Bible Studies

DOWN IN THE DUMPS Based on Jonah 4 v14

by GLENN PEASE
01/27/21
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A man said to his friend, "My wife gets another hat every
time she is down in the dumps." His friend replied, "I
wondered where she was getting them." Down in the dumps
is a less sophisticated way of referring to depression and
despondency. Down in the mouth is the more common
terminology used about Jonah, but this is a reference to his
experience in the great fish, and applies only to his body,
since in spirit Jonah was not then depressed, but rejoicing
that God had spared him, but now we find him not down in
the mouth physically, but down in the dumps mentally and
spiritually.

Jonah had just started to build up a good image of
himself, and restore his reputation. We had almost
forgotten about his foolishness at the beginning of the book,
but now he has a relapse, and again becomes almost
obnoxious. Some feel that Jonah was actually a neurotic of
the manic-depressive type. He was alternating between
gaiety and despondency. In a very short time he could go
from being abnormally displeased to being abnormally
pleased. We see this by comparing verse 1 and verse 6.
It is not unusual for believers to suffer from despondency.
Moses and Elijah, like Jonah, had the sense of depression so
bad they, like him, prayed for death. A good many men of
God down through history have been victims of depression.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon had to fight it, and so did
Alexander Macclaren. These were two of the greatest
preachers in history, and their sermons are in print by the
millions, but they had terrible bouts with depression. The
fact of believers being depressed is not unusual, but in
Jonah's case the causes of that depression are unusual, and
reveal the perilous power that prejudice can have on a
believer. We want to examine the reasons and the results of
Jonah's despondency.

I. THE REASONS FOR HIS DESPONDENCY.

The first reason is narrowness of mind. At the printing
company where I worked for 4 years when I was a student,
my boss was a paper cutter who trimmed paper to the right
printing size. Sometimes he trimmed tablets that were
already glued and ready to ship out. When he did, he
usually saved a stack of the trimmings. They were about a
quarter of an inch wide. He would set them on his desk
where they were observed. People could see they were
obviously worthless, and so it stimulated almost everyone to
ask why he was saving them. This was just what he was
waiting for, and he would reply, "Those are scratch pads for
narrow minded Christians." It became a standing joke, and
those of us from Bethel got a kick out of it ourselves.

The reputation of narrowness which we had as Christians
because we did not live and talk as the others, and because
we did not join them at the bar and their wild parties was
one for which we were proud. In spite of the joke we were
respected, and I even had the opportunity to lead one young
man to Christ right in the plant, and I had abundant
opportunities to witness. This was true of the other Bethel
students as well, and it was a thrill to have the reputation of
being narrow, for it meant we had some convictions about
God and Christ, and people knew that if they needed help
they could count on us.

I say all this so that it is clear that I do not knock
narrowness. I feel it is a necessity to effective witnessing, but
there is a narrowness that is destructive and hinders one's
witness. This is the kind of narrowness we see in Jonah at
this point. Jonah did not want God to be merciful to all
men. He wanted God to be exclusive in His blessings. He
wanted God to be a tribal deity of Israel, and not a universal
God. Jonah's narrowness was not the narrowness of truth,
which by its nature must exclude error, but his was the
narrowness of selfish nationalism and patriotism. Both of
these are virtues when they are subordinate to the will of
God. But when they are first in our system of values we
become idolaters. Jonah was more concerned about his
nation than he was about God's mercy toward the enemies
of his nation.

In verse 2 he says, "I told you Lord. I knew this would
happen. That is why I did not want to go in the first place."
Jonah knew that God was merciful, and that he would
repent if Nineveh did, and he could not tolerate the thought.
Jonah is the type of person who wants God to conform to
their narrow and selfish ideals. The offense of the cross
arises from the same type of narrowness. Neither the Jewish
leaders nor the Greeks wanted a plan of salvation that
included the publicans and sinners. This was a stumbling
block and foolishness. A God worthy of their ideals must
save only their kind of people. Since God would not
conform to their narrow theology, they excluded Him, and
rejected His plan. When men become so narrow they walk
in darkness.

It is difficult but essential that we have the attitude of the
minister that voted on a controversial issue and said, "I was
against it personally, but I believed God was for it, and so I
went along." It takes an exceedingly honest man to
recognize that his likes and dislikes are not synonymous with
God's. Jonah knew that God's ways were not his ways, but
he did not like it one bit, and this narrowness of mind led to
the second thing we will look at.

The second reason for his despondency was his hardness
of heart. He had the audacity to go to God in prayer to
complain against His mercy. As the popular saying goes,
with friends like this, who needs enemies? God's mercy to
Nineveh is not as amazing as is His patience in putting up
with Jonah. He had to battle with him all the way. Never
was such success accomplished by such an unworthy
instrument. I have heard of preachers having blue Mondays
because they feel like they have failed, but who ever heard of
depression over success? He was planning on a fruitless
sermon. He was expecting a total flop. But his planned
failure failed, and instead the people responded, and it was a
success.

This is conclusive proof that the Word of God can be
effective in spite of the instrument communicating it. I do
not doubt that if the Gospel was rightly presented by an
atheist it could lead to people responding in faith and being
saved. The message can succeed even if the messenger fails,
as was the case with Jonah. His hardness of heart is without
excuse. He was not so much interested in the destruction of
sin as he was in the destruction of an enemy. God's concern
is just the opposite; to eliminate the enemy through
repentance and forgiveness.

The danger of this narrowness of mind and hardness of
heart is ever present. The early church struggled with it.
There were many who did not like the idea of Gentiles
coming into the church. They felt that the Jews were the
only people in God's plan in spite of all that the Old
Testament said to the contrary. It took the authority of men
like Paul and Barnabas to broaden the vision of the church.
The struggle goes on yet today, and many Christians do not
like the idea of God loving all races equally. They want
others to be second class citizens of the kingdom at best.
Jonah's experience was abnormal, but to some degree it is
still an experience that many believers have. They have a
narrow perspective on who is included in the family of God,
and they have no joy in the wideness of God's mercy. Now
let's look at

II. THE RESULT OF HIS DESPONDENCY.

First we see the loss of hope. When your false gods are
destroyed by God Himself, your whole system of values
collapses. Hope is gone if you cannot submit to God and
accept His values. Jonah is so shattered that he does not
care to live. He does not fear to be angry at God because he
wants to die anyway. Here is a child of God so angry with
his Father. We see that even a perfect father has no
guarantee that there will be no friction in the family, for the
children do not share that perfection. God does not compel
His children to love what He loves, so if they do not choose
to do so, there is trouble.

The anger of Jonah is not wrong just because it is anger,
for there is a place for legitimate anger in a child of God.
For example, we ought to be angry with one so narrow as
Jonah, but when the cause for our anger is God's ways, then
we are on dangerous ground. It is not wrong in itself to pray
for death either. Paul had a desire to depart and be with the
Lord. Many believers have suffered with a broken body and
have longed for release. They have finished life's labor, and
would count it all joy to leave this vale of tears for the
eternal joys of heaven. But Jonah had none of these
circumstances. His work was not done. He was not
suffering, except from his own selfish ego, and so his
despondency only added to his sin.

The second loss was the loss of dignity. Jonah was a
peeved and pouting prophet. Many commentators feel that
Jonah felt depressed and hopeless because his reputation was
now shattered. The word would spread that what he
predicted did not come to pass, and so his authority would be
lost. He would not want to go back to Israel since they would
consider him a traitor for helping their enemies to escape
destruction. Jonah did have some good reasons for his
discouragement, and they would not be easily overcome.
Our criticism of Jonah can be tempered by the realization
that in the same circumstances many servants of God would
react the same way, especially if they were victims of a
narrow theology from the start.

Deep personal piety does not necessarily eliminate
prejudice. A child of God can resist the truth of God, and
persist in an ungodly narrowness even to the point of being
willing to give up life rather than give up their prejudice.
Knowing this ought to make us cautious in our judgment of
many Christians. Every commentator expresses shock and
disgust with the attitude of Jonah, but none can sign him to
hell. To do so would be to step into Jonah's own shoes, and
begin to demand God's conformity to your system of values.
If God can patiently endure, and seek to teach such a servant
as Jonah, we must almost also be patient with those
Christians who are victims of one prejudice or another.
Rebuke is always in order, but rejection is a step to be left in
the hands of God. This is important to keep in mind when
you confront a believer who is a bigot.

We need to examine our own hearts and ask ourselves,
how would we react if God started a revival with a group
that we feel is not biblical? Would we resent it and feel like
dying, or could we rejoice that souls were being won, even
though God is not using us to do it? It is easy to say that we
would be delighted, but I suspect that our prejudice could
lead us to feel something like Jonah, and we could resent
God's grace and mercy being shown to those we do not like.
Are we narrow in mind and hardened in heart? Do we
rejoice in the marvelous mercy of God that not only forgives
sinners of all races, but who also does not forsake saints who
are narrow minded, and because of their own sin are down in
the dumps?