Jonah One Last Lesson
Sorry for the delay in posting. I ran into some technical difficulties and with me and computers, that equals a major difficulty. But here we are and we are going to give this another try and see what happens.
When we last left Jonah, he had seen the error of his ways in trying to run away from God. He went to Nineveh and preached repentance to the people. The last verse of the third chapter of Jonah tells us that the people listened to Jonah and repented of their evil ways. As a result of their repentance, God changed his mind and did not pass judgment on the people. Basically, because he listened to God, Jonah allowed himself to be used by God to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. That had to be an awesome feeling! What preacher in his right mind would not be humbled to be a part of this amazing work of God? There’s one. Jonah.
“But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.” Jonah 4:1
How could a preacher be mad about people repenting to God and getting their lives right with God after listening to his preaching? You would think if Jonah had a problem with anything at this point, it would be trying to control his own ego and thinking higher of himself as a preacher than what he should. But not Jonah. His problem was that He still held resentment towards the people of Nineveh. He resented the idea that the people of Nineveh received God’s mercy.
Jonah not only was angry but he goes so far as to say that he it would be better for him to be dead than to live. Why would Jonah say this? Jonah is like a lot of us. He was worried more about his reputation and how other people saw him rather than being about God’s business. Jonah was worried about what people would think about his ability to prophecy and how the wrath of God did not come down as he said it would.
For Jonah it was all about ME. Somehow in his mind, Jonah saw his and God’s relationship as being a partnership and Jonah’s “partner” had let him down. Jonah forgot that his ways are not God’s ways. God is on a higher level than we are.
So Jonah decides to go outside the city, sit on top of a hill overlooking the city, and pout. Verse 5 says he wanted to see what would become of the city. He wanted to see the people fail and God’s wrath on display. How often do we see someone walk the aisle at church and we sit back and wait for the person to revert back to their old ways?
God decides to show Jonah the error of his ways.
“And 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
God causes a gourd to grow and provide Jonah some shade from the sun as he sits waiting to see what happens to Nineveh. On the surface you would wonder why is God rewarding a man who is basically sulking for not getting his way? I know as a kid, I was never rewarded by my parents when I was pouting. In fact, it typically got me a whooping. Not a spanking but a whooping. (For you non Southern folks a whooping is a bad bad spanking)
“But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.” Jonah 4:7
God is using a little reverse psychology on Jonah. He provides Jonah with shade and then immediately removes it after Jonah reaped a little benefit from it. Once the gourd was withered away, Jonah felt the heat of the sun on his head to the point that he fainted. Once again Jonah gets upset and makes the statement that it would be better for him to die.
God then questioned Jonah as to why would he get upset over the death of a gourd, while at the same time he was upset that people lived. God wanted Jonah to see how mixed up his priorities are. We are no different today. Every year we allow thousands of babies to be murdered in the name of civil rights, yet the wrath of society comes down on you if you mistreat a dog or a tree. Our priorities are completely upside down. God help us.