Jonah 4: What Do You Care About?

Jonah 4:11 "[But God said to Jonah,] 'Should not I 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?'"

What do you care about? is the question before us this morning. Take a moment and consider: what do you care about? Perhaps the first things that come to mind are God, your family, your friends, and your church. All of these things are great things to care about! But Jonah 4, like a sword driven into our soul, considers us to ask the question of whether or not we care about our enemies.

In the conclusion of Jonah's book that is chapter four, the wacky, satirical narrative continues. We have already seen some random sailors repent and come to faith in God, Jonah get swallowed up and thrown up by a fish, and the king of the Ninevites turning to God. Surely the entirety of the narrative in Jonah is the opposite of what we would expect to happen, and this theme surely carries over in chapter four. The chapter starts out with Jonah praying to the Lord out of anger, asking that God quite literally kill him. Why does Jonah ask this? Well, in context we see that Jonah hated his Ninevite enemies so much that he could not stand seeing God having mercy on them. Thus, Jonah would rather die than see God have mercy on his enemies. In response to this, God asks Jonah a question: "Is it right for you to be angry?"

This question, though not directly answered by Jonah, is answered in the continuing narrative. Jonah flees out of the city and makes a tent for himself outside of the city so that he could wait to see what would happen to the city. God then appoints a tree to grow over Jonah's head so that he is able to be in the shade. Jonah is very thankful for the tree, but his thankfulness doesn't last long. God appoints a worm to attack the plant, causing it to wither, and thus Jonah is exposed again to the scorching heart. Jonah once again asks God to kill him instead of having to bear the desert heat, and God asks him once again, "Is it right for you to be angry?" Jonah answers that he is right to be angry, but the Lord has a different view of the story. He asks Jonah that if he cared about the plant that gave him shade so much, even though he did not labor for it or make it grow, how much more should God care for the great city of Ninevah, which contains [at least] 120,000 people?* In other words, if Jonah cared so much about a little tree that he did not create, how much more should God care for 120,000 people whom he did create? This question ends the book of Jonah, leaving the reader to ask himself the same question that was asked of Jonah.

So, the question before us this morning is this: what do you care about? So often we care about such small things. For Jonah, it was a tree that gave him shade. For us, it might be a job opening, an exam grade, a social interaction, or many other things. But what if we decided to put those small cares aside and care for our enemies? What if we were focused on being fishers of men for God's glory rather than fishing for our own glory (Luke 5:1-11)? You might care about many good things, but let us not forget to care about our enemy. Let us pray for them and proclaim the Gospel to them. After all, if we don't, we might end up in the belly of a fish. Go forth this morning, and care about your enemies.

*The text in Jonah refers to "120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left." Some commentators think that this refers to children, thus meaning that the total population in Ninevah would be about 600,000 people. However, I think that the speaking of not knowing their right hand from their left might be speaking of their helpless spiritual ignorance, thus meaning that the population was only 120,000. Nevertheless, the point is the same: there were a lot of people!