוֹ לָמוּת וַיֹּאמֶר טוֹב מוֹתִי מֵחַיָּי.

8 And it happened at the rising of the sun, that God appointed a cutting east wind and the sun beat down over the head of Jonah so that he fainted. Then he asked for his soul to die, for he said, “Better my death than my life!”

The word describing the sun as it “beat” down on Jonah’s head is the same word used in the previous verse about the worm as it “smote/attacked” the plant – the plant is dying, and Jonah is dying, too, he thinks! It says that he “fainted.” Now, whether he fainted from the heat and then came back to and asked God to die or whether he was just growing faint (as the modern translations say), I don’t know.

Jonah is perfectly miserable, and, what’s worse, he realizes that it is God who is making him miserable! I think Jonah was smart enough to know that it was his rebellion against God’s grace toward Nineveh that was the problem. But he was so stubborn that, rather than repent and get right with God and leave this uncomfortable situation by getting on with life, he instead wanted to die right there on the spot so he wouldn’t have to admit that he was wrong. Oh that we were different from Jonah, but really how often we are so stubborn in our pride that we won’t admit that we’re wrong! So often we persist in our rebellion, settling to live under God’s punishment rather than humbling ourselves, confessing our sin, and living under God’s blessing! The solution for Jonah was not death, but reconciliation with God, yet Jonah is so stubborn that he would rather die!

¨ When disappointing things happen, rather than getting angry at the thing that caused you disappointment, consider that God may be trying to teach you something.

¨ Choose today between persisting in stubborn rebellion (living under God’s animosity) and humbly submitting to God (living under His blessing)!

9 וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים אֶל יוֹנָה הַהֵיטֵב חָרָה לְךָ עַל הַקִּיקָיוֹן
 וַיֹּאמֶר הֵיטֵב חָרָה לִי עַד מָוֶת.

9 Then God said to Jonah, “Does it make things right for you to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “It does make things right for me to be angry – even to death!”

In v.4, God asked if it was right to be angry over the preservation of Nineveh; now in v.9, God asks if it is right to be angry over the death of the shady plant. Jonah didn’t answer the first time God asked the question in v.4 because he knew better than to complain about God not killing the Ninevites. This time, however, he feels justified in complaining that God killed the plant (Son.).

Jonah is so bent out of shape, however, that he doesn’t get the point. Instead, Jonah repeats his request to die. He is so mad that Nineveh didn’t get destroyed and he is so mad that his shady plant died that he is beyond reason. We humans get so exasperated sometimes that we let our emotions obscure our reason. It’s generally pointless to reason with someone who is this upset, and if we find ourselves getting this upset, we need to step back and take some time to cool off and pray rather than getting ourselves into trouble with our angry words and actions!

“Man can become greatly concerned and disturbed when that which directly affects him is touched by the finger of providence; but he can be utterly indifferent, even hard, to that which may be of infinitely greater value when this does not affect him. He may murmur greatly over an immediate personal discomfort, but wish for the destruction of those who may in time affect him.” (Hail.)

¨ Don’t allow your anger to make you unreasonable like Jonah!

Expressing Anger

Wrong way (Jonah)	Right way (Jesus)
Fighting against God’s will	Yield to God’s will
Giving up and dying	Fight unrighteousness
Displacing onto self/others	Get right with God
Blowing up	Stop and think Rule over it  (Gen 4:7)
Internalizing it and sulking	Trust God, delight in Lord (Ps. 37:3-5)
Denying it	Confess sin (Eph 4:26)