Introduction

01:02 Well, we're going to start with Jonah 4 and this is the last chapter of the book of Jonah.  You can call it the epilogue and I think it's a wonderful book. It's a wonderful chapter to consider.  One of the tragic events that happened in recent history was the six-car crash in Tampines last month, which ultimately led to the death of two folks.  And car crashes usually don't happen a lot in Singapore, and rightly so, once it happened and once the culprit was revealed, it incensed everyone in social media.  Some wanted him to be receiving the harshest penalty.  Some want him to be receiving the death penalty, worse, out of the rage and anger that they receive, that they've seen, want him to burn in hell.  Now comments like this are expected, because I believe in each one of us, there is a sense of justice.  We want to see crime and wrongdoing punish and we want to see it punished well or commensurate to the crime. 

And so, as we approach Jonah for today, I think that sense of justice is relevant to him.  The sense of justice strikes a raw nerve in Jonah.  He wants justice to be done to the Ninevites, and he wants God to enact his full justice on them.  If not, then we can cry, hey, is God…is God fair?  Is it really fair for him to be merciful to them?  Is it fair for God to show mercy?  So, as we approach Jonah 4, I want us to see Jonah's perspective of God's justice and mercy, that it ends up being challenged.  But most of all, I want us to see who God really is, a God that is just, a God that is merciful, a God that is compassionate to his people.  So, there will be no headings today, and I just want to trace the storyline.  So, if you have your Bible with you, it’d be great if you could whip it out so you can follow the story.  Don't worry, the verses will be on the slide as well. 

[Jonah 4:1-4]

Remember, last week we ended with the conversion of the Ninevites.  Jonah went preached to the city, and the whole city got saved.  It's a wonderful thing, a national revival, the whole city gets saved.  And if the chapter of the book were to end in chapter three, it would be a very, very good book.  It's a comeback story for Jonah, and we are very excited for the book.  But the harsh reality is, there's a chapter four in Jonah, and it doesn't start very well.  It starts with one of the most prominent ‘But’, a contrast in the Old Testament.  It starts with these words, “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.” [Jonah 4:1].  The word ‘displeased’ there, is the word ‘evil’ or ‘disaster’.  It carries that kind of idea, and we last saw this word or this idea, in fact, in the last verse, in chapter three, verse 10, but in chapter three, verse 10, it's largely different, “When God saw what they did, how they turned from the evil way, God relented of the disaster that he said he would do to them.” [Jonah 3:10].  So, it's fascinating that as we enter the first verse of chapter four, the same idea is used, the same word is used, but it means totally different.  Well, God relented from evil in chapter three, Jonah in chapter four, thinks that what God did was evil, and literally he was burning, angry, red hot with passion, and it caused him to be greatly displeased.  And in this fiery anger, he prayed.  Now, this is something quite uncalled for, because in the heat of anger, the last resort that we usually go to is prayer.  Example, if someone cuts you while you're driving, there might be a word, there might be anger, that will be expressed, but we'll never think of praying.  But Jonah prays, but it's not really a prayer, not like chapter two.  It's not a prayer of deliverance for himself, but it's a prayer of complaint.  In fact, this is what he says, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish;” [Jonah 4:2a].  Remember, in chapter one, we don't quite know why Jonah fled.  We could assume, we could guess, but here in chapter four, it's totally revealed for us.  Jonah fled, and this is why he fled, “for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster.” [Jonah 4:2b].

One of the great mysteries in the whole universe is the fact that there are some people in the world who don't get angry.  Perhaps, you know some of them. They can be queuing for food for one hour, but they will still be there, no complaints, smiling.  They could receive the worst customer service in the whole world, but there will be there, smiling, no complaints.  Perhaps you yourself, you want to annoy and rattle these people, just to see if, whether they do have some sort of anger expressions in them.  So, you try to be funny with them and to joke with them, but at the end of the day, they're still super nice.  They're too kind and too nice, to be angry.  That is clearly what Jonah is saying. God, you're too nice, you're too gracious, you're too merciful, you're too compassionate for evil people. That's why I ran away.  That's why I fled, because you are a God that is gracious and merciful, abounding in steadfast love.  In fact, the word that…the verses that Jonah quotes in Exodus 34 is a beautiful verse.  God is indeed gracious.  This how he deals with his covenantal people.  He's merciful, He's gracious, He's slow to anger, and we're familiar with that word steadfast, is the word ‘hesed’, it's loyal, covenantal, steadfast, that word of love wrapped up into one.  But Jonah says, I know because this is who you are.  That's why I ran away.  I ran away because I knew that you will be merciful to Nineveh, so you ask yourselves, why did Jonah get angry? 

It's been well established by the previous preachers that Israel and Assyria were arch enemies.  Now I can say that in Singapore, we don't really have enemies.

We have rivals, competitions, yes, and it's often in very trivial, inconsequential debates, for instance, competition with Malaysia, where chilli crab originated from, who has the better Nasi Lemak [rice cooked in coconut milk in Malay] or Bak Kut Teh [pork ribs soup in Hokkien] or who has the better cost of living, but Israel and Assyria were on another level.  In fact, Nahum tells us that Nineveh was a barbaric and savage nation.  They would lie and plunder.  They hate, they dragged to the mud the name of Jehovah, and they were idolaters.  They were people who worship vain idols.  And for Jonah, this was something that he cannot deal with.  I'm okay with God being merciful, but not maybe to my enemies.  I want justice for them, before we criticize Jonah and think to ourselves, say, I'm not…never going to be like him.  I'm not a Jonah.  I think it's helpful to see how serious the problem is.  Say today you're living in a different era with a different political atmosphere.  You're living under the reign of Nazi Germany.  Would you want justice?  Say you were living in Ukraine under Russia's territorial pursuits.  Would you want justice?  The Khmer Rouge, the junta in Myanmar.  Would you want justice?  But closer to home, I feel like, there are some divisions and people in our society that we don't want to see receive mercy, people of different faiths, people are hostile to the Gospel, people who live differently, who have different value systems from us.  It could be my neighbour, John, who always goes home drunk, confirm, go hell.  It could be my colleague, Philip, who speaks a lot of vulgarities.  God have mercy upon him.  So, for Jonah, this was a really big deal.  And for us today, I feel that we also have our own Nineveh, people who we think do not deserve mercy.  So, this how Jonah closes his prayer.  He says, “Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” [Jonah 4:3].  Well,11:14 I don't know about you, but as you read this verse, and if you put yourself in a position of God, wouldn't it be just easy to fulfil his wish?  God, why not just kill him?  Why not just end these petty complaints, these selfish ambitions and desires?  Why not just end Jonah's life?  Do you agree?  Makes sense, right?  Evil, complaining prophet.  But actually, what the story [is]…as the story progresses, what Jonah receives is not death, but what he receives is mercy.  In fact, what God does is overlook his request, but asks him a question.  He wants to see whether Jonah has a sense of moral clarity to what he is requesting and to what his thoughts are towards God. “Do you do well to be angry?” [Jonah 4:4].

[Jonah 4:5-9]

Well, we never get to hear how Jonah responded, because in the next verse, what Jonah does is he goes outside the city, and he made a booth for himself, and he sat under it, in the shade till he should see what would come to the city [Jonah 4:5].  So, picture this, Jonah is away from the people, away from the crowd.  He is at the east of the city, and he's sulking.  He's moping.  He's still holding on to the hope that God would reign fire and brimstone to the city.  He's still hoping to the hope that God would change his mind.  I think it's one of the worst feelings in the world, you know, it's kind of like, wow, pek-cek [to be annoyed or frustrated in Hokkien].  You're there, you're waiting for things to happen, but you know in your heart that it will never happen.  But God was merciful to Jonah while he was moping, “He [God] appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah that it might be a shade over his head to save him from his discomfort.” [Jonah 4:6].  Singapore is hot, but the Middle East is very hot too.  No umbrellas then, so God miraculously appointed a plant to come up and be a shade for Jonah's head, and he was really happy.  That's what it says, “Jonah was exceedingly glad, because of the plant.” [Jonah 4:6].  And we're happy that Jonah is happy, because all the while, all we've seen is complaints, anger, bitter resentment against God's ways.  But what's really distasteful in this passage is his happiness, actually. We're glad that he's happy, but we know that his happiness is misplaced, because he's happy for the plant, but is not happy for the Ninevites, getting mercy, not happy for the salvation of the whole city.  Happy for the plant, but mad at God for doing what He does.  So, God continues to teach him a lesson, and what He does is He withdraws his mercy from Jonah.  He appointed a worm to attack the plant so that it withered [Jonah 4:7].  Plant died, and not only did the plant die, but a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on his head so that Jonah felt a little bit faint [Jonah 4:8].  And again, typical of Jonah, he says, “It is better for me to die than to live.” [Jonah 4:8].

Jonah’s Double Standards

[Jonah 4:10-11]

Now we're quite familiar with the idea of double standards.  Is the idea where one rule is applied to one party, but not the other.  For example, if you're a parent here and you have kids, if you tell your kids eat your veggies and you don't eat your veggies, your kids will complain.  Why?  Because there's a double standard there.  If you work in a company and your boss asks you to OT [work overtime] but he or she, himself [or] herself, leaves earlier, you will feel that there's a double standard.  And I wonder, if you look at our passage today, whether you see an inconsistency, a double standard, which was actually going on, here's a double standard that we see, I God, extend mercy to the Ninevites.  Jonah, you get angry. Instead, you desire justice.  But I extend justice to you by withholding My Mercy. You get angry and instead you desire mercy.  Let me put it differently, Jonah wants mercy for his own but not for the Ninevites.  Jonah wants Nineveh to get what they deserve, but he doesn't want to get what he deserved.  Jonah thinks he has the right to be angry, but he doesn't think God has the right to save.  Can you see the double standard?  And so, it makes sense that the book ends this way, “And the Lord said, “You pity the plant for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in the night and perished in a night. [Jonah 4:10].  The clincher is this, “Should I not pity Nineveh, the great city in which 120,000 persons who do not know the right hand from the left, and also much cattle?” [Jonah 4:11].  God is saying, Jonah, you don't get it at all.  I was merciful to Nineveh, not because they deserved it, but because I am a God of mercy and compassion.  You pitied a plant in which you did nothing for.  It came up and it got attacked.  Should I not have the right to pity people who actually I did something for, I created, whose lives are really at stake and who face an eternity without God.  Jonah, you don't get it at all.  And it really tells us that at the heart of it all it’s never about justice or mercy.  It's never about Nineveh, it's never about God.  But what's really prominent in Jonah's heart is himself, my comfort, my needs.  And so the book ends this way, we never get to hear how Jonah responded.  It's kind of like a cliffhanger.  We do know that there's no season 2, but I think it's intentional.  I think what the author is doing to the audience is to make them think, to make them see that what Jonah is like, is like a mirror to each and every one of them and to each and every one of us that, are we in some places, very much like Jonah, we want justice, not mercy. 

1.     A God of justice and a God of mercy

Well before I end, I want to share two things as we went through the story. I just want to share two things for us to consider as we close.  Here's the first thing I think Jonah has a lot to teach us about God's character of justice and mercy.  We're comfortable with a God that is just.  In fact, we want to live in a world, in a society that justice is upheld, where I can walk freely in the streets and where every crime has due punishment.  But what we're not comfortable with is a God of mercy perhaps, because a God of mercy is a God that's unfair, a God that is weak, a God that does not care for justice at all.  It's a God that allows bad people to walk freely, bad and evil people.  And so, friends, like Jonah, we get uncomfortable, and sometimes we get little bit suspicious.  We get judgmental.  We look at people and we say, hey, good family, good church, good friends, good career, check, you're in. And when people are not those things, they're out.  You idolater, greedy, liar, now God is never going to save you.  God is a God of mercy.  Sure, if God's favour falls only in the most deserving, then we all have nothing to shout for.  There's nothing to be proud of.  If salvation is based on the most deserving, then we all cannot reach that goal.  We cannot reach salvation.  But if salvation is based on God's mercy, mercy and ultimately sending His Son to die the most undeserving death for deserving sinners like us, then anyone whether it's the vilest offender or the Mother Teresa of our society, has the right 21:26 to repent and believe in Jesus, anyone can call upon the name of the Lord, can be saved. But let it be said as well that when we talk about justice and mercy, I often think that the hardest question that is asked, is this, how do we reconcile the two, which appear to be intention, one can be just and not merciful.  Justice is often at expense of mercy and vice versa, mercy at the expense of justice.  How can we unite these two things together and to add things…to add a thing.  We see a lot of unchecked evil around us. How do we deal with them?  Wars, civil wars, corruption, people who deserve a lot more than they should have been given.  How do we deal with that?  And we cry out to God, how long, oh Lord, will you enact justice upon the nation.

So, as we look at Jonah 4, and we actually see in a story how Jonah was tired of waiting for justice to be done.  In fact, he's pressing Yahweh to act according to His nature.  He's pressing Yahweh to say, hey, you know, I am a just God, and I now will punish evil people, but God does not actually do that, and when God doesn't do that, sometimes our sense of morality gets challenged.  How is that fair?  How can that be possible?  So, as we look at the manifold evil in the world today, we sometimes get discouraged by the patience of the wrath of God.  How can unchecked evil continue if you are a just God?  Therefore, it's helpful that Peter actually addresses this issue.  He says this, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowly [slowness], but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”  [2 Peter 3:9].  See what Peter is saying, he's saying, hey, we can be concerned for justice to be done, but it must be balanced with the eagerness to see God's patience in waiting for sinners to come and repent.  To put it differently, he encouraged believers to see that God's compassion is universal in scope, and to see that God is patient towards people to come and repent.  Therefore, to the question, how do we hold justice and mercy together?  While we hold these two intentions, that on one hand, God is just, to punish sin and to deal with evil once and for all, and merciful to withhold punishment, so that people could come and repent.

Well, if you're new here with us, welcome to Gospel Light.  If you're new here and you don't quite know what the Gospel is about, you don't quite have an idea of what I'm talking about.  Even, I say this with great urgency, because I think it's important, because God's justice and mercy will one day, perhaps will be your undoing.  It's as if, with one hand, God is withholding justice with his hand of mercy, and on the other is beckoning people to come and repent.  Come quickly before it's too late, because there will be a day, where one day, the invitation will be rescinded.  God's hand of mercy will be withdrawn, and you're left with your sins in the hands of a righteous, holy and just God.  So, I urge you, if you're new here, thinking about Christianity, come to him, because there will come a day when there will be no mercy at all.  That's the first thing. 

2.     Jonah and Jesus

The second thing that I want us to consider is this, that Jonah is a greater story about Jesus.  In fact, Jesus is a totally different figure from Jonah.  He's a better prophet.  While Jonah was reluctant to preach, Jesus was relentless in his preaching.  While Jonah was reluctant to enter into enemy territory, Jesus died in the hands of pagan people, of Jews and pagan alike.  Well, Jonah and Jesus two different characters, but Jesus ultimately is the real one.  You see friends, the whole story of Jonah points towards this one reality, that there is a better prophet.  Lest we think that the book of Jonah is just a story with a nice moral lesson, it points towards a real Savior who once and for a full and finally saved humanity from sin.  He's a better prophet that obeyed God's beck and call in chapter one, he's a better prophet that actually died and rise again in chapter two.  He's a better prophet that preached a clearer and fuller message in chapter three, and is a better prophet that shares God's lavish and magnanimous mercy in chapter four.  So, as we close this book, let us be reminded of Jesus, that He is that better Jonah, that better prophet who did what Jonah couldn't do.  Well, I'm sure you've been blessed much by the past four weeks and the four different preachers, as we close this book, I think it's a wonderful book.  It's full of irony, comedy, triumph and tragedy, and we've been with Jonah far and wide, from the ship to Tarshish to the belly of the big fish to the gates of Nineveh and to the outskirts of the city.  But most of all, I hope that you leave this room, you leave the book of Jonah with the deeper sense and appreciation of the God that we love and worship, that he is a God that is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, relenting from disaster. 

Closing Prayer

Let's pray together. Paul says, consider the kindness and severity of God.  Father, we recognize that there are just some things that we are not able to fully comprehend, how You can be fully just and merciful at the same time, but thank you that You’re a God that’s perfect, not lacking in justice, righteousness and holiness, and also not lacking in mercy.  And therefore, we can trust that You will do what is right and true according to who You are.  We're also reminded that we are, in many ways, like Jonah.  We create a God according to a preference.  We often want to dictate what You should do, and we often want vindication, to see evil punish, not forget, but forgetting that You are a patient God for people to repent.  We are much a work in progress, so would You help us?  As we close this book, we thank you for revealing Yourself to us that indeed You are a God of great mercy and compassion.  In an account of Your Son, You spared us from what we deserve.  We pray that many here, guests, families, friends will likewise come to know of this great, awesome and merciful God.  In Jesus’ name. Amen.