Intro: Welcome to the Spoken Gospel Podcast. Spoken Gospel is a ministry that's dedicated to speaking the gospel out of every corner of scripture. In Luke 24, Jesus told his disciples that every part of the Bible was about him. So each week, hosts David and Seth work through a passage of scripture to see how it's all about Jesus and his good news. Let's jump in.
David: Well, welcome everyone to the final episode of the Book of Jonah on the Spoken Gospel Podcast. Seth, how are you today?
Seth: I'm doing great. I'm glad to celebrate for the last time our half a million download marker for the podcast.
David: Woo!
Seth: Welcoming the YouTube committee— committee? Committee. YouTube— community onto our podcast, uh, for the last book of Jonah.
David: Yeah, for those of you who watched all 4 videos of Jonah on YouTube, we commend you. We commend you. Thank you. We love you being a part of this. And for those of you on the podcast who have listened to this whole book, we hope you have grown to love and enjoy this book as much as we have. Um, and we're going to end it today with the weirdest part, maybe. I don't know, the, the, the fish is weird, but like maybe the most overlooked part of the book. Which is the plant that God sent to grow up over Jonah and shade him before taking it away and making Jonah very angry. And then we'll talk about the cliffhanger of the end, of the end, which the last word in the ESV—
Seth: cattle— is cattle. What it is, I think it's cattle in almost all the translations.
David: Also much cattle are the last 3 words of the book.
Seth: Yeah.
David: So we're actually— it's also much cattle?
Seth: It's a question. God asks a question that Jonah never answered. Oh, uh, NIV is also many animals.
David: Yeah. Which I think livestock or animals is a better translation. Um, but yes, strange little chapter here.
Seth: It's a strange little chapter and it's an object lesson to Jonah.
David: Yes.
Seth: Because he has just called God evil.
David: Right. So why don't, why don't you catch us up?
Seth: Okay.
David: Real quick. Get, do, these are my favorite things. The Seth Stewart's, the Seth Stewart catch-up synthesis.
Seth: So, from the very beginning?
David: Yeah.
Seth: So Jonah was told to give a message to Nineveh by God. Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria, the ancient enemy of Israel who would one day exile them. They were a brutal nation. Yeah. And Jonah had every right not to want to go there. However, it was also disobedience to not go there. He goes on a long journey of disobedience down to the bottom of the ocean in the belly of a fish. God says, I'm sending you there anyway. He gets to Nineveh, delivers the message half-heartedly at best, and there is a citywide repentance leading all the way up to the king. And the king of this evil, oppressive, violent nation repents, and God relents. God repents of the disaster he promised. And Jonah then says, it is evil, exceedingly evil, that God would show mercy to a king like the one of Assyria.
David: Mm-hmm. Okay.
Seth: He has a conversation with God about it.
David: So Jonah has called God evil for forgiving Assyria.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: And so now God is kind of done dealing with Assyria at this point, and now it's time for him to deal with Jonah.
Seth: Yep.
David: Okay. So what, what, what's this object lesson?
Seth: Right. So let's start with verse 1 and 2. So verse 1 is he calls God evil, but it displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was angry. That word displeased is the word? Evil.
David: Oh, okay. Yeah. It's also interesting to repeated words here. And ironic reversals and everything that's been happening is God relents from his fierce anger, verse 9 of chapter 3. And then so now who's angry? It's not God anymore. Now it's Jonah. Now Jonah has anger. So God's not angry anymore. His prophet should get over it.
Seth: Right?
David: But he doesn't. Now he's angrier than he's ever been.
Seth: Yep. Okay. So Jonah prays to God, to the Lord, the covenant God.
David: Oh, Yahweh. So now, and now this is a repeat of chapter 2.
Seth: That's right.
David: Chapter 1 and chapter 3 were repeating each other. You had the salvation of the Joppa Tortuga Pirates on the ship, the sailors, the Gentile nation there being saved despite Jonah's passivity. And then in Nineveh, you had the salvation of Assyria and the pagans there, despite his passivity in his sermon.
Seth: And just like you had a prayer from the belly of the fish, you now have a prayer in the belly of exile in the city of Nineveh, uh, complaining to God.
David: Okay, so go ahead.
Seth: So, O Lord, is this not what I said to you when I was back in my country, that it— this is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish? So we've never been told why Jonah That's right. Didn't obey God.
David: Yeah.
Seth: And we've talked about this before. It's because you're not supposed to know, because you are supposed to, as you read the story, ask the question, why didn't Jonah obey? And perhaps even agree with Jonah, right? And not, not going to the enemy city of Assyria, which we keep comparing to Nazi Germany. And we're like, is there any better way to do it than sending a Jew to Nazi Germany and sending a Jew to Assyria? Like, there really isn't such a It's good but difficult comparison. It's a good but difficult comparison that gets to the horror and the reason why Jonah doesn't want to go.
David: Yeah.
Seth: But so we sympathize with Jonah and then Jonah says this: For I knew the reason I didn't want to go is because I knew you were a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and relenting from disaster.
David: Is that the same words as repenting from evil?
Seth: Ooh, my guess is that's exactly the same.
David: Yeah, that's really interesting. He knew he would repent from evil.
Seth: We can look up—
David: that is crazy—
Seth: that in Logos. You doing that now? Yeah, I am. And as he looks up that, I'll just finish. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. And that's how— it's the opposite of the prayer you prayed in the fish. He wanted God to save him from death. Now he wants to die, which is actually what happened in chapter 1. He wanted to be thrown into the sea. And that's his complaint against God. Did you find what you were looking for in Logos?
David: Uh, Yeah, I'm almost there. And yeah, so it's the— let's see, I think it's the same thing here. One more check. Yes. So it's the same thing to say— it's not the same word as the overturn that in Jonah's sermon, but it is the same word, verse 10 of chapter 3. The Hebrew word for God relenting from his disaster is the same thing. It's that he knows that he is a God who relents from Ra, from evil, from disaster. And so that's why he didn't want to go, because he knew— I knew you would do this, God. Yeah, because it's the kind of God you are. And I didn't want you to be that consistent God.
Seth: Right. And so what this exposes— yeah, but this— Jonah's offended by the gospel.
David: Yeah.
Seth: We've been talking about how we want to be offended by the mercy of God.
David: Yeah.
Seth: You've just had somebody like Hitler who was violent, if not more so to the Jews as Hitler was, repent and receive God's mercy. Yeah. And Jonah reveals that his problem all along has been God's mercy. Yeah. Which is a twist for me. I'm not expecting— I normally generally have a problem with God's justice.
David: Right.
Seth: Not when it comes to people like Hitler. Right. I want God's justice. But when it comes to people like that, Fundamentally, I actually have a problem with God's mercy, which is why he says this here in this place. You're supposed to identify with Jonah up to this moment, and then you realize, oh my gosh, wait a second, I am arguing with the very character and nature of God.
David: Yes.
Seth: And he actually uses God's covenant name. The first time God describes himself in the Bible is in Exodus chapter 20. Yeah. And he says that I saved you from Egypt. Because I am a gracious God, merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.
David: Mm.
Seth: God— Jonah throws God's name back at his face and says, I don't like that you're this kind of God. I don't like that you're merciful. Mm. Ow. Right. Yeah, because I don't— I think I like a God of mercy.
David: Yeah, until he starts showing it to people that you think it's unjust for him to show it to.
Seth: Right.
David: But there's a huge irony here that he is throwing God's the long form of God's covenant name, right? That you are abounding in steadfast love, slow to anger. This is like the 40-word version of God's name. And he's throwing it back in God's face, saying, I don't like that you're that kind of God. But the irony is that that name was revealed when God made the covenant with Israel. He's like, the only reason you are angry with me is because I'm actually trying to fulfill the covenant that I made with you.
Seth: Right.
David: And you want to hold on to it, make it mean one certain thing. I mean, like, let me just divert real quick.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Because I think it's really interesting. There's, there's a parable Jesus tells that, that actually does offend me in this way. And it's, it's the parable that talks about how there's this master who has some work to do in his, in his, in his farm.
Seth: Yeah.
David: So he goes out and he drafts a day laborer. He says, come work in my farm all day. So the day laborer comes and he works 8 hours. Then a little bit later in the day, he goes and gets another day laborer. He works for— and he works 4 hours. Then he goes and finds a day laborer who works 1 hour at the end of the day. Yeah, you know, he didn't— and he didn't have to put up with the 1 PM heat or anything like that. He comes in at like 4 and it's like getting cool and like most the work was already done. And this guy comes in and does that. Then the master lines them all up and pays the exact same amount to everybody. Whether they worked 8 hours or 1 hour. And the guy who worked 8 hours is like, um, excuse me, I worked 8 times longer and harder than this guy. I should be compensated differently. Yeah. And the master says, what is it to you? These are agreed-upon wages. It's my money. I can do with it whatever I want. Is it not my prerogative to be able to show mercy to this person and be able to uphold my bargain with you? Like, it's the master's mercy to do with what he will. Yeah, but I'm offended by that. And I think most Americans in a consumeristic, capitalistic society would be as well.
Seth: Yeah, that it's like if you had a coworker, I think everybody's offended by that.
David: Yeah, yeah, exactly. If you had a coworker that like was like that worked an eighth of the time as you, you came in 5 days a week, they came in 1 day every 2 weeks and you got— and they worked part-time days and you worked full-time days. And you found out that the employer was letting you and him take home the exact same paycheck, you would feel extreme injustice, right? And that is what Jonah is dealing with here.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Jonah is like, this is not fair.
Seth: This is unjust.
David: These are not God's covenant people. We've been trying to keep the law in there. We've got the temple. We've been doing the sacrifices. We've been reading the law. We've been doing the thing. I'm a prophet of God. I listen to God's voice, right? These guys are like murdering people, inventing crucifixion, celebrating their horrors, and now they get to be grafted in with us? This isn't— it's not fair.
Seth: It's not fair.
David: And like, he's just offended, right? And he says, God, I think your mercy is evil. Yeah, I can see why he's mad.
Seth: I can see why he's mad too. Yeah. Which is why God responds to Jonah's complaint with, do you do well to be angry?
David: Do you do well to be angry?
Seth: Is it right that you're angry, Jonah? That's, that's, that's God. So God listens and then God responds. Is it right for you to be angry?
David: Right. Do you do well to be angry?
Seth: And we don't get an answer to the question, right?
David: He doesn't answer the question. Again, he is passive.
Seth: Passive. And so Jonah leaves the city at that point, leaves the belly of exile. Maybe we should talk about that. That idea that we just talked about in context of Israel in exile. We keep saying that Jonah is a representative for Israel in exile.
David: Yeah.
Seth: Story is told and for the benefit of Israel in exile. So imagine being told that in exile, right? You are in exile looking at the people who are evil towards you.
David: These are the people who came to your hometown, destroyed your home, stole all of your possessions.
Seth: Colonized your land.
David: Colonized your land, went to your temple, your church, your place of worship.
Seth: Burned it.
David: Burned it to the ground, stole everything from it, deported you and your family, are now trying to indoctrinate you into their ways and saying that to be who you are as an Israelite, as a whoever you are, like is wrong, you need to live this way, and they're shaming you for your heritage.
Seth: Yeah. And now, and like, they get mercy before we do. God.
David: Yeah. And now God's like, I'm going to go save them. And you're like, uh, no, we are still in exile. We're still in exile.
Seth: And you're going to save them, God? Like, it is an offensive mercy.
David: Yeah.
Seth: That Jonah, like, I understand Jonah.
David: And now imagine God then through this, this book coming to those in exile and saying, who are angry at their oppressors, who are angry at them. Angry at God for wanting to save them and bring them mercy. And then he just looks at them through this book and says, do you do well to be angry, O Israel?
Seth: Is it right that you're angry?
David: Yeah.
Seth: Oh, it's, it's the parable. It's the exact parallel. Is it right that you're angry, man?
David: It's like, it's— we talked about this, the, the story of the prodigal son, where the older brother is angry about the mercy that the father is showing his prodigal son. Right. And he goes out to him. He's like, hey, why are you so sad? Yeah, come into the party. He does the same thing. He's like God to Jonah, going out to him saying, hey, older brother, do you— right, do you do well to be angry out here sulking?
Seth: Yeah, it's— that's the— I think that's a consistent theme in the Gospels too. Paul even picks up on this in Romans 11. Maybe we should save that for later on in today's podcast. Okay. Yeah. Like, anyway, we'll save that for a second.
David: But, um, so he, he, he was in the belly of the beast and now he's vomiting himself up out of the land.
Seth: Yes.
David: And goes up on a hill so he can overlook the disaster, hoping to be like a new Abraham in a sense, who was prophesying the, or, you know, like the, the coming, who knew about the coming destruction of Assyria and was hoping that at the end of the 40 days he would get to see fire and brimstone fall down on the city.
Seth: Yep.
David: Uh, so he goes up.
Seth: Why is he like Abraham in that?
David: Oh, I mean, not, I mean, He's like a new, 'cause Abraham looked out on the city and was praying for it. He's like an anti-Abraham.
Seth: Oh, he's anti, 'cause Abraham is—
David: Interceding.
Seth: Interceding for the city that was gonna be overturned, Sodom and Gomorrah.
David: Yes, but instead he's just sitting there licking his lips waiting for the destruction.
Seth: He has no faith in Abraham. I get it, okay.
David: So he's waiting for the destruction and he's sitting there and he's sweltering under the noonday sun and God does something strange. He prepares something else, not a fish this time.
Seth: He appoints a plant. Same word as the fish, same word as the fish. And it came up over Jonah that it might be a shade over his head to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad. He wasn't exceedingly displeased. He was exceedingly glad because of the plant.
David: Okay.
Seth: It was like, okay, weird. Yeah, weird. But what you should have in the back of your mind as you read that, God has just shown Jonah a mercy.
David: Right. And one that he did not deserve.
Seth: One that he did not deserve.
David: He just cursed God out. Called him evil.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Pouted, ran away from his assignment in Assyria. Job wasn't done yet. Goes up licking his lips to watch the destruction. And then God shows him a mercy he does not deserve. A mercy that should offend us. Would you be offended? Like, okay, so I'll show my hands here.
Seth: Okay.
David: I remember reading this story and I came and talked to you about this.
Seth: Sorry. Oh, the word discomfort is the word raw.
David: Is it really?
Seth: It's the same word. Oh, my God. God sent him the plant. To give him a shade over his head, to save him from his evil.
David: Oh my gosh. He was experiencing evil under the sun.
Seth: Yeah. No, he— to save him from his own evil.
David: Oh, that's Assyria. That hopefully his mercy, like the, that the mercy shown to him through the plant would change his heart toward Assyria.
Seth: Yeah.
David: It's also probably the evil of the sun though. You know, it's like a double entendre.
Seth: I'm sure there is. And there's— that's coming too.
David: So anyway, I remember, I remember telling you coming into your office after, after reading the end of Jonah again.
Seth: Yeah.
David: And just being like, man, I was really— I was reading the end of Jonah and I was a little upset with God for being so kind to Jonah. Yes. I was just like, I was like, he's a jerk. Just leave him alone. Why are you doing this object lesson? Like, and then I was just like, and there's— it's a cliffhanger. And some people want to say that he ends up turning his life around.
Seth: Yeah.
David: And he is saved from his raw by the plant. And I was like, I don't want him to be saved. I want Jonah to have learned to like—
Seth: I want him to be judged.
David: I want him to be judged.
Seth: Yeah. For his—
David: and I was like, oh man, I'm Jonah against Jonah.
Seth: Yeah. Because I don't want that mercy. Yeah. I don't want Jonah to receive mercy. Yeah.
David: That's funny. But it's like, that's what's happening here is God is showing Jonah an offensive mercy. That's what I was trying to explain is that I was offended by the mercy of the plant. Yes, that this plant comes out after Jonah has been the worst. Yeah. And God is showing mercy to him to prove to him like, hey, look, I can give you mercy when you don't deserve it too. Shouldn't that save you from your raw?
Seth: Yeah.
David: Okay, interesting.
Seth: But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed again—
David: same word as when he appointed the fish or the wind—
Seth: this time a worm, and it attacked the plant so that it withered. And so when the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah. And he was faint and got— and he asked that he might die and said, it's better for me to live— to die than to live. But God said, do you do well to be angry at the plants?
David: Asks him the same question.
Seth: Um, a couple of things here. So the word angry and the word hot are the same, right? So the word scorching, that's the same root word for angry.
David: Right.
Seth: And so you have this, we have the raw of the evil of the sun, the evil of Jonah, the raw of God sending an east wind, but also the anger of Jonah against Nineveh. They're all connected. Do you see how they're all connected themes?
David: You have an angry sun and an angry Jonah, a hot, hot sun and a hot Jonah. I mean, the idea, it's where we get our idea of like, your, your tempers run hot. Whenever you get angry. We have this idea in English.
Seth: I don't think— I mean, obviously Hebrew has the word for anger, right? But it's the word hot.
David: Yeah, they have it. They share a root. Yeah.
Seth: And it's like— and I think it's because like your face gets red.
David: Yeah, you get red. Yeah. You're like, I just got so angry, I started seeing red. Yeah.
Seth: Yeah.
David: So those are— so what's the point then if all those ideas are swirled together? You have the— the sun is angry, Jonah's angry, the raw of the sun, the raw of Jonah.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: Like, why is all this tied together? Because this is a weird little parable.
Seth: It is a weird little— I think a parable is kind of the right word. I don't doubt that there was probably a plant.
David: Sure. Yeah, but a parable doesn't mean it didn't happen.
Seth: It's just supposed to show us something, right? And I think God wants to change Jonah's hateful heart by his mercy.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: And he wants to expose Jonah's hypocritical hatred. Yeah, like in his hypocritical attitude towards mercy. Does that make sense?
David: Yeah, yeah. He's showing him an undeserved mercy, and so he can see, like, see, isn't it good that I show you undeserved mercy?
Seth: And when it's taken away, he's angry that he doesn't get that mercy anymore.
David: He's now— he finally got offended at the right— like, he finally got offended. Yeah, but like, it's something that may be a little more personal that could change his heart.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Okay.
Seth: Yeah. He's offended that the mercy was taken away from him and demands more of God's mercy. And if you're not going to give me mercy, God, why don't you just kill me?
David: He's like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Isn't this the whole thing, right?
Seth: That's happening with Nineveh.
David: Okay. So, so what's happening is, is he's saying like, I give you an undeserved mercy. You don't deserve it. And yet when it's taken away, you're angry about it. Like, but you didn't deserve it in the first place.
Seth: Jonah doesn't see the irony.
David: Right.
Seth: He has been mercifully shaded from God's hot anger. Ah, just like Nineveh.
David: Yes.
Seth: And demands more mercy while at the same time resenting the mercy that God showed Nineveh. Yes.
David: That's the irony.
Seth: That's the irony.
David: Yes. And so what the hope here with God is that he can trap Jonah in his own hypocrisy. Yeah, they can be like, don't you see now? Don't you feel Mm-hmm. Like the ludicrousity of this double standard you have.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: Okay.
Seth: That's demanding more mercy from me for yourself while withholding it from other people, right?
David: Even though they're both undeserved. Yeah. Mercy's always undeserved.
David: Yeah.
Seth: Yeah.
David: And so you shouldn't be offended when it's given because, like, as if for some reason the mercy I showed you is earned and the mercy I show Assyria isn't.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Let me show you with this plant.
Seth: Yep. And then that's exactly what— so are you right to be angry about the plan? And then God said— and then Jonah says, "Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die," which, which I don't get the escalation. So Jonah's asked for death multiple times.
David: Yeah.
Seth: At this point, I kind of want to ask, why does he want to die?
David: Like, what is it?
Seth: Because he feels so humiliated and shamed that he's a prophet who said one thing and it didn't come to pass. Is it because— yeah, is it because he can't live with seeing the Ninevites come to pass and he's just done with the God who's keeping him alive? Like, God, you're showing mercy to the wrong people. You're showing hatred towards me. I'm done with you. I would rather die than put up with you on my life anymore. Like, he keeps asking to die. He tells the sailors to go ahead and kill him because you'd rather—
David: it was the sailors. It made some sense because it was like he would— he's trying to not go to Nineveh, you know, because he knows if he goes and he says what God wants him to say, they'll repent and they'll be saved, which is what he doesn't want to happen. But now that it's happening, you know, and he has to die, I think one of the two things you said is probably right, if not both, that it's he doesn't want to have to witness the salvation. You know, like, I don't want to see that happen. I don't want to— like, it's one thing to hypothetically think about Hitler in heaven.
Seth: Right.
David: That's offensive.
Seth: Yeah.
David: But it'd be another thing to like watch it happen.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Watch him repent and like, no, like watch him enjoying heaven and watching God love him. And like, I'm like, I don't really, really gross.
Seth: You know what I mean? Right.
David: And he's like, I would rather die than have to watch that happen. That's one thing. The other thing might be, like you said, he's a prophet who said one thing and something else has happened.
Seth: Yeah.
David: And what's, what's the law say about a prophet who prophesies one thing and it doesn't happen? He must die.
Seth: He must die.
David: So he's like asking for the law to be fulfilled in him because he's done. He's— I was a prophet. I said they'd be overthrown and instead they've turned, which is the same Hebrew word. We talked about that last week. But so maybe he just knows that as a prophet, if he goes back to Israel with this message, he's going to die anyway.
Seth: Interesting.
David: So why not just go ahead and commit the capital punishment now?
Seth: Hmm. It does say that he is angry at the plant.
David: Yeah.
Seth: And not at God. So now I am trying to think. I think those are good answers.
David: Right.
Seth: But he is angry at the plant. Huh. So he is actually angry at God's mercy. If the plant is a symbol of God's mercy towards him. Right. Again, he is angry at the plant. Right. He is angry again at God's mercy and God's mercy being taken away. Right.
David: He is angry that the plant went away. Yeah, he's angry at the plant for withering.
Seth: Right.
David: Not for it having shade.
Seth: Which is so— which would be Israel in exile, right?
David: Hmm.
Seth: Israel in exile. Yes. Is angry with God for allowing them to wither in exile.
David: They were shaded in Israel. The plant came up. They were brought into a promised land that they did not earn. They were able to eat from vineyards they did not plant. Yeah, right.
David: They—
Seth: language from Deuteronomy.
David: From Deuteronomy. They were brought into a land that they did not earn. They were under the shade of a plant appointed for them, right? I mean, literally, when you talk about the— when the prophets talk about the promised land, they say everyone sits under the shade of their own tree. Being in the promised land is being shaded by a plant God planted. That is a prophetic image of being in the promised land. And then that tree is taken away, which is more prophetic language around exile, that I will uproot you and I will cast you out of the land. And so he's saying, okay, hold on, guys. Israel, you're mad at me and you're calling me evil as God for taking away the plant that I gave you in the first place.
Seth: Hmm.
David: Is it good for you to be angry about the plant? You know, like, so yeah, Israel in exile is angry at God for having once been shaded under the plant that he gave them in the Promised Land and yet having been cast out of it by the Assyrians, the Babylonians.
Seth: It suddenly makes this book not about Jonah and Israel's response to the Assyrians, and it's about Jonah and Israel's response to God himself.
David: That's right. You have an angry Israel in exile. Why has God let this happen? Go read Lamentations. Like, I mean, while they fully, like, take on the responsibility, they know it was their sin. They are sad and angry. Read some of the laments in, in the Psalter. Like, people are angry.
Seth: Right. And it's just, it may, it really, it reveals something like Jonah has externalized that anger.
David: Yeah.
Seth: To the Assyrians, rightfully so. Right.
David: Yeah.
Seth: But really they're angry at God. Right. You're really angry. Like at the bottom of it, you're high. You're trying to hide it behind self-righteousness, Israel. Right. But you're really angry at me.
David: Which is, I think, something a lot of people can resonate with.
Seth: Yeah.
David: That we get angry at God when he has taken away a mercy we think we deserve. You know, like, God, why are you letting me suffer out here in XYZ situation? Like, you gave me this great job and you took it away. Why would you do that? You gave me a wonderful wife and family and then disaster hit it. Why would you do that to me? I mean, I remember like we've both, we've both lost children in the womb. Like we had this gift of life and then God took it away. Why would you do that? You gave me this plant. That I was shaded under and now it's gone.
Seth: Yeah.
David: And it's like, that feels— I've been angry. I've felt that anger.
Seth: Yeah.
David: I now feel a little more resonance with, with Jonah.
Seth: Yeah. Yeah. And I think too, like, there's probably a sense that like, if the nations are coming to repentance, that must mean God's dealing with us is over.
David: Yeah. I'll never get the plant back.
Seth: Right. And let's say, because this language of having your own tree, the tree being uprooted, is also associated with like the messianic hope of Israel. There would be a shoot, like a little branch that comes out of the stump. That would be the Messiah that would restore Israel to her rightful place in God's covenant.
David: You're talking about Isaiah 9.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Israel has been cut down like a forest. All the trees of Israel have been cut down and all that's left are stumps. And stumps don't grow back into trees. Right, you know, but he said, he said that that stump of David's line, because I promised that there would be a king forever in Israel, but all the king's lines have been cut off. Yeah. And all there is is a stump now in Israel. He's like, but I promise, Isaiah 9, a little shoot will grow out of that stump and turn into a whole forest again. And so like, that tied up in this is if, if, if you start saving the nations, and there is no king in Israel, and the king of Assyria is the one who's repenting, What happens to us? What happens to us? Where's, where's the messianic king? The King of David. And for God to use a plant that he appoints to grow up and root up and be the shade for representative Israel and Jonah is to pull on that messianic thread throughout the prophets that God will grow up the line of David. Yeah. And even though it's withered for a moment, the worm in this situation is Babylon. It's withered for a moment. Yeah. He can grow it back up again. But it will all be undeserved mercy. Yeah.
Seth: Yeah. He's lamenting what he believes the loss of any hope for Israel.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: Like he, at this point in Israel's history, like there can be no Messiah. Right, right. Like there can be no Jesus. Yeah. Because of what's happening right now. Yeah. Um, which this may be the time to talk about Romans 11 then. So when the Gentiles are being included after the cross, there's— Paul has this long conversation in the book of Romans about what does that mean for us Jews who got the covenant first?
David: Does that mean the covenant is void?
Seth: Does that mean God abandoned his promises? He's asking all the questions. The Jews are asking all the questions Jonah was asking right here. Like, all the nations, we see them coming. What does that mean for us? And, uh, verse 11, it's like, did they stumble so far as to fall beyond recovery? Right? The Jews.
David: Yeah. Are the Jews so bad that God's not going to save them and he'll just start saving the nations?
Seth: And he's like, no, rather, because of the Jews' transgression, because of Jonah's sin, because of their failure to uphold the covenant. Salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious and eventually include her in everyone's redemption.
David: Yeah. Yeah. Seeing the nations come to faith, just like Jonah watched the Assyrians come to faith, was meant to make Jonah and meant to make the Jews jealous.
Seth: Yeah.
David: It's like, man, if God shows mercy to the Assyrians or to the Americans, you know, like Man, I want to be part of that.
Seth: Yeah.
David: And hopefully, as more Gentiles come to faith in Jesus, more so will more Jews, like, because they'll be jealous of the communion that we're having with their God. Like, the— yeah, we're being grafted into their covenant. We're enjoying the blessings that they were promised. And it's supposed to make them jealous, right? They're supposed to be Jonah on the mountain looking down at horrible Assyria, which is now you and me, Seth.
Seth: Yeah.
David: And hopefully be drawn back to God through jealousy because we did not deserve mercy.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Yeah, that's amazing. It's also interesting in Romans 11 that it's— it is biological horticultural language that's used to talk about this. Like, yeah, like the gourd.
Seth: Yeah.
David: He talks about the covenant as a tree. The covenant is a tree and Gentiles are being grafted into that tree. And Jews have been cut off, but could be grafted in again. So, so, okay.
Seth: Anyway, so that's, that's the, I think that's what's all loaded into this passage.
David: It's all really helpful.
Seth: So, and then Jonah says, well, I'm angry enough to die. I think we explained that. And the Lord said, so God's response, you pity the plant. Yeah. You wish you would have received more mercy for which you did not labor. Nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. So I think that's everything we've said.
David: Yeah.
Seth: Covenant community that you did not grow, that you did not plant. That's right. It's like you're pitying something that you didn't earn. Right. It's the parable of the manager and his day laborers. It's like, okay, so you're angry in this moment. So you have pity on a plant that you— that really doesn't deserve your mercy or your compassion. 'But should I not pity 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 much cattle, much livestock.
David: There is also a lot of animals there.
Seth: And that is the book.
David: That is how the book ends. You just read the last book of Jonah, the last words of Jonah.
Seth: God ends with a question to Jonah that Jonah, we never hear Jonah's response to.
David: And the question he asks is, 'Is it not right for me to pity Assyria. Is it not right for me to want to show mercy to a place that has so many people and animals? And like, is it not good for me to want to save people? Is that not good, Jonah?
Seth: Yeah, yeah, I got distracted by our train that you might hear. You might have heard.
David: There, there are train tracks right outside our office.
Seth: We do our best to hide that fact. Yeah, um, but when we're recording, it's also a little more difficult. However, enjoy the sound of an Oklahoma train.
David: It's It's gorgeous.
Seth: It's beautiful.
David: Yeah. So, I mean, that's the question that ends the Book of Jonah then, is, is it not right? Is it not good for God to pity the nations?
Seth: Have compassion on the nations?
David: Yeah. To have compassion. That's— it's the same word. Yeah, same word. To have compassion, to love them.
Seth: Yeah.
David: And it's like— and we don't hear Jonah's response because up to now Jonah would have said no.
Seth: And so we're left to wonder, has the plant changed his mind? Yeah. Has Yeah. Has Jonah changed his mind?
David: Right.
Seth: Has he repented?
David: Right.
Seth: And, uh, remember why all this is happening? So that God would save Jonah from his evil.
David: Right.
Seth: And what is Jonah's evil? What is Jonah's ra?
David: Right. Not wanting the Assyrians to be saved.
Seth: So the question is inviting us to ask, does this question change his mind? Does this question save Israel from, or Jonah from his hatred?
David: Yeah. And I think it is the question that would have been extended to the, the readers of this story in exile. Is it right for God to save your captors? Is it right for God to save those who put you in exile? Is it right for God to have compassion on Babylon? Yeah. Is that— is it not good? Is that not right?
Seth: Wouldn't that be a good thing?
David: And that's the whole question that the book is asking anyone who reads it. And, and it's an open-ended book because it's an invitation inviting you into answering that question for yourself. Isn't it good for God to show mercy to those who don't deserve it? Don't you think that's good? And you have to answer that question for yourself.
Seth: Yeah, it's got right to do so.
David: It's got right to do that. I think one thing is in the cross, yes, he is, because he is both the just and the justifier. Romans 3 talks about he has legally made it okay for him to do this, you know what I mean? Yeah, like, is it right for God to forgive sins and not, not do justice against the evil? It's like, well, on the cross he's done both, right? He has transformed and overturned like we talked about last week because he bore the penalty.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Of Assyria's sins, right? He bore the penalty of our sins. And so, yes, he is justified to do that. But I think there's another question outside of the court of law that's just like, But does it feel right?
Seth: Right?
David: Like, does it still feel good for God to give mercy to those that we think deserve his justice? And that's the question that the Book of Jonah comes and asks us. And that— and honestly, that is the question that the way of Jesus comes to us and asks. Like, that is the question that a disciple, an apprentice of Jesus, must wrestle with, because it is the heart of the good news. Was it right for the thief on a cross who spent his life chasing sin and thievery and exploitation of other people, like on— in the electric chair. Yeah. With the noose around his neck, hanging on the cross, his last breaths for him to just say a few kind words to Jesus.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Is it right for Jesus to say, today you will receive the exact same reward as Mother Teresa?
Seth: Have I told you about the painting that I saw when I was in Turkey? We went to this basilica, this old church, and there were these murals all on the inside. And our tour guide was explaining to us that, um, to an illiterate society— yes, you explain the Bible through pictures on the wall, right? And so one of the pictures— and this, our tour guide was a Christian, like he was one of the few believers that we, we knew and was a believer— and he always used this moment in this church to preach the gospel because Turkey is famously closed and not allowed to preach the gospel there. But he would always preach the gospel when he was at this one basilica. And the painting, the mural on the wall, was picture of all these saints entering into heaven, and you have these people with halos like Abraham and Isaac, Jacob, and like Peter, and all the people who would not have offended Jonah, right?
David: Yeah.
Seth: And it's like they're all walking into heaven, but at the gate to heaven, the greeter, the first person they see on the other side, is the thief on the cross. And then our tour guide said, because everybody coming to heaven knows they're not there because of their own works. That's why he's there to greet them. He's there because they're not there.
David: They're not there because they don't work. I've also never thought about this. Poke holes in it all you want. Don't write any angry comments. I'm not— I don't get too much by this, but it's just like, I've never thought about it that the thief on the cross is the first person saved by the gospel, like in death, like who like actually like dies and is with Jesus because of the gospel. Right. It's just like, yeah. Was the most undeserving, least meritorious person.
Seth: Yeah.
David: And like, that's the scandal of the cross. The scandal of God's mercy, that God has always been merciful like this, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And so that's the question that the Book of Jonah comes to us and asks is, do you think it's good for Jesus to save the thief on the cross? You know?
Seth: Right.
David: I think one last thing I want to talk about before we close out this episode is how the Book of Jonah hypothetically might have come into being.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Because if, if Jonah— and we got this— do you have that book over there? You can hold it up for our viewing audience. Which one is The Prodigal? The Prodigal Prophet.
Seth: Two of our favorites are this one, Philip Carey's Jonah and the Brazos series.
David: And Philip Carey, Brazos Commentary.
Seth: I never finished this one, but the last chapter, the epilogue is amazing. Keller's Prodigal Prophet.
David: Timothy Keller, Prodigal Prophet. So we're getting this from him. So but we just kind of can riff on it here is let's, let's say, let's join Jonah in his last moments here, you know, he is sulking on the hill and then God asks him this question like, is it not good for me to have compassion on these people and all the, all the animals? And we don't know what happens. Yeah, but if he would have just sat there and, and remained sour the whole time and never would have changed his mind, he probably wouldn't have told this story. Right.
Seth: Because the question is— so the question is, so who— how do we hear about this story?
David: Yeah.
Seth: Who wrote the story of the awful Jonah, right? And the prayer that he spoke in the fish. How would we know what he—
David: all of this information could really only have come from a— from an account.
Seth: Either it's made up, right? Or it comes from the person who's inside the fish, right? And so he was alone on the hilltop, right?
David: So Jonah must have at some point come back and told this story. And the only way he could have told the story this way that paints himself in such a horrible light and like asks other people to encounter the difficult question that he had to wrestle with himself and to convince them that God is good to show mercy to whomever he wants.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Is that the plant changed him? Like he actually was changed on that Assyrian hilltop.
Seth: Can I just read what Keller wrote?
David: Yeah, absolutely.
Seth: So good. So he's like, we're never told the prophet's response, but I propose we can make a reasonable guess. How do we know Jonah was so recalcitrant, defiant? And clueless? How do we know that he made the unbelievable 'I hate the God of love' speech? How do we know about his prayer inside the fish? The only way we could possibly know is if he told others. What kind of man would let the world see what a fool he was? Only someone who had become joyfully secure in God's love. Only someone who believed that he was simultaneously sinful and completely accepted. In short, someone who found in the gospel of grace the very power of God. Mm. I'm like, yeah, who else could have written right about themselves this way?
David: Yeah, but somebody who was transformed by a mercy he didn't deserve. Yeah. And it's like, I love the hope of that, that this— the story of Jonah changed the hardest heart, Jonah himself.
Seth: Mm-hmm.
David: And so it can come to us and change our hard hearts too. Yeah. And I love that. Or come to Israel in their exile and comfort them to love their enemies and to accept that God shows undeserved mercy to the evil nations and their own evil. Yeah.
Seth: Even people who call God evil. Yeah. Are not beyond the reach of his mercy. Yeah.
David: And I think what happens— how do you go through that change? How do you like— how do you experience the scandal of God's offensive grace? And I think you have to go through your own, like, shaded plant moment, like, like Jonah did.
Seth: Right. You know, God's got a sun plant for you.
David: Yeah. So go out in your backyard. No, I think what I mean by that is you have to understand that in Jesus you have received undeserved grace. It was absolute mercy that he has given you. You do not deserve it in the slightest.
Seth: Right.
David: And so therefore, there is no one on earth who you— who could— who it would be offensive for God to show mercy to if he could show mercy to you. Yeah. And you have to get there.
Seth: Yeah. You have to realize and like, you have to be rebuked for your hypocrisy.
David: Yeah.
Seth: To repent of that hypocrisy of wanting more mercy from God than you're willing to give to other people.
David: Yeah. Which means repenting of your entitlement to grace, thinking that you deserve it, but somebody else probably doesn't. Yeah, that you, you maybe, maybe you don't deserve it, but at least it wouldn't be squandered on some evil person. At least God was right and smart to save you because you're doing a lot of good.
Seth: You're a good per—
David: you know, like, you need to repent of that and know that every good thing that has come your way in your walk with Jesus is a plant that God has put up over you.
Seth: I don't— it makes me think, the more I reflect on this, I've got this thought that like, I wonder if people at bottom don't have a problem with God's judgment.
David: The pro— say that again, would you say?
Seth: People don't have a problem with God's judgment. Who?
David: Oh, at the bottom.
Seth: At bottom, people actually don't have a problem with God's judgment. At bottom, most people want to see the people who deserve to be killed killed. They want evil oppressors, slave masters, child abusers judged, right? Yeah. Everybody wants that. Yeah. They don't want a God of mercy at the end of the day, because that actually offends a sensibility. Like, I mean, that's what Jonah is making me think about. I think people have all sorts of problems with God. Jonah was probably unhelpful to say nobody has a problem with God's judgment, but I wonder if like underneath the problem of God, like our issue with God's judgment is a deeper issue of God's mercy. Yeah. We want judgment for certain people, but we don't want mercy for those same people.
David: Mm-hmm.
Seth: And I'm like, man, I don't know. That just— yeah, I'm just, I'm kind of reeling from like the thought that I have an undiagnosed problem with God's mercy.
David: Right.
Seth: Yeah.
David: It's like we— I think another way to say what you're trying to get at is the reason why we might have such an on-the-surface widespread cultural aversion to God's justice, to things like hell and wrath, might be because we have not yet been scandalized by his mercy. Yeah, we don't know how much of a scandal is— we think it's free and cheap.
Seth: We think we deserve it.
David: It's earned.
Seth: Yeah.
David: And if I can earn it and I know how much of a hypocrite I am, then God should be able to give that to anybody. Yeah. And you don't get the point that God appointed the fish, God appointed the plant, God appointed the worm, God appointed the wind. He appoints his mercy to Assyria. Yeah, it's his to give and it's always undeserved. It always goes to Jonah's. It always goes to Assyrians. It always goes to Tortuga Sailors.
Seth: Yeah.
David: And until you've been scandalized by the undeserved mercy of the gospel, you're going to have a problem with God's wrath too, because it's a double— it's a— it's— it's two sides of the same coin, right? It's God's to do with as you will.
Seth: Yeah. Yeah. So that's the Book of Jonah.
David: Yeah, that was— that's a great book.
Seth: It's a great book. I really kind of wish we could just riff on it more. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure we will in the office, but like, you should read the Book of Jonah.
David: Yeah. I hope this invites you into a deep study of this book, an enjoyment of this book, and ultimately that you would keep reading this book until you are so offended and astounded by God's mercy that you do what the king in Assyria did and you do what the people on the deck of that Joppa boat did. Yeah. And you just worship God and you just fall on your knees and thank him for doing what only he could do.
Seth: And we do what we think Jonah might have done.
David: Yeah.
Seth: And be so radically transparent with your failures, that you could write a story in which you were the main character and there's no redemption for you. Yeah. Jonah never has a redeeming moment in the story. Can we tell our stories that same way?
David: Right.
Seth: Or do I always force to justify? No, I was under— I'm a good guy at bottom, guys.
David: Right. At the end of the day, I came around.
Seth: Right. Like, except but the grace of God.
David: Yeah.
Seth: Could you rewrite the story, Jonah?
David: Yeah.
David: It's so good. And I hope that— I hope that mercy does for everyone listening what it should have done for Jonah in the story, which was to send you into the nations to answer the question, who knows if the Lord will turn back from the evil he has planned for us, the raw, the disaster he has planned for us? We know. Yeah, he does want to turn back. He does want to relent from the disaster he has planned for the world.
Seth: He desires that none should perish.
David: That's right. And we have the message. Let us not be like Jonah, who reluctantly hold it back or shrink it down to a 5-word sermon that we— that probably won't change anybody's heart. May we go out with the good news of Jesus saying he has relented, he's died for your sins, and he wants to save you. He wants to show you mercy, undeserved mercy through the cross. Can we go out with that message to anyone and everyone with, with no discrimination?
Seth: Yeah.
David: To those who we don't think will— who we don't think deserve it. To those who we don't think will listen to it, to those who might hurt us if we tell it. Like, but maybe we just go because we have been shaded from the wrath we deserve and the hot wind that we deserve and given the sweet shade of relief that we do not deserve in the gospel. So thank you guys so much for listening.
Seth: Thank you, guys.
David: We really appreciate you.
Seth: And thank you for listening faithfully for the last 2 and a half years, for 147 episodes, getting us to half a million downloads. Right. We love you guys, our podcast audience. We're trying to be humbled by that. Yeah, it's, it's a, it feels humbling to know that. I think we did the math. I think that's like, if our entire podcast audience was just one person, yes, they would have listened to us for, I think, 52 consecutive years without stopping.
David: We were like, what kind of person would, would create—
Seth: if only one person, somebody listened to us consistently for 52 years. I'm like, I don't know if they would be the best type of person, but we're trying. Yeah.
David: And then to our YouTube audience watching, we just want to invite you guys. We don't broadcast every episode here on YouTube. So if you've enjoyed this, head on over to your favorite podcast player and search for the Spoken Gospel Podcast and subscribe.
Seth: Join along.
David: We do this every week.
Seth: Every week.
David: So, yeah, yeah, most weeks. So until then.
Seth: Yeah.
David: Uh, thank you guys for listening, and we will see you next time.
Outro: Thank you for listening to the Spoken Gospel Podcast. Spoken Gospel creates short films, devotionals, and podcasts like this one. Everything we make is free because of generous supporters like you. To see our resources, visit SpokenGospel.com or subscribe to our YouTube channel. Thanks for listening. See you next week.
