Rebuke of God to the Pouting Prophet

Driving home: Is thine anger justly kindled? Remember God dealt with another prophet who was in a very difficult situation with a question. He came to Elijah when he was out there in a cave running from Jezebel, and God pressed upon h…

God's question to Elijah in the cave ('What doest thou here, Elijah?') is used as an example of how a well-framed question can shock a distraught spirit into sanity, similar to His question to Jonah.

No judgment is come, and yet with this perverted hope, as we saw last week, he builds a little shed outside the city, and there he sits, sulking and angry, upset with God that he hasn't destroyed that people, and God comes to him with a question that is calculated to derail him from this abandonment to the unholy passion of this carnal anger. And so the Lord comes with a simple but penetrating and probing question, Is thine anger justly kindled? Remember God dealt with another prophet who was in a very difficult situation with a question. He came to Elijah when he was out there in a cave runni...

6:49 - 8:16 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Is thine anger justly kindled? Remember God dealt with another prophet who was in a very difficult situation with a question. He came to Elijah when he was out there in a cave running from Jezebel, and God pressed upon h…

A question is likened to reins pulled up on a galloping horse, bringing a man up short, illustrating how God's question to Jonah aimed to halt his unholy passion.

a question can act like the reins pulled up upon a galloping horse and bring a man up short. And that's precisely what God was seeking to do with His servant. He doesn't debate the fact that he's angry. He doesn't come and first of all rebuke him for the sinfulness of the anger.

8:16 - 8:36 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Is thine anger justly kindled? Remember God dealt with another prophet who was in a very difficult situation with a question. He came to Elijah when he was out there in a cave running from Jezebel, and God pressed upon h…

Martin asks listeners to reflect on their own experiences with jealousy, suspicion, mistrust, or animosity, noting that asking pointed questions is often the start of untangling such carnal attitudes.

Is thine anger justly kindled? And has it not been true with many of us that on many an occasion when we have been in a state that has been contrary to the revealed will of God, as was Jonah, that we did not begin to get untangled until we began to ask ourselves some very pointed, probing questions. What is the root of this spirit of jealousy, this spirit of suspicion that I have towards so and so, this spirit of mistrust, this spirit of animosity, this spirit of friction, this attitude that is contrary to the word of God? As long as we're being carried along in the passion and pressure of som...

8:47 - 10:03 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin details the sequence of events: God preparing the gourd for Jonah's comfort, then preparing a worm to wither it, and finally a sultry east wind, all contributing to Jonah's…

The joy Jonah felt from the gourd is compared to the relief and gladness one feels from a glass of cold ice water or lemonade on a hot day, illustrating how physical comfort can bring joy to the soul.

As you and I are in the midst of a hot day, and someone brings us a glass of cold ice water, or lemonade, or something else that refreshes us, and we are made glad. There is the relief that comes to the whole personality when a specific physical need is met. We're such an interaction of body and soul. Your body doesn't just rejoice when you get a cool glass of water in a hot day.

13:00 - 13:25 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin details the sequence of events: God preparing the gourd for Jonah's comfort, then preparing a worm to wither it, and finally a sultry east wind, all contributing to Jonah's…

Martin shares a personal anecdote about his zucchini plant withering after a grub ate its base, providing a vivid, relatable image of how the gourd was smitten and withered.

And I had a wonderful commentary on this with our zucchini this summer. You know all the big broad leaves that the zucchini have? And we'd look out of our yard and in the night, you know, the plants just seemed to jump out of the ground at night and have a growth spurt. And we'd look out, especially if it had after been a few days, we'd had a few days of rain, and there'd be the big broad leaves of the zucchini plant.

14:54 - 15:16 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin details the sequence of events: God preparing the gourd for Jonah's comfort, then preparing a worm to wither it, and finally a sultry east wind, all contributing to Jonah's…

The sultry east wind is compared to the hot air billowing out when opening an oven on a hot day, conveying the intense discomfort Jonah experienced.

To add insult to injury, not only does his sun umbrella go, but now a wind begins to blow that is not a refreshing cooling breeze, but it's like that which you feel when you open your oven on a hot day and that hot air just billows out and hits you. Now this hot air was billowing into his face from the wind and the sun beating down upon his head from above. And now Jonah, feeling the intense discomfort, the intense physical annoyance of this situation, he repeats what he said earlier, it's better for me to die than to live. No record this time that he prayed that God would kill him.

16:06 - 16:48 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Thou hast had pity on the gourd for which you have not labored, neither made it to grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. This little shrub, in no sense your own, neither planted nor watered nor cared fo…

Martin quotes Hugh Martin at length, who eloquently describes God's wisdom in redirecting Jonah's intense, morbid affections from Nineveh's destruction to the gourd's destruction, thereby arguing with him about his misplaced pity.

And when in my name you pronounce judgment, I made that pronouncement effectual to bring them to repentance so that I may justly turn away my anger and show mercy. In that city there are 120,000 infants and there is much cattle, Jonah, Jonah, Jonah. Here you are all in a stew over one plant that is here today and gone tomorrow. And yet you fail to understand that that city towards which I've shown mercy as they've repented, there are image bearers, immortal souls, men and women made to glorify me and much cattle as well. Hugh Martin commenting on this dealing of God with Jonah in this area say...

24:27 - 25:28 Read in full sermon

The point: Believe the truth that God is merciful to sinners, and do not succumb to the lie that God is anything but compassionate.

Jesus weeping and wailing over impenitent Jerusalem is cited as a biblical example of God's compassionate heart towards sinners, even those doomed to destruction.

You see the God whom we worship is the God revealed in Jesus Christ. I'm going to say something that may shock some of you but it's biblical. It's the God who weeps and sobs over an impenitent city doomed to destruction. For it says in Luke that when Jesus beheld the city He wailed over it.

33:30 - 33:56 Read in full sermon

The point: Acquiesce to God's will from the heart, even when it is dark or contrary to your hopes, trusting that God will track you down until you do.

Martin quotes Hugh Martin again, using the analogy of a 'gourd' representing various earthly blessings (prospects, hopes, friendships, children) that God may give and then take away to teach the heart to acquiesce to His infinitely wise will.

Often I sit down and I'm thrown into my eyes. has done, and to acquiesce from the heart. And he may teach me practically as he taught Jonah. He may send me a welcome gift, a lovely, serviceable little plant, a sudden, acceptable, gladsome gourd. You see, he's using the analogy, I become exceedingly glad of my gourd. My heart entwines around it, this pleasing prospect, this budding hope, this successful movement, this dawn of a charming friendship with the bright-hearted and the noble, this light of sunshine falling most unlooked for on my vexed and weary heart, this welcome visitor, this golde...

44:34 - 45:42 Read in full sermon

The point: Acquiesce to God's will from the heart, even when it is dark or contrary to your hopes, trusting that God will track you down until you do.

Martin illustrates acquiescence to God's will with the example of someone who has known physical strength but is called to serve God with pain, highlighting God's determination to be served in the circumstances He provides.

O dear child of God, how slow some of us are to learn that mess. Some of us who've known abounding physical strength all our lives, and in the prime of our lives, God's touch,

47:47 - 48:01 Read in full sermon

The point: Acquiesce to God's will from the heart, even when it is dark or contrary to your hopes, trusting that God will track you down until you do.

The example of a child requiring all of one's attention and time is used to illustrate a difficult providence God might send to teach acquiescence to His will.

Lord, this child that will take all of the attention and time that I... Lord, I can't.

48:28 - 48:35 Read in full sermon

The point: Embrace God's will from the heart, not just as a theological proposition, but as a lived reality.

Paul's experience with his 'thorn in the flesh' is presented as the ultimate example of a servant of God learning to acquiesce to God's will and even glory in infirmities for Christ's power.

Paul had come to the place where he said, Lord, I cannot serve you with this thing. It's impossible. Take it. And God says you'll serve me with it.

49:01 - 49:11 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not kick at the goads of God's sovereign exercise of His will in specific providences that pinch you.

Martin asks listeners to imagine observing the gourd's rapid growth and subsequent withering, noting that a casual observer would attribute it to natural causes, unaware of God's specific providential hand.

If you'd been living at the end of that day and happened to be walking by Jonah's gorge, you'd say, oh, isn't that a pretty plant? Grew kind of fast. Someone must have fertilized it pretty good. Next day you'd see it withered and say, oh, and the grub must have got hold of it.

50:51 - 51:04 Read in full sermon