God’s final lesson for Jonah
March 2, 2020
Commentary
Jonah had preached to the Ninevites, as God had commanded, and the Ninevites were spared, but Jonah’s attitude towards them remained unchanged. Instead of marveling at God’s grace, Jonah was displeased and angry (v. 1). Jonah’s anger stemmed from his hatred of the Assyrians. Jonah had suspected that God would spare Nineveh if he preached there, which is why he had tried fleeing to Tarshish (Jonah 1:3). Jonah knew God’s character, “a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster” (Jonah 4:2; Exodus 34:6-7). Jonah asked the Lord to kill him (v. 3). This is what anger does to us; it robs us of joy and makes us think life is no longer worth living. The Lord graciously did not give in to Jonah’s request. Instead, He questioned the morality of Jonah’s anger, asking, “Do you do well to be angry?” (v. 4).
Jonah left the city and made a shelter to protect himself from the sun (v. 5). He waited to see what would happen to Nineveh. Though Jonah was angry at God (vv. 1-4), God still cares for Jonah and demonstrates this by preparing a plant to provide shade for him. Jonah was happy for the provision of this plant, but apparently, he did not recognize it as having come from the hand of God (v. 6). Jonah, in in a state of complete self-pity, enjoyed the shade of the plant for one day, but at dawn the following day the Lord had a worm to bore its way into the plant, causing it to dry up and die (v. 8). Once again, Jonah expressed his desire to die, and once again the Lord questioned the morality of Jonah’s anger (v. 9). First Jonah was miserable because the Lord spared a city full of repentant people, and now Jonah is miserable because the Lord did not spare his plant. Clearly Jonah had a distorted sense of value. Jonah valued the perishable plant more than the 120,000 children (those who don’t know their right hand from their left) who lived in Nineveh who would have also perished if the city was destroyed.
Application
How is anger distorting my sense of value? Am I trapped today in a cycle of self-pity?
Jonah 4:1– 11 (NET)
1 This displeased Jonah terribly and he became very angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord and said, “Oh, Lord, this is just what I thought would happen when I was in my own country. This is what I tried to prevent by attempting to escape to Tarshish, because I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in mercy, and one who relents concerning threatened judgment. 3 So now, Lord, kill me instead, because I would rather die than live!” 4 The Lord said, “Are you really so very angry?”
5 Jonah left the city and sat down east of it. He made a shelter for himself there and sat down under it in the shade to see what would happen to the city. 6 The Lord God appointed a little plant and caused it to grow up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to rescue him from his misery. Now Jonah was very delighted about the little plant.
7 So God sent a worm at dawn the next day, and it attacked the little plant so that it dried up. 8 When the sun began to shine, God sent a hot east wind. So the sun beat down on Jonah’s head, and he grew faint. So he despaired of life and said, “I would rather die than live!”
9 God said to Jonah, “Are you really so very angry about the little plant?” And he said, “I am as angry as I could possibly be!” 10 The Lord said, “You were upset about this little plant, something for which you did not work, nor did you do anything to make it grow. It grew up overnight and died the next day. 11 Should I not be more concerned about Nineveh, this enormous city? There are more than 120,000 people in it who do not know right from wrong, as well as many animals.”