Exploring My Strange Bible - When God Loves Your Enemy (Remastered)

Episode Date: January 2, 2026

The Amazing Jonah E5 – We’ve come to the final episode of a five-part series on the book of Jonah. And this last part of the book is one of the most puzzling. After Jonah preaches his strange, five-word sermon, the people of Nineveh surprisingly repent. And when God forgives them, Jonah fumes with anger and berates God for being too gracious. In this episode, Tim closes out the story of Jonah, connecting it to Jesus’ challenging words to love and forgive our enemies. This message was given on September 1, 2013, at Door of Hope Church in Portland, Oregon.REFERENCED RESOURCESThe Third Side: Why We Fight and How We Can Stop by William L. UryThe Powers That Be: Theology for a New Millennium by Walter WinkCheck out Tim’s extensive collection of recommended books here.SHOW MUSIC“Nob Hill Instrumental” by DrexlerSHOW CREDITSProduction of today's episode is by Lindsey Ponder, producer, and Cooper Peltz, managing producer. Aaron Olsen edited and remastered today's episode. JB Witty does our show notes. Powered and distributed by Simplecast. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody. I'm Tim Mackie, and this is my podcast, exploring my strange Bible. I am a card-carrying Bible history and language nerd who thinks that Jesus of Nazareth is utterly amazing and worth following with everything that you have. On this podcast, I'm putting together the last 20 years worth of lectures and sermons where I've been exploring the strange and wonderful story of the Bible and how it invites us into the mission of Jesus and the journey of faith. And I hope this can all be helpful for you too. I also help start this thing called the Bible Project. We make animated videos and podcasts and classes about all kinds of topics in Bible and theology. You can find all those resources at Bibleproject.com. With all that said,

let's dive into the episode for this week. All right. Hey, guys. This is the last of a five-part series we've been doing through the book of Jonah. This is about when God loves your enemy. It's exploring the last chapter of the book of Jonah. If you haven't listened to the first four teachings that explore the earlier parts of the book, I recommend you do that in the previous podcast. This last chapter of the book of Jonah is actually one of the most puzzling and difficult parts of the book. I have a children's book at home that I will never read to my children. It says it's about the book of Jonah, but it happily leaves out any recounting of the final chapter of the book, which is actually not that surprising because last chapter, Jonah chapter four, turns this story from a happy story of Jonah finally obeying and the Ninevites responding in an ideal way to this message that comes from God's prophet. and then chapter four just throws a huge wrench into the whole thing as God's own prophet gets

really, really angry at God for forgiving his enemies. So what I used this for was an opportunity both to talk about what's going on in the book of Jonah and about the very scandalous teaching of Jesus about enemy love. So I hope this is helpful for you. This was really challenging for me personally as I was preparing it. And let's dive in and learn together. Here we go. It's our final week in the book of Jonah. Yeah? That's rock and roll. That's what that is. We've been heading at what I called the veggie tales factor, right? This mediation of the Bible stories to us through children's media that tends to kind of make them all bland and about being a nice person or something like that. And so what we've been discovering and what I know at least myself have been rediscovering, kind of studying and working through the book again, is this is not a children. children's story, by any means. Of course, children could grasp the basic outline of the story,

but the themes of the story are so profound. You very much have to be an adult to get them, dealing with themes about religious hypocrisy and exposing spiritual apathy and the devastating effects it has on us and other people, and about the ways that God can use pain and suffering in our lives as a severe mercy to wake us up. Themes of divine judgment and divine repentance. He explained that to your three-year-old, you know what I mean? So these are themes that are meant for adults. And that's because this story, as all of the scriptures,

it's aimed at revealing God's character to his people. That's the purpose of scripture, not to entertain kids, but to reveal who God is, his character and his purposes and what he's up to in the world. And so today, Jonah, chapter four, we conclude the story. with this ridiculous, apparently sunburned man sitting at the east of Nineveh, who wants to die, he would rather die than live with a God like Yahweh. And how does this speak God's word to us tonight? Let's dive in.

So remember the big storyline, you have this prophet, religious man of God, who hates his God and runs from his God in the opposite direction. It leads him to hit bottom. It brings ruin on himself and all these other people, his spiritual apathy. but God makes this brush with death that all this seemed like it was the worst thing that ever happened to him but actually becomes a severe mercy

that's the best thing that's ever happened to him and it wakes him up at least for a moment and he physically then obeys and goes on this commission to confront the wickedness of the city of Nineveh and last week we talked about all of that and I showed you cool archaeological pictures depicting how horrible the Assyrians

and the Ninevites were And so he preached this five-word sermon in Hebrew, yeah? So it's eight words in English, five-word sermon in Hebrew, and the whole city repents and turns to God. And you would think, if you're a prophet from Israel, this is a great line on your resume, you know what I'm saying? Like notoriously, it's like Sin City, you know, and you're a day's preaching in and five words in, and the whole city has this radical transformation, and you would think

most any of the other prophets of Israel would be like, yeah, that's right. stoked. And how does Jonah feel about this? How does Jonah? Look at the last sentence of chapter three. It's verse 10. God saw the repentance and the soft hearts of the Ninevites. And so chapter three, verse 10, God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, and he relented. He forgave them. And he didn't bring on them the destruction that he'd threatened. Any other prophet of Israel would be like mission accomplished, God shows grace, his reputation, his honored

and so on. And what is Jonah's response to all of this? He is ticked. He's livid with anger. Look at his response. But to Jonah, this all seemed very wrong. No, what? No, no, no. What's supposed to happen? This is

very wrong. He became angry and he prayed to the Lord. I remember when you see Lord, they're in all capital letters, it's Yahweh in Hebrew. He prayed to Yahweh, and he proceeds to chew God out big time. And this might be a new category of prayer for some of us. Apparently, you can pray and just let God have it.

But we did a series in the Psalms over the summer, and you saw lots of people letting God have it and vending, and it was a form of prayer. So look at what he says. You can just imagine he has clenched teeth, you know? He's hot with anger. He prayed to Yahweh. Isn't this what I said, Yahweh?

When I was still back at home, this is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. So you remember Israel by the Mediterranean Sea? What direction is Nineveh? East. What way is Tarshish? It's as far west as you could humanly go, right? It's the edge of the known world for ancient people

on the far coast of Spain, way across the Mediterranean. Now, why did he flee? Did he flee because he's scared that the Ninevites might kill him? He runs because he hates Ninevites. He knew that there. this is what was going to happen. And so he says, I knew that you were gracious and compassionate God. I knew that you're slow to anger.

I knew you're abounding in love. I knew that you're a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Yahweh, take away my life. It'd be better for me to die than live. You can just see the heat of his anger. I mean, this seems ridiculous to us. And the levels of irony go way deeper. Look at verse two.

Do you see these descriptions here? the words that he uses to describe God. So he says, you're gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love. Do you sound familiar to anybody? You've kind of heard these descriptions before? Maybe. Some of you're like, well, it sounds Bible-ish. So yes, that's true.

So this phrase right here, gracious, compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding love. This is kind of like the John 316, which is the famous verse in the New Testament. It's kind of like that equivalent in the Old Testament. This is one of the most repeated descriptions of God over a dozen times throughout the Old Testament. And what Jonah is actually doing here, this is so great, you kind of have to be a Bible geek to know it, but he's quoting from a book in the Torah of the first five books of the Bible. He's quoting from the book of Exodus. And actually, he's quoting from a quotation of what God says about himself in chapter Exodus 34, verse 6.

And it's a story about how the Israelites were sitting at the foot of Mount Sinai, and God revealed the Ten Commandments to them. And the first Ten Commandments was, don't have any gods before me. The second one was don't make any idols. So God is not an object among the creation that you can depict him with a piece of wood or stone or something like that. And so they weren't to make any idols to depict him lest they kind of fixate their attention on the wrong thing. And so, and what's the first thing they do? Four days go by and the cloud is still over the mountain. What are the Israelites doing?

They're like, where did Moses go? I don't know. Let's make a golden calf. Yeah, that's a good idea. To represent Yahweh. And so they do, and then they have this sexual fertility ritual. It's ridiculous. It's crazy what they're doing.

right here at the foot of the mountain. And so, God is going to bring judgment and dump his people that he rescued out of Egypt. Moses intercedes, and what does God do? He forgives them and renews the covenant with them. And Moses says, holy cow, like, why are you doing this? Who are you, Yahweh? And Yahweh says, well, I'm Yahweh.

I'm gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding, and loving kindness. In other words, Israel exists as a people of God because God is this way. And here what Jonah does is he takes these very words of God and throws them back in his face. And he's like, I knew you were like this. You've always been like this. You've been like this since day one.

And what's funny is he wouldn't exist as an Israel-like if God were not like this. But he's so irrational and hot with anger at this point. He's just throwing these words back to you. I knew you were going to do this. You love to forgive people who don't deserve it. You love to do this kind of thing. I knew this was going to happen.

That's why I ran. You made me come here in the first place. He's so angry. Now, we might read this and be like, whoa, this is so crazy. Like, he's criticizing God. He's like sending hate mail to God because God is too gracious for being too nice and forgiving people who don't deserve it.

Clearly, Jonah chapter 4, he loses it. He's this comical, kind of ridiculous figure. And I'm guessing there are very few of us in the room who are like sympathizing with Jonah right now going like, yeah, that's right. You know, we're like, no, we're laughing at him, going, dude, you wouldn't exist if it wasn't for these very traits that you're criticizing God for you. But he's like this laughable figure. And this does seem ridiculous to us.

What Jonah for is all about is it's exposing what I call it. It's like the dark side of God's mercy and grace. It's the scandal of the liberality of God's grace, of the wideness in his mercy. Because, of course, I'm quite happy if I come to realize what a screwed up person I am and I turn to Jesus and he shows me his grace, sweet, that's great. but then there's this other complex thing that happens as a Christian when you realize, yeah, Jesus is like that to me and he also is like that to the person that I despise and hate.

And then I'm kind of like, well, they don't deserve. You know what they did to me? And so here we go. The motivation for Jonah criticizing God's grace is actually pretty understandable to us. And if we were in the same situation, we would probably say the same thing. for example.

Let me show you a picture of a man named Gordon Wilson. Gordon Wilson is an Irishman, passed away now, but he lived in the town of Enniskillan, Northern Ireland. In 1987, think late 80s, Northern Ireland, what's going on at that time? Most of you should know, but maybe only some of you do. So this was at the height of the conflict between the British, who were still basically a colonial power over the Irish, and then you have the Irish who were resistant against British rule and so on.

It's a common story in the 20th century in many countries around the world. Do you remember the name of essentially the resistance group against the British? The IRA, the Irish Republican Army. Gordon Wilson, he was Irishman, who was a follower of Jesus. He did not endorse the IRA and he was not behind them. The town of Enniskellan had a little town square. He worked in the kind of the downtown area. He ran the drapery business, family.

like drape and window dressing business. Britain has an equivalent to our memorial day called Remembrance Day. It's in November, and it's a way of honoring the British soldiers who died in the two world wars. And so Gordon Wilson went with his family to the town square of Enskillen.

And unbeknownst to him and all the people there, IRA had sent people to plant bombs in different buildings around the town square. And during the Remembrance Day ceremony, those bombs went off. You'll see some of the pictures here the number of the buildings around the town square kind of collapsed and walls caved in on the groups of people that were there. And among them were Gordon Wilson and his family. And he and his daughter

were caught underneath a wall that collapsed and were there for many hours. And after a number of hours, they were both trapped next to each other, both pretty injured. And they were able to talk during that time. They were rescued. They were pulled out. Gordon's daughter did not survive through the night, but Gordon did. And about two days later, after he was kind of aware and could talk, the BBC came and did an interview was different of the survivors. And the interview with Gordon Wilson, if you Google this, the interview with Gordon Wilson, it all just hit the news and just went viral. He says viral as it could be before YouTube in the 80s, right? And it caught the attention to the whole world because of what he said. And William Erie, who recounts

this story, he captures it this way. He said, no one who heard Gordon Wilson will ever forget what he said in that interview. His grace towered over the miserable justification of the bombers. Speaking from his hospital bed, Wilson described his last conversation with his daughter. Quote, she held my hand tightly, and she gripped me as hard as she could. She said, Daddy, I love you very much. Those were her last exact words to me, and those were the last words I ever heard her say. William Erie comments, he says, to the astonishment of listeners, Wilson went on to add, quote, but I will bear no ill will. I will bear no grudge. Bitter talk is not going to bring her back to life. I will pray tonight,

and every night for the men who did this, that God will forgive them. No words in more. More than 25 years of violence in Northern Ireland had such a powerful emotional impact. And the story gets even more amazing. A year after, to commemorate the Enniskellan bombing, Gordon Wilson held kind of a public event where he invited publicly representatives of the IRA to come meet with him. And he invited news crews to all show up there. And because of his faith in Jesus Christ, he announced that he forgave. his daughter's murderers. And he begged the IRA to stop the violence and these tactics to forward

their agenda. During this whole year, it just catapulted him. He became a senator. When the Irish gained independence and made the Irish Republic, he became a senator and so on. And this towering figure, it's still today in Irish culture because of his commitment to Jesus to forgive his enemies. Now, this is where the story gets very interesting. One of the later presidents of the Irish Republic, Mary McAlley talks about the legacy that he left, and she puts it this way. It's so interesting. She says, Gordon, words, they shamed us all and caught us off guard. They sounded so different from what we expected and what we had all become used to.

They brought a stillness with them, and they carried a sense of the transcendent into a place that had become so ugly we could hardly bear to watch. But Gordon had his detractors, and unbelievably, he even received bags of hate mail. How dare you forgive, people demanded. What kind of father are you who can forgive your daughter's killers? It was as if Gordon had spoken those words of forgiveness for the first time in human history. As if Christ had never uttered the words, Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing. One outspoken critic who was a Christian said to me about Gordon Will.

and surely the poor man must have been in shock. As if offering love and forgiveness is a sign of mental weakness instead of spiritual strength. Do you see this here? So, you know, people name their daughter's grace and we sing songs about grace or whatever and we think it's this beautiful thing, but there actually is this real scandalous side to it

when grace, the wideness of God's mercy, begins to include people that we hate, begin to include people that we despise or that have wronged us or that we think don't deserve it. And then it's really, really disturbing this whole grace thing. This is what Jonah IV is about. It's not so crazy. He's depicted as ridiculous yes.

But the motivations that are behind Jonah's critique of God's grace are the same that motivated Gordon's detractors. How would you respond in a similar situation? It's very understandable. And so what God is going to do through the rest of Jonah four, he's going to try three times to bring Jonah along, to help him understand his grace in a new way. Let's dive in. Verse four. This is God's first try with Jonah.

Look at verse four. So Yahweh replied, you need to just ask straight up, ask a question. Let's talk about this, Jonah. Sounds like a therapist. Is it right for you to be angry, Jonah? I mean, you're angry at Misha and Grace to the Nineobites. I mean, it's that legitimate, Jonah? And what is Jonah's response?

just stonewall he just ignores him that's what he does right Jonah went out of the city and he sat down at a place east of the city there he made himself a little shelter a little tent and he sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city so first of all he just ignores god altogether which is not the first time in the story he's done that right and so this clearly this didn't work god's like let's engage about this Jonah is this legitimate that you're angry and he's just like I don't want to talk about it. Wow. He just leaves.

And so he goes outside the city, and he makes this shelter, which means he plans on being there for a while, and he's waiting to see what's going to happen to the city. Now, what is this about? What do you think he thinks is going to happen to the city? Does it sound good? What do we know for sure he wants to happen to the city? So he wants fire from heaven, something. That's what he wants, right?

And this just raises for us. His five-word sermon, I told you, this would come back. There's more to it. There's a lot more to it. He's angry for many reasons, not just because God's gracious, but because God's played a trick on him. He's played a really, really brilliant trick on him. Go back to chapter three.

It's three. You remember this five-word sermon? What was this five-word sermon? In Nineveh. Look at chapter three, verse four. He went today's journey and the city proclaiming 40 days, and Nineveh will be overthrown. That's it.

Tried to raise this last time. I'm like, this is very odd. because we know that he was commissioned to preach against the wickedness of the city and what does he not mention at all? Anything about the city's wickedness or what they're doing wrong? He's sent to tell them why.

You know prophets usually explain why this is happening. Like there's no reason. He doesn't give any reasons why. And who does he not mention it all? He doesn't even mention Yahweh, the God that he's supposed to be representing. This is very strange. This is very strange.

And it gets even better. And I didn't tell you last week because I wanted to save it for the final week of the series. This is the best part. of the book. This is absolutely brilliant. And kids would never get this. Kids would never get this. Okay. The last word of Jonah is, some of you have 40 days and Nineve will be overthrown and NIV. What others have? Overturn? Some of you? Any others? Overturned or overthrown?

Is that we got in the room? That's great. Those are the two standard translations. Okay, here's what's great. So this is Hebrew geekiness. So 40 days in Nineve it will be Hopak. Did you say it with me? Hopak. Now this is great. Many words in English have a basic meaning, and then depending on the context you use it in, can have different nuances or something. So you could say, like, I destroyed my car, and that would be the physical destruction of my car. But you could also say, like, I destroyed the world record for how many redheads are gathered in one place got destroyed here in Portland a few weeks ago. Did you see this? New world record for a amount of redheads in one place, Pioneer Square, just two weeks ago.

So the world record was destroyed. which, is that a bad thing? No, that's awesome. That's really cool that that happened. And so it's the same word, but with a different nuance. So this is language. Language works like this all the time. Same with Hopak.

So the basic meaning of Hopak is just to turn something over. You just turn it over. So for example, the Prophet Hosea in a metaphor, but you described Israel like a piece of baked bread that has not been hapacht. In other words, it's ruined. It's because you've got to bake both sides of the bread, but one side too long.

Oh, that's ruined. You throw it out. So, anyway, it's Josea. It's a very clever metaphor, actually. So it's just basic meaning, to turn over. Now, if you take a city that's really bad, and it gets hop-hawked, you can understand, like, that's like really negative sense of hop-pox. So, for example, in lamentations, the sin of my people is greater than that of Sodom.

You know, Sodom, archetype of human evil in the Bible, and Sodom was hop-hawked in a moment without a hand to help. So this is an overturning that's clearly negative, like destroyed or overturned or something like that. But hapawked can also mean something turned over from bad into good, something from good into bad, or bad into worse, or something from good into bad, like in chapter 30. God, you have hapocked my grief and mourning into dancing.

You've removed my sackcloth and closed me with joy. So it can be something as bad that's transformed into something good. Now here's what's so brilliant. Which meaning do you think Jonah intends as he walks around Nineveh yelling his five-word sermon? Which meaning do you think he intends? Clearly number two. Which meaning do you think God intends? And of course, which actually happened?

Come on. That's funny. That's funny. Does Jonah think it's funny? No, he's ticked. Right? He's ticked. So God won't let Jonah get away with anything in this book.

Right? He tries to run away. Yeah, that didn't work. So he tries, maybe I'll just go to Nineveh and engage in what I call prophetic sabotage, give them as little information as possible so I ensure that they're going to get fired from heaven. And even that doesn't work. God uses words against him, right?

Just like Jonah used his words against him. I mean, it's all brilliant, this is brilliantly told the story. And so, of course, he's livid with anger because God has used even what he intended for evil to turn into good, to bring people into repentance and to find grace in life. He is kicked off. And you might, I don't know, maybe you would be ticked off, too. I don't know if it's justified, really. Clearly, somehow, he's hoping he's going outside of the city.

He's going to wait out of those 40 days, and, like, maybe they'll repent of their repentance. You know, something. He's hoping something horrible, but just might have meteorite come from the sky, something. So he's out there just doing. He's tick. God is going to engage him another time. The direct question and reasoning, yeah, that didn't work. Is it right for you to be angry, John, about Michain Grace Stonewall?

He gets the hand. So he's going to try a different technique. the small plant tactics for six such a good part of the story so Yahweh God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort

and Jonah was extremely happy about the plant this is the only time in the whole story that he is happy now I should I didn't mention this for I'll mention it now I've heard some very creative misinterpretations of the leafy plant that brings ease from his discomfort, right? So anyway, don't go there. You're trying, making the Bible become your pet when you do that, right?

That's what you're doing. So don't go there. But nobody knows what the leafy plant is. So people think it's a gourd or a castor oil plant. I'm dead serious that I've had someone use this verse to try and show that to me anyway. It doesn't matter what the plant is, except for that kind of plant. That's clearly out of the question. But whatever the plant is, the point is, is it's just something that provides shade. It's the only point. of the leafy plant. So he keep going. He wants to die. Oh, I'm angry. I want to die. Now he's very, very happy. But it done, the next day, God provided a little worm. A little worm. So let's see, God provides a huge storm, a huge fish, a medium-sized leafy plant,

and then a tiny worm. This is like the whole spectrum, right, in the story. A teeny, a little worm, and it chewed at the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed down on Jonah's head, and he grew faint. He wanted to die. And he said, oh, it would be better for me to die than to live. You're like, wait, I thought you were just happy. He's like, no, I want to die. Now I'm very happy.

No, I want to die. This is so comic. You guys get the comic feel of the story here. This is another way that's expressed in the storytelling. And probably this is the way I filter reality now. The moment I read the story, I think of my two-year-old son and the grocery store checkout aisle. Anybody? Do you know, or maybe you've seen someone else's two-year-old in the grocery chore?

Checkout aisle? Holy cow. So I am convinced that people who design modern grocery tour check out aisles have is their goal to make parents of little kids miserable. I mean, it's the worst, it's always bad. It's never good. It's never a good experience, especially for little boys, because what are my options? On the left, I have all these glossy magazine covers of women scantily clad.

So I'm directing his attention this way, clearly. But what am I making him look at over here? Just a wall of sugar. So he's dope, and he's just the gold mine of Butterfingers or whatever. And so what are my options? He might be in his cart, but he's two now, so his arms are long, and so he can grab some mince or gum or something. He's really happy.

Oh, my gosh, it's the best thing ever in that. And then I have to take it away from him and puddle on the floor, and he's literally writhing in my arms as we leave as he screams and so on. You're just like, I can't win. I can't win. It's a long digression, but what happens in my head when I read this, because he's like, oh, I want to die. rather die than I live with a God like you. Oh, but this plant, oh, my gosh, this is the best thing

ever in that, oh, I want to die again. So here we go. This is crazy. And we're like, this is so strange. What is this story about? Here's what it's about. Verse 9. God said to Jonah, and he just repeats this question again, but with a little twist. God said to Jonah, is it right for you to be angry about the plant? So he couldn't get Jonah to own up to this question of, is your anger that I'm showing grace to your enemies? Is that legitimate? Jonah just gave him the hand. So try the small plant tactic. Is your anger unto death about a plant legitimate? That's good. Good question. This should shake him out of his irrationality, right? And what is his response? Of course it's right for me to be angry. I'm so angry. I wish I were dead.

And you're just like, whoa, he's beyond reason. Clearly. At this point, he's a goner. But God doesn't give up because he's gracious, he's compassionate, he's slow to anger, abound and loving kindness, he's committed to Jonah. He's going to work this out. So the Lord said, again, this is the third time. The Lord said, listen, Jonah, you've been concerned about this plant. Some of your translations might have you've shown pity on this plant or you've had compassion on this plant. The whole point is you've had all this extreme emotion, very happy, very sad about this plant. And listen, Jonah, You didn't care for the plant. I mean, you didn't even make it grow.

You can't claim to have an emotional attachment to the plant because it came up overnight and died overnight. It hasn't even been in your life for very long. So let's just say, Jonah, that your emotion for this plant is legitimate. Verse 11, shouldn't I be able to have that kind of same strong emotion and concern for something a little more significant, like a huge city full of human beings, like Nineveh, in which there are more than 120,000 people

who can't tell their right hand from their left, and also many animals. It was like, the end. The end. The Bible is so strange, you guys. The Bible is so strange. This is such a great story. What on earth is that?

So, first of all, if this story, where I left like, wow, does Jonah respond, and what does it mean they don't know the right hand from their left? This is so brilliant what God's doing. So he tried first to expose how foolish it is that Jonah's angry at showing grace to the Nineveh. That didn't work. So he says, let's get a Jonah's anger another way and try and help him understand how ridiculous it is. Let's do this little thing with a plant.

And so he's super stoked on the plant. And let's expose his anger about the plant. Is your anger legitimate? And that didn't work at all either. And so now he's trying a different tactic. God's not going to try to expose his anger. He recognizes Jonah's stoked on something. For the first time in the whole story, he's happy.

And he cares about something other than himself. Do you see this? And granted, it's something that provides comfort for him. But this is the first time there's a little corner of his heart that cares about something other than himself. And God's like, we can work with that. And so God's gracious and accommodating. And he says, okay, you've got the soft spot in your heart

of emotion and care for this little plant, For this little plant, now let's just grant you the legitimacy of that strong emotional attachment you have to the plant, Jonah, and we're all laughing at you. You're quite ridiculous right now, but I'll just give that to you. All right? That's a good thing, that you should be concerned about something other than yourself. Good for you, Jonah. Let me just compare that. Wouldn't it be okay? Is it okay with you, Jonah? If I were to have a strong emotional concern about something other than myself, and if that concern is quite similar to your for maybe something more significant, you might grant me like the lives of thousands upon thousands of human beings who are made in my image. And not only that, look at the description of this 120,000 human beings.

What does it say? This is very interesting. What does it say about the Nunavites? They can't tell their right hand from their left. I always think of 1990 or something. Kevin Neeland, Saturday Night of Mr. No Dept's perception. Remember that one? It wasn't his best known skit.

Anyway, it's pretty funny. You can Google it. So it's not like to go around walking into walls all the time or something. They don't know. And so they don't know the right hand from their left. There's clearly a little Hebrew turn phrase or something like that. It can't mean that they don't know right from wrong at all because God clearly expects them to know right from wrong. He brought a word of judgment on their behavior and they responded accordingly because he knew that they should know better. So it doesn't mean they don't know right from wrong. It seems to be this

idiom that they're misguided. Like that human beings, we have some intuition morally, spiritually of the way that we should go, but we should go right, but we constantly go left, right? Or we should be going left, and we don't know which way to go. We're lost and misguided, morally and spiritually. And this is a common description of human beings in the Bible. Usually it's connected with sheep, stupid sheep, they go astray. So this is that idea here. Now, God's not excusing the Nineveites.

He's not saying, well, they didn't know better. That's why they just happened to slaughter thousands of people. They're very accountable for their behavior, but they're lost and means. misguided. That's where their injustice comes from. And he says, listen, Jonah, you are all working up about your little deal and your little plant and good for you. That's great. But can't you see that I might just happen to be concerned about something more significant like thousands of human beings and also their pets? They're animals, right? And you're supposed to laugh, just like you did. At the end, you're supposed to laugh because what did the cows do in chapter three?

they repented in sackcloth and ashes too so God spares them as well and so the last word of the book is animals cows literally it's cows than all their cows what is Jonah for doing to us we're like how does Jonah respond well what did he say I want to know what he said

but that's to miss the point of the whole book because this story was never about Jonah in the first place was it who is this book actually about it's about you and the real question is how this story is a word from God to his people. And the real question we should be asking is,

how am I living the response to God's question? Because that's what's happening right here. Jonah is this ridiculous caricature of people who grasp the scandal of God's grace and that God loves your enemy as much as he loves you. And when that sinks in, especially when you have a fresh wound from an enemy

and you're struggling with issues of forgiveness, all the chapter packs a punch, a strong, strong punch. And because here's what God is trying to do. He's trying to get Jonah outside of himself and just say, Jonah clearly thinks the Nineveites are the worst wretched sinners on the planet. But of course, in the story of Jonah, who's the most hard-hearted, hateful person in the story? Is Jonah.

And so God is gently trying to get him to see like, Jonah, don't you see what's happening here? Yet you're a part of the covenant people, And that's cool, but that doesn't, for a second, excuse your religious hypocrisy and superiority. You're just as broken and as lost as misguided as they are. Jonah, don't you see that? Shouldn't I be concerned about them and their animals? And there you go.

There you go. And so, really, where this takes us is the fact that God loves your enemy. And some of us might hear that, and we might think, okay, I think I could swallow that. I think I could deal with the fact that God loves my enemy. I am not at all sure what I think about the fact that he might want me to as well. So I'm cool. If God loves my end, forgives my enemy, I sure hope he doesn't expect me to try and do that. And this is crazy, because this is one of the most fundamental core issues at the story of the gospel, forgiveness for one's enemies. That's what God is doing for us at the cross. Jesus talked about this kind of stuff all the time. This is what

Jonah four is about, Jesus put it this way. He said, but I tell you who hear me, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. And I think even as Christians, we respond to some of these teachings of Jesus in the most bizarre ways. Sometimes we're just like, what? What? Some of us were just kind of like, that's noble and very admirable Jesus, but I'm just straight up not going to do that. If you look at how we live, it's just we're just like, no, Jesus, I'm not going to do that. crazy, if you think that's how things are supposed to go. And this was his whole announcement of the kingdom of God, is that in him, a whole new way of living in God's world has arrived,

where through him people are reconciled to God, were people who have made ourselves enemies of God, through our own self-absorption and selfishness and thinking that we're the star of the show, and God's a bit player in my story, along with everybody else, right? And so we go through life with that, and some of us make more of our lives into a train wreck than others, but we all do it in different ways. And some of us make our lives a train wreck, of course, by actually not doing very much wrong to other people, but feeling quite proud about ourselves for not doing very much wrong to other people, which in God's eyes is just as equally horrible way of being a human being, right? It's religious pride. And so we all do this, and we're all participants

in it. And we hear words like this, and we're just like, Jesus, you clearly didn't have your coffee that morning. Like, he's not thinking straight. right you don't the world doesn't work like that and jesus is like actually you all are the ones who have it upside down this is how god made us to live fully reconciled to god and to other people and of course none of us have to like try and do this on our own we do this simply because god is like this already gracious and compassionate slow to anger abounding in love who loves to relent from sending calamity, and example number A, like you and me. And so the book ends like with God inviting Jonah, like, Jonah, you have no high ground to stand on

to start declaring who gets God's grace and who doesn't. We've all made ourselves enemies of God. Some of us are quite blind to that fact, and others of us are starting to wake up to that fact. And then he's moved towards me and grace. And this is not trite, I'm not pretending, as your pastor. I recognize there are stories of real pain and hurt and real wounds from other people in the room right now. If there is one place in the world where the train and the spiral of humans wronging each other and responding to those wrongs with other wrongs and just spirals into the mess that the world is,

if there's one place that it stops, it stops at the cross. and the community of people that form around the cross are called to live differently. Not because we think we're better, but because we have been shown grace and compassion. We have been treated not by a God who's slow to anger and who's abounding in love and kindness towards us. And so what Jonah chapter 4 is doing,

what Jesus often did in his teachings, is he's deconstructing the whole idea of what an enemy is. And so you can see clearly what's happened in Jonah's mind. The Nineveites have been like clearly stereotyped and demonized in his thinking. He thinks they're the bad guys. And it's like they had very soft hearts and turned to God immediately. He's the bad guy, but he can't even see that. And so this is what happens to us with our enemies.

An enemy is someone who's in this case, like Jonah, a group of people, an individual, somebody who's wronged you, somebody who's wronged someone that you care about. Or, you know, I mean, we could probably broaden it like someone who's just really difficult for you to be. be around, they're in an annoying or toxic personality. And you just can't deal with them. And that's okay. Like, it's totally okay to struggle, like, to be around certain people. The issue is, what do you do with that repulsion and those emotions? And what most of us tend to do is we tend to fixate on the thing that they did to me. And so we take this complex human person who has a family of origins and a crazy story and probably people that they've wronged and other people who have wronged

them not to excuse what they've done, but just saying they have a story. People don't just behave and screwed up ways for no reason. We all have stories behind the ways that we act. And so this person came into my life and this happened and this is what they did. But what we tend to do as you replay the movie a million times in your head as you stare at your ceiling at night is you tend to reduce their complex humanity down to the thing that they did to you. And so maybe someone lied about you or something. And slowly they become the person who told the lie to me to then they become the liar. And then the movie in your head has they have a forked tongue or something like that,

you know? We begin to reduce down their humanity to that trait that's annoying to us or to the thing that they did to us. And then, of course, because we were the ones who were wronged by them, we tend to paint ourselves as the opposite of them. And then you end up with Jonah chapter four. He's so blind to the fact that the line of good and evil goes right down the middle of him that he thinks everyone else is the problem.

And you're just like, come on. And so what God is trying to do, and what Jesus did all the time, is he deconstructs the whole concept of an enemy. And he just says, listen, we are all contributors to why this world is the way that it is. Of course, some people are screwed up in different or more ways than others, but the line of good and evil goes through each and every one of us. We have all made ourselves enemies of God. It's the point of the cross. And as the saying goes, the ground is leveled right there before the cross. cross. Every human being receives grace and mercy, and I do not get the prerogative to stand up before

the cross and to say, I totally, okay, thank you, totally stoked on that, Jesus, that person totally not them. Are you kidding me, them? That's not how it works. It's all or none. Like, that's the whole point. And that's the point of the gospel, is that none of us get to declare that. It's simply God's gracious, liberal mercy. He's gracious and compassionate, slow to. anger, abounding and loving, kindness. And so how Jonofore ends, here's the punch. We'll conclude with this. Like, who is this story really about? Is this really about God in Nineveh? Now, this story is really about God and his own people. And he's trying to bring his own people around and open their eyes, open their hearts to how messed up they are and how much they need his grace

as anybody else. And so it's actually God has intentionally brought Jonah into contact with his enemy, not by accident, but precisely because he wants to teach Jonah something. And think about this, you guys. How many of you have a difficult person,

an enemy, a toxic person in your life, and you think I would be able to follow Jesus so awesome if that person had never crossed my path? My life would be so great without them. And Jonah Ford just flips that over it says, could it be that that person is in your life precisely as a divine invitation for you to grow and mature in your experience of God's grace? Not just now in receiving it, but beginning to show it to someone else. Not just like mentally assenting to it, but actually beginning to let it

flow through you. Could it be? This is actually the next step of growth for you. And this is what a theologian named Walter Wink, close with this idea, calls us the gift of the enemy. And he puts it brilliantly here. He says it this way. He says, this is the gift that our enemy may be able to bring us.

To see aspects of ourselves that we cannot discover any other way than through our enemies. Our friends seldom show us our flaws. There are friends precisely because they're able to overlook or ignore those parts of us. The enemy is therefore not just a hurdle

to be leaped over on the way to God. Our enemy might actually be the way to God. We cannot come to terms with our own inner shadows, except through our enemies. We have almost no other access to those unacceptable parts of ourselves that need redeeming, except through the mirror that our enemies hold up to us. He recommends this little exercise, and I commend it to you. He says, this week, at some point, you know, in response to this, sit down with Jonah four in a blank sheet of paper and get the person in your mind.

that you're enemy and write down every character trait about them that you hate like just get it all out there and some of you're like that sounds like a lot of fun i like that idea right they're selfish and they're careless and they're greedy and they don't care about other people and so on and just get it all out there and then he says so finish and stop and then pray and recognize you're in god's presence and then just line by line go through each thing that you wrote down and just ask yourself, have I ever displayed this same kind of behavior? And then it's just a matter of, are you going to be like Jonah or not? Oh, I've never been selfish before. I've never been careless about the needs of other people. It's like, really? The first step towards enemy love is recognizing

the common humanity, the common brokenness that we all share. That's clearly where God is leaning Jonah. Don't you see Jonah? I mean, shouldn't I care about people who are misguided? The Ninevites, Maybe you two, Jonah? Could it be that this person is in your life? Precisely because God's inviting you into a deeper experience of His grace for you. Could it be? I hope that was helpful for you, but also stimulating and thought-provoking, get you thinking about your own life and your own enemies that you need to reconcile with.

And also, thanks. This is the conclusion of the first series we did at exploring My Strange Bible podcast. We're going to have a lot more episodes up in not very long. And so thanks again for listening. If this series has been helpful for you and you think other people might find this podcast helpful, you can help me by sharing it with other people or going to iTunes and giving it a review. But you guys, the Bible is huge and wonderful and strange, and there's a lot more to explore.

So I'm excited to do more of that in the future.