Jonah Lesson #05

Related Articles

Jonah

September 21, 2015

Jonah Lesson #01

January 8, 2010

Jonah Lesson #02

January 8, 2010

RETURN TO THE LIST OF LESSONS

JONAH 4
Lesson #05
GOD’S OBJECT LESSON

• Memory verse: Psa 22:6

 

• In the book of Jonah we see one of God’s great revivals. What can we learn from this revival?
• Revival occurs when conditions are right.
  • Only God knows the spiritual condition of men’s hearts.
  • Only God knows the perfect point in time when man is most vulnerable.
• We see that a revival is a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit.
  • It is the job of the Holy Spirit to convict the heart of sin. (Joh 16:8)
  • If there is no conviction of sin, there is no revival.
  • Therefore, revival is initiated and sustained by God by means of the moving of the Holy Spirit.
• Revival needs a preacher with a surrendered will.
  • God has given the responsibility to man for the preaching of the Word of God.
  • However, it is not just man’s words that produce the fruit.
    • God uses clean vessels. God needed first to cleanse Jonah of his rebellious spirit by means of the experience in the big fish.
      • Remember Jonah’s prayer promised God his obedience.
      • Jonah’s prayer was a sacrifice of praise for who God is: the God of Salvation.
    • God’s anointing rests upon the person surrendered to God.
    • God’s anointing rests upon the words spoken if they conform to the will of God.
• Jonah chapter 4 is a difficult passage and many Bible teachers and Bible commentaries pass over it very superficially. However, unless we deal with some of these very difficult passages in this book, we will not arrive at a good understanding of the book or a good understanding of God.

 

• Read Jonah 4:1-5 What does this tell us about Jonah? And about God?
• Jonah’s anger: How do we explain Jonah’s anger?
  • Remember that Jonah was a reluctant prophet from the beginning.
  • Jonah reminds God of his initial reluctance in his prayer. (2)
  • Jonah had no doubt about God’s saving mercy. (2)
    • Jonah gives us the characteristics of God’s great love: (2)
      • Grace
      • Mercy
      • Slow to anger
      • Great kindness
    • Therefore, Jonah knew that God would save the people of Nineveh by delaying the destructive judgment of the city.
  • Jonah was obedient to God to preach repentance to the people.
  • Jonah’s human feelings come to the surface because these people are the enemy of the Jews.
    • We do not know if Jonah, as a prophet, knew that the Assyrian army would eventually attack Israel.
    • We do not know if Jonah knew that the Assyrians would take all the people in the Northern Kingdom of Israel captive to Babylon.
  • Jonah was angry because the sinful enemy was not going to reap the consequences of their sin.

 

• “…it is better for me to die than to live.”

 

(3)
• Why would it be better for Jonah to die than to live?
  • Jonah’s anger against God is very great and may seem irrational.
  • However, Jonah’s anger is also connected to personal fear.
    • What will happen to Jonah when he RETURN s to Israel and the people there learn that God has saved the enemy?
    • The Israelites will blame Jonah for taking the message of repentance to the Gentiles.
      • Jonah was already familiar with his own government’s opposition to the prophet, Elijah, under King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. They wanted to kill Elijah for his words.
      • The people’s long hatred of Gentiles and their fear of Assyria could cause him problems.
• Jonah waits the 40 days to see if God will, in fact, delay judgment and spare the city. Meanwhile, during those 40 days, perhaps he is thinking to change God’s mind.
• God must now deal with Jonah’s new attitude of anger.

 

• Read Jonah 4:6-11 The object lesson
• What is a Biblical object lesson?
  • God knows that in order for man to understand the things of God and the ways of God, He must communicate to man in ways that man can understand.
  • Jesus used parables to communicate various spiritual truths.
    • The elements in the parables were common every-day type experiences or elements with which the people were familiar.
    • Many of the parables were agricultural in nature because it was an agricultural society at that time.
• An Old Testament prophet was very familiar with object lessons for God often told the prophets to use objects in their messages to the people. For example:
  • In Eze 4:1 God told Ezekiel to use a tile.
  • In Amo 7:7 Amos used a plumbline.
• The object lesson in Jonah is specifically designed for Jonah to deal with his attitude and his relationship to God. However, the object lesson also has a broader significance in the scheme of God’s plan for man.
• The object lesson:

 

• “And the LORD God prepared a gourd…”

 

(6)
• As we have already seen in this book, God sent the storm, and God prepared the big fish specifically to deal with Jonah’s rebellious attitude.
• In the 40 days while Jonah waits to see what God will do, the vine of the gourd plant grows up and over Jonah.
  • The purpose of the vine was to give shade to Jonah from the hot desert sun.
  • Also the purpose of the vine was, “…to deliver him from his grief…” (6)
    • God cares about how we feel about things in life.
    • God provides very specifically what we need.

 

• “But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.”

 

(7)
• The Bible is clear to tell us that God prepared the worm.
  • There is more that God wants Jonah to learn than the simple lessons that God cares about us and that He provides for us.
  • The Spirit of God digs deeper into our hearts to bring to the surface those characteristics that God wants to cleanse. Anger is one of them.
• We have seen that by God’s sovereignty, He prepared each element specifically designed to produce the exact result that God wanted. We will RETURN later to the question of why God prepared the worm to destroy the gourd.

 

• “And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted…”

 

(8)
• God’s strong east wind made Jonah’s situation worse.
• Often God does that before things get better.
  • At this point in human experience, God is often testing one’s faith.
    • It is at this point that many Christians give up and think that God is not answering their prayers because the situation worsens. Frequently just the opposite is true.
    • Patience and trust in God are the desired characteristics we must learn.
• God’s question to Jonah:

 

• “And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd?”

 

(9)
• God’s questions to man are significant.
  • Remember that God asked Cain where was his brother Abel?
  • God knew the location of Abel. He did not have to ask Cain for that information. God’s question was to get Abel to confess that he had killed his brother.
• God’s question to Jonah is equally significant. He wants Jonah to deal with his anger.
• Notice that God says in His question that Jonah is angry “for” the gourd not against the gourd. Therefore his anger is against God who made the gourd and the worm and who sent the east wind.
• What is it that Jonah must understand?

 

• “Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not labored…”

 

(10)
• God wants Jonah to understand that God is the creator. He made the gourd and the worm.
• Therefore, God makes the decisions. He is in control of what He creates.
  • Jonah’s anger is against God, the creator.
  • Read Rom 9:20-26
    • In both the Old and New Testaments, God gives man the message that He is the potter and that we are like clay in His hands. He is in control of what He makes. (Jer 18:6)
    • Therefore, the object lesson was to get Jonah to see that his anger against God for the worm that destroyed the gourd was the same as his anger against God for saving the people of Nineveh. God is the creator of both Jew and Gentile. He can save those He desires to save. Man has no right to question God’s decision because man is not the creator.
• While God’s object lesson points specifically to Jonah’s anger against God, there is more to the message.
  • At this point, Jonah should have been satisfied to leave things in God’s hands.
  • However, like a loving father, God desires two things for His children:
    • =1= God wants us to know who He is. This is what the object lesson taught Jonah. He is the creator in control of His creation.
    • =2= God wants us to understand what He does. This is the deeper meaning of the object lesson that most commentaries miss.
• God applies the object lesson to the people of Nineveh. (11)
• The deeper meaning of the object lesson:
  • Through the Old Testament, God took great care to periodically explain to man what His plan was.
    • He did this so that we might understand what God does and why He does it.
    • In this respect, God is not like a parent that says to his child, “It is this way because I said so!” “I’m the parent, you’re the child and that’s all you need to know!”
    • God wants us to understand the why of it all.
  • In order to understand God’s plan for man, God put little pictures through the Old Testament that teach spiritual truths. These are little object lessons similar to that of Jonah’s object lesson.
  • Therefore, to understand Jonah’s object lesson on a deeper level, we need to treat it like we treat the parables in the Bible by assigning meanings to the various objects.
    • To define the meanings of the objects:
      • To remain true to a proper interpretation of scripture, we cannot just make up the meanings of the objects to suit ourselves.
      • We must obtain the meanings from the rest of scripture.
    • The meanings of the objects:
      • The sun: (Represents Satan)
        • In the Bible, the sun sometimes represents God (Mal 4:2) and sometimes represents Satan. (Mat 13:6)
        • In this case, the sun represents Satan that tries to destroy the Word of God.
      • The east wind: (Represents God’s wrath and judgment)
        • Wherever the east wind is mentioned in the Bible, it is in context with God’s anger and judgment. (Gen 41:6 Exo 10:13 Eze 17:10 Eze 19:12)
        • This is an extremely hot wind that came out of the east and burned up any vegetation in its path.
        • The location of the East in Jewish thought was the location of the presence of God. For example, the tabernacle faced East.
          • When Jonah sat on the East side of the city after his preaching, it was an indication that he was willing to stay in God’s presence.
          • Even though he was angry with God, he had a willingness to learn. That is what the experience in the big fish taught him.
      • The gourd: (Represents man’s sinful soul)
        • God related the gourd to the people of Nineveh in verses 10 and 11. Jonah should have had the same pity for the people of Nineveh that he had for the gourd.
        • Therefore, the gourd represents the human soul of man. However, there is more to it than that.
          • The Hebrew word that is used for gourd is from a root word that means “nauseous” to the point of vomiting. (Strong’s Concordance #7021)
          • Because of sin, this is the condition of man’s soul in the eyes of God. (Ecc 9:3 Jer 18:12)
      • The worm: (Represents Jesus Christ)
        • Using a Strong’s Concordance, the meaning of the word, “worm” has the reference number 8438. You will notice that the same word, “worm” occurs in Psa 22:6 and has the same Strong’s Concordance reference number.
          • Psa 22 is a prophetic passage that relates to Jesus Christ on the cross.
            • Jesus says in verse 6, “But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.”
            • Because of the beatings before the crucifixion, he did not look human.
            • He was a reproach to his people, rejected, and died the death of a criminal.
            • At that moment in time on the cross Jesus took on himself the sins of man.
          • Read Isa 53:4-5
        • The Strong’s Concordance reference number tells us that this little worm is a special maggot that was used to dye cloth red when the worm was crushed to release the red color.
          • This is the worm they used through the Old Testament to dye the curtains of the tabernacle and temple.
          • The red curtains of the tabernacle and the temple signify the shed blood of Christ for the sins of the world.
          • This worm or maggot is found where there is death. The payment for sin is eternal death. Jesus paid that debt with his death and shed blood on the cross. (Heb 10:12)
        • Therefore, the worm in Jonah’s object lesson represents Jesus Christ on the cross carrying the sins of all men.
        • Why did the worm destroy the gourd?
          • The answer to this question is a key to our understanding. Man’s soul is eaten up with sin.
      • The result of the deeper meaning of the object lesson:
        • If we put all the meanings of these objects together, we obtain this picture:
          • The riddle is a type or prefigure of salvation in Jesus Christ just as many hundreds of other prefigures or types found throughout the Old Testament. For example:
            • The red cord hung in the window by Rahab in the book of Joshua when she hid the spies in her house, marked her for salvation. (Jos 2:18)
            • The child that was to be the bloodline to Christ had a scarlet thread tied to his hand (Gen 38:28).
            • The sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham prefigured the crucifixion of Christ. (Gen 22)
          • Man’s soul (the gourd) was created and prepared by God, but sin made man’s soul nauseous to God as Satan dried up the Word of God (Mat 13:6). In God’s anger at Satan and sin (the East Wind), He sent Jesus Christ (the worm) to be sin for us on the cross. (2Cor 5:21 Sal 22:6) Through His shed blood (the red dye from the worm), He cleansed us from sin to bring us salvation just as He brought salvation to Nineveh.
        • Why did God save Nineveh?
          • For the same reason that He saves anyone today. The Almighty God of creation will save whom He desires to save whether that person is a Jew or a Gentile. By His sovereign will He will save even His enemies if they will repent.
          • Remember that God wants man to understand what He is doing. This is the deeper meaning of the object lesson in Jonah and the message through all of the Bible.
            • God sent His son that we might be saved. (Joh 3:16)
            • God’s plan of salvation through Jesus Christ was the plan from the foundation of the world before Adam and Eve ever committed the first sin, (Rev 13:8) and prefigured in all the little object lessons through scripture.
• Application:

• In the same way as in the life of Jonah, God still uses little object lessons to teach us his truths. Unfortunately we often get too busy with the daily rush of life that we fail to notice them on our path.
• You may want to pay more attention to things around you. God may be wanting to tell you something!

The End. May you be watchful of God’s object lessons prepared specifically foryou!