In Robert Bosley's sermon 'The Angry Prophet and the Compassionate God,' the speaker examines the fourth chapter of the Book of Jonah, focusing on Jonah's anger and God's compassion. The sermon details how Jonah, after being spared by God's mercy, obeys God's command to preach to Nineveh but does so begrudgingly and with a message of judgment. Despite Jonah's reluctance, the city of Nineveh repents, and God spares them, which angers Jonah. Jonah's anger is contrasted with God's nature as a gracious, merciful, and compassionate deity, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness. God uses a plant, a worm, and a scorching wind to teach Jonah a lesson in compassion, highlighting Jonah's misplaced priorities and his selfish desire for God's mercy to be exclusive to his own people. The sermon emphasizes the need for believers to embrace God's compassion and extend grace to all, including enemies, rather than harboring anger and exclusivity like Jonah. The final message encourages Christians to go forth and spread the gospel, trusting in God's willingness to forgive and show mercy to all who repent.

Afternoon. If you would open up your copy of the Word of God to the book of Jonah, we're going to be in the fourth and final chapter of this little book. And as you're turning there, we'll briefly look at, review what we went over last time. In chapter 3, Jonah comes forth from the belly of the fish, having experienced tremendous mercy from God in rescuing him from drowning in the sea. And the prophet now chastened from his rebellion and his flight obeys the word of the Lord that comes to him a second time and he goes to Nineveh as the Lord directs him.

And he goes seemingly begrudgingly. His heart doesn't seem to be completely in it. He goes and his message is all of five words in Hebrew and it's a message of doom, a message of judgment. And yet God does something amazing and the city repents. And we talked a little bit about what kind of repentances may be, but The point is the city repented.

And even the magistrate, the king of Nineveh, probably the governor of the city, He repents and He commands repentance, corporate repentance in the city. And he ends in verse 9, who can tell if God will turn and relent and turn away from his fierce anger so that we may not perish? And so we'll pick up the reading in 310 and read to the end of chapter 4. Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, and God relented from the disaster that he said he would bring up on them, and he did not do it. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry.

So he prayed to the Lord and said, ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore, I fled previously to Tarshish, for I know that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness, one who relents from doing harm. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." Then the Lord said, Is it right for you to be angry? So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade till he might see what would become of the city.

And the Lord God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very grateful for the plant. But as morning dawned the next day, God prepared a worm, and it so damaged the plant that it withered. And it happened when the sun arose that God prepared a vehement east wind, and the sun beat on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. Then he wished death for himself and said, It is better for me to die than to live.

Then God said to Jonah, Is it right for you to be angry about the plant? And he said, it is right for me to be angry even to death. But the Lord said, you have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night, and should I not pity Nineveh, that great city in which are more than 120, 000 persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left and much livestock. Let's pray. Oh Father, we come before you in the name of your Son and we ask for your help.

Oh Father, I ask for your help and your grace to be on me as I speak these words. Keep me from any falsehood. God, may you use my small efforts here to get glory for yourself. May you be glorified in our worship and the preaching of your word this afternoon. And God may you use it for building up the faith of the saints here and God if you would be so pleased may you use it to draw some to yourself for the first time today.

In Jesus name, amen. Alright so we're gonna look at this last chapter of the book of Jonah and we're going to look at this under two basic headings. First we're going to look at Jonah's anger in verses 1 through 4 and then God's lesson in compassion in verses 5 through 11. So Jonah's anger in 1 through 4 and God's lesson in compassion in 5 through 11. And what I want the big picture takeaway here is that we need to see how Jonah is rebuked for his anger at God sparing the Ninevites and in all of this God's compassion is exalted, His pity, his mercy, his loving kindness are all exalted.

And so first, Jonah's anger. In verse 10 of chapter 3, we read that God saw the repentance of the Ninevites, and so he relented from the disaster that he was going to bring on them. If this book ended there, we would think, oh, well, that's a fantastic way to end this book, a good ending. I mean, it's like a Disney story. It's just a fun, happy ending and everyone lives happily ever after but it doesn't end there the story goes on and it's a very shocking response from Jonah just like in chapter one when the word of Yahweh comes to Jonah and he gets up and he flees, we should be shocked at that.

We should be shocked at this response as well. God relents from bringing his wrath on the Ninevites, and we expect to read that Jonah praised and worshiped the Lord for his kindness. That's what we should expect. But what do we read? It displeased Jonah exceedingly.

You could even translate it as he was exceedingly angry and burned with anger. He was fiercely angry. This isn't just He's unhappy. He's not disturbed about these results. He is furious at God for doing this.

Now, it doesn't say how we know that... I'm sorry. It doesn't say how Jonah knows that God has relented from disaster. Maybe he stayed in the city for the 40 days. Because remember, there was a deadline given.

You've got 40 days and you're toast. Maybe he stayed for the 40 days or perhaps God spoke to him and said they've repented I'm going to spare them. We don't know. I'm inclined to think that God tells him directly even though it's not said here. However, when he goes outside the city, he says he goes to see what would happen to the city.

So perhaps the deadline is passed or it hasn't passed. It's not entirely clear. But regardless, he somehow knows, he perceives that God has relented from his judgment that he said he would bring on the Ninevites for their wickedness. And this enrages him. He becomes furious.

And there's a little bit of a wordplay in Hebrew that develops in this chapter that we have a, we can't really replicate very well in English. The Hebrew word ra'ah has been used a couple times and it first appears in chapter one when God says that their wickedness, their evil has come up before me, it's their Ra'ah. Well this word Ra'ah has what's called a wide semantic domain, it can mean a lot of different things and it appears again in verse 10 of chapter 3, God relented from the ra'ah that he was going to bring on them, the disaster. That's why if you have a King James version or some older versions it may say he relented from the evil he was going to bring on them. That word ra'ah has this general idea of something bad and can be translated as evil, moral evil, or a disaster or punishment, something like that.

But then here in chapter four, verse one, that word appears again. Jonah in his anger becomes Ra'ah. Jonah takes on this Ra'ah. So there's this idea that's been developed of the Ninevites are bad, we'll use the word bad for this, the Ninevites are bad and they deserve a bad end from God, his punishment, and Jonah takes it badly, we could say. It's evil in Jonah's sight, what God has done.

Not that he's describing moral evil, but it's wrong, what God has done. And this repetition of this this Hebrew word, I think, signifies a shift in Jonah, or at least it lays bare Jonah's heart and his soul. What Nineveh is described as in chapter one, Jonah now is in chapter four. The wickedness of the Ninevites had come up before God, and now the wickedness in Jonah's own heart has been exposed. The wickedness and violence that was the reason that God was going to bring his judgment against the Ninevites has now been revealed to reside even in the prophets own heart He's angry that the Ninevites aren't going to meet a fiery end he wishes they would be a second Sodom that God would rain fire down on them and This betrays the the violence and wickedness and badness of his own heart.

And so he prays. We can think, well, okay, that's good. You pray to the Lord, that's good. And he starts out fairly well. And he reveals that this result is actually what he expected all along.

What does he say in verse 2? Was not this what I said while I was still in my country? I knew this is what was going to happen. I saw it coming, Lord. And he's not happy about it.

He says, I knew you were going to have mercy on them and I couldn't be a part of that. I don't want them to have mercy. I don't want them to be spared. That's why I ran away because I knew you were like this, God. Is he saying, Well, God is arbitrary in his judgment.

Is God unjust? No. What does he say? He says, I know that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, an abundant in loving kindness, one who relents from doing harm, Because I know that you are such a patient and such a kind and such a good and merciful God. Because I know that's how you are.

I had to flee because I don't want these Gentiles to know your goodness and your grace and your mercy. Now why? Why did he not want the Ninevites to experience God's grace? Possibly he has selfish motivations. This is Calvin's perspective.

If you read his lectures on Jonah, possibly Jonah is afraid that his own reputation as a prophet of God will be damaged. If he goes and says judgment's going to fall and judgment doesn't fall, he's going to be looked down on as a false prophet. That's Calvin's perspective, and others have held to that. It's possible. Rather, though, I think this probably stems from a misplaced religious zeal and nationalistic fervor.

Because who are the Ninevites at this time? They were Israel's number one enemy. And these were a brutal, evil race of people. They were horrifically brutal in warfare and to prisoners. They tortured and killed and destroyed without any second thoughts.

And Jonah sees these evil Gentiles. They're outside of the Covenant and they're a militaristic enemy of Israel and so Jonah is like no, I don't I don't want them to be spared I want you to bring your judgment against them They're a danger to me and my family, my nation, the temple. They're a threat to us. You need to destroy them, not spare them. And so that's, I believe, why he fled.

And this phrase he uses describing God, a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, abundant in loving-kindness, one who runs from doing harm. He's actually quoting the book of Joel, Joel chapter 2 verse 13, and this is an amazing summary of God's attributes and His character. These glorious truths are the whole reason why Jonah didn't drown in the sea in chapter 2. But what does Jonah do? He takes these wonderful life-giving truths about who God is and he uses that as the basis for criticizing God's actions.

He knows it's in God's nature to be gracious, but he wants that grace only for himself and his fellow Hebrews. Jonah received an abundance of divine mercy in the sea and in the fish, but he wants that mercy to go no further. And so he is enraged that God has spared them. And so what does he conclude? Oh God, You're so gracious and merciful.

You've allowed the Ninevites to repent. Just kill me. If this is the way this world is going to work, I don't want to be in it anymore. He decides it's better for him to die than to live in a world where the Ninevites see mercy. He is so blinded by the zeal for protecting his country and his own borders that he would rather die than live in a world where God's mercy is given to another people.

If you read the Old Testament, seeing prophets or servants of God who want to die is not something that we're completely unfamiliar with. Elijah, for instance, he prays in 1 Kings 19, 14 to die. But the motivation is drastically different. If you go back and read the story of Elijah, why does he want to die? He says, Lord, take my life, let me rest with my fathers.

I'm no better than they were. And the whole idea is he believes his mission has failed. That he's done nothing more than what his predecessors have done. And so he might as well call it a day, pack it in and be done. Just let me die and be done.

I failed in what you've called me to do. But what is Jonah doing instead? Now Elijah was wrong, we remember that. Elijah was wrong in his prayer for death and he wasn't a failure. But why is Jonah seeking death?

Jonah seeking death not because his mission was a failure, but because it was such an amazing success. The Ninevites repented and he's saying, I don't want this, just take me now. He's seeking death because his mission was an overwhelming success. God called him there and God blessed him more abundantly than Jonah could have ever imagined was possible. And Jonah wants to die because of it.

And I think we can all see that that is a completely unreasonable and sinful response on the part of Jonah. But look how God deals with Jonah. See how God comes to him in verse 4 Then the Lord said is it right for you to be angry? Now God could have just condemned him he could have killed him. He could have given him what he wanted But God comes to me he deals with him like a patient father with a child throwing a tantrum.

There's so much actually here for us as parents, honestly. God deals with Jonah as if he's a two-year-old throwing a fit. He deals with him very patiently, very kindly. A good example for us, quite frankly. That's extra for you today.

But what does God do? He comes to me and says, is this right? Is this really the response you ought to have, Jonah? So rather than condemning him outright, he's appealing to him. He's calling to him, like God walking in the garden and calling out to Adam.

Come, come, where are you? Same thing here, is this right? Is this how you should respond to my grace? He wants Jonah to come clean and confess that no, this is a completely unreasonable, sinful response. And we should expect that Jonah's answer would be, no, I'm in the wrong, you're right, I shouldn't be like this.

You are free to have mercy on whom you'll have mercy, and I will rejoice that other sinners have received the same grace that I have received. That's the response Jonah should give. But in fact, he actually ignores it. He ignores God entirely, it seems. We heard at the beginning of Pastor Scott's sermon this morning that we are under so much opposition from outside that we can so easily become poisoned against those who are opposing us.

That's what's happened to Jonah here And that's the question for us today. Have we been poisoned? Have our hearts become hardened against those who are our enemies? Whether enemies of our nation or enemies of the church? Have we become so engaged in the battle that we have forgotten these are other people who need God's mercy?

Our country has many enemies, political enemies, outside and within. And do we get so wrapped up in our political fights that we would rather see Beijing turned into a smoking crater than to see Beijing come to repentance. Or enemies against the church. The threats of the transgender movement and the woke train driving over the church in America. Are we so engaged in that fight that we forget that these are people that we need to pray that they are brought to repentance.

Do we only want them destroyed or do we want them to be saved? Are we more like Jonah, content to be recipients of grace and forgiveness and new life? Or, sorry, are we content to be like Jonah, content to be recipients of grace for ourselves, but then Not wanting that grace to go any further. And this isn't to say there isn't a time to pray for justice or to engage in those fights. There's even a time, I believe, to pray in precatory prayers and psalms like we read in the Psalter, but those should be rare and that should not be our first response to our opposition and to our enemies.

The very fact that there's only about 10 in precatory Psalms out of 150 should tell us that that's not our go-to response. We should give grace and call others, even our enemies, to experience that grace that we've received. Do not let your heart become hardened like Jonah's. Learn from this man and his sin and do not follow him. And so as we look at the lesson in compassion, let this work on your own heart if you have seen yourself grow hard and cold toward your enemies and your opponents.

So what happens? Jonah goes out of the city. He seems to completely blow off God's question. Is it right for you to be angry like this Jonah? He goes outside the city and he sits down and he builds himself a little structure and the word here is the same word for tabernacle and the feast of tabernacles.

It's a little hut woven together with sticks and branches and leaves and a little, little spindly thing that's not going to really provide much protection but give him a little bit of shade in the desert. And he sits and he watches and he waits. And God uses this time to teach Jonah a lesson on what it means to have compassion. And just as in chapter 1 Jonah confessed that Yahweh is the God of heaven, the maker of seas and dry land, and Yahweh showed his mastery over the sea and the storm and in the fish. Now in chapter four, we will see God's mastery over the land because in a series of appointings or ordainings, God will appoint a plant, a worm, and a wind.

God is in control of all these things. If you learn almost nothing else from the book of Jonah, you should have a great appreciation for the sovereignty of God as it appears in here because this is a God that controls all things and all things in this world bow to his will in unquestioned obedience until we get to fallen man as illustrated by this rebellious prophet. So first, God ordains a plant. Now what kind of a plant? Don't know.

And actually I read really interesting, early in the early church you have Jerome and Augustine. And you don't really think, at least I didn't think of these two as being contemporaries. They actually wrote back and forth and talking about how to translate this word. Because Jerome wrote a new Latin version of the Old Testament, and it actually started a riot because he translated it as ivy instead of gourd, which the people were used to. So Bible translation fights are nothing new.

But, just don't riot if Somebody reads a different translation you're not used to. That's not a good response. But some sort of a plant, probably something like a castor oil plant, something with these broad, leafy branches that it grows up in this miracle of almost over, or just almost immediate growth to overshade the shelter that Jonah is in to give him a little bit more coverage. This hut that he built for himself is apparently insufficient because God ordains this plant to give him more shade and as it says to deliver him from his misery and that is actually very interesting to deliver or rescue him from his misery. Remember I mentioned a little bit ago that Hebrew word ra'ah, badness, evil.

The Ninevites are ra'ah. God relents from bringing ra'ah. Jonah is ra'ah. Well here again is the word ra'ah, his distress. And I think there's a double meaning, a play on words here that Yes, it means his misery, his discomfort, his physical pain at being in the heat and the sun.

But also God ordains this plant as a means of delivering Jonah from his moral badness, the evil in his heart. The plant will be the means not only by which God spares his physical discomfort, but also a way to rescue him from the misery of his sin of selfishness and his lack of love. And so this plant comes up and shields Jonah and Jonah is ecstatic about this plant and what does it say Jonah was very grateful it's that kind of undersells it it says he rejoiced for great joy over this plant He's thrilled to death about this plant. And it's clear miraculous nature of growing up almost immediately and overshadowing him is probably to Jonah a reminder and a picture of God's presence. This plant grows up immediately and overshadows him just as God promised he would overshadow and shield his people.

It's a reminder of God's presence and his faithfulness to Jonah. But Jonah's joy in the plant is short-lived. What happens? God ordains a worm the next morning and it so damaged the plant that it withered. And then to add to his misery, Jonah's misery, God prepares a vehement east wind, a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah's head.

And so soon that little hut he's made for himself is now not a shade and not a shield from the weather but now it's turning into an oven and Jonah's joy turns back into misery and a desire to die. And his death wish returns. Now why is God doing this? Is God just being malevolent to Jonah? Is he just being a bully?

Has he gotten sick of Jonah's attitude and is like, fine, I'm done with you and I'm going to take you out the most miserable way possible? No, certainly not. Nothing like that. God, as always, has a purpose for what he is doing and what he does is good. And he is using even Jonah's misery in this situation for Jonah's good.

But Jonah gets angry again because the plant has died and because the wind and the sun and he's just getting miserable. He says, it's better for me to die than to live. So God asks him a second time, is it right for you to be angry? And this time he says about the plant. He's using the plant as an object lesson of how Jonah should think about the Ninevites.

He says, is it right for you to be so angry about this plant? And Jonah digs in his heels and he doubles down on his anger and he says, yes I'm so angry I'd rather not live in a world where you run it like this. It's not fair. You forgave Nineveh and you killed this plant. Just take me now.

I'm done. And so Jonah has set himself up for God's rebuke and God's rebuttal. What does God say? You've had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than 120, 000 persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left and much livestock.

God comes to Jonah and he says, okay Jonah let's talk about this anger of yours. You're mad about this plant. Why? You aren't its gardener. You didn't plant it.

You didn't water it. You didn't stake it. You didn't do anything that someone who is trying to raise a plant would do. You did not care for this thing at all. It popped up one day and it died the next.

How attached to it can you really be, Jonah? You only are interested in the plant because of your own self-interest. All you care about is what the plant could do for you. And yet you felt compassion. You felt pity over this plant, even though you have no real reason to love it or care for it.

How much more than Jonah should I pity and have compassion on Nineveh? A hundred and twenty thousand men and women, yes they are fallen, they are sinful, They are so fallen They cannot tell right from wrong like a little child cannot tell right from left But they are still men and women. They are still my image bearers, Jonah. 120, 000 of them in this city. 120, 000 immortal souls that have no more right to my grace than you did.

I made each one of them, Jonah. I feed each one of them every day. Each day I give them the breath they breathe. Should I not be quick to show them mercy if they repent? And the book ends.

And we're almost left like, well that's an odd place to end it. There should be some sort of a closure, some sort of a conclusion we feel like. But I think it's intentional. The book ends there abruptly, I believe, for two reasons. Firstly, I think it's to signify that Jonah is left speechless by God's rebuke.

Like Job, Jonah lays his hand on his mouth and he knows he can say nothing. I have nothing to say. I am defenseless. You are right. Secondly, the author of the book likely also ends the book here because he wants to put this final question, the question of verse 11, to his audience as much as God put it to Jonah.

This final question, should I not have pity on this great city with all these people? That question is put just as much to the readers and hearers of this book as God put it to Jonah. And so they're left with that question and the implicit question of what then will you do with such a gracious God? What is going to be your response to a God like this. And those are the questions for us today.

Should we not rejoice that our God is willing to spare even the most evil of men if they repent? You see unbelievers mock that idea all the time that, oh well someone only has to believe and even though they're a murderer and a rapist and everything, they go to heaven. God is compassionate, abundant in loving kindness. The soul that truly repents and believes, yes, all their sins are wiped out because of what Jesus did on their behalf. There is no sinner too far gone that is outside the reach of God's grace.

That is the lesson of Jonah. So should we not rejoice when even the most wicked men repent and will we not join him in his mission to bring his mercy to sinners? We have received so much grace, Jonah had received so much grace, he should have willingly and happily gone to Nineveh. Will we then go happily and joyfully and eagerly taking the message of salvation to the nations? We have received so much grace.

Will we take it to others or will we be like Jonah and want it just for ourselves and our people? Go back to what Jonah said in verse 2, how he described God, you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, one who relents from doing harm. Jonah used that as an excuse not to go. Instead of causing us to flee, it should propel us to go. This truth should be the reason we go.

This is the reason we go to the nations and our neighbors, bringing them the gospel, because we know we have a gracious and compassionate God, one who is slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness, one who loves to relent from bringing his judgment. Because that is true, we should gladly go and evangelize the nations. And we should go in confidence knowing that he is that kind of a God who will spare Any who repent and believe? He will give grace and mercy and he will turn from his anger against sinners because Christ has purchased that great multitude that we heard about this morning. They washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

It was a multitude from every tongue, tribe, nation, people, group, everywhere, all over the world. Why? Why were they all before the throne? Because they had received God's mercy, God's compassion. If we know that we have this kind of a compassionate God, a God who relents from his judgments, a God who gave his son to be the Savior of the world.

How can we not go and take that message to any who will listen? So as we finish this book, let us learn. There is a Jonah hiding in all of our hearts, a Jonah that wants God's mercy just for itself. But if we truly know who Our God is, we don't need an audible word from the Lord like Jonah had. We already have the Word of God telling us to go, not to a particular city, but we have the command of the Lord Jesus Christ, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.

Therefore, on the basis of that, go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey me. And so we go because we have this gracious and compassionate God, one who abounds in love and mercy and who relents from bringing judgment. And so we go with confidence knowing that he will spare any and all who repent and turn to him in true and real faith. Let's pray. Oh Father, we thank you for this amazing little book that you've given.

We thank you for what it teaches us about who you are. We thank you, Lord, that you are such a God, a God that is gracious and merciful, A God that is slow to anger and abundant and loving kindness, one who relents from doing harm. God, we thank you that we have received and experienced that grace, that compassion. Oh, God, may that propel us to go and obey you in taking your message of compassion and grace to the nations. May we go enjoy knowing that the victory of Christ is certain, that there will be that numberless multitude around the throne.

God may we rest on this fact. May we get much strength and confidence from it. And Lord, may you bless your church, both here and around the world. And Lord, we Thank you.