Is God Really Good? Wrestling with Jonah

Jun 15, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: Wrestling with a God Who Roots for the "Bad Guys"

Jonah’s fury at God’s mercy toward Nineveh mirrors our own struggles when grace disrupts our moral scorecards. Like a wrestling fan confused by heel-turns and face-offs, we question divine goodness when enemies receive compassion. God’s character—gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love—clashes with our thirst for justice. Yet His definition of "good" rewrites the script, inviting us to see enemies as beloved. Chaos festers when we cling to resentment, but goodness blooms when we trust His heart. [42:38]

The Lord passed in front of Moses and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth.” (Exodus 34:6, CSB)

Reflection: Where does God’s compassion toward someone you resent feel unfair? How might His mercy toward them reveal a deeper invitation for your own heart?

Day 2: When Your Comfort Plant Wilts Under God’s Sun

Jonah’s sheltering plant, a temporary comfort, withers under God’s appointed worm and wind. Our own “plants”—conveniences, routines, or control—often distract from God’s greater purpose. Anger festers when minor inconveniences eclipse eternal stakes. God questions not to condemn but to reorient: will we rage over withered leaves or care for the Ninevehs He loves? True rescue comes when we release chaos for His deeper provision. [54:02]

Then the Lord said, “You cared about the plant, which you did not labor over or grow. It appeared in a night and perished in a night. So may I not care about the great city of Nineveh?” (Jonah 4:10-11, CSB)

Reflection: What minor inconvenience or loss has recently consumed your emotions? How might this distraction hide a call to engage something eternal?

Day 3: Fish, Worms, and Wind Outshine the Prophet

The storm, fish, plant, and scorching wind obey God’s voice while Jonah resists. Creation itself testifies to divine goodness, exposing our stubbornness. We critique God’s methods yet ignore how even storms serve His mercy. When chaos feels overwhelming, what if it’s an invitation to surrender? The Creator appoints every element—including our trials—to draw us closer. Will we, like the worm, listen? [57:45]

Now the Lord had appointed a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the fish three days and three nights. (Jonah 1:17, CSB)

Reflection: Where has God used an unexpected or unwelcome circumstance to redirect you? How does creation’s obedience challenge your own resistance?

Day 4: Choosing Tov Over the Drama of Ra

Jonah’s “raw” anger (ra) blinds him to God’s goodness (tov). Chaos thrives on outrage, but tov seeks peace. Like binge-watching conflict, we feed on resentment until it distorts our vision. God’s question cuts through the noise: “Is this anger producing goodness?” Healing begins when we trade the rush of drama for the slow, steady work of love. [50:53]

Turn away from evil and do what is good; seek peace and pursue it. (Psalm 34:14, CSB)

Reflection: What situation fuels your anger without bearing fruit? What practical step could shift your focus from chaos to active peacemaking?

Day 5: The Unfinished Story of a God Who Waits

Jonah’s tale ends mid-rebellion, mirroring our own unresolved struggles. God doesn’t force closure but extends an open invitation: Will we join His way of loving? The cross proves He transforms enemies into family. Our resentment may demand fireworks, but His patience offers a lifetime of grace to realign our hearts. The final question isn’t for Jonah—it’s for us. [01:07:42]

But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8, CSB)

Reflection: Who have you labeled “too far gone” for grace? How does Christ’s death for enemies challenge you to withhold final judgment?

Sermon Summary

Jonah 4 drops the crowd into a ringside moment where the text makes everyone ask who the good guy really is. Jonah arrives in Nineveh after flight and fish, throws a five word scorcher that basically says, “You’re toast,” and the whole city repents from the king to the cows. God relents. Jonah burns. Jonah looks up and says, “I knew it,” quoting Exodus’ core confession about God’s character as “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and the one who relents from sending disaster.” God’s mercy lands on Jonah like a loss, not a win.

The Hebrew word choice shows what is happening under Jonah’s skin. Jonah’s gut is full of ra, the chaos word that leans toward death and disorder, not tov, the creation word for good. God answers Jonah’s fury with a question: “Is it right for you to be angry?” The word behind right leans toward good, the kind of goodness that makes things grow. Some anger does that. Jonah’s does not. Jonah wants fireworks, so he camps east of the city and watches.

God keeps appointing. The plant rises and Jonah smiles for the first time. The worm bites and the plant withers. The east wind scorches and Jonah folds again, asking for death over life. Creation keeps saying “Yes” to God’s voice while the prophet keeps saying “No.” The plant, the worm, the wind, even the great fish move at God’s good word, all to rescue Jonah from his ra and bring him back to tov.

God’s question returns and exposes the tangle in Jonah’s logic. Jonah calls his anger good. God then lays the contrast flat on the table: Jonah grieves a succulent he did not grow, while God loves a metropolis he made, 120,000 image-bearers who do not know right from left, plus their many animals. Mercy is not God going soft. Mercy is God being God. The real turn comes when the story shifts the big question. The issue is not “Is God really good” but “Is the human lens clear enough to see his goodness rather than calling it bad.”

The book leaves the scene on a cliffhanger and lets the silence weigh. God’s last word is compassion. Jonah’s last word is anger. The open ending hands the mic to the reader’s heart: bring the heat to God, let him ask the healing question, and let his mercy pull a life out of chaos into goodness. The cross seals that promise, where God took what was meant for evil and brought redemption. If God can turn that grief into glory, he can turn enemies into family and a raw heart into tov.

Key Takeaways

1. God’s mercy unsettles scorekeepers God’s compassion for Nineveh exposes the reflex to grade enemies by payback while grading self by excuses. Jonah knows God’s creed of mercy by heart, yet he cannot stomach it when God lives it. A heart that wants a lightning bolt for them and a loophole for self will always hate grace. The cure begins where God’s character, not human outrage, sets the scoreboard. [46:47]
2. Raw lenses twist goodness into threat When the inner world runs on ra, even God’s patience feels like a problem to solve. Chaos distorts sight until love looks weak and judgment looks strong. Scripture calls that misnaming of good and evil a sign of being lost. God’s appointed gifts aim to clear the lens so tov can be seen and wanted. [50:53]
3. God’s questions heal destructive anger “Is it right for you to be angry” is not a scold but surgery. God presses the word right toward good, the kind of anger that makes justice bloom instead of burning everything down. Without that check, anger becomes its own idol and withers the soul faster than a hot east wind. With it, anger can become energy for mercy-shaped repair. [51:57]
4. Enemies are candidates for family God’s final word centers people who cannot tell right from left, and even their cows, as objects of divine care. The contrast exposes the pettiness of plant-level attachments against God’s city-sized love. Mercy does not erase judgment, but it delays disaster to make room for repentance and homecoming. That is the family story God keeps writing. [61:13]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[40:15] - Finishing Jonah and the wrestling question
[40:47] - Monday Night Raw and the drama hook
[42:38] - Big question: Is God really good
[43:43] - Jonah recap: flight, fish, and Nineveh
[45:31] - Five word sermon, shock repentance
[46:47] - God’s character from Exodus
[50:53] - Ra vs Tov lenses
[51:57] - God’s probing question about anger
[54:02] - God appoints plant, worm, and wind
[58:51] - Not is God good, can you see
[61:13] - God’s care for people and cows
[65:05] - Anger as currency vs God’s way
[67:42] - Open ending that aims at hearts
[68:06] - Big idea: pulled from chaos into goodness

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading
Jonah 4:1-11 (CSB)
1 Jonah was greatly displeased and became furious. 2 He prayed to the Lord: “Please, Lord, isn’t this what I said while I was still in my own country? That’s why I fled toward Tarshish in the first place. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and one who relents from sending disaster. 3 And now, Lord, take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 The Lord asked, “Is it right for you to be angry?” ... 10 Then the Lord said, “You cared about the plant, which you did not labor over and did not grow. It appeared in a night and perished in a night. 11 But may I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than a hundred twenty thousand people who cannot distinguish between their right and their left, as well as many animals?”

Exodus 34:6-7 (CSB)
6 The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed: “The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth, 7 maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished…”

Observation questions

In Jonah 4:2, Jonah quotes Exodus 34:6-7 to describe God’s character. How does Jonah’s tone contrast with the original context of Exodus?
What specific actions does God “appoint” in Jonah 4 (plant, worm, wind)? How do these actions mirror His earlier interventions in Jonah’s story (e.g., the fish)? [54:02]
How does Jonah’s anger over the plant compare to his anger over Nineveh’s repentance? What does God highlight about Jonah’s priorities in verse 10?
The sermon mentions Jonah’s “chaos” (Hebrew ra) versus God’s “goodness” (tov). What physical and emotional signs in Jonah’s behavior reflect this inner chaos? [50:53]

Interpretation questions

Why does Jonah quote Exodus 34:6-7 against God instead of celebrating His mercy? What does this reveal about how bitterness distorts our view of God’s character?
God asks Jonah twice, “Is it right for you to be angry?” (4:4, 9). How does this question reframe anger as a tool for growth rather than destruction? [51:57]
The plant, worm, and wind all obey God, while Jonah resists. What might this contrast teach about the relationship between creation, humanity, and God’s purposes?
God’s final argument centers on Nineveh’s people and animals. How does this expand our understanding of what (or who) matters to God? [01:01:13]

Application questions

When has resentment or anger toward someone else’s redemption (like Jonah’s toward Nineveh) caused you to question God’s goodness? What steps could help you realign with His heart?
The sermon contrasts “chaos” (ra) and “goodness” (tov) lenses. What daily habits or thought patterns might be filtering your view of God’s work in your life through chaos? [50:53]
God’s question, “Is it right for you to be angry?” invites self-reflection. How could you create space this week to bring raw emotions to God before they spiral into destructive anger? [51:57]
Jonah prioritized a temporary plant over an entire city. Where might you be clinging to minor comforts or grievances while ignoring God’s call to love “enemies” or marginalized people?
The sermon ends with an open question: “Are you interpreting goodness through a God-shaped lens?” What practical step could help you test your perspective against His character this week? [59:08]
How might viewing someone you struggle with (politically, relationally, etc.) as a “candidate for family” change your prayers or actions toward them? [01:06:50]

Sermon Clips

44s

#GoodnessFromTheCross

“The goodness that was most clearly displayed on a cross for you and me. What happened on the cross was not good. Yet somehow in and through Jesus Christ, he pulled goodness out of chaos. He took what was intended for evil and he brought about the redemption of humanity. If he can redeem a traitorous death on a cross that he took our place, If he can redeem that, why could he not redeem your story? Why could he not redeem the stories of those we view as enemies? May we look to that good and kind and loving God and see how he's inviting us into his way of loving.”

30s

#IsItGoodToBeAngry

“Don't you hate it when someone you love asks the perfectly right question at a time you don't wanna hear it? Is it right for you to be angry? And this word right is a Hebrew word, yatav. It's a word that means good or goodness or causing and building prosperity. It's almost like God is saying, is it good for you to be angry? Is it creating an environment of prosperity and goodness for you to be angry right now?”

42s

#OpenYourPerspectiveToGoodness

“And Jonah is so concerned with seeing his enemies get crushed that he is missing out on how much God in his goodness has been calling for him to come back home. Because the God who was compassionate and gracious and loving to his enemies wants to be that way for Jonah too. And Jonah is the only one in this story who continuously chooses to miss God's goodness. It's not so much a question of, is God really good? It's really a question of, is my perspective open enough to see his goodness?”

34s

#CareForPeopleNotPlants

“God here is saying, look, Jonah, you're more concerned about your little succulent than you are an entire city full of people. You want me to nuke this metropolis, yet you're crying about the little plant that I gave you. Jonah, if you care so much about that plant, which you didn't create, don't I have a right to care about the hundreds of thousands of people I made in my image who I want to come back home? And also their animals, their infrastructure, the people around them, their little critters.”

30s

#CreationCallsForRepentance

“Throughout the book of Jonah, you see again and again and again, God appoints. God appointed a storm that he threw at Jonah. God appointed a fish to swallow Jonah. God appointed the plant and the wind and the worm. God is calling all of creation to try to get Jonah to turn around and embrace goodness. The worm is a better listener to God and his goodness than Jonah is. The fish was more obedient than Jonah has been this whole story.”

32s

#RighteousAngerBuildsProsperity

“And that kind of anger should lead to people making places of prosperity for those who need it. But if anger and resentment is not creating goodness or prosperity in the world, it's not righteous and it's not holy. And it needs to be questioned. Is it right? Is it good? Is it producing goodness? I need to rethink some things. And part of what I need to rethink is the person I consider my greatest enemy is someone God wants to bring into the family.”

33s

#WrestlingWithGodsGoodness

“As Jonah finds himself trying to figure out who's the good guys, who's the bad guys in this situation, who am I rooting for, who am I rooting against, we find him wrestling with this question deep in his soul, in his psyche, God, are you really good? Because the way I see it, I'm rooting against the bad guys, and you keep doing things that make it seem like you're rooting for the bad guys. God, what gives? God, how do I deal with this? God, are you really good? Because this whole program is not working out the way I thought it would.”

38s

#AngerIsNotGodsCurrency

“We live in a day and an age where anger is the currency of your attention. But that is not the currency of God. God lovingly asks, is it good for you to be angry at this? Is it producing goodness for you to be angry at this? There are things that do. I'm angry when people bully other people. I'm angry when people aren't treated right. I'm angry when I see people being harmed around me. I'm angry when the people who are the most susceptible, like like children or people who are down on their luck, are taken advantage of. I get angry about those things.”

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Is God Really Good? Wrestling with Jonah

Devotional

Day 1: Wrestling with a God Who Roots for the "Bad Guys"

Day 2: When Your Comfort Plant Wilts Under God’s Sun

Day 3: Fish, Worms, and Wind Outshine the Prophet

Day 4: Choosing Tov Over the Drama of Ra

Day 5: The Unfinished Story of a God Who Waits

Sermon Summary

Key Takeaways

Youtube Chapters

Bible Study Guide

Sermon Clips

Is God Really Good? Wrestling with Jonah

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