God According to God

compassionate gracious slow to anger abounding in love and faithfulness maintaining love to thousands forgiving wickedness rebellion and sin does not leave the guilty unpunished

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A Study of Exodus 34:6-7

Forgiveness

• How do you feel about these situations?
• Do you think it is fair?
• Would you be upset? At whom?
• Is it human nature to want justice?

Jonah

• God tells Jonah to go preach to Nineveh (1:2)
• Jonah heads in the opposite direction (1:3)
• God causes a great storm, Jonah is thrown overboard (1:15)
• A large fish swallows Jonah (1:17)
• Jonah has three days to reflect on his behavior and pray to God (1:17b-2:10)

Jonah

• God again tells Jonah to go preach to Nineveh (3:1-2)
• Jonah obeys (3:1)
• Ninevites listen and repent (3:5-9)
• Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” Jonah 3:9

Jonah 4:1-11

• God’s decision to forgive the Ninevites (as he said he would if they repented) seems wrong to Jonah, and Jonah gets angry (1)
• Do we agree or disagree with Jonah?
• And he prayed to the LORD and said, “O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Jonah 4:2

Jonah 4:1-11

• Notice, Jonah admits that God is all these things, but he didn’t want God to be these things to the wicked Ninevites.
• “I knew you’d forgive them if they repented(because you’re gracious and compassionate), which is why I didn’t want to preach and make them repent in the first place!”

“relenting from disaster”

• And he prayed to the LORD and said, “O LORD, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Jonah 4:2
• Jonah phrases it like it’s a constant characteristic of God – not just a one-time thing.

Jonah’s Response

• Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” Jonah 4:3
• What is the hypocrisy we see in Jonah?
• Do we ever have these moments?

God’s Response

• Jonah sits down in the shade, watching and hoping that Nineveh might still be destroyed (5).
• God gives Jonah a leafy plant to provide additional shade for Jonah (6).
• Then, God sends a worm to chew on and wither the plant (7).
• At sunrise, God sends a hot wind and hot sun that made Jonah feel faint (8).
• Again, Jonah wants to die (9).

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God’s Response

• Jonah sits down in the shade, watching and hoping that Nineveh might still be destroyed (5).
• God gives Jonah a leafy plant to provide additional shade for Jonah (6).
• Then, God sends a worm to chew on and wither the plant (7).
• At sunrise, God sends a hot wind and hot sun that made Jonah feel faint (8).
• Again, Jonah wants to die (9).

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Jonah

• But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” Jonah 4:9
• What do you think about Jonah?
• What circumstances make us angry?

Plants and People

• And the LORD said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” Jonah 4:10-11
• Are there circumstances, where we are like Jonah?
• Do we pick and choose who we share the gospel with?
• Are you satisfied with the ending?

Application

• Think of someone you really dislike.
• What qualities of God do you secretly hope God doesn’t show to this person?
• If this person is not a Christian, think of how you’d react if this person suddenly became one.
• Is it ever ok to hope that a person will never find God?
• How do you feel when a person seems to get undeserved mercy?

Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-31)

• What’s a parable?
• What is the “heavenly meaning” of the parable?
• What is the context of the parable?
• And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” Luke 15:2

Message to the Pharisees

• ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ Luke 15:29-30
• The Pharisees were like the older, resentful brother.
• They had been part of God’s people for so long, and now they resented the impure, sinful people that were getting the attention!
• Does this relate at all to our study of Galatians?

Fairness

• Why do you think we so strongly desire “fairness” when it comes to how God deals with people?
• In what ways is God fair? In what ways is God not fair?
• Do you think we want the same “fairness” for ourselves as we do for others?

Homework

• Read the following verses about forgiveness
• Matthew 6:14-15
• Mark 11:23
• Luke 6:37
• John 1:9
• Ephesians 4:32
• Read Nahum 1:1-15.