Today Clint Loveall and Michael Gewecke explore the profound themes found in the final verses of Jonah. They delve into the complexities of Jonah’s character and the lessons we can learn from his journey. Join them as they discuss the importance of God’s grace, the struggle between personal comfort and compassion for others, and the enduring question of what truly matters in life.
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00:00:02:54 – 00:00:25:10
Clint Loveall
Hey, friends. Welcome. Thanks for joining us. As we, We’ve made it. We come to the end of the book of Jonah. We’ll do a couple more sessions next week to kind of give some final thoughts and some wrap up, but today we encounter the last bit of text and in as is fitting in most of the Scripture, God has the last word here in the story.
00:00:25:10 – 00:00:52:09
Clint Loveall
So, let me read these final verses. We’re starting here in verse nine, and then, we’ll come back and we’ll have some discussion. God said to Jonah, is it right for you to be angry about the Bush? And Jonah said, yes, angry enough to die. Then the Lord said, you are concerned about the bush for which you did not labor, which you did not grow.
00:00:52:13 – 00:01:24:42
Clint Loveall
It came into being in the night and perished in the night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, the 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. So one of the interesting things to start with the end is how Jonah just tails off as we get to the end here, God makes a statement to Jonah and the way this is laid out, Jonah has made a statement in the first part of this chapter.
00:01:24:46 – 00:01:48:14
Clint Loveall
That statement in the Hebrew is 39 words. Now we have God’s answer, also 39 words. And that matters because that’s a that’s not a coincidence. That’s not an accident. The author has done that on purpose to say, this is God’s answer to Jonah’s complaint. If you were with us, you remember Jonah says, this is why I didn’t want to come here to Nineveh in the first place.
00:01:48:14 – 00:02:09:50
Clint Loveall
I knew you’d be gracious to these people. I knew you were kind. I knew you were slow to anger, impatient, and I knew you would find a way to let them off the hook. And now God responds to Jonah with the exact number of words, a counterargument. But then, interestingly enough, Michael and I and I think this is fascinating.
00:02:09:50 – 00:02:31:55
Clint Loveall
There there are just a couple of books in Scripture that do something like this. maybe this one in the gospel of Mark comes to mind the original ending of the gospel of Mark Hmhm it just ends, right? And God says, should I not care about this place with all these people and with many animals? Question mark, nothing else.
00:02:31:55 – 00:02:55:24
Clint Loveall
Right? And that is the lingering question, right? I mean, yes, we can wonder what happened to Jonah, but as always, remember that that Scripture is about God first and the characters second. And so the question that the text leaves us is a question from the Lord. Should I not care about these people who don’t know right from wrong?
00:02:55:26 – 00:03:08:48
Clint Loveall
They don’t know their left from there right? That that’s just an idiom that means they don’t know what is right. They don’t know what is correct, what is proper. Should I not care about them?
00:03:08:52 – 00:03:11:33
Clint Loveall
Answer the question. And it’s a fascinating ending.
00:03:11:40 – 00:03:39:52
Michael Gewecke
Well, and so this question connects to previous questions as well. And I think this sort of exposes the genius of this book that we have been studying together is the fact that both God has been architect to this point from the very beginning, and also the the teller of this story. The author of Jonah has been doing that as well, because here in verse four of chapter four, this would have been a previous study.
00:03:39:57 – 00:04:02:30
Michael Gewecke
The Lord asks, is it right for you to be angry here? talking about the sort of outcome following Jonah going into the city. Now here at the end, we have this question again, verse nine. Is it for right for you to be angry now about the bush? And here we have the answer. Yes. Angry enough to die.
00:04:02:34 – 00:04:29:23
Michael Gewecke
We now see that Jonah has a 100% gone through this process. The bush, the plant, the the animal that eats it, the withering, this whole thing. Jonah, whether he sees it or not, sees the connection between this plant and the city itself. The author really doesn’t care to tell us that. The point is, when push comes to shove, Jonah’s answer is yes.
00:04:29:23 – 00:05:08:51
Michael Gewecke
Angry enough to die? Is that thing that inconvenience to comfort? That’s worth it. God, at the end of the day, that is the thing that I’m willing to die on the hill for, literally. And now God’s going to respond. And when God does, we now come quickly to see the trap that was laid or the the illustration that was laid, the teaching parable that God has given with this thing and we begin to see very, very clearly this question that we’re going to end with, should God be less concerned about a city, a great city, even if it’s the enemy’s city?
00:05:08:56 – 00:05:37:46
Michael Gewecke
when ultimately Jonah that cares this much about his own comfort and a plant. And that’s the question that’s going to linger and clench your point. What that does is, number one, it puts the ball back in the court of the reader. Because really, realistically, if this story was being told before, it was written down that this story was told in that oral tradition, it’s likely a kid would say, hey, so what’s the ending of the story?
00:05:37:51 – 00:05:56:29
Michael Gewecke
And, you know, maybe they would answer that, maybe they wouldn’t. Maybe they’d say, well, the whole point is that we don’t have the answer to that. Or maybe they would fill in and say, well, Jonah hadn’t learned his lesson or whatever the case may be here, the writer and the editors and those who have passed it on throughout all time, they’ve gone to great lengths to leave this open ended.
00:05:56:29 – 00:06:18:37
Michael Gewecke
And I think that is part of the point, the story, the scripture that speaks to us here, Clint, is this reality that in some way we’re all living our lives. In answer to this question, what is worth the cost of God’s grace and what isn’t? And where do we attribute that to ourselves on our own benefit? And where do we withhold that from others?
00:06:18:52 – 00:06:24:04
Michael Gewecke
And it ends with a question mark. And I think that’s a powerful literary invitation.
00:06:24:09 – 00:06:48:00
Clint Loveall
I think the question what happens next is the one that lingers for the reader. But before we get there, Michael, I just, I, I don’t want to push this too far, but I think that it’s valid when God says, are you right to be angry? Is it right for you? In other words, are you right? Is your anger justified?
00:06:48:05 – 00:07:17:52
Clint Loveall
Are you in the right? And by implication, or am I the Lord in the wrong? If Jonah believes himself to be right, I think we have to read between the lines and say he believes God to be wrong and he he doubles down. Yes, angry enough to die. It is right for me not only to be angry, but to be so angry that I would give up my life on this.
00:07:17:52 – 00:07:47:19
Clint Loveall
I would literally, in the context of this story, die on this hill to prove that I’m right. And and then, fascinatingly, God doesn’t really respond to that. He says, yeah, Jonah, you give thanks for a Bush. You’re grateful for a bush. You didn’t do anything for it. And you and you give thanks for it. Am I not supposed to care about people as much as you care about a bush?
00:07:47:24 – 00:08:13:28
Clint Loveall
And then we’re left to wonder what happened next. How long does Jonah sit on the hill? How long does he sit there fuming? Literally. The word anger means to burn. How long does he sit there burning? How? How long does he wait before he decides he’s not going to get his way? And and he gets up and goes to whatever’s next?
00:08:13:33 – 00:08:38:58
Clint Loveall
Does God ever call him to something else? And if so, does he do it? There’s so many interesting questions that get left hanging here, and I think that’s a mark of good writing. when the story turns into kind of personal reflection and you don’t even realize that it’s necessarily doing that, I think that’s a mark of great literature.
00:08:38:58 – 00:09:04:13
Clint Loveall
And I think Jonah falls in that category. And and the question we’re left with, yeah. Who is right here? Is it Jonah? Is it God? And does Jonah ever get it? And, you know, we probably all have our own theories about that. I don’t know, maybe we’ll share them. I wouldn’t want to influence anybody, but, I think that’s an interesting way to look at this book.
00:09:04:13 – 00:09:06:56
Clint Loveall
This. Does Jonah ever get it?
00:09:07:01 – 00:09:32:22
Michael Gewecke
Well, I’m part of the get it clan. I think here is if he’s burning while the city that he was hoping would burn doesn’t burn. Does he ever see the irony of that? Is it ever brought to his own awareness the contradictions happening within himself, that that’s the part of Jonah’s character that I think is left open to us, the reader, because it’s not explicit.
00:09:32:22 – 00:09:56:24
Michael Gewecke
We don’t get a lot of this is what Jonah thought or this is what Jonah felt. In this circumstance, we only see how Jonah’s responding to these different situations. And because of that, there’s this room in which we can find some of our self and our own motivations inside this character. Well, if I was on a hill and I felt this comfort and then it was taken away from me, yeah, I can relate to that.
00:09:56:24 – 00:10:14:56
Michael Gewecke
I’d be angry too. But then when you put yourself and you say, and also there are people who’ve wronged me in my life, they really, actually wronged me, and I really am tempted to wish ill upon them, would I be able to rejoice at their salvation? And then we ask ourselves, well, I think I’d feel lots of different emotions in that.
00:10:14:56 – 00:10:52:28
Michael Gewecke
And I think if I sat on that hill, I could understand where Jonah ended and all of these things sort of spin out ahead of us. We can understand all of these things the the way so that Jonah is comfortable at the end, rising to be one on one with God. Yes. Angry enough to die. That should harken back to something like the Genesis story, where sin enters into the world that a kind of human arrogance to stand before God and say that my understanding, my reality, my my desire for judgment upon these others is so great.
00:10:52:28 – 00:11:36:12
Michael Gewecke
As for me to tell God the way that it should be, that is the kind of inward turn soul that we see from the very beginning, as being the end. Here Jonah is exemplifying. Yet Jonah this now can we call him reluctant prophet, a certainly angry prophet that God would use him to do this work? And this is, I think, the incredible, also providential frame of God that God is able to use this very, very reluctant messenger, this person who doesn’t want to do the work that God is able to use that person to God’s end, even if at the end, Jonah may never have desired that outcome that God has brought to bear.
00:11:36:25 – 00:11:44:04
Michael Gewecke
This is an incredible statement of what God is able to do in spite of the human spirit, as opposed to because of it.
00:11:44:18 – 00:12:08:58
Clint Loveall
I think there may also be a kind of sneaky lesson in the abrupt ending here. You know, Jonah makes his case. I didn’t want to come here. I was afraid this would happen, etc. he now stands up to God. Yes, angry enough to to die. God says, are you telling me I shouldn’t care more about people animals? I shouldn’t care more about humanity than you care about your comfort.
00:12:08:58 – 00:12:44:13
Clint Loveall
And this bush. And if you think that out logically, there’s no answer Jonah can get. I mean, Jonah can continue to argue his his. Oh, well, I think those people are this. But but part of the ending here is the silence of Jonah’s unwillingness to be gracious. When you make that choice, is it possible that what we’re what we’re being shown is that Jonah is willing to sit with being wrong?
00:12:44:13 – 00:13:10:13
Clint Loveall
Not he doesn’t think he’s wrong. But is it that there’s no answer? You can give God to that question that justifies your hardness of heart when God says, should I not love that person? I’ve been gracious to you. Shouldn’t I be gracious to them? And you say, no, you shouldn’t. And God says, well, why you can’t? Yeah, there’s there’s no answer.
00:13:10:13 – 00:13:24:56
Clint Loveall
And maybe part of the, the genius of this ending is it does leave us in the silence of Jonah’s very inadequate answer. I’m not sure that’s the intention, but I do think maybe that’s one of the effects.
00:13:25:01 – 00:13:47:58
Michael Gewecke
Yeah. And there is a kind of insult in this that I think we need to be reminded of to help us understand the force of this. Nineveh being a great city is certainly not a sentiment that Jonah would have shared. The idea that it would be in any way redeemable, being an enemy of the people, being actually, as the text has told us, a place that is evil, that has done these evil things.
00:13:48:12 – 00:14:14:00
Michael Gewecke
And yet when the people repent, they do so wholeheartedly. You might remember that detail. All even the animals were kept from food. This idea that from the top to the bottom and here once again don’t know the right hand from their left. And also just adding on many animals, this idea that all the way to even the things that you might consider commodities, Jonah, that those things are things that God cares about.
00:14:14:13 – 00:14:35:45
Michael Gewecke
God’s mercy and grace is far more expansive. And how could Jonah respond to that realistically, in terms of the force of the argument? Like you said, he can’t. There’s no way forward here. Other than to say, God, the only kind of grace and mercy that I think you should have is for people that I approve it. I want.
00:14:35:45 – 00:14:57:07
Michael Gewecke
In other words, it’s to say I want to be the determiner of the divine grace, which means that Jonah would have to argue that Jonah should get to be God. And in the face of that kind of force of chasm, it just makes it abundantly clear to us, the reader, that there really is only one path that this road takes.
00:14:57:07 – 00:14:59:15
Michael Gewecke
And the question is, will you walk the road or not?
00:14:59:16 – 00:15:27:37
Clint Loveall
Right. And if God has been moved by the repentant eyes of the Ninevites, how is it that Jonah refuses to be moved? How is it that Jonah sits stubbornly, unable or unwilling to allow the grace that has been a part of his life to be directed at others? I think, you know, it leaves us with just, not a flattering picture of Jonah.
00:15:27:37 – 00:15:55:46
Clint Loveall
I think as we particularly we we talked about this a little bit in the last couple of sessions, Michael, particularly this fourth chapter of the book. It doesn’t paint Jonah in a great light. I think it’s now toward the end of the story that we really see the depth of the kind of hardness that he brings in his heart, the kind of unwillingness, the kind of, stubbornness that he’s shown us glimpses of throughout the book.
00:15:55:46 – 00:16:21:41
Clint Loveall
But here we really get the clearest picture of it and you know it again, a fascinating story. Four chapters, not that long, but a really interesting look at a man who is first unwilling to obey. And then second, as even as God changed God’s own plans for Nineveh, Jonah is unwilling to change his feelings, his heart for the Ninevites.
00:16:21:41 – 00:16:34:16
Clint Loveall
He he won’t do it. And, it would be fascinating to know what happened next, but I think that is left to the reader, because ultimately that becomes a personal question.
00:16:34:21 – 00:16:53:56
Michael Gewecke
A tiny detail. Just to mention here, before we close up here today, no, this this question that God asks, essentially, why are you concerned about the Bush that you didn’t labor for and you didn’t grow? There’s a kind of there’s a part to this, Clint, that involves the work. You know, Jonah, you didn’t do any of this work.
00:16:53:56 – 00:17:20:31
Michael Gewecke
And I think that ultimately, part of the quiet lesson of the ending of Jonah is that God doesn’t wait on people to do the thing that God is going to do. God is able to bring about grace and mercy and extend that. When God chooses to do that work, Jonah, despite his very best, attempts to go the opposite way, then ultimately to preach the most halfhearted sermon he could find.
00:17:20:36 – 00:17:43:45
Michael Gewecke
Each one of these steps that we see along the way, whether or not Jonah is changed, and that this question that God asked generates a kind of transformative moment in his heart. Regardless of any of that, we see God who is able to do immeasurably abundantly beyond what we could ask, think, and also what we can even conceive of doing for ourselves.
00:17:43:47 – 00:17:57:32
Michael Gewecke
I think that’s part of the Jonah story that is also so poignant is that this is God’s story, and it’s seen through the lens of this Jonah character who’s struggling to get on board with what God is asking to have done.
00:17:57:45 – 00:18:19:46
Clint Loveall
Yeah, there’s a lot of depth here. We hope there’s been something in it. That brings us to the end of the text, and we hope there’s been something in it that has been helpful for you. Somewhere along the way, we will meet a couple more times, on the book of Jonah as we offer some some thoughts. And, you know, not surprisingly, I think for most people, this is a book that’s gotten a lot of attention because it is unusual.
00:18:19:46 – 00:18:40:59
Clint Loveall
It does leave a lot of question marks. So, we’ll spend a couple of days kind of summarizing and wrapping it up. But we as we come to the end of the text, we hope there’s been something in these studies that maybe has been helpful for you, or maybe something you’ve learned that will, help you grow in a new direction or challenge you in a new way.
00:18:41:04 – 00:18:43:30
Clint Loveall
As we encounter the word together.
00:18:43:35 – 00:18:58:23
Michael Gewecke
Actually, as we prep for that, if you want to leave any questions you might have about Jonah, leave those in the comments. That might be something that we could reference as we prepare for that. Hope you’ll join this next week as we kick off on Monday. Give this video you like helps others find it. Subscribe. We look forward to seeing you next week.
00:18:58:28 – 00:18:59:09
Clint Loveall
Thanks everybody!