The anger of a prophet disgraced in his own eyes.

V4:1a  but, it displeased Jonah exceedingly

·        “It”: the repentance of the LORD. 

·        The repentane of the people of Nineveth was not why Jonah was exceeding displeased. His exceeding displeasure was in the LORD’s repentance of the evil He had once pronounced upon the city.

·        Question#1: when had the LORD repented of the evil?

V4:1b .  .  . and he was very angry.

·        Question#2:What or who was the object of his anger?

The answers these questions if found in V4:2

 V4:2a And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country?

·        What did he say to the LORD before he fled to Joppa?

·         “I am exceedingly displeased and very angry” had to be what Jonah told the LORD when he was instructed to rise and go to Nineveth.

·        His anger was not over the Ninivites’ repentance; his anger was with the LORD.

V42b Therefore & For:

·        Therefore: Jonah was displeased and angry with the LORD he fled to Tarshish

·        For: he knew the nature of the LORD, He was able to control His anger and to extend His grace, mercy and kindness to a nation that would repent and turn from their evil, wicked ways.

V4:2c and repentest thee of the evil.

·        Did Jonah know before he fled to Tarshiah that the Ninevites were going to repent of their evil, wicked ways and call the LORD, God, through his peraching?

·        Did Jonah know before he fled to Tarshish that the LORD had already repented of the evil He had pronounced upon Nineveth?

·        Note the phrase Jonah used: “repentest thee of the evil” before he fled from the presence of the LORD. It seems to me Jonah was told by the LORD the outcome of his mission to Nineveh before it took place. He seemed to know the Ninevites were going to truly repent of their evil wicked ways and be spared from the wrath of the LORD before he sent Jonah.

·        Jonah was so displeased and angry at the thought of the LORD using him to extend his grace, mercy and kindness unto the people of Ninevh he fled to Tarshish

·        All this was also done for the Ninevites’ sake. Remember “Assyria, the work of my hands” in Isaiah 19:25 & 45:11) 

·        [Isaiah 11:10-16; 19:1-25] We know the LORD will use Assyria to shield the nation of Israel during “that day”, the tribulation of seen in the book of Revelation

V3 Therefore [why is therefore there for?] I am so displeased and angry with you I just do not want to live under these circumstances.

Consider this:

·        The LORD wanted the people of Nineveh to repent and turn from their evil ways. [Ezekiel 33:11];

·        The LORD knew Jonah would seek to flee from his presence instead going directly to Nineveh (V1:17 Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah .  . ]. Could the LORD have known that if a prophet went directly to Nineveh they would not have believed him and repented, and only the sign of Jonah would bring them to point of repentance? He used Jonah’s experience as a sign unto the Ninevites to justify Jonah’s message proving it was from the true LORD.

·        He caused the great tempest for Jonah’s sake. He prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah for Jonah’s sake. He wanted Jonah to be blessed by paying his vow. (V2:9)

·        Jonah, “LORD how dare you put me through all this to save these wicked Gentiles? I am very angry, with you!” I spent days telling them you were going to destroy the city. LORD you made me look like a fool when you spared the city.” 

But there is more reason for Jonah wanting to die than him being seen as a fool: being a disgraced prophet.

·        CH Spurgeon: His reputation as a prophet was everything in his eyes, and how would it be maintained now that the city would be spared?  Besides, he abhorred the idolatrous people, and thought it absurd to spare them: they were in his eyes only fit to be destroyed.

• Deuteronomy 18:20 But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak,  . . .  even that prophet shall die.
• Could it be that Jonah failed to preach all the words the LORD told him to preach and that he felt he deserved to die because he was a false prophet.

V4 Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry, (angry with Me)?

Anger can cause you the say things in haste.

·        Ecclesiastes 7:9 Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.

·        Proverbs 29:22 ¶ An angry man stirreth up strife, and a furious man aboundeth in transgression.

·        Jonah you are a fool, transgression aboundeth in you

·        Numbers 20:11-12,24; Psalms 106:32-33, Genesis 4:6-7

What sin lied at the door for Jonah: see verse 4:5 – next lesson