CHAPTER 4

(862 B.C.)

JONAHS DISPLEASURE, ANGER, AND COMPLAINT

¹But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. (Mans moral consciousness demands punishment for evil, and a fleshly orthodoxy requires suppression of mercy and compassion. Jonah was religiously indignant that the crimes and cruelties of Nineveh should be lightly regarded by God in this fashion and forgiven, just as a moral man is shocked at the idea that God will forgive, cleanse, and pardon in a moments time, even the vilest of sin, upon proper confession and admission to Him [I Jn. 1:9].)

²And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray You, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that You are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and You repent of the evil. (In this Verse, Jonah quotes Ex. 34:6 and Num. 14:18. He no doubt reasoned that a total destruction of Nineveh, manifestly Divine, would advantage his own nation Spiritually and politically. It would remove her oppressor and, at the same time, convince his countrymen of the wickedness and folly of idolatry.

As well, Gods Plan was to teach Israel by the example of Nineveh how inexcusable was their own impenitence and how inevitable their ruin.

There is every evidence from his question, Was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country?, that the Lord had already told him that Nineveh would repent, if the Message was properly delivered. Jonah did not desire this, so, at first, he refused to go.

His statement, Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish, tells us that he did not desire Nineveh to be spared. Such an attitude is unthinkable, but yet such attitude continues to plague the modern Church.)

³Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech You, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live. (First of all, Jonah probably thought that his fellow countrymen would not be happy at all with the turn of events regarding Nineveh; and of that, he was probably right. However, what others think is of little consequence; its what God knows that counts!)

GODS LESSON TO JONAH

⁴Then said the LORD, Do you well to be angry? (Irrespective of Jonahs attitude, the Lords handling of the Prophet, as always, was with gentleness. The Lord bids him to consider whether his anger is reasonable?)

⁵So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city. (The phrase, So Jonah went out of the city, respects the view that he thought there still may be a possibility that God would destroy Nineveh. We see him leaving this Move of God because he took no joy in seeing the conversion of these people.)

⁶And 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. (And the LORD God prepared a gourd, proclaims the same action as the Lord preparing the great fish, and later preparing the worm, and the east wind. So, Jonah pouts, while the Lord positions.)

⁷But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. (Religious emotions, which are personal and not of the Holy Spirit can be easily affected by the provision or loss of material comforts, because such actually are not Faith. So now, the Lord will prepare a worm to smite the gourd. The Lord is teaching the Prophet that He can give and He can take away!)

⁸And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live. (He could have been in Nineveh rejoicing with the people at the Mercy of God, but instead he is sitting out in the desert wishing to die! Self-will is Satanic; therefore, the Holy Spirit will go to all lengths to rid us of this malady. Someone has well said: The Lord died on Calvary not only to save us from sin, but also to save us from self.)

⁹And God said to Jonah, Do you well to be angry for the gourd? and he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death. (It is very striking when one begins to notice the variety of names used of the Lord in these Passages [Vss. 6-9]. The production of the gourd is attributed to Jehovah-Elohim [Vs. 6], which is a composite name, which serves to mark the transition from Jehovah in Verse 4 to Elohim in Verses 7 and 8.

Jehovah Who replies to the Prophets complaint [Vs. 4] prepares the plant as Elohim, the Creator, and the worm as Ha Elohim, the Personal God.

Likewise, Elohim, the Ruler of nature, sends the east wind to correct the Prophets impatience. In Verse 10, Jehovah sums up the history and teaches the lesson to be learned from it.

Despite the Prophets attitude, the Lord continued to be patient with him! What a wonderful Lord we serve!)

¹⁰Then said the LORD, You have had pity on the gourd, for the which you have not laboured, neither made it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night (For the which you have not labored, neither made it grow, refers to the Prophet having no investment whatsoever in the plant, but yet being grieved at its loss, because it represented a loss to him personally):

¹¹And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand (120,000) persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle? (Many have misunderstood this Scripture, thinking that Nineveh contained only 120,000 people. However, the phrase, Who cannot discern, is speaking only of infants. Therefore, the population of the city must have been somewhere around 500,000 or more!

The Book ends abruptly, but its object has been accomplished. Jonah is silenced; he can make no reply; he can only confess that he is entirely wrong, and that God is Righteous hence, the reason for the Book.

Jonah learned the lesson that God would have all men to be saved, and that anything which would stand in the way of this all-important task is extremely displeasing to Him and alien to His Design.

How long Nineveh remained true to the Lord, we arent told.)