This is our final post in the Lessons from Jonah series. We have shared quite a lot so far. Summarizing would have been a great idea but that would have to be a post on its own.
In this final post we'll be wrapping up the discourse we've been on. To get a robust understanding of what's happening here you might have to back up and read up the previous posts.
Brief Recap
In Lessons from Jonah 9 we talked about how Jonah seemed to forget he was a product of mercy.
We also looked at the true essence and purpose of prophecy. We said that it's not to show that you and I are great men/women of God but that it's to point men to the love of God shown to us in His Son Jesus Christ.
I hope today's post helps you.
Jonah 4:5-12 (Living Bible)
5 So Jonah went out and sat sulking on the east side of the city, and he made a leafy shelter to shade him as he waited there to see if anything would happen to the city.
6 And when the leaves of the shelter withered in the heat, the Lord arranged for a vine to grow up quickly and spread its broad leaves over Jonah’s head to shade him. This made him comfortable and very grateful.
7 But God also prepared a worm! The next morning the worm ate through the stem of the plant, so that it withered away and died.
8 Then when the sun was hot, God ordered a scorching east wind to blow on Jonah, and the sun beat down upon his head until he grew faint and wished to die. For he said, “Death is better than this!”
9 And God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry because the plant died?”
“Yes,” Jonah said, “it is; it is right for me to be angry enough to die!”
10 Then the Lord said, “You feel sorry for yourself when your shelter is destroyed, though you did no work to put it there, and it is, at best, short-lived.
11 And why shouldn’t I feel sorry for a great city like Nineveh with its 120,000 people in utter spiritual darkness and all its cattle?”
Take Home Lessons:
1. When God Forgives He Forgets
There are still believers today who get angry when people who were formerly ungodly turn around and then, it seems like God starts blessing them right away.
These believers are shocked and say with their attitudes that God should at least not forget the past evil of these people even if He forgives them.
They feel such people have been too evil to all of a sudden start enjoying the goodness of God. At least God should make them pay for their sins by allowing them suffer for a while, even if it's a very short while, before they can begin to enjoy His goodness.
But it's so wonderful to realise that God is not a man. He doesn't think like men do and He sure doesn't act like men act.
Despite how bad a person was previously, the instant that person is in Christ, he is a new creature, old things have passed away and all things have become new.
God treats this man in Christ like someone who never existed before; he or she has no past in the eyes of God.
2. Preach Grace and Mercy
From Jonah's reaction when God forgave Nineveh, it's clear that he would have preferred it if God destroyed them.
He preached a coming judgment to them but didn't tell them mercy was also available, if they'd repent.
Thank God they took initiative somehow and repented.
Jonah's message was true but it was incomplete. His message wasn't an accurate revelation of the true nature of God.
God told him to announce judgment but God expected him to also show the people the route of mercy since he, Jonah, already knew that was God's nature and character.
Whenever God tells you to announce judgement (that is, when He gives you a revelation of some terrible thing about to happen to someone perhaps because of the way they live), He also expects you to know that you should help whoever it is you're talking to realise He's a God of love and mercy.
God expects you to encourage them to turn to the love of God and ask for His mercy so that the evil can be averted.
Any message or revelation that doesn't point men back to God's loving arms, is incorrect, incomplete and inaccurate.