Jonah 4
Jonah was a prophet of God, and had gone to Nineveh and told the people that God would overthrow their city in forty days because of their wicked deeds. After he had told all as God said, he went outside the city and made a booth, probably of branches, and sat down to watch what would happen to the city.
When Jonah saw that God did not destroy the city, as He had told him to tell the people, he was very displeased and disappointed, and sat in the booth in grief and anger.
Why do you think Jonah was angry that all those people were saved and not destroyed? We would think that he would be glad that they believed his message, and that they were sorry for their sins. Perhaps it was because Jonah felt angry toward those people himself; for their soldiers had come to Israel, the land where Jonah lived, and had spoiled many towns and taken people captives.
But Jonah knew that God was kind and unwilling to punish, so he thought God would forgive and spare the city of Nineveh if the people repented. And he now said that was the reason he had not obeyed God before, when he had told him to go there (ch. 1:3). Jonah said,
“I know that Thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness.”
Jonah then said that it was no use for him to live any longer, as though no one would believe him as a prophet any more, because the punishment he told, did not come to Nineveh. He was thinking only about himself.
God was good to Jonah even while he was so angry, and He caused a vine, called a gourd, which grows very rapidly in hot climates, to spring up by Jonah’s booth. The vine shaded Jonah from the heat, and he was very glad of it, but he kept on grieving about himself. Then God taught Jonah a lesson with the gourd: He caused a worm to eat the stem of the gourd. and it withered away, so Jonah had no shade. Then God sent a strong hot wind, and both sun and wind came against Jonah, and he was more angry that the vine was withered because lie missed its shade. Then God spoke with Jonah again, He said,
“Thou hast pity on the gourd: for which thou hast not labored, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night and perished in a night. And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixty thousand little children?”
There is no more told of Jonah, but he must have been ashamed of his selfish anger, thinking only of what he wanted, and angry about God’s goodness to thou: who repented of their sins.
Do you suppose we are ever like Jonah? If wrong things are done to us or our family or our nation, we are angry: we forget that God is ever ready to forgive any who are sorry for their sins, and we forget He has been kind to us.
The story of Jonah also shows us that God can command, and use the things He has created, and that they obey Him,— the storm, the great fish, the gourd, the worm, and the east wind.
ML 09/06/1942