Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jonah 4:1
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
1. it displeased Jonah, &c. ] Lit. It was evil to Jonah, a great evil, and it (viz. anger) kindled to him. Comp. Neh 2:10. It is clear that the immediate cause of Jonah’s anger and vexation was the preservation of Nineveh and the non-fulfilment of the threat which he had been sent to pronounce. It was the anticipation of this result, founded on the revealed character of God, that made him decline the errand at first ( Jon 4:2). It was the realisation of it that so greatly troubled him now. But why this result of his mission should have thus affected him it has not been found so easy to decide. Some have thought but the view has nothing to commend it that his annoyance was purely personal and selfish, and that he was stung by the disgrace of appearing as a false prophet in the sight of the heathen because his predictions had not been verified. Others with better show of reason have assigned to his displeasure the more worthy motive of jealousy for the honour of God, in whose name and with whose message he had come to Nineveh, and on whom he thought the reproach of fickleness and inconstancy would fall. “He connected,” writes Calvin, “his own ministry with the glory of God, and rightly, because it depended on His authority. Jonah, when he entered Nineveh, did not utter his cry as a private individual, but professed himself to be sent by God. Now, if the proclamation of Jonah is found to be false, the disgrace will fall upon the author of the call himself, namely on God. There is no doubt, therefore, that Jonah took it ill that the name of God was exposed to the revilings of the heathen, as though He terrified without cause.” It is far more satisfactory, however, to suppose that Jonah was displeased that the mercy of God should be extended to heathen, and especially to heathen who were the enemies and future oppressors of his own people, and that he himself should be the messenger of that mercy. This view falls in entirely with the exclusive spirit which marks the Old Testament dispensation, while it brings out into bold relief the liberal and Catholic spirit of the New Testament, which it is the object of this book to inculcate.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Ch. Jon 4:1-11. Jonah’s Displeasure, and its Rebuke
Greatly displeased at the clemency of God towards Nineveh, Jonah confesses that it was the expectation that that clemency would be exercised, which rendered him unwilling to undertake the divine mission at the first, and in his annoyance and chagrin requests that he may die, 1 3. Met by the calm appeal to reason, which however he is in no mood to entertain, Doest thou well to be angry? Jonah goes out of the city, and constructs in the immediate vicinity a booth or hut, under the shelter of which he may dwell and watch, till the forty days are expired, what the fate of Nineveh will be, 4, 5. Intending to correct and instruct him by an acted parable, in which he himself should bear the chief part, God causes a wide-spreading plant to spring up and cover his booth with its refreshing shade. But scarcely has Jonah begun to enjoy the welcome shelter from the burning rays of the sun thus afforded him, when God, in pursuit of His lesson, causes the plant to be attacked by insects, which rapidly strip it of its protecting leaves and cause it to wither away, 6, 7. Once again, the hand that governs all things sets in motion, like the blast of a furnace, the burning wind of the desert, and the sun’s unbroken rays pour down on the now defenceless head of Jonah, so that faint and weary, beneath the weight of bodily distress and mental disappointment, he urges anew his passionate complaint, Better for me to die than to live! 7, 8. And now the parable is complete, and only needs to be applied and interpreted. Thou couldst have pity upon a short-lived plant, which cost thee and which owed thee nothing; thou art angry and justifiest thine anger, even unto death, for its loss; and shall not I, the Maker and the Lord of all, have pity upon a great city, which, apart from its adult population who might seem to have deserved their doom, numbers its six-score thousand innocent children, and “very much cattle” they too “much better than” a plant? 9 11.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And Jonah was displeased exceedingly – It was an untempered zeal. The prophet himself records it as such, and how he was reproved for it. He would, like many of us, govern Gods world better than God Himself. Short-sighted and presumptuous! Yet not more short-sighted than those who, in fact, quarrel with Gods Providence, the existence of evil, the baffling of good, the prison walls of obstacles and trials, in what we would do for Gods glory. What is all discontent, but anger with God? The marvel is that the rebel was a prophet ! What he desired was not unjust in itself, that the Ninevites should be punished for their past sins, and that the sentence of God pronounced against them should not be recalled, although they repented. For so the judge hangs the robber for theft, however he repent. He sinned, in that he disputed with God. Let him cast the first stone, who never rejoiced at any overthrow of the enemies of his country, nor was glad, in a common warfare, that they lost as many soldiers as we. As if God had not instruments enough at His will! Or as if He needed the Assyrians to punish Israel, or the one nation, whose armies are the terror of Europe, to punish us, so that if they should perish, Israel should therefore have escaped, though it persevered in sin, or we!
And he was very angry – , or, may be, very grieved. The word expresses also the emotion of burning grief, as when Samuel was grieved at the rejection of Saul, or David at the breach upon Uzzah 2Sa 6:8; 1Ch 13:11. Either way, he was displeased with what God did. Yet so Samuel and David took Gods doings to heart; but Samuel and David were grieved at Gods judgments; Jonah, at what to the Ninevites was mercy, only in regard to his own people it seemed to involve judgment. Scripture says that he was displeased, because the Ninevites were spared; but not, why this displeased him. It has been thought, that it was jealousy for Gods glory among the pagan, as though the Ninevites would think that God in whose Name he spake had no certain knowledge of things to come; and so that his fault was mistrust in Gods wisdom or power to vindicate His own honor. But it seems more likely, that it was a mistaken patriotism, which idolized the well being of his own and Gods people, and desired that its enemy, the appointed instrument of its chastisement, should be itself destroyed. Scripture being silent about it, we cannot know certainly. Jonah, under Gods inspiration, relates that God pronounced him wrong. Having incurred Gods reproof, he was careless about mens judgment, and left his own character open to the harsh judgments of people; teaching us a holy indifference to mans opinion, and, in our ignorance, carefulness not to judge unkindly.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jon 4:1-2
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
The shortness of human charity
Why is Jonah so much offended and so very angry? Surely there is here some great dishonour to God; or some great enormity or departure from the immutable and unchanging law of everlasting righteousness, goodness, and truth. If neither of these two, at least there is some dreadful denunciation of judgment, or some terrible threatening, at which the very nature of man doth tremble. But here is the wonder, there is nothing that is any just cause; no cause at all of any true offence, or real provocation. It is a shame to say what is the cause. This good man is displeased with God Himself, and he is offended at the Divine goodness and compassion, and that God hath respect to the repentance of sinners. It is strange that he should be angry at this, because it is a thing contrary to the sense of the lower and of the upper world. We have found the man of whom it is spoken in the Gospel, that his eye was evil because Gods was good (Mat 20:15). He prefers his own conceited credit and esteem before the lives and beings of six score thousand persons. All Gods denunciations against sinners are to be understood with a clause of reservation. He always excepts this ease–if the sinner repent. If he forsake his iniquity he shall surely live. That which makes the wonder the greater is that Jonah, whom we find in this distemper, is of all the prophets the type of Christ. In his temper and disposition he is no type of Christ. That temper admits of no apology.
1. Nothing is more unreasonable in itself.
2. Nothing is worse for Jonah himself, and the whole world besides him. For what would become of us all if there were no place for repentance? And how should Jonah himself be pardonable for his present distemper if God should not allow place for repentance?
3. Nothing is more unnatural in respect of his office as a prophet. Was it not his very work to promote repentance and reformation among sinners?
4. Nothing worse can be put upon God than to be represented as implacable and irreconcilable.
5. And this would render men hopeless and desperate in the world. This is not the first distemper that we find Jonah in. At first we find him in great refractoriness and disobedience. Then we find him stupid and senseless, and more blockish than the idolatrous mariners. Then we find him in a case of desperate insolency. For we have no reason to think his wish to be cast into the sea came from the greatness of his faith. Then we find him in a state that is unnatural, barbarous, and inhumane; for he desired the destruction of others just to save his own reputation. All these distempers are aggravated by his late deliverance in the belly of the whale. Moreover, he is not overcome by the declaration of the reason of things, when it comes out of the mouth of God Himself. The story leaves Jonah without any account of his returning to himself, and to a due temper.
1. Learn to consider in how sad and forlorn a condition we are, if God be not for us and with us.
2. How sin multiplies and grows upon us if once we fall into a distemper.
3. Notice the great danger of selfishness.
4. Let this be for caution and admonition. Persons acquainted with religion, if once out of the way of reason and conscience, prove more exorbitant than others. What great care a man should take to preserve his innocence and integrity! For our better security let us consider–
(1) That it is much easier to prevent than to restrain sin.
(2) Let us be very wary and cautious of approaching evil.
Avoid self-confidence, and ever keep this confidence–our sufficiency is of God. It seems that Jonah did know before hand that, if Nineveh did repent, God was so gracious and merciful that He would revoke the sentence. Observe, then, how passion transforms a man. How selfishness narrows and contracts a mans spirit. Sin is the cause of judgment. There is not stay at all in the way of sin. But repentance alters the case. Notice how God deals with man to bring him to a right mind when He finds him in his distemper. God deals with Jonah by reason and argument. What a strange kind of prayer Jonahs was! Indeed, he rather quarrels with God than prays to Him. In prayer let us take care of two things.
1. That our mind be in a praying temper.
2. That we offer to God in sacrifice prayer-matter.
Consider the person with whom Jonah is displeased. None other than God Himself. Consider the cause of his offence. He is offended with Gods goodness, and with sinners repentance. He is offended that repentance takes effect. See, then, that you keep out of passion, if you would not shamefully miscarry. Remember your own weakness and infirmity, and be modest and humble. Let us preserve our innocence, and beware of running into such heat of temper and mind. Take care of selfishness and narrowness of spirit. (B. Whichcote.)
Contrast between the response to God of Jonah, and of the Ninevites
1. Beware of a spirit of selfishness.
2. Beware of the peril of approaching your Creator in a peevish and discontented mood.
3. Rejoice that under the Gospel the true efficacy of repentance has been explained to you. You know how and why it can be effective. (W. H. Marriott.)
Jonahs anger
There is one thing most wonderful, and that is, that God should be so good as He is.
I. Jonahs selfishness. Selfishness is one of the last evils that is rooted out of the nature of man, and it is hardly possible to limit the extent of the evil that selfishness works in us; it is the great hinderer of good. Selfishness is at the root of that exceeding anxiety lest our fellow-men should undervalue us. The great fear on the part of Jonah was lest his dignity should suffer by the repentance of the Ninevites, and lest, therefore, he should lose his character as prophet, and should be spoken of as an utterer of falsehoods. We see connected with it a slight estimation of the life and comfort of others. Thus the selfish man is continually violating the spirit of the second table of the law. We find selfishness existing in a very prominent way whenever men are found to be murmuring at Gods will, if that will is opposed to their own.
II. The Lords lesson to him. Now Jonah was disposed to show the same rebellious spirit as before, in objecting to the manner in which God was dealing with Nineveh. In dealing with him, God gave him comfort to prevent his suffering, and then removed the comfort. God thus deals with us constantly. We all need to be taught that creature comforts are but vanities, and that our only real comfort and consolation is in the Lord Himself.
III. Gods unchangeable love. We might have expected that such a man as Jonah God would have chastised and banished from His presence. What condescension we can see in His dealings with him! What a contrast between Jonahs selfishness and Gods love. (Montagu Villiers, M. A.)
Bible phases of indignation
Anger is not necessarily a proof of corruption of the heart, but is often an inseparable part of life. The Divine Creator has planted in our beings this self-defensive attribute for noble and serviceable purposes. See the two sides of this passion, as exemplified in the difference between the anger of Jonah and that of Jesus. One only shows the spirit of selfishness, which is fretful and unruly, while the other shows the grandeur of a self-sacrificing spirit united with piety and love.
I. The order of Jonah is the type of unrighteous passion. Its sin consisted in–
1. Its selfish nature. It was his own honour he feared for, not the glory of God.
2. Its unjust character. He would have had God repudiate His justice and mercy and love to gratify a sinful prophet.
3. Its uncharitable folly. It was vindictive. It was not against the evil, but the good.
II. The anger of Christ as a type of righteous indignation. He looked round about on them in anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts. Contrasting it with Jonahs, observe the following points.
1. It was sinless.
2. It was just.
3. It was merciful.
Severity is no token of hatred. Kingsley says: The highest reason should tell us that there must be indignation in God so long as there is evil in the universe. Hazlett says: Good-natured people there are amongst the worst people in the world. They leave others to bear the burden of indignation and correction. (Alfred Buckley.)
The anger of Jonah
Servant of God as he was, Jonah here displayed the infirmity of many a good man in his irritability and ill-disposition. While, on the other hand, a bad temper has been described as the vice of the virtuous, a good one has been characterised as nine-tenths of Christianity. Professor Drummond has forcibly pointed out, that for embittering life, for breaking up communities, for taking the bloom off childhood, in short, for sheer gratuitous misery-producing power, this influence of an ill-temper stands alone. It was this irritable, testy, uncontrollable disposition which cast such a reflection upon the prophet Jonah as he ran down to the port at Tarshish, and fled from the Lord, a disposition which appears to have cooled off after having passed through a period of trial and become repentant, but which, when God acted contrary to his expectations, flamed out again, as if he were composed of combustible material.
I. Jonahs bad temper was shown by the way in which he disputed with God. Jonah was neither willing to leave to God the results of his mission to Nineveh, nor ready even to go to that city. When God asks for that implicit obedience to which He has a right, He does not make an unreasonable demand. Some seem to think they display a human and rightful prerogative when they question Gods ways and authority, forgetting that by a thousand ties we are bound to accede to the Divine wishes, and that our wills are never in a more normal condition than when they are subjected to the One who never errs. Our wills are ours to make them Thine, said Tennyson, and when they will not be subservient to God a curse is pronounced upon them such as that uttered by Isaiah when he exclaimed, Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker–the woe of a conscience ill at ease, of a soul insensitive to the Divine love, and a heart shut out from that blessed communion which is accorded to those in harmony with God. And this penalty fell upon Jonah when he argued and disputed with God, who had an absolute claim to an unquestioned obedience.
II. This bad temper narrowed Jonahs vision and outlook, Intensely national, patriotic, and partisan, he could not see why Jehovah should display His saving mercy to another nation, and that so wicked as Nineveh, when He had made Israel His chosen, and the sole depositary of His will. Why take the childrens bread and give it to dogs? Was not salvation of the Jews? He was against a missionary Gospel, just as the Pharisees objected to the Gospel being proclaimed to the publicans and sinners; and as Peter was opposed to opening the door to the Gentiles, but about which his eyes were opened when he saw the sheet let down from heaven, and was sent to the house of the devout Cornelius. Believing that God is a gracious God, slow to anger, and repents of the evil when He sees a heart contrite and penitent, Jonah, like the elder son of the parable, was angry when he saw there was a possibility of the Ninevites being saved from destruction. Oh, how passion will narrow ones vision! Scarcely anything will as surely exclude a wide, impartial, and generous view of things. Just as it is said that a frightened horse can see little and becomes almost blind, so an irritable temper will narrow the creed and sour the life. Just notice the way which God took to enlarge Jonahs vision and soften and mollify his disposition. Sorry for the gourd? Yes, though it was but a plant, but not sorry for the souls against whom he had cried, that they should be overthrown and destroyed, nor was he glad when they repented. What a lesson! Men grieve over the loss of property, but not over the loss of souls. They repent over the loss of a cargo, the burning of a house, or destruction of a church, but, how pitiable! there is so little anxiety for the eternal loss of that which is beyond the price of rubies, so that to-day many a man can say truly, No man careth for my soul.
III. Moreover, Jonahs ill-temper diminished his affection and love for his fellow-men. We draw artificial distinctions of soul values, by esteeming the soul of an educated, wealthy, and refined person of more value than that of the downtrodden and humanly forsaken one. But to such a man as Jonah, the prophet of God, or to any Christian worker, no such distinction should be made. And no such discrimination will be made if the right temper possesses the Christian. We must learn to love men, love them broadly, largely, comprehensively. But you say there is nothing lovable in the vast majority of men. Even so; yet, Christian workers, you must love men, for there is no other force that will carry you through, and inspire you to the accomplishment of your mission.
IV. Through this ill-temper Jonah failed to keep due and necessary control of himself. He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city. Our trouble is not in having strong, impetuous, fiery, passionate natures, Who can measure the fire and passion in such natures as Luther, Whitefield, Spurgeon, or Moody? They were volcanoes, Niagaras of passion, but made serviceable to God and humanity. What a waste of power, said Edison, as he looked at the most magnificent falls in the world; and when I see deep, strong, fiery natures spending their vitality in petulant anger as did Jonah, I feel like saying, What a waste of power. Bring the stream and electricity of your nature, and harness it in the service of God. It is little that the manufacturer cares for a small trickling stream running through the meadows, but he does value a torrent that leaps from rock to rock, and crag to crag, and rushes with furious energy through the valley. Smother your passion, crush your anger, quell your wrath? No; pour them out upon sin. Let them come down upon evil in high and low places, and switch them on to the waggons on the Kings highway. He was very angry. Is it unusual for the soul to be angry with God? Here is a man to whom God gave a child which was deformed in body, defective in mind, and an object of care day and night, which was freely given by a loving mother. Some years, after another child was given, handsome, plump, and the pink of perfection; but, strange to say, in a short time it was taken, and folded in the bosom of a safe keeping God. Far from saying Thy will be done, a spirit of petulance arose in the fathers bosom, in which he denied the existence of God, and turned his back upon love and hope, running a swift course to business ruin and moral failure. He was very angry. Shame! Pity! Keep the fiery steed in hand; or, better still, give God the reins.
V. This bad temper unfitted him to pass into the presence of his maker. Jonah was not backward in talking about dying. O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live, and when the suns rays beat upon his head he wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live. Angry people are apt to wish they were dead, for when the fog of passion and disappointment weighs upon the spirit the ill-tempered man speaks unadvisedly with his lips. Is a man fit to die in such a temper as this? (T. M. Fothergill.)
Jonahs displeasure
I. The nature of Jonahs displeasure may easily be misunderstood. There are two kinds of displeasure. One is wrath, the other is grief. The word used of Jonah may mean either angry or distressed. Perhaps grieved is the proper idea here. Notice the impotence of mere external experience in relation to a persons inward disposition. Jonah had passed through trying experiences, yet he was the same man.
II. The intensity of Jonahs displeasure. Exceedingly, and he was very grieved. It was deep distress in the prospect of calamity to his own country. Sparing Nineveh involved the future destruction of Israel. The prophet may have foreseen this. No doubt the destruction of an impenitent heathen community would not have appeared to Jonah so terrible as such a thing must appear to ourselves. And if Jonah was grieved at the escape of the Ninevites from death, he was himself anxious to die. He did not desire a worse fate for them than for himself. Of some men it is said, their bark is worse than their bite, and Jonah might have been one of these men.
III. The extreme distress of Jonah found expression in prayer.
1. The prayer contains a reference to a former saying of the prophet himself.
2. The prayer contains an account of his flight.
3. It contains an account of Jonahs conviction concerning the Divine character. He knew that the Lord is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, of great kindness.
4. It contains a petition on the prophets part for death. An unbecoming, as well as unusual, prayer; but the petition of a noble-minded man. He knew the sanctity of his own life too well to commit suicide. The prayer was caused by his despondency in relation to the cause of God. (Samuel Clift Burn.)
Jonahs temper
Jonahs spirit at this time was not worthy of the character in which he came to Nineveh. Courage, indeed, he had shown, in raising his single voice in the name of the Lord in the midst of an idolatrous and wicked people. But he had not yet learned compassion for perishing sinners; or, if he had any such feeling, it was quite overborne, for the present, by a selfish regard to his own reputation; he was chagrined at the discredit brought upon his own predictions by the forbearance of God exercised towards the Ninevites. Foolish man! He had put himself in the place of God. He had forgotten, it should seem, that he was sent to preach the preaching that God should bid him, and had imagined that he was denouncing Jonahs threatenings, and not those of the Most High, when he said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed. Having put himself in the place of God, he vainly concluded that his own credit was concerned in the execution of the threatened judgment. But whosoever exalteth himself, though it be in the exercise of even a Divine commission, shall be humbled;–and the sooner he is effectually humbled, the better for himself. With respect to the Divine veracity, the vindication of that may safely be left in His hands whose word is truth. As for the credit of His ministers, it is, indeed, a very light matter; but that, too, may be committed to Him who has the hearts of all men in His hands, and who has said, Them that honour Me, I will honour. (Matthew M. Preston, M. A.)
The selfish man
We turn again to the dark side of Jonahs character; and very dark it is. Poor man! Whom is he angry with, and what is the ground of his displeasure? Some of the most prominent evil tempers that break out in the prophet on the occasion are the following–
1. Extreme selfishness. There is no principle in fallen man that does so much mischief in the world as that of selfishness; none dishonours God more; none produces so much injury to mankind; it prevents more good, and produces more evil, than any other temper of mind. Indeed, every sin and every suffering seem to have their origin in selfishness, and to proceed from it in one way or another. Selfishness is sin essentially. Self is the fountain of evil, and all sorts of sins are but as so many streams that issue from it. What is self-will? It is a contest between man and his God who is to have his way. What is the real cause of so much discontent and restlessness in the minds of men? It is striving with God whose will is to be done.
2. Jonah was a very peevish, quarrelsome, and fretful man. He retains his unhappy temper of mind wherever he goes, and however he is treated. Whether you strike or stroke him, he snarls. Guard against this miserable temper of mind which must be painful to ones self, disagreeable to others, and offensive to God. Learn that this peevish, fretful, and discontented temper is a stubborn sin, difficult to subdue, and a disease which is seldom cured.
3. Jonah betrays the greatest ingratitude to his kind, indulgent God. Not one expression of thankfulness do we hear from him. He is sullen and silent, full of anger and displeasure. The ungrateful man has a bad soul, unhappy in himself, and disagreeable to others; he enjoys nothing of what he possesses, let him possess ever so much. Possession and enjoyment are distinct things. True and lively gratitude is one of the most amiable and pleasing of all dispositions. May our wills be swallowed up in the will of God; may our spirits be satisfied with all that God does; and may our hearts be thankful for all His gifts, which are numerous, free, precious, constant, and eternal! (Thomas Jones.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER IV
Jonah, dreading to be thought a false prophet, repines at God’s
mercy in sparing the Ninevites, whose destruction he seems to
have expected, from his retiring to a place without the city
about the close of the forty days. But how does he glorify that
mercy which he intends to blame! And what an amiable posture
does he give of the compassion of God! 1-5. This attribute of the Deity is still farther illustrated by his
tenderness and condescension to the prophet himself, who, with
all his prophetic gifts, had much of human infirmity, 6-11.
NOTES ON CHAP. IV
Verse 1. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly] This hasty, and indeed inconsiderate prophet, was vexed because his prediction was not fulfiled. He had more respect to his high sense of his own honour than he had to the goodness and mercy of God. He appeared to care little whether six hundred and twenty thousand persons were destroyed or not, so he might not pass for a deceiver, or one that denounced a falsity.
And he was very angry.] Because the prediction was not literally fulfilled; for he totally lost sight of the condition.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
But, Heb. And, it, the Divine forbearance sparing the great and sinful Nineveh,
displeased Jonah; was very disagreeable to Jonahs hasty and fierce temper, to his love of his own credit, and it afflicted him to see Nineveh survive the forty days limited for their continuance.
Exceedingly; it was a great affliction to him, so highly distempered is Jonah at Gods goodness to a repenting city.
And he was very angry: this kindled a fire in his breast which was made up of envy, indignation, and grief, for that it was not done, and desire that yet it may be done. Jonah would yet have Nineveh a sacrifice to Gods justice, and an eternal monument of his truth who foretold its ruin.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. angryliterally, “hot,”probably, with grief or vexation, rather than anger[FAIRBAIRN]. How sad thecontrast between God’s feeling on the repentance of Nineveh towardsHim, and Jonah’s feeling on the repentance of God towards Nineveh.Strange in one who was himself a monument of mercy on his repentance!We all, like him, need the lesson taught in the parable of theunforgiving, though forgiven, debtor (Mt18:23-35). Jonah was grieved because Nineveh’s preservation,after his denunciation, made him seem a false prophet [CALVIN].But it would make Jonah a demon, not a man, to have preferred thedestruction of six hundred thousand men rather than that his prophecyshould be set aside through God’s mercy triumphing over judgment. AndGod in that case would have severely chastised, whereas he onlyexpostulates mildly with him, and by a mode of dealing, at oncegentle and condescending, tries to show him his error. Moreover,Jonah himself, in apologizing for his vexation, does not mention thefailure of his prediction as the cause: but solely the thought ofGod’s slowness to anger. This was what led him to flee toTarshish at his first commission; not the likelihood then ofhis prediction being falsified; for in fact his commission then wasnot to foretell Nineveh’s downfall, but simply to “cry against”Nineveh’s “wickedness” as having “come up before God.”Jonah could hardly have been so vexed for the letter of hisprediction failing, when the end of his commission had virtually beengained in leading Nineveh to repentance. This then cannot have beenregarded by Jonah as the ultimate end of his commission. IfNineveh had been the prominent object with him, he would haverejoiced at the result of his mission. But Israel was the prominentaim of Jonah, as a prophet of the elect people. Probably then heregarded the destruction of Nineveh as fitted to be an example ofGod’s judgment at last suspending His long forbearance so as tostartle Israel from its desperate degeneracy, heightened by its newprosperity under Jeroboam II at that very time, in a way that allother means had failed to do. Jonah, despairing of anything effectualbeing done for God in Israel, unless there were first given astriking example of severity, thought when he proclaimed the downfallof Nineveh in forty days, that now at last God is about to give suchan example; so when this means of awakening Israel was set aside byGod’s mercy on Nineveh’s repentance, he was bitterly disappointed,not from pride or mercilessness, but from hopelessness as to anythingbeing possible for the reformation of Israel, now that his cherishedhope is baffled. But GOD’Splan was to teach Israel, by the example of Nineveh, how inexcusableis their own impenitence, and how inevitable their ruin if theypersevere. Repenting Nineveh has proved herself more worthy of God’sfavor than apostate Israel; the children of the covenant have notonly fallen down to, but actually below, the level of a heathenpeople; Israel, therefore, must go down, and the heathen rise aboveher. Jonah did not know the important lessons of hope to thepenitent, and condemnation to those amidst outward privilegesimpenitent, which Nineveh’s preservation on repentance was to havefor aftertimes, and to all ages. He could not foresee that MessiahHimself was thus to apply that history. A lesson to us that if wecould in any particular alter the plan of Providence, it wouldnot be for the better, but for the worse [FAIRBAIRN].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. Jonah was “mirabilis homo”, as one calls him, an “amazing man”; the strangest, oddest, and most out of the way man, for a good man and a prophet, as one shall ever hear or read of. Displeased he was at that, which one would have thought he would have exceedingly rejoiced at, the success of his ministry, as all good men, prophets, and ministers of the word, do; nothing grieves them more than the hardness of men’s hearts, and the failure of their labours; and nothing more rejoices them than the conversion of sinners by them; but Jonah is displeased at the repentance of the Ninevites through his preaching, and at the mercy of God showed unto them: displeased at that, on account of which there is joy in heaven among the divine Persons, Father, Son, and Spirit, and among the holy angels, even over one repenting sinner; and much more over many thousands, as in this case: displeased at that which is the grudge, the envy, and spite of devils, and which they do all they can to hinder: and the more strange it is that Jonah should act such a part at this time, when he himself had just received mercy of the Lord in so extraordinary a manner as to be delivered out of the fish’s belly, even out of the belly of hell; which one would think would have warmed his heart with love, not only to God, but to the souls of men, and caused him to have rejoiced that others were sharers with him in the same grace and mercy, reasons of this strange conduct, if they may be called reasons, are supposed to be these: one reason was, his own honour, which he thought lay at stake, and that he should be reckoned a false prophet if Nineveh was not destroyed at the time he had fixed; but the proviso implied, though not expressed,
“except ye repent,”
secured his character; which was the sense of the divine Being, and so the Ninevites understood it, or at least hoped this was the case, and therefore repented, and which the mercy shown them confirmed: nor had Jonah any reason to fear they would have reproached him with such an imputation to his character; but, on the contrary, would have caressed him as the most welcome person that ever came to their city, and had been the instrument of showing them their sin and danger, and of bringing them to repentance, and so of saving them from threatened ruin; and they did him honour by believing at once what he said, and by repenting at his preaching; and which is testified by Christ, and stands recorded to his honour, and will be transmitted to the latest posterity: another reason was his prejudice to the Gentiles, which was unreasonable for, though this was the foible of the Jewish nation, begrudging that any favours should be bestowed upon the Gentiles, or prophesied of them; see Ro 10:19; yet a prophet should have divested himself of such prejudices, as Isaiah and others did; and, especially when he found his ministry was so blessed among them, he should have been silent, and glorified God for his mercy, and said, as the converted Jews did in Peter’s time, “then God hath granted unto the Gentiles repentance unto life”, Ac 11:18; to do otherwise, and as Jonah did, was to act like the unbelieving Jews, who “forbid” the apostles to “preach to the Gentiles, that they might be saved”, 1Th 2:16. A third reason supposed is the honour of his own countrymen, which he thought would be reflected on, and might issue in their ruin, they not returning from their evil ways, when the Heathens did: a poor weak reason this! with what advantage might he have returned to his own country? with what force of argument might he have accosted them, and upbraided them with their impenitence and unbelief; that Gentiles at one sermon should repent in sackcloth and ashes, when they had the prophets one after another sent them, and without effect? and who knows what might have been the issue of this? lastly, the glory of God might be pretended; that he would be reckoned a liar, and his word a falsehood, and be derided as such by atheists and unbelievers; but here was no danger of this from these penitent ones; and, besides, the proviso before mentioned secured the truth and veracity of God; and who was honoured by these persons, by their immediate faith in him, and repentance towards him; and his grace and mercy were as much glorified in the salvation of them as his justice would have been in their destruction.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Jonah, provoked at the sparing of Nineveh, prayed in his displeasure to Jehovah to take his soul from him, as his proclamation had not been fulfilled (Jon 4:1-3). , it was evil for Jonah, i.e., it vexed, irritated him, not merely it displeased him, for which is generally used. The construction with resembles that with in Neh 2:10; Neh 13:8. , “a great evil,” serves simply to strengthen the idea of . The great vexation grew even to anger ( ; cf. Gen 30:2, etc.). The fact that the predicted destruction of Nineveh had not taken place excited his discontent and wrath. And he tried to quarrel with God, by praying to Jehovah.
(Note: Calvin observes upon this: “He prayed in a tumult, as if reproving God. We must necessarily recognise a certain amount of piety in this prayer of Jonah, and at the same time many faults. There was so far piety in it, that he directed his complaints to God. For hypocrites, even when they address God, are nevertheless hostile to Him. But Jonah, when he complains, although he does not keep within proper bounds, but is carried away by a blind and vicious impulse, is nevertheless prepared to submit himself to God, as we shall presently see. This is the reason why he is said to have prayed.”)
“Alas ( as in Jon 1:14), Jehovah, was not this my word (i.e., did I not say so to myself) when I was still in my land (in Palestine)?” What his word or his thought then was, he does not say; but it is evident from what follows: viz., that Jehovah would not destroy Nineveh, if its inhabitants repented. Al – ken , therefore, sc. because this was my saying. , , I prevented to flee to Tarshish, i.e., I endeavoured, by a flight to Tarshish, to prevent, sc. what has now taken place, namely, that Thou dost not fulfil Thy word concerning Nineveh, because I know that thou art a God gracious and merciful, etc. (compare Exo 34:6 and Exo 32:14, as in Joe 2:13). The prayer which follows, “Take my life from me,” calls to mind the similar prayer of Elijah in 1Ki 19:4; but the motive assigned is a different one. Whilst Elijah adds, “for I am not better than my fathers,” Jonah adds, “for death is better to me than life.” This difference must be distinctly noticed, as it brings out the difference in the state of mind of the two prophets. In the inward conflict that had come upon Elijah he wished for death, because he did not see the expected result of his zeal for the Lord of Sabaoth; in other words, it was from spiritual despair, caused by the apparent failure of his labours. Jonah, on the other hand, did not wish to live any longer, because God had not carried out His threat against Nineveh. His weariness of life arose, not like Elijah’s from stormy zeal for the honour of God and His kingdom, but from vexation at the non-fulfilment of his prophecy. This vexation was not occasioned, however, by offended dignity, or by anxiety or fear lest men should regard him as a liar or babbler ( , Cyr. Al.; , Theodoret; vanus et mendax , Calvin and others); nor was he angry, as Calvin supposes, because he associated his office with the honour of God, and was unwilling that the name of God should be exposed to the scoffing of the heathen, quasi de nihilo terreret , or “because he saw that it would furnish material for impious blasphemies if God changed His purpose, or if He did not abide by His word;” but, as Luther observes (in his remarks on Jonah’s flight), “he was hostile to the city of Nineveh, and still held a Jewish and carnal view of God” (for the further development of this view, see the remarks above, at p. 265). That this was really Jonah’s view, is proved by Luther from the fact that God reproves his displeasure and anger in these words, “Should I not spare Nineveh?” etc. (Jon 4:11). “He hereby implies that Jonah was displeased at the fact that God had spared the city, and was angry because He had not destroyed it as he had preached, and would gladly have seen.” Offended vanity or unintelligent zeal for the honour of God would have been reproved by God in different terms from those in which Jonah was actually reproved, according to the next verse (Jon 4:4), where Jehovah asks the prophet, “Is thine anger justly kindled?” is adverbial, as in Deu 9:21; Deu 13:15, etc., bene, probe, recte, (Symm.).
Then Jonah went out of Nineveh, sat down on the east of the city, where Nineveh was bounded by the mountains, from which he could overlook the city, made himself a hut there, and sat under it in the shade, till he saw what would become of the city, i.e., what fate would befal it (Jon 4:5). This verse is regarded by many commentators as a supplementary remark, , with the verbs which follow, being rendered in the pluperfect: “Jonah had gone out of the city,” etc. We grant that this is grammatically admissible, but it cannot be shown to be necessary, and is indeed highly improbable. If, for instance, Jonah went out of Nineveh before the expiration of the forty days, to wait for the fulfilment of his prophecy, in a hut to the east of the city, he could not have been angry at its non-fulfilment before the time arrived, nor could God have reproved him for his anger before that time. The divine correction of the dissatisfied prophet, which is related in Jon 4:6-11, cannot have taken place till the forty days had expired. But this correction is so closely connected with Jonah’s departure from the city and settlement to the east of it, to wait for the final decision as to its fate (Jon 4:5), that we cannot possibly separate it, so as to take the verbs in Jon 4:5 as pluperfects, or those in Jon 4:6-11 as historical imperfects. There is no valid ground for so forced an assumption as this. As the expression in Jon 4:1, which is appended to in Jon 3:10, shows that Jonah did not become irritated and angry till after God had failed to carry out His threat concerning Nineveh, and that it was then that he poured out his discontent in a reproachful prayer to God (Jon 4:2), there is nothing whatever to force us to the assumption that Jonah had left Nineveh before the fortieth day.
(Note: There is no hold in the narrative for Marck’s conjecture, that God had already communicated to him His resolution not to destroy Nineveh, because of the repentance of the people, and that this was the reason for his anger.)
Jonah had no reason to be afraid of perishing with the city. If he had faith, which we cannot deny, he could rely upon it that God would not order him, His own servant, to perish with the ungodly, but when the proper time arrived, would direct him to leave the city. But when forty days elapsed, and nothing occurred to indicate the immediate or speedy fall of the city, and he was reproved by God for his anger on that account in these words, “Art thou rightly or justly angry?” the answer from God determined him to leave the city and wait outside, in front of it, to see what fate would befal it. For since this answer still left it open, as a possible thing, that the judgment might burst upon the city, Jonah interpreted it in harmony with his own inclination, as signifying that the judgment was only postponed, not removed, and therefore resolved to wait in a hut outside the city, and watch for the issue of the whole affair.
(Note: Theod. Mops. correctly observes, that “when he reflected upon the greatness of the threat, he imagined that something might possibly occur after all.” And Calvin better still, that “although forty days had passed, Jonah stood as if fastened to the spot, because he could not yet believe that what he had proclaimed according to the command of God would fail to be effected …. This was the cause, therefore, of his still remaining, viz., because he thought, that although the punishment from God had been suspended, yet his preaching had surely not been in vain, but the destruction of the city would take place. This was the reason for his waiting on after the time fixed, as though the result were still doubtful.”)
But his hope was disappointed, and his remaining there became, quite contrary to his intention, an occasion for completing his correction.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Prophet’s Discontent. | B. C. 840. |
1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. 2 And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. 3 Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live. 4 Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry?
See here, I. How unjustly Jonah quarrelled with God for his mercy to Nineveh, upon their repentance. This gives us occasion to suspect that Jonah had only delivered the message of wrath against the Ninevites, and had not at all assisted or encouraged them in their repentance, as one would think he should have done; for when they did repent, and found mercy,
1. Jonah grudged them the mercy they found (v. 1): It displeased Jonah exceedingly; and (would you think it?) he was very angry, was in a great heat about it. It was very wrong, (1.) That he had so little government of himself as to be displeased and very angry; he had no rule over his own spirit, and therefore, as a city broken down, lay exposed to temptations and snares. (2.) That he had so little reverence of God as to be displeased and angry at what he did, as David was when the Lord had made a breach upon Uzza; whatever pleases God should please us, and, though we cannot account for it, yet we must acquiesce in it. (3.) That he had so little affection for men as to be displeased and very angry at the conversion of the Ninevites and their reception into the divine favour. This was the sin of the scribes and Pharisees, who murmured at our Saviour because he entertained publicans and sinners; but is our eye evil because his is good? But why was Jonah so uneasy at it, that the Ninevites repented and were spared? It cannot be expected that we should give any good reason for a thing so very absurd and unreasonable; no, nor any thing that has the face or colour of a reason; but we may conjecture what the provocation was. Hot spirits are usually high spirits. Only by pride comes contention both with God and man. It was a point of honour that Jonah stood upon and that made him angry. [1.] He was jealous for the honour of his country; the repentance and reformation of Nineveh shamed the obstinacy of Israel that repented not, but hated to be reformed; and the favour God had shown to these Gentiles, upon their repentance, was an ill omen to the Jewish nation, as if they should be (as at length they were) rejected and cast out of the church and the Gentiles substituted in their room. When it was intimated to St. Peter himself that he should make no difference between Jews and Gentiles he startled at the thing, and said, Not so, Lord; no marvel then that Jonah looked upon it with regret that Nineveh should become a favourite. Jonah herein had a zeal for God as the God of Israel in a particular manner, but not according to knowledge. Note, Many are displeased with God under pretence of concern for his glory. [2.] He was jealous for his own honour, fearing lest, if Nineveh was not destroyed within forty days, he should be accounted a false prophet, and stigmatized accordingly; whereas he needed not be under any discontent about that, for in the threatening of ruin it was implied that, for the preventing of it, they should repent, and, if they did, it should be prevented. And no one will complain of being deceived by him that is better than his word; and he would rather gain honour among them, by being instrumental to save them, than fall under any disgrace. But melancholy men (and such a one Jonah seems to have been) are apt to make themselves uneasy by fancying evils to themselves that are not, nor are ever likely to be. Most of our frets, as well as our frights, are owing to the power of imagination; and those are to be pitied as perfect bond-slaves that are under the power of such a tyrant.
2. He quarreled with God about it. When his heart was hot within him, he spoke unadvisedly with his lips; and here he tells us what he said (Jon 4:2; Jon 4:3): He prayed unto the Lord, but it is a very awkward prayer, not like that which he prayed in the fish’s belly; for affliction teaches us to pray submissively, which Jonah now forgot to do. Being in discontent, he applied to the duty of prayer, as he used to do in his troubles, but his corruptions got head of his graces, and, when he should have been praying for benefit by the mercy of God himself, he was complaining of the benefit others had by that mercy. Nothing could be spoken more unbecomingly. (1.) He now begins to justify himself in fleeing from the presence of the Lord, when he was first ordered to go to Nineveh, for which he had before, with good reason, condemned himself: “Lord,” said he, “was not this my saying when I was in my own country? Did I not foresee that if I went to preach to Nineveh they would repent, and thou wouldst forgive them, and then thy word would be reflected upon and reproached as yea and nay?” What a strange sort of man was Jonah, to dread the success of his ministry! Many have been tempted to withdraw from their work because they had despaired of doing good by it, but Jonah declined preaching because he was afraid of doing good by it; and still he persists in the same corrupt notion, for, it seems, the whale’s belly itself could not cure him of it. It was his saying when he was in his own country, but it was a bad saying; yet here he stands to it, and, very unlike the other prophets, desires the woeful day which he had foretold and grieves because it does not come. Even Christ’s disciples know not what manner of spirit they are of; those did not who wished for fire from heaven upon the city that did not receive them, much less did Jonah, who wished for fire from heaven upon the city that did receive him, Luke ix. 55. Jonah thinks he has reason to complain of that, when it is done, which he was before afraid of; so hard is it to get a root of bitterness plucked out of the mind, when once it is fastened there. And why did Jonah expect that God would spare Nineveh? Because I knew that thou was a gracious God, indulgent and easily pleased, that thou wast slow to anger and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. All this is very true; and Jonah could not but know it by God’s proclamation of his name and the experiences of all ages; but it is strange and very unaccountable that that which all the saints had made the matter of their joy and praise Jonah should make the matter of reflection upon God, as if that were an imperfection of the divine nature which is indeed the greatest glory of it–that God is gracious and merciful. The servant that said, I knew thee to be a hard man, said that which was false, and yet, had it been true, it was not the proper matter of a complaint; but Jonah, though he says what is true, yet, speaking it by way of reproach, speaks very absurdly. Those have a spirit of contention and contradiction indeed that can find in their hearts to quarrel with the goodness of God, and his sparing pardoning mercy, to which we all owe it that we are out of hell. This is making that to be to us a savour of death unto death which ought to be a savour of life unto life. (2.) In a passion, he wishes for death (v. 3), a strange expression of his causeless passion! “Now, O Lord! take, I beseech thee, my life from me. If Nineveh must live, let me die, rather than see thy word and mine disproved, rather than see the glory of Israel transferred to the Gentiles,” as if there were not grace enough in God both for Jews and Gentiles, or as if his countrymen were the further off from mercy for the Ninevites being taken into favour. When the prophet Elijah had laboured in vain, he wished he might die, and it was his infirmity, 1 Kings xix. 4. But Jonah labours to good purpose, saves a great city from ruin, and yet wishes he may die, as if, having done much good, he were afraid of living to do more; he sees of the travail of his soul, and is dissatisfied. What a perverse spirit is mingled with every word he says! When Jonah was brought alive out of the whale’s belly, he thought life a very valuable mercy, and was thankful to that God who brought up his life from corruption, (ch. ii. 6), and a great blessing his life had been to Nineveh; yet now, for that very reason, it became a burden to himself and he begs to be eased of it, pleading, It is better for me to die than to live. Such a word as this may be the language of grace, as it was in Paul, who desired to depart and be with Christ, which is far better; but here it was the language of folly, and passion, and strong corruption; and so much the worse, [1.] Jonah being now in the midst of his usefulness, and therefore fit to live. He was one whose ministry God wonderfully owned and prospered. The conversion of Nineveh might give him hopes of being instrumental to convert the whole kingdom of Assyria; it was therefore very absurd for him to wish he might die when he had a prospect of living to so good a purpose and could be so ill spared. [2.] Jonah being now so much out of temper and therefore unfit to die. How durst he think of dying, and going to appear before God’s judgment-seat, when he was actually quarrelling with him? Was this a frame of spirit proper for a man to go out of the world in? But those who passionately desire death commonly have least reason to do it, as being very much unprepared for it. Our business is to get ready to die by doing the work of life, and then to refer ourselves to God to take away our life when and how he pleases.
II. See how justly God reproved Jonah for this heat that he was in (v. 4): The Lord said, Doest thou well to be angry? Is doing well a displeasure to thee? so some read it. What! dost thou repent of thy good deeds? God might justly have rejected him for this impious heat which he was in, might justly have taken him at his word, and have struck him dead when he wished to die; but he vouchsafes to reason with him for his conviction and to bring him to a better temper, as the father of the prodigal reasoned with his elder son, when, as Jonah here, he murmured at the remission and reception of his brother. Doest thou well to be angry? See how mildly the great God speaks to this foolish man, to teach us to restore those that have fallen with a spirit of meekness, and with soft answers to turn away wrath. God appeals to himself and to his own conscience: “Doest thou well? Thou knowest thou does not.” We should often put this question to ourselves, Is it well to say thus, to do thus? Can I justify it? Must I not unsay it and undo it again by repentance, or be undone forever? Ask, 1. Do I well to be angry? When passion is up, let it meet with this check, “Do I well to be so soon angry, so often angry, so long angry, to put myself into such a heat, and to give others such ill language in my anger? Is this well, that I suffer these headstrong passions to get dominion over me?” 2. “Do I well to be angry at the mercy of God to repenting sinners?” That was Jonah’s crime. Do we do well to be angry at that which is so much for the glory of God and the advancement of his kingdom among men–to be angry at that which angels rejoice in and for which abundant thanksgivings will be rendered to God? We do ill to be angry at that grace which we ourselves need and are undone without; if room were not left for repentance, and hope given of pardon upon repentance, what would become of us? Let the conversion of sinners, which is the joy of heaven, be our joy, and never our grief.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
JONAH – CHAPTER 4
JONAH RUNS GOD DOWN, RUNS AHEAD OF HIM
Verses 1-11:
Verse 1 indicates that Jonah became a fault-finder, a malcontent critic of God’s justice, in sparing Nineveh. Jonah became hot with anger, not pleased that God showed mercy to the penitent Gentiles. Though he had himself been forgiven of God for his backslidden rebellion; Like the forgiven debtor, he was unwilling to see the Ninevites forgiven, Mat 18:23-35; Mat 20:15. Jonah evidently presumed that their being spared would lead to the destruction of Israel, his country, Hos 9:3; Hos 11:5; Hos 11:11; Amo 5:27.
Verse 2 describes Jonah’s attempted justification in running from the Lord. In essence, he told the Lord that he knew all the time what would happen, if he delivered God’s message to Nineveh, and that was why he tried to go preach in Tarshish in the first place. He said he anticipated, or had the feeling, that because God was so gracious and full of mercy He would spare them if they repented, a thing Jonah did not want to happen. He wanted to play politician, more than preacher and prophet, and destroy the capitol of Assyria, the enemy of Israel, Exo 32:14; Exo 34:6: Joe 2:13.
Verse 3 explains Jonah’s self-pity for himself, his disappointment that God did not destroy Nineveh, that God would !isten to an heathen’s prayer, led him to ask God to just let him die. He felt he would be accused of being a false prophet, and he was too weak in faith to take it, Rom 8:28. Elijah once came to a similar situation, as described 1 Kings ch. 18 and 1Ki 19:4.
Verse 4 states the Lord’s response to Jonah’s self-pity prayer. He chided Jonah by rhetoric question, Do you have a defensible reason to be so angry? Or you do not have a real, justifiable reason to be angry now, do you? Had not God showed mercy and grace to him, from the belly of the whale, when he had repented. And God is no respecter of persons to anyone, is He? Deu 10:17; Act 10:34; Rom 2:11; Rom 10:13.
Verse 5 relates Jonah’s pouting response to God. 1) First, he went out of the city; 2) Second, he sat down on the east side, just outside the city; 3) Third, he made him a booth, a shady place of branches to reside under the sun, 4) Fourth, he sat under it, in the shadow, to be comfortable, till he might see what happened to Nineveh, when the forty days had passed, hoping to see it burn like Sodom, Gen 19:24-25.
Verse 6 tells of God’s preparing a gourd to shadow Jonah, as He did the great fish, to swallow him, Jon 1:17. The gourd covered the booth, v. 5, an act of Divine mercy to a prophet with a bad attitude; The gourd was a quick growing, very shady covering, that made Jonah deceitfully relieved and gleeful as he sat back to “watch-em-burn,” in Nineveh. He couched in his covert, anxiously desiring to see God “burn them up in Nineveh,” though they repented, Job 38:40; Jer 25:38; Joh 6:37; Psa 145:18-19.
Verse 7 relates that God prepared a worm, or a collective kind of worm that night, to literally smite, or eat the gourd vine away, to destroy the modest shade of the exceedingly glad prophet of the previous day, v. 6. It takes but a small worm to destroy a great gourd vine. Even so it may take but a small act of God to make our Complacent comfort wither when we are out of His will, or hold a bad attitude toward our fellow man: Our duty is to preach repentance to all men. every creature. then rejoice when they repent. Mar 16:15: Joh 20:21 Psa 30:7.
Verse 8 tells of the fourth thing. God prepared for Jonah Jon 1:17; Jon 4:6-8. It was a vehement (very strong) wind, very dry and sultry burning. For the Lord “has his way in the whirlwind and in the clouds,” Neh 1:3. The blistering sun came upon Jonah until he fainted and said to himself, “think I’ll just die,” or “I’d be better off dead.” Much as Elijah, 1Ki 19:4-8. As a lesson in service to God Jonah may be considered in seven Divine ways:
1) As a disobedient servant, Jon 1:1-11.
2) As an afflicted servant, Jon 1:12-17.
3) As a praying backslidden servant, Jon 2:2-9.
4) As a delivered servant, Jon 2:10.
5) As a recommissioned servant, Jon 3:1-3.
6) As a powerful servant, Jon 3;4-10.
7) As a perplexed, fainting, but not forsaken servant, Jon 4:1-11.
Verse 9 relates God’s challenging inquiry to Jonah about his being so hot in anger over a worm-eaten sunburned gourd vine, as he had been when God first made him realize that Nineveh was yet to be spared because she had repented, v. 4. Jonah’s grief and anger were because of his own inherent sin of carnal desire to have things his own way, He simply held an unforgiving spirit toward those Ninevites, to whom God had shown pity. He showed no compassion. Our Lord spoke, “I am grieved even to death,” as He embraced our sins in his own body, to hear them on the tree of Calvary, Mat 26:38; 1Pe 2:24.
Verse 10 relates the vanity of Jonah’s pity for a gourd, on which he spent no labor or contribution to its growth. Yet, when it perished in a night of the worm attack, Jonah pined his life away, found fault with God, and wished that he might die. He acted the defeatist, as a coward in time of battle, Gal 6:9; 1Co 15:58.
Verse 11 continues God’s challenge for Jonah to explain why He could not, in justice and holiness, spare Nineveh, show pity to that great city of near 1,000,000 estimated population, who repented with near 60,000 immature children and mentally incompetent, who could not tell their left hand from their right hand, and also much cattle, Deu 1:39. Jonah was silent, God is right and just in all His ways of judgment and mercy, Mat 6:28-30.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Jerome commends this grief of Jonah, and compares it to the holy zeal of Paul when he wished himself to be an anathema for his brethren, (Rom 9:3 🙂 for he denies that he grieved because God had showed mercy to so illustrious a city; but because the conversion of the Gentiles was a certain presage of the destruction of the chosen people. As then Jonah perceived as in a mirror the near ruin of Israel, he on this account grieved, if we believe Jerome: but this notion is extremely frivolous; for, immediately after, God reproved Jonah. What then will the foolish and puerile apology of Jerome avail the Prophet, since God has declared that he acted perversely in grieving? Nay, the dullness of Jerome is thus become evident; (thus indeed do I speak of a man, who, though learned and laborious, has yet deprived himself of that praise, which otherwise he might have justly earned.) His wayward disposition everywhere betrayed itself; and he is evidently disproved in this very context, where Jonah shows clearly that the cause of his grief was another, even this, — that he was unwilling to be deemed a false or a lying prophet: hence was his great grief and his bitterness. And this we see, had God not expressed his mind, was unjust and inconsistent with every reason.
We may then conclude that Jonah was influenced by false zeal when he could not with resignation bear that the city of Nineveh should have been delivered from destruction: and he also himself amplifies the greatness of his sin. He might have said, in one word, that it displeased Jonah; but not satisfied with this simple form, he adds, that he felt great displeasure or grief; and he afterwards adds, that he was very angry. Though the beginning may not have been wrong, yet excess was sinful. But he confesses that there was excess, and want of moderation in his grief: since then he accuses himself in plain words what good is it, by false and invented pretenses, to cover what we clearly see cannot be excused? But that it may be more evident why the deliverance of the city of Nineveh displeased Jonah, let us go on with the context —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
JONAHS GOURD
Jon 4:1-11
THE discourse of a week ago saw Jonah triumphant. In a single day, through preaching the preaching that God had bidden him, he had sent all Nineveh to sackcloth and ashes. The revival had reached even to the throne and Sardanapalus, the king, realized his sin and the sin of his people, and proclaimed a fast in consequence. That was a mighty conquest; and we would expect the man who wrought it to walk upon the mountains, to be dwelling in spirit in the heavenlies. But Jonah disappoints all such expectations. In the first verse of this fourth chapter we find the hero of that greatest of all pentecosts displeased and in the dumps. The preacher of mighty power of yesterday is the complaining dyspeptic of today. But, for my own part, I cannot join with those who have only words of condemnation for him; with those who regard this an uncalled-for fit of anger, who esteem it a sufficient reason for writing the Prophet down as small, for finishing with him as unworthy of a place on the roll of Gods heroes.
Do you remember in The Marble Fawn how Hilda condemned Miriam for having shared in an awful crime, and then having permitted herself to make the deed a topic of conversation with her friends, to which Kenyon replied, Ah, Hilda, * * they are perhaps partners in what we must call awful guilt; and yet I will own to you, when I think of the original cause, the motive, the feeling, the sudden concurrence of circumstances thrusting them onward, the urgency of the moment, and the sublime unselfishness on either part, I know not well how to distinguish it from much that the world calls heroism . Might we not render some such verdict as this, Worthy of death, but not unworthy of love?
When I think of the original cause of Jonahs displeasure, of the motives and the feelings back of it, of the sudden change of circumstances, and of the urgency of the moment, as he saw things, I am not ready to write him down as a coward, nor yet to call his behavior purely petulant, and his complaint mere peevishness. As Kenyon suggested, it is impossible to justify him, but not impossible to love and admire him.
First of all let us think of
The Occasions of His Displeasure.
His prophecy would fail. He had said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. It is a strange streak in human nature that it would have all its predictions, good or bad, come to pass. Here is a woman, who, on the first meeting, becomes prejudiced against her sister, and whispers to some of her friends her opinion of the new acquaintance. In nine cases out of ten she will forever live in hope of seeing her predictions come to pass. Here is a man who takes a dislike to a business competitor and the whispering winds bring him a breath from somebody to the effect that this man is about to fail. He takes a few people into his confidence and says, I prophesy there will be a collapse in that institution ere long, and from the day he makes the prophecy, he hopes to see it come to pass, for men do not like their predictions to fail. So in-wrought in fallen human nature is this disposition that even the churchman who predicts in advance of the pastors coming that he will fail sets himself to the task of bringing his own words to pass. It is easy enough for us to condemn the man for his conduct, but who of us is worthy to cast the first stone? Let us search our hearts and see before we say aught else against Jonah.
Are we not, every one, involved in this same weakness of loving to see his prophecy come to pass, and being privileged to say, I told you so? Jonahs disappointment is better justified than the average for the simple reason that he had said what God had told him to say, and he had perfect right to expect to see his prediction fulfilled. Possibly there is no man in the world who is so chagrined and sorrowed to learn that what he has said will not endure the test of time as the man who honestly believes that he is preaching the Word of the Lord. Again, Jonah expected now to see his own people perish.
This very Nineveh was the capital of the country which, in the process of time, would overcome and conquer Israel. Had Jonahs prediction, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown been fulfilled, then he might have hoped to see Israel escape the Assyrian scourge. Long ago God had said of His own people and of their idolaters, They have moved Me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked Me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation (Deu 32:21).
Jonah was familiar with this prediction and feared its fulfillment. To him it seemed serious business that Nineveh should be spared. He saw that it meant Israel overthrown; and we may believe that he loved Israel as Paul loved her. You remember the great Apostle said,
I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:
Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the Law, and the service of God, and the promises (Rom 9:2-4).
Think back a little, and you, as a patriotic American, will come into sympathy with this Prophets spirit. All through this land of ours, Christian men hailed with delight the news of the sinking of the Spanish fleet in the Manila harbor; and again the same joy took possession of us when we heard how the second fleet had been sunk at Santiago. We saw in it the falling of a power which must go down, or else our own people would suffer before their guns, and only a few, of even our Christian men, were great enough to join with Capt. Philip, the noble naval officer, in his splendid Christian speech, Boys, dont cheer; those poor fellows are dying.
We wanted to see them die! We wanted the Spanish power broken, and we called our feelings patriotism. The Prophet Jonah had better reason to call his disappointment by the same name. And yet there is a vast deal called patriotism by a poor employment of the term. The Clarion says: The Loyalist patriots creed is, My country right or wrong; my party right or wrong. But, though the preacher of the Gospel so define his patriotism, God will not regard it. When my country is wrong there is but one possible way to prove my patriotism, and that is to point out the error, and like these prophets of old, plead for reform. When my country is wrong I must love her still, and like Jonah, I could not help feeling sadness, I could not escape heaviness of heart, if I saw her enemies preserved and increased in power, and knew that God would yet use them to humble my homeland to the dust.
Jonah, in this displeasure, was voicing exactly what the Apostle Paul uttered when he said,
Brethren, my hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might he saved.
For I hear them record that they have a seal of God, but not according to knowledge.
For they being ignorant of Gods righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God (Rom 10:1-3).
In the next place let us consider
Jonahs disposition to die.
And he prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray Thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that Thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest Thee of the evil.
Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech Thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live (Jon 4:2-3).
This was a weak moment, not necessarily a weak man.
A weak moment does not prove a weak man. On the contrary it would seem that almost all great men are peculiarly subject to weak moments. The very elements in them that push them to the very heights are liable to reaction, and a consequent falling to the depths.
Take Elijah as an instance of this claim. In all the Old Testament history there is not a braver Prophet. He does not hesitate to face the king and tell him his faults. In all of the Old Testament there is not a man of more marvelous faith! Regard the instance of Mount Carmel, the climax of mans expectation from the Lord. Although alone, Elijah felt no fear in the face of 450 prophets of Baal. He knew his God to be true. He knew their God to be false. The test he put to them of fire coming down from above to consume the altar and the sacrifice was a test which only the most trusting would have dared. The answer of God was so prompt, so complete, that Elijah must have been lifted to the heights of rejoicing; the overthrow of the prophets of Baal so sudden and terrible that one would imagine Elijah walking with head erect, and bearing about in his bosom a stout heart all his remaining days. But, alas for the disappointment! A day passes, a woman utters her threat against Elijahs life, and Elijah loses hope and heart, and is found under a juniper tree making Jonahs request.It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.
Do you say that Elijah was a weak man? No; this was a weak moment in the life of a man of might.
Think of Peter, the Apostle of Pentecost, and see how he illustrates the same fact. Ready today to die with his Master, declaring in his enthusiasm, Though all men shall be offended because of Thee, yet will I never be offended; tomorrow filled with fear before the face of an insignificant maid, denying with cursing and swearing that he ever knew the Lord. Do you say Peter was a weak man? No! Peter was a man of might, but subject to weak moments.
I doubt if there is a single name in American history more revered by the whole people than that of Abraham Lincoln. The people admire him because he was the very embodiment of political integrity and of conscientious courage; and yet John Gilmer Speed is responsible for the story that when Lincoln came to marry, January 1, 1841, his heart failed him. He left the gowned bride heart-broken by his failure to put in appearance, and when his friends found him, they saw he was so overcome with melancholy as not to be responsible for his actions, and for twenty-two months he was utterly unable to muster the courage necessary to meet his love at the marriage altar, and only then, after having been assured by one of his most intimate friends, who had back of him a marriage experience of eight months, that the marriage estate was a more happy one than he had ever hoped to find it. Do you tell me that Abraham Lincoln was a weak man?
No; but Abraham Lincoln had his weak points and his weak moments. One of the reasons why people often misjudge their fellows exists in the circumstance that they fail to discern between the moment and the man. It ought not to be forgotten either that the highest mountain peak must be followed by a valley, and that the highest human attainment is almost sure to be succeeded by a sense of weakness.
After the great sculptor, Thorwaldsen, had realized his ideal in marble, his friends found him sitting with his head between his hands, sobbing as if his heart was broken. In answer to their inquiry concerning his trouble he said, I have realized my ideal. I fear I shall never have another great thought. But there was another secret in his sobs. That ideal had aroused every energy of body and mind, and upon that ideal he had wrought until every muscle and nerve was overworked, and when at last the chisel had given the finishing stroke, tired nature collapsed and despondency was the consequence.
Everywhere there are people longing to die, ready almost to take away life, who need only the rest of a week, the recuperating benefits of proper slumber and food, to find themselves again and feel that life is worth the living.
More and more I believe that a well-balanced mind will so clearly apprehend these things that self-destruction will seem to it at once foolish and sinful, and even the prayer put up by Elijah and voiced by Jonah, one that must come up before God as a proof that the man making it is in his weakest moment.
The answer to this prayer was as Divine as the petition was human. Oh, how human to be discouraged! How human to be displeased! How human to utter our complaints! How human to tell God what we want of Him!
How Divine to answer, as God here answered, Doest thou well to be angry? How Divine for the Creator of the Universe to come down to the level of His creature and reason with him; yea, even plead with him in love; yea, even provide him with a temporary respite from his troubles, and a refreshing shadow against the sun!
God did both. He reasoned with Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry? He regarded Jonahs exhausted condition, his physical collapse, and his mental aberration. 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.
Possibly we have never understood the full import of Jonahs position here, and the full meaning of Gods grace in this vine. In this far northern climate we cannot imagine the sweltering heat of Assyria. A sojourner in that land speaking of their climate says of his experience in the early summer, The spring was now fast passing away; the heat became daily greater; the corn was cut; and the plains and hills put on their summer clothing of dull parched yellow. The pasture is withered; the herbage faileth; the green grass is not. He also makes reference to this vehement East wind by saying, It was the season, too, of burning winds, which occasionally swept over the face of the country, driving, in their short-lived fury, everything before them. We all went below (ground) soon after the sun had risen, and remained there (in the tunnels) without again seeking the open air until it was far down in the western horizon.
It was from such a sun, and from such a wind that Jonahs God-given gourd had shielded him. No wonder he was exceeding glad of the gourd.
I dare say that every man here has had an experience of Gods favor right along with his being called to pass through the furnace. I hear people talk sometimes as if life was all clouded, and God never shoots their darkness through with one rift of the sun. I hear people talk sometimes as if life was utterly exhausted, and God never sends them a single grateful shade in which to recover strength. But I confess I dont understand them! Nay, more, I dont believe them!
I have seen the shadows; but for me, at least, God has shot them every one through and through with some rays from the sun; and I have felt the scorching heat of the days that burned, but I am compelled to admit, nay rather I would gladly testify to the fact, that God has not forgotten His own; and when the flesh could endure no more He has never failed to furnish rest and shade. I believe that the man who does not see it so, or the woman, does not understand God, and is blind to the very blessings that our Heavenly Father is always bestowing upon His own.
Wont you stop now and think of all your complaining petitions, and then with the power of memory, compute all your blessings, and see if the latter are not as Divine as the former are human; and, like Jonah of old, be glad for the gourd?
I do not know in what experience God has provided for you this grateful shade, but I dare say He has provided it. There is your neighbor languishing upon a bed of sickness, but you are enjoying good health; is not that Gods gourd? There is your neighbor who has been reduced from plenty to poverty, and does not now know whether on Thanksgiving Day he shall be privileged to dine; but you fare sumptuously every day. Is not that Gods gourd? There is one of your children who has been to you a burning Assyrian sun, bringing you almost to the grave, but there is another who has been your pride and is at present your precious one;t is not that Gods gourd? On the street you pass the friendless man, who is going from door to door seeking employment, or pleading for bread, but in that same street you are greeted by friends at every turn; are not these Gods gourd? You who charge God with having forgotten you, count your blessings and be ashamed!
Again, this is
Gods Parable of grace.
First of all it evidenced His grace to Jonah. As we have seen, He was good to His own.
In these days, when the universal fatherhood of God is preached from so many pulpits, people are almost forgetting that God has any people He peculiarly calls His own. But whatever may be the theological philosophy of the present, I think a careful study of sacred Writ will show that God lays claim to certain people as His own children, and for all such He has particularly pledged His grace and favor. Those who, by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, He has adopted, because they have been willing to become Histhese are always experiencing the fulfillment of His promises of blessing.
When Henry M. Stanley was making his trip across Africa he came often to the very point of starvation. Once for nine days on the way to Iturn, it seemed every day as if death would come through sheer want. Once, when flying from Bumbire, he and his company endured great pangs of hunger. But a more severe experience awaited him when he went on his expedition to relieve Emin Pasha. The last banana had been devoured. Meat they had not tasted for days. The starving men were saying, This time we die, when Stanley answered, It is said that the age of miracles is past, but why should it be so? Elijah was fed by ravens at the brook Cherith, but I suppose there is not a raven in all this forest; and yet we can pray.
While they plead there was a sound as if a large bird were whirring through the air. Suddenly it dropped in their midst, and the fox-terrier sprang instantly upon the prize, and held it as if in a vise of iron. There, boys, said Stanley, the age of miracles is not past, for the fat guinea-fowl God had sent in answer to the cry of His own. It was to Stanley what the gourd of old was to Jonah, the one thing needful in the awful hour. And, if you consider well, you will find God is always making that contribution to His own.
Again, this gourd was a parable of Gods grace to the Gentiles.
When the caterpillars had smitten it that it withered, and sweltering Jonah was sick and ready to die, God said to him,
Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death.
Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:
And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city? (Jon 4:9-11).
The parable is this, If you loved your gourd upon which you have expended neither time nor labor, how is it that you do not understand My love toward Nineveh, which I have planted, to which I have given hundreds of years of attention, and on which I have bestowed the labors of the everlasting God?
Herein is the ground of Gods grace toward all men. He has given His thought to them. He has expended His time upon them. He has poured out His love in their behalf, and He cannot endure to see them perish. Dont you remember how Paul expresses this in Rom 5:8: But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. What an evidence of the Divine affection! Dying for rebels against His grace! What proof of the goodness of the heart of God!
Theres a wideness in Gods mercy Like the wideness of the sea.
Henry Van Dyke, once the lecturer in our Art and Literature Course, says in one of his volumes, It is narrated of the great novelist Thackery, that he was walking with a friend at evening on the hills near Edinburgh. The sun sank slowly to his rest, leaving a trail of glory behind him, and the solemn splendors of the sky deepened above the crowded tenements, the dark, foul, noisome streets, the pain, and misery, and want, of the old town. Thackery looked at it long in silence, and then, turning to his companion, with tears in his eyes, he said, Calvary.
Oh, my friends, I want you to see that over all the sins of men God spreads the glorious canopy of His grace, and above the heads of them that rebel against Him He unrolls the crimson banner of His compassion; and Jew and Gentile are alike proffered His lifegiving love.
This grace is exercised also in justice.
Then said the Lord * * should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?
How often the guilty are shielded for the sake of the innocent, we may never know. Certain it is that God is ever sparing sinners solely because His calling them to judgment would involve their innocent lovers in suffering. Here, the one hundred and twenty thousand little children who had committed no iniquity against Him, and the dumb cattle, which must also die, if Nineveh be overthrown, moved the heart of God to mercy, and the most wicked men and women were thus shielded from that just judgment.
I wonder how many there are here tonight who are safe because loved ones stand between them and an angry God; sons, whose fathers petitions are their preservation; daughters, whose mothers prayers have prevailed to stay the stroke of judgment; brothers and sisters and friends between whom and an offended God, praying friends, brothers and sisters have intervened; parents, preserved alive and blest, for the sake of the babes? Oh, that you would be wise and make the hour, big with opportunity for you, blessed by repentance, and sweet through surrender. Oh, that the innocent ones who have been shields against judgment might be privileged to share in the joy of salvation!
Quite a while ago the Chicago Inter-Ocean told the story of two sweet-faced, white-haired women who went, with great bunches of beautiful flowers, into one of the hospitals of that city. They approached the bed whereon a young girl lay and requested the nurse to take the flowers and present them to the sick one; but the nurse glancing from the pale face to theirs, said, She is too far gone,for the young woman seemed even then to be dying. But the elder lady reached over the sufferer and laid on her pillow a cluster of sweet-scented honeysuckles. Suddenly the dying girl opened her eyes, and then starting up, as if in a dream of some bright day of the past, she said, See, mother, it is blooming full, the honeysucklethat Iplantedby thegarden wall! I amso tiredmotherI cannot pickthe blossoms now! The elder woman started at the voice, looked a moment into the eyes to assure herself, and then clasping the dying girl to her arms, she said, Oh, Margaret, my daughter, have I found you at last! Oh, Margaret, speak to me, to your mother once more!
The prayer was answered, and the girl who, three years before, had gone out from her home to the great dty, to be taken by its temptations and swept down in the swirl of its sin, was so blessed with the consciousness that mother has come, made so happy with the sweet sense, Mother does not condemn, but loves me, that a miracle of healing was wrought, and in time this wanderer went back again to beautiful life, and to the pure joys of the old loves and home.
Yet no mother ever loved her prodigal child as God loves a prodigal soul. Tonight, to the most sinful, He comes with His Rose of Sharon, and bending over those who in their iniquity are ready to die, He says, My child, have I found you at last? Let Me lay upon you the hand of healing, and oh, let Me, with My own loving hand, lead you Home!
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
CRITICAL NOTES.] Angry] Lit. hot with anger; to burn inwardly: the verb usually restricted to anger, but (Jon. 4:4; Jon. 4:9) rendered to grieve. Jonahs vexation grew to anger. Ninevehs destruction would have been a warning to Israel, but God had preserved it, and he appeared to have no hope for the reformation of his country.
Jon. 4:2. Word] Saying or cogitation. i.e. Did I not say to myself? Land] Palestine. Fled] I prevented to flee, i.e. I endeavoured by flight to prevent. Gracious] (cf. Exo. 34:6; Exo. 32:14; Joe. 2:13).
Jon. 4:3. Take] cf. Elijahs prayer (1Ki. 19:4). Better] than live under the imputation of being a false prophet.
Jon. 4:4. Well] The Heb. adverbial, Is thine anger justly kindled? Art thou greatly or much angry? [LXX. and Fairbairn].
Jon. 4:5. Went out] Some time before the forty days expire. East side] Definiteness in the picture. See] Watch what would happen, expecting Nineveh to fall by earthquake, or be burned like Sodom [Pusey].
Jon. 4:6. Gourd] The ricinus or palma Christi; the word sig. an artificial covert, as a tent or booth; sometimes a shelter, in the preparation of which no art is used (Jer. 25:38; Job. 38:40). Exceeding] Lit. glad with great gladness.
Jon. 4:7. Worm] Taken collectively for worms in Deu. 28:39; Isa. 14:11 : may be here. The palma Christi in a short time produces caterpillars, and where these abound they strip the tree of its leaves in one night, and take away the shade.
Jon. 4:8. This not sufficient discipline. Vehement] Silent, i.e. deadly sultry east wind. Wished] Lit. he asked, as to his soul, to die.
Jon. 4:9. Doest thou?] This question comprises the meaning of Jon. 4:9-11. I do] To the bottom of my soul, to weariness of life (cf. Mat. 26:38). I am very much grieved even to death [Fairbairn].
Jon. 4:10. Jonahs attention is directed to the contradiction in which he has fallen, by feeling compassion for the withering of the miraculous tree, and at the same time murmuring because God has had compassion upon Nineveh with its many thousands of living beings [Keil]. The shrub was the son of a night, and perished in a night: if he pitied this which he neither planted nor cultured, has God not greater right to pity creatures whom he has made? &c. Pity] Spared the gourd.
HOMILETICS
THE STRANGE DISPLEASURE.Jon. 4:1-4
Gods servants should rejoice in the increase of his people and the success of their labours. Nineveh had repented, was saved and filled with rejoicing, but one individual was differently affected by the display of Divine mercy towards a guilty city. Sin lurks in those that have suffered most, that have undergone the severest discipline to wean them from it. A fretful man is
1. At discord with the joy of his fellow-creatures.
2. Opposed to the benevolent designs of God. Notice Jonahs strange displeasure. It displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
I. He sets the welfare of his own country above the interests of humanity. He is an Israelite and a patriot. He loved his own people better than the Ninevites, and had no idea of God chosing more than one nation. He thought Nineveh the chief enemy which threatened his country. Behold it is spared, and likely to prosper! What will become of his brethren now? His Jewish pride rebelled, and he was angry. Professing Christians often cherish the same spirit, idolize their sect and creed. The sin of Jonah is a common sin. It is seen in the worlds patriotism and the Churchs bigotry; in all sectarianism and narrow-mindedness; in reluctance to missionary effort, and envy at the success of others. We cry, Charity begins at home; refuse to do Gods work ourselves, and do not like it done by others. The disciples glorified God on Peters report. Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.
II. He frets at the mercy of God to others. He would rather have his own will. Gods dealings with Nineveh did not please him. When self is exalted, and Gods Providence thwarts our wishes, we are displeased. God does not gratify our whims, hence we fret and complain; we get peevish and angry with everything about us. The times are out of joint. This temper darkens sunshine, corrodes enjoyment, scorns gratitude, and banishes happiness from every place. Is Gods will not right, and are his ways not perfect? Should it be according to thy mind?
III. He attempts to justify his past conduct. Was not this my saying? &c. We have here the reason for his flight to Tarshish which he is ready to excuse. He hastened, tried to be beforehand with God, to circumvent and defeat his designs. What folly and impiety to justify this! Why should we be ashamed to acknowledge error, and forsake a wrong when detected in it? The true penitent will sink self, think more of Gods truth than his credit; be ready to confess all and excuse nothing. But for the belief that he would have mercy upon Nineveh, Jonah tells God that he would have obeyed the first commission. When men insist that they have done right, and call up sins which should have been forgotten, and for which they have been chastised, they display ignorance, pride, and self-conceit.
1. They make themselves disagreeable. Everybody dislikes a man that always claims to be right, that can never be taught nor corrected.
2. They are a curse to society. Their example and influence are pernicious. They are never satisfied with the ways of Providence. Gods plans are always wrong, and his mercy upon others thrown away. How abominable is self-assertion, self-justification, and self-will. I knew beforehand what would happen, therefore I shall please myself now!
IV. He becomes impatient of life itself. Take, I pray thee, my life from me, &c. This is the impatient wish of petulance and discontent, not the pious desire of Paul and Gods people (Luk. 2:29; 1Co. 5:1-3; Php. 1:18-23). But in this rash petition the Prophet stands not alone. Failure in business, disappointment in love, treachery of friends, and perplexing providences, cover the sky with clouds, and oppress the spirit with gloom. Moses and Elijah, Job and Jeremiah, prove that temptations to such desires are powerful in the best of men. Men pray for death when not prepared to die. If life is not appreciated, death is not desirable. This desire chills our best affections, and cherishes our meanest interests. It indicated
1. Lack of faith in God. Gods plans were better than Jonahs. He should have believed in the wisdom of God.
2. Ingratitude for his own forgiveness. Gods mercy towards himself should have made him tender-hearted to others, and glad to see their repentance.
Anger is a short fit of madness [Tillotson].
A GRACIOUS GOD.Jon. 4:2
Jonah seems to think that God was more merciful than just. But the justice of God is a proof and an exhibition of his love. Mercy and truth blend together like rays from the sun, to give life and light to men. This character of God is described in law, prophets, and psalms. It is a memorial and manifestation of God to all generations.
I. God is gracious in essence. Thou art a gracious God. God has the disposition to goodness. He is gratuitously benevolent. This sheds lustre upon his nature and light upon a fallen world. He seeks to subdue the enmity of man, and allure wanderers back. He needs nothing to excite his love. His very nature is gracious. God is love. Moses wondered how God could show mercy and do justly; desired some greater insight into the Eternal Mind, and longed to do his duty to a disobedient people (Exo. 33:17-19). But Jonah made the revealed character of God a ground for upbraiding men and neglecting duty. How sublime the contrast between Gods mercy and mans ways. My ways are not as your ways, &c.
II. God is gracious in acts. As the fountain, so the streams. The acts of God partake of the character of God. Benevolent in nature, he is benevolent in act and design. He wills not that any should perish. We are apt to measure him by our own feelings, and picture him as malevolent and vindictive.
1. He is merciful. Merciful to the miserable and undeserving. Ever disposed to relieve the suffering, pardon the guilty, and dispense happiness.
2. He is slow to anger. He is not passionate and easily provoked. He restrains his wrath, and many a time turns away his anger. He deals not with men according to their iniquity, nor rewards them according to their sins. He is reluctant to execute sentence, and spares offenders.
3. He is of great kindness. Having long patience and forbearance; allows time for repentance, and seeks to pardon and save. Great kindness is seen in great patience in provocation; in great gifts upon the unworthy, and innumerable blessings upon the just and unjust. His mercy endureth for ever.
4. He repents of the evil. Though he threatens, he does not often strike. When the evil has been wholly or partially inflicted, he will repent of it and replace it with good if the sinner returns to him. Thus all patience and long-suffering, all mercy and forgiveness, are traced up to God. He finds reason in himself alone for sparing the guilty and saving the penitent. Not for your sakes do I this, be it known unto you, O house of Israel, but for mine own names sake.
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Jon. 4:1. Displeased. Displeasure indicates
1. Lack of self-government. It was a proverbial saying of the pious Mede that he who cannot hold his tongue, can hold nothing.
2. Lack of reverence towards God. We should consider what God requires from us, and not what he wants to do with us. Do we honour God in feeling and action? We have known him, but not practised what we have known.
3. Lack of love to men. Jonah might not be grieved to see that mercy displayed to others, of which he shared so greatly himselfmight not with the ungodly pine away because God was honoured in the repentance of Nineveh; but he was not in harmony with the interests of his fellow-creatures. God pardoned the city, but it displeased Jonah.
Jonahs sin
1. Sin against the brightest illumination. He knew, but sinned against the light of nature, the voice of conscience, and the revealed will of God.
2. Sin against the greatest mercies. His life was crowned with loving-kindness and tender mercies. The pre-eminent mercies of God fail to persuade men to forsake sin and serve God.
3. Sin against the greatest judgments. Judgments had blended with mercy, but corrections had not conquered his corruptions. How hard to overcome pride and petulance within us! But to this day men, like Pharaoh, harden themselves against God. Who is the Lord, that I should obey him?
Jon. 4:2. Jonahs prayer. I. Its spirit. Petulant and unsubmissive; most ungrateful and selfish. It is a miserable temper, painful to ones self, and disagreeable to others. The greatest debtors should be the most thankful men. II. Its purpose. Take away my life. What for? Is it of no more service? Let God judge of that. He bestows it; give it to him in return. There is grace enough for us and others. When we work in a good cause, and save great cities, life is noble, and should be dignified and preserved. Those who wish to leave life because they cannot have their own way are not fit to meet God. Here is Jonahs integrity and Jonahs safety.
1. Integrity. He is no enemy, but a friend and child of God, notwithstanding his perplexity. He cannot rest in distance from God. Sick at heart, he pours out complaint to him. In every prayer of Gods children there is a mixture of sin. The mixture here is conspicuous and alarming. There is, however, an element of grace, a secret seed of faith and submission in making God the counsellor and referee.
2. Safety. But for this he would mentally and spiritually have fled again from God as before. Now he flees to God. He does not seek a refuge; he makes God his refuge; tells him the grounds of alarm; expostulates and seeks to make his case clear before God. Though there is excess, violence, and inexcusable haste and passion, yet God condescends to his prayer, stained as it is by grievous infirmity [H. Martin]. He prayed in a tumult, as if reproving God. We must necessarily recognise a certain amount of piety in this prayer of Jonah, and at the same time many faults. There was so far piety in it, that he directed his complaints to God; for hypocrites, even when they address God, are nevertheless hostile to him. But Jonah, when he complains, although he does not keep within proper bounds, but is carried away by a blind and vicious impulse, is nevertheless prepared to submit himself to God [Calvin].
Jon. 4:3. It is better to die, &c. Death as a remedy for the ills of life, in weariness, impatience, disappointments, and perplexing providences.
1. It is only an imaginary remedy.
2. It would only increase the evil. It would not relieve distress, nor bring extinction. The grave cannot calm the soul, and hush its sorrows. Hence death, says one, would only have led Jonah from the shadow of his trouble to its very centre, where its sad meaning would have been known to him. Paul had great heaviness and continual sorrow, desired to be with Christ, which was better than remaining here; but he did not pray for death in all his labours and persecutions, for his life seemed needful to the Church on earth.
He sins against this life who slights the next. [Young.]
Here is at least no craven love of life! no clinging to meat and drink, and mere foothold on the ground. This wounded spirit, realising its mortality amid change and adversity, rises disdainfully above the mortal pathway, and asks to be liberated for the last flight to immortality and heaven. Hezekiah wept sore when the message came to him, Thou shalt die and not live. Jonah here prays, Let me dieof life I have had enough. Life is nothing to me without its uses. The Prophets attitude is nobler than the kings [Raleigh].
What ist to die?
To leave all disappointment, cares, and sorrow,
To leave all falsehood, treachery, and unkindness,
All ignominy, suffering, and despair,
And be at rest for ever [Longfellow].
HOMILETICS
DIVINE REPROOF.Jon. 4:4
Jonah had ground for joy and not for grief. God expostulates with him and leads him to reflection. The interrogative form proves the condescension and wisdom of God.
I. The condescension of God. God did not upbraid the prophet for ingratitude and self-will. But he sought to relieve an overburdened spirit, rouse a dormant conscience, and melt an impenitent heart. When we retire from duty in fretfulness, God reasons with us. What doest thou here, Elijah? When we indulge in envious thoughts of Providence, and hatch imaginary ills, a voice speaks, Doest thou well to be angry? God cares for his servants, and seeks to relieve them. The Lord thinketh on me.
II. The wisdom of God. Jehovah did not give the verdict, but called upon Jonah to assign a cause for anger, or by silence condemn himself. On earth men are left to judge themselves, to pass sentence on their own conduct. They are completely in the power of God, and he need not condemn now. He requires voluntary obedience. To secure this, and prepare us for the day of account, he enlightens the mind, quickens the conscience, and continually appeals to eachDoest thou well?
THE FOLLY OF A FRETFUL MIND.Jon. 4:4; Jon. 4:9
There is here no condemnation of lawful anger. As a natural emotion, anger is legitimate and useful. Be ye angry and sin not. The blame is against the cause of it. It was the zeal of false patriotism; passionate grief excited by an act of Divine mercy.
I. Doest thou well to be angry without any real cause for thine anger? The ground is imaginary. Thy grief is unnecessary and unreasonable, unjust and wicked. One half of trouble rises from groundless causes. We picture the worst, and our jealousy is needless. Our reason for displeasure is future, of our own portending, such as events may negative and disappoint Think seriously whether you do right in being angry. Control indignation in principle, purpose, and degree. The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
II. Doest thou well to be angry when the dealings of God with thee teach thee to be thankful? Jonahs temper was at variance with his mercies and position as Gods servant. We might have expected gratitude from one so highly favoured. But thankfulness seldom keeps pace with mercies. Those who receive most do not always make the best return. Gods grace should dilute or remove the acid in our temper, teach us to bear with those who are reformed, and make us conscious how rough and sinful we ourselves are in the sight of God.
III. Doest thou well to be angry when the consequences before God and man are most serious?
1. It excites the anger of God. It is presumption and self-assertion, disobedience to his will, and impatience under his rule. The ungrateful can have no enjoyment of Gods favours. They provoke him to take away what they have, and to give less in the future. Their fretfulness cannot improve their circumstances. Gods will is supreme, and must be done. Is thine eye evil because I am good?
2. It is never beneficial to man. If anger is not good and just toward God, what can it profit man? It proves a man to be of narrow views and weak morals. (a) Never beneficial to one who indulges in it. An ill-temper is an affliction to its possessor, spoils his peace, prayers, and business. It distracts from his strength and beauty, and disqualifies for Christian blessing and work. (b) Never beneficial to others. It seems to be owing to temper that Ed. Burke quarrelled with Wilberforce and Fox, and gained the title of the inconsistent and incomprehensible Burke. Exhibitions of passion delight the enemy and wound the friends, dishonour Christ and give false impressions of his religion. It leads us to imitate, repeat, and perpetuate wrong. It should be checked, for it is both mischievous to oneself and to others. Doest thou well to be angry?
When anger rushes unrestrained to action
Like a hot steed, it stumbles in its way [Savage].
JONAHS RETIREMENT.Jon. 4:5
As soon as Jonah had delivered his message he left the city, remained outside on the east side, and built himself a temporary shelter. The report of the citys repentance reached him; dissatisfied with himself, and displeased with Gods dealings, he had neither comfort in duty nor retirement.
I. The place of retirement. The east side of the city, and there made him a booth. He was not unmindful of personal ease, takes time and bestows trouble to build a hut. We are often more concerned for our own comfort than for the interests of men. Selfishness is graven in the heart, drives men to grasp at shadows and not substance. It leads them to resign duty, quit the field of labour, and expect more than they get. Adam parted with his holy robe, lost the presence of his God, and tried to make up for the loss with his own device. Selfish ends and worldly devices are nothing more than booths in which men can never rest and find shelter. The path of obedience alone is the path of happiness.
II. The spirit of retirement. Here we have a noble man, a servant of God, blind to the interests of men and the claims of duty through pride and personal feeling! Disappointed in labour, he wished to resign it; tired of life, he prayed to leave it. There he sat, in silence and disgust. Heaven smiles on the city, joy and gladness fills its streets, but Jonah walks into solitude with a sullen temper. He is at variance with God, regardless of man, and shut up in selfish aims. Oh what a blessed thing it is to lose ones will, said Dr. Payson; since I have lost my will I have found happiness. There can be no such thing as disappointment to me, for I have no desire but that Gods will may be accomplished.
III. The purpose of retirement. Till he might see what would become of their city. Perhaps he did not wish its entire destruction, but he watched to see what would be doneif its repentance would last, and if after all God would fulfil the threat. Abraham interceded for Sodom, Christ wept over Jerusalem, and we should resemble these eminent patterns of compassion. But if our views of sin and God are clouded, if we value not the soul, and limit the mercy of God, we shall be indifferent to the moral condition of men. If, Nero-like, we do not play while the city burns, thousands may perish without a sigh or a prayer for their escape. We should have pity upon offenders, and haste to reclaim them. Pulling them out of the fire.
THE DIVINE CORRECTION OF A FRETFUL MAN.Jon. 4:6-10
God teaches not as man teaches. In Gods school the lessons are mercifully given, and wonderfully adapted to our mind and circumstances. Here we have the Divine rebuke of Jonahs petulant temper.
I. God corrects by refreshing the physical nature. The gourd was prepared to be a shadow over his head. The first lesson and cure of despondency is to remove fatigue and bodily weariness from over-work. Elijahs despondency was pardy physical, and the angel brought him refreshment. Food and rest are required, and God seeks to quiet the mind by cooling the body. There is an intimate connection between both, and we often get at one through the other. Regard for the body is urged from the lofty nature and the important use of the soul. They are helpmates in Gods service now, and will be in his kingdom above. Fretfulness, petulance, and irritability oftener spring from physical weakness than moral unloveliness. If God in providence deals mercifully we should not be harsh with such feelings.
II. God corrects by influencing the moral nature. The method taken is worthy of special attention. Sensible signs teach spiritual truths. A parable worked into the form of facts is given and interpreted by God himself.
1. God speaks by symbol. The Lord prepared a gourd, for all the steps in the discipline of a good man are divinely ordered. Words merely might not have been sufficient. The lesson is brought home by means of symbol. Man has sympathy with nature, and God often touches this sympathy. Spring and autumn, summer and winter, beget kindred feelings in our hearts. When flowers bloom and trees shelter us, we rejoice; when beauty decays and plants perish, we grieve. God prepared a worm which devoured the gourd, exposed Jonah to the burning sun and the vehement wind, then there was a change of feeling. He fainted, complained to God, defended excessive grief, and enforced his preference of death to life. I do well to be angry, even unto death. Jonah is now prepared, his moral nature is truly touched and displayed, and if he cannot rejoice in Ninevehs joy he must understand that God does.
2. God speaks by verbal communications. God now speaks to the Prophet, argues with him, and reasons from the less to the greater. Anything to break sullen silence is a blessing. The song of a bird, the voice of a child, and the ripple of a stream are often music to the soul; raise our thoughts from self to God. God holds up Jonahs feeling, makes his pity, not the life of the plant, the symbol of his love. Pity on a gourd for which he did not labour, the son of a night, and the existence of a day! because it pleased his fancy and served his wish! Did he want to spare this short-lived little shrub? shall not God, then, spare immortal souls, the work of his hands, and rejoice over the humbled, penitent city? Our sympathies with the beautiful and good may be right, while our moral nature is wrong. God trains this instinctive feeling of the mind, sanctions its validity, and exercises and makes it the type of his own procedure. If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give good things to them that ask him?
WITHERED JOYS.Jon. 4:7
Man is capable of joy. True joys are only found in God. The worm of destruction gnaws the root of our best and most loved earthly joy. Every creature has its enemy, and death smites every gourd of life. Joys which specially decay may be noticed.
I. Joys which are sinful in their basis. If we regard our own ease and comfort, disregard the interests of men, and disapprove of Gods ways, our joy is selfish and will soon decay. If we depend for happiness on anything beneath the soul we shall come to grief.
II. Joys which are gained without labour. Jonah neither planted nor watered the tree which gave him shelter. Men often seize that which is cheap, and trust to that which costs them nothing. God is constantly teaching that nothing valuable is obtained without labour. The acquisition of lasting joy is not easy. It results, not from sulky labour and melancholy feeling, but from earnest duty and a peaceful heart.
Heaven sells pleasure; effort is the price;
The joys of conquest are the joys of man [Young].
III. Joys which are deceitful in their results. Jonahs joy sprang from bodily ease and sensual feeling. The comforts which removed his troubles were carnal and dying comforts. Our joys are often shadows of our sorrows. Whatever be their effect upon us, if they exclude God, and submission to him, all creation is ready to destroy them. It is not chance, but God in justice and love, who smites the gourd to free the heart. Wealth, friendships, and honours seem to quicken our joy and cause it to bloom in beauty and vigour; but they bring decay and vexation. When we expect shelter and rest, lo, a worm at the root I
Of joys departed
Not to return, how painful the remembrance [Robt. Blair].
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Jon. 4:6. Exceedingly glad, and exceedingly grieved. Extremes in human feelingstheir causes and consequences. It is a law of the mind, verified in ourselves and others, to be susceptible of sudden transitions, elevated to-day and depressed to-morrow.
Jon. 4:7. Destruction is prepared by God as well as life; trouble as well as joy. And both are Divinely ruled with a view to the education and purification of human souls. Here are emblems of the closely-linked, joy and sorrow of this mortal life. The fine plant, leafy green, types so well our comforts, successes, joys. The single day of shade it furnished to the heated Prophet speaks touchingly of the transciency of our pleasures. The worm reminds us that a small and mean creature may be a formidable enemy. The place of its operation, probably under the soil, shows us how powers and agents, invisible and unknown to us, can touch and smite in secret the springs of outward prosperity. The time when decay beganat the rising of the morningmakes us think mournfully how human helps and comforts often wither at the very season when they are most needed. How often when the morning of family life is rising are comforts swept away! Ah! how often is there removal of sheltering fatherhood, or nourishing motherhood, or both! The utter loss of what had given such intense enjoyment warns us not to set our affections passionately upon anything which can be utterly lost, but to lift our supreme affections to things above the sphere of the worm and the moth, beyond the reach of the rust and the thief [Raleigh].
The worm teaches
1. That things which destroy our gourds are often little things.
2. That things which destroy our gourds are often invisible things.
3. That things which destroy our gourds are always prepared by God. Under his control the meanest and most invisible creatures can accomplish the most wonderful purposes. They destroy the largest armies, and demolish the strongest fortresses; they overturn thrones, and lay waste empires.
Earthly joys. It is kind in God to remove them, when he sees that his gifts are occupying our affections to the exclusion of the Giver. It is lawful for him to take them at any time. It will be just to do so, if we abuse and pervert them. Let us receive them with thankful acknowledgments of their Author, hold them with a readiness to relinquish them any moment, use them with carefulness and moderation to his glory, and seek that, whatever they are in kind and number, our affections may be set on things above [Sibthorp].
Jon. 4:8. In this verse we have exemplified the conduct of some good people under affliction. We find that the afflictions which come upon men are Divinely commissionedthat they are often very severe. A vehement east wind. They are often complicated. Not only the wind, but the sun, beating upon Jonahs head. They often happen at the most inopportune time, and have often a most exhaustive effect upon those to whom they come. He fainted. These afflictions often occasion a complaining spirit. It is better for me to die than to live [Exell].
Jon. 4:9. Doest thou well? I. The question put.
1. To reprove Jonah
2. To convince him of his error; and 3 To bring him to a humble and obedient spirit. II. The answer given. Jonah had not dared to speak before Jon. 4:4, now he answers and defends his wicked spirit and conduct. We see the old spirit and pride with more actual sin and provocation. I do well, &c. A fearful outburst! Resist passion at the first rising, else who knows whither it may transport us? Passions, saith Fuller, like heavy bodies down steep hills, once in motion, move themselves, and know no ground but the bottom.
We oft by lightning read in darkest nights;
And by your passions I read all your natures,
Tho you at other times can keep them dark. [John Crowne.]
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 4
Jon. 4:1. Displeased. Anger begins with folly and ends with repentance [Maunder]. Anger and haste hinder good counsel [Fielding]. Be on your guard against your temper. It will frustrate all your designs if you listen to it. It will make you lose the most important opportunities, and will inspire you with the inclinations and aversions of a child, to the prejudice of your greatest interests [Fenelon].
Jon. 4:2-3. Life. Live virtuously, my lord, and you cannot die too soon, nor live too long [Lady Rachel Russel].
So weak is man,
So ignorant and blind, that did not God
Sometimes withhold in mercy what we ask
We should be ruined at our own request. [H. More.]
Jon. 4:4-5. Dost thou well? It would check our angry complainings under the afflictive hand of God, and turn them into praises for the very moderate measure of trial with which he visits us, to review our own vileness and desert of wrath, and the great grace shown towards us (Ezr. 9:13; Psa. 103:10; Job. 11:6) [Sibthorp]. The Divine Being does not always like to use extreme penalties, but the more gentle, that men may not only be disciplined by pain, but also by moral conviction. Hence God frequently comes to the human soul in the language of this verse, and says, Dost thou well to be angry? And this quiet method of correction is frequently effective, awaking in the soul thoughts that end in a return to reason and purity [Exell].
Jon. 4:7-9. The Lords servants are under a continual course of instruction. Every circumstance of every day and hour has its proper lesson for them, which it is their duty, wisdom, and privilege to learn. The end of their instruction is entire sanctification and meetness for glory through conformity to the image of God. When they are refractory, as Jonah now was, God takes commonly some special method to recall them to duty, and pursue his object of their growth in grace [Sibthorp].
Jon. 4:9-11. The teachings of Nature, which unbelievers vaunt as all-sufficient, have never led mankind to a correct knowledge of God, nor produced holy feeling; and they never can. But they may prepare for the Word, and be used to convey it, illustrate it, and fix it in the memory. God schooling Jonah in patient, tender love, and through him preparing instruction for Israel and for us, uses Nature to prepare the way for the lessons of the Word. As when he sent Nathan to David with a parable, to make David condemn himself out of his own mouth, so to Jonah he sends the gourd and the worm, the wind and the sunshine, to prepare the way for making his better feelings condemn his worse. He will make his pity for the plant explain Gods pity for Nineveh, and condemn Jonahs want of pity for that multitude of souls [Mitchel].
This wonderful book of Jonah has given us a picture of the human heart, not in its lowest degradation, but taught by revelation, restrained by conscience, influenced more or less by piety, but stripped of its disguises and company dress. God takes us behind the scenes to show us how in Nature his hand and purpose are working by storm and sunshine, fish and worm, and so puts a window for us in the heart of man. Jonah speaks out to God, and acts out before us, and writes down for us to read, without suppression, palliation, or extenuation, the sinful thoughts which other men have, but do not make known. We have at once a picture of Gods character, and a mirror in which to behold our own [Ibid]. In the book of Jonah we have thus a panorama of historical facts, pregnant with the most important instruction. Its lessons constitute the staple of the teaching of the later prophets, and contain the leading thoughts which were developed in their writings, imbedded in the mind of Israel, and expounded by Christ and his apostles.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
GODS MESSENGER RUNNING AHEAD OF GODTHE DISPLEASURE OF JONAH
TEXT: Jon. 4:1-3
1
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.
2
And he prayed unto Jehovah, and said, I pray thee, O Jehovah, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I hasted to flee unto Tarshish; for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, and repentest thee of the evil.
3
Therefore now, O Jehovah, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.
QUERIES
a.
Why would Jonah be displeased that thousands of people were saved?
b.
Why would the graciousness of God lead him to flee to Tarshish?
c.
Why did he think it better to die than to live?
PARAPHRASE
But Gods withholding of His wrath against Nineveh was very displeasing to Jonah. Jonah was grieved and vexed and prayed, saying, Lord! isnt this what I said back in Palestine before I ever came to Nineveh? This is exactly why I ran off toward TarshishI knew that You are gracious, merciful, longsuffering, overflowing in Your lovingkindness and that you would forgive and withhold Your punishment. On account of this, O Lord, I beg You, take my life. Because my mission is a failure, I would rather be dead than alive.
SUMMARY
Jonah feels his mission is a failure when Nineveh is not destroyed, He cannot go back and preach to his wicked countrymen with any forcefulness because God is merciful, Jonah would rather be dead.
COMMENT
Jon. 4:1-3 . . . IT DISPLEASED JONAH EXCEEDINGLY . . . THEREFORE . . . TAKE . . . MY LIFE FROM ME . . . There are about as many different opinions as to the cause of Jonahs anger as there are commentators. We prefer Professor Fairbairns evaluation. We just cannot bring ourselves to characterize Jonah as a man so full of hate that his primary vexation is due to a cold-blooded desire to see hundreds of thousands of heathen slain. Fairbairn says, Jonah was disconcerted and downcast because the example of severity had been withheld, which he thought would operate so beneficially upon the minds of his countrymen and without which he seemed to have no means of attaining the great end and object of his life. Hugh Martin, in The Prophet Jonah, says, In Jonahs judgment the sparing of Nineveh would eclipse the honor of God, destroy the credit of his ministry, and harden the hearts of his countrymen.
The people of Israel in Jonahs day were in a state of terrible degeneracy and profligacy. All the efforts of God, sending them prophets, had thus far failed to bring them to their senses and repentance. So the Lord, before abandoning them finally to their fate, sought once more to move them from their downward plunge, by working upon them through feelings of jealousy and shame while at the same time giving them an example of His mercy and loving-kindness when repentance is shown. For this purpose God did with Nineveh what He did not usually do with other heathen nations. Living in the age of ease, comfort, luxury, during national ascendency of Jeroboam II when the people were almost totally libertine, Jonah preached in vain month after month, year after year. All the while his own countrymen and neighbors despised everything he was attempting to do on their behalf. It is no wonder Jonah, like Elijah of old, after waiting month after month for some fearful, sudden, decisive turning-point to come in the form of wrath from the Lord, would feel discouraged by the thought of the Lords mercy. When he thought of this at his first call it would cause him to despair of any thing effectual being accomplished toward bringing his own countrymen to their senses. Then after his own experience in the sea monsters belly, he might stand in the midst of Nineveh and imagine that in forty days he would at last obtain the very example of the wrath of God upon sin that he hoped would come and that he could take back to Israel and persuade them to turn from their sin.
It requires no stretch of the imagination, then, to see what a disappointment it was for him to see Nineveh spared, and the very weapon snatched from his hand by which he hoped to prevail against the sin of his countrymen. Jonah was not so much concerned with his own reputation nor so full of hate and vengeance that he would have taken some fiendish delight in the slaying of thousands of people; but he loved his own people so intensely, and was so firmly persuaded that an act of severity was required to shake them from their false security he was grieved and frustrated. Instead of having the vantage point of a tremendous illustration of Gods wrath upon sin he felt his whole purpose in life had been defeated and there was nothing left for him but to die.
Neither Jonah nor Elijah were right. Both of them were out of harmony with Gods will. Both of them misunderstood Gods plan and had only a partial view of His purposes and therefore made hasty, carnal judgments as to how God should govern. The lesson for us is that Gods way is still the best; for He sees the end from the beginning, and directs all with infinite skill and unerring wisdom. If we could alter the plan of God it would not be for the better but for the worse. We must take the attitude of Habakkuk who, when he could not understand why God would use a heathen nation to punish the covenant people, said, I will take my stand to watch, and station myself on the tower, and look forth to see what he will say to me . . . behold . . . the righteous shall live by faith.
QUIZ
1.
Why do you think Jonah was displeased with Gods mercy on Nineveh?
2.
What other prophet had the same concept of how God should govern?
3.
What lesson should we learn from this?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
IV.
JONAHS DISCONTENT AND CORRECTION.
(1) But it displeased Jonah.The Hebrew (it was evil to) is stronger. The prophet was vexed and irritated.
He was very angry.Literally, it (anger) burnt to him. Davids feeling at the death of Uzziah (2Sa. 6:8; 1Ch. 13:11) is described in the same terms. Selfish jealousy for his own reputation, jealousy for the honour of the prophetic office, a mistaken patriotism disappointed that the great enemy of his country should go unpunished, Jewish exclusiveness which could not endure to see the Divine clemency extended to the heathen, have each been adduced as the motive of Jonahs anger. Possibly something of all these blended in his mind.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1, 2. Displeased Jonah exceedingly, was very angry Since his message remained unfulfilled, he feared that his honor as a prophet was at stake; which would be of supreme moment to a selfish person.
He prayed Many commentators have considered the prayer an expression of pious devotion, but its contents make this impossible. Keil comes nearer the truth when he says, “He tried to quarrel with God by praying.”
Was not this my saying Not openly, perhaps, but in his heart he suspected that Jehovah would save the Ninevites, if they repented.
Therefore Because of this suspicion.
I fled before R.V., “I hasted to flee.” The Hebrew construction is peculiar (G.-K., 114n, note 3), and the exact meaning is doubtful. Either “I fled before,” that is, when thou didst call me the first time; or “I was beforehand in fleeing,” that is, I sought to avoid the commission because I knew the message would remain unfulfilled; or “I sought to prevent by fleeing,” the very thing that has now happened.
Tarshish See on Jon 1:3.
For I knew His conviction as to what God would do arose from his knowledge of the divine character. For the rest of the verse see on Joe 2:13.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘But it displeased Jonah greatly, and he was angry.’
Jonah was not at all pleased that God had had mercy on the Ninevites, indeed he was more than displeased he was very angry. The greatness of his anger is stressed by the repeating of the idea. But why was he so angry? There are a number of possibilities:
Firstly it may have been because he considered that it made a mockery of his prophetic ability. He had prophesied the destruction of Nineveh but it had not happened. And the consequence of that was that he could well have been described by some as a ‘false prophet’. He may have felt that God had made a fool of him.
Secondly it may have been because he did not believe that YHWH’s mercy should be available to non-Israelites. However, as he had clearly expected YHWH to have mercy on the mariners, and had himself been willing to die to make it possible for them to be spared, this seems not to be a likely option.
Thirdly it may have been because the Assyrians had at some stage performed atrocities in northern Israel which had affected Jonah’s family so that he did not like the idea of Assyrians being forgiven. But as he will now tell YHWH that he knew all the time that He would forgive the Assyrians that may be seen as weakening this idea, although as his thinking was clearly not too rational (he knew that he was opposing YHWH) it may be that he was simply irrationally angry at being connected with the forgiving of Assyrians.
The truth is that we are given no clue as to why Jonah was angry so that it is difficult to dogmatically determine between the options. That therefore makes it clear that that was not the issue that the prophecy was strictly concerned with. Indeed, as we have seen, the issue that is emphasised in the prophecy is that of the fact that God will show His mercy to all who are truly repentant. This is what is emphasised in all four chapters. Jonah’s anger only had to be mentioned because it led up to emphasising that fact. The silence would, however, be strange if the point of the prophecy was as a polemic against Jewish exclusivism.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
YHWH Uses An Illustration In Order to Demonstrate To Jonah The Reasonableness Of His Mercy ( Jon 4:1-11 ).
The mercy of YHWH having been revealed in chapter 1 to the mariners, in chapter 2 to Jonah, and in chapter 3 to the Ninevites, His mercy is now underlined as God seeks to teach Jonah a lesson in mercy. Jonah was clearly still very angry that YHWH should show mercy to the Assyrians. This may have been because of what they had done to his family when they had previously invaded northern Israel, so that he was unable to forgive them, or it may have been because he felt that the sparing of the Assyrians after he had proclaimed judgment against them demeaned him as a genuine prophet. But his very words to YHWH prove that he had all along seen it as a good possibility that YHWH would spare the Ninevites. After all, why else should He send Jonah to speak against them whilst giving them a forty day period of probation? He thus did not see YHWH as exclusivist.
The way in which YHWH got over His point to Jonah was by initially providing him with genuine shelter from the burning sun, and then causing that shelter to be removed by means of the destructive activity of a worm. When Jonah was angry at the injustice of what had happened to the gourd which had sheltered him, YHWH pointed out to him that if he could have compassion on a mere gourd, which he had had no part in producing, how much more should YHWH, Whom he himself had declared to be merciful, slow to anger and abundant in compassion, have mercy on a whole city of people whom He had created, numbering over one hundred and twenty thousand people, not forgetting their domestic animals.
Analysis of Jon 4:1-11 .
a
b “Therefore now, O YHWH, take, I beg you, my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live” (Jon 4:3).
c And YHWH said, “Do you do well to be angry?” (Jon 4:4).
d Then Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made for himself a shelter, and sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would become of the city (Jon 4:5).
e And YHWH God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, in order that it might be a shade over his head, to deliver him from his evil situation (Jon 4:6 a).
f So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the gourd (Jon 4:6 b).
e But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd, that it withered (Jon 4:7).
d And it came about, when the sun arose, that God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat Jonah’s head so that he fainted, and requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is better for me to die than to live” (Jon 4:8).
c And God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the gourd?” (Jon 4:9 a).
b And he said, “I do well to be angry, even to death” (Jon 4:9 b).
a And YHWH said, “You have had regard for the gourd, for which you have not laboured, nor made it grow, which came up in a night, and perished in a night, and should not I have regard for Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle?” (Jon 4:10-11).
Note that in ‘a’ Jonah reveals his chagrin and outlines the wonder of the mercy of God, and in the parallel YHWH points to that mercy as the reason why He has spared Nineveh. In ‘b’ Jonah asks to die, and in the parallel declares that such an appeal is justified. In ‘c’ YHWH asks him whether he does well to be angry, and in the parallel whether he does well to be angry with the gourd. In ‘d’ Jonah sought to avoid the heat of the sun by making a shelter, and in the parallel he was exhausted by the sun because his shelter does not fulfil its purpose. In ‘e’ YHWH God prepared a gourd to shelter Jonah, and in the parallel God prepared a worm to destroy the gourd. Centrally in ‘f’ Jonah was delighted with the gourd, which was a picture of God’s sheltering mercy.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jon 4:1-11 Jonah’s Response and God’s Lesson – In this passage of Scripture, we see how angry Jonah was because God did not destroy the city of Nineveh. In his book Heaven: Close Encounters of the God Kind Jesse Duplantis describes his encounter with Jonah. This Old Testament prophet explained why he was angry. He said that he was irritated because he thought of himself more than he thought of the nature of God. [18] It is not God’s nature to destroy, but to heal and to bless.
[18] Jesse Duplantis, Heaven Close Endounters of the God Kind (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Harrison House, 1996), 109.
By placing Jonah in the belly of the whale God was able to penetrate his will, which is in the soulish realm, and he yielded to God and preached in Nineveh. However, God had not yet penetrated Jonah’s heart. Therefore, God takes Jonah through a series of events to reveal to him the condition of his own heart. God used a whale to bring Jonah face to face with his rebellion, but He used a worm to bring him face to face with his heart.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Jonah’s Displeasure and the Lord’s Reproof.
v. 1. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, v. 2. And he prayed unto the Lord and said, I pray Thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, v. 3. Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech Thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live. v. 4. v. 5. So Jonah, v. 6. And the Lord God prepared a gourd, v. 7. But God, v. 8. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind, v. 9. And God, v. 10. Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not labored, v. 11. and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein there are more than six-score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Jon 4:1-11
JONAH‘S DISPLEASURE AND ITS CORRECTION.
Jon 4:1-4
1. Jonah is grieved at the sparing of Nineveh, the expectation of which had led to his former flight, and complains of God’s clemency.
Jon 4:1
It displeased Jonah exceedingly; literally, it was evil to Jonah, a great evil. It was more than mere displeasure which he felt; he was vexed and irritated. The reference is to what is said in the last verse of the preceding chapter, viz. that the predicted destruction was not inflicted. How the knowledge of this reprieve was conveyed to the prophet we am not informed. It probably was made known to him before the expiration of the forty days by Divine communication, in accordance with the saying in Amo 3:7, “Surely the Lord will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets” (see Amo 3:5). Various reasons have been assigned for this displeasure.
(1) Personal pique, lest, his prediction having failed, he should be liable to the charge of being a false prophet.
(2) Zeal for the honour of God, whose knowledge of the future might be discredited among the heathen, when they saw his own servant’s words unfulfilled.
(3) Because he saw in this conversion of Gentiles a token of the ruin of his own people, who remained always hardened and impenitent.
(4) A mistaken patriotism, which could not endure to find mercy extended to a heathen nation which had already proved hostile to Israel and was destined to oppress it still further. This last seem to have been the real ground of his annoyance. So deep was this, that he would gladly have seen the sentence executed even after the city had repented (comp. Amo 3:11, “Should not I spare Nineveh,” i.e. which thou wouldst have me even now destroy?) He was very angry; Septuagint, , “was confounded.” His vexation increased unto anger.
Jon 4:2
He prayed. He carried his complaint to God, and was prepared to submit it to him, even while he questioned the wisdom of his clemency. I pray thee (anna); Vulgate, obsecro. A particle of entreaty, “Ah! I pray thee.” Was not this my saying? Was not this what I said to myself, viz. that God would spare Nineveh if it showed signs of repentance? My country. Palestine, where the original message reached him. I fled before; literally, I anticipated to fly; Septuagint, , “I made haste to flee;” Vulgate, praeoccupavi ut fugerem. I hastened to fly before I should be reduced to seeing my mission rendered nugatory. For I knew. Joel knew the character of God, and how that he threatened in order to arouse repentance, and that he might be able to spare (see Exo 32:14; Exo 34:6, Exo 34:7). The description of God’s mercy agrees with that in Joe 2:13 and Neh 9:17.
Jon 4:3
Take … my life from me (comp. Jon 4:8). Jonah throughout represents himself as petty, hasty, and self-willed, prone to exaggerate matters, and easily reduced to despair. Here, because his word is not fulfilled, he wishes to die, though he will not take his own life. In a different spirit Moses (Exo 32:32) is ready to die for his people’s sake, and Elijah asked for death because his zeal for God had apparently wrought no effect (1Ki 19:4).
Jon 4:4
Doest thou well to be angry? Septuagint, ; “Hast thou been greatly grieved?” Vulgate, Putasne bene irasceris tu? The English Version is doubtless correct. God bids him consider with himself whether his anger is reasonable. The version of the LXX; however grammatically permissible, is somewhat pointless.
Jon 4:5
2. Jonah, not yet abandoning his hope of seeing the city punished, makes for himself a hut outside the walls, and waits there to see the issue. Went out of the city. It is best so rendered, and not in the pluperfect. It must have been before the end of the forty days that Jonah perceived that Nineveh would escape. And now, from God’s expostulation with him in verse 4, he seem to have conceived the expectation that some catastrophe would still happen; as though God had told him that he was too hasty in his judgment, that he could not know the mind of God, and that because he did not strike immediately he was not to conclude that he would not strike at all. On the east side of the city. The opposite side to that by which he had entered, and where the high ground enabled him to overlook the town, without necessarily sharing in its destruction. A booth. A tent constructed of branches interlaced, which did not exclude the sun (Le 23:42; Ne:14, etc). What would become of the city. He still expected that some calamity would befall the Ninevites, perhaps with the idea that their repentance would prove so imperfect and temporary that God would punish them after all.
Jon 4:6, Jon 4:7
3. God causes a plant to spring up in order to shade Jonah from the sun; but it is made soon to wither away and leave him exposed to the scorching rays.
Jon 4:6
Prepared (Jon 4:7, Jon 4:8); appointed (see note on Jon 1:17). A gourd; Hebrew, kikaion (here only in the Old Testament); Septuagint, ,” pumpkin;” Vulgate, hedera; Aquila and Theodotion, . Jerome describes this as a shrub called in Syriac elkeroa, and common in the sandy regions of Palestine. It has large leaves and grows to a considerable height in a very few days, so that a mere shrub becomes quickly a small tree. The scientific name of this plant is Ricinus communis; in Egyptian, kiki; in Assyrian, kukanitu. A drawing of it is given in Dr Pusey’s ‘Commentary,’ p 260. It is also known by the name of the Palma Christi, and from its seeds is expressed “castor oil.” But it is very doubtful whether this is the plant intended. Certainly the ricinus is never used in the East as a protection against the sun, for which its straggling, open growth renders it unsuitable; while the gourd, as Mr. Tristram testifies, is used universally to form trellises for shading arbours and summer houses, and affords a most effectual screen. “Orientals,” says Dr. Thomson, “never dream of training a castor-oil plant overs booth, or planting it for a shade, and they would have but small respect for any one who did. It is in no way adapted for that purpose, while thousands of arbours are covered with various creepers of the general gourd family.” With this testimony it is well to be satisfied. Whatever the plant was, its growth was abnormal in the present ease, though the rapidity with which it developed was merely a quickening of its ordinary powers, in due accordance with its nature and character. From his grief; Septuagint, , “from his evils;” Vulgate, ut protegeret eum. The Hebrew word is the same as in Jon 4:1, and it refers, not so much to the physical discomfort occasioned by the heat, but rather to the condition of his mind, the vexation and disappointment under which he was suffering. We exceeding glad; literally, rejoiced a great joy; . The candour and simplicity of the writer throughout are very remarkable. He may have seen in this providential shelter an intimation that God approved of his intention to wait and see the issue.
Jon 4:7
Prepared (see note on Jon 4:6). A worm. Either a single worm which punctured the stem and caused the plant to wither, or the word is used collectively, as in Deu 28:39, for “worms.” A single warm night, with a moist atmosphere, will suffice to produce a host of caterpillars, which in an incredibly short time strip a plant of all its leaves. When the morning rose. At the very earliest dawn, before the actual rising of the sun (comp. Jdg 9:33). Jonah seems to have enjoyed the shelter of the gourd one whole day. The withering of the plant came about in a natural way, but was ordered by God at a certain time in order to give Jonah the intended lesson.
Jon 4:8-11
4. Jonah grieves bitterly for the loss of the gourd; and God takes occasion from this to point out the prophet’s inconsistency and pitilessness in murmuring against the mercy shown to Nineveh with its multitude of inhabitants.
Jon 4:8
A vehement east wind; Septuagint, (Jas 1:11) “a scorching, burning wind;” Vulgate, vento calido et urenti (Hos 13:15). The word translated “vehement” is also rendered “silent,” i.e. sultry. Pusey and Hitzig rather incline to think it may mean the autumn or harvest wind. Either interpretation is suitable, as, according to Dr. Thomson, there are two kinds of sirocco, equally destructive and annoyingthe violent wind, which fills the air with dust and sand; and the quiet one, when scarcely any air is stirring, but the heat is most overpowering. Beat upon the head. The same word for the effect of the rays of the sun as in Psa 121:6 and elsewhere. Trochon quotes Ovid, ‘Metam,’ 7.804
“Sole fere radiis feriente cacumiua primis.”
“The sun with earliest rays
Scarce smiting highest peaks.”
Rich, ‘Koordistan,’ 1.125, “Just as the moon rose, about ten, an intolerable puff of wind came from the northeast. All were immediately silent, as if they had felt an earthquake, and then exclaimed, in a dismal tone, ‘The sherki is come.’ This was indeed the so much-dreaded sherki, and it has continued blowing ever since with great violence from the east and northeast, the wind being heated like our Bagdad sauna, but I think softer and more relaxing. This wind is the terror of these parts.” “Few European travellers,” says Layard, “can brave the perpendicular rays of an Assyrian sun. Even the well seasoned Arab seeks the shade during the day, and journeys by night unless driven forth by necessity or the love of war” (quoted by Dr. Pusey, in loc). He fainted (see note on Amo 8:13, where the fame word is used of the effects of thirst: comp. Jon 2:7). His position on the east of the city (Psa 121:5) exposed him to the full force of the scorching sun and wind. Wished in himself to die; literally, asked for his soul to die; Septuagint, , “despaired of his life” (1Ki 19:4). The expression implies that he asked God to grant him his life to do with it what he liked. In his self-will and impatience he still shows his dependence upon God. He may have had in his mind the precedent of his great master Elijah, though his spirit is very different (see note on Psa 121:3 above). Better for me to die. His wish for death arose from his now assured conviction that God’s mercy was extended to the heathen. He argued from the sudden withering of the gourd that he was not to stay there and see the accomplishment of his wishes, and, in his impatience and intolerance, he would rather die than behold Nineveh converted and saved.
Jon 4:9
God said. Keil and others have noted the variety in the use of the names of God in this passage (Jon 4:6-9). The production of the gourd is attributed to Jehovah-Elohim (Jon 4:6), a composite name, which serves to mark the transition from Jehovah in Jon 4:4 to Elohim in Jon 4:7 and Jon 4:8. Jehovah, who replies to the prophet’s complaint (Jon 4:4), prepares the plant as Elohim the Creator, and the worm as ha-Elohim the personal God. Elohim, the Ruler of nature, sends the east wind to correct the prophet’s impatience; and in Jon 4:10 Jehovah sums up the history and teaches the lesson to be learned from it. Doest thou well to be angry? The same tender expostulation as in Jon 4:4. I do well to be angry, even unto death. I am right to be angry, so that my anger almost kills me. Deprived of the shelter of the gourd, Jonah is immediately depressed, and in his unreasoning anger defends himself against the reproaches of God’s voice within him. Septuagint, “I am greatly grieved even unto death,” which reminds one of our Lord’s words in the garden (Mar 14:34).
Jon 4:10
The Lord. Jehovah. closing the story, and driving home the lesson with unanswerable force, the prophet himself being the judge. Thou hast had pity; thou on thy part hast spared; Septuagint, . For the which thou hast not laboured; Septuagint, , “for which thou sufferedst no evil.” The more trouble a thing costs us, the more we regard it, as a mother loves her sickly child best. Neither madest it grow. As God had made Nineveh into a “great city.” Which came up in a night, and perished in a night; literally, which was the son of a night, and perished the son of a night. The allusion, of course, is to the extraordinary rapidity of the growth and destruction of the gourd.
Jon 4:11
Should not I spare Ninevah? The contrast between the feeling and conduct of God and those of the prophet is very forcible. Thou hast compassion for a plant of little worth, in whose growth thou hast had no concern, to which thou hast no right; should I not pity a great city which is mine, which I have permitted to grow into power? Thou hast compassion on a flower which sprang up in a day and withered in a day; should I not pity this town with its teeming population and its multitude of cattle, the least of which is more worth than any senseless plant, and which I uphold daily with my providence? Six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; i.e. children of tender years, who did not know which hand was the strongest and fittest for use; or, metaphorically, who had no knowledge between good and evil” (Deu 1:39), at present incapable of moral discernment. This limitation would include children of three or four years old; and, taking these as one-fifth of the population, we should set the inhabitants at six hundred thousand in number. The multitude of these innocent children, who must needs perish if the city were destroyed, is an additional reason why it should be spared. A still further claim for compassion is appended. And also much cattle. God’s mercy is over all his works; he preserveth man and beast (Psa 36:6; Psa 145:9), and as man is superior to other animals, so are cattle better than plants. The book ends abruptly, but its object is accomplished. Jonah is silenced; he can make no reply; he can only confess that he is entirely wrong, and that God is righteous. He learns the lesson that God would have all men saved, and that that narrow-mindedness which would exclude heathen from his kingdom is displeasing to him and alien from his design. “For thou hast mercy upon all; for thou canst do all things, and winkest at the sins of men in order that they should repent. For thou lovest all the things that are, and abhorrest nothing that thou hast made; for never wouldst thou have made anything if thou hadst hated it But thou sparest all; for they are thine, O Lord, thou Lover of souls” (Wis. 11:23, etc).
HOMILETICS
Jon 4:1-3
Repining at God’s mercy.
A more mixed character than Jonah’s it would not be easy to imagine. God’s treatment of him, God’s language to him, prove that he was regarded as a servant, as a prophet, of the Lord. His own prayers and thanksgivings indicated a nature in happy fellowship with the Eternal. Yet how lacking in human charity, in true submissiveness, in unselfishness! True to nature, the portrait is one very suggestive to the thoughtful reader, who is anxious to escape self and to serve God.
I. THE CAUSE OF REPINING.
1. Jonah’s fear was realized.
2. Jonah’s plans were defeated.
3. Jonah’s self-importance was wounded.
His sin lay herehe thought little or nothing of the Ninevites, much or altogether of himself. So devoted was he to his own dignity, so filled with a sense of the importance of men’s estimate of himself, that he had no pity, no thought, for those to whom he was commissioned. The real explanation is here hinted of much of the repining, murmuring, discontent, which prevail among those professedly religious. Men would complain less frequently and bitterly, did they think less of themselves and more of their fellow men, were they more ready to forget themselves in desiring and seeking the welfare of others.
II. THE FRUIT OF REPINING.
1. Anger and displeasure.
2. Vexation and dejection.
Moses and Elijah, before Jonah, had asked that life might be taken away. Ardent souls, when disappointed, are prone to despondency. But it is one thing to despond because labour is unsuccessful; another thing to despond because men are saved. Because Nineveh was spared, Jonah fain would die. Had Nineveh perished, he would have been willing to live.
III. THE SIN OF REPINING. This appears from the fact, so plainly stated by Jonah himself, that the Divine forbearance and mercy were made the ground of dissatisfaction and complaint. If men murmur at the exercise of God’s most gracious attributes, they can have no clearer proof of their want of sympathy with what is best, and no plainer indication of the urgent duty of repentance and humiliation.
Jon 4:2
The long suffering of God.
The magnificent description of the Divine character is given in language familiar to the pious Hebrews, as is apparent from its almost exact coincidence with other passages of Old Testament Scripture. Nothing could more conclusively contradict the common impression that the old covenant was one of justice only and not of mercy. The language, occurring as it does in close connection with the repining of the prophet, appears strangely out of place. It is surprising that Jonah could have spoken thus of God without feeling himself reproved and silenced. How could he have reflected upon the mercy and kindness of God, and have continued to cherish regret because his threats were not fulfilled, because a great city was spared?
I. THE BENEVOLENT ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. By a redundancy of language, testifying to the depth of appreciation felt, the Lord is declared to be:
1. Gracious.
2. Merciful.
3. Of great kindness.
II. THE ACTIONS IN WHICH GOD EXPRESSES HIS BENEVOLENT ATTRIBUTES.
1. He defers the execution of his just indignation against sinners. The narrative gives an impressive instance of this; but it is the lesson of all history.
2. He changes his purposes of wrath into purposes of mercy. Such was the case with Nineveh. Such is the case with humanity at large.
Jon 4:4
Anger rebuked.
The Prophet Jonah was a singularly complex being. On the one hand, he evidently reverenced and trusted she Lord.; yet, on the other hand, he acted disobediently, and he cherished feelings which were in the highest degree discreditable to one who enjoyed his opportunities of knowing the Divine character and purposes. The inquiry, the expostulation, of the text indicates God’s displeasure with his servant; yet the form in which it shapes itself shows that God wished rather that Jonah should rebuke himself, that his conscience should be awakened to condemn the attitude which he had assumed.
I. ANGER IS IN ITSELF AN EMOTION WHICH MAY BE EITHER GOOD OR EVIL. God himself is represented in his Word as having been angry with the wicked; and a righteous anger or indignation with wrong doers is now and again in the Scripture narrative mentioned, with approval. Indeed, a nature to which anger is foreign cannot but be lacking in moral fibre. On the other hand, into how many sins have men been led by giving way to foolish anger?i.e. to anger either altogether unwarranted or unjustifiable in the degree in which it has been cherished. An angry man can seldom decide with justice or act with consideration.
II. ANGER IS NEVER JUSTIFIABLE WHEN OCCASIONED BY THE ACTION OF A RIGHTEOUS AND GRACIOUS GOD. Now, Jonah saw that the Divine Ruler was “slow to anger” with the Ninevites; yet he himself was quick to indignation and wrath. Anger like Jonah’s questions the justice of the Divine proceedings. He who is angry with the plans and purposes of the Eternal sets himself up as a judge of that Being who is Judge of all. There may be occasions for anger with fellow men; but anger with the Creator and Ruler of all is never defensible or excusable. It evinces a sad lack of modesty and of true submissiveness.
III. ANGER IS ALWAYS BLAMABLE WHEN IT IS OCCASIONED BY THE RELIEF AND SALVATION OF MEN. The plain truth concerning Jonah’s anger is thisit arose because the Ninevites were not overwhelmed with destruction. If the city had perished, the prophet would have felt satisfaction in contemplating such a fate. Because the city was spared, and (as he thought) his authority was discredited, he gave way to wrath. A more selfish and unamiable temper has never been exhibited.
IV. THERE IS ALWAYS REASON TO SUSPECT THE JUSTICE OF ANGER WHEN IT ACCOMPANIES SOME HUMILIATION OR MORTIFICATION OF SELF. Plainly Jonah thought more of himself than of those to whom he ministered, or he would not have given way to anger because his word of prophecy was not literally fulfilled. Men sometimes endeavour to deceive themselves, to persuade themselves that their wrath is stirred by some infraction of right, when, all the time, the true secret of their anger is to be found in personal mortification. A lesson this of the importance of being upon our guard against the insidious temptation to vanity and self-importance.
Jon 4:7
The withering of earthly consolation.
If Jonah’s vexation and anger were due first to the sparing of Nineveh, and the mortification of his self-importance, similar emotion was excited within him by the deprivation of personal comfort which was appointed by Divine providence.
I. IN TIMES OF TROUBLE GOD APPOINTS DIVINE CONSOLATIONS FOR HIS PEOPLE. The gourd, or palmcrist, which the Author of nature caused to grow up over Jonah’s booth, was “for a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief.” Such a refuge, shelter, shadow, Providence often appoints for those who are in distress. Some unexpected provision for want, some gracious alleviation of suffering, some marvellous deliverance from impending danger, reveals the thoughtful and loving care of the Most High.
II. GOD IN HIS MERCY THUS TURNS SORROW INTO GLADNESS. “Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.” It was itself beautiful to behold, and its cool shelter was refreshing, and it was a pleasant and welcome emblem of Divine care and kindness. Many have been made glad according to the days in which they have been afflicted, to the years in which they have seen evil. Of many once storm-tossed and imperilled it may be said, “They are glad because they be quiet.” It is right to rejoice when Eternal Mercy rescues and delivers those who are in trouble and distress.
III. CONSOLATIONS ARE OFTEN SHORT–LIVED AND DISAPPOINTING. The caterpillars which smote the palmcrist in a few hours robbed Jonah of his comfort, so that his new, dawning joy was overcast with clouds of gloom. And this withering was an emblem of the transitory nature of all earthly happiness and prosperity. The comforts which God sends he takes away, lest we should set our hearts upon created good. Health fails, property is lost, friends die, bright prospects are clouded, hopes perish- Nothing continueth in one stay.
“This world is all a fleeting show,
For man’s illusion given;
The smiles of joy, the tears of woe,
Deceitful shine, deceitful flow:
There’s nothing true but heaven.”
IV. THE PRIVATION OF EARTHLY COMFORTS IS INTENDED TO LEAD MEN TO SEEK THEIR HIGHEST GOOD IN GOD. Such discipline does not, indeed, produce this effect upon all men; many are hardened, some are driven to despair, by adversity. But with regard to the truly pious, it may be said that, when the gourd withers, the Giver is as firmly trusted and as warmly loved as when the shelter was thick and green.
“Though vine nor fig tree neither
Their wonted fruit should bear;
Though all the field should wither,
Nor flock nor herd be there;
Yet God the same abiding,
His praise shall tune my voice;
For while in him confiding,
I cannot but rejoice.”
Jon 4:8
Desire to die.
Deep was the mortification, the disappointment, the dejection, which, more than once, found expression in this wish. It is not an uncommon thing for those whose hearts are blighted, whose prospects are clouded, for whom life has but few attractions left, to wish rather to die than to live.
I. THE EXPLANATION OF THIS WISH.
1. The burden of bodily suffering or weakness, or of mental anguish, may be such as is very hard to bear; and men may wish to lay it down even though with it they lay down the load of life.
2. The memory of trouble, calamity, disaster, may be so distressing that even annihilation has been desired rather than an ineffaceable record of woe. The Christian cannot desire extinction of being, but he may hope that, in passing hence, he may steep his soul in Lethe’s oblivious waves.
3. The apparent hopelessness of the earthly prospect tempts men to wish to die. To many who are advanced in life, crippled in body, ruined in circumstances, disappointed in life plans, this earthly existence seems to present no prospects; death seems a relief.
II. THE BLAMABLENESS OF THIS WISH.
1. It implies a habit of discontent and of murmuring. Our circumstances are appointed or permitted by a kind Providence; to wish to escape them is to wish to avoid the discipline ordained for us by our heavenly Father. The Christian pilgrim should be prepared cheerfully, or at least patiently, to finish his path, even to the journey’s end.
2. It implies an undue desire for rest. Men’s notions of heaven are often carnal and selfish; they look forward to release from labour and service; and sometimes they wish to die that they may enjoy the sweets of repose. But it should be the desire and expectation of all Christians, that they may serve God day and night in his temple. Surely one attraction of the future state for the holy nature is thisit will afford opportunity for higher and purer service.
III. THE COUNTERACTIVE TO THIS WISH. This is to be found in perfect submissiveness to the holy and perfect will of God. Whilst he has work for his people to do on earth, earth is the best place for them; when he wishes them to enter upon heavenly service, he himself will call them hence.
Jon 4:10, Jon 4:11
The breadth of the Divine piety.
The close of this very remarkable book is deserving of attention and admiration, as evidently gathering up and exhibiting the purpose for which this composition was designed. Of all things apprehensible by us nothing is equal in interest to the character of the Supreme Ruler and Lord. This is depicted in this closing passage of the narrative and prophecy in the most attractive, encouraging, and glorious colours.
1. GOD‘S PITY CONTRASTS WITH MAN‘S HARDNESS AND SEVERITY. Jonah, though a prophet of the Lord, would have witnessed the destruction of Nineveh with equanimity and even satisfaction. It might have been supposed that a sinful and fallible being would have been more compassionate. But for the supreme illustration of pity we must look to the Father of all.
II. GOD‘S PITY IS EXCITED BY THE SPECTACLE OF A GREAT AND POPULOUS COMMUNITY IN DANGER OF DESTRUCTION. Nineveh was at the other end of the scale, so to speak, from the palmcrist which grew up and perished in a few hours. It was an ancient, vast, populous, powerful, famous city. “Should I not spare,” asked God of Jonah, “Nineveh, that great city?” There is in this language something which appeals to our heart. God is represented in the most amiable and attractive light. Such sentiments as these will be cherished by God-like men, by those Christ-like hearts that sympathize with him who beheld Jerusalem, and wept over it,
III. GOD‘S PITY IS INTENSIFIED BY THE SPECTACLE OF LITTLE CHILDREN EXPOSED TO DESTRUCTION. By those who are described as unable to discern between their right hand and their left we may well understand babes and young children who had not sinned. Yet these were in danger of being overtaken by the one common calamity and ruin. The tender heart of the All-Father was touched by the possibility of such a catastrophe. And when it was possible to avert itin harmony with the principles of the Divine government, and so as not to endanger the spiritual interests of humanityit was a joy to the heart of God to spare the city and the babes of the city’s household.
APPLICATION.
1. Let the hearers of the gospel take advantage of the sparing mercy of the Lord.
2. Let the preachers of the gospel proclaim the sparing mercy of the Lord.
3. Let all Christians sympathize with, delight in, and imitate, the sparing mercy of the Lord.
HOMILIES BY J.E. HENRY
Jon 4:1-4
A misanthrope’s case against Divine benevolence.
It takes a good deal to make a man of God perfect. After a whole life’s discipline the old man of sin will sometimes show his baleful features at the window of the soul. Jonah has just been figuring to our mind as a changed character, returned to his allegiance, going God’s errand promptly, and doing his work with faithful zeal. But here he forfeits our good opinion, almost before it has had time to form. The patient’s cure has been only seeming, or else he has suffered a bad relapse. At any rate, the narrative leaves him on a spiritual level as low or lower than it found him. He began by quarrelling with a particular command of God, and he ends by quarrelling with his moral government as a whole. If there be a point of religious progress scored at all in connection with the matter, it is the exceedingly minute one that at first he tried to defeat the Divine purpose, and at last, and with an ill grace, he submits to its execution as inevitable. And it may be noted, as a qualifying consideration, that sanctification is the work of a lifetime; and therefore we can look for no very material change in the few days which the narrative of the book covers.
I. A MAN WHO HAS FOUND MERCY HIMSELF MAY YET PRACTICALLY GRUDGE IT TO OTHERS. Misanthropy is Satanic. The devil hates men utterly and intensely. And the man, if there be such, who hates men instinctively, and would destroy them unprovoked, is less human than diabolical Jonah was not such a man. There were considerations, and paltry ones, for which he would have sacrificed all the souls in Nineveh, but, apart from these, he wished them no ill.
1. One of these considerations was supplied by egoism. As the prophet and mouthpiece of God, he had predicted the destruction of the city, even to the naming of the day, and his credit required that the event should now occur. If it did not, his prophecy failed, and his reputation as a prophet suffered, both with the Ninevites and with his own people. The prospect of this he could not stand. In his miserable and guilty self-seeking he preferred the destruction, soul and body, of a million people, to the possible discrediting of his prophetic claims. Such heartlessness in a believing man seems well nigh incredible. But it is far from unparalleled. Every Christian worker approaches it who works for his own credit or advantage, and not for the salvation of men. He may not be conscious of the fact, or he may fail to realize the significance of it, but he virtually and practically prefers that men should perish rather than that he should be deemed a failure. His reputation as a Christian worker, and his success in that character, is more to him than the salvation from sin of all to whom his words may come.
2. Another consideration sectarianism provides. To Israel in its wickedness a whole line of prophets had preached, with no result whatever, save their own extermination (Act 7:52), and the announcement of inevitable doom on the obdurate race (Amo 5:27; Amo 7:17). The Ninevites’ deliverance, establishing as it would the genuineness of their turning from sin, would bring into unfavourable contrast the obstinate impenitence of Israel, would emphasize the needs be of her approaching ruin, and would amount to the preservation and encouragement of the very heathen power by which she was to fall. Then the overthrow of Nineveh by an angry God would have been a terrible example to quote to Israel, and a rod to conjure with when calling on them to fly the wrath of God; whilst its escape the prophet’s careless countrymen might wrest to their own destruction, and from it argue that the vengeance denounced would likely never fail. There is an attitude of indifference toward the perishing, into which an analogous spirit of sectarianism sometimes causes believers to fall The question of their salvation gets mixed up with some question of denominational loss or discredit. We desire their conversion, and desire to be the means of it. But we don’t desire it supremely or disinterestedly. We don’t desire it apart from all denominational considerations. The idea of their remaining a while longer in sin would be almost as tolerable to us as that some rival sect should win their gratitude and adherence by helping them into the kingdom. This is, at bottom, the spirit of Jonah exactly. It is putting an earthly and narrow interest. before the eternal life of souls. It is a spirit unworthy the Christian character, and a shameful stigma on the Christian name.
3. A further consideration may be found in the surviving misanthropy of a half-sanctified nature. God desires infinitely the highest well being of men (Eze 33:11). And men, in proportion as they are God-like, desire it too (Rom 9:1-4). The sinful nature, which is largely selfish, is being taken away, and the gracious character, which is essentially benevolent, is being inwrought. But neither process is complete on earth, and the missionary spirit, which is their joint issue, is proportionally weak. It was so with Jonah. He shows the old nature strong still in pride and petulance and ingratitude, and why not in lovelessness, its characteristic vice? Such a man is incapable of understanding the tender and gracious heart of God, which loves men absolutely and infinitely, and acts in every respect in character. He is incapable of desiring supremely the highest good of men, for he has never climbed to the high spiritual level in which to apprehend his own. A half-sanctified man is considerably more than half-selfish, and a good deal less than half benevolent. If we would know what it is to travail for men’s salvation, we must rise to a love of God baptized into the likeness of the Divine love out of which it springs.
II. GOD‘S CHARACTER IS CONSTANT, WHATEVER ELSE MAY CHANGE.
. And the supposition is strengthened by the fact that, whilst he gives literally the clauses that speak of God’s mercy, he leaves out the clause that speaks of his justice (Exo 34:7), and substitutes for it a sentiment of his own. But justice and mercy met in the whole transaction. The Ninevites were mercifully spared, yet not unjustly. They might in justice have been destroyed, but not in mercy (Isa 55:7; Jer 31:20). Therefore Jonah absurdly makes it a charge against God that he is what he had always gloried in declaring himself to be. So blind and stupid can a sulky servant be. God need not overact his merciful character in order to offend such people; it is his mercy itself with which they have a quarrel.
2. The prophet himself affirms the Divine consistency. “God,” we are told, “repented of the evil,” etc.; and Jonah says, “I knew that thou art a gracious God… and repentest thee of the evil.” The thing that Jonah knew he would do he did. His action was normal and entirely consistentsuch action as he has always taken, and will take, in a like case. He repented, in fact, yet did not change. He did what it would be a change to cease from doing in the circumstances. He threatened Nineveh sinning, as he threatens all, and then he spared it turning, as he spares men in every age. His repentance, so called, is his method coordinating itself with the changing conditions of life, and is simply an aspect of his immutability.
III. THE PRAYER OF THE SELF–SEEKER IS OF NECESSITY ILL–ADVISED. (Verse 3) Jonah’s prayer was bona fides. It is as a believer he prays. His spiritual instinct brings him in his unhappiness to a throne of grace. “He does not seek a refuge from God. He makes God his Refuge” (Martin). He shows a surly sincerity in unreservedly stating what is working in his mind; and “so long as all can yet be declared unto the Lord, even though it be your infirmity, there integrity still reigns” (Martin). Yet, barring the quality of sincerity, this prayer lacks almost every other element of acceptable worship.
1. It is inappropriate in its matter. (Verse 3) It is not absolutely and necessarily wrong to pray for death. Paul, persecuted and afflicted, had “a desire to depart and be with Christ.” It is easily conceivable that a believer, broken down and prostrated with incurable disease, should pray for death as the sole available release. It would be nothing unbecoming if a ripe saint, whose life work is done, and who longs for rest, should make its early coming a matter of prayer. But Jonah was neither past living usefully nor, in his present temper, ready to die. His death, if allowed, would have advanced no interest either of his own or of others. His work was, humanly speaking, far from being done, and his life, if he put a noble interpretation on it, might be of great importance in the world. He was stupidly wanting to fling away from him, instead of prizing and using it, one of God’s most precious gifts, and his own most sacred trust. The desire to die, which some consider the cream of all piety, is as often mistaken as appropriate, and far less often a duty than a sin. In such cases men “ask and receive not, because they ask amiss.”
2. It is improper in spirit. One can easily see that Jonah was in no praying mood. He was angry and insolent. His prayer was really a contentious manifestothe joint issue of arrogance and discontent. As such it was utterly offensive to God, and itself a new sin in his sight. The spirit of it, however, made it harmless, as it secured the refusal of its mischievous request. Our union with Christ is a condition of successful prayer (Joh 15:7). The guarantee of its acceptability is our dwelling in Christ: the cause of its fitness is his Word dwelling in us. The Spirit helps the believer’s infirmities, and in these qualities we have the outcome of his work (Ro very gist of prayer is a leaving of ourselves in the hands of God. Its inquiry is, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” and its request is, “Lord, here am I; send me.” Such a request is offered in terms of our Father’s will, and, being offered in Christ, is ideal prayer to God. But the prayer of wilfulness, of fretfulness, of carnal suggestion in any shape, is lacking in every element that God regards or can accept. “For let not such a one think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.”
IV. GOD ANSWERS A FAULT–FINDING PRAYER BY REBUKING THE SPIRIT OF IT. The rule is that believing prayer is answered (Mar 2:24). It is a special qualification of the rule that the answer comes in the form of things agreeable to God’s will. Jonah’s prayer had enough of faith in it to secure an answer, and yet enough of folly to necessitate an answer very different from the one desired (verse 4). There was wonderful condescension here. Jonah makes an insane request, and it is mercifully ignored. He makes it in a sinful way, and gets the thing he was most in need ofan admonition. The words imply:
1. Are you angry on sufficient grounds? An enumeration of the antecedents of his anger would have covered Jonah with confusion. His contemptibly egotistic refusal to prophesy, as it was his business to do, had not so much been punished, as forcibly overcome, and then forgiven. His life, jeopardized, in the natural course of events, by his own infatuate conduct, had, by a miracle of mercy, been given back to him from the grave’s mouth. His recent ministry so tardily exercised had been blessed beyond a parallel, to the saving of a mighty city and the glorious illustration of the mercy and grace of God. These grounds of feeling are the only grounds which, as a servant of God, he could consistently regard. The others, which bore on possible results to his own official prestige, and Israel’s moral attitude and fate, were purely speculative, might prove unfounded altogether, and whether or not should have no place in a spiritual mind. A true prophet is a man who speaks for God unquestioningly, who acts for God undauntedly, who is in fullest sympathy with his gracious purposes, and who knows no personal considerations in his work. Well might God ask, “Art thou wiser than I?” “Is thine eye evil because I am good?” If a servant may have an interest antagonistic to his masters; if a man “may make his own narrow capacity the measure by which to judge of the Divine wilt and the Divine procedure” (Martin); if the salvation of a million strangers is nothing in the balance against a possible hurt to a few of our own friends;then Jonah was fitly angry, and we, in a like case, may fitly be angry also. The words also imply:
2. Is your anger itself a right thing? The will of God is the ultimate reason of things. The way of God is uuchallengeably right. The office of censor over him does not exist, There is no provision in his scheme of government for our being angry, and no place in the chain of cause and effect at which it could come in. We do it solely on our own responsibility, in violation of the Divine harmonies, and at our own risk and loss. It settles nothing outside ourselves, influences nothing, and has no right of way across the field of providence. God is supreme, and men are in his hands, and all duty in relation to his government is, “Thy will be done.” The question of men’s salvation is God’s question in the last appeal. He sits at the helm. He settles who shall be saved, and whether any shall be saved (Rom 9:11, Rom 9:16, Rom 9:22, Rom 9:23). The conversion of sinners is hut the evolution of his purpose; the glorification of saints the realization of his plan. Is not this good tidings for the lust? Seeking God as he thinks with all his heart, the anxious sinner fancies sometimes that the is willing and God is not, and that the question to be solved is the question of overcoming a certain Divine inertia, and getting God’s consent to his entrance into life. The idea is a delusion of Satan, and has ruined more lives than could be told. “Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life.” That is Christ’s way of it. “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” That is God’s gospel, the glorious and precious truth. God’s willingness to save is infinite. He waits to be gracious. It is you that are not willing. You think you are, and you may be in some respects. But you are not willing perfectly and all round. There is a secret reservation lurking somewhere. Search well and see. If you had ever been wholly willing for a single instant, you would that instant have been across the threshold and in the kingdom. If you are wholly willing now, it is the golden hour of your life, for it is the beginning of the new life in Christ.J.E.H.
Jon 4:5-11
Divine mercy formulating its own apologetic.
God is patient and persistent to a marvel. He sticks to men whom we would unhesitatingly cast off, and bears with them when, to our mind, patience has ceased to be a virtue. His keen eye sees ground for hope where we should utterly despair; and he goes on dealing with cases that we should regard as quite beyond treatment. The case of Jonah was one in point. He displayed a mulish obstinacy, and a tenacious and assertive self-will, on which anything short of the strong arm seemed only labour thrown away. Yet God is neither disgusted nor discouraged. He does not cease to strive; neither does he restart to the violence that would seem so fitting. His mildly suasive measures go on, and go on calmly and confidently, as to infallible success. Verbal expostulation has failed, but that is only one agency of exhaustless Divine resource. The symbolic method of teaching still remains, and may prevail, and God mercifully tries it on the refractory prophet before he will either say, “Cut him off!” or, “Let him alone!” We learn here
I. HOW TENACIOUSLY A SERVANT OF GOD MAY CLING TO A MUTINOUS PROJECT. (Verse 5) Jonah’s leaning toward the destruction of Nineveh was not mere caprice. It was largely selfish. That event would have been to him equivalent to a new credential of office, The heathen abroad and Israel at home he could have referred to it as a miraculous authentication of his word, and a new feather in his official cap. Accordingly, his preference went and his influence tried to work in that direction. In this mind he left the city. He would not mingle with the people. Their abject attentions while dreading death, and their possible ridicule if it did not come, would be alike distasteful. His mission, moreover, was practically fulfilled, and he had no very definite business to detain him longer; whilst there would be a natural desire to be out of the city when its fateful hour should arrive. There was, however, a reason for his departure a good deal less to his credit than any of these. He went to see “what would become of the city.” Here was watching for souls in hideous, baleful travesty. He was watching for their salvation, it is true, but watching for it in protesting anger and fear. He cannot bring himself to believe that it will take place; and he climbs the hills overlooking the city from the east to watch developments with a mind divided between anger, curiosity, and misgiving. And here he displayed the deliberation and resource that we observed on other occasions. Anticipating inconvenience from the burning heat, he built himself a rustic arbour in which he could sit in the pleasant shade and comfortably await the end. It is humiliating to think that questions of earthly interest, questions even of personal convenience, will compete successfully at times with the question of men’s salvation, for the first place in the attention of God’s people. Words have, for some paltry personal consideration, been left unspoken, interviews unsought, measures unattended to, on which, humanly speaking, the question of some one’s eternity hung. Those who know God and speak for him want to realize that their doing so is the paramount consideration, with which there is no other matter that may for a moment come into competition. A Paul “counts not his life dear unto him that he might finish the ministry received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God” (Act 20:24). On no lower level can we, as regards the perishing, “walk in love as Christ also loved us.”
II. HOW GOD IN PROVIDENCE BLESSES SINNERS AGAINST HIS GRACE. (Verse 6) Jonah had just complained of the great lenity of God. But he is only quarrelling with his own mercy. He is the very first, as he was the very last, to profit by that lenity himself: The God who offended him by pitying penitent Nineveh gave him unmingled gratification by pitying his rebellious self, and bringing him in his self-made discomfort prompt relief. And the gourd that grew so timely and served so well may be taken as a type of the Divine compensatory arrangements in connection with human life.
1. These always come. God does not forget his people, and cannot disregard their troubles. He heeds and he helps them. Wherever there is the burning sun of calamity there is the gourd of some ameliorating circumstance. They do not intermit; if they did our well being, our very life, would intermit also. They do not fluctuate with our allegiance; if they did they would be at the ebb perpetually. They flow down in a continuous steady stream. “No father like God; none feel for his children like him; none so forgiving and ready to relieve; when none else will pity them, he will; and in the face of manifold provocations the Lord remembereth mercy. When they become sufferers, the Father’s bowels of compassion melt over them. We have a High Priest that is soon touched with the feeling of our infirmities” (Jones).
2. They always suit. Appropriateness must characterize a “good and perfect gift,” such as all God’s are. They are not at right angles to our need, but along the line of it. There is a destroying angel to rout a besieging army (2Ki to quench a dying woman’s thirst (Gen 21:19), an earthquake to shake open prison doors (Act 16:26), and “sufficient grace” to make a thorn in the flesh endurable (2Co 12:8, 2Co 12:9). In fact, God’s helpful action bears directly on our sufferings and their alleviation. We get sometimes what we ask for, and always what we need. And we get it too at the moment we need it most. “The sea is opened when Israel is hemmed in on every side; the manna comes down when they have no bread; and the water flows from the rock when they are ready to die with thirst (Psa 27:10)” (Jones).
3. They do for us what our own skill and contrivance have failed to do. Jonah’s booth proved insufficient shelter, and in the hour of its proved inadequacy the gourd grew. God allows us to build our own booth first. We try our hand at improving our earthly lot, to find that we cannot command success. We lay deep plans and put forth stupendous efforts, and then flounder and stick fast. At last, God, who has been awaiting such a juncture, steps in, and, by some unthought of incident, the blocked path is opened, and the thing is done. The testimony of God’s people everywhere has been that, not their own brain or arm, but “the good hand of the Lord,” has opened their path and made their life’s prosperity.
4. They are often appreciated without being traced to their source. “Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.” And well he might. It intercepted the broiling sunshine, and converted physical distress into luxurious ease. Yet he rejoiced in its grateful shade without considering it to be God’s gift or a blessing to thank him for. It is so that many of our mercies are received. They are welcomed and prized and rejoiced in. We are exceeding glad of them, and more than enough are exercised about them. “I become exceeding glad of my gourd. My heart entwines around it. This pleasing prospect; this budding hope; this successful movement; this welcome visitant, the golden-haired little one within my earthly home, crowing in my arms, searching my eye for the kindling glance of joy and love, and dancing gleefully on finding it;ah! in many a form my gourd may grow; and I am exceeding glad of my gourd, even when I quarrel with God” who gives it (Martin). But our best of blessings we do not trace to their heavenly source. We take them unheeding as to whence or where they come. It is a fault of our life, and a chief cause of our ingratitude and lack of love, that God’s gifts are treated often as our own gains, and so are godlessly enjoyed. They are understood only when God is seen in them, and rightly used when used as from his hand; but, received with the dry eye of ingratitude, or with the shut eye of insensibility, they are deforced of their Divine element, and to us are God’s gifts no longer.
III. HOW GOD CONFERS SOME GIFTS ONLY TO TAKE THEM AWAY AGAIN. (Verse 7) Jonah got his time of the gourd, but it was a short time.. For one day he reclined luxuriously beneath its shadow; the next came the worm, and his shelter was gone. It is so with many comfortable earthly things. God gives them in mercy, and seeing them either inappreciated or idolized, he in further mercy takes them away. They “perish in the using.” At best they could only last a lifetime; often they do not last so long. They are flowers that only bloom to wither, mists that melt away as soon as the sun is risen. And, whilst this is true of them as a class, it is specially true of some varieties. “When things come to us in haste, they as hastily part again; when riches come too quickly they quickly take their flight; sudden glories decay suddenly; the fruit which is soonest ripe is found to be soonest rotten” (Abbot). There is in the sudden removal of valued blessings a needful assertion of the Divine control. The things we have are not our own. We hold them at God’s pleasure. And he emphasizes this fact occasionally by taking away the thing or the good of it, when we are just settling down for a whole life’s enjoyment. Then we make idols of our mercies sometimes. We put the gift into the Giver’s place. The most effectual cure for this is to be left without it. Our Father bestows his favours “not with a view to make man happy in the possession of them, but to win upon man, and to allure his heart w himself by his gifts. Abraham’s servant did not bestow the jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment on Rebekah to make her joyful in a heathen land, but to win her heart to Isaac” (Jones).
IV. CALAMITY SHOWS MEN HOW BADLY THEY COULD DO WITHOUT GOD‘S GIFTS. (Verse 8) The withering of the gourd and the rising of the hot sirocco were timed to synchronize. And there was disciplinary value in the adjustment. The loss of a gift becomes a lesson by emphasizing what and how much it means. Had the gourd remained, the heat would have been little felt. Had not the sirocco followed, the withered gourd might never have been missed. The concurrence of the two events and their obvious adjustment to each other reveal the hand of God, and point the lesson of the providence beyond mistaking. So misfortunes often march on us in companies, and support each other. One trial prepares the way of another, and lays bare the breast for its darts to penetrate. The discipline of grace is a lengthened process, and advances stage by stage to its lofty end of lust killed and a transfigured life.
V. FROM OUR ATTITUDE TOWARD OUR LOVED OBJECTS WE MAY ARGUE UP TO GOD‘S ATTITUDE TOWARDS HIS. (Verses 10, 11) Our creation in the Divine image involves this, and all parabolic teaching takes it for granted. The soul is a miniature of God. and the order of coming to pass in it is “after God.” Hence the unanswerableness of the question with which the parable and the book both close.
1. The things we love are paltry. A gourd against a city, a worthless plant against half a million of immortal souls. Such is a sample of the contrast between the objects of God’s Compassion and of ours. May we not argue that the compassion itself in the one case and the other is in still profounder contrast? God’s love and mercy have reference to a lost race. Ours, unless in so far as we are God-like, refer to some trifling earthly object. Let the fact be realized, and the lesson is learneda lesson of admiration and awe, and lowly gratitude and love.
2. We have but a limited interest in the things we prize. The gourd did not belong to Jonah. He “did not make it grow.” He got the use of it for a while, but that was all. So the things we have are not our own. They are left with us as a loan, and held as a brief trust. Our attachment to them has no element of ownership in it, and is therefore destitute of a fundamental excellence. But God loves souls as his property and portion, and with a view to the fruition of them through all eternity. His is indeed a sublime affectiona “love which passeth knowledge.”
3. We have done but little for them. (Verse 10) “For which thou hast not laboured.” We love what costs us something. It is to the sickly child, which has cost her years of anxiety and care, that the mother’s heart cleaves in most intense affection. Labour and sacrifice for an object bind us to it by a special tie. Created by our skill and effort, it is our offspring in a sense, and dear accordingly. This tie was absent in the case of Jonah. He had not produced, nor contributed to the production of, the much-lamented gourd. But what had God not done for Nineveh? His were the lives forfeited, his the blessings menaced, his the repentance which led to the reprieve. In pitying Nineveh God was pitying the work of his own hands, an object in which he held, as a vested interest, all that he had done for it and meant to do.
4. They are of brief endurance. “Which came up in a night, and perished in a night.” The time element is an important one in all attachments. The longer they have been growing the firmer they are. Jonah’s gourd was lost almost as soon as found, and could not have been the object of any settled regard. But Nineveh had been in God’s heart since before the world began, and many in it were to be his joy after time had ceased to be. His love had in it the incomparable strength of continuance, an aspect of “the power of an endless life.” What an overwhelming argument for acquiescence in the Divine purpose of mercy! And how often, in the giving and taking away again of some form of earthly good, does God press home the argument on men who are quarrelling with his will! My gourd, like Jonah’s, may have grown and flourished, “to the end, perhaps, that it may wither and droop and die; and that my heart, untractable, may at last, by losing it, be taught to feel that, if the object which my poor foolish love fastens on be hard to part with, how infinitely wrong in me to desire God to abandon those purposes which his infinitely wise will hath cherished from eternity, and which he hath bound in with and wrapt around my destiny at once to bless and train me!” (Martin).
Learn from this how to conceive of the value of the souls of men. They are the priceless things. God’s masterpieces as to their origin, they are unparagoned as to intrinsic excellence; whilst, as to their place and function, they are the crown jewels of Christ, and the objects for which all heaven is a place prepared. Let saint and sinner mark this well To barter away our soul is a transaction which will not profit us, though we “gain the whole world” instead. To love our neighbour as ourself, and in doing so supremely to love his soul, is “more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” To love God supremely is to combine in ideal ratio the love of self and the love of souls. They are the “children of the Highest,” whose hearts are the home of such affection, and they have in its presence the fruition of their inheritance begun.J.E.H.
HOMILIES BY W.G. BLAIKIE
Verses l-4
Jonah’s displeasure.
“But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry,” etc. This is not a wholly unexpected manifestation of character in Jonah. His was evidently a strange character, full of contradictory elements. A prophet of the Lord, who can yet run away from his workinfluenced by high considerations in the main, yet yielding to a low desire for personal comfortcan sleep in a storm while pagans are at prayeryet susceptible of profound contrition and repentancefrankly owns himself the cause of the stormhad ignominiously consulted for his comfort, but now generously sacrifices his lifein depth of his humiliation becomes wonderfully penitent, trustful, and obedient. Notwithstanding these contradictions, we should, perhaps, hardly have expected another outbreak of his lower nature, after so striking a Divine discipline and subjugation, and so remarkable a display of honesty, courage, self-sacrifice: it is a surprise to find him again quarrelling with God’s appointment, discontented, hard, unmerciful, excited and grieved at the respite of Nineveh. There is a certain inconstancy in impulsive natures; there is a desperate activity of the lower propensities; hence our need of Divine guidance, a continual needalone is able to keep the very best from falling. “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”
I. JONAH‘S DISPLEASURE. (Verse 10) Proposed change of translation, making words to express grief rather than resentment, is hardly called for. Evidently Jonah lost self-control, and gave way to violent excitement. Here is another proof of the honesty of Bible narrative. It gives a faithful picture of human infirmity”the law of sin in the members warring against the law of the mind.” It would be a very untrue representation if faults corrected once, even by God, were represented as subdued forever. The most distressing experience of true Christians is the renewed activity of their infirmities and corruptions even after profound humiliation and true contrition. “Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me” (Psa 19:12, Psa 19:13).
II. REASON ASSIGNED FOR IT. (Verse 2) God too mercifulhis mercy on this occasion judged out of place. Jonah’s truthfulness as a prophet seemed to be compromised; he was made to appear foolish in the eyes of menthe whole of the painful experience he had gone through shown to be unnecessary; he would have to return home without bringing word to his people of the great catastrophe by which they would have been compelled to regard God’s will. Jonah finds confirmation of the thought that had influenced him at firstGod too merciful to inflict great judgments; he seems to find a reason for his original rebellion, and, with irreverent honesty, vindicates himself before God. A very great aggravation of his sin, that what he disliked in God was his graciousness to sinners. The mood of mind which Jonah is represented as expressing openly often has a lurking existence, not less mischievous because half concealed. Mercy of God is sometimes thought to be excessive. So thought Jews when Gentiles were to be admitted to Christian Church. Possibly this transaction was designed to foreshadow that eventJonah’s strong feeling a foreshadow of narrow Jewish jealousy. On a wider theatre, man’s terrible selfishness is apt to prevail even over all considerations of mercy; for instance, a merchant interested in fall of price of grain is apt to be grieved for good weather and plentiful harvestthe heir of a rich man (possibly of his father) disappointed when he recovers from serious illnessthe heart is apt to grieve at the good of a neighbour, especially of a rivalsome one has said, “There is something even in the troubles of our friends which is not altogether displeasing to us”a state of war is sometimes desired because of impulse to be given to certain branches of trade: in all such cases, the aspect of selfishness is simply hideousmen may well shrink from looking at such pictures of themselvesyet such feelings are by no means uncommon. What surprises in case of Jonah is that, after showing himself a very paragon of self-sacrifice, the selfish feeling should have been so strong, and that he should have given such open expression to it.
III. JONAH‘S PRAYER. (Verse 3) He asked to be relieved of his life, which had become too burdensome to him. See here the sad prevalence of carnal spiritno acknowledgment of higher wisdom of God, of the way in which good might be brought by him out of what seemed to Jonah to be evil. See, too, the sinfulness of a despairing spirit in servant of Godnot unnatural in men of worldcomplications and miseries may arise which overwhelmmisery may be too absolute to bear, and every succeeding step may only aggravate itdreadful condition of human spirit when absolute misery closes upon it, Such should never be the condition of a servant of God while in possession of his reasonsense of Divine providence, and assurance of protection and guidance should repel itit is unbelieving men that ask, “Is life worth living?” Unbelief and suicide go together. Observe, in Jonah’s case, effect of tolerated sin on his spiritual conditionhe loses trust in Goddoes not see how God can save him even from himselfmakes no such request, but only asks him to take away his life. Sometimes it seems so impossible to do right, that we are willing to give up all in despair. “If the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!”
IV. GOD‘S REMONSTRANCE. (Verse 4) Doest thou well to be angry? Oh the gentleness of the Divine method!Jonah’s thoughts are thrown in upon himselfno Divine denunciation, but Jonah made, as it were, judge in his own case, asked to sit over himself and say if his feeling was right. Resemblance of this to the method of our Lordhis way of putting questions, compelling thought, and constraining a just decision. See his method of dealing with Simon the Pharisee (Luk 7:42). Facility with which God may judge us, by making us judges of ourselves. Difference of our actions as regarded by us, and as seen from God’s point of view. It is from God’s point of view their criminality is most clearly shown. Hence the sense of unworthiness we feel when we bend the knee, and pour out our spirit before God at night. The actions that at the time seemed right enough assume aspect of sin when looked at, as it were, with God’s eyes. In the present case no such effect was made on Jonah; he himself comes before God in sullen, selfish spirit. Even God’s question does not subdue him. Summing up the sins of Jonah’s spirit in this transaction, we notice:
1. His limiting God. There was but one way, in his view, in which the right thing could be done. Nineveh must be destroyed. To that he had made up his mind, and his whole moral nature was shaken when it appeared that God had another way.
2. His refusing to believe in the efficacy of Divine forbearance. Rough methods of dealing alone are believed in by manyslaves treated with fearful violencethe terrors of the Inquisition brought down on hereticsoffence of many at the clemency of Lord Canning after Indian MutinyIreland must be scourged with fire and swordscoundrels, said Carlyle, must suffer the unmitigated doom of scoundrels. God’s methods more mercifulhe seeks to win, to humble, to reclaim, to convert.
3. His readiness to sacrifice a vast community to carry out his own idea. His want of regard for human lifea common feeling of the timein Jonah’s view all that vast mass of life was not to be considered, provided a blow was struck that would vindicate his authority, and impress his people.
4. Impatience of spirit, giving birth to rash desires and prayers. Loss of self-control is a very humiliating experience in one who desires to be a servant of God. “He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city” (Pro 16:32). But “he that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls” (Pro 25:28). How unlike Jonah was now to what he had been before!W.G.B.
Jon 4:5-11
God’s remonstrance with Jonah.
“So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, end there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city,” etc. Jonah appears to have gone out of the city and taken up his abode in the booth before he knew that Nineveh was to be spared. As Noah entered the ark before the Flood came, and waited for the moment when the judgment of Heaven would verify the warnings of a hundred and twenty years, so Jonah entered his booth before the expiry of the forty days, and waited the moment when the judgment of Heaven would verify his warning. We can imagine him speculating on the form the judgment would take: “what would become of the city”whether it would perish as Sodom and Gomorrah perished, or as the Tower of Babel, or as the walls of Jericho had fallen down in presence of the ark. That something was to happen he appears not to have had the slightest doubt; this may account for his mortification when he found that, after all, the city was to be spared. The revulsion of feeling after his mind had been wound up to the highest pitch of expectation, and the sense of having been befooled before men, may explain the vehemence of his feeling. In rebuking Jonah it pleased God to do so by means of an acted parablethe parable of the gourd.
I. THE GOURD (or Palma Christi, palmcrist, as some suppose) PREPARED. (Verse 6) Further indication how God is Lord of the whole earth and all therein. This book shows God controlling things inorganic (winds and waves, Jon 1:1-17; and the east wind, Jon 4:8); vegetables (the gourd); things fortuitous (the lot); animals (the great fish); reptiles (the worm); also men, both Jonah and the Ninevites. The great object, both of the transactions themselves and of this record of them, is to vindicate the universal sovereignty of God, both natural and moral. The gourd partly natural, partly supernatural; God’s purpose in it was to deliver Jonah from his grief. So far as supernatural, a pleasant token that God had not forsaken him. Natural effect to ward off sun, cool the air, prevent feverish irritation, keep mind and body calm and cool. Jonah probably suffered much before it grew up, but would feel immediate relief when it came. Learn herein God’s ability to effect important results by simple means-influence of mind on body, and body on mind: “Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.”
II. THE GOURD DESTROYED. (Verse 7) Again, an important result due to a trifling causea worm. Figuratively and spiritually, “the worm Jacob threshing mountains” (Isa 41:15). Apparent collisions and contradictions in natureone force seems to destroy what another createsas if there were a Siva as well as a Brahmain the plan of God all work togetherit was alike of God to prepare the gourd and to destroy itthe purposes of Divine discipline often require opposite influences at different times, but all are to be regarded as parts of a gracious plan: “I will sing of mercy and of judgment” (Psa 101:1); “All things are yours, whether the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come” (1Co 3:22).
III. JONAH‘S VEXATION. (Verse. 8) Aggravation of his uneasiness by the vehement east windwhatever comfort of mind might have come through the remarkable origin of the gourd was counteracted by this wind, which seemed a token of God’s displeasurecombined distress of body .and mind in Jonahimpulsiveness of his nature again apparent contrast between his two faintingsat Jon 2:7, “when my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord;” here “he fainted, and wished in himself to die”Jonah his own reprover. The great lessonwe should sit loose to creature comforts, like the gourdthankful for them while we have them, not repining, and, above all, not despairing, when we lose them. Habakkuk’s spirit the model, “Although the fig tree shall not blossom,” etc. (Hab 3:17)Jonah walked by sight, not by faith; he should have said, “When heart and flesh faint and fail, God is the Strength of my heart, and my Portion forevermore.”
“But O, thou bounteous Giver of all good,
Thou art of all thy gifts thyself the sum!
Give what thou mayst, without thee we are poor,
And with thee rich, take what thou wilt away.”
“It is impossible to help ‘moralizing’ on the worm and the gourd They are felt inwardly to be emblems, too faithful, of the swift-coursing, closely linked joy and sorrow of this mortal life. The fine plant, leafy green, type of our comforts, successes, joys. The single day of shade it furnished to the heated prophet transiency of our pleasure. The worm a small and mean creature, may be a very formidable enemy. The place of its operations probably under the soil agents unknown to us may smite in secret the sources of prosperity. The timemorninghuman helps and hopes often wither at any season when most needed. Utter loss warning not to set our affections on anything which can be utterly lost The preparation, indicating how God orders trials for our good” (Raleigh abridged). “Is it not a blessing when the gourds wither? Is it not a mercy in God to sweep them away, even though the heart should be half broken by the loss? Many will bless God forever because their gourds were withered. Had the gourd not withered, the soul would not have been saved; and the withering of the gourd therefore makes the anthem of the saved the louder” (Tweedie, ‘Man by Nature and by Grace’).
IV. GOD‘S REMONSTRANCES. (Verse 9) Repetition of an old question, and, as before, without evoking a suitable answer. We may note man’s self-justifying tendencyespecially tendency to excuse passion; excitement of passion is sometimes so great that even a question from God fails to convictJonah’s mood is so completely self-justifying, that he justifies his wish to dieas if his suffering was really beyond what could be borne. Observe the unbecoming attitude and spirit before God; the true attitude . sinners is that in Rom 3:19, “that every mouth might be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God.” Silence is the true condition of the sinner, as far as justifying pleas concerned; or, when silence is broken, such words as the publican’s, “God be merciful to me a sinner.”
V. DIVINE APPLICATION OF THE GOURD HISTORY. (Rom 3:10, Rom 3:11) Unexpected, yet felicitous, adaptation of the physical to the morallight thrown on a dark providencea foreshadow of revelations of many enigmas of providence yet to come. The argument is ad hominem: If Jonah would have spared his gourd, why should God not spare Nineveh? It is also a fortiori: If the fate of the gourd, a perishing and trifling thing, was an object of concern to Jonah, much more must the fate of such a city as Nineveh be an object of concern to God. Observe the force of the how much morethe numbers so differentthe relative endurance of the two objectsthe labour bestowed on themthe one sensitive beings, the other not. The special reason for sparing Nineveh; it contained more than a hundred and twenty thousand infants, and also much cattle. God’s regard for children is here set forthin these Eastern countries lives of children were little thought ofinfanticide was commonin some countries (Moab, etc) children were made to pass through the fire to their godsmassacres of children common (Jdg 9:5; 2Ki 2:1)their lives precious in eyes of God, even though pagan and uncircumciseda foreshadow of the gospel view: “of such is the kingdom of heaven”children may peradventure ward off great calamitieschildren in great cities are often neglectedimmense proportion of deaths occurs under the age of fivemostly due to preventible causeshence sanitary reform becomes a great dutylaws of healthy upbringing of children are most importantspiritual and moral oversight not less sothe New Testament rule is, Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” God’s regard for cattlehe likes to see them enjoying lifeshrinks from what needlessly entails or destroys itthoughtless and needless infliction of suffering and death on animals is a great sin in God’s eye. The prophet is silenced nowhe opens not his mouth.
The narrative ends somewhat abruptly; but leaves two great truths full in viewthe littleness of man; the greatness of God. The littleness even of a good man, one who in his deliberate judgment and inmost soul honoured God, and sought to serve him, but was very excitable, and could not subdue the poor impulses of the lower part of his nature. The greatness of God, Lord of the earth and the sea, caring for his creatures, not willing that they should perish, but that they should be saved. Especially the greatness of God in clemency, compassion, sparing mercy; for the very attributes that Jonah depreciated are as real as they are noble: “a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repeutest thee of the evil.” This is emphatically the gospel aspect of God’s character: “just, and the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus”rich in mercy and great in love, sending his Son into the world, “that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but should bare everlasting life.” Let us cherish the view of the Divine character that Jonah disparaged; it is the only hope lot us sinners. And again let us remember how the men of Nineveh have not passed entirely off the scene, for, as our Lord said, “The men of Nineveh shall rise up in judgment against the men of this generation, and shall condemn them; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and, behold, a greater than Jonah is here.”W.G.B.
HOMILIES BY G.T. COSTER
Jon 4:1-5
Jonah’s grief.
There “sat” Jonah, watching, displeased with the Ninevites’ preservation, grieved at the gentle dealings of their Preserver. And God’s only rebuke of him was the gentle question, “Doest thou well to be angry?” In his mood and conduct let us read our own.
I. OUR DISPLEASURE. Have we never been displeased with God’s ways? It may have been as patriots. It is easy to be resigned to judgments that come upon our country’s enemies. We must bewarebeware lest we encourage in ourselves the belief that the great work of God among nations today is to do all for the glory of England. Jonah was displeased that his country’s enemies should be spared. Yet God spared them. In our own personal history have we never been displeased with God?displeased that prosperity has been denied us, who could so wisely have used it? displeased that losses and afflictions have impoverished us, when they seemed so much more needed by others who have been free from them? displeased to lose our one child, when in other homes the many are spared? displeased, it may be, that even the one has been denied us? Have we never charged God foolishly?
II. OUR GRIEF. Jonah was “very grieved” that the Ninevites should be spared. Better, he deemed, that. they should perish. Better for Israel thus to be quit of an enemy. Better for God, as thus vindicating his righteousness. Better for Jonah himselfthus accredited as a prophet of truth. Grieved; but what is he doing with his memory? He, such a sinner against the light, had been spared; then why not these repentant heathen? Ungrateful Jonah! But why wonder at him? Have we not forgotten the Divine goodness? Have we not been grieved at God’s dealings? Even in his work how thwarted! How little credit do we get to what we expected! And the work does not prosper in our way. Have we never been grieved, angry, with God?that that great and good man should be taken away in the midst of his days? that that youth of high promise should be cut down when the bright bud was just showing the brilliant flower? that God’s work, where most successful, should be threatened with hindrance and be hindered? that our work for him should be obstructed, and we get so little commendation for it when we had deemed we deserved it so much? Grievedand therein the evilby regarding God as at fault.
III. OUR WAYWARD PRAYER. Jonah longed to die. His work seemed to fail because Nineveh was spared. Fail? No; it was a transcendently glorious success. A sublime and ever memorable proof of the Divine mercy. An abiding encouragement to all coming workers for God. So our work, when we count it a failure, may in God’s eyes be “not in vain.” How we bear ourselves in severe trials of faith will show what spirit and character we are of. Let no wayward prayer be ours. In our peevishness and distrust and vexation God says, “Doest thou well to be angry?” He is ever right, His way is perfect. “Consider Jesus, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.” What is our grief to his?
“O brothers, let us leave the shame and sin
Of taking vainly, in a plaintive mood,
The holy name of grief!holy herein,
That, by the grief of One, came all our good.”
As with him so with usthe way of the cross is the way to the crown.G.T.C.
Jon 4:6-8
Jonah and the gourd.
Welcome was the broad shadow of the gourd rising round the booth and above it! The great glare in subdued green light streamed through the leaves to the calmed and cooled and comforted prophet. Just now he wished to die. Now he was willing to live”exceeding glad of the gourd.” Short-lived was his gladness. Worm-smitten, the gourd withered. A day of beauty and value, and then the end of it. And now, unsheltered by the plant, exposed to branding sun and burning wind, Jonah longed again to die. Note here: Divine discipline. The gourd, worm, wind, divinely sent, have each a ministry for the prophet. He needs correction if he is to amend. They are to teach him. But such is the Divine pitifulness that there comes
I. THE LESSON OF REFRESHMENT. There was sent the gourd “to deliver him from his grief.” He needed a shadow. It was given, and the plant shielded him from the oppressive, life-exhausting heat. The gloom of his mind had been increased by the heat of the booth; the outer had aggravated the inner weariness. In the coolness of the gourd he was calmed and soothed. The mind affects the body, and the body the mind. “Heaviest the heart is in a heavy air.” Much mental and even spiritual depression must be put to the account of physical causes. Jonah sheltered was cheered and refreshed; gloom became gladness. Did he rejoice in the gourd? How, then, must God rejoice to spare his human creatures! And did Jonah meanwhile, “glad of the gourd,” with, we may hope, thankfulness to God for it, think that after all God was favourable to his bitter longing for the punishment if not utter destruction of Nineveh though repentant? If so, he thought wrongly. Outward prosperity is no proof of the Divine approval. In doing wrong, in feeling wrong, all may seem to go well with us; still, it is none the less wrong. Are we in accordance with Divine truth and righteousnessour will in harmony with the Divine? Then all providences are in reality friendly, and “even the night is light about us.”
II. THE LESSON OF BEREAVEMENT. Did Jonah pity, miss, and mourn for the gourd? Shall not God have pity on the myriads in Nineveh? That was the lesson of his loss to the prophet. But how reluctant to learn it! We may be bereaved of our strength, competence, loved ones. Ah! how God is bereaved! “Shall a man rob God?” What multitudes doof their love, loyalty, service! He appeals to each. “How can I give thee up?” he says. He may take away his gifts. It is the more fully to give us himself. All earthly gourds will wither. But for all who will, there is an abiding shelter from every storm; a living shelterChrist, in him, though the tempests come of sorrow, bereavement, death, we have peace, safety, and eternal life.G.T.C.
Jon 4:10, Jon 4:11
An argument from human pity to Divine mercy.
Jonah is met on his own ground. From his human compassion comes the irresistible enforcement of the argument for the Divine mercy. Mark the contrasts.
I. PITY ON THE GOURD; PITY ON NINEVEH. Useful had been the gourd to Jonah. It had made life tolerable; it had gladdened him. He had saddened to see it wither, sorrowed to see it dead. He had pity on it; his pity would have spared it. Nor was he wrong. It is well to be unwilling to see aught that has cheered us perish. But if he was right in his desire to spare that plant, “should not I spare Nineveh?” asked God. Should a plant be more than a great city? God‘s great thought is upon men. How the Divine pity moved over repentant Nineveh! How the blessed Redeemer longed to save Jerusalem! On his last visit, with what other eyes than those of his disciples did he look upon it!
“They shout for joy of heart,
But he the King, looks on as one in grief;
To heart o’erburdened weeping brings relief,
The unbidden tear drops start.”
II. PITY ON THE SHORT–LIVED GOURD; PITY ON THE NINEVITES, IMMORTAL CREATURES. That gourd had but the life of a day. Then “the grace of the fashion of it perished.” So frail! But look at those multitudes in Nineveh. Few there had so brief a life as the gourd. And all of them were heirs of immortality, passing to an eternal destiny. How the human transcends all lower forms of life! Did Jonah pity the short-lived plant? Shall not God pity the ever-living multitude in the city?
III. PITY ON THE GOURD THAT HAD COST JONAH NOTHING; PITY ON THE VAST POPULATION THAT GOD HAD MADE AND UPHELD. The gourd “came up over” Jonah; unsought, unhelped by himcurse to him. He brought it not; he kept it not in life. He had done nothing for it, yet how he mourned its decay! Mark the principle implied in this contrast! Thisthat we show our value of a thing by the labour we expend upon it. This alsothat our sense of the value of a thing, our love to it, grows in proportion to our labour for it. How much God had done for the Ninevites! They were all his creatures. If he had not “laboured for” them, he had made them. He was the Fountain of their life. They lived because he held them in life. He could not lightly let them perish; he was their Maker. Jonah had “not made” the gourd to “grow.” But God had made the Ninevites to grow; had built them in strength, fed, clothed, preserved them. And, as with us, the more we do for another, the more we love him; so with God and those Ninevites. They were dear to him, and ever dearer because of what he had done for them.
IV. PITY ON THE ONE PLANT; PITY ON THE MANY–PEOPLED CITY. One plant called Gut Jonah’s yearning tenderness. But what was that to a man?a man made in God’s image, “endued with sanctity of reason,” dowered with immortality? A man? Here was a city full of men. God knew the number. But in this plea he only gives the number of the children. They in their helplessness and innocence were pleas with him for the preservation of the city. Beautiful, effectual priesthood of children! They are unconscious yet mighty intercessors for us. One hundred and twenty thousand of them are in Nineveh. That is a reason why God should spare it. Better that they should live than die. Heaven, to one who has known God’s grace and accepted it, temptation and overcome it, who has “served his generation,” will be a nobler world than to an infant caught in his unconsciousness to its unexpected bliss. “And much cattle.” Not an animal in Nineveh but is worth more than the gourd. Man’s Maker is its Maker. And he who made man made it for man. The very cattle are a plea for the preservation of the city.
Conclusive, unanswerable appeal! Jonah, so ready with his replies, is now speechless. He saw that God’s way was right. Let our pity to things and persons remind us of God’s mercy. A mercy almighty and “to everlasting.” A mercy revealed in Christ. A mercy to be accepted. If not, if rejected, if trifled with till life is trifled awaywhere, where can we look? There is one Saviour, and no other!G.T.C.
Jon 4:11
The unconscious priesthood of children.
The Ninevite little ones effectually, though unwittingly, interceded with God for the preservation of Nineveh. And are not little children still unconscious intercessors with God?
1. By their innocence. They have not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression.
2. By their dependence. Their dependence on God makes them the dearer to God; their dependence on their parents makes their parents the dearer to him.
5. By their undeveloped moral possibilities. What a work in the earth they may do for God! “I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said”Ninevite babe and suckling”spare me, teach me,” and then in the future “send me.”G.T.C.
Jon 4:11
God‘s consideration for animals. The “much cattle” in Nineveh a plea with God for the preservation of the city. And still, be animals where they may:
1. God has made them.
2. He preserves them. “His full hand supplies their need.”
3. He dowers them with beauty, or swiftness, or strength, with sensibility and sagacity.
4. He makes them of varied serviceableness to man, and has given man authority over them. “Thou madest him to have dominion over all sheep and oxen; yea, and the beasts of the field.”
5. “He regardeth the life of the beast;” complacently, in their “lower pleasures;” pitifully, in their “lower pains;” constantly and minutely, “not one falleth on the ground” without him.
6. He would have them preserved from cruelty and needless destruction (Exo 9:19).
7. It is God-like to care for the lower animals.
“He prayeth well who loveth well
Both man, and bird, and beast.
He prayeth best who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God, who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.”
G.T.C.
HOMILIES BY A. ROWLAND
Jon 4:6-8
The gourd, the worm, and the east wind.
Jonah was not faultless after his prayer and penitence. He undertook his work, and boldly proclaimed his message in Nineveh. His success was beyond expectation. The whole city was moved, and all the inhabitants fasted, repented, and prayed. And in the mercy which is ever his delight, God averted the threatened disaster. “But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.” He was indignant that his message should appear to be unfulfilled, and angry when he found that he had been the means of saving from destruction the most dangerous foes of his own country. Any one who reads the history of Europe at the beginning of this century will understand this feeling. It was with an awful sense of dread that our grandfathers heard that Napoleon had swept into Russia at the head of six hundred and fifty-seven thousand veterans, expecting to return flushed with victory to complete his work of devastation. When the news came that of all that great host only eighty-five thousand men had escaped from the horrors of war and frost and famine, a jubilant shout of thanksgiving went up to Heaven, led by the Christian Church! Sinful though Jonah’s feeling was, it was not unnatural, and he sat himself down within view of the city, hoping and praying that at least some smaller disaster would befall it. Our text shows how graciously God sought to bring him to a better state of mind. The withering of the gourd, like the withering of the fig tree, was intended to be an epitome of human experience. Let us learn from it
I. THAT ALL OUR EARTHLY COMFORTS ARE OF GOD‘S PROVIDING. When Jonah set himself to watch what would become of the city, he made for his shelter a booth, formed of the interlaced branches of trees, which imperfectly kept off the heat of the sun. And God prepared a gourd, whose broad leaves spread over the booth till good protection was given from the scorching heat, which even seasoned Arabs dared not brave; and Jonah was exceeding glad of it. There was never more danger than there is now of the non-recognition of God’s hand in nature and in history. The clearness with which we see natural phenomena tends to make less credible what is only spiritually discerned. But happy is the man who finds every blessing sweetened to him by the thought, “God gave me this.” The great purpose of all his dealings with us is to bring us to thought about himself. Sometimes he turns us back to duty, as Jonah was turned, by a storm; and sometimes he brings us back to a right mind, as Jonah was brought, by a blessingstrangely coming, and then as strangely going.
II. THAT OUR EARTHLY BLESSINGS ARE OF SHORT DURATION. Their brevity is as much God’s appointment as their existence. Notice the emphatic declarations in our text: “The Lord prepared a gourd;” “The Lord prepared a worm;” “The Lord prepared a vehement east wind.” In other words, the blessing and the cause of its removal both emanated from him.
1. The gourd withered when Jonah reckoned most confidently on enjoying it. It is so with our blessings too. Examples: The wealth amassed with such difficulty seems secure at last, but unexpectedly it vanishes. The child nursed through all the perils of a weakly childhood dies in the fulness of manhood’s strength, etc.
2. The gourd withered from a small and secret cause. A worm at the root killed it. Little things, preventible things, as we think them, often cause our losses. We may be ruined by some one we never saw, and of whom we never heard. A noble reputation may be blasted by a silly slander. Yet there is no awful fate blindly striking hither and thither; there is no hostile power supreme over human events. Of every loss we may say, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the Name of the Lord.”
III. THAT TROUBLES SELDOM COME ALONE. It was bad enough to lose the shelter of the gourd, but it was worse to find a vehement east wind springing up just after it witherednot one like ours, cutting in its keenness, but one singularly depressing and relaxing in its effects. It came over the burning desert sands; it drank up fire by the way; it dried the skin, and filled the pores with dust, and beat upon the wayfarer like the blast of a furnace. Jonah found it the more unbearable because his shelter was gone. Sorrow comes on sorrowfinancial anxiety, domestic bereavement, impaired health, unexpected loss, following each other till our souls are overwhelmed. But God is patient with us, in spite of our angry thoughts; he pities our passionate weeping, and waits till we can say with him who in his agony prayed yet more earnestly, “Thy will, not mine, be done.”
CONCLUSION. While Jonah was pitying the gourd whose beautiful leaves were withered, and was grieving over the loss of its shade, God pointed him from it to Nineveh, and said, “If you sorrow over this, how much more do I sorrow over that? You have not laboured for this gourd, but I have laboured for that city. The gourd could never be worth much, but what might not Nineveh be if only its people were redeemed from sin?” Thus would he point us from the contemplation of life’s sadness to the contemplation of its sin. He would remind us that as we would sacrifice anything to save the life of one we love, so he has given his only Son to save us from sin and death eternal.A.R.
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS
Jon 4:6-8
Emblems of man’s earthly good, and God’s disciplinary procedure.
“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,” etc. I shall use these verses as presenting an emblem of man’s earthly good, and an emblem of God’s disciplinary procedure.
I. AS AN EMBLEM OF MAN‘S EARTHLY GOOD. I take the “gourd” to represent this. What this plant was, whether it was, as some suppose, a kind of cucumber, which sprang swiftly from the soil, and covered the booth which Jonah had reared and under which he sat, or a kind of ivy that crept up and overshadowed his dwelling, or some plant of more rapid growth and more luxuriant foliage, it matters not. We are told the Lord “prepared” it. It was some indigenous plant, characterized by a speedy growth and abundant leafage, and whose growth, perhaps, was stimulated by a Divine infusion of an unusual amount of vegetative force. It was a great blessing at the time to Jonah. It screened him from the rays of the Oriental sun, and refreshed his sight with its verdure. And it is said that “Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.” He felt that it was good. Now, this gourd was like man’s earthly good in three aspectsin its development, its decay, and destruction.
1. In its development.
(1) It came out of the earth. The gourd was not a plant sent down directly from heaven. It grew out of the soil. So with all our worldly good. From the earth come all our granaries, our wardrobes, our houses, and all that blesses our material existence. It is all out of the earth.
(2) It came out of the earth by Divine agency. It was not the less a Divine gift because it seemed to grow in a natural way. God produced it. He “prepared“ it. All the earthly good we possess, even that for which we have laboured with the greatest skill and persistent industry, is the gift of God. He it is that gives us our daily bread, and that furnishes us with food and raiment.
2. In its decay. “But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.” Not long, perhaps only a few hours, had the gourd spread its shady and refreshing influence over Jonah’s dwelling place before the worm began to gnaw at its vitals and soon smote it. Mark the decaying agent, a “worm.”
(1) How mean! It was not some huge quadruped of the wild, or some royal bird from the craggy cliffs or towering forests, but a worm. The work of destruction is very easy. We are crushed “before the moth.”
(2) How prompt! Decay commenced at once. “When the morning rose the next day” it had done its work. The worm of decay begins its work with the commencement of our earthly good. It gnaws at the foundation of mansions as soon as they are built, at friendships as soon as they are formed, at life as soon as it begins. “As soon as we begin to live we all begin to die.” This worm of decay is working everywhere.
(3) How secret! It works unseen, underground. It gnaws at the vital roots. It is an unseen agent. Who sees the worm that strips the trees in autumn, that steals strength from the strongest animal, and gnaws away the life of the youngest? Verily man and all his earthly good is being “destroyed from morning to evening.”
3. In its destruction. “God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die.” “This wind,” says an old expositor, “was not as a fan to abate the heat, but as a bellows to make it more intense.” It may be that this vehement east wind was that terrible simoom which was common in that land, and which smote the four corners of the house in which Job’s children were. How desolate is the prophet now! The burning beams of the sun are beating on his head. His booth is destroyed, his gourd is withered to the roots, and the east wind like a breath of fire is drying up the current of life. His existence became intolerable. He wished in himself to die. Here, then, is a picture of our earthly good. However abundant in its nature and delicious in its enjoyment, like this gourd it must go from us. The worm will gnaw out its existence and the east wind will utterly destroy it, and when it is gone and we are stripped of everything but sheer existence, unless Christ is formed in us the Hope of glory, our life will be intolerable, and we shall seek for death as our only relief.
II. AS AN EMBLEM OF GOD‘S DISCIPLINARY PROCEDURE. The Eternal, in order to get Jonah into a right state of mind, employs a variety of agency. It is suggested:
1. That God disciplines man by facts. Precepts and theories are powerless in the human soul compared with actual facts. “I have heard of thee,” says Job, “by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee.” Nature is a system of facts. Human life is an experience of facts, the Bible is a record of facts, and by facts God disciplines the human soul. The gourd was a fact, the worm was a fact, the east wind was a fact, and these facts went down to the centre of Jonah’s soul.
2. That these facts are varied in their character. Here was the pleasant and the painful. The gourd, how pleasant! the simoom and burning sun, how painful! So now God employs the pleasurable and the painful to discipline our souls to virtue. He employs the small and the great. Here was the insignificant worm and vehement wind. “Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man, to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living” (Job 33:29, Job 33:30).
3. That these facts are adapted to their end. Jonah did not wish that mercy should be shown to the Ninevites. He desired their destruction. This was his state of mind, and a bad state of mind it was, and God dealt with it by giving him a lesson in personal suffering. He taught him what suffering was.
CONCLUSION.
1. Let us not trust in earthly good. It is but a mere gourd. It must wither and rot. “All flesh is grass.” Trust in righteousness. “Trust in him that liveth forever.”
2. Let us improve under the disciplinary influences of Heaven. Life is a moral school, a school in which the great Father seeks to make his children meet for the “inheritance of the saints in light.”D.T.
Jon 4:9-11
God reasoning with man.
“And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd?” etc. The whole Book of Jonah develops at least the following truths:
1. That the regard of Heaven, even under the old dispensation, was not confined to the Jews. Jonah was sent to Nineveh, a city far away from Judea, whose population had neither kinship nor sympathy with the Jewish people. It is represented as a bloody city, full of lies and robbery, its ferocious violence to captives is portrayed in its own monuments. The opinion that once prevailed very extensively in the Christian world, and which still prevails to a certain extent, that the Eternal Father confined his interest and communications entirely to the descendants of Abraham, is without foundation; Nineveh, Egypt, and Babylon were as dear to him as Jerusalem. He revealed himself to Pharaoh as well as to Moses, and to Nebuchadnezzar as well as to Daniel.
2. That wickedness, if persisted in, must end in ruin. “Arise,” says Jehovah to Jonah, “go… to Nineveh, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.” And because of its wickedness it was on the verge of destruction. So it ever is, sin leads to ruin. “The wages of sin is death.”
3. That true repentance will rescue a people from their threatened doom. Though the ruin of Nineveh seemed all but settled to take place in about forty days, yet because it repented the terrible doom was averted. “When God saw their works, that they had repented of their evil ways, he repented of the evil he said he would do unto them; and he did it not” (Jon 3:10). It is ever so. “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” Amongst the many remarkable and suggestive passages in this book, not the least striking and significant is that which I have now selected for meditation. I shall employ it to illustrate the amazing interest God takes in mankind. This is seen
I. IN HIS REASONING WITH A MAN WHO IS IN A BAD TEMPER. That the “High and Holy One that inhabiteth eternity” should notice individual man at all is a condescension transcending our conceptions, but that he should now enter into an argument with one who is under the influence of a bad temper is still more marvellous. Jonah was “angry,” and the intensity of his anger became so intolerable that he wished to die. “Therefore now, O Lord, take my life, I beseech thee; for it is better to die than to live.” Why was he angry?
1. Because of the Divine compassion shown to the Ninevites. Jonah had proclaimed their destruction in forty days, and fully perhaps did he expect that the truthfulness of his word would be attested by the fact. But the forty days passed away, and no thunderbolt of destruction came; it was preserved, and preserved by God because it repented. It seems that he would sooner have seen Nineveh in ruins than have had his word falsified before the people. His vanity was wounded. He thought more of his own reputation than of the lives of a teeming population. “Doest thou well to be angry?” The question implies a negative. “No; thou doest ill; thine anger is a sinful anger.” There is a righteous anger; hence we are commanded to “be angry and sin not.” Indignation against falsehood and meanness and selfishness and impiety is a holy passiona passion that must often flame out in all pure hearts in passing through a world of corruption like this. This, however, was not the anger of Jonah; his anger implied vanity, heartlessness, and irreverence.
2. Because of the loss of a temporal blessing. The gourd that grew up in a night and mantled his tent with its luxurious leafage, thus sheltering him from the rays of the burning sun, was felt by him one of his greatest temporal blessings. “He was exceeding glad of the gourd.” That was now taken from him, the worm gnawed it to death, and as the hot simoom rushed at him, and the rays of the burning sun beat upon his head, he deeply felt its loss, and he was angry; he was angry with God for depriving him of this blessing. He was thus angry with the Almighty for showing compassion to the Ninevites, and also for depriving him of this temporal blessing. His anger seems to have been not a passing emotion, not a momentary flame, but a fire that rendered his life unbearable. “Let me die,” he says. The passions of the soul have often extinguished the natural love of life and snapped the mystic cord that unites the body to the soul. Now, is it not wonderful that the great God should condescend to reason with a man in such a state of mind? Man is wont either to shun the individual who is indignant with him, or to hurl anathemas at his head. Not so the Infinite Father. Calmly and lovingly he reasons with his indignant enemy. “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”
II. IN HIS REASONING WITH A MAN WHO IS IN A BAD TEMPER IN ORDER TO IMPRESS HIM WITH THE REALITY OF HIS COMPASSION. “Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, 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 six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?” The Almighty here argues from Jonah’s pity for the gourdthe plantto his compassion for Nineveh. The argument is from the less to the greater. If you, Jonah, feel pity for that mere vegetable production which you had for a few hours only, and which you yourself did not produce, conceive of my compassion for the inhabitants of Nineveh. The comparison here implied between the plant and Nineveh may be expressed in three questions.
1. What if this one plant to the men that inhabit Ninevah? What is the grandest production in the vegetable world, the most stately and symmetrical tree towering as the king of the forest, to one human being? The tree is the production of the earth, cannot think of its Creator, cannot itself alter its own position, is the mere creature of external influences, and must exhaust itself by its own growth; but man is the offspring of the Infinite, capable of tracing his existence to its Source, having the power to move as he pleases, and endowed with powers inexhaustible, and ever-increasing development! But if a plant is nothing to one man, what is it to the thousands of men that are found in Nineveh? You, Jonah, would have spared the one plant: shall not I spare the million of men?
2. What is this one plant even to the unconscious infants in Nineveh? “Wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right band and their left hand.” What is one plant to a hundred and twenty thousand unconscious infants? Out of those infants will grow sages, poets, saints, kings and priests unto God. What men, in visiting cities, concern themselves with the babes that breathe therein? And yet the purest, divinest, most influential portion of the population are the babes. The great Father regards the infant population. His blessed Son, when here, took babes in his arms, and said, “Of such is the kingdom of heaven.” Even one babe is of more worth in the universe than the whole vegetable kingdom.
3. What is one plant to even the irrational creatures in Nineveh? “Also much cattle.” Though the cattle are below children in the scale of being, they are greater than plants. They are endowed with sensibilities; they have locomotive powers; and for their use the vegetable kingdom exists. God has an interest in the brute creation. “He openeth his liberal hand, and supplies the need of every living thing.” He feeds the cattle on the hills, makes provision for the finny tribes of ocean, feeds the fowls of heaven, and prepares nourishment even for the world of microscopic existences. If God thus regards those creatures, with what kindness should we treat them, taking care that they suffer not, either from want of food or the cruelty of man! Such is a brief and imperfect sketch of the argument here employed to impress Jonah with God’s compassion for Nineveh. To use the language of another, “It is very beautiful; if you linger over it, planting your feet in the steps of it, touching the several links of it as you pass along, you will say it is beautiful. The skilfulness with which it is introduced, the forbearance with which it is conducted, the condescending regard to the prophets infirmities, the recognition of human excellence, the delicate allusions, the precious truths hidden in them, the accumulation of force as the argument goes on, the comprehensive linking of the different worlds of life to each otherplants, animals, infants, menthe easy transition from one to another, the abruptness of the close, too, indicating in its own way the completeness of the triumph,all these proclaim the argument Divine.”
CONCLUSION. What subject is more suited to cheer and sustain our hearts amid the somewhat saddening associations connected, for instance, with the closing of the year, than the truth that the great God is lovingly interested in mankind? Every year as it passes bears away objects once most dear, the companions of our youth, and the dear friends of our riper years. And how dark, dreary, and depressed we might feel without the assurance that amidst all these changes and bereavements the great Father lives on, and feels the deepest and most vital interest in our weal I Though years, as they roll on, take away from us, and from our world, those whom we have known and loved, the great Father continues here. He has not withdrawn from the world and left it in an orphan state, dreary and desolate. He is herehere with every human being, here reasoning with the thoughtless, enlightening the ignorant, consoling the sad, strengthening the weak, guiding the perplexed, restoring the lost.
“God liveth ever!
Wherefore, soul, despair thou never!
What though thou tread with bleeding feet
A thorny path of grief and gloom,
Thy God will choose the way most meet
To lead thee heavenward, to lead thee home;
For this life’s long night of sadness
He will give thee peace and gladness.
Soul, forget not in thy pains,
God o’er all forever reigns.”
D.T.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Jon 4:1. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly Seeing that what he had foretold against the Ninevites did not happen, Jonah was afraid, lest he should pass for a false prophet and a deceiver, his ministry be despised, and his person exposed to the violence of the Ninevites. He was therefore very peevish and impatient, and he vents his complaints in the following verse. There is certainly no reason to be solicitous about the justification of Jonah. It affects not the goodness of God, or the truth of Scripture, that imperfect characters are employed to communicate the divine commands.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
CHAPTER 4
[Jonah repines at Gods Mercy to the Ninevites. God employs a Palmchrist as a means to reprove and instruct him.C.E.]
1But [And] it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.1 2And he prayed unto [to] the Lord [Jehovah], and said: I pray thee [Ah! now], O Lord [Jehovah], was not this my saying, when [while] I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before [I anticipated it by fleeing] unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. 3Therefore now, O Lord [And now, O Jehovah] take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live [my 4death is better than my life]. Then [And] said the Lord [Jehovah said], Doest 5thou well to be angry?2 So [And] Jonah went3 out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him [for himself] a booth, and sat under it in the shadow [shade], till he might [should] see what would become of the city. 6And the Lord [Jehovah] God prepared a gourd [palmchrist] and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be [to be] a shadow [shade] over his head, to deliver him from his grief [distress]. So [And] Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. 7But God prepared [appointed] a worm when the morning rose [at the rising of the dawn] the next day, and it smote the gourd [palmchrist] [so] that it withered. 8And it came to pass, when the sun did arise [at the rising of the sun], that God prepared [appointed] a vehement [sultry] east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that [and] he fainted, and wished in himself [asked his soul, i.e., asked for himself] to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live [my death is better than my life]. 9And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well [is it right] to be angry for the gourd [palmchrist]? And he said, I do well [It is right] to be angry, even 10unto death. Then [And] said the Lord [Jehovah], Thou hast had pity on [wast grieved for] the gourd [palmchrist], for the which [on which] thou hast not labored, neither madest it [and which thou hast not caused to] grow; which came4 up in a night [which was the son of a night], and perished in a night: 11And should not I spare [have pity upon] Nineveh, that great city, wherein [in which] are more than sixscore thousand persons, that cannot discern [distinguish] between their right hand and their left hand; and also [omit, also] much cattle.5
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Jonahs Discontent and Correction. This chapter does not form, as Ch. B. Michaelis thinks, two dialogues between God and Jonah; but as is evident from the retrospective reference of Jon 4:8 to Jon 4:3, and as the translation shows, Jon 4:5 f. gives the scenery for the preceding verses, and these verses presuppose that Jonah must have already gone out of Nineveh, sat a long time in his observatory, and waited in vain for the destruction of the city. For he does not complain because the Ninevites repented, but because God had already shown Himself merciful toward them. (Comp. below at Jon 4:3; and the solution of the difficulty from the idiom and literary character of the book, Introduction, p. 8.
Jon 4:1. He was, therefore, already sitting in the glowing heat of the sun, when the discontent, Jon 4:1, came over him. The verb is used here of the feeling, in a metaphorical sense, It seemed evil to him, which is usually accompanied in other places by the additional clause, in his eyes. [Same as here, Neh 2:10; Neh 13:8; only with instead of ]. He was not angry because he had pondered in his mind the dangers, which were destined to come upon his country and people, in the future, through the Assyrians, who had just been delivered (Abarbanel); nor because he had seen the final doom of the Jews and heathen prefigured by the acceptance of the repentance of Nineveh contrasted with the impenitence of Israel (Hieron.); (this God would have corrected in another way); but his displeasure, as Calvin justly admitted, arose from a common littleness of mind incident to humanity, which, for the moment, thought only of his mortified honor as a prophet; and because the lie had apparently been given to his prediction, he entirely forgot that the life and death of hundreds of thousands were involved in its fulfillment. There is no intimation in the text that he envied the heathen the divine mercy and wished the destruction of Nineveh, either from ardent love to his people (Hengstenberg), or from a wrong notion of God (Keil following Luther), though such a feeling might have influenced him as a secondary motive. Rather his notion of God was in nowise perverted, for he must have known from the law [Torah] (Exo 34:6), and he did know (Jon 4:2), that God is merciful and gracious, long-suffering and rich in mercy; and the whole of the second verse is spoken out of ill humor that he had been sent, not with the object of delivering a prophecy that was to be fulfilled, but of delivering one that was revoked, which was intended as a means of repentance.
As above Jon 1:12, so also here, Jon 4:2. Jonahs wrong disposition of heart does not prevent his mouth from speaking the whole truth of God. Office and word, apart from the person, his weaknesses, and sins, are, according to the Scripture conception, intimately connected with one another. (Compare the striking example, Joh 11:50 f.). Jonah, it is said, prayed to Jehovah. Necesse est in hac Jon precatione aliquid agnoscere pietatis et simul multa vitia. (Calvin.) It is true that when he fled to Tarshish he did not say that he would not prophesy because of the mercy of God (comp. at Jon 1:3); but it is quite human to palliate an originally unreasonably undertaken step by motives drawn from wisdom subsequently acquired, or from fortunate accident. Therefore I anticipated, LXX.the errand, whose fruitlessness I foresaw, and fled to Tarshish. These, of course, were not his words, when he fled to Tarshish, that he was unwilling to prophesy, because of the mercy of God (comp. Jon 1:3); but it is human nature to color an undertaking, for which originally no reasons can in truth be assigned, with the reasons derived from a more recently acquired wisdom, or from the event. The infinitive with is gerundial. The phrase in my country, is an important element for the symbolical interpretation of the book. (See above, p. 5; comp. Jer 52:27).
As in chap. 3 the fifth verse gave a brief summary of the longer statement which follows; so here Jon 4:3-4, are in part the literal quintessence of the following detailed account. Jon 4:5-7, as a commentary to be added by way of supplement to Jon 4:1 ff. give the moving cause (Jonah, to wit, had, etc.); and the more exact psychological understanding of Jon 4:3 results from Jon 4:8.
The non-consideration of the forty days belongs to the symbolical character of the narrative, which cares more for the essential circumstances than for the chronology; and, in any case, it furnishes no reason to assume with Keil, that Jon 4:1 ff. should be placed within the forty days and during Jonahs sojourn in the city, and that Jon 4:5 ff. should be placed after. Jonah was certain that the punishment was revoked, consequently the expiration of the time is presupposed in Jon 4:1 as in Jon 4:5; and it is neither probable that Jonah should wait in the city for the threatened destruction, nor that, after the completion of the time, within which the Spirit had instructed him to announce it, he should then go out of the city and wait for it. If Calvin remarks in favor of the latter supposition; Etsi enim prterierant quadraginta dies, Jonas tamen quasi constrictus stetit, quia nondum poterat statuere, quod prius ex mandato Dei protulerat carere suo effectu, then, on the other hand, it may be observed that he was only too ready to maintain the latter, according to Jon 4:2, and that the Jon 4:5, till he might see, indicates a state, not of consternation, but of easy expectation. We accordingly abide by the rendering of Jon 4:4 in the pluperfect tense, the grammatical probability of which even Keil cannot deny, and the necessity of which is also acknowledged by Starke, Ch. B. Mich., Hitzig, and others; only that we should not restrict the same to Jon 4:4 exclusively, but extend it to the verses immediately following till Jon 4:8.
[Jon 4:5. This verse regarded by many commentators as a supplementary remark, , with the verbs which follow, being rendered in the pluperfect: Jonah had gone out of the city, etc. We grant that this is grammatically admissible, but it cannot be shown to be necessary, and is indeed highly improbable. If, for instance, Jonah went out of Nineveh before the expiration of the forty days, to wait for the fulfillment of his prophecy, in a hut to the east of the city, he could not have been angry at its non fulfillment: before the time arrived, nor could God have reproved him for his anger before that time. The divine correction of the dissatisfied prophet, which is related in Jon 4:6-11, cannot have taken place till the forty days had expired. But this correction is so closely connected with Jonahs departure from the city and settlement to the east of it, to wait for the final decision as to its fate (Jon 4:5), that we cannot possibly separate it, so as to take the verbs in Jon 4:5 as pluperfects, or those in Jon 4:6-11 as historical imperfects. There is no valid ground for so forced an assumption as this. As the expression in Jon 4:1, which is appended to in Jon 3:10, shows that Jonah did not become irritated and angry till after God had failed to carry out his threat concerning Nineveh, and that it was then he poured out his discontent in a reproachful prayer to God (Jon 4:2), there is nothing whatever to force us to the assumption that Jonah had left Nineveh before the fortieth day. Jonah had no reason to be afraid of perishing with the city. If he had faith, which we cannot deny, he could rely upon it that God would not order him, his own servant, to perish with the ungodly, but when the proper time was arrived, would direct him to leave the city. But when forty days elapsed, and nothing occurred to indicate the immediate or speedy fall of the city, and he was reproved by God for his anger on that account in these words, Art thou rightly or justly angry? the answer from God determined him to leave the city and wait outside, in front of it, to see what fate would befall it. For since this answer still left it open, as a possible thing, that the judgment might burst upon the city, Jonah interpreted it in harmony with his own inclination, as signifying that the judgment was only postponed, not removed, and therefore resolved to wait in a hut outside the city, and watch for the issue of the whole affair. (Keil and Delitzsch.)
Dr. Pusey is inclined to Keils opinion. Henderson; to that of our author. Newcome renders the verbs, , etc., Jon 4:5, had gone, had sat, etc.C. E.]
But Jonah had gone out of the city and had sat down east of the cityon one of the mountains eastward, which border on the valley of the Tigris, from which the city spreads out over the valley to the river. [Here he made a hut, or a booth, and sat in its shade, till he might see what would become of the city.C. E.]
Jon 4:6. As the fish, so also the ricinus plant obeyed the command of God: He appointed it. (Psa 104:30). The kikayon6 is, according to Hieronymus, the kiki of the Egyptians (Herod., ii. 94), the Kirk of the Rabbins, the el–keroa of the Arabs, the of the Greeks. Besides Hieronymus, Pliny, h. iv. 15, 7, mentions the Ricans plant, which grows wild in Arabia, Egypt, and Syria, and shoots up rapidly to the height of a tree. It has at first a herbaceous, then a woody stem, hollow within, full of knots and joints; large petiolate, peltate leaves, which, according to Niebuhr, when broken off, or injured, wither in a few minutes, and which are moreover liable to perish quickly, from the fact that, in a gentle rain, black caterpillars, or worms (, Jon 4:7), of a middling size, are produced on them, which strip the plant of all its foliage in a single night. (Niebuhr, Description of Arabia, p. 148. Rumpf, Herb. Amboin, iv. 95.) Such a plant God caused to shoot up, about the time when Jonah was thoroughly convinced of the fruitlessness of his waiting, and when he had already given vent to his ill humor (), in order to recover him from his discontent.7 ( instead of the acc. Ew., sec. 292 e.).
This succeeds. To his great petulance, Jon 4:1, soon succeeds great joy.
Jon 4:7. A worm (the sing. used collectively, as in Deu 28:39), comes at the command of God, during the nightat the rising of the sun, next morning. (Comp. Gen 19:15; Gen 19:23.) And it smote, destroyed (Amo 4:9) the plant, so that it withered. And as if this were not enough, God, to attain his disciplinary purpose with Jonah, appointed, in the third place, Jon 4:8, the silent, that is, the deadly sultry east wind, whose scorching heat is proverbial throughout the Old Testament (Eze 17:10). The glowing heat of the sun beat upon Jonah, so that he fainted (Amo 8:13), was out of his mind. Then were suggested those petulant words, that we have already heard, Jon 4:3 : he wished in himself to die, literally, he asked as to his soul to die (acc. c. inf. 1Ki 19:4; Isa 53:10; Ew., sec. 336 b), and said, it is better for me to die than to live. Ch. B. Mich.: Prstat me mori, quam sic vivere.
Jon 4:9. And God said to Jonah: Dost thou right to be angry for the gourd? namely, on account of its destruction. is not used adverbially (Keil), but as an auxiliary construed with the impersonal 3 sing. (comp. Deu 5:25). The short question: Dost thou well to be angry? comprised within itself, by aposiopesis at Jon 4:3 above, the whole dialogue, Jon 4:9-11; here it is analyzed into its elements.
Jonah answers: I do right to be angry, even unto death, that is, to the bottom of my soul, even to weariness of life. (Comp. Mat 26:38.) God now convicted him from his own words (comp. Mat 12:37; Luk 19:22), how wrong was his whole anger, in which this momentary vexation only forms an element with a fresh stimulus, but which had its origin in the sparing of Nineveh, by a conclusion a minori ad majus.
Jon 4:10. Thou art grieved for the gourd, for which thou hast not labored and perished. Bin-lailah, a son of the night, of a nights duration. (Comp. Exo 12:5, and the Syriac translation of Deu 24:15.) It is evident from Jon 4:10, why a rapidly growing plant should shoot up over Jonah. If it had been of slow growth, he would have watered and nursed it; consequently the reproof would not have been so forcible. [ instead of on account of the following liquids, Num 14:38.]
Jon 4:11. And should not I . who cannot distinguish between the right hand and the left (sensu prgnanti, as in 2Sa 19:36 [35 A. V.]), who cannot consequently be very guilty; and besides much cattle, which are not guilty at all, and which are of much greater worth than a ricinus plant? By the 120,000 mentioned in the relative clause, must be understood young children (comp. Isa 7:15). The limit of this period of life, in the East (e.g., among the Persians), is usually the seventh year. If we assume the ratio, fixed by statistics, of those under seven years of age to the whole number of the population as Jon 1:5, we have for all Nineveh the not improbable number of 600,000 inhabitants. This would give, as in the province of Naples, 40,000 persons to the square [German] mile (comp. at Jon 1:2). The English Admiral Jones, from a survey of the extent of the ruins, without any reference to the statement in this verse, has estimated the population of the city, at about the same number. (Comp. Journal of the Asiatic Society, vol. 15. p. 29. M. v. Niebuhr, Assyria and Babylon, p. 278 f.)
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL8
See Introduction, p. 6.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Jonah, a type of the misery and vanity of the human heart. (Homily).
1. The impatience of the human heart compared with the long-suffering of God. When God forgives, it is angry. When God is patient, it is impatient, Jon 4:1. And yet Jonah, too, was saved only by grace.
2. The idea of its own honor compared with the great heart of God, who readily foregoes his own honor, when the salvation of men is concerned (Jon 3:10). But Jonah would have preferred that all men should perish, that his office and vocation should be relinquished, to the mortification of the idea of his own honor, Jon 4:2 a.
3. Its bitterness compared with the kindness of God. God speaks comfort; but the human heart extracts from his consolatory words a sting, Jon 4:2 b.
4. And so inconsiderate is the human heart of the most precious gifts, even of life itself, that on account of the empty shadow of honor, it even thinks that it should despise its own life, Jon 4:3 But how seriously does God speak of death.
5. In short, how little can the heart, notwithstanding all instruction, dive into the deep thoughts of God! And yet, at the same time, it is always ready to maintain that it is right against God, Jon 4:1-3.
6. In such miserable selfishness, it is destitute of all love, and lurks for the ruin of others; it wishes that others should be judged and judges them itself; but it does not like to judge itself.
7. It always has only real pleasure in that which happens to its advantage; and should it be something of the most trifling importance, it is more highly prized by it than all the great mercy vouchsafed to others, Jon 4:6-7.
8. Therefore, is life full of misery. For these short pleasures, on account of which we neglect the eternal good, soon come to an end. And we do not afterward think that they were favors for which we ought to be thankful, however transient they may have been; but imagine that they were our own, that we had a right to them and therefore a right to complain, Jon 4:8. And what bitter complaints! 2Co 4:17.
9. And if Gods ways are ever so clear before our eyes, yet our eyes are closed that we cannot perceive them, and we will continually grope in darkness, unless God open our eyes by his spirit, Jon 4:9-11.
Jon 4:1. Here we see how it would be, if God would allow each one his own will. It is well that He alone sits at the helm. Gods messengers are in great danger of forgetting that they are messengers and that they act merely under authority. The sinful heart is ever ready to act the Lord, and it wonders when it is forsaken by God.
Jon 4:2. There are even wicked prayers. It is not a mark of piety, therefore, to disburden ones heart before God, but to pray in the name of Jesus, according to the pattern of Luk 22:42. Man is always eloquent in exculpating himself. If the heart is in a wrong state, it distorts Gods Word, and applies it according to its own pleasure.
Jon 4:3. Suppose the Lord had taken Jonah at his word? How inconsiderately does a man speak, who does not bridle his tongue. The sorrow of the world works death.
Jon 4:5. Some say that God, out of respect to his justice, has delight in viewing the punishment of the lost; that Abraham also, when Lazarus lay in his bosom, reveled in Gods pleasure in the torment of the rich man. These look upon God and Abraham in the same light that they do upon the prophet Jonah. (Luk 9:55.) His heart even breaks for the souls of the condemned, and if they would be saved, He would save them. (Mat 12:31.)
Jon 4:6. The creature was made for men; and the death of the creature is, in every way, instructive to men. To a heart devoid of peace, the good gifts of God are only a source of vexation.
Jon 4:7. When the morning rose! Often, at the moment when every thing seems to smile, misfortune is on the way. With the rising star of fortune comes also always a misfortune, even though we do not see it at the moment. Hence the injunction to be always prepared, always humble.
Jon 4:11. At first sight, it appears as if common guilt and sin were denied in this verse, since God speaks of the children, as if they, like the cattle, did not deserve punishment. But He says only that the severe punishment, which Jonah expected, was not deserved by these relatively to many others, whose death Jonah himself would not desire. The fact that the Ninevites were spared on account of their repentance, would have been sufficient to reprove him for this (Eze 18:23); but God would bring before the eyes of Jonah his uncharitableness in that he did not consider the relatively innocent and harmless creatures in his blind zeal to see vile sinners perish. The Scriptures have regard for beasts also. (Deu 22:6; Rom 8:18 ff.) These have no part in the sin of man, but in his punishment. As they appear here by their participation in the repentance of the Ninevites, so at other times, in the Old Testament, they appear by their blood for the curse of sin. Yet this is only a shadow of things to come.
Luther: How can such a state of grace and such untoward conduct in Jonah be consistent with one another? We cannot deny that he was unreasonably angry, and did wrong, for God punished him for it. We must also acknowledge that he had faith and was acceptable to God, because God spoke so kindly with, him and gave him a sign. We should observe from these facts (1) how wonderfully God deals with his saints, so that no one may inconsiderately judge or condemn any one on account of works alone. (2.) We should learn, how God permits his dear children to act very foolishly and commit grave faults, as Christ did with the Apostles, in the Gospel, for the consolation of all believers who sometimes sin and fall. (3.) We should see how kindly, fatherly, and amiably God deals with and treats those, who confide in Him in trouble. It is a daily sinning on the part of his children, which the Father graciously suffers. With the ungodly He does not deal thus: they cannot reconcile themselves to his dealings, but are altogether insolent and intractable.
Starke: Jon 4:1. Even well-meaning minds can fall into an indiscreet zeal for God and criticise his wise government according to their weak and sordid ideas, although they do not break out into open murmurs against Him.
Jon 4:2. To excuse sin, which deserves punishment, is presumptuousness.
Jon 4:3. There is a great difference between a well-regulated desire for a happy departure from this world and one that is inordinate and self-willed, which arises from impatience, and, alas, often enters into well-disposed minds.
Jon 4:4. As often as thou art provoked to be angry, ask thyself at once, am I justly angry? Teachers should be moderate in their zeal and seek to restore the erring by friendly words: the example of God admonishes them to this.
Jon 4:6. God has always been accustomed to guide men by external things and visible signs to the consideration of heavenly things. Hieronymus hits upon the thought that the Jewish people, who have sat under the shadow of ordinances and ceremonies are hereby represented.
Jon 4:7. Even the very least animals must serve the powerful government of God.
Jon 4:8. We must not be too much delighted by our success nor too much distressed by our misfortune.
Jon 4:9. One must really be astonished at Gods love to men, manifested in his patience with his servants. Jonah is nothing else but a little, naughty, spoiled child.
Jon 4:10. God has pity upon little children. He loves them tenderly, numbers them exactly, and oftentimes spares old people on their account, whom He would otherwise destroy on account of their sins. Did God love the little children in Nineveh so well, and was He pleased to spare the city on their account, then how can he reject those, who are born in Christendom, but die without baptism?
Pfaff: Jon 4:1. Men are much more wrathful and vindictive than God; for God soon repents of the punishment, provided men comply with the condition of repentance.
Jon 4:4. Even prophets commit faults. Guard thyself against impatience, and learn composedness and self-denial. Nothing adorns the conduct more, than entire self-abnegation and submission to the will of the Lord, combined with efforts to accomplish it. What a dreadful thing ambition is! To wish rather to die than to be humbled! It must not be so, but thou must willingly bow and humble thyself, if Gods honor is thereby advanced.
Jon 4:8. Let no one wish for death from a desire to escape the cross.
Quandt: Jon 4:1. There is joy among the angels of God over one sinner that repents; among us there is joy at the success of the mission; with Jonah there is indignation. This did not arise from the circumstance that the repentance of Nineveh was not sincere and honest; but Jonahs own repentance was not sincere. He had retained the principal part of his old man at his conversion.
Jon 4:3. Even other holy men have had such dark hours. (Num 11:15; Job 7:15 f.; 1 Kings 19.) Notwithstanding Jonahs preaching had the proper effect. The faith of the preacher does not work faith in the hearers, but the preaching of faith.
Jon 4:5. The word of God, Jon 4:4, was de signed to convince the prophet of how little reason there was for his anger; but it had exactly the opposite effect. He explained it in his own favor; as if God meant to say: Wait yet a little; and he goes forth to wait. The piety of the heathen is a matter of total indifference to him, but curiosity and a mischievous delight in the miseries of others abide with him. This is instructive to Christians in their relation to the missionary cause.
Jon 4:8. Before, Jonah was angry at Gods mercy; now he is angry at his seeming unmercifulness. This is a movement in the right direction. There is instruction connected with this.
Jon 4:11. The old, obstinate Jonah has displayed himself enough in this book; now, at the close, he vanishes, and God, in the end, stands, with his word, alone and majestic: the new Jonah is lost in Him.
Marck: Jon 4:1. Although all the works of God are entirely irreprehensible, yet there is not one among them, which may not be censured by some one; and the degree of censure is in proportion to the want of understanding on the part of the fault-finder.
Rieger: Before we find fault with Jonah, we should consider well first what would be the result if we were to describe our thoughts and feelings concerning many events in the government of God as frankly as Jonah does here. The worst is that our wickedness remains hidden in us, and we conceal it from ourselves and others. We must also judge Jonah according to his times and temptations; for it could easily be that a man of God should have little regard for the heathen, since Peter, in New Testament times, had to be instructed concerning them. Moreover the solicitude that the Ninevites, inexperienced in the ways of God, might turn his long suffering into contempt and despise his threatenings, was not unfounded. In our estimate in general of the faults and offenses of others, it should be borne in mind, that God knows how our temper exposes us on the one hand to peculiar temptations, but also on the other makes us useful for some purpose; hence no one should cling to the defects of others, but should in advance turn to good account the good qualities with which they are endowed. The vehement disposition of Jonah had plunged him into these faults, but what useful purpose this very disposition served in his office, must not be forgotten. That is a wicked art of our hearts, of which Solomon says, The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit, than seven men that can render a reason: namely he who never undertakes anything, commits, after his way of thinking, fewer faults, and is well pleased with his own conceit.
Burck: Jon 4:2. Thou hast not to consider what God will accomplish by thee, or without thee, but what He requires of thee and what becomes thee. God bears with much murmuring and impatience on the part of his servants.
Jon 4:3. Jonah did not pray for the destruction of the Ninevites, but for his own death. They are the readiest to do this, who know least the severity of God in the sentence of death. But Jonah has already endured a tenfold death in the sea. And now zeal for his office and for the honor attached to it by God presses upon him to such a degree that he wishes rather to die than to live. But God can require an offering from us such as He pleases: He did not now require the surrender of Jonahs life, but a patient waiting; and therefore Jonah found another kind of death and of a more salutary sort, than if God had taken his life away [in answer to his prayer].
Jon 4:6. The best way to refute a murmurer consists not in arguments, but in deeds.
Marck: God does not always lead sinners in the same manner to the right way; but at one time by severe chastisements, at another by kindness in word, or deed.
Cocceius: We always think that our affliction is something sacred, and yet it is often worldly; for how often are we obliged to see that it is mitigated by worldly consolation!
Rieger: Jon 4:7 ff. With others we often think that a word and a remonstrance should be enough; but in our case we experience, that we first became acquainted with ourselves under the actual dispensations of God, and thus too are made thoroughly healthy. Such is the vanity of our heart that it can be made glad and be troubled about trifling things. And yet God uses this experience in us as a means of discipline. If we are too much delighted with a gourd, He knows that nothing more than a worm hole is required to sober us again.
Burck: Jon 4:11. The book begins and closes with the words of God. Jonah is silent, and imitates, without doubt, the example of Job. (Job 40:3 f.)
[Matthew Henry: Jon 4:1. Jonah was mirabilis homo, as one calls him, an amazing man; the strangest, oddest, and most out-of-the-way man, for a good man and a prophet, as one shall ever hear or read of.
Pusey: Jon 4:2. Jonah, at least, did not murmur or complain of God. He complained to God of himself.
Jon 4:3. Impatient though he was, he still cast himself upon God. By asking of God to end his life, he, at least, committed himself to the sovereign disposal of God.
Keil: Children who cannot distinguish between right and left, cannot distinguish good from evil, and are not yet accountable.
Cowles: Jon 4:2. It is awful that a sinner, plucked himself as a brand from the burning, and living on mercy alone, should object to Gods showing the same mercy to his fellow sinners.
Jon 4:11. Who can estimate the amount of sparing mercy which the guilty of our world owe, in this life, to Gods pity for infants and for the sentient but unsinning animal races?C. E.]
Footnotes:
[1][ Jon 4:1. [anger] was kindled to him, i. e., he was angry. Sometimes this formula expresses the feeling of grief, sadness. In the Hithpa. the verb signifies to fret ones self, Psa 37:1; Psa 37:7-8. The LXX. sometimes render it by , Jon 4:4.
[2][ Jon 4:4. , Keil and Delitzsch: Is thine anger justly kindled? Henderson: Art thou much vexed? is used adverbially. Compare Deu 9:21; Deu 13:15; and 2Ki 11:18. LXX.: ; Vulgate: Putasne, bene irasceris tu?
[3][ Jon 4:5.The verbs in this verse may be rendered in the pluperfect: Jonah had gone . had sat . had made . and had sat under. Newcome and Kleinert so render them. See the Exegetical and Critical notes on the verse.
[4]Jon 4:10. , literally, which was the son of a night, and perished the son of a night. , a son, is used idiomatically to express what is produced, or exists, during the time predicated of it
[5][Jon 4:11.In Nineveh, and also in Babylon, there were probably large spaces where cattle fed.C. E.]
[6][Augustine, following the LXX. and Syr. versions, was in favor of the rendering gourd, which was adopted by Luther, the A. V., etc. In Jeromes description of the plant called in Syr. karo, and Punic el-keroa, Celsius recognizes the Ricinus, Palma Christi, or castor-oil plant (Hierobot, ii. 273 ff.; Bochart, Hieroz., ii. 293, 623). The Ricinus was seen by Niebuhr (Descript. of Arab., p. 148) at Bosra, where it was distinguished by the name el-keroa; by Rauwulf (Trav., p. 52), it was noticed in great abundance near Tripoli, where the Arabs called it el-kerua; while both Hasselquist and Robinson observed very large specimens of it in the neighborhood of Jericho (Ricinus in altitudinem arboris insignis, Hasselq., p. 555; see also Robins., i. 553). Smiths Dictionary of the Bible, s.v. Gourd.C. E.]
[7][That has reference to the ill humor of the prophet Jon 4:1, is, considering the simple tenor of the narrative, which does not hinder that Jon 4:5 ff. must be considered as preceding Jon 4:1, most probable. We cannot well think of the physical illness produced by the glowing heat of the sun: the suffix points too definitely to an already known evil. It would rather be possible to view the matter, in such a way that the whole perverted condition of the prophets soul is meant by , which God intended to cure by means of the ricinus, or rather by the lesson connected with its withering. By this the difficulty mentioned before would also be solved.
[8][Reichsgedanken. See note, p. 20.C. E.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
We have here a sad view of the mind of Jonah; the Lord’s grace to Nineveh excites the Prophet’s displeasure. he is reproved by the Lord under the figure of a gourd.
Jon 4:1
We have not a similar instance in scripture, of a minister of the Lord being displeased at the success of his labors; and it is hardly possible on common principles, to assign any cause. Did Jonah dread being found a false prophet more than being made an unsuccessful preacher? Reader! what a character doth Jonah here appear in? Pause over the view!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jon 4
These are those, I am afraid, who would rather see their neighbours suffer than their own forebodings fail. Jonah is not the only Prophet of evil whom it has displeased exceedingly, and who has been very angry, because God is a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. The beautiful apologue of the gourd is still, and, I fear ever will be applicable to many.
Julius Hare in Guesses at Truth.
Jonah’s Character
Jon 4:1
Jonah’s Character. At first it seems inconsistent and contradictory; but a little consideration shows that he represents a large class in every age, a class in which good and bad traits are combined.
I. Jonah’s Anger. Several causes have been suggested for it, and perhaps almost all of them more or less entered into it.
1. Personal humiliation; that his prediction having failed he might be regarded as a false Prophet.
2. Zeal for God’s honour among the heathen, which might be diminished by the failure of His Prophet’s prediction.
3. The painful contrast between the conversion of Gentile Nineveh and the impenitence of his own people.
4. Patriotism; the danger to his own country of the threatening power of Nineveh. This was probably the principal cause; since, if Nineveh had been destroyed, Israel would have been safe.
His anger causes him such misery that he requests for himself that he may die. God gently rebukes Jonah’s anger by the question, ‘Doest thou well to be angry?’ The best remedy for anger is quiet consideration of the matter, an appeal to our sense of justice, a seeing things as they are in God’s sight and not merely in our own prejudiced and selfish vision.
II. God’s Gift of the Gourd. In times of trouble God prepares consolation for the relief of His people. Such a refuge was Jonah’s gourd. Jonah quickly recovers his temper. He ‘rejoiced with great joy’ over the gourd. This reaction is a sign of his peculiar temperament, either very optimistic or very pessimistic.
The gourd, however, did not last. God, who had prepared it, prepared the worm which was to destroy it But worse still. God prepared a vehement wind, the sirocco.
Again there is a reaction, and Jonah desires to die. God sometimes withdraws the gifts of earthly consolations that we may learn to bear our cross in reliance upon Him, and not to rest in mere amelioration of our troubles and difficulties.
III. Jonah’s Character. He was a sincerely religious man and yet very human. His temperament leads him to vacillate between extremes; first open rebellion against God, then deep penitence; afterwards perfect obedience, then discontent and despair. Throughout we see a strong trait of selfishness. A very contradictory character, and yet true to life. A man of irascible temper, easily provoked, and then most unreasonable.
There are many lessons we may draw from Jonah’s character. Let us dwell on one Conversion does not mean complete sanctification. The one may be the act of a moment, the result of an overwhelming sense of penitence; the other is the work of many years, often of a lifetime.
A. G. Mortimer, One Hundred Miniature Sermons, p. 233.
References. IV. 1. Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxii. 1902, p. 60. IV. 1, 2. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xliii. No. 2544. IV. 3. J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in Sackville College Chapel, vol. iii. p. 210. IV. 6. Ibid. p. 216. IV. 7. D. L. Ritchie, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxiv. 1903, p. 310. IV. 10, 11. A. G. Mortimer, One Hundred Miniature Sermons, vol. i. p. 249. IV. 11. R. Hislop, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxx. 1906, p. 212. A. F. Winnington Ingram, ibid. vol. lxxiii. 1908, p. 200.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
IV
THE BOOK OF JONAH
Jonah is both the author and the hero of the book by this name. He was the son of Amittai, a reference to whom is also found in 2Ki 14:25 : “He [Jeroboam II] restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath unto the sea of the Arabah, according to the word of Jehovah, the God of Israel, which he spake by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was of Gath-hepher.” There can be no doubt as to the identity of this Jonah and the one mentioned in Jonah I: I since this name occurs nowhere else as the “son of Amittai, the prophet.” This passage not only accords with Jon 1:1 in giving the father’s name but it also gives us Jonah’s place of residence and the times in which he prophesied. The place of his birth was Gath-hepher, a town in Zebulun (Jos 19:13 ) about three, miles northeast of Nazareth which shows that he was a prophet of the Northern Kingdom. The time in which he lived is clearly shown to be the reign of Jeroboam II, the “Indian Summer” of Israel’s history after the division of the kingdom (2Ki 14:23-29 ).
There are several traditions relating to Jonah. (1) It is claimed by some that “Jonah”‘ means grieving and “Amittai” means true, from which arose the improbable opinion that Jonah was the son of the widow of Zarephath, whom Elijah raised to life, because of what she said when she received him from the dead (1Ki 17:24 ). (2) It is also supposed by some that Jonah was the boy who attended Elijah into the wilderness. (3) There is another tradition that he was the young man sent to anoint Jehu. (4) And singularly enough, there is the tradition that he was the husband of the Shunammite woman who extended hospitality to Elisha. (5) Respecting his burial place, there is a tradition that he was buried pear Nineveh and another, that he was buried at Gathhepher, his birthplace. It is needless to say that these traditions are without foundation in history but they indicate somewhat the impress of this striking character upon the literature of the world.
There is a reference to this prophecy of Jonah in Tobit 14:4-6; Tobit 14:15, an apocryphal book, in which Nineveh is said to have been overthrown according to this prophecy of Jonah. There are three references to Jonah the prophet in the Koran, viz: In chapter X, p. 157, there is a reference to the repentance of the Ninevites at the preaching of Jonah; in chapter XXXVII, p. 338, there is an account of Jonah’s commission, disobedience, and experience in the sea; in chapter LXVIII, p. 421, there is a reference to his sea experience, God’s mercy to him and his election unto righteousness. In Josephus’ Jewish Antiquities IX, 10:1-2, we have an account of Jonah’s prophecies, both to Jeroboam II and his call and prophecy to Nineveh. He adds several items of detail to the story of Jonah’s extraordinary experience in the sea, giving his objective as Tarsus in Cilicia and the point of landing as the Euxine Sea. There is little weight of authority to these statements but they indicate a conviction as to the historicity of the book of Jonah.
There are three legends that illustrate the extraordinary features of the book of Jonah, viz: (1) Hesione and Hercules, (2) Andromeda and Perseus, and (3) Saint George and the Dragon. These legends, the scenes of which are located on the Mediterranean Sea, reflect, perhaps, the impression made upon the ancient mind by this story of Jonah.
There are several scriptural references to the book, viz: 2Ki 14:25 ; Mat 12:39-41 ; Mat 16:4 ; Luk 11:29-30 , the import of which is that the book is historical and that Jonah is typical of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The purpose of this book is threefold: (1) To teach the bigoted Israelites that salvation is for the Gentiles as well as for the Jews; (2) to give a genuine lesson on repentance, as illustrated, (a) in Jonah, (b) in the Ninevites and (c) lad God himself; (3) to typify Christ. I
The occasion of this prophecy against Nineveh was the moral corruption of the Ninevites, “For their wickedness is come up before me” (Jon 1:1 ). To this, other prophets add their testimony: “Woe to the bloody city I” (Nah 3:1 ). “This is a joyous city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none else besides me” (Zep 2:15 ).
The annals of Assyria are nothing but a register of militarycampaigns, spoilations, and cruelties. Their monuments display men of calm and unmoved ferocity, whose moral and mental qualities are overborne by the faculties of the lower, brutal nature.” LATARD, Nineveh and Babylon , p. 631.
The style of this book is simple, pure Hebrew. The author believed that God prepared everything and the book bears the stamp of a simple, truthful narrative. It is not prophecy, in the strict sense of the word, but history, inserted among the prophets because written by a prophet. There is no moralizing I and no reflection. The tale is told graphically and has quite a dramatic interest, advancing in regular stages to the conclusion, and leaving an impression upon the mind as though its various scenes had been enacted before the eyes of the reader.
The miraculous element of the book is twofold: (1) the physical, (2) the moral. The physical miracles are the experience of Jonah in the sea and the incident of the gourd.
The moral miracle is the salvation of the Ninevites. There are three great doctrines illustrated in the incidents of the book. (1) There is the great doctrine of the resurrection set forth in this book symbolically. No one can doubt this who reads Mat 12:39-41 . (2) There is set forth here in the most dramatic action the great doctrine of genuine repentance. Man and beast together wear the symbols of penitence. (3) There is here illustrated God’s great, forbearing mercy, and loving-kindness. See his forbearance toward wicked Nineveh and his great loving kindness as here displayed toward a lost world.
Nineveh, the great city here referred to, was founded by Nimrod, a descendant of Ham (Gen 10:11 ; Mic 5:6 ), as a colony from Babylon which is proved by the monuments of Assyria. After this simple statement in Genesis the record is silent respecting Nineveh for a long time. The next mention of these people we find in the prophecy of Balaam (Num 24:22 ; Num 24:24 ), that Assyria should carry Israel away captive and the ships from Greece should afflict Assyria. The next reference to Assyria is found in Psa 83:8 which finds its historical reality in 2Ch 20:1-4 . This is an account of Assyria under Shalmaneser II joining with Moab and Ammon against Israel under Jehoshaphat at which time the Israelites were victorious. This is the real beginning of Assyria’s strength and greatness. Her power is now beginning to be felt for the first time in her history. This brings us in the Bible account of Assyria up to the time of Jonah and Jeroboam II, where Nineveh again enters by name on the biblical record. This reappearing of the name Nineveh is incidental, and shows that the Bible does not profess to give an orderly and systematic history of the world. The record here in Jonah says that Nineveh was a “great city.” It was located on the Tigris River and in the shape of a parallelogram, sixty miles around and three days’ journey on a straight line through it. Its walls were sixty feet high, with 1,500 towers, 200 feet high. The walls were broad enough on top to receive three chariots driving side by side. It is almost certain that this city was larger than Babylon, especially if we include in the estimate its suburbs. Jonah calls it “an exceeding great city of three days’ -journey” and with 120,000 infants, all of which indicate that Nineveh was no ordinary city.
Nineveh was destroyed by the combined forces of the Medes and Babylonians, the Median king being Cyaxares and the city was complete. Xenophon with 10,000 Greeks passed by it two centuries later and did not even mention it, unless he referred to it as one of the “uninhabited” cities of which he speaks. The remains of this city must have been in evidence in the days of the Roman emperors, since Tacitus refers to a Nineveh on the Tigris, and there is another reference to it as late as the thirteenth century.
The ruins now present a rampart and foss, four miles in circuit, with a moss-covered wall about twenty feet high. The archaeologists in recent years have done much to make Nineveh live before the minds of this generation. Their discoveries of the libraries have thrown a flood of light on the history of these people of the Far East; but the Bible account of Nineveh and the rest of the Oriental empires remains unmolested. The Ninevites worshiped the fish god and in excavating in this vicinity many stone images of a fish have been found with a man coming out of its mouth. There is evidently a connection between Jonah’s experience and these stone images. This seems to be a confirmation of the story of Jonah as a sign to the Ninevites. Since they worshiped the fish god, the Lord accredited Jonah unto them by means of such a miracle as would leave no doubt in their minds as to the superior power of Jehovah over their object of worship.
There is an abundance of literature on this book but I will name only a few of the very best helps to its interpretation. The boat commentaries are Pusey’s Minor Prophets and the “Pulpit Commentary.” The “Expositor’s Bible” is the worst that could be mentioned. Dr. A. J. Rowland’s monograph on Jonah is very fine. The article on Jonah in Smith’s Bible Dictionary is a pretty fair article. Sampey’s Syllabus is fine. A sermon on Jonah by Melville, a Scotch preacher, is able and good. Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, and Matthew Henry are also good.
The chapters constitute the divisions of the analysis of this book, as follows:
I. Jonah’s mission, disobedience, and punishment (Jon 1:1-17 )
1. His call, commission, and flight (Jon 1:1-3 )
2. God’s intervention and Jonah’s revelation (Jon 1:4-10 )
II. Jonah’s prayer, thanksgiving, and deliverance (Jon 2:1-10 )
1. His prayer (Jon 2:1-7 )
2. His thanksgiving (Jon 2:8-9 )
3. His deliverance (Jon 2:10 )
III. Jonah’s recall, obedience, and success (Jon 3:1-10 )
1. His recall (Jon 3:1-2 )
2. His obedience (Jon 3:3-4 )
3. His success (Jon 3:5-10 )
IV. Jonah’s displeasure and correction (Jon 4:1-11 )
1. His displeasure (Jon 4:1-5 )
2. His correction (Jon 4:6-11 )
The word “now” (Jon 1:1 ), is the same word in the Hebrew that is translated “and” at the beginning of several of the historical books and forms a connecting link, thus showing a continuation of history, or, as in this case, connecting revelation with revelation.
We come across the expression, “the word of Jehovah,” in our Bible first in Gen 15:1 and there it means the Son of God, the Logos of Joh 1:1 . There seems to be the same meaning here. The word of Jehovah came “saying.”
We find three parallels in the Bible to Jon 1:2 , “their wickedness has come up before me,” viz: (1) the case of Cain, (2) the case of the flood, and (3) the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, in each of which most solemn judgment followed. The striking difference in this case and those mentioned above is the repentance of the Ninevites which moved God to repentance and averted the awful judgment.
In his going from the presence of Jehovah, Jonah renounced his prophetic office; he went away from “standing before Jehovah”; gave up his credentials and “took to the woods” (waters), to Tarshish, a city in Spain, far away from the Jehovah country. Thus he thought to leave the land of Jehovah was to get away from the call of Jehovah. Alas! many a man has tried the policy of Jonah to his own sorrow. Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh, (1) because of his hatred for the idolatrous Gentiles, (2) because of his fear that God would show them mercy and his prediction would be discredited, (3) because of Nineveh’s growing strength and if spared she would become Israel’s rival and (4) because, perhaps, he feared ill treatment at the hands of the cruel and ferocious Assyrians.
In Jon 1:4 , “he paid the fare thereof,” we have a picture of the preacher renouncing his call of God upon which he must pay his own way, a hard fare indeed when one has lost the divine favor. But he sends a messenger after him, viz: a storm, and sometimes the fires of affliction are kindled all about him and sore distress comes upon him. God must be obeyed. See Psa 107:23-32 . But what the significance of “cast forth the wares” (Jon 1:5 )? This expression illustrates the fact that there is something to do besides to pray. Work is the handmaiden of prayer. Jonah’s being asleep is an illustration of a man who is guilty of sin, more especially the backslider. Sin stupefies and therefore they need to be aroused. A fine text: “O sleeper, arise.” Casting lots was one way of finding out the will of Jehovah. Compare Act 1:26 et multa al. This was simply a method of casting the vote. Jonah, understanding fully that the trouble was all on account of him, asked that they dispose of him by casting him into the sea and let him take the chance for his life, but the sailors saw only death for Jonah in such procedure and were not willing to take the risk of having upon them innocent blood. As the last resort they yielded.
There are three distinct things affirmed in Jonah 2:16, which need special notice, viz: (1) that they feared Jehovah, (2) that they offered sacrifice unto Jehovah, and (3) that they made vows, the explanation of which is, that Jonah had convinced them that Jehovah had brought the storm and therefore he was the one who was to be appeased. As to the nature of their fear, sacrifice, and vows we are not told but we are not to suppose that it was the reverential fear that brings salvation. It is probable that they acknowledged Jehovah as one of their gods after this event but there is nothing here to show that they accepted Jehovah as the only God to the exclusion of their own gods.
The fish that swallowed Jonah may have been a whale of the kind found in the Mediterranean Sea which is able to swallow a man whole, or it may have been the white shark of the same waters, as it is sometimes found in this section twenty-five feet long and has been known to swallow a man whole, and even a horse. There have been found in this sea three kinds of sea-animals that could easily swallow a man, viz: the Great Spermaceti Whale, the White Shark, and the Rorqual, one specimen of which has been found in this sea seventy-five feet long. So the contention that no whale or fish that could swallow a man is found in these parts is utterly baseless.
Jonah’s hymn is evidently made up of quotations from other passages of Scriptures which a comparison of the following passages will prove: Jon 2:2 equals Psa 120:1 ; Jon 2:3 equals Psa 42:7 ; Psa 18:4 ; Jon 2:4 equals Psa 31:22 ; Jon 2:5 equals Psa 18:40 ; Psa 18:5 ; Jon 2:7 equals Psa 18:6 (last clause) and Psa 142:3 ; Jon 2:8 equals Psa 31:6-7 . These correspondences could not have been fortuitous: the one poet must have had sounding in his mind the language of the other. Jonah evidently was well acquainted with the Psalms. “Lying vanities” in Jon 2:8 means idolatry and indicates a strong characteristic of heathen worship.
The second commission to Jonah is recorded in Jon 3:1-2 : “And the word of Jehovah came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.” The circumstances of this second commission are as follows: Jonah had had his extraordinary experience in the sea and had, doubtless, returned home, allowing sufficient time for the news of this great and singular event to reach Nineveh, thus preparing the way for Jonah’s preaching by accrediting Jonah to them in a way that would impress them with the superiority of Jonah’s God over their fish god. There are three distinct things here relative to God’s relation to the ministry that need to be emphasized, viz: (1) God calls his ministers by a direct appeal to them: “and the word of Jehovah came unto Jonah, saying”; (2) God selects the field of labor for his ministers: “Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city”; (3) God gives the message: “and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.” This is a fine example of what the preacher ought to be, viz: God-called, God-appointed, and God-instructed. With these three essentials in his life and work the minister knows no failure.
The “yet” in Jon 3:4 indicates an implied promise; that this was not an announcement of an absolute decree of God, but was a conditional decree. God repented when they repented. Note that there are three particular cases of repentance in this book: (1) the preacher repents; (2) the people repent; (3) God repents. Observe the order. When the preacher repents, the people generally repent, and when the preacher and the people repent, God always repents. The “yet” here indicates God’s attitude toward a sinner. Though he thunders the law of Sinai over the sinner’s head, it is only that the sinner may be prepared to hear the voice from Calvary. “Yet forty days and “Nineveh shall be overthrown,” but the “forty days” furnish space for repentance.
“Believed God” in Jon 3:5 is equivalent to “believed on God” and is saving faith, as with Abraham. Fasting and sackcloth are external evidences of repentance. In Jon 3:7 we see the call to real fasting and repentance. In Jon 3:8 the animals lowing for fodder were crying to God. The prayers of the people and the crying of the cattle make a powerful appeal to God. But praying and crying were not enough. “Let them turn every one from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands” and show by this his real earnestness, as in the New Testament exhortation: “Let him that stole steal no more but return what he has stolen.” Restitution is a law of forgiveness. This passage is equalled in the New Testament by John the Baptist’s preaching and Paul’s preaching at Ephesus. This is both a moral and spiritual miracle. It is the biggest case of conversion in the Old Testament on a foreign field. Jonah was the first foreign mission preacher and had but one credential. Some say people cannot be moved religiously by fear but it is a mistake. People are influenced both by the fear of punishment and by the hope of reward. The motive in Luk 15 is “Joy in heaven.” “Ye shall likewise perish except ye repent.” Preach love always, but don’t leave out hell.
Jonah was much displeased with and angry at the Lord’s attitude, but the Lord dealt gently with him giving him the lesson of the gourd (Jon 4:6-11 ). It was not right for Jonah to be angry at what God did, nor is it ever right to be angry at what God does, especially in the salvation of the people. In this connection he gives the reason for his unwillingness to go to Nineveh at the outset, but he was wrong in his attitude toward the people of Nineveh. This attitude culminated in madness at Jehovah’s attitude toward them and went to the extent of wishing for death. But it is a very cowardly thing to wish for death under such circumstances.
To this foolishness of Jonah the Lord answered that Jonah’s regard for the gourd was but a small matter compared to his regard for the 120,000 infants and the much cattle of Nineveh. This is a beautiful lesson of God’s attitude toward the irresponsible and gives us a splendid Old Testament view of God’s attribute of mercy.
As Jonah, after his resurrection, became a missionary to the Gentiles, so Christ after his resurrection declared his “all authority” and commissioned his church to go to the ends of the world. The resurrection had a marvelous effect in enlarging the commission.
QUESTIONS
1. What are the traditions relating to Jonah?
2. Who was Jonah and what the time of his writing?
3. What references to this book in literature and what is the testimony in each case?
4. What three legends may be mentioned as illustrating the extraordinary features of the story of Jonah?
5. What are the scriptural references to the book and what the import of their teaching?
6. What is the purpose of this book?
7. What is he occasion of this book and how is it proved from the history of Nineveh?
8. What of the style and character of the book?
9. What of the miraculous element of the book?
10. What doctrines illustrated by the incidents of the book?
11. Give an account of Nineveh.
12. What the form of idolatry in Nineveh at this time and what the evidence of Jonah’s impress on the Ninevites?
13. What helps on this book commended?
14. What is the analysis of this book?
15. What is the force of the word “now” of verse I?
16. Where do we first find the expression, “the word of Jehovah,” in the Bible and what does it mean there?
17. What parallels to Jon 1:2 , “their wickedness is come up before me,” do we find elsewhere in the Bible and what striking difference in this case?
18. What is the meaning of “Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of Jehovah”?
19. What Jonah’s reasons for not wanting to go to Nineveh?
20. What is the meaning and application of Jon 1:4 , “he paid the fare thereof”?
21. What is the significance in Jon 1:5 of “cast forth the wares”?
22. What is the suggestion from Jonah’s being asleep?
23. What of casting lots in Jon 1:7 ?
24. What is the remedy for the case as proposed by Jonah and how did it meet the approval of the sailors?
25. How do you explain, their fearing Jehovah and sacrificing unto him?
26. What of the fish that swallowed Jonah?
27. What is the relation of Jonah’s hymn to other passages of Scripture?
28. What is the meaning of “lying vanities” in Jon 2:8 ?
29. What Jonah’s second commission, what its circumstances and what three things in this commission, illustrative of God’s relation to the minister and his work?
30. What is the force of “yet” in Jon 3:4 ?
31. What are the points of Jon 3:5-10 ?
32. How did Jonah receive the fact of the conversion of the Ninevites and God’s mercy to them and how did God deal with him?
33. Was it right for Jonah to be angry, what the extent of his madness and what do you think of his wish?
34. What was Jehovah’s answer to all this foolishness of Jonah?
35. How is the relation of the resurrection and the commission of Christ illustrated in this book?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Jon 4:1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
Ver. 1. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly ] Mirabilis homo profecto fuit Ionas, saith Winckelman here, as strange a man was Jonah of an honest man as you shall lightly hear of. Well might David caution, Psa 37:8 , “Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. A fretful man is easily drawn to evil. David was (once at least) displeased at God’s dealing, which was no whit for his credit or comfort, 2Sa 6:8 . Discontented he was, not at God’s lenity, as Jonah, but at God’s severity against Uzziah, and that all the people’s joy should be dashed and damped with such a sad and sudden disaster. How much better minded was he when dumb, not once opening his mouth, because God did it, Psa 39:9 . The Greeks give this rule, Either say nothing, or say that which is better than nothing, . “O that you would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom,” said Job to his friends, Job 13:5 . Silence sometimes comes to be a virtue; and never more than when a man is causelessly displeased. Prima semper irarum tela maledicta sunt, saith Sallust. Angry people are apt to let fly, to mutter and mutiny against God and man, as here. Reason should say to choler that which the nurse saith to the child, Weep not, and you shall have it. But either it doth not, or if it do, yet the ear (which tasteth words, as the mouth doth meat) is oft so filled with gall (some creatures have fel in aure gall in gold) that nothing can relish with it. See Exo 6:9 . If Moses’ anger was pure, free from guile and gall, Exo 32:19 , yet Jonah’s was not so. It is surely very difficult to kindle and keep quick this fire without all smoke of sin. Be angry and sin not is, saith one, the easiest charge, under the hardest condition that can be. Men, for the most part, know not what they do in their anger; this raiseth such a smoke. Put fire to wet straw and filthy stuff, and it will smoke and smutch you quickly; yea, scorch you and scald you, when once it breaks out. Lev 13:5 , we read of a leprosy breaking out of a burning: seldom do passions burn but there is a leprosy breaking out of that burning. It blistereth out at the lips: hence the Hebrews have but one and the same word for anger and foaming at the mouth, Ketseph, spuma, Hos 10:7 Est 1:18 Zec 1:2 . They have also a proverb, that a man’s disposition is much discovered, bechos, bechis, becagnab, by his cup, by his purse, and by his passion, at which time, and in which cases, “A fool uttereth all his mind,” Pro 29:11 (all his wrath, say the Seventy, ), and that suddenly, rashly, as the Hebrew intimateth; but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards, Pro 29:11 ( a fool, and suddenly, rashly, are from the same root. De sera numin, vindict. ). Ahasuerus, when he felt himself enraged against Haman, walked into his garden, Est 7:7 . And Plutarch tells of one Archytas, that, displeased with his servants for their sloth, he fled from them, saying, Valete quoniam vobis irascor, I will leave you, for that I am angry with you. The very first insurrections of inordinate passions are to be crushed, the first smoke of them to be smothered, which else will fume up into the head, and gather into so thick a cloud, as we shall lose the sight of ourselves and what is best to be done. Cease, therefore, from rash anger, and stint strife betime. “The beginning of it,” saith Solomon, “is as when one letteth out water; therefore leave off contention before it be meddled with,” Pro 17:14 . Storms rise out of little gusts, and the highest winds are at first but a small vapour. Had Jonah stopped or stepped back when he felt himself first stirred, he had not so shamefully overshot himself, nor heaped up so many sins, as he did in the following intercourse with Almighty God. He was naturally hot and hasty, and so were those two brethren, the sons of thunder; they had quick and hot spirits, Luk 9:54-55 . Now, where there is much untowardness of nature there grace is the more easily overborne: sour wines need much sweetening. God’s best children, though ingrafted into the true vine, yet carry they about them a relish of the old stock still. It is thought by very good divines, that Jonah, feeling his own weakness in giving place to anger, thought to strive against it, and so addressed himself to prayer, Joh 4:2 ; but transported by his passions of grief and rash anger, while by prayer he thought to have overcome them, they overcame him and his prayer too. So true is that of the apostle, “The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God,” Jas 1:20 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Jon 4:1-4
1But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry. 2He prayed to the LORD and said, Please LORD, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity. 3Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for death is better to me than life. 4The LORD said, Do you have good reason to be angry?
Jon 4:1 it greatly displeased Jonah The ADJECTIVE (BDB 949) and VERB (BDB 949, KB 1269,Qal IMPERFECT) are COGNATES, which intensifies the meaning (cf. Neh 2:10). Jonah was angry that God was going to spare Nineveh.
Jonah uses (BDB 949) often and in several senses.
1. wickedness, Jon 1:2
2. calamity, Jon 1:7-8; Jon 3:10; Jon 4:2
3. displeased, Jon 4:1
4. discomfort, Jon 4:6
The term used of Ninevites is now used of Jonah (cf. The Expositors Bible Commentary, vol. 7, p. 385). What a reversal! Sin without light is one thing, but sin with light is far more serious and condemnable (cf. Luk 12:48).
he became angry This Hebrew VERB means to burn (BDB 354, KB 351, Qal IMPERFECT, cf. Jon 4:1; Jon 4:4; Jon 4:9[twice]). Jonah became angry even before the deadline of forty days was complete. Jonah’s worst fear, that Nineveh would repent and that YHWH would spare them, had come to pass. Jonah was accurate in his theology (cf. Jon 1:9; Jon 4:2), but failed in love (cf. 1Co 13:1-8).
Jon 4:2 He prayed In an attitude of anger, with an I-told-you-so prayer, Jonah was trying to justify or rationalize his previous rebellious actions (i.e., to forestall this I fled to Tarshish).
You art a gracious and compassionate God Jonah is angry about this (i.e., God’s not punishing Assyria’s sin)! This mercy is the very nature of God which had saved Jonah from the sea. The source of this theological statement is Exo 34:6 then repeated in Num 14:18-19; Neh 9:17; Neh 9:31-32; Psa 86:5; Psa 86:15; Psa 103:8; Psa 103:11-13; Psa 145:8; Jer 32:18-19; and Joe 2:13. Jonah uses words similar to those of Joel; possibly he was influenced by Joel’s prophecy. See Special Topic: Characteristics of Israel’s God .
The ADJECTIVE gracious (BDB 337) is used only of God. The ADJECTIVE merciful (BDB 933) is from the NOUN womb, which denotes intense parental love (cf. Hos 1:6; Hos 2:4 vs. Hos 2:19; Hos 2:23[twice]).
The CONSTRUCT slow to anger (BDB 74 and 60) is an idiom that is literally long of nose (i.e., slow to flare the nostrils, cf. Num 14:18; Neh 1:3). Love, not wrath, is God’s basic character (cf. Isa 28:21; Lam 3:33).
For the CONSTRUCT abounding in lovingkindness (BDB 912 and 338) see Special Topic: Lovingkindness (hesed) .
one who relents concerning calamity See notes at Jon 3:9-10.
Jon 4:3 please take my life The death wish (BDB 542, KB 534, Qal IMPERATIVE, cf. Num 11:15; Jer 20:14-18; 1Ki 19:4) expressed in this verse (cf. Jon 4:8) is very different from Jonah’s attitude while he was in the great fish.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
displeased = vexed. Not the waywardness of a child, but the displeasure of a man of God, for great and sufficient reason to him. Now that Nineveh was spared, it might after all be used as God’s rod for Israel, and thus destroy the hope held out by him to Israel in 2Ki 14:25-21. See note on Jon 3:5 and p. 1247.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 4
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. And he prayed unto the LORD, and he said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this what I said to you, when I was still in my own country? And this is why I fled to go to Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, and you’re slow to anger, and of great kindness, and you do not want to bestow evil ( Oba 4:1-2 ).
“God, I knew it. Oh, I’m so mad. Just what I was afraid was going to happen happened. Isn’t this why I tried not to come here?” Oh, what a character this Jonah was. Angry at God because of the tremendous success of his revival meeting in Nineveh. “Okay, God, I’ve had it.”
take my life from me ( Jon 4:3 );
I don’t want to go on living.
for it is better for me to die than to live ( Jon 4:3 ).
Boy, he was really angry. “All right, God, I’ve had it. I knew this might happen. It was what I was afraid of, Lord. It was what I told You about when I was in my own country. That’s why I fled to go to Tarshish. I knew that You’re so gracious, You’re so merciful, You’re so slow to anger, You’re such a softy. I knew, God, that this might happen. Kill me, Lord, kill me. I don’t want to live. Better for me to die than to live. Had it.”
And the Lord dealing with this over-wrought prophet said,
[Jonah,] do you do well to be angry? So Jonah went out of the city, and he made a booth [little thatched lean to, shelter], and he sat under it in the shadow of it, till he might see what might become of the city ( Jon 4:4-5 ).
Maybe God will wipe them out yet. I’ll go out and just sit and wait and watch.
And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and he made it to come up over Jonah, that it might give shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was very thankful for the gourd [because he was able to have some shade from that burning sun]. But then the LORD prepared a worm ( Jon 4:6-7 )
Now the Lord prepared a great fish. He prepared a gourd. He prepared a worm, or appointed a gourd, appointed a worm.
and the next morning, the worm had eaten the gourd and it withered. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind ( Jon 4:7-8 );
God prepared the storm. He has charge of the elements. I mean, God’s in control of the whole scene.
and the sun beat on the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished to die, and said, I would be better off dead than alive. And God said to Jonah, Do you do well to be angry because of that gourd that was destroyed by that little worm? And he said, [You bet your life] I do well to be angry, even unto death. Then said the LORD, [Isn’t that interesting, Jonah,] you have pity on that gourd, for the which you did not labor, you did not make it grow; it came up in a night, and perished in a night ( Oba 4:8-10 ):
Something that was so short-lived; came up in a night, perished in a night. You didn’t do anything to plant it. You didn’t do anything to water it or to develop it. You had really nothing to do with it. It’s just a gourd. It’s just a vine, and yet, when it died because the worm ate it you felt sorry for the thing because the worm killed it. How strange, Job. For you see, I created the Ninevites. I had something to do with their existence. It isn’t just an overnight process; there are eternal souls. It’s not just a plant. They are people.
And shouldn’t I not spare Nineveh, the great city ( Jon 4:11 ),
And why is God sparing it? Because of his compassion upon the children,
in which there are sixty thousand little children not old enough to know their right hand from their left hand ( Jon 4:11 );
And interestingly enough, God also spared it because of the animals, because of the cattle.
So the book of Jonah ends with an insight into God who is gracious, who is merciful, who is slow to anger, who does not want to bring judgment upon evil people, who has great compassion and interest in children and in the animal kingdom that He has created. Fascinating story. So many lessons to be learned, the chief of them, “They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.”
Don’t try to run from God. Don’t try to hide from God. Surely God knows what is best for you. And for you to do anything other than what God wants you to do is only to create a misery and a hell for yourself. You are inviting and courting disaster. God knows what is best. Therefore, submit your ways unto the Lord and follow Him.
Father, we thank You for the book of Jonah and the lessons that it teaches us, lessons concerning Your nature. Lord, we’re so thankful that You are a gracious, loving God; full of mercy, slow to anger. We thank You, Lord, for that grace that we have experienced through Jesus Christ, the mercy and the pardon and the cleansing of our sins, the escaping of the judgment, because Jesus bore that judgment for us. Oh God, how thankful we are that You have redeemed us and that You now claim us as Your children. Help us, Lord, that we might walk in obedience to Your will in all things. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
May the Lord be with you, may the Lord bless you, may the Lord keep you through the power of His love through Jesus Christ. And may you this week be obedient unto the voice of God as He calls to your heart for that work that He would have you to accomplish for His glory. In Jesus’ name. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Jon 4:1. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
A nice prophet this! Jonah was a man of a somewhat ugly disposition, yet I think he has been misunderstood. He was the true child of Elijah, the prophet of fire. Elijah was a rough, stern servant of the Lord, who felt that the indignities which had been done to Jehovah deserved instant and terrible punishment; and he seemed almost to wish to see that punishment inflicted, as he accused the people unto God, saying, the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away. He was bravely stern for God, and Jonah was cast in a similar mold. He seemed to feel, I have been sent of God to tell these people that they will be destroyed for their sin. Now, if they are not destroyed, it will be thought that I have not preached the truth, and, what is far more serious, it will be thought that God does not keep his word. His whole thought was taken up with the honour of God, and his own honour as involved in that of the Lord. There are many people, nowadays, who seem to think everything of man, and very little of God; and, consequently, they fall into grievous errors. Jonah, on the contrary, thought everything of God, and very little of men. He fell into an error by so doing, and there was a want of balance of judgment, yet is Jonahs error so very seldom committed that I am half inclined to admire it in contrast with the error on the other side. He felt that it would be better for Nineveh to be destroyed than for Gods truthfulness to be jeopardized even for a single moment. God would not have us push even concern for his honour too far; but we are such poor creatures that, very often, when we are within an inch of the right course, we fall into a snare of the enemy. It was so with Jonah, when he was exceedingly displeased and very angry at what God had clone in sparing the repentant people of Nineveh.
Jon 4:2. And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish : for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.
This was as much as if he had said to the Lord, I went and did thy bidding, and told the Ninevites that they would be destroyed; but I knew in my heart that, if they repented, thou wouldst not carry out thy threat, and now thou art too gracious, too kind, to these wicked people. It is a strange thing, is it not, that Jonah was angry because his message was blessed to his hearers? As a good commentator says, When Christ sees of the travail of his soul, he is satisfied; but when Jonah saw of the travail of his soul, he was dissatisfied. There are some men who leave off preaching because they do not succeed; but here was one who was ready to give up because he did succeed. It is strange that such a good man as Jonah was should fall into such a foolish state of mind; but God still has a great many unwise children. You can find one if you look in the right place; I mean, in a looking-glass. We are all foolish at times; and it should be remembered that, although Jonah was foolish, and wrong in certain respects, there is this redeeming trait in his character, we might never have known the story of his folly if he had not written it himself. It shows what a true-hearted man the prophet was, that he just unveiled his real character in this Rook. Biographies of men are seldom truthful, because the writers cannot read the hearts of those whom they describe; and if they could read them, they would not like to print what they would see there. But here is a man, inspired of God to write his own biography, and he tells us of this sad piece of folly, and does not attempt in the least degree to mitigate the evil of it. Now turn to a very different portion of Scripture, Romans 5
This exposition consisted of readings from Jonah 3; Jon 4:1-2; and Romans 5.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Jon 4:1-3
GODS MESSENGER RUNNING AHEAD OF GOD-
THE DISPLEASURE OF JONAH
TEXT: Jon 4:1-3
Jonah feels his mission is a failure when Nineveh is not destroyed, He cannot go back and preach to his wicked countrymen with any forcefulness because God is merciful, Jonah would rather be dead.
Jon 4:1-3 . . . IT DISPLEASED JONAH EXCEEDINGLY . . . THEREFORE . . . TAKE . . . MY LIFE FROM ME . . . There are about as many different opinions as to the cause of Jonahs anger as there are commentators. We prefer Professor Fairbairns evaluation. We just cannot bring ourselves to characterize Jonah as a man so full of hate that his primary vexation is due to a cold-blooded desire to see hundreds of thousands of heathen slain. Fairbairn says, Jonah was disconcerted and downcast because the example of severity had been withheld, which he thought would operate so beneficially upon the minds of his countrymen and without which he seemed to have no means of attaining the great end and object of his life. Hugh Martin, in The Prophet Jonah, says, In Jonahs judgment the sparing of Nineveh would eclipse the honor of God, destroy the credit of his ministry, and harden the hearts of his countrymen.
The people of Israel in Jonahs day were in a state of terrible degeneracy and profligacy. All the efforts of God, sending them prophets, had thus far failed to bring them to their senses and repentance. So the Lord, before abandoning them finally to their fate, sought once more to move them from their downward plunge, by working upon them through feelings of jealousy and shame while at the same time giving them an example of His mercy and loving-kindness when repentance is shown. For this purpose God did with Nineveh what He did not usually do with other heathen nations. Living in the age of ease, comfort, luxury, during national ascendency of Jeroboam II when the people were almost totally libertine, Jonah preached in vain month after month, year after year. All the while his own countrymen and neighbors despised everything he was attempting to do on their behalf. It is no wonder Jonah, like Elijah of old, after waiting month after month for some fearful, sudden, decisive turning-point to come in the form of wrath from the Lord, would feel discouraged by the thought of the Lords mercy. When he thought of this at his first call it would cause him to despair of any thing effectual being accomplished toward bringing his own countrymen to their senses. Then after his own experience in the sea monsters belly, he might stand in the midst of Nineveh and imagine that in forty days he would at last obtain the very example of the wrath of God upon sin that he hoped would come and that he could take back to Israel and persuade them to turn from their sin.
It requires no stretch of the imagination, then, to see what a disappointment it was for him to see Nineveh spared, and the very weapon snatched from his hand by which he hoped to prevail against the sin of his countrymen. Jonah was not so much concerned with his own reputation nor so full of hate and vengeance that he would have taken some fiendish delight in the slaying of thousands of people; but he loved his own people so intensely, and was so firmly persuaded that an act of severity was required to shake them from their false security he was grieved and frustrated. Instead of having the vantage point of a tremendous illustration of Gods wrath upon sin he felt his whole purpose in life had been defeated and there was nothing left for him but to die.
Neither Jonah nor Elijah were right. Both of them were out of harmony with Gods will. Both of them misunderstood Gods plan and had only a partial view of His purposes and therefore made hasty, carnal judgments as to how God should govern. The lesson for us is that Gods way is still the best; for He sees the end from the beginning, and directs all with infinite skill and unerring wisdom. If we could alter the plan of God it would not be for the better but for the worse. We must take the attitude of Habakkuk who, when he could not understand why God would use a heathen nation to punish the covenant people, said, I will take my stand to watch, and station myself on the tower, and look forth to see what he will say to me . . . behold . . . the righteous shall live by faith.
Questions
1. Why do you think Jonah was displeased with Gods mercy on Nineveh?
2. What other prophet had the same concept of how God should govern?
3. What lesson should we learn from this?
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
The final picture of the controversy between Jonah and Jehovah reveals most vividly, through Jonah, the attitude of the ancient people which his story was intended to correct, and Jehovah’s care for, and patience with, all sinning peoples, which they so little understood. The prophet went out of the city, and in distress and resentment sat in a booth of his own making to watch the course of events.
Again the overruling of Jehovah was manifest in the prepared gourd, the prepared worm, and the prepared sultry east wind. So great were the anger and anguish of the prophet that he fainted, and asked again that he might die. Jehovah repeated His question, but with a new application, “Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd?” He who had been angry that the city was not destroyed, was angry that the gourd was destroyed; and he answered the inquiry by affirming, “I do well to be angry, even unto death.”
Thus the last picture we have of Jonah is of a man still out of harmony with the tender mercy of God, and the last vision of Jehovah is of a God full of pity and compassion even for a city such as Nineveh, and willing to spare it if it returned to Him in penitence.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
the Prophets Narrowness Rebuked
Jon 4:1-11
This chapter marks an era in the development of the outlook of the Hebrew people. Here, upon its repentance, a heathen city was pardoned. Clearly Jehovah was the God, not of the Jews only but of the Gentiles also. Jonah, however, had no pleasure in the revelation. He clung to the bitter narrowness of national prejudice fearing that when his own people received tidings of Ninevehs repentance and deliverance, they would be encouraged in their obstinate refusal of Gods law.
How often God puts gourds into our lives to refresh us with their exquisite greenery, and to remind us of His thoughtful love! Our fretfulness and petulance are no barriers to His tender mercy. The withering of the gourd extorted bitter reproaches from the prophet who would have beheld the destruction of Nineveh without a tear. He did not realize that to God Nineveh was all, and much more, than the gourd was to him. Notice the extreme beauty of the concluding verse: The permanence of the city contrasted with the frailty of the gourd! The responsibility of God for Nineveh, which He had made to grow! The preciousness to Him, not only of the mature, but of babes and cattle!
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Chapter 4
The Repentance Of Nineveh
The Holy Spirit has declared that the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. It is a most humiliating truth, but experience and Scripture everywhere corroborate it. It is not that the carnal mind in an unconverted person merely, is so hopelessly evil; but this wretched principle is as unreliable and vile in the greatest saint as in the worst sinner. Indeed, it is when we see the working of the flesh in one who is an example of piety that we appreciate its incurable iniquity as never before. No child of God dare trust the flesh. It will betray him into unholy thoughts and ways every time it is permitted to have control. I say permitted, purposely, for no Christian is of necessity subject to its power. Rightly viewed, it is a foreign thing, that should not have place for one moment. The believer is called upon to refuse its sway, and, in place of yielding his members unto it as though it had a necessary authority over him, he is called upon to make no provision for the flesh to fulfil its lusts. He is to reckon himself dead to it, and to yield himself unto God as one alive from the dead. Let it be otherwise, and defeat is certain-the triumph of the flesh is assured. But if we walk in the Spirit, we shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
Now in Jonah, here, we see a saint under the power of the flesh; though we cannot doubt that he was enabled to judge his failure at last, while commanded by God to put the record of it in the form it here bears in order that it might prove an admonitory lesson to thousands. No one doubts that it was the flesh that led to his fleeing from the presence of the Lord. It was the same power that was controlling him when he sat down outside the city, after delivering his message, to see what the Lord would do. Instead of his heart being filled with joy because of the repentance of the Ninevites, he was filled with anxiety as to his own reputation.
Probably few of us realize what a strong place self has in our affections till something arises that touches our own personal dignity. It is then that we manifest what spirit we are of. There is more of the Jonah disposition about us than we like even to admit to ourselves. Yet to own failure is one of the first steps to deliverance from it.
When all heaven was rejoicing at the repentance, not of one sinner, but of a vast multitude, we are told that it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. His state is most wretched, yet he is altogether unconscious of it. Puffed up with a sense of his own importance, the weal or woe of so many of his fellow-creatures is as nothing compared to his own reputation. Yet so utterly unconscious is he of the wretchedness of his state of soul, that he can turn to God and express his shameful failure as though he had not failed at all; or even as though the failure, if there were any, was on the part of the Lord Himself.
He prayed unto the Lord, and said, I pray Thee, 0 Lord, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that Thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest Thee of the evil. Therefore now, 0 Lord, take, I beseech Thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live. It seems almost unbelievable that a servant of God could be in such a dreadful state of soul; but, alas, it was but an aggravated form of that insidious disease, pride, that so readily finds a congenial place for growth and expansion in the breast of any saint out of communion.
The tender question of the Lord might well have broken Jonah down, had he not been so thoroughly self-occupied. Then said the Lord, Doest thou well to be angry? There is no reproach: just the serious and solemn question that ought to have awakened him at once to his true condition of soul.
How often He would press a similar question upon us when cherishing unholy thoughts or feedings, or walking in our own paths and neglecting His ways! Doest thou well to be thus pleasing thyself and dishonoring Him? Surely not! But it is amazing how slow one can be to own how ill he is doing when he has become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
On Jonahs part there is no response in words; but, acting in self-will and wounded vanity, he goes outside the city, and, after building a booth, sits under its shadow, to see what would become of Nineveh and of his prophetic reputation.
In grace God prepared a gourd, which, growing very rapidly, soon overshadowed the petulant prophet, and thus sheltered him from the fierce rays of the almost tropical sun. Because it ministered to his comfort, Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. This is the first note of joy on his part that we find recorded, and is in fact the last as well. His gladness was as truly from selfishness as was his sorrow.
But God now prepares something that is to blast that joy. A worm is permitted to destroy the gourd, and then a vehement east wind is likewise prepared by Him who has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm. The sickening heat almost overcame Jonah, so that he fainted; and in his chagrin and wretchedness he wished once more that he might be permitted to escape his trials by dying, saying, It is better for me to die than to live.
Again God speaks: this time to inquire in tenderest tone, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? Gloomily the offended prophet answers, I do well to be angry, even unto death. It is the callousness that comes from allowing sin to go unjudged, till all capacity to discern between right and wrong seems to have gone.
The reply of Jehovah is an opening up of His grace that evidently accomplishes its end; for Jonah has no word of self-vindication to offer. He permits God to have the last word, and closes his record abruptly, as though what followed were of too sacred and private a nature for him to publish it abroad. The Lord said, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the 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 sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle? The question is unanswerable. Jonah grieved for the loss of the gourd because it had ministered to his comfort. Jehovah yearned over the sinners of Nineveh because of the love of His heart. How opposite were Master and servant! But we must leave the history where God leaves it. The rest we shall know at the judgment-seat of Christ. Meantime may we have grace given to daily judge in ourselves aught that, if left to develop, would lead us as far from Himself as Jonah wandered!
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Jon 4:4
(with Eph 4:20)
The former text implies that there is an anger which is sinful; and the latter text implies that there is an anger which is not sinful. The difference lies not so much in the character, or even in the degree, of the emotion; but rather in the motive which rouses it and the object towards which it is directed.
I. There is a feeling to which we give the name of moral indignation; by way of distinguishing it from other kinds of anger, more or less selfish and self-asserting; moral indignation is characterized chiefly by this-that it is quite unselfish. It is the feeling which rises in the breast of a man when he reads of or looks upon the ill-treatment of an animal, or the deception of a child, or the insulting of a woman. To stand by and see these things without remonstrance or without interference, is not forbearance; it is a cowardice, it is an unmanliness, it is a sin.
II. There is place, again, and room for anger, not only in the contemplation of wrong, but in the personal experience of temptation. There is an indignation, there is even a resentment, there is even a rage and fury, which may be employed, without offence to the Gospel, in repelling such an assault. Nor is that anger necessarily misplaced, because the lips of friendship or love are those which play the seducer. The tempter, like the bully, is a coward; the very eye undimmed by sinning will scare him off, like the rising sun of the Psalmist, to lay him down in his den.
III. Be angry with yourself, and sin not; let the time of this ignorance and folly and fatuity go at last and bury itself; awake to righteousness, and sin not; see if a moral indignation, powerful against others, may not beneficially be tried against yourself.
C. J. Vaughan, Temple Sermons, 463.
Jon 4:5
I. Jonah sat in his booth, dark and moody-plunged into deep distress by the very things which brought relief and hope to the great city. The reasons for his displeasure were manifold. He was jealous, with a needless jealousy, for the honour of God. His own reputation as a prophet was touched. His country was in danger from the Assyrian power, which he had hoped was now to be utterly humbled and smitten. The course of Providence had seemed right to him, although dark, while justice had held the awful scales and looked at the glittering sword. But now when mercy-fairer form than justice-had sheathed the sword, and thrown vast forgiveness into the scale to outweigh all terrors and penalties, he sees, with jaundiced eye, the whole course of Providence running in a wrong direction. “The times are out of joint.” Sorrows wait for him and his. Surely the Lord is not taking the best plan.
II. Then came the prayer. This verse shows us that his “displeasure” and “grief” were just such as come to men amid the reverses and thwartings of life. It was the sighing and fretting of a wounded spirit amid “things,” but not the personal and conscious revolt of the soul against the living God. He prays that he may die. (i) There is a certain wild majesty in this desire from which we can hardly withhold the tribute of our admiration. He wanted to die there and then. This wounded spirit, realizing its immortality the more amid change and adversity, rises disdainfully above the mortal pathway, above the whole round of earthly toil and care,-ambition and its reverses, honour and its shadows, joy and its close attendant grief,-beats its wings in the higher air, and asks to be liberated for the last flight, up into immortality and heaven. (ii) This prayer shows weakness as well as strength. There is in it, after all, something of a child’s waywardness. “Things have gone all awry, and nothing can ever be right again. Let me get away from such a disjointed world.”
III. We can hardly doubt that Jonah thought of Elijah in offering the selfsame prayer, and that, in his own mind, he justified the presentation of it by the force of so great an example. Thus “the evil that men do,” even in their prayers, “lives after them.” Great men, when they err, are great tempters. A prophet can beguile a prophet.
A. Raleigh, The Story of Jonah, p. 252.
Reference: Jon 4:5-11.-W. G. Blaikie, Homiletic Magazine, vol. vi., p. 358.
Jon 4:6-11
I. Jonah’s gourd was all but certainly the palm-Christ, so-called because it is a five-leaved plant, one leaf of which outspread resembles a man’s hand. It was thought to represent the hand of Christ. This plant is indigenous in nearly all the Eastern countries. It grows to the height of eight, ten, twelve feet. It has but one leaf for a branch, but the branches are numerous, and the leaves are broad. Branch rising above branch, nothing could be better adapted for making a screen and casting a relieving shadow. It was a quickly growing plant, which sprang up during the forty days, and was ready with its shade for the prophet’s time of need. By a poetic figure it is called, in the tenth verse, “the son of the night.”
II. Why was Jonah so exceeding glad of the gourd? (i) Partly, no doubt, for the simplest and most obvious reason-because it was an immense physical relief and protection. (ii) The gourd was a gift from God to the prophet, and accepted by him as such. He sat there under its shadow with great delight. (iii) He would probably take it as a Divine indication that he had done right in waiting to see what would become of the city.
III. It is impossible to help “moralizing,” as some would call it, on the worm and the gourd. They are felt universally to be emblems too faithful of the swift-coursing, closely-linked joy and sorrow of this mortal life. (i) The fine plant, leafy green, types so well our comforts, successes, joys. (ii) The single day of shade it furnished the heated prophet speaks touchingly of the transiency of our pleasures. (iii) The worm reminds us that a small and mean creature may be a very formidable enemy. (iv) The place of. its operation, under the soil, shows us how powers and agents, invisible and unknown to us, can touch and smite in secret the springs of outward prosperity. (v) The time when decay began-at the rising of the morning-makes us think mournfully how human helps and comforts often wither at the very season when they are most needed. (vi) The utter loss of what had given such intense enjoyment warns us not to set our affections passionately upon anything which can be utterly lost, but to lift our supreme affection to things above the sphere of the “worm,” and the “moth,” beyond the reach of the “rust,” and the “thief.” (vii) The Divine “preparation” of the destroying insect to feed upon the plant which had been as divinely prepared, sheds some light amid the darkest mysteries of life, and brings a strong relief and assuagement to us amid the natural fears and doubts of our experience. Destruction is prepared by God as well as life; trouble as well as joy. And both are divinely ruled, with a view to the education and purification of human souls.
A. Raleigh, The Story of Jonah, p. 271.
Jon 4:9
I. The first thing which strikes us in this portion of sacred history is Jonah’s selfishness.
II. Another thing which strikes us unpleasantly in the history of Jonah is his ingratitude.
III. The withering of Jonah’s gourd should remind us how shortlived our earthly comforts are.
IV. Very trifling causes blast our happiness, and rob us of our peace.
V. We are reminded, in Jonah’s history, of God’s abounding mercy.
J. N. Norton, Golden Truths, p. 158.
Reference: Jon 4:9.-Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 195.
Jon 4:9-11
Notice:-
I. The sinfulness of absorbing passion. Its sinfulness is illustrated: (1) By Jonah’s contempt of life. Nineveh was not to be destroyed as he had prophesied, and his pride was wounded, and he says: “Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech Thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.” A man’s worth may be measured by the reverence he has for his life. It is well for Christians to be aware of the real impiety that lurks under a longing for death, and weariness of the life which, day by day, God is bestowing on us here. (2) The sinfulness of absorbing passion is seen again in that it works insincerity. Even after Jonah has recognised that God is sparing the city, he still affects to believe that it will be overthrown. (3) The selfishness of an absorbing passion is illustrated in Jonah’s contempt of the men of Nineveh. He will not share in their repentance; he will not encourage their hope that God may yet turn away His fierce anger, nor join them in their gratitude that God has spared them. He shuts himself up alone to brood over his anger. All passion tends to arrogance. Self-absorption means scorn of our fellows. A single passion may arrogate to itself the whole sphere of life, constitute itself the be-all and end-all of existence.
II. God’s cure for absorbing passion. God seeks to restore the prophet by awakening love in his heart; awakening his interest, and making him tender over the gourd. There is something wonderful in life, even though it be the life of a common weed. Such things speak to us, however faintly we may understand them, of an awful power that forms and an ever-watchful care that tends them; they are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” The tenderness that was in Jonah, poor as it was, mingled with selfishness as it was, was yet, in its dim and partial way, an emblem of the tenderness of God for every creature He has made.
A. Mackennal, Christ’s Healing Touch, p. 89.
Jon 4:10-11
The Divine argument for mercy in these last verses is, if we may say so without irreverence, a masterpiece of Divine skill and simplicity. There are many single texts of the New Testament which express quite as strongly the unfailing readiness of the mercy of God to sinful men. But the beautiful peculiarity of this passage is, that it is an actual instance of the exercise of that mercy.
I. See how simply the argument begins. As a lily was text enough for our Lord for a sermon on providence, so a gourd serves this occasion for a proclamation to all the world of mercy. “Thou hast had pity on the gourd.”
II. It is not the life of the plant, but the feeling of the man about it, that constitutes the true symbol of the Divine love. “Thou hast had pity on the gourd.” May not I have pity, too? It is much to have, thus, direct sanction given to the validity, Tightness, of our instinctive feelings. Our natural pity, our sensibility, our sympathy with all life,-these are right and good. We are wrong as to our moral condition, but these are right.
III. It is an argument from the less to the greater. “How much more” seems to sound in these two last verses, and all through them. In every point there is contrast, clear and strong. (1) You had pity on a gourd. What is a plant to a human being? (2) The gourd was but one. Would you spare the one, and must I slay the many? (3) The contrast touches the quality of relative performance. (4) Jonah had not laboured for the, gourd. God had waited for the coming of each soul, and laboured with all the energies and harmonies of His providence, that each might come in his own “fulness of time.” (5) Another touch of God’s thoughtful tenderness is the mention of the children. Many great and fruitful truths lie couchant here. It is manifest: (a) that infants are regarded by God as personally innocent; (b) that unconscious beings may have-really have-a great moral power and place in the universe; (c) that life is good. Better to live even in such a place as Nineveh, where alas! the wickedness is only arrested for a little, and not extinguished, than not to live at all. (6) And also much cattle. The condescending God, stooping down to the children, sees, reaches far below them. But the cattle are far above the gourd. They, too, in their dumb, dull way, are suppliants. He who makes them feeds them, recognizes their right to be fed. He who owns “the cattle upon a thousand hills,” has the thousand hills for the cattle as well as for the service of man.
A. Raleigh, The Story of Jonah, p. 297.
References: Jon 4:10, Jon 4:11.-E. W. Shalders, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv., p. 168. Jon 4:11.-J. Baldwin Brown, Ibid., vol. xv., pp. 369, 394.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
CHAPTER 4
Jonahs Discontent and Correction
1. Jonahs discontent (Jon 4:1-3)
2. The correction (Jon 4:4-11)
Jon 4:1-3. All that had happened displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was very angry. Did he feel that he had lost his prestige as a prophet, having announced the overthrow of Nineveh, when it did not happen? What he feared had come true; God had been merciful to this great city and they were now enjoying what he considered Israels exclusive inheritance. Instead of rejoicing in the great exhibition of Gods mercy towards such a wicked city, he was angry. Like Elijah, in the hour of despondency he requests to die. Therefore, now, O LORD, take, I beseech Thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live. The trouble with Jonah was that he thought only of himself, and, as another has said, the horrid selfishness of his heart hides from him the God of grace, faithful in His love for His helpless creatures.
Jon 4:4-11. The Lord God who had been so merciful to Nineveh is now merciful to His angry servant the Prophet. Doest thou well to be angry? How great is the patience and kindness of the Lord, even towards them who fail! Jonah leaves the saved city evidently in disgust, and finds on the east side a place where he constructed a booth and sat there waiting to see what would become of the city. He evidently expected still an act of judgment. Then comes the lesson. The Lord God who had prepared a fish to swallow the disobedient prophet now prepared a gourd to provide a shade for him. This gourd, a quipayon, is a very common plant in Palestine. The Creator whose creation is so wonderful, manifested the Creators power in raising up this plant, for the relief of His servant, in a sudden manner. And Jonah was exceedingly glad. Then God prepared a worm which destroyed the gourd. When the morning came and the sun beat upon the head of the prophet he fainted, and once more wished in himself to die. Alas! if the prophet had been in the right place before the Lord he would have accepted the gourd as evidence of His loving care, and when the worm destroyed the plant so that it withered he would have equally acknowledged his Creator-God and not have murmured. He might have said with Job, The LORD gave, the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. Jonah in his selfish impatience found fault with God. It is still the common thing amongst professing Christians.
And when God asked him, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? the poor finite creature of the dust answered the Creator, I do well to be angry, even unto death. Then comes the lesson. Not God, Elohim, the name of Him as Creator, speaks, but it is Jehovah, the Lord: Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, 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 six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left; and also much cattle? If Jonah felt pity and was angry because of a small vine he had not planted nor made to grow, should not God with greater right have mercy upon His creatures, whom He created and sustained? Jonah is silenced; he could not reply. The last word belongs to Jehovah, who thus demonstrated that in His infinite compassion He embraces not Israel alone, but all His creation, the Gentile world and even animal creation.
Most touching and beautiful is the last verse of the book, in which God displays the force and supreme necessity of His love; which (although the threatenings of His justice are heard, and must needs be heard and even executed if man continues in rebellion) abides in the repose of that perfect goodness which nothing can alter, and which seizes the opportunity of displaying itself, whenever man allows Him, so to speak, to bless him–the repose of an affection that nothing can escape, that observes everything, in order to act according to its own undisturbed nature–the repose of God Himself, essential to His perfection, on which depends all our blessing and all our peace .
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
repented
(See Scofield “Zec 8:14”)
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Jon 4:9, Mat 20:15, Luk 7:39, Luk 15:28, Act 13:46, Jam 4:5, Jam 4:6
Reciprocal: 2Sa 6:8 – displeased 1Ki 21:4 – heavy Psa 37:8 – fret Jon 4:11 – should Luk 10:40 – my Luk 11:32 – a greater 1Co 9:17 – against
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jon 4:1. Anger is not necessarily a sin (Eph 4:26) unless one lets his feeling lead him into doing something that is wrong. Jonah did not do or say anything that was sinful in his anger, but was vexed over the turn of affairs. He seemed to think that the Ninevites should have been punished since he had gone through so much Inconvenience and humiliation on their account.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jon 4:1-3. But it The divine forbearance in sparing Nineveh; displeased Jonah exceedingly Seeing that what he had foretold against the Ninevites did not happen, he was afraid lest he should pass for a false prophet and a deceiver, his ministry be despised, and his person exposed to the violence of the Ninevites. He was therefore very peevish and impatient, and he vents his complaints in the following verse. And he prayed unto the Lord He uttered expostulations and complaints in his prayer to God, wherein he pleaded an excuse for his former disobedience to Gods commands. O Lord, was not this my saying Did I not think of this, and suppose that it would be the case, that thy pardon would contradict my preaching? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish Namely, to avoid coming upon this message, for I knew that thou art a gracious God I knew by the declarations thou madest to Moses, (Exo 34:6,) and by several instances of thy mercy, that thou dost not always execute the punishments thou threatenest against sinners; being moved by thy essential goodness and mercifulness to spare them. Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me I cannot survive the confusion of seeing my prediction vain and to no effect; I cannot bear to live under the imputation of being a false prophet. For it is better for me to die than to live We may learn from this, that Jonah was naturally a man of a hasty, impatient temper; for he here shows himself to have been exceedingly vexed without any just cause. For it does not appear that the Ninevites would have despised him, or looked upon him as a false prophet, though the city was not destroyed; because their having recourse to fasting, humiliation, and turning from their evil ways, was in order to avert the wrath of God, that he might repent and turn from his fierce anger, and they perish not; see Jon 3:9; and therefore they would, in all probability, have attributed the citys preservation to this their humiliation and repentance, and have still looked upon Jonah as one that was divinely commissioned. So that he was indeed moved to these passionate expressions and exclamations purely by his own hasty disposition, and not from any just cause given him.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jon 4:6. A gourd. Plants of this genera exceed all others in the rapidity of their growth.
Jon 4:11. Six score thousand infants. By consequence, the elder children and adults, must have swelled the population to far more than half a million of people.
REFLECTIONS.CHAP. 3, 4.
We here find Jonah in the temple, paying vows to the Lord; we also find the same Word of the Lord renewing his commission to cry against Nineveh. Let us follow the well-instructed prophet, with an attentive eye and a feeling heart. Having been taught to fear the Lord, he now ceased from the fear of man. Let us follow him through the whole land of Mesopotamia, with a mind crowded with ideas of justice, terror, and mercy, the mercy of a long-suffering God, whose forbearance he thought was just expired.
He saw at length the beautiful city, whose walls, towers, and temples were gilded with a smiling sun. He saw a host of angels hovering round to attest the battle of a prophets arm, and the final decisions of a God. On a nearer approach he found a guilty people, sporting in all their wonted courses of pleasure and crimes. He found the bloody, the proud, the superstitious Nineveh, saying, like Babylon, I AM. I sit a queen, and shall see no sorrow. He found the people confident in gods which could neither see nor hear, gods in equal danger with the people. All their sorcerers and pythonesses deluded, and blind as their idols; a brilliant city covered with the shadow of death.
Jonah, with his staff and scrip, for he would neither eat bread nor drink water in that unclean place; Jonah arrayed in the rough garb of his profession, and his soul animated with the true Promethian fire, enkindled from the heavenly altar, raised his cry on passing the gate, YET FORTY DAYS AND NINEVEH SHALL BE DESTROYEDyet forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed. His slow pace, his piercing eyes, his strong voice, his terrible denunciations struck, amazed, and arrested the populace. These short words, as is usual with the brevity of the holy scriptures, were but as texts to short addresses, in which he recited the catalogue of their crimes, and with a voice more than human, cried, Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed.
Look now how all ranks follow him in the streets. See the pale and serious countenance of each. Mark the silence of the astonished multitude. Each is anxious to hear and learn something more before he utters the numerous enquiries which arise in his breast. See the prophet proceed till some square or forum opens to his view. Being now obstructed by the crowd which pressed upon him from every avenue and street, see him ascend the first elevation that offered, where his voice could command the countless auditory.
It being the multitude of hearers which elevate the soul of the speaker, Jonah now beheld a myriad of serious faces, to whom he declared his mission, as a prophet of the Hebrews, being probably known by face to some of the crowd. He declared his divine call, so tragic to himself, and now tragic to them. Hear him raise his voice against all their carnal grovellings and intemperate habits, degrading themselves below the brutes. Hear how he thunders against all the insults they had offered to marriage, the first and purest bond of society; the arts and violence of their seductions, the cruelty to their captives, their slaves, and their concubines. Hear how he accuses them of apostasy from the pure religion of the holy patriarchs, and their total loss of all moral principle. Hear how he sets their gods at defiance, and satirizes the blindness and weakness of their superstition. In a word, hear how he commands them to dismiss their harlots with rewards, to liberate their captives, burn their idols, and reform their habits to meet an avenging God with contrite hearts, closing all with the rending wordsYet forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed. A single hint of mercy would only have hardened them in their sins.
But did not the ministers of superstition declare the prophet to be insane! This they dared not do, a guilty conscience having deprived them of speech. Did not some of the magistrates arrest the daring stranger. The fact was, Jonah had arrested all his hearers; their consciences had made responses to the prophets words. The priests were covered with shame; the civil power had lost its arm. All men thought of nothing but escaping danger, or of preparing to meet it. Report was made to the king of Nineveh, who wisely threw himself and his people at the foot of the eternal throne, by reformation of manners, and by the severest fast that nature could bear. Jonahs God was the only God adored. They said, Who can tell, if God will repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not. And when the destroying angel came to overthrow this proud and wicked city, it was now the contrite Nineveh, having, at least for the time, fruits meet for repentance. His commission was therefore superseded. Oh what grace, what mercy, to a guilty city! The paternal arm of God became weak; he could not strike.
But Jonah, exhausted Jonah, not daring to lodge in Nineveh, retired to distant rocks or gardens, to see whether fire, or pestilence, or earthquake, should execute the vengeance he had denounced. The forty days expired, and Nineveh still flourished. Here all the anguish of a deceived and misguided prophet harrowed up his soul. By the law of Moses, a false prophet was to be punished with death. In his grief, the Word, the glorious Word of the Lord, came to him in his hypostasis or person, and reasoned with him on the impropriety of his impassioned wishes for death; that if he had pity on his withered gourd, God had more abundant reason, yea a hundred and twenty thousand reasons, to pity the penitent Nineveh. No, Jonah, thou wilt not go home degraded, but loaded with all the glory that can cover an inspired character. Had Nineveh been destroyed, after her profound repentance, what hope had remained for other sinners. Be content, Jonah; leave thy judgment with the Lord, and thy work with thy God.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jonah 4. Jonahs Intolerance Rebuked and Gods Mercy Vindicated.Gods clemency to Nineveh made Jonah very angry. It was not, as we might be tempted to suppose, that he felt his professional credit as a prophet to be ruined by the failure of his prediction. The mischief lay deeper than that. For it was patent enough even to the Ninevites that the message left a loophole of escape, and might have for its object to bring them to repentance. While the prediction had failed, its failure was the highest tribute of success to the prophets mission; there was no cause for wounded vanity in the case of a man who had converted a whole city; and Jonahs reproach to God is not that in His incalculable caprice He has sent him on a fools errand and made him ridiculous in the sight of the heathen. He suffers from a darker disease than wounded vanity, and has suffered from it all along; it was the ruthless and unrelenting hate of the heathen which made him dread that after all he would not see them destroyed. It is at first sight surprising that Jonah should refuse to take a message of destruction to Nineveh, the hated oppressing city. In the complaint he addresses to God, which the author calls a prayer (cf. Luk 18:10-12), he gives the reason. With wonderful daring the writer represents the prophet as flinging Gods mercy in His face as responsible for the refusal of the mission. Was not this my saying when I was yet in my country? Therefore I hasted to flee unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and full of compassion, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy, and repentest thee of the evil. No message could have given greater pleasure to this savage fanatic than that with which he was entrusted, had it not been for the feeling that he could not depend upon God to carry it out. Had Yahweh been a God after Jonahs own heart, then he would have joyfully undertaken the mission, with the blessed assurance that the doom he announced would be carried out to the letter. But He fell below Jonahs exacting standard of what the God of Israel ought to be. He was not only a stern and righteous God; softer elements were in His nature, and it was only too probable that, just when the prophet was about to slake his thirst for vengeance on the heathen, God would dash the cup of satisfaction from his lips. In his bitter disappointment Jonah felt that death would be better than to live any longer in a world governed by such a God. Yahweh does not, at this stage, reason with him. He asks him only if he does well to be angry, leaving him to ponder the question whether there might not be more to be said for the Divine action than he had yet surmised.
But while he is thus grieved and angry, he has not completely abandoned hope. He may have taken Yahwehs question, Doest thou well to be angry? as an encouragement not to despair of the destruction of Nineveh. However forlorn the hope, still he cherished it; and although he leaves the city that he may no longer be contaminated by contact with it, he stays near enough to see what may happen to it. And now God tries to bring home to him the nature of his conduct. He prepares a gourd, which springs up with magical swiftness, affording a grateful shelter to the prophet, and lifting him out of his depression. And then as swiftly it perishes, smitten by a worm. Having thus stripped him of his shelter, God exposes the prophet to a sultry east wind, and the sun beats on his head. Fainting under the heat, he prays once again that he may die. Then once again God asks him if he does well to be angry. But this time the anger which he asks him to justify is not anger that Nineveh had been spared, but anger that the gourd has been destroyed. This time Jonah, conscious of the justice of his cause, replies that he does well to be angry even unto death. The contrast between the prophets tenderness for himself and his ruthlessness towards Nineveh is effective in the highest degree. His indignation is aroused equally by his own exposure to physical discomfort and the rescue of a vast population from destruction. And yet we catch a glimpse of the stirring in him of a better human feeling. His vexation at the loss of the gourd was, no doubt, mainly the self-pity of an almost wholly self-centred man. He was one of those in whom humanity has been almost killed out by religion. But Yahwehs word, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, hints that Jonah was not wholly an egoist. The untimely fate of the gourd had moved some pity for it in his breast. And from this God starts in His effort to lift the prophet into sympathy with His higher point of view. The gourd had been but a transient interest in the prophets life. For one brief day it had given him its shelter Yet even this had been enough to kindle some feeling of affection in his heart. And it was for a gourd which owed its being to no labour of his and had not grown under his watchful care. And if such was his feeling for the gourd, what must be Yahwehs feeling for Nineveh? It was a great city, of no mushroom growth, but rooted far back in history, with a large part to play in the plans of God. And with so long a past and so vast a place in the Divine government of the world, its interest for God was not faint and evanescent, but keen and lasting. He had watched over its growth and shaped its ends, and was it credible that its sudden disappearance should arouse no emotion within Him? And quite apart from its long history was its present condition. Its teeming multitudes were not for God as they were for Jonah, one indistinguishable mass. Each individual soul was as vivid and real to Him as the gourd was to Jonah, and the object of far deeper emotion. For while Jonah had no part in the creation of the gourd, nay, had not even tended its growth, each inhabitant of Nineveh had been the direct creation of Gods hand, had lived in His love, had grown under His fostering care. If the whole people meant nothing to Jonah, each single individual meant much to God. If they must be destroyed, it must be only when all means to save them had been tried, and in spite of the pang God felt in their death. And if it might be urged that the Ninevites had sinned beyond forgiveness, yet the judgment Jonah longed for was utterly indiscriminate. In that city there were more than six score thousand children who had not come to years of moral discernment, and were therefore innocent of the crimes of Nineveh against humanity. And also much cattle, the author adds in one of the most striking phrases of the book. It was possible even for Paul to ask, Is it for the oxen that God careth? But this writer knows of a pity of God from which not even the cattle of the Ninevites were excluded.
With artistic reticence the author says nothing as to the effect of Gods words on Jonah. Such effect could not be measured by any reply he might make in his petulant and exasperated mood. Nor if he was silenced by Gods unanswerable argument would his bitter prejudice be all at once convinced. It was a case which had to be left to time and meditation. Yet there was another and deeper reason why the writer broke off the story at this point. As Jonah corresponded to Israel, so these words of God to him corresponded to the Book of Jonah itself. And it was still uncertain what would be its effect. It remains to the author a question of deepest interest whether Israel will accept his call to cast aside its hate of the heathen, recognise their readiness to welcome the truth, and accept the mission long before assigned to it to preach the knowledge of Yahweh to the Gentiles. The future alone can solve it, and how it was solved is a matter of history. It might, no doubt, be fairly urged that the writer was unduly optimistic, that the heathen world was not ready for the truth, and would not eagerly welcome it if it came. Yet not only was his the nobler error, but it was nearer the essential truth, as the progress of Christianity abundantly proved. And the author stands beyond question among the greatest of the prophets, by the side of Jeremiah and the Second Isaiah. That out of the stony heart of Judaism such a book should come is nothing less than a marvel of Divine grace.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
4:1 But it displeased {a} Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
(a) Because by this he would be taken as a false prophet, and so the name of God, which he preached, would be blasphemed.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
C. Jonah’s displeasure at God’s mercy 4:1-4
The reader might assume that the Lord’s deliverance of the Ninevites from imminent doom is the climax of the story. This is not the case. The most important lesson of the book deals with God’s people and specifically God’s instruments, not humanity in general.
"Though Jonah hardly comes across as a hero anywhere in the book, he appears especially selfish, petty, temperamental, and even downright foolish in chap. 4." [Note: Stuart, p. 502.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The whole situation displeased Jonah and made him angry: the Ninevites’ repentance and God’s withholding judgment from them.
"Jonah finds that the time-fuse does not work on the prophetic bomb he planted in Nineveh." [Note: Allen, p. 227.]
This is the first clue, after Jonah’s initial repentance and trip to Nineveh, that his heart was still not completely right with God. One can do the will of God without doing it with the right attitude, and that is the focus of the remainder of the book. The repentance and good deeds of the Ninevites pleased God, but they displeased His representative. They made God happy, but they made Jonah unhappy. A literal translation might be, "It was evil to Jonah with great evil." Until now evil (Heb. ra’ah) described the Ninevites, but now it marks the prophet. Consequently Jonah now became evil in God’s eyes and in need of punishment as the Ninevites had (cf. Rom 2:1), but God showed Jonah the same compassion He had shown the Ninevites.
"The word but points up the contrast between God’s compassion (Jon 3:10) and Jonah’s displeasure, and between God’s turning from His anger (Jon 3:9-10) and Jonah’s turning to anger." [Note: Hannah, p. 1470.]
Contrast the Apostle Paul’s attitude in Rom 9:1-3. Why did Jonah become so angry? Who was he to complain? He had only recently been very happy that God had saved him from destruction (cf. Mat 18:23-35). It was not primarily because his announced judgment failed to materialize and so raised questions about his authenticity as a true prophet (cf. Deu 18:21-22). Almost all prophecies of impending doom in the Bible assume that those being judged will remain unmoved. Divine punishment is avoidable provided people repent (cf. Jer 3:22; Jer 18:8; Jer 26:2-6; Eze 18:21-22; Eze 18:30-32; Eze 33:10-15). [Note: Pentecost, p. 180.] Jonah undoubtedly became angry because he wanted God to judge the Ninevites and thereby remove a military threat to the nation of Israel. If he was aware of Hosea and Amos’ prophecies, he would have known that Assyria would invade and defeat Israel (Hos 11:5; Amo 5:27).
"Countless numbers of modern-day believers miss much of the joy of being involved in God’s wonderful work because of self-centeredness." [Note: Page, p. 276.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
ISRAELS JEALOUSY OF JEHOVAH
Jon 4:1-11
HAVING illustrated the truth, that the Gentiles are capable of repentance unto life, the Book now describes the effect of their escape upon Jonah, and closes by revealing Gods full heart upon the matter.
Jonah is very angry that Nineveh has been spared. Is this (as some say) because his own word has not been fulfilled? In Israel there was an accepted rule that a prophet should be judged by the issue of his predictions: “If thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which Jehovah hath not spoken?-when a prophet speaketh in the name of Jehovah, if the thing follow not nor come to pass, that is the thing which Jehovah hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken presumptuously, thou shalt have no reverence for him.” {Deu 18:21-22} Was it this that stung Jonah? Did he ask for death because men would say of him that when he predicted Ninevehs overthrow he was false and had not Gods word? Of such fears there is no trace in the story. Jonah never doubts that his word came from Jehovah, nor dreads that other men will doubt. There is absolutely no hint of anxiety as to his professional reputation. But, on the contrary, Jonah says that from the first he had the foreboding, grounded upon his knowledge of Gods character, that Nineveh would be spared, and that it was from this issue he shrank and fled to go to Tarshish. In short he could not, either then or now, master his conviction that the heathen should be destroyed. His grief, though foolish, is not selfish. He is angry, not at the baffling of his word, but at Gods forbearance with the foes and tyrants of Israel.
Now, as in all else, so in this, Jonah is the type of his people. If we can judge from their literature after the Exile, they were not troubled by the non-fulfillment of prophecy, except as one item of what was the problem of their faith-the continued prosperity of the Gentiles. And this was not, what it appears to be in some Psalms, only an intellectual problem or an offence to their sense of justice. Nor could they meet it always, as some of their prophets did, with a supreme intellectual scorn of the heathen, and in the proud confidence that they themselves were the favorites of God. For the knowledge that God was infinitely gracious haunted their pride; and from the very heart of their faith arose a jealous fear that He would show His grace to others than themselves. To us it may be difficult to understand this temper. We have not been trained to believe ourselves an elect people; nor have we suffered at the hands of the heathen. Yet, at least, we have contemporaries and fellow-Christians among whom we may find still alive many of the feelings against which the Book of Jonah was written. Take the Oriental Churches of today. Centuries of oppression have created in them an awful hatred of the infidel, beneath whose power they are hardly suffered to live. The barest justice calls for the overthrow of their oppressors. That these share a common humanity with themselves is a sense they have nearly lost. For centuries they have had no spiritual intercourse with them; to try to convert a Mohammedan has been for twelve hundred years a capital crime. It is not wonderful that Eastern Christians should have long lost power to believe in the conversion of infidels, and to feel that anything is due but their destruction. The present writer once asked a cultured and devout layman of the Greek Church, Why then did God create so many Mohammedans? The answer came hot and fast: To fill up Hell! Analogous to this were the feelings of the Jews towards the peoples who had conquered and oppressed them. But the jealousy already alluded to aggravated these feelings to a rigor no Christian can ever share. What right had God to extend to their oppressors His love for a people who alone had witnessed and suffered for Him, to whom He had bound Himself by so many exclusive promises, whom He had called His Bride, His Darling, His Only One? And yet the more Israel dwelt upon that love the more they were afraid of it. God had been so gracious and so long-suffering to themselves that they could not trust Him not to show these mercies to others. In which case, what was the use of their uniqueness and privilege? What worth was their living any more? Israel might as well perish.
It is this subtle story of Israels jealousy of Jehovah, and Jehovahs gentle treatment of it, which we follow in the last chapter of the book. The chapter starts from Jonahs confession of fear of the results of Gods lovingkindness and from his persuasion that, as this spread of the heathen, the life of His servant spent in opposition to the heathen was a worthless life; and the chapter closes with Gods own vindication of His Love to His jealous prophet.
“It was a great grief to Jonah, and he was angered; and he prayed to Jehovah and said: Ah now, Jehovah, while I was still upon mine own ground, at the time that I prepared to flee to Tarshish, was not this my word, that I knew Thee to be a God gracious and tender, long-suffering and plenteous in love, relenting of evil? And now, Jehovah, take, I pray Thee, my life from me, for me death is better than life.”
In this impatience of life as well as in some subsequent traits, the story of Jonah reflects that of Elijah. But the difference between the two prophets was this, that while Elijah was very jealous for Jehovah, Jonah was very jealous of Him. Jonah could not bear to see the love promised to Israel alone, and cherished by her, bestowed equally upon her heathen oppressors. And he behaved after the manner of jealousy and of the heart that thinks itself insulted. He withdrew, and sulked in solitude, and would take no responsibility nor further interest in his work. Such men are best treated by a caustic gentleness, a little humor, a little rallying, a leaving to nature, and a taking unawares in their own confessed prejudices. All these-I dare to think even the humor-are present in Gods treatment of Jonah. This is very natural and very beautiful. Twice the Divine Voice speaks with a soft sarcasm: “Art thou very angry?” Then Jonahs affections, turned from man to God, are allowed their course with a bit of nature, the fresh and green companion of his solitude; and then when all his pity for this has been roused by its destruction, that very pity is employed to awaken his sympathy with Gods compassion for the great city, and he is shown how he has denied to God the same natural affection which he confesses to be so strong in himself But why try further to expound so clear and obvious an argument?
“But Jehovah said, Art thou so very angry?” Jonah would not answer-how lifelike is his silence at this point!-“but went out from the city and sat down before it, and made him there a booth and dwelt beneath it in the shade, till he should see what happened in the city. And Jehovah God prepared a gourd, and it grew up above Jonah to be a shadow over his head And Jonah rejoiced in the gourd with a great joy. But as dawn came up the next day God prepared a worm, and this wounded the gourd, that it perished. And it came to pass, when the sun rose, that God prepared a dry east-wind, and the sun smote on Jonahs head, so that he was faint, and begged for himself that he might die, saying, Better my dying than my living! And God said unto Jonah, Art thou so very angry about the gourd? And he said, I am very angry-even unto death! And Jehovah said: Thou carest for a gourd for which thou hast not travailed, nor hast thou brought it up, a thing that came in a night and in a night has perished. And shall I not care for Nineveh, the Great City, in which there are more than twelve times ten thousand human beings who know not their right hand from their left, besides much cattle?”
God had vindicated His love to the jealousy of those who thought that it was theirs alone. And we are left with this grand vague vision of the immeasurable city, with its multitude of innocent children and cattle, and Gods compassion brooding over all.