A Study of Book of Jonah
Sermon # 6
Too Angry to Serve God!
Jonah 4:1-11
Have you ever witnessed a child throwing a
temper-tantrum in the middle of a department store (hopefully it was not your own). The child may do any number of things: He or she may pound on the floor with their hands
and feet. They may lie on the floor and scream at the top of their lungs. They may throw
things or sling their arms about. Or they may be very creative and do all of these things
at the same time. But in all of this the child has a purpose - he is demanding that he get
his own way. In tonight text we see Jonah
throwing a temper tantrum with God.
For our study tonight the reason for Jonah’s
anger is not as important as the object of his anger. Jonah was angry with God!
In verse one of chapter four we read,
Dr. James Montgomery Boice writes that Jonah “… is a warning that it is possible to obey God but to do so
with such a degree of unwillingness and anger that, so far as we are concerned obedience
is not better than disobedience…… We often act the same, even when we are
apparently obeying Go. We are doing what we think we should be doing living the kind of
life we think a Christian should live. But secretly we are unhappy and angry with God for
making the requirement.”
[James Montgomery Boice. The Minor Prophets: An Expositional Commentary. Volume 1 Hosea-Jonah Chap 34. “God More Merciful Than the Prophet.” pp. 146-147]
None us is immune to
the spirit of resentment that ate at Jonah and we too can give in to that resentment. But
what we do need to recognize is that resentment affects us in several damaging ways. [principles drawn from O.S. Hawkins book Jonah:
Meeting the God of the Second Chance. Neptune, NJ., Loizeaux Brothers, 1990) pp.
107-117]
First,
Resentment Destroys Our Peace
Verse one stated that Jonah was “exceedingly
displeased and became angry”
Everything is life is
seen through the lenses of our anger and resentment. In verse two Jonah’s attitude
and anger is revealed even further when he says, “… 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 lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm.”
How many times have you heard someone say, “I knew
this would happen! I just knew it!” That is what Jonah is saying verse two, “I knew this is what would happen. This is why I
didn’t want to go to Nineveh in the first place.”
Notice Jonah tried to
justify his attitude of resentment. The fact is that we all do what Jonah did. When it
gets tough to do the right thing, we seek to justify our disobedience. We even go to the
word of God seeking grounds to justify doing what we want to do. But when we find
ourselves reading the Bible in order to find verses and passages that justify our behavior
we are not only wrong we are in danger.
Jonah is blaming God
and in the process resentment is destroying his peace.
Secondly,
Resentment Distracts Us From Our Purpose (vv. 3-4)
“Therefore
now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to
live!"
Jonah became so depressed and despondent
over God’s course of action that thought the only solution was that God just take his
life. The prophet Elijah once had that problem as well. It is interesting that Elijah’s
depression also came right after a great victory. Immediately after defeating the prophets
of Baal on Mount Carmel, the Bible records:
“And
when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life, and went to Beersheba, which belongs to
Judah, and left his servant there. (4) But he himself went a day's journey into the
wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and
said, "It is enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my
fathers!" [1 Kings 19:3-4] (NKJV)
Like Jonah, Elijah went out and sat down.
Elijah sat under a juniper tree not a vine, but like Jonah Elijah requested to die.
I would imagine if the truth be known a lot
of Christians have had this problem from time to time. R. T Kendall said he knew a man who
prayed daily for twenty years that he might die. He was well into his eighty’s when
he died. I suppose that God does not pay a lot of attention to our pity parties.
Speaking for myself I have never gotten to
the place that I ask God to let me die, I suppose I am afraid he just might answer my
prayer.
The Lord responded to
Jonah with a simple question in verse four, “Then the LORD said, "Is it right for you to be angry?"
In other words God
says, “Jonah do you think you have a right to be angry with me?” The question is a challenge to Jonah to
really stop and think whether an angry prophet or the sovereign God of the Universe is
right.
David Wilkerson once
noted in a message he delivered, “I believe there is nothing
more dangerous to a Christian to carry a resentment against God . Yet I am shocked by the
growing number of believer’s I meet who are peeved at the Lord. They may not admit as
much – but deep inside, they hold some kind of grudge against him. Why? They believe
he’s not interested in their lives or problems! They’re convinced he doesn’t
care – because he hasn’t answered a particular prayer or acted on their behalf.”
[David
Wilkerson. “Are You Mad At God?” Feb 16. 1998 Times Square Church
Pulpit Series]
Jonah problem was the
thought that he had been made to look like a fool. He
had prophesied that disaster would come in forty days and now God has decided not to
destroy the city. How is this going to look, how will he people view him? As far as he is
concerned his reputation as a prophet of God is ruined.
But Jonah did not
confess his error instead he became even angrier and left the city.
Third,
Resentment Diminishes Our Productiveness (v. 5)
When I was a small boy my cousin lived right across the street and we constant playmates. That is until one of us got mad, which was pretty often (usually it was his fault ha). If we were playing baseball and he got mad he would take his ball and glove and go home. When figuratively that is what Jonah was doing. He was mad at God and so he just wasn’t going to play anymore.
It is hard to be productive when we figuratively take our ball and glove and go him. Verse five says, “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.”
So what do you do when you angry with the way God is doing things? You start your own little church.
Jonah still had some
hope that God would destroy the city. It may be that Jonah doubted the sincerity of the
repentance of the Ninevites. While he knew that God was merciful he also knew that God can
not be fooled and if the Ninevites were faking it God would still carry out the
destruction of the city.
Fourth,
Resentment Distorts Our Perspective (vv. 6-7)
“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.”
Jonah was angry with
God and how does God respond to him? Instead of sending a burden into his life God sent a
blessing. God responded to his anger by allowing a plant to grow over him to provide for
his comfort.
Although Jonah was is
place he had no business being and was filled with anger he could not justify, God still
cared about him.
Jonah was his
child, and he was hot and tired and hurting, so God provided what he needed.
Finally Jonah is
grateful [NIV translates - happy]. Why? The answer is clear, Jonah is pleased because at
last, after all the things he had done for other people he is at last doing something for
Jonah. Isn’t that incredibly selfish? Of course it is.
But Jonah happiness
was short lived because in verse seven we read, “But
as morning dawned the next day God prepared a worm, and it so damaged the plant
that it withered. (8) 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."
An angry and resentful person loses his or
her sense of perspective and begins to pick at little things. We see it all the time in
the business world, within are own families and even in the Church. In verse nine
God again reasons with Jonah saying, "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!" (10)
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. (11) And should I not
pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand
persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left--and much
livestock?"
Did Jonah ever back on
the right track? I think he did. On what do I base that conclusion? On the fact that it is
Jonah that records this whole story and he kept nothing back not even his own disgraceful
behavior.
Conclusion
“In 1921, two young couples
in Stockholm, Sweden, answered God’s call to the African mission field. During one
particular mission’s service, these two couples received a burden to go to the
Belgian Congo, which is now Zaire. Their names were David and Svea Flood and Joel and
Bertha Erickson. But both couples gave up everything to lay down their lives for the
gospel.
When they arrived in the Belgian
Congo, they reported to the local mission station. Then they took machetes and literally
hacked their way into the Congo’s insect-infested interior. David and Svea had a
two-year-old son, David Jr., and they had to carry him on their backs. Along the way, both
families caught malaria. But they kept going forward with great zeal, ready to be martyrs
for the Lord.
Finally, they reached a certain village in
At this point, there were no
other villages around. The worn-down families had no choice but to settle. So they hacked
out a clearing in the middle of a mountain jungle and built mud huts, where they made
their homes.
As the months went by, they all
suffered from loneliness, sickness and malnutrition. Little David Jr. became sickly. And
they had almost no interaction with any of the villagers.
Finally, after about six months,
Joel and Bertha Erickson decided to return to the mission station. They urged the Floods
to do the same, but Svea couldn’t travel because she’d just gotten pregnant. And
now her malaria had become worse. Besides all that, David said, "I want my child born
in Africa. I’ve come to give my life here."
For several months Svea endured
a raging fever. Yet all that time, she ministered faithfully to a little boy who came to
see them from one of the nearby villages. The boy was the Floods’ only convert.
Eventually, Svea’s malaria got so bad
David Flood was badly shaken by
his wife’s death. Summoning all his strength, he took a wooden box and made a for his
wife. Then, in a primitive grave on the mountain-side, he buried his beloved wife.
As he stood beside her grave, he looked down at his young son beside him. Then he heard
his baby daughter’s cries from the mud hut. And suddenly, bitterness filled his
heart. Anger rose up in him - and he couldn’t control it. He flew into a rage,
crying, "Why
did you allow this, God? We came here to give our lives! My wife was so beautiful, so
talented. And here she lies, dead at twenty-seven.
"Now I have a two-year-old
son I can hardly care for, let alone a baby girl. And after more than a year in this
jungle, all we have to show for it is one little village boy who probably doesn’t
understand what we’ve told him. You’ve failed me, God. What a waste of
life!"
At that point, David Flood took
his children to the mission station. When he saw the Erickson’s, he blurted out
angrily, "I’m leaving! I can’t handle these children alone. I’m taking
my son with me back to Sweden - but I’m leaving my daughter here with you." And
with that, he left Aina for the Erickson’s to raise.
All the way back to Stockholm, David
When he arrived in Stockholm, he
Eventually, he began drinking
heavily. Shortly after he left Africa, his friends the Ericksons died suddenly. Little
Aina was handed to an American couple - Arthur and Anna Berg. The Bergs took Aina with
them to a village in the northern Congo. There they began calling her "Aggie."
When the Bergs went on furlough to America, they took Aggie with them, to the Minneapolis
area. As it turned out, they ended up staying there.
By this time, David Flood had
become a total alcoholic, and his eyesight was failing badly. For forty years Aggie tried
to locate her father - but her letters were never answered. Finally, the Bible school gave
her and her husband round-trip tickets to Sweden. This would give her the chance to find
her father personally.
After crossing the Atlantic, the
couple spent a day’s layover in London. They decided to take a walk, so they strolled
by the Royal Albert Hall. To their joy, a mission’s convention was being held. They
went inside, where they heard a black preacher testifying of the great works God was doing
in Zaire - the Belgian Congo!
Aggie’s heart leaped. After
the meeting, she approached the preacher and asked, "Did you ever know the
missionaries David and Svea Flood?" He answered, "Yes. Svea Flood led me to the
Lord when I was just a boy. They had a baby girl, but I don’t know what happened to
her." Aggie exclaimed, "I’m the girl! I’m Aggie - Aina!"
When the preacher heard this, he
wept with joy. Aggie could hardly believe that this man was the little boy convert her
mother had ministered to. He had grown up to be a missionary evangelist to his own country
- which now included 110,000 Christians, 32 mission stations, several Bible schools and a
120-bed hospital.
The next day Aggie and Dewey
left for Stockholm - and word had already spread there that they were coming. When she got
to Sweden she met her brothers and sister from her father’s second marriage. When
Aggie asked about her father, her brothers flushed with anger. They all hated him. None of
them had talked to him in years.
Aggie’s sister promised to
find their father. So they drove to an impoverished area of Stockholm, where they entered
a rundown building. When they knocked on the door, a woman let them in.
Inside, liquor bottles lay
everywhere. And lying on a cot in the corner was her father - the one-time missionary,
David Flood. He was now seventy-three years old and suffering from diabetes. He’d
also had a stroke, and cataracts covered both of his eyes.
Aggie fell to his side, crying,
"Dad, I’m your little girl - the one you left in Africa." The old man
turned and looked at her. Tears formed in his eyes. He answered, "I never meant to
give you away. I just couldn’t handle you both." Aggie answered, "That’s
okay, Daddy. God took care of me."
Suddenly, her father’s face
darkened. "God didn’t take care of you!" he raged. "He ruined our
whole family! He led us to Africa and then betrayed us. Nothing ever came of our time
there. It was a waste of our lives!"
Aggie then told him about the black preacher she’d just met in London - and how the
country had been evangelized through him. "It’s all true, Daddy," she said.
"Everybody knows about that little boy convert. The story has been in all the
newspapers."
Suddenly David Flood broke.
Tears of sorrow and repentance flowed down his face - and God restored him. Shortly after
their meeting, David Flood died. And although he was restored to the Lord, he left only
ruin behind. Besides Aggie, his legacy was five children - all unsaved and tragically
embittered.
David Flood represents many
Christians today. They’ve been disappointed, cast down - and now they’re full of
rage toward God!
[David Wilkerson.
“Are You Mad At God?” Feb 16. 1998 Times Square Church Pulpit
Series]
Conclusion
1. Resentment Destroys Our Peace
2.
Resentment Distracts Us From Our Purpose
3.
Resentment Diminishes Our Productiveness
4. Resentment Distorts Our Perspective