today's Beach Talk. Now once a week I go down to the beach by my house here in California and I teach a chapter of the Bible. Now today is the 100th episode of these Beach Talks. We've had over 10,000 downloads so I'm really happy that this is helping a lot of people learn. Now my passion is to help us understand the Bible and to take it seriously. I want you to be able to understand it
so that you can apply it to your life. Now my objective has always been the same in all 100 episodes so far and it's this, it's disciples making disciples who plant churches that plant churches so Jesus can continue to be a beautiful
grassroots movement all over the world. And now this is happening. Right now we have six churches in three countries and I want to just continue to focus on teaching the Bible in a straightforward way so that our expectations can be in line with what God wants to say to you each and every time that you listen to one of these. So I'm going to assume that you're here to listen and learn apply it to your life. Now our vision 2021 is to multiply.
You know God wants to multiply everything that he gives us and so when we keep an open hand God can multiply the things that he puts in it and so we want to keep an open hand with our lives and with everything that God has given to us including our churches. So excited to see that happen this year. Now we hope to see you in one of our locations soon. We have a collective that's developed and you can look on our website for the details
that's being updated all the time. Now in Jonah chapter 4 Jonah was really complaining. He had a displeasure at the people of Nineveh because they had repented. In fact he was angry about it. Now it displeased Jonah. Now this was strange because usually the person who is displeased is the person doing the preaching but Jonah in this case was upset. He said that he was exceedingly angry. Not only was this strange it was very strange because Jonah
was upset at the success of his preaching. Normally when you teach the Bible you hope for good results. You don't curse the good results when they come. This is kind of an odd occurrence in the Bible. Now look at verse 2. Jonah explains his anger. He prayed to the Lord and said, Lord is this not what I said when I was still in my country? And this is why he went to Tarshish for I know that you're a gracious and merciful God slow to anger and abounding and
loving kindness. One who relents from doing harm. So you see Jonah understood that the nature and the character of God was to be forgiving and to be kind and to be gracious just like he is to us. Now he knew that God was gonna forgive these people. That was why he was so apprehensive in going and talking to them in the first place. You see Jonah was angry because God granted repentance
to the Ninevites and he didn't like the Ninevites. You see God is always trying to stretch our understanding of love and so often he does that by giving us a person or a group of people that we don't like. You see God always starts with our culture and then God always calls us to go cross culture. This is what happened to Jonah. And in fact we pick it up he says Lord was this not
what I said when he was still in his country? Jonah knew that God was full of grace and mercy and that's why he was afraid to tell the people of Nineveh. This was at least part of the reason why Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh. He was afraid that they would turn around and then they would actually be in his same spiritual family. When all along God wanted, he wanted God to judge the
Assyrian capital because these were their... Jonah himself called on the mercy of God and enjoyed the mercy of God when it was extended to Jonah and now he resents it when it was extended to others. What if God treated Jonah the way that Jonah wanted God to treat the people of Nineveh? Now think about that. Now he said it was better for me to die than to live. The repentance and salvation of the people of Nineveh is so painful to Jonah that he would rather die than think
about it. And he also states that this was the reason that he ran away from the call. Not out of fear that he would be ineffective but for fear that he would be effective. Now God confronts Jonah about this. God questions Jonah's heart. Now the Lord said to him is it right for you to be angry? Now what does this mean? Well Jonah in expressing his anger against God was being honest about his feelings so that's a good thing. That's something good. But we should not for a moment
think that all of our feelings towards God are justified. So God likes to ask us questions, rhetorical questions, because they make us think. They reveal our heart. It also puts us on proper ground before him because God has every right to question us and we owe him answers. He doesn't owe us answers. Now he says to Jonah where are you? Who told you that you were naked? What is this that
you have done? This was in his conversation with Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis and then he also said to Cain, where is your brother Abel? And then he also said to David, through Samuel, what have you done when you sinned against Bathsheba? Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in your eyes? Again God spoke prophetically. And then he also said in Isaiah, whom shall I send? Who will go for us? So sometimes God asks
us questions just like he did to Peter. Who do you say that I am? And then Jesus also asked someone in the gospel, what do you want me to do for you? You see sometimes questions bring out our best thinking. That's why it's better to ask someone a question than it is to tell them something or just to tell them what to do because it's better for us to get to think, us to think and arrive at the correct conclusion rather than just someone to tell us things. That's why
questions always produce critical thinking. Sometimes when you just tell people things it results in absolutely no thinking at all. So Jonah was angry towards God. Yes it was right for Jonah to stay his anger towards God but he must also repent from his anger towards God. You see sometimes we share our feelings with God but it doesn't necessarily mean that they're right. Now look at verse 5, God prepares an object lesson for Jonah. So Jonah went out of
the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter and he sat under it in the shade till he might see what would become of the city. And the Lord God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah that it might
be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very grateful for the plant but as morning dawned the next day God prepared a worm so that it damaged the plant that it withered and it happened when the Sun arose that God prepared an east wind and the Sun beat on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. Then he wished death for himself and said it'd be better for me to die than to live. Now this is a classic case of having a pity party. Now
Jonah went out of the city that he might see what would become of the city. You see he went out and sat on his plant hoping that God would change his mind and destroy the city which is what Jonah wanted to begin with. Now he goes out of the city for safety. You see the Lord God prepared the plant and he made it come
up over Jonah just as God prepared a great fish for Jonah to swallow Jonah. Now he prepares a particular type of plant that provided shelter for Jonah from the elements the Sun and the wind even though Jonah's intentions and motives were wrong for being out there in the first place. Now this is the first sign that we find Jonah happy in the book of Jonah. Jonah was pleased because at last after all the compassion that God had for other people God was finally doing
something for Jonah. Doesn't that sound like us? We see God do all these wonderful things for the people and then we feel selfish about it. Now we could say that Jonah's happiness was just as wrong as his anger. Both were about him. The Sun beat on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. Jonah was angry with God because he brought the people of Nineveh to repentance. Now the ancient Hebrew for angry is literally means to be hot. Now God would let Jonah feel some of
that heat by allowing this plant to wither here in a second. Now Jonah was grateful for the plant. He says it's better for me to die than to live. Now when God took the plant and its pleasant shelter away from Jonah he missed the plant so much that he wished for death. Skies all over the place. One theologian said dear friends like Jonah if you want to complain you will soon have something to complain about. People who are resolved to complain generally make
for themselves great causes for it. Charles Spurgeon. Jonah allowed even a silly thing like a plant to become an idol. How often are the things that God has made us? Do they become idols? And we fail to realize that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. It's always about the Lord and keeping our focus on him. Now finally in verse 9 God applies the object lesson then he says to Jonah is
it right for you to be angry about this plant? And he said well it's it's it is right for me to be angry even so much so that I wish I could die but the Lord said you have had pity on the plant for which you've made but you haven't built it nor did you make it grow it came up in a night and perish in a night should I not have pity on Nineveh that great city in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who can't discern from the right hand with
their left hand. Wow what's happening here? Well Jonah in response to God's question felt totally justified in his anger about the sheltering plants destruction. Now this is considering that the plant was just a plant and Jonah had no personal interest in the investment of the plant except what it provided for him at the moment. Well Jonah made three errors that angry people often make. Each of these things put Jonah in a worse place not a better place. Well one Jonah
quit quitting never helps. Two Jonah separated himself from others that never helps and then three Jonah became a spectator and that never helps. Now they these are the last words of Jonah recorded in this book but but thankfully they are not the last words of the book. God's mercy and compassion still worked with Jonah teaching him and guiding him to eventually have God's heart and he said should I not pity Nineveh how much more should God be concerned about the
destruction of persons those made in his image even if they are Assyrians. You see God's response to Jonah showed the prophet that he really didn't know God as well as he thought he did. Sound familiar like you and I? Now those who cannot discern between their right hand or their left hand are those who are unable to make moral judgments they have no moral reference. The lesson is clear not only does God God's concern for people go beyond us but he is totally
justified in giving us a heart for others. The lessons of Jonas reminds us that God is the God of all people all the time. The lesson of Jonah is that is what he proclaimed before being freed from the great fish salvation is of the Lord and not any race or nation or class. This is the same message God made clear through Peter in Acts 10. God is a God of all people all of the time not some
people some of the time. You see God had pity on Nineveh. Jewish tradition says that after God said the words of Jonah 4 11 Jonah then fell in his face and said govern your world according to the measure of your mercy as it is said to the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness. Now we can only hope that Jonah and we would have such a humble response when God speaks to us. You see God showed his mercy to Jonah through a lot of preparation just like he does for
us. The Lord prepared a great fish for Jonah. God prepares everything for us in our life. The Lord prepared a plant. God gives us special blessings in our life. The Lord prepared a worm for Jonah. The Lord prepared a wind for Jonah. Nevertheless the real work of preparation happened in Jonah. What God really prepared was a person a prophet someone who was gonna go out and speak his words to people just like he wants us to speak his words to people. We are
no different than Jonah. God has something for us to do. We often run from it. We often run away from it. We often run the opposite direction of it but God still has a call still wants us to do amazing things for him. That is the lesson of this book.