Sermon: The Boundless Compassion of God

Well, this morning we are starting a new series. We will be looking at the Book of Jonah, one of the minor prophets in the Old Testament. And we're going to be spending today and then the next four Sundays, Lord willing, working our way through this book. Jonah conveniently has four chapters, so the next four, we'll dive into each chapter in more detail. Today, we're doing something a little bit different. We are going to start by considering an overview of

the life and ministry of the prophet Jonah. So that's what I am attempting to do this morning. Before we dive in, let me pray for us, ask for the Lord's help. Father, we know that as we come to your word, we need your help to understand it, to behold it, to see new things. And so I pray that you would give each of us eyes to see and ears to hear, and that you reveal to us the wonder of your gospel. Would you reveal to us the wonder

of your grace and mercy? So we ask for help for these things. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, you all are very familiar with the story of Jonah. You know it involves a large storm. It involves a prophet who's on the run. It involves a big fish who swallows Jonah the prophet and spits him out on dry ground. Jonah going to this city of Nineveh and preaching there. It involves a plant that grows up and then a plant that withers, and then the

Lord confronting Jonah. All these wonderful things about the life and ministry of the prophet Jonah. It's also a story about God. Here's what one older commentator said: "Men have been looking so hard at the great fish that they have failed to see the great God." So this morning, what I would like to do is show us the great God that stands behind and in and under, all throughout this story of Jonah. And what we'll see is God is boundless in his compassion.

So that's the theme we're going to see weave its way through the passages we look at this morning. And as we consider this theme of God's boundless compassion, it ought to raise for us a question, a question I'd like you to wrestle with, myself to wrestle with. How do you respond to God's compassion? That's the question. How do you respond to God's compassion? So in a moment, we will turn to the Book of Jonah, but first, we are going to

start with the context for Jonah. So I would invite you to turn to the Book of 2 Kings, and we will start in chapter 13, 2 Kings 13.

As you're turning there, we're not going to read through both 2 Kings 13 and 14, but let me just give you an overview of what's going on in these two chapters. There are three main kings that we read about here in these two chapters, three kings of the northern tribes, the tribes of Israel. Chapter 13, you'll notice, begins, you'll see the heading there, the King Jehorahaz. The second king you'll see in chapter 13, verse 10, Jehoash.

Also goes by the name Joash. And then the third king, Jeroboam II, and that's in chapter 14, which we'll see here in a minute. Now, all three of these kings, like the history of the kings in Israel, we're told, "They all did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, following the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat." Jeroboam was the first king in Israel. And you remember what Jeroboam did? He set up these golden calves, these idols, to keep

Israel from traveling to Jerusalem to worship God rightly. And so, this legacy of sin followed, following Jeroboam's leadership. All three of these kings followed in his steps. They all did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. Because of their evil, the Lord would bring judgment against this northern tribe, and at this time, in this period of history, Syria, their neighbors to the immediate north, had invaded under King

Hazael and had captured many of the Israelite towns and cities. And we see that in the text. So if you look with me, 2 Kings chapter 13, beginning in verse 22. "Now Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehorahaz. But the Lord was gracious to them and had compassion on them, and he turned toward them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, nor has he cast them from his presence

until now. When Hazael king of Syria died, Ben-Hadad his son became king in his place. Then Jehoash the son of Jehorahaz took again from Ben-Hadad the son of Hazael the cities that he had taken from Jehorahaz his father in war. Three times Joash defeated him and recovered the cities of Israel." So what you see here in the text is under Jehoash, Israel had began to recapture the cities that Syria had taken. And this recapturing project, you might say, taking these cities back,

continued into the reign of Jeroboam II. So that's what I want to show us next. Jeroboam II, 2 Kings chapter 14. Skip over to chapter 14, verse 23. And this brings us to the Prophet Jonah as well. So we read there, "In the 15th year of Amaziah, the son of Joash, king of Judah." It's a different Joash, that's king of Judah. "Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel, began to reign in Samaria, and he reigned 41 years.

He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin." Now, if you stop right there, this next verse that we're about to read seems very out of place. So given all this sin, all this pattern of sin, you do not expect to find what we see in verse 25. So look at verse 25. "He," so Jeroboam, "restored the border of Israel from Lebo Hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah

according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet who was from Gath Hepher." So there we are. We see the life and ministry of Jonah taking place during the time of Jeroboam, and notice several things from the context here that we just learned about Jonah's ministry. Number one, we learn that Jonah was from this village of Gath Hepher. It's a small village, a small city in the

north of Israel. So what we learn is that Jonah was a prophet from Galilee. That's the first thing. Second, we learn Jonah was an active prophet during the reign of Jeroboam II, and Jonah's prophetic ministry, as we see here in the text, consisted of a message of both recovery, restoration, and expansion for Israel. Not what you would expect. Now, the historical context suggests that the Syrians to their immediate north, who had captured all of these cities, were now being harassed by

another neighbor to their north, the Assyrians. And so as the Assyrians were harassing the Syrians, two different people groups there, that actually allowed Israel to expand and retake the cities that had been captured. So what we see here in 2 Kings 14 about Jonah's ministry is that his ministry, at least early on, was a prophetic word about restoration. Expansion and restoration. Here's a third thing we learn from this context.

Though Israel did not deserve it, the Lord had compassion upon them. And that's what we read in 2 Kings 13:32. The northern kingdom's first king under King Jeroboam had already set up these golden calf idols, and all of the kings after had followed in his footsteps. And yet, when we come to 2 Kings 13, we see that the Lord was gracious to them and had compassion upon them. So from all this context, what we're seeing is the Lord's

boundless compassion for rebellious Israel. The Lord's boundless compassion for rebellious Israel. This phrase here, turning toward them, is a good definition. Think about what compassion is. It's turning toward someone. Turning towards someone when they don't even deserve it. That's what the Lord was doing for Israel. Jonah was privileged to be a messenger of God's boundless compassion as he delivered this message of recovery, restoration, and even hope for

Israel. Here's a fourth thing we learn from this context. This national expansion for Israel as they were taking back these towns and villages that had been captured by foreign nations, all of this sets the context for the Book of Jonah. So what we're going to see in the Book of Jonah is God about to confront, and God confronting, the pride and nationalistic fervor that had begun to grip Jonah's heart. Notice again from this historical context, this theme of

compassion. The Lord was gracious to rebellious Israel. He had compassion on them, and he turned toward them. Though Israel's rebellion was great, God's mercy and his compassion was even more. And now Jonah, at least in this early part of his ministry, Jonah was a messenger of God's compassion. But here's the question. Does Jonah really believe it? Does Jonah truly understand the boundless compassion of God? That's what we're going to see next. So turn over to the Book of Jonah.

You'll find this on page 774 if you're using a pew Bible in front of you. So we've just seen here God is boundless in his compassion for rebellious Israel. Here's the second thing we'll see from the Book of Jonah itself. God is boundless in his compassion for wicked nations. God is boundless in his compassion for wicked nations. Again, in the midst of this national expansion and restoration among these northern tribes, Jonah now

receives another call. So look with me, chapter one, verse one of the Book of Jonah. "Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, 'Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.'" Nineveh was an ancient city with a long history. And we're told in Genesis 10:11 that Nineveh was one of the cities that Nimrod had built in the land of Assyria. Today, you can actually go to this exact place.

This ancient city of Nineveh is situated on the eastern bank of the Tigris River, just opposite the modern city of Mosul, which is in northern Iraq. It's about 220 miles northwest of Baghdad. And think of the country of Syria, it's about 40 miles east of Syria. Nineveh here in the text is called that great city. It covered roughly 2,000 acres in size. If you glance in chapter 3, verse 3 of the Book of Jonah, we're told there that it took Jonah about three days to

journey through the city. It's probably not meaning Jonah ran for three days. More likely he was lingering along as he went, but it was a large city, took three days to get across. From history and even from archeology, we know that this city was a hub for both business and commerce of the day. It was a crossroads of the Medes and the Persians to the east. You had Babylon to the further south. You had other emerging empires, kingdoms to the west.

Just after the time of Jonah, King Sennacherib would come to power. It's a famous name from history. Sennacherib built his palace here in Nineveh. And you can even see the archeological remains of these massive walls, these reliefs where Sennacherib would recount all of his military victories. They're in the museum in London today. So if you end up in London, you can go see these. Nineveh, we see, is called that great city, and

Jonah is called to go. Go to that city. Go to this great city. Now, surely Israel needed a prophet. Surely Israel needed Jonah to stay and to minister God's word there. But here in the Book of Jonah, what we're seeing is God revealing to us and reminding us, and he's reminding this for Jonah, that his compassion is truly boundless. It has no borders. And he does so by calling his prophet to go to that great city. Take my word to that city.

We're told that Nineveh was great. It was great in wealth, great in heritage, in fame, great in power. And we also see from these opening verses that this city was also great in evil. Their evil was filling up. There's this metaphorical image in the Old Testament of a cup. It's as if nations have different size cup, different size cup, and the evil, God's wrath for their evil, would fill up that cup. And when it gets close to the top, the Lord would pour out that cup of

wrath, pour it out upon that nation. Here we see Nineveh's cup was filling up. Verse two, "Their evil has come up before me." And so Nineveh needed a messenger. They needed a prophet to go to them, to warn them of God's judgment. And as you know the story of the prophet Jonah, Jonah eventually goes, and he eventually does that very thing. He preaches to this city. It's a very short message, chapter three, verse four, "40 days and Nineveh will

be overthrown." So why did God call Jonah to go to Nineveh? Well, here's the answer. Because God is boundless in his compassion, not just for Israel, but also for the nations. You see in our story, in our text, Jonah even confesses this truth. Look at chapter four, verse two. Notice what Jonah says. This is after Nineveh repents. Jonah says, "I knew. I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love

and relenting from disaster." Jonah knew this. He knew it with his head, but as we know from the story, he does not know it with his heart. You see, Jonah knew with his head the truth of Exodus 34, that great confessional verse where God revealed his glory to Moses. The Lord passes before Moses, and what does he say? The Lord proclaims, "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness."

The first words that the Lord uses to proclaim who he is to Moses, to communicate his essence, are these two words, mercy and grace. God is compassionate. He's boundless in his compassion. In our text, we see the Lord confirming this as well to Jonah. Look at chapter four, verse 11. There, the Lord asked this question to Jonah, "Should I not pity? Should I not pity Nineveh, that great city in which there are more than

120,000 persons?" You see, God is confronting Jonah with this very question, "Should I not have pity on them? Should I not have mercy, have compassion on this great city?" And here we see the city's not great simply because of their wealth or their power, but it's because of the people There's 120,000 persons. The Hebrew word here is Adam. There's 120,000 Adams, image-bearers, here in this city. God has compassion and pity for these evil and

wicked Ninevites because they bear his image. They bear his image. They are in rebellion from God, and he desires that they should turn from their evil, to turn from their wickedness, and be saved from his impending judgment. Now, Jonah knew this in his head. He knew that God was compassionate toward Israel, but he needed his heart to be confronted with God's compassion for the nations. Let me ask you this question. Do you view the great cities,

the great nations, the peoples that are far off, those outside of our national borders, do you view them with the same compassion that God sees them? God is boundless in his compassion for rebellious Israel, and he's boundless in his compassion for wicked nations. Let me show you a third thing. God is boundless in his compassion for a resentful prophet. He is boundless in his compassion for a resentful prophet. If we return to our opening question,

how do you respond to God's boundless compassion? Well, notice in our story how Jonah responds. Look back at chapter one, verse three. Jonah hears this call to go to this city. What does Jonah do? It says he flees. We're told two times in this verse that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord. Now, one of the many ironies and surprises here in this book is seeing an Israelite prophet, this one who is proclaiming God's very word,

and at the exact same time he's doing that, he then turns and runs from God. He's fleeing from the Lord's presence. Instead of obeying and going northeast to Nineveh, he flees and goes directly west. He's heading to Tarshish, as far away as he can get. But as the story unfolds, you know that Jonah cannot outrun the boundless compassion of God. Let me show you several things here in this text. Notice how God sovereignly pursues

Jonah. He first uses, chapter one, verse four, a violent storm to bring him low. And then chapter one, verse 17, he uses a great fish to save him from death. And then chapter four, verse six, he uses this towering plant for shade, and immediately following, chapter four, verse seven, he sends a hungry worm, which eats this plant. And then verse eight, he sends a scorching wind that makes Jonah faint. God sovereignly uses these means to get

Jonah's attention and to remind him that he cannot outrun God's presence. Think of Psalm 139. "Where shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you're there. If I make my bed in Sheol, you're there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even as far away as Tarshish, even there your hand shall lead me. Even there your right hand shall hold me."

God's sovereign, miraculous provision in Jonah is a reminder that we can never escape from his presence. Maybe some here today are running, maybe in your head or in your heart even, or you're thinking of running from God. Well, let Jonah be a reminder to you, you can never outrun the Lord. He has the entire universe at his beck and call to reach you and to get your attention. And for Jonah, God pursued him in part to rescue him from his own prideful

partiality. Prideful partiality. That's what's revealed within Jonah's heart here in this story. So think about it. Even after experiencing the unmerited grace of God by being saved by the fish... Think of Thomas Watson, who said, "The fish's belly was like a ship in which Jonah sailed safe to the shore." Jonah experiences that salvation that was from the Lord. And then we see Jonah obeying. He goes to Nineveh, but it's not a true obedience, is it? He's reluctant.

He goes and he begrudgingly preaches, "40 days and Nineveh will be destroyed." And then he leaves the city, and he goes up on the hill to watch what's going to happen. And now, amazingly, unexpectedly, we know from this story, Nineveh does repent, but notice how Jonah responds to their repentance. Chapter four, verse one. Look there. "But it displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was angry." And then Jonah prays, "Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life

from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." He's exceedingly angry. He's resentful. And now we can understand why. We see it from the context. From the context of Jonah's ministry, it seems he was so focused on nation building, on national expansion, that he had become hardened, resentful even, of God's compassion for the Gentile world. It's quite stunning that God's prophet had forgotten and lost sight of God's mission.

And he lost sight of God's mission because ultimately, he had lost sight of God himself. Mark Dever asks this question: "If the heart of a prophet of God can become so wrongly hardened to God's priorities, God's love, God's mercy, how much more do I need to watch over my own heart?" Friends, is your heart aligned to God's priorities, God's love, God's mercy for the lost? The story of Jonah is about seeing God's boundless

compassion for rebellious Israel, for wicked nations, for resentful prophets, and lastly, it's about seeing his boundless compassion for us. God is boundless in his compassion for us. Now, there's no lack of discussion and speculation about the Book of Jonah. Maybe it's satire. Maybe it's a parable. Can we actually believe this account with a great fish, this enormous plant, this entire city that repents at the preaching of a foreign prophet?

What should we make of all these signs, all these miracles, all these things that are recorded for us in the Book of Jonah? Let me take you to the New Testament. Let me take you to Jesus's words in Matthew, chapter 12. So here's what Jesus says, verse 38. "And some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, 'Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.' Show us a sign. Show us a miracle. But Jesus answered them, 'An evil and adulterous

generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater

than Jonah is here.'" Notice what Jesus says. Just as Jonah experienced three days in the fish in the heart of the sea, so too will the Son of Man experience a real death for three days. And just as Jonah was vomited out by the fish to new life, so too will the Son of Man be raised bodily to new life. And these men of Nineveh, they really and truly repented. These men will rise up, Jesus says, in the great judgment, and they will

condemn this generation of religious leaders who failed to heed God's word and repent. In other words, these details are not merely metaphorical, but are real and historical, just as Jesus's death and resurrection were real and historical. Jonah was held in high esteem as a great prophet of Israel, despite his reluctance to go to Nineveh, despite his resentfulness at God's compassion for the Gentiles. Jonah must have repented of his pride and arrogance

because we have the actual story, we have the book, we have this account which has been read and retold for hundreds of years as this continual reminder of God's boundless compassion. Jonah came to understand it, and now we see God's compassion revealed through Jonah's ministry echoing forward through history until one day Jesus would rise up and claim to be an even greater Jonah. The sign of the prophet Jonah was a reminder of how God sovereignly

provided a fish in order to save Jonah, in order to save the Ninevites, and ultimately in order to save us as well. Because as Jesus says, something, someone greater than Jonah is here. Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee, was greater than Jonah, the prophet who was also from Galilee. We see Jonah being disobedient as a prophet, but in Jesus, we see he willingly obeyed his Father's will. Jonah was prideful and

resentful toward God's compassion. Jesus came full of grace and truth. Jonah despised the wicked Ninevites. Jesus came to save a people from every tribe and tongue and nation. Jonah preached judgment. Jesus received the judgment and proclaimed a great salvation. "Someone greater than Jonah is here," Jesus tells us. It's a reminder of God's compassion for us. One more thing we see from the life of Jonah as well, we see a heart check.

Just as Jonah needed a heart check, so too we need a heart check. Well, how so? Well, Jonah is like the prodigal son in Luke 15. He reminds us of the boundless compassion and grace of the Father who receives us with open arms, even though we may have fled from His presence. But Jonah is also like the older brother in the same parable. As we see Jonah sitting outside the city, he's looking down with anger as these Ninevites repented and

experienced God's saving grace. Jonah reminds us that resentment and anger toward God and His ways is just another way of fleeing from God, just like the older brother in that parable. And think of how that parable ends with how the Book of Jonah ends. Some people wonder, why does Jonah end so abruptly? I think here's one of the reasons why. We see the same thing in this parable of the prodigal son. It's the same question. Should not God have pity?

Is it not fitting to celebrate and be glad for this wicked city which has repented, for this lost brother who has now come home? If God has compassion and pity upon the nations of this world, should we not also? Jonah, like the parable of the prodigal son, confronts us with the same question: How do you respond when you see the boundless compassion of God? In closing, let me offer three words for application and reflection as we think of this question.

Here's number one, rejoice. Rejoice that by faith, God's kindness and His favor is for you. It's for me if we are in Christ. Rejoice and be glad. Here's second, increase. Increase your vision of God's compassion for the peoples of this world. Don't lose sight of God's nature, and don't lose sight of His mission, that this compassion, His compassion, His grace, should be proclaimed to all the peoples of this world, all the image-bearers who are

trapped in the misery of their sin. Increase your vision. And as you do so, be on guard against all the workings of your heart, the bitterness, the resentment, the anger that may stir up in your heart as you see the compassion of God for all the languages and nations of this world. And here's the third word, go. Go. God called Jonah to go to a people far away, a people who did not know their right hand from their left, a people who were

lost in the darkness of their own misery and sin. Jonah was called to go and to preach, and God continues to call us to go and to preach the good news, to make disciples of all nations. And so that might be going to the ends of the earth. We pray that that would be some of us. But for all of us, it means going out, talking to your neighbors, talking to those who may not fit your interest. Go. Go to them, not reluctantly or begrudgingly

like Jonah, but confidently, meekly, expectantly. Go filled with the Lord's compassion for the lost. Join me as we pray. Father in heaven, we pray as we're about to sing that you indeed would pity the nations, that you would constrain the entire Earth to come to you. And so we pray, would you send your word, and would you send your messengers? Would you send them abroad and bring the strangers home? We pray this for us here,

that we would be those who would go and proclaim this good news. We also pray it for the nations of this world. We ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen.