God's Mercy to the Rebellious Heart
Jonah 4:5-8
Joseph Stalin was a dictator and a communist. If you lived underneath the Iron Curtain in Russia, anywhere between 1926-1953, you would likely have some emotions like hatred or fear. Stalin is most known for his Marxist beliefs, under his rule which led to millions of lives being lost.
However, Stalin's life began very differently with very humble means. In his adult life, he was actually going to seminary. To pursue his love for God, to be preparing to be an Orthodox priest, but it was in seminary where he started to read Marx.
Stalin started to pursue what ultimately would become his first love, his love for power. So he abandoned his love for God, for his love for power to later go down in history as a wicked, hard hearted dictator. The beginning of his life may have been humble, but the end of his life was sad. Now, we have another Russian leader who seems to be showing in his leadership role a hunger for power. Oh, that we would continue to pray for that rebellious heart.
A rebellious heart is a waste of valuable time.
We have another rebellious heart to look at this morning and Jonah 4. Jonah did have a hatred towards people though he was not a wicked dictator. He was burning with anger because he did not want God to show mercy on the city of Nineveh. He started preaching in the western part of the city, and as he traveled through the city he saw revival and repentance breakout throughout the city. He was angry with God, and was waiting to see if God would change his mind and destroy the wicked people he hated.
Jonah wasted precious time rebelling against God in his heart, waiting for his own will to be done instead of celebrating God's will which was done.
Jonah pouts and becomes angry and even asks God to kill him because he would rather die than not have his way. How do you react when things don't go your way? Do you pout? Do you get mad? Do you cling to your attitude and therefore miss the work and the will of God? If you do, sometimes I do as well. I'm not proud of it, but that's how it is. Have you ever considered that maybe it doesn't happen how you want it to happen because God did not want it to happen that way?
Take this opportunity to humble yourself, check your attitude and ask God, what do you want to happen in my life now that it's not happening the way that I want?
Stop wasting your life, pouting, waiting for your will to be done like Jonah did and start redeeming the time.
Serve God where you are.
I can remember when I was first called to the ministry, it came at what I considered an inopportune time. I was being commissioned as an officer in the Air Force, not into the ministry.I would often find myself on the job, feeling frustrated because I felt like I was called to the ministry.
When a young airman came into my office, my perspective changed. He was sent to me by the chief master sergeant of our squadron because he didn’t want to participate in violence, and for him, it was for religious reasons as he considered himself a conscientious objector.
I spent the first time or two meeting with this young mayor airman just to see if it was a little bit of cowardice to see if he just didn't want to or wasn't willing to fight. Or was it really that he struggled with taking a life? Because if it was, I could understand that because I struggled with the same.
And so we met together, and he opened up to me, and because he asked me the questions as his superior, I could share my faith with him. So I told him about Christ. I told him about the scriptures. Just a few weeks into it, I watched him right there on his knees, surrender to Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior in my office.
This is in the season of me thinking that I couldn't see any ministry happening because I wasn't in seminary or pastoring a church. Well, I was on my way home that day when God took out His loving hand and smacked me across the back of the head. Not really, but that's what I felt like. He was telling me, you're in ministry now. Suddenly, I realized all the time that I wasted waiting for things to happen my way, God was giving me the opportunity to see that this season was training and preparation for ministry.
I have no doubt that some of you are in situations that you want to get out of. I want to encourage you to start looking for God in the situation and participate with him. Just because the context is not working out the way you want, it doesn't mean that God is not working. Meet him in the place of His will and glorify him where you can, and you just might find that you're exactly in the place where he wants you to be.
Through Jonah’s story, we can learn from three divine appointments God uses to get our attention.
The appointment of mercy
Jonah was in the heat of the Middle East, what would now be modern day Iraq, So God sent a miracle plant to provide shade to protect Jonah from the damaging effects of the sun. God used this plant as an object lesson to show Jonah mercy the same way he had already shown mercy to Nineveh. Though Nineveh did not deserve mercy, Jonah, and his disobedience didn't deserve mercy either, but God gave it to them both anyway. Jonah didn't see the heart of God's mercy with this first appointment.
Have you ever received mercy from God? It happens all the time, doesn't it? God continues to steer the direction of children and my family despite my best effort to mess it up. God continues to use me in ministry despite my many mistakes. And God saved me, here's the most important point. God saved me despite me.
The Bible tells us that yet while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. I deserved wrath, what he showed me was mercy. And so my question is, how can we begrudge his mercy shown to others when he's so freely given it to us? We can't and we shouldn't.
When we understand that God's mercy is available to all, this will tear down all our prejudices and stereotypes so that we can extend mercy and we can minister to anyone in our city
The appointment of discipline
Jonah didn't see God's merciful heart, so God sent an appointment of discipline. God sent a worm to bring discipline in the same way that he appointed the plant to show mercy. The worm burrowed into the stem of this plant and as quickly as the plant grew up and covered Jonah, this plant withered away.
Sometimes God uses mercy to get our attention. Other times, if we remain obstinate, God has to use his loving discipline. As parents, sometimes you plead with your children in mercy to listen to you and to see things your way. Other times, when your children are obstinate, you have to lovingly discipline them.
Whether it's mercy or its discipline that you give them to get their attention, both of these approaches are loving for your children. Jonah was God's child, and God loved him enough to discipline him.
The appointment of the scorching wind of pain
Overnight, the plant dies from the worm. When Jonah wakes up the next morning, he sees the reality of God's discipline and literally it hits him in the face like a hot wind. God appointed the scorching wind of pain to catch Jonah's attention and to put him back on track.
This wind is hard on the body because instead of like a cool breeze in the spring, this Sakara wind that Jonah is experiencing actually intensifies the heat because it draws all the moisture out of the air.
Notice that these appointments did not come into Jonah's life by happenstance. It wasn't an accidental plant. It wasn't an accidental kind of worm, it wasn't just a seasonal wind. This whole scene is God trying to get Jonah's attention, whether it be the plant of mercy, the worm of discipline or the scorching wind of pain. All of these are part of God's object lesson to teach Jonah.
If you're on the path away from God, don't be surprised if he sends some appointments to you to get your attention. Instead of being entitled by it, realize that you have been forgiven and you've been shown mercy. God just might be showing you mercy that you don't deserve, so you offer it to the undeserved. Maybe it's that child. Maybe it's your spouse, your coworker, a family friend or even a stranger. Let us never forget that Jesus did not bear our sin because we deserved it.
When you feel the pain or the hardships of life, do not look at those things as happenstance. If this is happening to you, realize it's because he loves you. If God did not love Jonah, he would not have brought the pain. There's always a lesson to learn in pain and hardship. God will never waste pain in your life.