Tabor Baptist Church

Introduction

• Jonah is a very depressed man
• He wants to die
• Depression is a terrible thing
• Tremendous thoughts of helplessness
• Can lead to suicidal thoughts
• Many causes of depression
• Drugs, life traumas, post-natal depression, ill-health
• Spiritual attack
• What is the cause of Jonah's depression?
• What is the cause of Jonah's depression?
• Self-induced
• His own fault
• A bitter and angry spirit
• He has come to the point of questioning God
• He has come to the point of not accepting God's will
• Unresolved anger
• He no longer wants to be a prophet and serve God
• His state now is worse than in chapter 1
• Not rebellion - he did the opposite of God's word
• Now obedient
• From back-slidden almost to the point of apostasy
• Left on a cliffhanger
• What happened to Jonah?
• He likely came to his senses and repented
• Chapter 4 is a loud call to:
• Any believer full of regrets
• Wishing the past was different and is not happy with their present position
• An onlooker in the church
• Maybe close to leaving

How did Jonah get there?

• He could not accept God's will
• Have you been in this situation?
• Pride (4:2)
• Prejudice in his heart towards the Ninevites
• We must search our heart to ensure we have an equal love for all people
• Because of the things going on in his life

Ignoring God

• Jonah ignores God's question
• A perilous state to be in
• "Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart"
• It is very important not to harden your heart
• Consider the 'sons of thunder'?
• Jesus had not come to judge but to "seek and to save"
• The disciples accepted Jesus' word
• One of the disciples became the apostle of love and wrote John's Gospel
• Do you respond to God's word?
• The worse thing you can do is to ignore God's word and walk away?

Stopping Praying

• He ceases communion with God
• He does not pray or talk with God
• He seems only to be talking to himself (v8)
• He is prayerless at this point
• Jonah is a book of prayer
• 1:14 - mariners praying to the living God
• 2:1 - a remarkable prayer from Jonah to God in the fishes belly
• 3:8 - the Ninevites (the whole city) prayed to God
• 4:2 - in prayer Jonah was arguing with God
• A sign that Christians have hit rock bottom is that they hardly pray!
• Sometimes we remain under a cloud because of our failure to commune with God
• Quote

Denying Reality

• Jonah went to the East side of the city - not the west side, with the port, to travel home
• He is hoping that God will still judge them
• He makes a little shelter
• He wants to see what will become of the city
• This is irrational
• The Ninevites had clearly repented
• He is denying the facts and reality
• This can happen to believers
• Be careful if we are in this state - we can make unwise and irrational decisions

Unresolved Anger

• He feels he is a victim
• God has used him mightily
• He is concerned with self
• Sometimes this is seen in the bible
• People who struggle because they haven't put things right with God
• King Saul - he resented David
• Prov 19:19
• Consider Jesus' words
• God is slow to anger
• God is very gracious towards us
• He is slow to anger with Jonah
• May it be that none of us get to the state of Jonah - let go of grudges

The lesson God taught him

• The Lord teaches Jonah an object lesson
• We must believe in the miraculous
• Consider the belly of the fish - and consider a plant and a little worm
• A plant to comfort Jonah
• Then the shade was taken away and a vehement wind arose
• Jonah likely had sunstroke and wanted to die
• Jonah had to reflect
• Was he more concerned with this plant that the 120'000 people in Nineveh?
• Was he more concerned with his own comfort than the salvation of so many people?
• The goodness and severity of God
• Think of Job
• His response: 'The Lord has given, the Lord has taken it away, praise be the name of the Lord'
• God can bring circumstances into our life to humble us?
• In the Hebrew "Rejoiced with great joy" - used two other times in the Old Testament in the momentous event of the consecration of the temple
• His happiness is out of proportion
• Does this happen today?
• Is our joy in the things of God greater than our joy in things of the world?
• Do we have excessive joy or sorrow in the things of the world?
• How much do we rejoice in the salvation of sinners and his people?
• Consider the example of Jesus who went out of the city (Jerusalem)
• How he wept over the city
• He loved people with perfect emotion
• He went to the cross to pay for the sins of the Ninevites, for Jonah and for us
• When we look at Jesus may we be full of adoration