God always does right.

“Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Gen 18:25).

“He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A

God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He”

(Deut 32:4).

Yet, sometimes God doesn’t do what we want Him to do.

Jonah had great disappointment in God.

How does he handle disappointment with God?

Horribly!

Yet, God seeks to teach this prophet an important lesson.

God acts in grace and

mercy.

Jonah 3:10-4:3

God has always wanted people to repent instead of facing His

wrath.

“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves,

and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then

I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their

land” (2 Chron 7:14).

God “is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish

but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet 3:9).

God acts in grace and

mercy.

How should we act when we’re

disappointed with God?

Jonah teaches us what we should not do!

One: We obey.

Obedience to God is so important.

“This day the LORD your God commands you to observe these

statutes and judgments; therefore you shall be careful to observe them

with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deut 26:16).

“My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and

do it” (Lk 8:21).

Jonah obeys quite reluctantly.

Why obey if God disappoints us?

Obedience is the bedrock of our lives (Matt 7:24-25).

God blesses obedience:

“He who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is

not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in

what he does” (Js 1:25).

Two: We pray.

Jonah prayed to God.

Chapter two is largely his prayer from the fish’s belly.

“I cried out to the LORD because of my affliction, And He answered me.

Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, And You heard my voice” (2:2).

Others have prayed when life was difficult.

Jehoshaphat

Jesus

Paul and Silas

God will help.

Paul in Asia (2 Cor 1:11)

Cast “all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Pet 5:7).

Three: We do no harm.

Jonah put others in harm’s way.

The ship which was taking Jonah to Tarshish was in such a fierce

storm “that the ship was about to be broken up” (1:4).

Did people in Nineveh die without repentance because Jonah

delayed his going?

“Whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is

the Law and the Prophets” (Matt 7:12).

What kind of faith do you have this

morning?

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