Exploring My Strange Bible - The Amazing Jonah Part 5: When God Loves Your Enemy

Episode Date: August 14, 2017

In the final episode we see Jonah's response when God forgives his enemies. He's hot with anger and chews God out for being to gracious. This part of the story challenges us to reconsider Jesus' teaching to love and forgive our enemies, those people in our lives who are the most difficult.

Tim Mackey, Jr. utterly amazing and worth following with everything that you have. On this podcast, I'm putting together the last 10 years worth of lectures and sermons where I've been exploring the strange and wonderful story of the Bible and how it invites us into the mission of Jesus and the journey of faith. And I hope this can be helpful for you too. I also help start this thing called The Bible Project. We make animated videos and podcasts about all kinds of topics in Bible and theology. You can find those resources at thebibleproject.com. With all that said, let's dive into the episode for this week. All right. Hey, guys. This is the last of a five-part series we've been doing through the book of Jonah. This is about when God loves your enemy. It's exploring the last chapter of the

book of Jonah. If you haven't listened to the first four teachings that explore the earlier parts of the book, I recommend you do that in the previous podcast. This last chapter of the book of Jonah is actually one of the most puzzling and difficult parts of the book. I have a children's book at home that I will never read to my children. It says it's about the book of Jonah, but it happily leaves out any recounting of the final chapter of the book, which is actually not that surprising because the last chapter, Jonah chapter four, turns the story from a happy story of Jonah finally obeying and the Ninevites responding ideal way to this message that comes from God's prophet. And then chapter four just throws a huge wrench into the whole thing as God's own prophet gets really, really angry at God for forgiving

his enemies. So what I use this for was opportunity both to talk about what's going on in the book of Jonah and about the very scandalous teaching of Jesus about enemy love. So, I hope this is helpful for you. This was really challenging for me personally as I was preparing it. And let's dive in and learn together. Here we go. It's our final week in the book of Jonah. Yeah, that's rock and roll. That's what that is. We've been heading at what I call the veggie tales factor, right? This mediation of the Bible stories to us through children's media that tends to kind of make them all bland and about being a nice person or something like that. And so what we've been discovering, I know at least myself have been rediscovering,

kind of studying and working through the book again, is this is not a children's story by any means. Of course, children could grasp the basic outline of the story, but the themes of the story are so profound, you very much have to be an adult to get them. Dealing with themes about religious hypocrisy and exposing spiritual apathy and the devastating effects it has on us and other people, and about the ways that God can use pain and suffering in our lives as a severe mercy to wake us up. Themes of divine

judgment and divine repentance. He explained that to your three-year-old, you know what I mean? So these are themes that are meant for adults. And that's because this story, as all of the scriptures, it's aimed at revealing God's character to his people. That's the purpose of scripture, not to entertain kids, but to reveal who God is, his character and his purposes and what he's up to in the world. And so today, Jonah chapter 4, we conclude the story with this ridiculous, apparently sunburned man sitting at the east of Nineveh who wants to die. He would rather die than live with a God like Yahweh. And how does this speak God's word to us tonight?

Let's dive in. So remember the big storyline. You have this prophet, religious man of God, who hates his God and runs from his God in the opposite direction. It leads him to hit bottom. He brings ruin on himself and all these other people, his spiritual apathy. But God makes this brush with death that all of this seemed like it was the worst thing that ever happened to him, but actually becomes a severe mercy that's the best thing that's ever happened to him. And it wakes him up, at least for a moment. And he physically then obeys and goes on this commission to confront the wickedness of the city of Nineveh.

And last week we talked about all of that. And I showed you cool archaeological pictures, you know, depicting how horrible the Assyrians and the Ninevites were. And so he preached this five-word sermon in Hebrew, yeah? So it's eight words in English, five-word sermon in Hebrew, and the whole city repents and turns to God. And you would think, if you're a prophet from Israel, this is a great line on your resume, you know what I'm saying?

This is like notoriously, it's like Sin City, you know? And you're a day's preaching in and five words in, and the whole city has this radical transformation. And you would think most any of the other prophets of Israel would be like, yeah, that's right. Stoked. And how does Jonah feel about this? How does Jonah? Look at the last sentence of chapter three. It's verse 10. God saw the repentance and the soft hearts of the Ninevites. And so chapter 3, verse 10, God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, and he relented. He forgave them. And he

didn't bring on them the destruction that he'd threatened. Any other prophet of Israel would be like, mission accomplished. God shows grace, his reputation is honor, and so on. And what is Jonah's response to all of this? He is ticked. He's livid with anger. Look at his response. But to Jonah, this all seemed very wrong. No, what? No, no, no.

This is not what's supposed to happen. This is very wrong. He became angry, and he prayed to the Lord. Remember, when you see Lord, they're in all capital letters. It's Yahweh in Hebrew. He prayed to Yahweh, and he proceeds to chew God out big time. And this might be a new category of prayer for some of us. Apparently, you can pray and just let God have it. But we did a series in the Psalms over the summer, and you saw lots of people letting God have it and venting, and it was a form of prayer. So look at what he says. You can just imagine he has clenched teeth, you know. He's hot with anger. He prayed to Yahweh. Isn't this what I said, Yahweh? When I was still back

at home, this is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. So you remember Israel by the Mediterranean Sea. What direction is Nineveh? East. What way is Tarshish? It's as far west as you could humanly go, right? It's the edge of the known world for ancient people on the far coast of Spain, way across the Mediterranean. Now, why did he flee? Did he flee because he's scared that the Ninevites might kill him? He runs because he hates Ninevites. He knew that this is what was going to happen. So he says, I knew that you're a gracious and compassionate God. I knew that you're slow to anger.

I knew you're abounding in love. I knew that you're a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Yahweh, take away my life. It'd be better for me to die than live. You can just see the heat of his anger. I mean, this seems ridiculous to us. And the levels of irony go way deeper. Look at verse 2. Do you see these descriptions here? The words that he uses to describe God. So he says, you're gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love. Does this sound familiar to anybody? You've kind of heard these descriptions before? Maybe. Some of you are like, well, it sounds Bible-ish. So yes, that's true. So this

phrase right here, gracious, compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in love, this is kind of like the John 3.16, which is a famous verse in the New Testament. It's kind of like that equivalent in the Old Testament. This is one of the most repeated descriptions of God over a dozen times throughout the Old Testament. And what Jonah's actually doing here, this is so great, you kind of have to be a Bible geek to know it, but he's quoting from a book in the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, he's quoting from the book of Exodus. And actually, he's quoting from a quotation of what God says about himself in chapter Exodus 34, verse 6. And it's a story about how the Israelites were sitting at the foot of Mount Sinai,

and God revealed the Ten Commandments to them. And the first Ten Commandments was, don't have any gods before me. The second one was, don't make any idols. So God is not an object among the creation that you can depict him with a piece of wood or stone or something like that. And so they weren't to make any idols to depict him, lest they kind of fixate their attention on the wrong thing. And so, and what's the first thing they do? 40 days go by, and the cloud is still over the mountain. What are the Israelites doing? They're like, where'd Moses go? I don't know. Let's make a golden calf. Yeah, that's a good idea to represent Yahweh. And so they do, and then they have this sexual fertility ritual. It's ridiculous. It's crazy what they're doing right here at the foot

of the mountain. And so God is going to bring judgment and dump his people that he rescued out of Egypt. Moses intercedes. And what does God do? He forgives them and renews the covenant with them. And Moses says, holy cow, like, why are you doing this? Who are you, Yahweh? And Yahweh says, well, I'm Yahweh. I'm gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding, and loving kindness. In other words, Israel exists as the people of God because God is this way. And here what Jonah does is he takes these very words of God and throws them back in his face. And he's like, I knew you were like this. You've always been like this. You've been like this since day one. And what's funny is he wouldn't exist as an Israelite if God were not like this. But he's so irrational and hot with

anger at this point. He's just throwing these words back. I knew you were going to do this. You love to forgive people who don't deserve it. You love to do this kind of thing. I knew this was going to happen. That's why I ran. You made me come here in the first place. He's so angry. Now, we might read this and be like, whoa, this is so crazy. Like, he's criticizing God. He's like sending hate mail to God because God is too gracious for being too nice and forgiving people who don't deserve it. Clearly, Jonah chapter 4, he loses it. He's this comical, kind of ridiculous figure. And I'm guessing there are very few of us in the room who are like sympathizing with Jonah right now, going like, yeah, that's right. You know, we're like, no, we're laughing at him, going, dude, you wouldn't exist if it wasn't for these very traits that you're criticizing God for.

But he's like this laughable figure. And this does seem ridiculous to us. What Jonah 4 is all about is it's exposing what I call the, it's like the dark side of God's mercy and grace. It's the scandal of the liberality of God's grace, of the wideness in his mercy. Because, of course, I'm quite happy if I come to realize what a screwed up person I am and I turn to Jesus and he shows me his grace. Sweet, that's great. But then there's this other complex thing

that happens as a Christian when you realize, yeah, Jesus is like that to me and he also is like that to the person that I despise and hate. And then I'm kind of like, well, that's what they don't deserve. Do you know what they did to me? And so here we go. The motivation for Jonah criticizing God's grace is actually pretty understandable to us. And if we were in the same situation, we would probably say the same thing. For example, let me show you a picture of a man named Gordon Wilson.

Gordon Wilson is an Irishman, passed away now, but he lived in the town of Enniskillen, Northern Ireland. In 1987, think late 80s, Northern Ireland, what's going on at that time. Most of you should know, but maybe only some of you do. So this was at the height of the conflict between the British, who were still basically a colonial power, over the Irish. And then you have the Irish who were resistant against British rule and so on. It's a common story in the 20th century in many countries around the world. Do you remember the name of essentially the resistance group against the British? The IRA, the Irish Republican Army. Gordon Wilson, he was an Irishman who was a follower of Jesus. He did not endorse the IRA and he was not behind

them. The town of Enniskillen had a little town square. He worked in kind of the downtown area. He ran the drapery business, families like drape and window dressing business. Britain has an equivalent to our Memorial Day called Remembrance Day. It's in November, and it's a way of honoring the British soldiers who died in the two world wars. And so Gordon Wilson went with his family to the town square of Enniskillen, and unbeknownst to him and all the people there, IRA had sent people to plant bombs in different buildings around the town square. And during the Remembrance Day ceremony, those bombs went off. You'll see some of the pictures here. A number of the buildings around the town square kind of collapsed and walls caved in on the groups of people that were there. And among them were Gordon Wilson and

his family. And he and his daughter were caught underneath a wall that collapsed and were there for many hours. And after a number of hours, they were both trapped next to each other, both pretty injured. And they were able to talk during that time. They were rescued. They were pulled out. Gordon's daughter did not survive through the night, but Gordon did. did not survive through the night. But Gordon did. And about two days later, after he was kind of aware and could talk, the BBC came and did an interview with different of the survivors.

And the interview with Gordon Wilson, if you Google this, the interview with Gordon Wilson, it all hit the news and just went viral. At least as viral as it could be before YouTube in the 80s, right? And it caught the attention of the whole world because of what he said. And William Ury, who recounts this story, he captures it this way. He said, no one who heard Gordon Wilson will ever forget what he said in that interview. His grace towered over the miserable justification of the bombers. Speaking from his hospital bed, Wilson described his last conversation with his daughter. Quote, she held my hand tightly and she gripped me as hard as she

could. She said, Daddy, I love you very much. Those were her last exact words to me and those were the last words I ever heard her say. William Ury comments, he says, to the astonishment of listeners, Wilson went on to add, quote, but I will bear no ill will. I will bear no grudge. Bitter talk is not going to bring her back to life. I will pray tonight and every night for the men who did this that God will forgive them. No words in more than 25 years of violence in Northern Ireland had such a powerful emotional impact. And the story gets even more amazing. A year after, to commemorate the Enniskillen bombing, Gordon Wilson held kind of a public event where

he invited publicly representatives of the IRA to come meet with him. And he invited news crews to all show up there. And because of his faith in Jesus Christ, he announced that he forgave his daughter's murderers. And he begged the IRA to stop the violence and these tactics to forward their agenda. During this whole year, it just catapulted him. He became a senator. When the Irish gained independence and made the Irish Republic, he became a senator and so on. And this towering figure is still today in Irish culture

because of his commitment to Jesus to forgive his enemies. Now, this is where the story gets very interesting. One of the later presidents of the Irish Republic, Mary McAuley, talks about the legacy that he left, and she puts it this way. It's so interesting. She says, Gordon, words, they shamed us all and caught us off guard. They sounded so different from what we expected and what we had all become used to.

They brought a stillness with them and they carried a sense of the transcendent into a place that had become so ugly we could hardly bear to watch. But Gordon had his detractors and unbelievably, he even received bags of hate mail. How dare you forgive, people demanded. What kind of father are you

who can forgive your daughter's killers? It was as if Gordon had spoken those words of forgiveness for the first time in human history. As if Christ had never uttered the words, Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing. One outspoken critic, who was a Christian, said to me about Gordon Wilson, surely the poor man must have been in shock. As if offering love and forgiveness is a sign of mental weakness instead of spiritual strength. Do you see this here?

So, you know, people name their daughters Grace and we sing songs about Grace or whatever and we think it's this beautiful thing, but there actually is this real scandalous side to it when Grace, the wideness of God's mercy, begins to include people that we hate, begin to include people that we despise or that have wronged us or that we think don't deserve it. And then it's really, really disturbing, this whole grace thing. This is what Jonah 4 is about. It's not so crazy. He's depicted as ridiculous, yes. But the motivations that are behind Jonah's

critique of God's grace are the same that motivated Gordon's detractors. How would you respond in a similar situation? It's very understandable. And so what God is going to do through the rest of Jonah 4, he's going to try three times to bring Jonah along to help him understand his grace in a new way. Let's dive in. Verse four. This is God's first try with Jonah. Look at verse four. So Yahweh replied. You need to just ask straight up, ask the question. Let's talk about this, Jonah. Sounds like a therapist. Is it right for you to be angry, Jonah? I mean, you're angry at me showing grace to the Ninevites. I mean, is that legitimate, Jonah? And what is Jonah's response?

Just stonewall. He just ignores them. That's what he does, right? Jonah went out of the city, and he sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a little shelter, a little tent, and he sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. So first of all, he just ignores God altogether, which is not the first time in the story he's done that, right? And so this clearly, this didn't work. God's like, let's engage about

this, Jonah. Is this legitimate that you're angry? And he's just like, I don't want to talk about it. Wow. He just leaves. And so he goes outside the city and he makes this shelter, which means he plans on being there for a while. And he's waiting to see what's going to happen to the city. Now, what is this about? What do you think he thinks is going to happen to the city? Does it sound good? What do we know for sure he wants to happen to the city? So he wants fire from heaven or something. That's what he wants, right? And this just raises for us his five-word sermon. I told you this would come back. There's more to it. There's a lot more to it. He's angry for many reasons, not just because God's gracious, but because God's played a trick on him. He's played a really, really brilliant trick on

him. Go back to chapter three. You remember this five-word sermon? What was this five-word sermon in Nineveh? Look at chapter 3, verse 4. He went a day's journey into the city, proclaiming, 40 days, and Nineveh will be overthrown. That's it.

He tried to raise this last time. Like, this is very odd. Because we know that he was commissioned to preach against the wickedness of the city. And what does he not mention at all? Anything about the city's wickedness or what they're doing wrong. He's sent to tell them why. You know, prophets usually explain why this is happening. There's no reason. He doesn't give any reasons why. And who does he not mention at all? He doesn't even mention Yahweh, the God that

he's supposed to be representing. This is very strange. This is very strange. And it gets even better. And I didn't tell you last week because I wanted to save it for the final week of the series. This is the best part of the book. This is absolutely brilliant. And kids would never get this. Kids would never get this. Okay. The last word of Jonah's. Some of you have 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown and NIV. What others of you have? Overturned? Some of you? Any others? Overturned or overthrown. Is that what we've got in the room? That's great. Those are the two standard translations. Okay, here's what's great. So this is Hebrew geekiness. So 40 days in Nineveh will be hapak. Just say it with me. Hapak. Now this is great. Many words in English have a basic meaning and then depending on the

context you use it in can have different nuances or something. So you could say, like, I destroyed my car, and that would be the physical destruction of my car. But you could also say, like, I destroyed the world record for how many redheads are gathered in one place got destroyed here in Portland a few weeks ago. Did you see this? New world record for amount of redheads in one place, Pioneer Square, just two weeks ago. Anyway, so the world record was destroyed. Is that a bad thing? No, that's awesome. That's really cool that that happened. And so it's the same word, but with a different nuance. So this is language. Language works like this all the time. Same with hapach. So the basic meaning of hapach is just to turn something over. You just turn it over. So for example, the prophet Hosea, in a metaphor, but he describes Israel like a piece of baked bread

that has not been hapaked. In other words, it's ruined. It's because you've got to bake both sides of the bread, but one side too long, oh, that's ruined. You throw it out, right? So, anyway, it's Hosea. It's a very clever metaphor, actually. So, it's just basic meaning, to turn over.

Now, if you take a city that's really bad, and it gets hapaked, you get a very, you can understand, like, that's really bad and it gets hop-hopped, you can understand that's a really negative sense of hop-hop. So, for example, in Lamentations, the sin of my people is greater than that of Sodom. You know, Sodom, the archetype of human evil in the Bible. And Sodom was hop-hopped in a moment without a hand to help. So, this is an overturning that's clearly negative, like destroyed or overturned or something like that. But hop-hopped can also mean something turned over from bad into good. Something from good into bad, or bad into worse, or something

from good into bad. Like in chapter 30, God, you have hop-hopped my grief and mourning into dancing. God, you have hop-hopped my grief and mourning into dancing. You've removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy. So it can be something as bad that's transformed into something good. Now here's what's so brilliant. Which meaning do you think Jonah intends as he walks around Nineveh yelling his five-word sermon? Which meaning do you think he intends? Clearly number two. Which meaning do you think God intends? Clearly number two. Which meaning do you think

God intends? And of course, which actually happened? Come on. That's funny. That's funny. Does Jonah think it's funny? No, he's ticked, right? He's ticked. So God won't let Jonah get away with anything in this book, right? He tries to run away. Yeah, that didn't work. So he tries, maybe I'll just go to Nineveh and engage in what I call prophetic sabotage, give them as little information as possible so I ensure that they're going to get fired from heaven. And not even that doesn't work, right? God uses his words against him, right? Just like Jonah used his words against him. Maybe it's all brilliant. This is a brilliantly told story. And so, of course, he's livid with anger because God has used even what he intended for evil to turn into good, to bring people into repentance

and to find grace in life. He is ticked off. And you might, I don't know, maybe you would be ticked off too. I don't know if it's justified, really. Clearly, somehow, he's hoping he's going outside of the city. He's going to wait out those 40 days and maybe they'll repent of their repentance. He's hoping something horrible just might happen. Meteorite come from the sky,

something. So he's out there just stewing. He's ticked. God is going to engage him another time. The direct question and reasoning, yeah, that didn't work. Is it right for you to be angry, Jonah, about me showing grace? Stonewall. He gets the hand. So he's going to try a different technique, the small plant tactic. Verse 6. This is such a good part of the story. So Yahweh God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant. This is the only time in the whole story that he is happy, right? Now, I should, I didn't mention this before. I'll mention it now. I've heard some very

creative misinterpretations of the leafy plant that brings ease from his discomfort, right? So, anyway, don't go there. You're trying, making the Bible become your pet when you do that, right? That's what you're doing. So, don't go there. But nobody knows what the leafy plant is. Some people think it's a gourd or a castor oil plant. I'm dead serious that I've had someone use this verse to try and show that to me. Anyway, it doesn't matter what the plant is except for that kind of plant. That's clearly out of the question. But whatever the plant is, the point is, is it just something that provides shade. That's the only point of the leafy plant. So you keep going. He wants to die. Oh, I'm angry. I want to die. Now he's very, very happy. But at dawn, the next day, God provided a little worm. A little worm. So see, God provides a huge storm, a huge fish,

a medium-sized leafy plant, and then a tiny worm. It's like the whole spectrum, right, in the story. leafy plant and then a tiny worm. It's like the whole spectrum, right, in the story. A teeny little worm and it chewed at the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind and the sun blazed down on Jonah's head and he grew faint. He wanted to die. And he said, oh, it would be better for me to die than to live. You're like, wait, I thought you were just happy. And he's like, no, I want to die. Now I'm very happy. Now I want to die. This is so comic. You guys get the comic feel of the story. Here, this is another way that's expressed in the storytelling. And probably this is the way I filter reality now. The moment I read the story, I think of my two-year-old son and the grocery store checkout aisle. Anybody? Do you know, or maybe you've seen

someone else's two-year-old in the grocery store? Check out aisle? Holy cow. So I am convinced that people who design modern grocery store checkout aisles, have as their goal to make parents of little kids miserable. I mean, it's the worst. It's always bad. It's never good. It's never a good experience, especially for little boys. Because what are my options? On the left, I have all these glossy magazine covers of women scantily clad. So I'm

directing his attention this way, clearly. But what am I making him look at over here? Just a wall of sugar. So he's stoked and he's just the goldmine of Butterfingers or whatever. And so what are my options? He might be in his cart, but he's two now. So his arms are long and so he can grab some mints or gum or something. So he's really happy. Oh my gosh, that's the best thing ever. And then I have to take it away from him and puddle on the floor. And he's literally writhing in my arms as we leave, as he screams and so on. You're just like this, I can't win. I can't win. It's a long digression, but what happens in my head when I read this, because he's like, oh, I want to die. I'd rather die than live with a God. Like, you open this plant. Oh my gosh, this is the best thing ever. And then, oh, I want

to die again. So here we go. This is crazy. And we're like, this is so strange. What is this story about? Here's what it's about. Verse nine. God said to Jonah, and he just repeats his question again, but with a little twist. God said to Jonah, is it right for you to be angry about the plant? So he couldn't get Jonah to own up to this question of, is your anger that I'm showing grace to your enemies, is that legitimate? Jonah just gave him the hand. So try the small plant tactic. Is your anger unto death about a plant legitimate? That's good. Good question. This should shake him out of his irrationality, right? And what is his response? Of course it's right for me to be angry. I'm so angry, I wish I were dead. And you're just like, whoa, he's beyond reason, clearly. At this point, he's a goner. But God doesn't give up. Because he's gracious, he's compassionate, he's slow to anger, he's abound in loving kindness,

he's committed to Jonah. He's going to work this out. So the Lord said, again, this is the third time. The Lord said, listen, Jonah, you've been concerned about this plant. Some of your translations might have you've shown pity on this plant or you've had compassion on this plant. The whole point is you've had all this extreme emotion, very happy, very sad about this plant. And listen, Jonah, you didn't care for the plant. I mean, you didn't even make it grow. You can't claim to have an emotional attachment to the plant because it came up overnight and died overnight. It hasn't even been in your life for very long. So let's just say, Jonah, that your emotion for this plant is legitimate. Verse 11,

shouldn't I be able to have that kind of same strong emotion and concern for something a little more significant? Like a huge city full of human beings like Nineveh in which there are more than 120,000 people who can't tell their right hand from their left and also many animals? It was like, the end. The end.

This is so, the Bible's so strange, you guys. The Bible is so strange. This is such a great story. What on earth is that? So, first of all, if this story, where I left like, well, how does Jonah respond? And what does it mean they don't know the right hand from their left? This is so brilliant what God's doing. So he tried first to expose how foolish it is that Jonah's angry at showing grace to the Ninevites. That didn't work.

So he says, let's get at Jonah's anger another way and try and help him understand how ridiculous it is. Let's do this little thing with a plant. And so he's super stoked on the plant. And let's expose his anger about the plant. Is your anger legitimate? And that didn't work at all either. And so now he's trying a different tactic. God's not going to try to expose his anger. He recognizes Jonah's stoked on something. For the first time in the whole story, he's happy. And he cares about something other than himself. Do you see this? And granted, it's something that provides comfort for him. But this is the first time there's a little corner of his heart that cares about something other than himself.

And God's like, we can work with that. And so God's gracious and accommodating. And he says, okay, you've got the soft spot in your heart of emotion and care for this little plant, for this little plant. Now, let's just grant you the legitimacy of that strong emotional attachment you have to the plant, Jonah, and we're all laughing at you. You're quite ridiculous right now, but let's, I'll just give that to you. All right, that's a good thing that you should be concerned about something other than yourself. Good for you, Jonah. Let me

just compare, compare that. Wouldn't it be okay, is it okay with you, Jonah, if I were to have a strong emotional concern about something other than myself? And if that concern is quite similar to yours, for maybe something more significant, you might grant me like the lives of thousands upon thousands of human beings who are made in my image. And not only that, look at the description of this 120,000 human beings. What does it say? This is very interesting. What does it say about the Ninevites? They can't tell their right hand from their left. I always think of 1990 or something.

Kevin Nealon, Saturday Night Live, Mr. No Depth Perception. Remember that one? It wasn't his best known skit. Anyway, it's pretty funny. You can Google it. So it's not like they go around walking into walls all the time or something. They don't know. And so they don't know the right hand from their left.

It's clearly a little Hebrew turn phrase or something like that. It can't mean that they don't know right from wrong at all. Because God clearly expects them to know right from wrong. He brought a word of judgment on their behavior. And they responded accordingly because he knew that they should know better. So it doesn't mean they don't know right from wrong. It seems to be this idiom that they're misguided. Like that human beings, we have some intuition morally, spiritually of the

way that we should go, but we should go right, but we constantly go left, right? Or we should be going left and we constantly, we don't know which way to go. We're lost and misguided morally and spiritually. And this is a common description of human beings in the Bible. Usually it's connected with sheep, stupid sheep that go astray. So this is that idea here. Now, God's not excusing the Ninevites. He's not saying, well, they didn't know better. That's why they just happened to slaughter thousands of people. They're very accountable for their behavior, but they're lost and misguided. That's where their injustice comes from. And he says, listen, Jonah, you are all working up about your little deal and your little plant and good for you. That's great. But can't you see that I might just happen to be concerned about something more

significant like thousands of human beings and also their pets, their animals, right? And you're supposed to laugh, just like you did at the end. You're supposed to laugh because what did the cows do in chapter 3? They repented in sackcloth and ashes too, so God spares them as well. And so the last word of the book is animals, cows, literally. It's cows. Then all their cows. What is Jonah 4 doing to us? We're like, how does Jonah respond? Well, what did he say? I want to know what he said. But that's to miss the point of the whole book. Because this story was never about Jonah in the first place, was it?

Who is this book actually about? It's about you. And the real question is how this story is a word from God to his people. And the real question we should be asking is, how am I living the response to God's question? Because that's what's happening right here. Jonah is this ridiculous caricature of people who grasp the scandal of God's grace and that God loves your enemy as much as he loves you. And when that sinks in, especially when you have a fresh wound from an enemy and

you're struggling with issues of forgiveness, all this chapter packs a punch, a strong, strong punch. And because here's what God is trying to do. He's trying to get Jonah outside of himself and just say, look, Jonah clearly thinks the Ninevites are the worst wretched sinners on the planet. But of course, in the story of Jonah, who's the most hard-hearted, hateful person in the story? It's Jonah. And so God is gently trying to get him to see, like, Jonah, don't you see what's happening here? Yet you're a part of the covenant people, and that's cool, but that doesn't for a second excuse your religious hypocrisy and superiority.

You're just as broken and as lost, as misguided as they are. Jonah, don't you see that? Shouldn't I be concerned about them and their animals? And there you go. There you go. And so really where this takes us is the fact that God loves your enemy. And some of us might hear that and we might think, okay, I think I could swallow that. I think I could deal with the fact that

God loves my enemy. I am not at all sure what I think about the fact that he might want me to as well. So I'm cool. If God loves my enemy and forgives my enemy, I sure hope he doesn't expect me to try and do that. And this is crazy because this is one of the most like fundamental core issues at the story of the gospel. Forgiveness for one's enemies. That's what God is doing for us at the cross. Jesus talked about this kind of stuff all the time. This is what Jonah 4 is about. Jesus put it this way. He said, but I tell you who hear me, He said, but I tell you who hear me, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you.

Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you. And I think even as Christians, we respond to some of these teachings of Jesus in the most bizarre ways. Sometimes we're just like, what? Some of us, we're just kind of like, that's noble and very admirable, Jesus, but I'm just straight up not going to do that. If you look at how we live, it's just, we're just like, no, Jesus, I'm not going to do that. You're crazy if you think that's how things are supposed to go. And this was his

whole announcement of the kingdom of God, is that in him, a whole new way of living in God's world has arrived, where through him, people are reconciled to God, where people who have made ourselves enemies of God through our own self-absorption and selfishness and thinking that we're the star of the show and God's the bit player in my story along with everybody else, right? And so we go through life with that and some of us make more of our lives into a train wreck than others, but we all do it in different ways. And some of us make our lives a train wreck, of course, by actually not doing very much wrong to other people, but feeling quite proud about ourselves for not doing very much wrong to other people, which in God's eyes is just as equally horrible way of being a human being, right? It's religious pride. And so we

all do this, and we're all participants in it. And we hear words like this, and we're just like, Jesus, you clearly didn't have your coffee that morning. Like he's not thinking straight, right? You don't, the world doesn't work like that. And Jesus is like, actually, you all are the ones who have it upside down. This is how God made us to live, fully reconciled to God and to other people.

And of course, none of us have to like try and do this on our own. We do this simply because God is like this already. Gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love, who loves to relent from sending calamity. And example number A, like you and me. And so the book ends like with God inviting Jonah, like Jonah, you have no high ground to stand on, to start declaring who gets God's grace and who doesn't.

We've all made ourselves enemies of God. Some of us are quite blind to that fact, and others of us have started to wake up to that fact, and that he's moved towards me in grace. And this is not trite. I'm not pretending. As your pastor, I recognize there are stories of real pain and hurt and real wounds from other people in the room right now. If there

is one place in the world where the train and the spiral of humans wronging each other and responding to those wrongs with other wrongs and just spirals into the mess that the world is. If there's one place that it stops, it stops at the cross. And the community of people that form around the cross are called to live differently. Not because we think we're better, but because we have been shown grace and compassion. We have been treated not by a God who's slow to anger

and who's abounding in love and kindness towards us. And so what Jonah chapter 4 is doing, what Jesus often did in his teachings, is he's deconstructing the whole idea of what an enemy is. And so you can see clearly what's happened in Jonah's mind. The Ninevites have been like clearly stereotyped and demonized in his thinking. He thinks they're the bad guys. And it's like, they had very soft hearts and turned to God immediately, right? He's the bad guy, but he can't even see that. And so this is what happens to us with our enemies. An enemy is someone who's, in this case, like Jonah, a group of people, an individual, somebody who's wronged you, somebody who's wronged someone that you care about.

Or, you know, I mean, we could probably broaden it like someone who's just really difficult for you to be around. They're an annoying or toxic personality, okay? And you just can't deal with them. And that's okay. Like, it's totally okay to struggle, like, to be around certain people. The issue is what do you do with that repulsion and those emotions? And what most of us tend to do is we tend to fixate on the thing that they did to me. And so we take this complex human person who has a family of origins and a crazy story and probably people that they've wronged and other people who have wronged them, not to excuse what they've done, but just saying they have a story. People don't just behave in screwed up ways for no reason. We all have stories behind the ways that we act.

And so this person came into my life, and this happened, and this is what they did. But what we tend to do as you replay the movie a million times in your head, as you stare at your ceiling at night, is you tend to reduce their complex humanity down to the thing that they did to you. And so maybe someone lied about you or something, and slowly they become the person who told the lie to me

to then they become the liar. And then the movie in your head has, they have a forked tongue or something like that, you know? We begin to reduce down their humanity to that trait that's annoying to us or to the thing that they did to us. And then, of course, because we were the ones who were wronged by them,

we tend to paint ourselves as the opposite of them. And then, of course, because we were the ones who were wronged by them, we tend to paint ourselves as the opposite of them. And then you end up with Jonah chapter 4, where he's so blind to the fact that the line of good and evil goes right down the middle of him that he thinks everyone else is the problem. And you're just like, come on. And so what God is trying to do, and what Jesus did all the time, is he deconstructs the whole concept of an enemy. And he just says, listen, we are all contributors to why this world is the way that it is. Of course, some people are screwed up in different or more ways than others, but the line of good and evil goes through each and every one

of us. We have all made ourselves enemies of God. That's the point of the cross. And as the saying goes, the ground is leveled right there before the cross. Every human being receives grace and mercy. And I do not get the prerogative to stand up before the cross and to say, I totally, okay, thank you. Totally stoked on that, Jesus. That person totally, not them. Are you kidding me? Them? That's not how it works. It's all or none. That's the whole point. that's not how it works. It's all or none. Like, that's the whole point. And that's the point of the gospel, is that none of us get to declare that. It's simply God's gracious, liberal mercy. He's gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness. And so, how Jonah ends, here's the punch. We'll conclude with this. Like, who is this story really about? Is

this really about God and Nineveh? No, this story is really about God and his own people. And he's trying to bring his own people around and open their eyes, open their hearts to how messed up they are and how much they need his grace as anybody else. And so it's actually, grace as anybody else. And so it's actually, God has intentionally brought Jonah into contact with his enemy, not by accident, but precisely because he wants to teach Jonah something. And think about this, you guys. How many of you have a difficult person, an enemy, a toxic person in your life, and you think, I would be able to follow Jesus so awesome if that person had never crossed my path? My life would be so great without them. And if that person had never crossed my path. My life would be so great without them.

And Jonah 4 just flips that over and it says, could it be that that person is in your life precisely as a divine invitation for you to grow and mature in your experience of God's grace? Not just now in receiving it, but beginning to show it to someone else. Not just like mentally assenting to it, but actually beginning to let it flow through you.

Could it be? This is actually the next step of growth for you. And this is what a theologian named Walter Wink, close with this idea, calls this the gift of the enemy. And he puts it brilliantly here. He says it this way. He says, this is the gift that our enemy may be able to bring us. To see aspects of ourselves that we cannot discover any other way than through our enemies. Our friends seldom show

us our flaws. They're our friends precisely because they're able to overlook or ignore those parts of us. The enemy is therefore not just a hurdle to be leaped over on the way to God. Our enemy might actually be the way to God. We cannot come to terms with our own inner shadows except through our enemies. We have almost no other access to those unacceptable parts of ourselves that need redeeming except through the mirror that our enemies hold up to us. He recommends this little exercise, and I commend it to you. He says, this week, at some point, you know, in response to this, sit down with Jonah 4 in a blank sheet of paper and get the person in your mind that you're enemy, and write down every character trait about them that you hate. Like, just get it all out there.

And some of you are like, that sounds like a lot of fun. I like that idea. They're just like, they're selfish, and they're careless, and they're greedy, and they don't care about other people. And just get it all out there. And then he says to finish, and stop, and then pray. And recognize you're in God's presence. And then just line by line, go through each thing that you wrote down

and just ask yourself, have I ever displayed this same kind of behavior? And then it's just a matter of, are you going to be like Jonah or not? Oh, I've never been selfish before. I've never been careless about the needs of other people. It's like, really? The first step towards enemy love

is recognizing the common humanity, the common brokenness that we all share. That's clearly where God is leaning Jonah. Don't you see Jonah? I mean, shouldn't I care about people who are misguided? The Ninevites, maybe you too, Jonah. Don't you see? Couldn't, could it be that this person is in your life

precisely because God's inviting you into a deeper experience of his grace for you? Could it be? I hope that was helpful for you, but also stimulating and thought-provoking, get you thinking about your own life and your own enemies that you need to reconcile with. Hey, and also, thanks. This is the conclusion of the first series we did at Exploring My Strange Bible podcast.

We're going to have a lot more episodes up. And so thanks again for listening. If this series has been helpful for you and you think other people might find this podcast helpful, you can help me by sharing it with other people or going to iTunes and giving it a review. But you guys, the Bible is huge and wonderful and strange, and there's a lot more to explore. So I'm excited to do more of that in the future.