Unstoppable, Praiseworthy Grace, Part 2

Let’s return to the book of Jonah and consider the second half of this powerful story. You may remember from the first message that I compared the book of Jonah to a roller coaster. It’s filled with ups and downs and twists and turns, and few really good loops. In fact, the last time we saw Jonah in chapter 2, he had been recently vomited out of a great fish onto dry land. As a quick recap, you’ll recall that God had appointed the fish to swallow Jonah. Jonah was a prophet of the Lord, but had run from his assignment to go to Nineveh. The Lord threw a horrific storm at Jonah’s boat and caused the sailors’ lots to fall on Jonah. When Jonah suicidally told the sailors to throw him overboard, God saved his life with the great fish.

Chapters 1 and 2 provided two thrilling truths about God’s sovereign plans—they are unstoppable and they are praiseworthy. Despite all of Jonah’s attempts to the contrary, God’s plan for Jonah and Nineveh could not be derailed. Jonah’s prayer of thanks in chapter 2 highlighted the praiseworthy nature of God’s sovereign plans—“salvation belongs to the Lord!”

Chapters 3 and 4 will present the final 2 thrilling truths about God’s sovereign plans. Not only are they unstoppable and praiseworthy, they are also demanding and they are compassionate. Today let’s finish the book of Jonah, focusing on the truth that God’s sovereign plans are demanding and compassionate.

The first verses of chapter 3 remind me of one of those roller coasters that goes backwards. Ever been on one of those? You go all the way through the ride, but when you get to the end the track just stops. You freeze for a moment, then do the entire ride in reverse. We’re about to get a very intentional sense of déjà vu when we read 3:1. God’s about to press rewind with Jonah and try again. Here’s take 2:

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.”

If you think that sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because it should. Chapter 1 began almost the exact same way. In fact, in the Hebrew it looks even more identical than in English. Just as in chapter 1, the word of the Lord comes to Jonah. That’s the formula for divine revelation seen throughout the prophetic books. Again God tells Jonah to get up and go to Nineveh, that great city.

Remember that “great” is one of the repeated words of this book, occurring over 14 times. In this case, it literally says that Nineveh was great to God. In God’s view, Nineveh was great in importance and value, not just size or political clout. God reiterates that Jonah is supposed to call out against Nineveh. He stresses that Jonah is supposed to use the message God tells him.

The words God uses stress the proclamation. It’d be like me saying, “Preach the preaching.” The point is that Jonah must obey God. Jonah could not flee Him, nor can he mess up His message. Jonah could not be trusted with his own message. Instead, God’s sovereignty is again on display. The message is what God wants said. Who is in control of this message? God. Who is in control of this mission? God.

Verse 3 begins with the exact same words we read in Jonah 1:3. We’re supposed to be on the edge of our seat, waiting with baited breath to see what Jonah will do. We’re supposed to be craning our necks around on the roller coaster, desperately hoping to see what twist or turn comes next.

This time is different, however. This time Jonah obeys. He arose and went to Nineveh, and now note the explicit mention of obedience—“according to the word of the Lord.” Verse 3 moves on from stating Jonah’s obedience to providing details about Nineveh itself. Again the word “great” is used to describe Nineveh, this time clearly in connection to its size.

“Nineveh was about 3 days’ journey in breadth.” This small phrase has caused no small amount of disagreement and criticism. One days’ journey typically equaled 20 miles, which would make Nineveh 60 miles either wide or in circumference. The problem is neither history nor archeology support numbers of a walled city even close to that size. Many suggestions have been offered, but the most tenable to me is that the “great city” is not referring to the walled section of the city. Instead, it includes all the suburbs and houses outside of the great walls as well. Genesis 10:11-12 uses the exact words “great city” to mean an entire administrative district, so it’s completely in keeping with Scripture to come to this conclusion. The point is clear—Nineveh was a huge place.

Jonah entered that huge place, going one days’ preaching journey. Verse 4 recounts his message—“Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” Considering all the trouble it took to get Jonah to Nineveh, it’s ironic how little attention is given to his prophetic ministry there. Only 5 Hebrew words are used to state his message. Most commentators state that of course, we can assume his message was longer and more detailed than this. Only problem is, we can’t assume we know what else his message included or if it even was longer at all. All we know of Jonah’s message are these 5 Hebrew words. Even if this is just a summary, we must take it as an accurate summary. This is the entire gist of Jonah’s message.

You want to know the message from the Lord? This is it. “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” The “shall be” is a unique verb meaning something that is in the future but is impending. The word “overthrown” is the exact same word used of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19:21, 25, 29). This was fire and brimstone preaching like we have probably never experienced. Notice there is no recorded mention of grace or hope. It’s a message of doom and judgment.

Remarkably, against all we would expect, the roller coaster takes another unexpected twist. This short little message of doom and gloom from this reluctant prophet sparks city-wide repentance. Verse 5 says, “And the people of Nineveh believed God.” “Believed” is the first word in the Hebrew sentence, emphasizing how quickly they acted. Only 1 day into Jonah’s preaching tour, Nineveh responds. They believe in “God.”

Here is an important note, but one easy to miss. I think we assume all names for God are equal, and make little distinctions between them. Such is not the case, however. So far, the word “LORD” has been used throughout the book. That’s God’s covenant name with Israel, so it’s appropriate to use in connection with Jonah. Here, it’s just “God.” “Elohim” instead of “Jehovah.” Why does this matter? Their belief was focused, not in the covenant God of Israel, but on the all-powerful God of creation. This belief was not to become Jewish proselytes, but to respond to the God over all things.

Notice their belief was immediate, but it was also marked by action. They call for a fast and put on sackcloth, the clearly visible signs of mourning and grief. Not only was their response to Jonah’s preaching immediate and active, it was also all inclusive—from the greatest to the least.

The word even reached to the “king of Nineveh,” most likely some sort of regional governor. Even the king exchanges soft royal clothes for scratchy and unattractive sackcloth. He humbles himself and sits in ashes, then makes a decree.

“By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God.

The king did not stop there. He went on to decree, “Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.” The book uses a word for violence we are familiar with—hamas. Due to the culture God has placed us in, I don’t think I need to do much work explaining that word. We know the results all too well. This is the kind of sin that marked Nineveh, that had attracted God’s wrathful attention. The king said the hamas was supposed to stop.

Interestingly, notice the king’s concluding words in verse 9. “Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

The king shows no certainty that God’s wrath can be avoided. How could he not know that? Didn’t Jonah explain God’s gracious character? Apparently not, and this is another reason to trust that Jonah’s message was as short as it seemed in verse 4. The king doesn’t know if God will forgive, but he’s desperately hopeful that he will. Notice the king does not assume their actions of repentance guarantee forgiveness. They aren’t depending on their works to guarantee success with God. Rather, there is complete dependence on God to be gracious.

Don’t know if He will or not, but our hope is solely that He will, not that we have repented long enough or hard enough. No guarantees, and who knows, but maybe God will turn from His fierce anger so we don’t perish. This is now the third time the idea of not perishing has come from a pagan. Jonah has shown no such concern yet. When pagans want to avoid perishing, we find Jonah either sleeping, willing to die, or reluctant to preach his Divine message.

Here’s why I say the third chapter teaches us that God’s sovereign plans are demanding. The Ninevites, including the king, had to do some good theological reasoning. Presented with God’s plan to annihilate them, they were well aware of a demand. God’s plan for destruction meant they had to repent, if they believed God’s messenger at all. The plan for judgment demanded a response.

At the same time, God’s plan for grace also demanded a response. The Ninevites were right to see the grace in God’s message of judgment. God went through all the trouble of sending them a prophet, first of all. If He just wanted to destroy them, He could have done it without warning them about it. Second, He gave them 40 days. If He just wanted to zap them, He didn’t need to give them ample time to respond in some way. That hope for deliverance, however, demanded a response. The Ninevites could not continue in their flagrant sin. God’s plans, either for judgment or grace, demanded a response.

God’s plans today still demand a response. Take God’s plan for salvation in the Gospel. In three different passages, the New Testament says the Gospel is something to be obeyed—Romans 10:16, 2 Thessalonians 1:8, and 1 Peter 4:17. We tend to think of the Gospel as something to be received or accepted. In reality, it is to be obeyed or disobeyed. God’s plan is demanding—obey my way for salvation or don’t. Take God’s plan for sanctification. Over and over our New Testaments urge us to do good works, to obey God, to grow in Christlikness. God’s plan for your holiness is demanding.

But we need to turn to verse 10, because this is the pinnacle of the book. This is the high spot, the point, the action that showcases the central theme about God. God’s sovereign plans are demanding, but they are also compassionate. Notice God’s compassionate response to broken and desperate sinners.

“When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.” Remember when I said the word “evil” was also an important word in this book, and is used with Jewish humor? Here’s another example. The word for “evil” and “disaster” is exactly the same. The Ninevites turned from their evil, and God turned from His destruction. God did not do what He said He would do to them.

What a marvelously gracious and compassionate God! What kindness to spare so many thousands of lives! What a plan, to have Jonah declare His message that would lead to His ends, and the temporary rescue of an entire city of people. This is exactly what God pledged He would do in Jeremiah 18:7-8. Listen to these words: “If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it.” Here the words from one of Jonah’s contemporaries. Joel 2:12-13: “Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
“Return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
13 and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
 and he relents over disaster.” This gracious relenting is at the heart of who God is.

It is precisely at this point that God’s greatness should be seen. Regrettably, it is just at this point that some theologians have most attacked God’s greatness. The liberal theologian has compared this passage with places like Numbers 23:19 and announced there is an inconsistency in Scripture. Numbers 23:19 says “God is not man, that he should lie,
or a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Has he said, and will he not do it?
Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” “Aha,” so the critic says, “there it is in black and white.” Does God change His mind or not? Scripture cannot be trusted, God is inconsistent, down with this crazy belief in inerrancy.

The theologian who wants to emphasize man’s responsibility and downplay God’s sovereignty also seizes on this verse. He says, “See, God had a plan, but man successfully changed his mind with his actions. God wanted to go one way, but the free choices of His creatures forced Him to change course.” Some who emphasize man’s responsibility have gone so far as to say that God can’t actually know the future. If He did, then the future would be certain and man’s choices would not be real. Therefore, God is simply the God of endless contingency plans, always ready to move to plan B once man has made his decision.

The tragedy in both these theological perspective is the loss of God. That tragedy is only amplified when Jonah 3:10 is the prooftext. The whole point of Jonah, and in fact what we should take from this verse, is that God’s sovereign plans always work out. Let’s not forget whose idea it was to send Jonah to Nineveh. Let’s not forget who intervened miraculously over and over again to get His message to these pagan people. And let’s not forget who remarkably touched the Ninevites hearts and turned them from their evil. God has been the one planning the Ninevites repentance all along! The repentance of Nineveh was not a wrinkle in God’s plan, it was His plan.

Why does this verse say He relented, or maybe your version even says “repented.” Why did God go back on what He had announced through Jonah? The first answer is one we’ve already given. God’s announcement of judgment had an implicit hope of grace in it. God’s end all along was repentance, and the means was the announcement of impending wrath. God’s sovereignty always includes the means and the ends.

Secondly, I think we have to factor in times that Scripture speak of God in human terms. God graciously communicates to us in ways we can understand, including language about Himself. For example, you know that God doesn’t have a body, right? He’s spirit. So how can His eyes be on the righteous, and His ears attentive to their cries? How can His strong right arm win Him victories? God doesn’t actually have eyes or ears or arms, but we need that kind of language because we can’t help but think in human terms.

In fact, it’s very hard for us not to bring human elements to our understanding of God. Just a few weeks ago I was teaching the kids, and I was reminding them that God didn’t have a body. I’m sure I thought was waxing eloquent, communicating to young minds about God not having arms or legs or a body because He’s a spirit. Then one of the kids leaned over to Cathy and said, “Cool. You mean God is just a head?” See, we have a hard time not thinking of God in human terms. So when we read that God repented or changed His mind, we naturally bring in our own understanding of what it’s like when we change our minds. We change our minds because we’re forgetful, or shortsighted, or lacking in knowledge or wisdom. God has none of those problems. The best way to explain why God didn’t do what Jonah had prophesied, however, is to say that God relented. God’s sovereign and compassionate plan is magnified, not despite His relenting, but through it.

It’s not just modern theologians that have problems with this verse, however. Jonah did too. Just when you thought our roller coaster ride was over, Jonah 4:1 happens. Jonah chapter 4 puts our final thrilling truth on full display. God’s plans are not just unstoppable, not just praiseworthy, and not just demanding, they are also compassionate. We’re going to see how compassionate God is by seeing the opposite contrast of Jonah. God’s greatness will be seen in the face of Jonah’s sinfulness.

Shockingly, Jonah 4:1 reads, “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2 And he prayed to the Lord and said, “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; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. 3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

I certainly prefer the footnote of the ESV here at verse 1, because in the footnote you read “it was exceedingly evil to Jonah.” There’s our little word “evil” again, and this time it marks how Jonah felt about God’s compassion. It was exceedingly evil to Jonah that God was turning from His judgment. While God was turning from anger, Jonah was turning to it. What would have grieved God would have pleased Jonah, and visa versa.

In Jonah’s self-righteous arrogance, he turns to prayer. In fact, this prayer is introduced in the same way as his prayer in chapter 2. Then, Jonah was grateful for God’s grace because it spared him. Now, he’s upset by that same grace for others. In this short prayer of just two verses, Jonah says “I” “me” or “my” 9 times. Let Jonah’s prayer sink in. He says, “This is exactly what I knew would happen. That’s the whole reason I ran away in the first place!”

Why did Jonah flee? Why did he abandon his calling as God’s prophet? Because he knew what God was like. He said, “I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.” While the king didn’t know if God would relent, Jonah did. Jonah knew this would happen because—don’t miss this—because he knew the character of God.

Jonah almost quotes Exodus 34:4-7, perhaps the greatest Old Testament revelation of the character of God. “The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

You see, ““Steadfast love, when extended to Jonah, filled him with thanksgiving, but when extended to the Ninevites, filled him with anger” (ESV Study Bible). Several factors make this even more shocking than it otherwise would be. First, remember what happened in chapters 1 and 2. Remember how Jonah experience God’s compassionate plans firsthand. Second, notice that Jonah finds fault with God as He really is, not as Jonah imagined Him to be. Jonah doesn’t just dislike Nineveh-he dislikes God. He can’t stand the fact that God would choose to have compassionate plans for a pagan people that were enemies of Israel.

Jonah’s anger is a full-fledged temper tantrum. It is ugly and raw and sickening. In verse 3, Jonah says, “Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” In his prayer of thanksgiving, Jonah praises God for having spared his life (2:6, 7). Now he wants God to take his life. Jonah believed in the sovereignty of God, but that good theology alone did not mean he would live well. I am very tempted to take a rabbit trail at this point and remind you that good theology alone is never enough. Jonah didn’t need more information or the right information. He had all that. He didn’t need to become more Calvinistic or spend some more time in prophet school or read his Bible more. He needed to bow his knee to the one Sovereign One and declare that all His ways were perfect. Instead, he whines for death like a spoiled child whines for a toy.

Salvation is from the Lord, and Jonah resented that when it wasn’t directed at him. “He was profoundly unwilling to acknowledge God’s freedom in matters of salvation.” Jonah threw an adult version of a temper tantrum because he could not get his way. And in this case, his way was not something trivial. Jonah wanted hundreds of thousands of people to be wiped off the map.

Jehovah’s reply seems oh so understated. He simply asks, “Do you do well to be angry?” God wants to know, “Who has the right perspective here Jonah? You say this is evil, I say it is good. Are you doing well to be angry?”

Jonah answers God with his body language. From verse 5 on, these verses will take us to our conclusion and drive the main point home. God is about to use a very vivid object lesson to teach Jonah and us about real compassion. Jonah stalks out of the city to the east, makes a small shelter for himself, and waits to see what will become of the city. Jonah is waiting, hoping against hope to see fire and brimstone fall from Heaven.

As His prophet rebelliously pouts in his booth, God appoints a plant to come up over Jonah. Jonah would need shelter, in a land where the temperature could reach 110 easily. This is the same word used for appointing the great fish, and now the sovereign God is continuing to make His plans work. The plant will save him from his discomfort, another word play because that word “discomfort” is our little friend translated “evil” or “disaster” elsewhere in the book.

So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. Do you hear the echo from verse 1 of this chapter? Remember what made him exceedingly angry? Identical structure is used here on purpose. God’s compassion made him exceedingly angry, this plant made him exceedingly glad.

But then morning comes, and with it another twist in this roller coaster ride. Just as God appointed a great fish and this plant, God also appoints a tiny little worm. That little worm attacked Jonah’s plant and killed it. Once Jonah’s shade was withered, God made His final sovereign appointment. This time it is not an animal or a plant, but a scorching east wind and a sun to beat down on Jonah’s head. Ironically, Jonah looked to east for judgment on Nineveh, but only he was ravaged by the east wind. The same word for the worm attacking the plant is used for the sun attacking Jonah.

In his faint condition, Jonah returns to his regular prayer request. ““It is better for me to die than to live.” Jonah wants to die when God saves people, and wants to die when God destroys his comforting shade. God comes to Jonah and asks him, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” In his stubborn rebellion, Jonah answers emphatically that it is right to be this angry over the loss of his plant. Jonah could not accept that the law of grace should work in favor of his enemies, but neither could he accept life without grace. God’s graciousness to Nineveh was unacceptable. God’s withdrawal of grace to Jonah was also unacceptable. Jonah wanted his own personal, partial God, molded to all his own needs and wants and opinions.

And now we come to verse 10, and God is about to stick the dagger in. He’s about to make the point about what Jonah really cares about, in contrast to what God really cares about. The Lord has the final words in this amazing little book. He points out that Jonah pitied a plant. The word “pitied” has the idea of tears in one’s eyes. Jonah had tears in his eyes for a fleeting plant he did no work for and was not sovereign over. Jonah pitied the destruction of what had blessed him. He finally cares about something perishing, but ironically it’s a plant and not people

There is emphases in the original wording with every use of the word “you.” God jabs Jonah in the chest over and over as He contrasts Jonah’s selfish worldview with His own compassion. And verse 11 contains the clincher: “And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” If Jonah can pity his plant, should not God pity a great city?

He says there were more than 120,000 people there who do not know their right hand from the left. This cannot mean that the citizens of Nineveh did not know right from wrong. Remember the king’s instructions about repentance? He ordered the people to turn from their evil and violence. They were perfectly morally aware. It’s better to take this as referring to children who actually don’t know right from left. With this many small children, estimates for the total population exceed 600,000 people.

In a final note of irony, God adds that beside all those people, there were many cattle too. If Jonah cared so much for nature, surely he would care about all those cows in Nineveh. Even if God shouldn’t rescue people made in his own image, surely he should spare all those animals. That’s God’s concluding, piercing, ironic comment to Jonah, and there the book abruptly ends.

In vivid contrast to Jonah’s petty selfishness, God makes the point that He is compassionate. God has compassion for this great city of people. God is free to act as He pleases, and He pleases to compassionately rescue undeserving sinners. So now we have the end of our story that drives this central theme home over and over. God sovereignly accomplishes His gracious plans.

The readers of Jonah needed to know that God doesn’t operate on the basis of merit. He never has, because with fallen humanity He can’t. It is impossible for God to extend favor to humans based on their performance and worth. God’s sovereign and gracious plans are the theme of Jonah, because God is the hero of Jonah.

The star of Jonah is not a whale. The great fish shows up in only 2 verses out of the 48. The star of Jonah is certainly not Jonah. His character is repeatedly displayed in this book. He’s a rebellious, reluctant, mean-spirited, selfish, blasphemous, angry, childish prophet. If you hear the name “Jonah” and think warm fuzzy man of God thoughts, you haven’t been reading this same story. Jonah’s character merely helps us see more clearly how great God is. The story of Jonah is not about a whale or a man named Jonah. It’s about a sovereign and gracious God who sovereignly accomplishes His gracious plans every time.

I hope you have seen with clarity the main point of the book of Jonah. But now what do we do with it? How do we apply that God’s gracious plans always work out? How is this ancient story connected to our lives? Let me suggest several ideas for application, confident you should think of many more that are more personal and direct for you.

First application: about God. How can we apply this message to our knowledge of God? How do we apply in our theology that God sovereignly accomplishes His gracious plans? He is God. He gets to do and choose as He pleases. It was no less God-like to destroy Sodom than it was to spare Nineveh. God is the sovereign one, and we must not only submit to that but praise Him for it. God’s plans with individuals are always right, too. It was right to cause Jonah’s suffering, to give him heatstroke, just for God to make His point. It’s easy to buy into the lie that says God has to always do the nice thing to be God. God did exactly right by Jonah.

Maybe you’ve thought I’ve been too hard on Jonah. If you do, let me encourage you to reread this story and see his character as God clearly reveals it. The book of Jonah painfully and honestly presents Jonah as he really was. This is no model prophet. And if we are busy trying to think good thoughts about Jonah, we will miss the glory of God. The whole point is that God is in control and is compassionate, while Jonah was neither. God’s glory is seen in the contrast. For that matter, every time we try to think good thoughts about ourselves despite the sin we know is in us, we miss the glory of the cross. Every good thought we have about ourselves, not based on God’s grace, deceitfully robs God of His rightful glory. God is the only sovereign one, full of compassion, worthy of praise in and of Himself.

Second application: about sin. In our appropriate shock and horror at Jonah’s ungodly lack of compassion, is it possible we fail to inspect our own hearts for the same sin? Maybe we would never say it as honestly as Jonah did, but does this same type of compassionless delight in judgment reside in us? Do we ever find pleasure in our declaration of Hell’s fire? Do we ever find smug satisfaction when a particularly pagan person faces loss? Are there certain types of sin or sinners we would gladly turn over to judgment, and inwardly murmur if God saved? Would you rejoice to sit in our worship service next to a converted lesbian or man who killed someone in a DUI?

Are we compassionately reaching out to people who are different from us ethnically? This was certainly a major part of Jonah’s lack of compassion for the Ninevites. Can you really say you have compassion for the Hispanic community and not have Spanish tracts or Bibles or Gospel resources to point them to? Do we genuinely have compassion for the lost? I’d like to read you a quote from a famous atheist named Penn:

“I’ve always said that I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. I don’t respect that at all. If you believe that there’s a heaven and a hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life, and you think that it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward…how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? I mean, if I believed, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that a truck was coming at you, and you didn’t believe that truck was bearing down on you, there is a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that.”

Penn is right in this respect. Failure to evangelize is a failure to love, a failure to have compassion. Maybe we’re more like Jonah than we care to admit.

Third application: about the Gospel. Maybe you are here and you doubt that God’s plans are gracious because your heart continues to tell you God is angry with you. You have an uneasy conscience before God, because it constantly calls you “sinner.” How can God have gracious plans for you if you carry this much guilt and shame and fear? If you’re an unbeliever, you are right to feel that God’s wrath is on you. It is. But His gracious plan includes the remedy to that wrath. The cross is the ultimate display of God’s compassion for you, because there Jesus bore God’s wrath. If you will but trust in His sacrifice alone, He will bear God’s punishment for you. He will take your guilt and give you peace with God, and then you will know His plans are gracious.

Maybe you’re here and you don’t even have regard for God’s plans. You don’t feel guilty because you’ve never felt the weight of your own sin. You tend to think God’s judgment is a bit on the extreme side, because you’ve never grasped the sinfulness of sin. You think grace is more like something you are owed, and wrath something that should be foreign to God. For you too, I urge you to throw yourself on the compassionate grace of God. Beg Him to give you eyes to see your sin and then turn from it, before His judgment falls on you with finality.

Finally, when it comes to Gospel application, preach it to yourself too believer. God sovereignly accomplishes His gracious plans. Praise this sovereign God who accomplished His gracious plan of salvation at the cross. Praise Him for what He did in history, and praise Him for what He did for you. Praise Him that He sovereignly drew you to Himself when you were His enemy and rebel against Him. Praise Him that His plans were life for you in the Gospel, you who did not deserve His favor in any way. Praise Him that His unstoppable Gospel plans for you will continue your entire life, until you are finally and fully made to be like your Christ.

Be encouraged that your spiritual growth will reach its intended end, because your God always accomplishes His sovereign plans. Be encouraged that your struggles with pain and loss will result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ, because God’s plans always work. Know that your faithful Gospel witness will lead to the harvest God intents, because God always accomplishes His purposes. Trust in a God who is not just in control, but also infinitely compassionate.

Don’t reduce this precious book of Jonah to a fish story, and don’t neglect it out of Old Testament fear. Let this one dominant theme beat in your head every time you think about Jonah: God sovereignly accomplishes His gracious plans. The Bible tells us so.