Jonah And The Bush

Today I want to reflect on Jonah and the Bush. Jonah is a famous story, very famous. Kids learn it from the time they're young and adults know it. But today's chapter is the least known part of the story. It is the least known, but it is the most important part of the story. The entire meaning of the whole story of Jonah is found in this chapter, and it revolves around Jonah and the Bush. Jonah was a prophet, and most prophets back in the day, they weren't very successful. I mean, they had a message from God that they were told to proclaim, so they did, but people didn't really listen to them. People didn't want to listen to them, so they were ignored or ridiculed or persecuted. They did not want to hear what they said, but Jonah was different. He was the most successful prophet. He went into Nineveh to proclaim God's judgment on them, and God would destroy them because of their evil ways. And guess what? The people listened. They put on sackcloth and they fasted and they prayed. They repented and they turned from their evil ways. No other prophet had that kind of success. And so God saw how they repented and changed, and God changed his mind. He decided, I will not destroy them. And if the story ended right there, I mean, that would be a great success story, a happy ending. Wow, Jonah did a great thing and they repented and everyone's happy, but that's not how the story ends. We begin today's passage with Jonah's reaction. He was very displeased and he was very angry that God let them off, and he states this as the reason for his displeasure. Oh Lord, is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning, for I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, abounding instead fast love and relenting from punishment. Many of you know that when God first called Jonah to go to Nineveh, what did he do? He got into a boat and went the other way towards Tarshish. And at first, you know, we ask ourselves why, was he a coward? Is he running away from his calling? What's he doing? But here, we see the real reason why he ran away in the first place. It's not because he was a coward, it's because deep down he knew what God was up to. God wanted to save Nineveh from judgment and punishment. God wanted to save them, but Jonah did not want that. He did not like Nineveh. He did not want them to receive mercy. He wanted them to receive justice and judgment. See, Nineveh was a great capital city of a mighty empire, Assyria. Assyria was the first big empire to form in that region. But they didn't become an empire by being nice. They were violent, ruthless, and evil. They inflicted all sorts of suffering upon people. And eventually, even the northern kingdom of Israel, they would completely destroy. So Jonah saw all the evil that they had done. So in his mind, they should be punished. That is the only fair thing. But as you may know in the story, God pursued Jonah. He would not let him off the hook and run away. So Jonah got swallowed up by a big fish and he himself experienced God's great mercy. But he didn't feel merciful toward Nineveh. He finally did agree to go to Nineveh. He proclaimed God's judgment on them. And I think Jonah was really hoping that God would actually follow through on that judgment. But when Alas, God showed mercy, he was bitterly disappointed and angry. Jonah, he did not want to be part of a world where the powerful get away with the evil that they've done. In his mind, God was being way too soft on them. He didn't want to follow a God that just allowed injustice to perpetuate and where they can get away with it. So Jonah was angry. And what did he do? He retreated. He withdrew. He disengaged. He left the city, found made a nice booth for himself where he'd have shade and just watched. He checked out, he disengaged. The world that we live in is a messy and difficult place. We can all feel that. There's so much that is not right. And I think the sheer scale of problems and unfairness and injustice, it can be too much to process and absorb. So people shut down. They disengage. They stop caring and just choose to focus on what they can control and focus on their own comfort. That is what Jonah did. He withdrew and retreated. But you know the amazing thing is God was not upset at Jonah. And Jonah turned his back on God and walked away. But God did not turn his back on Jonah. Instead, God appointed a bush to grow and cover him. It covered him and provided him with a nice shade from the beating sun and shelter from the harsh winds. And that made Jonah very happy. God is good. God knows what we need. God knows that life is very challenging. God knows that we face so many obstacles and pressures at every turn. It's like we can't get a moment of peace sometimes. It's a lot to handle. So God provides a bush for us. God provides shade from the beating sun and shelter from the harsh winds of life because God wants you to be happy. That is God's joy and desire for us to be happy and to enjoy comfort. A lot of young people these days are into this Christian singer, Forest Frank. I just learned about it from my own kids and the Suvalli team. It's a pretty catchy singer but one song, he talks about all the things that he's thankful for. I've got so much to be thankful for. Look, I've got a roof and a bed, a couple groceries to stay fed. I've got a phone and clean water and some shoes when I want to go farther. Today I've got so much to be thankful for. I woke up this morning thinking, thank you Lord for giving me everything I could ever need and more. I've got so much to be thankful for. It's a nice song. I mean, yes, our material provisions, our wonderful families, your friends, your children's successes and their pursuits, our time and money to go on vacations and really enjoy life. These are all things that make us very happy. God is happy to provide them for us but they can become everything. The bush became everything for Jonah. It became all that he cared about. He shut off the world around him and put all of his care and attention into the bush. God appointed a worm to attack the bush and make it wither. And this made Jonah so angry. That's what happens to us, isn't it? When your own bush is attacked and threatened or withers, we don't like it. It makes us very upset. God took away the only remaining thing in the world that made Jonah happy. Why did God do that? This was God's response to Jonah. You are concerned about the bush for which you did not labor and which you did not grow. It came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left and also many animals? In the original slide I had the word concerned underlined and that word concerned it appears twice. You are concerned about the bush. Should I not be concerned about Nineveh? The original word in Hebrew is chus. And the word concerned only captures a partial meaning of it. Chus means things like care, pity, compassion, and deep feeling for something. So it's not just like a concern. It's deep concern and care for something. And so to lose something that you chus about, it causes great anguish. Jonah had deep feeling and anguish for the bush that was lost so much that he wanted to die. But you see that God had deep feeling and anguish about losing the 120,000 people of Nineveh. Can you see the absurdity in the comparison? Jonah cared so much about the bush. God cared so much about 120,000 people and animals. God was not trying to be mean by taking away the bush. God wanted to open Jonah's eyes up to the much bigger world of God's care. Care that included Jonah because God took care of Jonah, but not only Jonah, but the bigger world around him. Jonah cared so much about something that he himself didn't even create. It was God who provided the bush. God cares so much about the world that he did create. And God wanted Jonah to care about that as well. God wanted Jonah to be happy about the bush, but he also wanted Jonah to share God's heart for the world around him. God loves all of you and all of us so much. God wants all of us to be very happy, but the bush is not everything. God has a much bigger purpose for you. So yes, take care of your bush. I mean at our house, I don't even have time to take care of our bush that's in front of our house. So when Deb's parents come over from London, her dad always trims the bush and the shrubs, and I really appreciate that. So if you can, take care of your literal as well as your life bush. But God wants you to care about much more than that. It seems that Jonah's calling was really just to go and preach to Nineveh, and that was part of it. But his true calling was to change his heart to care about the world that God loves. It is not always a nice world. There's a lot of ugliness and it's messy, but it is the world that God created. And in it, God created you and me. We have experienced God's compassion, God's mercy, and God's care over us, and God is happy to do that. But God wants the care that we've received to change and transform our hearts to be caring and merciful for others as well. You are much more than the bush. You are made for much more. So listen to what God has to say. God might be calling you to connect with someone in the church and really care for them. Maybe someone at your school or your work really needs a bit of care. Or there might be a stranger that comes along your way, and you are just the person that God is calling to care for them. When God took away the bush, Jonah must have been so upset. I can understand when things that are very important to us are taken away. It is very upsetting. But God did not leave Jonah alone in his anger. If you really read the story, God came to Jonah and began a conversation with him. In this conversation, I see God's love and compassion for Jonah continuing. He did not condemn Jonah for his attitude. He simply asked him a question, should I not care for Nineveh? And that is how the book ends. We don't know how Jonah responded. And I think the author left it that way because that is the question for us. Should God not care about the world around us? And should we in turn not care? If your own bush is withering or it's shaky, don't be angry. Don't give in to fear because God has not abandoned you. God cares about you and will continue to do so. But in this situation, maybe God is trying to open up a bigger world for you. Take that time to listen. Listen to what God is saying in your heart and see where God is leading you. God will open up great things for you.