"So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd" (Jonah 4:66And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. (Jonah 4:6)). Not only was he "glad," but he was "exceeding glad" because of the gourd, as he had been exceedingly displeased because of God's mercy. How we delight in those temporal mercies that add to our ease and comfort! The luxuries of the present day are often to us what Jonah's gourd was to him—the cause of exceeding gladness.
"But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered." v. 7. Whether a whale or a worm the same word is used. God "prepared" them both. As we see those things which have added to our ease and pleasure, fade and die, we may do well to consider whether it is our own loving God who Himself has prepared the worm to make them pass away. We may learn lessons in adversity, in scorching suns, in poverty and want, that we never could have learned in prosperity and ease and luxury.