Bitterness
You see two groups here, the humble, to whom God is bestowing grace, and the proud, whom He is resisting. I think it safe to say that if God is able to bestow more grace upon the humble, than that implies that He in similar fashion resists the proud by withdrawing His grace. Again, not saving grace, but grace for living. In effect, He says, OK, you think that you are really something, you think that you can handle it on your own. Well, let’s see how you do without my grace to guide you through. God withdraws His grace in from our lives in areas of pride. Now remember the warning of Hebrews, “lest any man fail of the grace of God”. When we become lifted up in pride, God withdraws His grace for living from our lives. Then when an injustice comes into our lives (it may be real or perceived), with the grace of God removed, we fall into bitterness. We are troubled and are in danger of defiling others.
Let’s take a few moments and look at Jonah who I believe was a prime example of the effects of bitterness in the life of a child of God.
By chapter four of Jonah, Nineveh has repented, God has forgiven them, and Jonah has rebelled again. Jonah 4:1-3 says, “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.”
Here we find the first of five consequences to bitterness in the life of Jonah.
The first consequence is that bitterness causes you to despise the forgiveness of God.
Jonah couldn’t believe that God would forgive the Ninevites. Some bible doubters wondered if Nineveh even existed. Then in the 1800s, British adventurer Austen Henry Layard rediscovered the lost palace and city across the Tigris River from modern day Mosul in northern Iraq.
Jonah lived during the height of the Assyrian empire. Based on the tablets excavated in Nineveh, the Assyrians were very brutal, ruthless people. They frequently raided the Northern kingdom where Jonah lived, destroying many villages and towns. The Jews hated the Ninevites. Imagine Jonah’s horror when God asked him to take a message to these enemies of goodness.
I can’t help but picture in my mind this whole city repenting, and Jonah stomping his feet and yelling at God, “I knew this would happen! I knew that if they heard this message they would all repent and you would forgive them! That’s why I didn’t want to come in the first place!” Imagine the worst civilization today, and one preacher showing up in the heart of their most wicked city with the message of repent or God is going to destroy you.
Would you have so much faith in that message that you would say the same thing as Jonah? We criticize Jonah, yet this was a man who believed God. This also was a man who was proud to be part of God’s chosen people. The Jews looked down upon the Assyrian “dogs”; they were better than these uncivilized heathen. Why would God ask Jonah to take a message of repentance to people who obviously deserved to die? Why not just kill them and be done with it? Oh how great is the mercy of our God. Yet in his bitter state, Jonah despised the forgiveness that God was giving to Nineveh.
