You Can Obey God and Hate What He Does

Devotional

Day 1: Sitting Under Self-Made Shade

Jonah built a shelter east of Nineveh not to intercede, but to watch for destruction. His religious obedience became a front-row seat for hoped-for judgment. This posture reveals how service can mask secret desires for others’ downfall. The shelter itself mirrors Israel’s Feast of Booths – a memorial to mercy now weaponized against mercy. God meets him there, not with rebuke but a question that exposes his divided heart. [45:57]

The Lord asked, “Is it right for you to be angry?” Jonah left the city and found a place east of it. He made himself a shelter there and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city. (Jonah 4:4-5, CSB)

Reflection: What current act of service or spiritual discipline might secretly harbor hope for someone’s failure? How does your “shelter” reveal more about your heart than your hands?

Day 2: The Half-Second Before the Christian Response

When news of an enemy’s suffering arrives, the split-second hesitation before manufactured compassion betrays unresolved bitterness. Jonah’s silence after God’s question speaks louder than his prayer – our unmasked reactions often dwell in that uncurated pause. These micro-moments expose the gap between performed faith and true surrender. [49:09]

But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (Matthew 5:44-45, CSB)

Reflection: Whose hardship recently triggered that split-second of secret satisfaction? What would it cost to convert that reaction into intercession?

Day 3: Compassion That Stops at the Plant

God gave Jonah a weed to reveal his capacity for misplaced grief. We mourn canceled vacations more than neighbors’ souls, rage at traffic over eternal destinies. The plant becomes a mirror – our disproportionate sorrows expose what we’ve truly valued. Yet God uses temporary losses to recalibrate eternal perspective. [51:26]

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. But may I not care about the great city of Nineveh? (Jonah 4:10-11, CSB)

Reflection: What trivial inconvenience recently derailed you more than the spiritual state of your “Nineveh”? How might that irritation point to deeper heart-alignment issues?

Day 4: The Unfinished Creed in Your Mouth

Jonah recited God’s mercy creed (Exodus 34:6-7) but omitted its final line about justice. We often edit God’s character to suit our grudges, emphasizing His love for us but withholding it from others. The cross answers both halves – mercy purchased through judgment borne. [59:03]

The Lord passed in front of Moses and proclaimed: The Lord – the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth... But he will not leave the guilty unpunished. (Exodus 34:6-7, CSB)

Reflection: Where have you emphasized God’s patience toward your sins but demanded immediate justice for others’ failures? How does the cross bridge this divide?

Day 5: The Hill Where Enemies Become Neighbors

Two prophets faced cities under judgment – Jonah watched Nineveh from a hill, Jesus wept over Jerusalem from a hill. One built shade to spectate destruction; the became shade through destruction. The table of communion answers Jonah’s silence with scars. [57:28]

As he approached and saw the city, he wept for it, saying, “If you knew this day what would bring peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes.” (Luke 19:41-42, CSB)

Reflection: Does your spiritual posture toward “that person” more resemble a spectator’s shade or a Savior’s tears? What step brings you from the ridge to the road where they walk?

Sermon Summary

Jonah 4 puts a name in front of every heart, the person God is apparently not allowed to save. Jonah obeys God, goes to Nineveh, preaches, and sees the whole city repent. Yet Jonah calls God’s mercy evil because he knows exactly who God is: gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and willing to relent from disaster. Jonah’s theology is not wrong. Jonah’s doctrine of God is right, and he cannot stand it when that doctrine gets extended to Assyria.

Assyria was not a harmless enemy. Its cruelty was real, its violence was documented, and its future destruction of Israel was coming. Jonah’s open account does not begin as petty dislike. It comes from a wound that feels too costly to close. But Jonah’s resentment leaves him alone in the desert, asking to die over a city that has not yet touched him. The account Jonah keeps open ends up collecting from Jonah.

God answers Jonah’s accusation with a question: “Is it right for you to be angry?” Jonah’s silence becomes an answer. Jonah builds a booth, a memorial to Israel’s own survival by mercy, and then sits beneath it waiting for Nineveh to burn. Jeremiah calls God’s people to pray for the city. Jonah prays about the city. That difference exposes the ridge in the heart: prayer can sound respectable while still quietly hoping God handles somebody instead of saves them.

God appoints a plant, a worm, and a scorching wind to uncover Jonah’s compassion. Jonah rejoices over a shrub he did not grow, then rages when it dies. God does not tell Jonah that caring about the plant is irrational. God shows Jonah that his compassion has stopped at the edge of his own shade. God cares for a great city full of guilty people in the dark, people who cannot tell their right from their left, and even many animals.

Jesus stands on the second hill east of another city. Jesus knows Jerusalem will kill him, yet he weeps over it. Jonah would rather die than see his enemies spared. Jesus dies so his enemies can be spared. The cross holds both halves of God’s character together: God does not leave guilt unpunished, and God is rich in mercy. God does not waive the debt. Christ pays it himself.

Jonah’s unanswered question remains open because every heart stands where Jonah stood. The name cannot remain a category, tribe, party, or faceless group. God asks for one face, one house, one person, brought honestly before him. The table answers God’s question with a body broken and blood poured out for those who were guilty and in the dark.

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Key Takeaways

1. Right theology can resist mercy [40:08] Jonah knows God’s character well enough to quote Israel’s own pardon papers. His problem is not weak doctrine but a heart that hates where true doctrine leads. God’s mercy becomes unbearable when it reaches an enemy rather than remaining safely abstract. The same creed that brings comfort to the forgiven becomes an accusation when forgiveness is offered to someone else. [40:08]
2. Praying about differs from praying for [47:18] Jonah can speak to God about Nineveh while sitting on a ridge hoping for its destruction. Prayer for a person seeks that person’s good before God, even when the heart has not caught up emotionally. Prayer about a person can become a booth built from religious language, safe from honest compassion. God’s question exposes whether the heart wants salvation or simply wants someone handled. [47:18]
3. Compassion must outgrow personal shade [53:31] Jonah’s grief over the plant proves that he is capable of deep feeling. God does not remove Jonah’s compassion but presses it beyond a shrub that gave him comfort for one day. A heart can be tender toward personal loss and cold toward people made by God. God calls compassion to continue beyond the boundaries of convenience, familiarity, and injury. [53:31]
4. The cross pays mercy’s full cost [59:31] God’s mercy does not mean evil never mattered or guilt simply disappeared. Nineveh’s guilt was real, and God’s justice remained true. Christ bears the cost that forgiveness requires, so mercy is never God shrugging at sin. The same cross that makes forgiveness possible for the neighbor is the only reason forgiveness came to the guilty heart. [59:31]
5. Jesus weeps where Jonah waits [57:28] Jonah sits outside a city hoping to see fire fall. Jesus looks over a city that will kill him and weeps for it before dying outside its walls. This contrast reveals the shape of God’s love for enemies. Christ does not merely command mercy from a distance; Christ embodies it at the cost of his own life.

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Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[27:58] - Church Updates and New Connection Groups
[34:14] - The Name God Is Not Allowed to Save
[35:37] - Jonah’s Anger at God’s Mercy
[40:30] - Assyria’s Cruelty and the Open Account
[44:38] - Silence, Booths, and Waiting for Judgment
[47:01] - Praying for the City or Watching It
[50:22] - The Plant, the Worm, and Misplaced Compassion
[54:13] - God’s Pity for Nineveh and Its Animals
[56:42] - Two Prophets on Two Hills
[58:15] - The Cross Holds Justice and Mercy Together
[60:30] - Jonah’s Unanswered Question
[61:20] - One Name Before God
[62:33] - Communion and Mercy’s Cost

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Jonah 4
Jonah was greatly displeased and became furious. [35:47]
He prayed to the Lord: “Please, Lord, isn't this what I thought 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. And now, Lord, take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” [35:51]
The Lord asked, “Is it right for you to be angry?” [36:16]
Jonah left the city and found a place east of it. He made himself a shelter there and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city. [36:19]
Then the Lord God appointed a plant, and it grew over Jonah to provide shade for his head to rescue him from his trouble. Jonah was greatly pleased with the plant. [36:26]
When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, and it withered. As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind. The sun beat down on Jonah's head so much that he almost fainted, and he wanted to die. He said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” [36:36]
Then God asked Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?” “Yes, it's right,” he replied. “I'm angry enough to die.” [36:54]
So 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. 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?” [37:02]

Exodus 34:6-7
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, maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. [39:28]
But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers' iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation. [59:14]

Jeremiah 29:7
Pursue the well-being of the city I have deported you to. Pray to the Lord on its behalf, for when it thrives, you will thrive. [46:49]

Luke 19:41-42
As he approached and saw the city, he wept for it, saying, “If you knew this day what would bring peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.” [57:28]

Observation questions

What words does Jonah use to describe God in Jonah 4:2, and why does he say those qualities were the reason he fled from Nineveh? [39:24]
What does Jonah do after God asks, “Is it right for you to be angry?” What does his choice to build a shelter east of the city show he is waiting for? [45:32]
What contrast does God draw between Jonah’s concern for the plant and God’s concern for Nineveh? [53:54]
In Exodus 34:6-7, what two truths about God are held together: his mercy toward sinners and his justice toward guilt? [59:31]

Interpretation questions

Jonah’s view of God is accurate, yet he is angry when God shows mercy to Nineveh. How can a person know the right things about God while resisting what God wants to do in another person’s life? [40:08]
Jeremiah calls God’s people to pray for the city, while Jonah prays about Nineveh and waits for judgment. What practical difference is there between praying for someone’s good and only talking to God about that person? [47:18]
Jonah’s pain concerning Assyria was not imaginary; their evil was real. How does the cross show that forgiveness does not mean pretending evil did not matter? [59:38]
Jesus weeps over Jerusalem even though he knows the city will reject and kill him. What does this reveal about the kind of compassion Jesus has toward guilty people who oppose him? [57:41]

Application questions

Is there one specific name, face, household, or person whose repentance or salvation is difficult to desire? What has made that person’s “account” feel too costly to close? [01:01:31]
Have you ever obeyed God outwardly toward someone—being polite, serving, speaking carefully, or even praying—while quietly hoping that person would not change or be restored? What did that look like? [44:10]
When something hard happens to a person who has hurt or frustrated you, what is your first inner response before the outward Christian response appears? What might that response reveal? [48:55]
What are some “booths” people can build to avoid honest compassion—religious activity, busy schedules, correct language, distance, or something else? Which one are you most tempted to build? [49:26]
Jonah was deeply affected by losing personal shade but had little compassion for a whole city. Where does your compassion tend to stop at the edge of your own comfort, inconvenience, family, or daily frustrations? [53:43]
Jesus died so that his enemies could be spared, and every believer has received that same undeserved mercy. How could remembering that change the way you speak about or pray for the person who comes to mind? [57:59]
Consider bringing that person honestly before God this week. Can you pray, “I want you to save them”? If you cannot yet pray that honestly, what would it look like simply to tell God, “I am not there yet”? [01:01:57]

Sermon Clips

52s

#TwoHillsOneMercy

“I want to take you up two hills. We've been looking at the first hill all morning. A prophet sits down east of a city in a shade he built himself and he waits to see whether it will burn. Here's the second hill. Hundreds of years later, another prophet comes up over the hill east of another city and he looks down on it. That city is going to kill him inside of a week. He knows it. And Luke tells us what he did. He wept over it. Two prophets, two hills, two cities under sentence. One sat down and waited for the fire. One sat down and cried. And then he went to a third hill outside the walls of the same city, and he died there for them.”

36s

#ReluctantObedience

“Have you ever obeyed God about a person while hoping it wouldn't work? Have you ever prayed a prayer that you would have hated to see it answered? So you can do everything God says and still hope that he fails. Jonah went. Jonah preached. Jonah got results that would put him on stage in a city, in this country, in a heartbeat. And Jonah wanted every bit of it undone.”

41s

#PrayOrWatch

“And notice what God doesn't do about any of that. He doesn't leave. Jonah walked out of the city and God came out to the hill after him. So which is it for you this morning? Are you praying for the city or are you watching it? Are you asking God to bless that name or are you waiting to see what happens to it? Do you want them to be saved or do you want them handled? Which one? Because again, you can do everything God says and still be hoping he fails.”

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