11<\/strong>. that cannot discern &c.<\/em> ] The idea that the whole population of Nineveh is thus described, the reference being to their moral condition of heathen ignorance and darkness, has nothing to recommend it. On the contrary, the moral susceptibility of the Ninevites, although they are heathen, is, as we have seen, a prominent feature in the history. The reference is no doubt to the children of tender age who were as yet incapable of moral discrimination, and could not therefore be regarded as responsible agents. The same thought is expressed, without a metaphor, by the phrases, “having no knowledge between good and evil,” Deu 1:39<\/span>; “Knowing to refuse the evil, and choose the good,” Isa 7:15-16<\/span>. Between these helpless and innocent children, together with the great multitude of unoffending animals which the vast area of Nineveh contained, and the plant over which Jonah mourned, regarded simply as objects of human compassion, all moral considerations apart, the comparison lies.<\/p>\n Any attempt to compute the whole population of Nineveh from the data thus given must necessarily be precarious, from the difficulty of deciding at what age the line is to be drawn. But in any case the total would not be excessive, for the population of so large an area as we have seen that Nineveh enclosed.<\/p>\n Should I not spare? – <\/B>literally have pity and so spare. God waives for the time the fact of the repentance of Nineveh, and speaks of those on whom man must have pity, those who never had any share in its guilt, the 120,000 children of Nineveh, I who, in the weakness of infancy, knew not which hand, the right or the left, is the stronger and fitter for every use. He who would have spared Sodom for tens sake, might well be thought to spare Nineveh for the 120,000s sake, in whom the inborn corruption had not developed into the malice of willful sin. If these 120,000 were the children under three years old, they were 15 (as is calculated) of the whole population of Nineveh. If of the 600,000 of Nineveh all were guilty, who by reason of age could be, above 15 were innocent of actual sin.<\/P> To Jonah, whose eye was evil to Nineveh for his peoples sake, God says, as it were , Let the spirit which is willing say to the flesh which is weak, Thou grievest for the palm-christ, that is, thine own kindred, the Jewish people; and shall not I spare Nineveh that great city, shall not I provide for the salvation of the Gentiles in the whole world, who are in ignorance and error? For there are many thousands among the Gentiles, who go after 1Co 12:2<\/span>. mute idols even as they are led: not out of malice but out of ignorance, who would without doubt correct their ways, if they had the knowledge of the truth, if they were shewn the difference between their right hand and their left, i. e., between the truth of God and the lie of men. But, beyond the immediate teaching to Jonah, God lays down a principle of His dealings at all times, that, in His visitations of nations, He Psa 68:5<\/span>, the Father of the fatherless and judge of the widows, takes special account of those who are of no account in mans sight, and defers the impending judgment, not for the sake of the wisdom of the wise or the courage of the brave, but for the helpless, weak, and, as yet, innocent as to actual sin. How much more may we think that He regards those with pity who have on them not only the recent uneffaced traces of their Makers Hands, but have been reborn in the Image of Christ His Only Begotten Son! The infants clothed with Christ Gal 3:27<\/span> must be a special treasure of the Church in the Eyes of God.<\/P> How much greater the mercy of God than that even of a holy man; how far better to flee to the judgment-seat of God than to the tribunal of man. Had Jonah been judge in the cause of the Ninevites, he would have passed on them all, although penitent, the sentence of death for their past guilt, because God had passed it before their repentance. So David said to God 2Sa 24:14<\/span>; Let us fall now into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are great; and let me not fall into the hand of man. Whence the Church professes to God, that mercy is the characteristic of His power ; O God, who shewest Thy Almighty power most chiefly in shewing mercy and pity, mercifully grant unto us such a measure of Thy grace, that we, running the way of Thy commandments, may obtain Thy gracious promises, and be made partakers of Thy heavenly treasure. <\/P> Again, God here teaches Jonah and us all to conform ourselves in all things to the Divine Will, that, when He commandeth any work, we should immediately begin and continue it with alacrity and courage; when He bids us cease from it, or deprives it of its fruit and effect, we should immediately tranquilly cease, and patiently allow our work and toil to lack its end and fruit. For what is our aim, save to do the will of God, and in all things to confirm ourselves to it? But now the will of God is, that thou shouldest resign, yea destroy, the work thou hast begun. Acquiesce then in it. Else thou servest not the will of God, but thine own fancy and cupidity. And herein consists the perfection of the holy soul, that, in all acts and events, adverse or prosperous, it should with full resignation resign itself most humbly and entirely to God, and acquiesce, happen what will, yea, and rejoice that the will of God is fulfilled in this thing, and say with holy Job, The Lord gave, The Lord hath taken away; blessed be the Name of the Lord Ignatius had so transferred his own will into the will of God, that the said, If perchance the society, which I have begun and furthered with such toil, should be dissolved or perish, after passing half an hour in prayer, I should, by Gods help, have no trouble from this thing, than which none sadder could befall me. The saints let themselves be turned this way and that, round and round, by the will of God, as a horse by its rider.<\/P> <\/p>\n Jon 4:11<\/span><\/p>\n And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Great cities; or our fellow-creatures<\/strong><\/p>\n Jonahs disquietude had arisen from a strange cause; it was from the exercise of Gods mercy in sparing the lives and the city of a mighty people. Jonah could not bear that his message should seem not to take effect. He regarded the sparing of the city as a dishonour done to him.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>The great thought which these words suggest to our minds is God s great compassion for the helpless and ignorant.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>A comparison between the view which God takes of great masses of human beings, and that with which we sometimes, in carelessness or pride, are disposed to look upon them. We live, in fact, on the outside of our fellow-creatures; we exercise little sympathy with them. Jonahs fault was his heartless selfishness. How could a man that knew anything of the <\/em>souls value express himself as Jonah did but under this fatal influence?<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>What are our thoughts and feelings and views in similar circumstances? What do we feel when contemplating great masses of human beings in helpless innocence, or in degraded ignorance? There is nothing more impressive than a great city. If we are true brethren of the God-man, if the manhood of Christ is more than a name to us, if it is a word of real sympathy, then it must unlock the chambers of our hearts to our brethren. Then every man we deal with, every servant, every neighbour will be an object of interest to us. The watchword of the whole creation now is the name of Jesus Christ. (C. E. Kennaway, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The Divine character and purposes<\/strong><\/p>\n Had we met with the Book of Jonah in the Apocrypha, we should have been tempted to overlook the profound teachings contained in it, and we should have regarded it as a traditional story, wrought up into its present shape by some writer of a later time, whose spirit was, by contact with better forms of heathenism, liberated and delivered from Jewish prejudices. What is the special contribution which is made by it to the body of revelation?<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>The first and broadest teaching regards the character of God as the God of nations.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Another aspect of the book is its bearing upon the popular mind at the time it was written, its teachings as to the character of God as the God of Israel.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>It was a direct and very powerful protest against mere priestism and ceremonialism. Jonah had nothing to do but preach repentance. And God spared Nineveh simply on their turning from their wickedness and confessing their sins.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>What can be said of Gods repenting Him of the evil? The proclamation to Nineveh carried an implied condition. It meant that the same God who pronounced the sentence was ready to recall it on the repentance of the people. The unconditional form<\/em> of the proclamation is merely the tribute which is paid to the justice of God, which is absolute, which can never be changed as justice, which is honoured even in the remission of punishment, and which must be proclaimed as the foundation on which all true repentance is made to rest. But the prophets appearance was an invitation to repentance and salvation. God morally regards us at any moment just as we are. Of course He has considered our future and provided for it all. What we are now God regards us as being, and treats us accordingly. (R. A. Redford, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Reflections on the story of Jonah<\/strong><\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> <\/em><\/strong>The warning furnished by this history, to beware of allowing expected results to interfere with present and pressing obligations.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Another reflection respects the spheres of greatest usefulness for the servants of God, and admonishes them to watch for the leadings of providence, rather than give way to their own desires and inclinations. Men are not always the best judges of the department of service by which they can do most to glorify God, any more than of the particular stations they can most successfully occupy.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>The benefit which may be derived, both for direction in duty and for the profitable study of His Word and ways, from a connected and orderly view of His dispensations.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>Whenever and wherever God is pleased to manifest of His grace and goodness, it is our part to acknowledge and rejoice in the manifestation. (Patrick Fairbairn.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The education of a prophet<\/strong><\/p>\n According to tradition, Jonah was the son of the widow of Zarephath, whom Elijah raised to life again; and the sturdy youth who stood at the prophets side throughout that long and terrible day on Mount Carmel He was further identified with a young man whom Elisha sent to anoint Jehu to be king over Israel. Certainly he belonged to that stern order of men, and had a great zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. He greatly needed enlargement of mind and soul; and in the end, I think, received it. And the story of this book, so far as it relates to Jonah, is a study of a typical zealot or religionist in contact with the larger purposes of the Divine loving-kindness not sympathising with them, or even understanding them; yet learning at last, perhaps after much Divine discipline, in some small measure to share them.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>He is first of all shown in association with the rough heathen Phoenician sailors, and their humanity is seen in gracious contrast with his own temper. For he is now endeavouring to put the whole Mediterranean sea between himself and his duty, which, if faithfully performed, may save a vast city from its doom, and it is because he foresees this as a likely result that, instead of going to Nineveh, he is trying to flee into Spain. But these poor sailors will save this foreigner, bird of ill passage though he is, if they can. But Jonah emerged from the dread experience that followed, when he went down to the bottom of the mountains and the earth with her bars was about him for ever, unsoftened in feeling. He is as austere and pitiless as before, and thinks himself more righteous than God. It is infinitely strange that men can come forth from dark seas of peril and judgment, and, after deliverance, deny one morsel of compassion to their fellow sinners!<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>But Jonah, unreconciled to the thought of Gods clemency to others, goes on his sulky way to Nineveh, that great city, great unto God, wherein were six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand–little children, and, as it is humanely added, also much cattle. He cries aloud in the broad thoroughfares and beside the massive temples his message of doom, Yet forty days. It is said that four years before the siege of Jerusalem an unknown man traversed the city continually crying, A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the Holy Place, a voice against the bridegroom and the bride! Woe, woe to Jerusalem! But this voice was more immediate, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed. Now, it says a great deal for the tolerance of the people that they suffered a foreigner thus to denounce them. People do not always care to be told of their sins, and the judgment to come. Am I therefore become your enemy, says Paul, because I tell you the truth? Ah, there is often no surer way! But these heathen not only permitted the message to be spoken in their midst; they allowed it to resound in their consciences. They repented, after a godly sort, they turned from their evil way. And so theirs was a repentance unto life, not to be repented of. How salutary is this grace–this turning of the mind from sin, this honest regret and resolve!<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. It is the littleness of man, which everywhere in this book is confronted by the majesty and the magnanimity and the philanthropy of God. The prayer of Jonah that follows is the most remarkable prayer on record. Here is this narrow, parochial, inadequate man presuming to speak to the Almighty as if on level terms with Him–nay, as if he spoke from a superior eminence of wisdom and virtue! I pray Thee was not this my saying, he cries, when I was yet in my country? It has all turned out, he declares, as he knew it would. But when his prayer returns into his own bosom, Jonah now becomes a spectacle unto angels and unto men. He went out of the city, and built himself a booth and waited to see what would become of the city. Perhaps the clock had not struck; perhaps there was something wrong with his chronology; perhaps the people would lapse again into sin, and the doom fall after all. <\/em>Ah, how different from the spirit of Him who, when He beheld Jerusalem in its sins and foresaw its coming ruin, wept over it!<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>But Jonah did not weep over the city:<\/strong> He wept over himself. In his mortification and mental and physical exhaustion he thought that he wanted to die; though, when death was very near him in the deep seas, he was of another mind. But just as when his great predecessor, Elijah, in the wilderness, requested for himself that he might die, God took no notice of the request, but inquired about his duty once and again:<\/strong> What doest thou here, Elijah? So God took no notice of Jonahs request, but inquired once and again about his temper:<\/strong> Doest thou well to be angry? And, as God taught Elijah by a nature parable, the whirlwind, the earthquake, the fire, and the still, small voice, so He taught Jonah by the parable of the gourd. Thou hast had pity on the gourd, said God. It was a form of self-pity, no doubt; but, then, how much of our sympathy starts from a selfish root! It is a great thing when feeling splits away from a purely personal reference, and puts forth an altruistic branchlet. Time and grace may make much of a sentiment not so pure and lofty in its beginning as one would wish. Think, Jonah, think! Thou hast had pity on the gourd. You did not make it; it was not yours; yet its short-lived glory touched you with some regret. I have made both plants and men. Ought I not to have pity on men failing and passing? Think! till you, too, pity them with Me.<\/p>\n 5. <\/strong>Did Jonah learn the lesson of charity, and take a larger and a gentler mould? There is some reason to think that he did, for as the story leaves him he is still under the hand of God, and God is still speaking. The inference is that he receives the Divine admonition. He has no answer to make, and God is still with him, and not failing nor forsaking this cross-grained servant of His. We love the amiable. What a mercy it is that God loves the unamiable also, and the awkward and ignorant and dim-sighted, and is kind to the unthankful and the evil. But there is perhaps another reason for hoping that Gods teaching was not in vain. In 2Ki 14:25<\/span> we learn that Jonah prophesied with reference to the re-conquest of Moab under Jeroboam II., who restored the coast of Israel from the entering of Hamath to the Sea of the Plain. Now, in the oracles contained in Isaiah there is one concerning Moab, not by Isaiah, but spoken, it is said, in time past (R.V.). By a number of eminent critics this is supposed to be the substance of Jonahs prophecy during the reign of Jeroboam<\/p>\n The Church and the city<\/strong><\/p>\n (with Luk 19:41<\/span>):<\/strong>–These texts from Jonah and the Gospel by Luke are selected that their light may fall upon the subject of the attitude of God toward the cities of to-day. I have not often found myself in agreement with Bismarck, but with his views of cities I perfectly agree:<\/strong> Great cities are great sores on the body politic. The crowding of populations into great cities is never conducive to the development of individualism, nor does it make for the ideal socialism. The Divine attitude toward the city has never been that of aloofness from failure and sin, but rather that of keen interest, profound pity, ceaseless activity. Nineveh was a city outside the covenant of the chosen people, a city steeped in heathen customs and wrong-doing. Yet God sent Jonah, and proves in the language of the text this love and care. Jerusalem was the city of privilege and blessing, which killed the prophets and stoned the messengers. The city which Jesus wept over. The Divine attitude toward great cities is one of com passionate interest and love. <\/strong>Every city is known to God. Every part of it is known to Him, the rich and the poor parts. In this city all things are naked and open to the eye of Him with whom we have to do. But beyond the infinite knowledge is this other thought, He cares. There is no sorrow that God does not feel. He has abandoned no part of what He Himself created. All the physical disability has His sympathy–the dwellings of the poor, the workshops of our men and women; all the mental sufferings, the misery of mystery and the mystery of the misery; all the spiritual death–the cursed mountain of sorrow lies heaviest on the Divine heart. God has not forsaken the city:<\/strong> He is still sending His prophets, His messengers, His Son. Moreover, He is, by His Holy Spirit, the actual and ever-present force for the relieving of every condition of evil and sorrow. No problem is too complex for His wisdom, no opposing force too mighty for His power, no darkness too dense for His light, no trifle too trivial for His notice. He is working for its regeneration. What, then, is the responsibility of the city? What does the Church of Christ exist for? <\/strong>For the select few who to-day worship within the buildings called by His name? Then in Gods name close the doors! Such churches have no mission, and should cease to exist. The Church of Christ exists to reveal God and to act in concert with Him. Would that I could startle you into Christian activity! The sorrow of the city awaits your sympathy, and the saving force and grace of Jesus Christ. How is the city to know that it is not God-forsaken? Through the Church. We have here no continuing city; we seek one to come, whose builder and maker is God. The centres of the Christian life and the civic life are diametrically opposite. The first principle of the Christian life is self-death; that of the civic life is selfishness. The second element of the one is sacrifice; of the other, self seeking. The third law of the one is, I believe in the salvation of the unfit; that of the civic life is the survival of the fittest. We seek a city which hath foundations. Many are trying to find it by star-gazing. They thank God for their comfortable lot in life, and wait. Seek the city that is to be here. We must take part in the government of the city. Whether the factory is to be occupied so long and so closely that life and comfort are neglected is not the question of the manufacturers profit, but of the workers health. If you do not care you are not a Christian. You cannot live near to Christ and be indifferent. We must press forward all the time in our distinctive work of setting men and women into personal contact with Christ. The law of adaptation is one law of progress. There can be no failure in God; if there be any, it is in us. I call every Christian man and woman to attention. Concerning the Divine attitude there is no question. You believe that God loves the city. A boy asked his Sunday-school teacher, Do you think God loves wicked boys? Certainly not, was her reply. Oh, the blasphemy of such an answer! Of course, God loves wicked boys. If He had never loved sinners there would have been no saints. Concerning our relation to Gods attitude toward the city there is room for much heart-searching. We must know the city. Contrast, in conclusion, our texts. Jonah was angry because God forgives. Jesus wept over the sins of the city. I am in sympathy with Jesus rather than with Jonah. Christian am I if I am Christ-like; Christ-like am I if, like Christ, I weep over the city and give myself for it even unto death. (G. C. Morgan, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n Verse 11<\/span>. And should not I spare Nineveh<\/B><\/I>] In Jon 4:10<\/span> it is said, thou hast had pity<\/I> on the gourd, attah CHASTA<\/I>; and here the Lord uses the same word, veani lo ACHUS<\/I>, “And shall not I have pity<\/I> upon Nineveh?” How much is the city<\/I> better than the shrub<\/I>? But besides this there are in it one<\/I> hundred and twenty thousand<\/I> persons! And shall I destroy them, rather than thy shade<\/I> should be withered or thy word<\/I> apparently fail? And besides, these persons are young<\/I>, and have not offended<\/I>, (for they knew not the difference between their right hand and<\/I> their left<\/I>,) and should not I feel more pity<\/I> for those innocents than thou dost for the fine flowering plant<\/I> which is withered in a night, being itself exceedingly short-lived<\/I>? Add to all this, they have now turned from those sins which induced me to denounce judgment against them. And should I destroy them<\/I> who are now fasting<\/I> and afflicting their souls<\/I>; and, covered with sackcloth, are lying in the dust before me, bewailing their offenses and supplicating for mercy? Learn, then, from this, that it is the incorrigibly wicked on whom my judgments must fall, and against whom they are threatened. And know, that to that man will I look who is of a broken and contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word. Even the dumb beasts<\/I> are objects of my compassion; I will spare them<\/I> for the sake of their penitent owners; and remember with the rest, That the Lord careth for oxen<\/I>.<\/P> <\/P> The great number of cattle<\/I> to which reference is here made were for the support of the inhabitants; and probably at this time the Ninevites gathered in their cattle from the champaign pasture, expecting that some foe coming to besiege them might seize upon them for their forage, while they within might suffer the lack of all things.<\/P> <\/P> No doubt that ancient Nineveh was like ancient Babylon, of which Quintus Curtius<\/I> says the buildings were not close to the walls, there being the space of an acre left between them; and in several parts there were within the walls portions of cultivated land, that, if besieged, they might have provisions to sustain the inhabitants.<\/P> <\/P> And I suppose this to be true of all large ancient cities. They were rather cantons<\/I> or districts<\/I> than cities such as now are, only all the different inhabitants had joined together to wall in the districts for the sake of mutual defence.<\/P> <\/P> This last expostulation of God, it is to be hoped, produced its proper effect on the mind of this irritable prophet; and that he was fully convinced that in this, as in all other cases, God had done all things well.<\/P> <\/P> FROM this short prophecy many useful lessons may be derived. The Ninevites were on the verge of destruction, but on their repentance were respited. They did not, however, continue under the influence of good resolutions. They relapsed, and about one<\/I> hundred and fifty<\/I> years afterwards, the Prophet Nahum<\/I> was sent to predict the miraculous discomfiture of the Assyrian king under Sennacherib, an event which took place about 710 B.C., and also the total destruction of Nineveh by Cyaxares and his allies which happened about 606 B.C. Several of the ancients, by allegorizing this book, have made Jonah declare the divinity, humanity, death<\/I>, and resurrection<\/I> of Christ. These points may be found in the Gospel history, their true repository; but fancy<\/I> can find them any where it pleases to seek them; but he who seeks not for them will never find them here. Jonah was a type of the resurrection of Christ; nothing farther seems revealed in this prophet relative to the mysteries of Christianity.<\/P> <\/P> In conclusion: while I have done the best I could to illustrate the very difficult prophet through whose work the reader has just passed, I do not pretend to say I have removed every difficulty. I am satisfied only of one thing, that I have conscientiously endeavoured to do it, and believe that I have generally succeeded; but am still fearful that several are left behind, which, though they may be accounted for from the briefness of the narrative of a great transaction, in which so many surprising particulars are included, yet, for general apprehension, might appear to have required a more distinct and circumstantial statement. I have only to add, that as several of the facts are evidently miraculous<\/I>, and by the prophet stated as such, others may be probably of the same kind. On this ground all difficulty is removed; for God can do what he pleases<\/I>. As his power is unlimited<\/I>, it can meet with no impossibilities<\/I>. He who gave the commission<\/I> to Jonah to go and preach to the Ninevites, and prepared the great fish<\/I> to swallow the disobedient prophet, could maintain his life for three days<\/I> and three nights<\/I> in the belly of this marine monster; and cause it to eject him<\/I> at the termination of the appointed time, on any<\/I> sea-coast<\/I> he might choose; and afterwards the Divine power could carry the deeply contrite and now faithful prophet over the intervening distance between that and Nineveh, be that distance greater or less. Whatever, therefore, cannot be accounted for on mere natural principles in this book, may be referred to this supernatural<\/I> agency; and this, on the ostensible principle of the prophecy itself, is at once a mode of interpretation as easy as it is rational. God gave the commission; he raised the storm, he prepared the fish which swallowed the prophet; he caused it to cast him forth on the dry land; he gave him a fresh commission, carried him to the place of his destination, and miraculously produced the sheltering gourd, that came to perfection in a night and withered in a night. This God therefore performed the other facts for which we cannot naturally account, as he did those already specified. This concession, for the admission of which both common sense and reason plead, at once solves all the real or seeming difficulties to be found in the Book of the Prophet Jonah<\/I>.<\/P> <\/p>\n And should not; may not by virtue of my sovereignty, pity, spare, or pardon if I will? or is there not good reason to incline me to do it, and to justify my doing it? <\/P> I; God of infinite compassions and goodness. <\/P> Spare Nineveh, a mighty city: Jonah, thou hast pity on a sorry shrub, and shall thy God be by thee confined that he should not have pity on a vast and mighty city? <\/P> That great city; a stately structure, which cost immense treasures, was the labour of almost one million and half of labourers, through eight years, the great wonder of that world. Thy gourd, Jonah, may not be named in the day with this; only in a passion this must be ruined to please thee, and thy gourd must not lest it displease thee. Is this equal? wouldst thou have me less merciful to such a goodly city, than thou art to a weed? <\/P> Wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand: it was a single gourd Jonah pitied, and is angry that it was smitten; here are many hundred thousands of men and women, which I have pitied and spared. Here are more than sixscore thousand innocents who are infants, who are my creatures made for eternity, who grow slowly under my care and charge, whom I value as my own; and, peevish Jonah, wilt thou not allow me (who can) to show pity to mine own invaluable creatures, when thou pitiest what is neither thine nor valuable? Had it been thine, this might have required thy affection; had it been of worth, this might have excused thy earnestness for it; but all this aggravates thy fierce and cruel passion against Nineveh. <\/P> And also much cattle: beside men, women, and children who are in Nineveh, there are many others of my creatures that are not sinful, and my tender mercies are and shall be over all my works. If thou wouldst be their butcher, yet I will be their God. I know what becomes me, God of prophets; and though once I hearkened to Elijah to send fire from heaven on contemptuous sinners, yet it is not meet to send fire from heaven upon repenting Nineveh. I know how to impress their minds with a continued belief that Jonah came from God to preach repentance, and that it was their repentance prevented their overthrow; I can salve thy credit, Jonah, and yet not humour thy cruelty. Go, Jonah, rest thyself content, and be thankful: that goodness, mercy, and kindness which spared Nineveh, hath spared thee in this thy inexcusable frowardness. I will be to repenting Nineveh what I am to thee, God gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and I will turn from the evil thou and they deserve. <\/P> <\/p>\n 11. that cannot discern betweentheir right hand and their left<\/B>children under three of fouryears old (De 1:39<\/span>). Sixscore thousand<\/I> of these, allowing them to be a fifth of thewhole, would give a total<\/I> population of six hundred thousand. <\/P> much cattle<\/B>God careseven for the brute creatures, of which man takes little account.These in wonderful powers and in utility are far above the shrubwhich Jonah is so concerned about. Yet Jonah is reckless as to theirdestruction and that of innocent children. The abruptness of theclose of the book is more strikingly suggestive than if the thoughthad been followed out in detail.<\/P><\/p>\n And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city<\/strong>?…. See Jon 1:2<\/span>; what is such a gourd or plant to that?<\/p>\n wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons<\/strong>; or twelve myriads; that is, twelve times ten thousand, or a hundred and twenty thousand; meaning not all the inhabitants of Nineveh; for then it would not have appeared to be so great a city; but infants only, as next described:<\/p>\n that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand<\/strong>; do not know one from another; cannot distinguish between good and evil, right and wrong; are not come to years of maturity and discretion; and therefore there were room and reason for pity and sparing mercy; especially since they had not been guilty of actual transgressions, at least not very manifest; and yet must have perished with their parents had Nineveh been overthrown. The number of infants in this city is a proof of the greatness of it, though not so as to render the account incredible; for, admitting these to be a fifth part of its inhabitants, as they usually are of any place, as Bochart e observes, it makes the number of its inhabitants to be but six or seven hundred thousand; and as many there were in Seleucia and Thebes, as Pliny f relates of the one, and Tacitus g of the other:<\/p>\n and [also] much cattle<\/strong>; and these more valuable than goods, as animals are preferable to, and more useful than, vegetables; and yet these must have perished in the common calamity. Jarchi understands by these grown up persons, whose knowledge is like the beasts that know not their Creator. No answer being returned, it may be reasonably supposed Jonah, was convinced of his sin and folly; and, to show his repentance for it, penned this, narrative, which records his infirmities and weaknesses, for the good of the church, and the instruction of saints in succeeding ages.<\/p>\n e Phaleg. l. 4. c. 20. p. 253. f Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 26. g Annal. l. 2. c. 60.<\/p>\n Now as to the number, Jonah mentions here twelve times ten thousand men, and that is as we have said, one hundred and twenty thousand. God shows here how paternally he cares for mankind. Every one of us is cherished by him with singular care: but yet he records here a large number, that it might be more manifest that he so much regards mankind that he will not inconsiderately fulminate against any one nation. And what he adds, that they could not distinguish between the right hand and the left, is to be referred, I have no doubt, to their age; and this opinion has been almost universally received. Some one, however has expressed a fear lest the city should be made too large by allowing such a number of men: he has, therefore, promiscuously included the old, as well as those of middle age and infants. He says that these could not distinguish between the right hand and the left, because they had not been taught in the school of God, nor understood the difference between right and wrong; for the unbelieving, as we know, went astray in their errors. But this view is too strained; and besides, there is no reason for this comment; for that city, we know, was not only like some great cities, many of which are at this day in Europe, but it surpassed most of the principal cities at this day. We know that in Paris there are more than four hundred thousand souls: the same is the case with other cities. I therefore reject this comment, as though Jonah was here speaking of all the Ninevites. But God, on the contrary, intended to show, that though there was the justest reason for destroying entirely the whole city, there were yet other reasons which justified the suspension of so dreadful a vengeance; for many infants were there who had not, by their own transgressions, deserved such a destruction. <\/p>\n God then shows here to Jonah that he had been carried away by his own merciless zeal. Though his zeal, as it has been said, arose from a good principle, yet Jonah was influenced by a feeling far too vehement. This God proved, by sparing so many infants hitherto innocent. And to infants he adds the brute animals. Oxen were certainly superior to shrubs. If Jonah justly grieved for one withering shrub, it was far more deplorable and cruel for so many innocent animals to perish. We hence see how apposite are all the parts of this similitude, to make Jonah to loathe his folly, and to be ashamed of it; for he had attempted to frustrate the secret purpose of God, and in a manner to overrule it by his own will, so that the Ninevites might not be spared, who yet labored by true repentance to anticipate the divine judgment. <\/p>\n CRITICAL NOTES.] <\/strong><\/p>\n Jon. 4:11<\/span><\/strong>. Spare<\/strong>] Pity; Lit. to be affected by the sight of a thing; then to be concerned; take pity or compassion upon one. Nineveh contained an immense population, a great number of children; and if this did not produce a suitable impression upon the mind of the prophet, the number even of irrational animals is adverted to, the latter being far superior in point of mechanism and utility to the shrub for which he was so much concerned [Elzaz<\/em>]. What could Jonah say to this? He was obliged to keep silence, defeated, as it were, by his own sentence [Luther<\/em>]. The history breaks off abruptly, but an insight of Gods compassion for all nations is gained. Mercy is the last note sounded. Let us attend to the sign of the prophet, and love him who said, Behold, a greater than Jonas is here!<\/p>\n HOMILETICS<\/em><\/p>\n GODS CARE FOR CHILDREN.Jon. 4:11<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n The mention of children and cattle in the description of the city indicates more than its greatness, proves the tender mercy of God, and affords no ground for the defence of his innocent shrub. God estimates cities, not according to wealth and splendour, but the character of its population. Here, says one, was a reason for sparing the city, and for bringing the adults to repentance in order to save it.<\/p>\n I. Children have a distinct rank assigned to them<\/strong>. They are distinguished from matter<\/em>, and raised higher than brutes. Hence they must not be looked upon as cumber or hindrance to the welfare of humanity. Many regard them in the mass, and give them no distinct rank in the scale of being. Christianity differs in sublime distinction from ancient Polytheism and modern materialism in its loving aspect towards little childrenteaches that they are not to be regarded as incipient organisms in human form, but as immortal beings, and of celestial beauty. For of such is the kingdom of heaven. <\/p>\n II. Children have special claims upon us<\/strong>. Men talk of them as little<\/em> children, so many incarnate trifles or common-places of humanity. Such treatment is neither justified by religion nor reason. Life in its lowest forms involves mystery; but if we recognize infants as manifesting a Divine purpose, and taking a definite rank in creation, we shall feel that certain reverence is due to them. Their innocency is pleasing, and their influence powerful. Upon their character and training depend the happiness of society and the destiny of nations. Few parents are base enough to injure their children, but parental neglect and sinful apathy prevail in every home. Childrens claims are forgotten or ignored, and we are still under the moral implication of ChristTake heed that ye despise not one of these little ones. <\/p>\n III. Gods mercy to children is an example to us<\/strong>. Priority and prominence are given to the children, and God appeals strongly to Jonahs human sympathy. That heart must be desperately hard that cannot feel for the injury and death of infants. Herods outrage brands him with infamy in every age. But God does not play merely upon Jonahs feelings. He shows his regard for children, and reveals his true character as a gracious God. Christ displayed Divine love by taking them into his arms and blessing them. Gods providence over children should urge us to care for them. His pity for them in pain and danger should be a model for parental conduct, and an encouragement to cultivate true disposition of heart. Christ recommended true virtues; set a child in the midst of his disciples, and taught that Christian life was a life of childhood. Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.<\/p>\n GODS CARE FOR OXEN.Jon. 4:11<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n In addition to children there were also much cattle, of infinitely more value than Jonahs gourd, and perfectly innocent of the crimes of which the Ninevites were guilty.<\/p>\n I. Here we have an argument for mercy to beasts<\/strong>. The city must be spared for the sake of the cattle even. Little children and dumb creatures intercede for man and must be pitied. Doth God take care for oxen? Yes, to teach us<\/em> to be merciful to them (1Co. 9:9<\/span>; Deu. 25:4<\/span>). How unlike God are those who neglect them and inflict needless sufferings upon them. Men whom God preserves daily from the punishment of sin wreak their rage upon their beasts, starve and torture them for selfish ends, or kill them in sport and cruelty. A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast; but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. <\/p>\n II. Here we have an argument for mercy to men<\/strong>. Gods care for cattle suggests his greater mercy to men. It is a perversion of sympathy when persons bestow upon brutes an extravagance of kindness which they refuse to children and men Stables and kennels are often more comfortable than cottages; animals are petted while the poor starve. God would have us love and pity not merely our own gourds, but all his creaturesmen, women, children, and even cattleaccording to their respective worth in his sight. The selfish man shrinks up in envy and cold indifference, but blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.<\/p>\n HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES<\/em><\/p>\n Here we have a picture of the weak protecting the strong, infants shielding the parents. Ungodly families are often spared for the sake of the little ones in them. Justice calls for the punishment of the wicked, but mercy delays lest the innocent should suffer with the guilty. The whole chapter is a wonderful exhibition of Divine mercy. I. Mercy is displayed<\/em>. Displayed to Jew and Gentile, young and old. Mercy towards a guilty city, and an ungrateful servant. II. Mercy is vindicated<\/em>. <\/p>\n 1. Against the ignorance<\/em> of man. <\/p>\n 2. Against the selfishness<\/em> of man. We substitute justice for love. It is true that God hates sin; but he is merciful, and prefers pity to punishment. As we do not see the world in the blackness of a thunder-storm, so we do not know God in the outpouring of his wrath. Fear never made the childish nature good. March winds never made the buds blossomonly April showers; it is not the fathers severity, but the mothers love, that makes the child repent.<\/p>\n The mercy of God<\/em> concerns us infinitely. We are personally interested in this argument and in this demonstration, as much as Jonah, as much as the Ninevites. Is there anything else in which we have half the interest that we all have in this? This is the very foundation of our hope; it is the bright charter of our salvation. We enter only by this door. Without the mercy of God we are clean gone for ever. By this mercy we are spared. By this mercy, in its forms of forbearance, and forgiveness, and renewal, we hope one day to reach complete redemption [Raleigh<\/em>].<\/p>\n ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 4<\/p>\n Jon. 4:9-11<\/span>. 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<\/em>].<\/p>\n 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<\/em>]. 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.<\/p>\n GODS MESSENGER RUNNING AHEAD OF GODTHE DECLARATION OF JEHOVAH<\/p>\n TEXT: Jon. 4:11<\/span><\/p>\n 11<\/p>\n and should I not have regard for 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?<\/p>\n QUERIES<\/strong><\/p>\n a.<\/p>\n Why would God want to have regard for wicked Nineveh?<\/p>\n b.<\/p>\n What is the meaning, cannot discern between right and left hand?<\/p>\n c.<\/p>\n Why mention cattle?<\/p>\n PARAPHRASE<\/strong><\/p>\n And God said, Should I not then be just as concerned for the preservation of Nineveh as you were for the gourd vine. You needed the vine and I have urgent need for Nineveh to be preserved. In addition to this there are more than 120,000 innocent children and dumb animals abiding in that city.<\/p>\n SUMMARY<\/strong><\/p>\n God reveals to Jonah His purpose in sparing Nineveh.<\/p>\n COMMENT<\/strong><\/p>\n Jon. 4:11<\/span> . . . SHOULD I NOT HAVE REGARD FOR NINEVEH . . . God must use other means than a demonstration of His wrath upon Nineveh if He is to bring any heartfelt repentance to the calloused Israelites of Jeroboams day. He must call their jealousy into action, (cf. comments on Jon. 1:1-2<\/span>). God seeks to arouse Israel, by the example of this heathen nation spared due to repentance, to the startling consideration that the favor of God was bestowed on those of every race who work righteousnessand of the possibility that the kingdom of heaven might be transplanted to a people more spiritually prepared to receive it! Yes, the Lord at this time peculiarly had need of Nineveh in its penitent state; the cause of righteousness in the earth could ill afford to spare so singular a witness to the truth; the spiritual good of Israel itself in particular required it.<\/p>\n This singular demonstration of Gods mercy and forgiveness and salvation would also furnish hope for the faithful remnant later in captivity. This concept which the Lord sought to impress even on Jonah personally in his own experience in the sea, and which was taught again in the experience of the gourd, provided for all the faithful among the future exiles a sure ground of consolation and hope. There would be hope for them even in what might seem to be despair and grief, 1.<\/p>\n Beware of letting our ideas of the results of Gods work interfere with carrying out His present will for our lives.<\/p>\n 2.<\/p>\n Beware lest we belittle what can be or what is accomplished for God by our ideas of the significance or insignificance of the place of service.<\/p>\n 3.<\/p>\n Wherever and whenever God is pleased to manifest His grace and goodness it is our obligation and privilege to acknowledge and rejoice in that manifestation.<\/p>\n 4.<\/p>\n Gods ways are not our ways. God does not change; man must change!<\/p>\n QUIZ<\/strong><\/p>\n 1.<\/p>\n What was the ultimate purpose in sparing Nineveh?<\/p>\n 2.<\/p>\n What hope would the sparing of Nineveh give to the Israelites of the captivity?<\/p>\n 3.<\/p>\n How did God compare Jonahs grief for the gourd to His concern for Nineveh?<\/p>\n (11) More than<\/strong> . . .This number of infants, 120,000, according to the usual reckoning, gives a population of 600,000.<\/p>\n And also much cattle.<\/strong>This, which at first reads like an anti-climax, is really, perhaps, the most striking thing in the whole of this marvellous book. Already the idea that a sympathy could exist between Jonah and the gourd has seemed to anticipate by thousands of years the feeling of modern poetry expressed in the lines,<\/p>\n To me the meanest flower that blows can give and now the final touch, laying especial emphasis on the thought that even the cattle are an interest and care to God, seems at once to leap to the truth which even our own age has been slow to learn.<\/p>\n He prayeth best who loveth best,<\/p>\n All creatures great and small,<\/p>\n For the dear God who loveth us,<\/p>\n He made and loveth all.<\/p>\n JONAH’S COMPLAINT AND REBUKE, Jon 4:1-11<\/span>.<\/p>\n When Jonah found that his threat was not being fulfilled he became angry and prayed Jehovah to kill him, since life was no longer worth living (Jon 4:1-3<\/span>). Jehovah remonstrated with him (Jon 4:4<\/span>). The prophet left the city and, having prepared a booth, settled down to await developments (Jon 4:5<\/span>). By an object lesson Jehovah taught Jonah the folly and sin of his displeasure over the salvation of Nineveh and showed that God was perfectly justified in averting the doom of the city.<\/p>\n Jon 4:11<\/span><\/em><\/strong>. <\/strong>Should not I spare Nineveh, <\/em><\/strong>&c.<\/strong> It is generally calculated, that the young children of any place are a fifth part of the inhabitants; and, if we admit of that calculation, the whole number of inhabitants in Nineveh amounted to above 600,000; which number will appear by no means incredible, if we consider the dimensions of the city, as given chap. Jon 3:3<\/span>. So large a city might easily contain such a number of inhabitants, and many more; and at the same time there might be, as there are in most of the great cities in the East, large vacant spaces for gardens or pastures; so that there might be, as the sacred text asserts there was, also much cattle. <\/em>It has been observed, that the book of Jonah ends as abruptly as it begins. It begins with a conjunction copulative, And the word came unto Jonah, <\/em> vaihei debar, <\/em>&c. which has made some commentators think, that it was but an appendix to some of his other writings: and it ends without giving us any manner of account, either of what became of the Ninevites, or of Jonah himself, after this expedition. It is likely, indeed, from the compassionate expressions which God makes use of towards the Ninevites, that for this time he reversed their doom; and it is not improbable that Jonah, when he had executed his commission, and been satisfied by God concerning his merciful procedure, returned into Judaea. We may presume, however, that the repentance of the Ninevites was of no long continuance; for, not many years after this, we find the prophet Nahum foretelling the total destruction of that city. See Calmet and Bishop Newton. <\/p>\n REFLECTIONS.<\/strong>1st, Never was perverseness more strange and unaccountable than here appears in this angry prophet. <\/p>\n 1. He is exceedingly displeased at the repentance of the Ninevites, and the mercy extended to them, which one should have thought would have been the very joy of his heart. Perhaps he had imbibed the common Jewish prejudice against the heathen, and was unwilling that the crumbs of mercy should be cast to these dogs. Probably also he esteemed this a deep reflection upon Israel, that heathens should repent so readily, and they continue obdurate. But what seems most to have touched him was his own reputation, lest he should be counted a false prophet. So apt are we to be selfish, and more concerned about the vain world’s opinion, than about God’s glory, and the good of men’s souls. 3. God justly rebukes him for his impatience and causeless perverseness. Doest thou well to be angry? <\/em>what a mild rebuke for so great a provocation! If God be thus gentle, much more ought we to be so, and use that soft answer which turneth away wrath: or is doing good displeasing to thee? <\/em>which should have been his delight. Surely never was greater forbearance; instead of striking him dead in judgment, as he deserved, the Lord kindly seeks to soften his resentment, and bring him to a better mind. What miserable, eternally miserable souls had many been, if God had given them their wishes, and sent that death which they impatiently invoked! <\/p>\n 2nd, The beginning of strife is usually like the letting out of water; passion, having once taken the reins, goes from evil to worse. 3. Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd; he rejoiced with a great joy, <\/em>as the words may be rendered; excessive in his gladness, as he had been in his anger. So easily do hot and hasty spirits run to extremes; and they who vex themselves about the loss of worldly trifles are usually as easily and as much elated with their gain. <\/p>\n 4. God smote the gourd by a worm that he had prepared next morning, and left Jonah as much exposed as ever; and, to make him feel more sensibly the loss, he sent a vehement east-wind, which with the hot sun-beams beat upon him; so that he was quite overpowered, and ready to die with the heat, from which he had no shelter. So quickly fading are all our earthly comforts, when God pleases to send a worm to our gourd; and when we are most happy in them, perhaps even then the instruments are at work to destroy them. In all sublunary goods, therefore, we should rejoice as if we rejoiced nor, that we may be ready to bless God when he takes away, as well as when he gives. 7. Far from standing abashed at this reproof, he daringly vindicates his perverseness: I do well to be angry even unto death. <\/em>Thus do ungoverned passions bear down reason and conscience; and, deaf to conviction, men vindicate the most glaring absurdity and guilt. Nay, self-murderers, many fret themselves into diseases of body, as well as bring sin upon their souls, and will indulge their fretfulness and rage, though death be the consequence. <\/p>\n 8. God, for his conviction, applies to him the case of this gourd, about which he so vexed himself. If he was so concerned about a poor shrub, the growth of a night, or the creature of a day, which he had used no pains to plant or water; with how much more pity might God well regard the vast city of Nineveh, where, besides the other inhabitants, were more than sixscore thousand infants, unable to distinguish good from evil, besides much cattle. <\/em>The animal life was far preferable to the vegetable, and much more immortal souls to both; and here were thousands, and such as never by actual transgression had offendedarguments which should for ever silence his discontent, and lead him to adore the transcendant mercy and righteousness of God. We may reasonably hope that the prophet was convinced, and humbled to the dust; and that he left us this faithful record of his sin and folly, that we might be warned against the like perverseness, or be encouraged to repent of it, and find mercy. <\/p>\n REFLECTIONS<\/p>\n<\/p>\n HERE, Reader, let us pause as we finish the history of Jonah, and gather together into one view the wonderful subject, as it relates to the Lord’s servant, and as it relates to the Lord himself, in his abundant grace manifested to such a wayward and rebellious frame of mind. We shall read the account of Jonah’s preaching to Nineveh, and his displeasure at the Lord’s mercy to little purpose, if we do not learn from the whole to bring the subject home to our own hearts, and under divine teaching discover that the seeds of the same sins, as we find in the Ninevites, and the Prophet, are in our nature also. What (saith the Prophet) are we better than they? No! (saith he) in no wise. For we have before concluded all under sin. And to whom, or from what cause do we ascribe the whole of salvation, but to Jesus and his wonderful undertaking in our nature? Chiefly let the people of God from this history learn, what man in his highest attainments is, if for one moment left to himself. Though like Jonah we have cried from the deep of affliction, when the wormwood and the gall of sin hath been bitterly drank by us; and though from the very belly of hell we have been brought to know the Lord, yet the withering of a gourd will open a-fresh our rebellion, if that thwarting providence, be it what it may, is not sanctified. Precious Lord Jesus! cause both him that writes, and him that reads, to live under the unceasing teachings of thy Holy Spirit, that a spring of humblings and sorrow may be constantly kept open in our souls. Lord, keep from us, as the most dangerous of all evils, every thought of anything and everything in ourselves as righteous; that a sense of the daily workings of corruption, however graciously restrained by thee from breaking out into actual commission, may cause us to go humbly and softly all our day. And above all, dearest Lord, let the daily consciousness of our need of thee, and of thy greatest salvation, make thee daily, yea hourly, more precious to our souls.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Farewell Jonah! I bless my God and Saviour for the profitableness I find under his blessed Spirit’s teaching of thy ministry. Even the frailties of my Lord’s servants, so faithfully recorded in his holy scriptures, afford instruction to my soul. Men of like passions with ourselves, are better suited in my Lord’s service than angels of light. But oh! gracious Lord Jesus! what shall I say, or what shall I offer of thankfulness in beholding thy wonderful condescension in causing a Jonah, amidst all his unworthiness, to be a lively type of thine own person, when accomplishing the purpose of redemption. Here surely Lord, as in a thousand other instances, thy thoughts are not our thoughts, nor thy ways our ways. I bow, Lord, to the dust before thee, and thankfully acknowledge, that both in thine unequalled humiliation and exaltation, thou hast a name above every name, and all creation shall confess that thou art Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Amen.<\/p>\n Jon 4:11 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?<\/p>\n Ver. 11. And should not I spare Nineveh<\/strong> ] I, who am all bowels ( Ego emphaticum.<\/em> Mercer); I, who am a sin pardoning God, Neh 10:31<\/span> , none like me for that, Mic 7:18<\/span> ; I, who am “the Father of mercies, and God of all comfort,” 2Co 1:3<\/span> , whose property and practice it is to comfort “those that are cast down,” 2Co 7:6<\/span> ; I, who am so transcendently gracious, that thou hast even hit me in the teeth with it, Joh 4:2<\/span> ; should not I be affected with the destruction of Nineveh? <\/p>\n <\/p>\n That great city<\/strong> ] See Trapp on “<\/em> Jon 1:2 “<\/em> See Trapp on “<\/em> Jon 3:3 “<\/em> See Trapp on “<\/em> Jon 3:4 “<\/em> Yea, I will spare it, since it is ten thousand times more worth than that gourd of thine so much pitied. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons<\/strong> ] More than twelve myriads of innocent infants that cannot discern, &c., but live a kind of sensitive life, as not yet come to the use of reason, and are therefore matched and mentioned with beasts. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n And also much cattle<\/strong> ] A part of my care, which have had their share, as they could, in the common humiliation; and shall therefore share in the common preservation. And hast thou a heart to repine at this, and not to be set down with so good reason? Jonah is now sad and silenced; and although we hear no further of him, yet methinks I see him (Job-like) laying his hand upon his mouth in a humble yieldance; yea, putting his mouth in the dust, and saying, “Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further,” Job 40:5<\/span> . “Teach me, and I will hold my tongue: for thou hast caused me to understand wherein I have erred. How forcible are right words!” Job 6:24-25<\/span> .<\/p>\n should not I. ? Figure of speech Erotesis (App-6), no answer being required. <\/p>\n are = exits. Hebrew. yesh. See note on Pro 8:21. <\/p>\n that cannot discern, &c. Put by Hebrew Idiom (App-6), for little children; a similar idiom in Deu 1:39 App-92. <\/p>\n much cattle. See notes on “great city”, Jon 3:2; and “herd and flock”, Jon 3:7. Nineveh’s walls included large areas for pasturage and cultivation. In speaking of the innocent ones in the city these are naturally included. Thus the book suddenly ends; and we are left with the solemn reflection that, Nineveh being spared, the way was thus open for the execution of Jehovah’s judgment on Israel by the sword of Assyria, which took place in due time. <\/p>\n Jon 4:11<\/p>\n GODS MESSENGER RUNNING AHEAD OF GOD-<\/p>\n THE DECLARATION OF JEHOVAH<\/p>\n TEXT: Jon 4:11<\/p>\n God reveals to Jonah His purpose in sparing Nineveh.<\/p>\n Jon 4:11 . . . SHOULD I NOT HAVE REGARD FOR NINEVEH . . . God must use other means than a demonstration of His wrath upon Nineveh if He is to bring any heartfelt repentance to the calloused Israelites of Jeroboams day. He must call their jealousy into action, (cf. comments on Jon 1:1-2). God seeks to arouse Israel, by the example of this heathen nation spared due to repentance, to the startling consideration that the favor of God was bestowed on those of every race who work righteousness-and of the possibility that the kingdom of heaven might be transplanted to a people more spiritually prepared to receive it! Yes, the Lord at this time peculiarly had need of Nineveh in its penitent state; the cause of righteousness in the earth could ill afford to spare so singular a witness to the truth; the spiritual good of Israel itself in particular required it. <\/p>\n Zerr: Jon 4:11. The gourd was small even from the standpoint of mater’al volume, while the city contained 120,000 human beings. Cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand is a figure of speech used to describe the ignorance of the people as to what is right and wrong. This does not contradict the comments on Jon 3:8 as to the people’s knowledge of right and wrong, for it is shown there that they knew it only after the Lord had informed them through the prophet.<\/p>\n This singular demonstration of Gods mercy and forgiveness and salvation would also furnish hope for the faithful remnant later in captivity. This concept which the Lord sought to impress even on Jonah personally in his own experience in the sea, and which was taught again in the experience of the gourd, provided for all the faithful among the future exiles a sure ground of consolation and hope. There would be hope for them even in what might seem to be despair and grief,<\/p>\n And so ends this remarkable history of a remarkable prophet of God. There are some significant lessons to be learned from this account.<\/p>\n 1. Beware of letting our ideas of the results of Gods work interfere with carrying out His present will for our lives.<\/p>\n 2. Beware lest we belittle what can be or what is accomplished for God by our ideas of the significance or insignificance of the place of service.<\/p>\n 3. Wherever and whenever God is pleased to manifest His grace and goodness it is our obligation and privilege to acknowledge and rejoice in that manifestation.<\/p>\n 4. Gods ways are not our ways. God does not change; man must change!<\/p>\n Questions<\/p>\n 1. What was the ultimate purpose in sparing Nineveh?<\/p>\n 2. What hope would the sparing of Nineveh give to the Israelites of the captivity?<\/p>\n 3. How did God compare Jonahs grief for the gourd to His concern for Nineveh?<\/p>\n Bible Questions for Jonah Chapter Four<\/p>\n Jon 4:1 How did Jonah feel about what the people of Nineveh did?<\/p>\n Jon 4:2 Name five (or more) things that Jonah knew about God.<\/p>\n Jon 4:3 What did Jonah ask God to do? What did Jonah think was better for him?<\/p>\n Jon 4:4 How did the *Lord reply to Jonah’s anger?<\/p>\n Jon 4:5 Tell the story of what Jonah did? What did he want to see?<\/p>\n Jon 4:6 What did the *Lord do for Jonah? What did Jonah do about it?<\/p>\n Jon 4:7 What did the *Lord do? What happened?<\/p>\n Jon 4:8 What did God do? What happened to Jonah? Is death better than life?<\/p>\n Jon 4:9 What do you learn about God’s view of anger and Jonah’s view?<\/p>\n Jon 4:10 What did God do to help Jonah understand?<\/p>\n Jon 4:1 What do you learn about God’s care? What do you learn about the people of Nineveh?<\/p>\n Marg <\/p>\n Nineveh (See Scofield “Nah 1:1”)<\/p>\n should: Jon 4:1, Isa 1:18, Mat 18:33, Luk 15:28-32 <\/p>\n Nineveh: Jon 1:2, Jon 3:2, Jon 3:3 <\/p>\n sixscore: It is generally calculated that the young children of any place are a fifth of the inhabitants, and consequently the whole population of Nineveh would amount to about 600,000; which is very inferior to that of London and Paris, though they occupy not one quarter of the ground. In eastern cities there are large vacant spaces for gardens and pasturages, so that there might be very “much cattle.” <\/p>\n that cannot: Deu 1:39 <\/p>\n and also: Psa 36:6, Psa 104:14, Psa 104:27, Psa 104:28, Psa 145:8, Psa 145:9, Psa 145:15, Psa 145:16 <\/p>\n Reciprocal: Gen 8:1 – the cattle Gen 9:10 – General Num 22:32 – Wherefore Psa 50:10 – cattle Isa 7:16 – before Isa 8:4 – before Jer 49:11 – thy fatherless Joe 2:22 – afraid Luk 15:32 – was meet Rom 5:14 – even 1Co 9:9 – Doth<\/p>\n Jon 4:11. The gourd was small even from the standpoint of mater’al volume, while the city contained 120,000 human beings. Cunnot discern between their right hand and their left hand is a figure of speech used to describe the ignorance of the people as to what is right and wrong. This does not contradict the comments on chapter 3; 8 as to the people’s knowledge of right and wrong, for it is shown there that they knew it only after the Lord had informed them through the prophet.<\/p>\n Jon 4:11. And should not I The God of infinite compassion; spare Nineveh, that great city? Wouldest thou have me to be less merciful to such a large and populous city as Nineveh, than thou art to a shrub? Surely the lives of so many thousand men, to say nothing of their immortal souls, are much more valuable than the life of a single contemptible plant. Wherein (in which city) are more than six-score thousand persons that cannot discern, &c. That is, infants, who have no knowledge between good and evil, as it is expressed Deu 1:39. If we compute these as a fifth part of the inhabitants of Nineveh, the whole sum will amount to six hundred thousand persons, which are as few as can well be supposed to have inhabited a city of such large dimensions. And also much cattle Besides men, women, and children in Nineveh, there are many other of my creatures that are not sinful, and my tender mercies are, and shall be, over all my works. If thou wouldest be their destroyer, yet I will be their saviour. Go, Jonah, rest thyself content, and be thankful that the goodness which spared Nineveh hath spared thee, in this thy inexcusable frowardness, peevishness, and impatience. I will be to repenting Nineveh what I am to thee, a God gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and I will turn from the evil which thou and they deserve. This reasoning seems to have silenced Jonahs complaints, and made him sensible of his fault in repining at Gods mercy. It has been observed, that the book of Jonah ends as abruptly as it begins. It begins with a conjunction copulative, And the word came unto Jonah, &c., which has made some commentators think that it was but an appendix to some of his other writings: and it ends without giving us any manner of account, either of what became of the Ninevites, or of Jonah himself after this expedition. It is likely, indeed, from the compassionate expressions which God makes use of toward the Ninevites, that for this time he reversed their doom; and it is not improbable that Jonah, when he had executed his commission, and been satisfied by God concerning his merciful procedure, returned into Judea. We may presume, however, that the repentance of the Ninevites was of no long continuance; for, not many years after, we find the Prophet Nahum foretelling the total destruction of that city. See Calmet and Bishop Newton. <\/p>\n 4:11 And should {h} not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that {i} cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and [also] much cattle?<\/p>\n (h) Thus God mercifully reproves him who would pity himself and this gourd, and yet would keep God from showing his compassion to so many thousand people.<\/p>\n (i) Meaning that they were children and infants.<\/p>\n God had invested much work in Nineveh and had been responsible for its growth. This is why it was legitimate at the most elementary level for God to feel compassion for its people. Jonah’s compassion extended only to a plant but not to people.<\/p>\n "It is the choice between gourds or souls." [Note: J. H. Kennedy, Studies in the Book of Jonah, p. 97.] <\/span><\/p>\n God’s compassion extended not only to plants but also to people. The 120,000 people that God cited as the special objects of His compassion were probably the entire populace that did not know how to escape their troubles. The expression "do not know the difference between their right and left hand" is idiomatic meaning lacking in knowledge and innocent in that sense (cf. 2Sa 19:35; Isa 7:15-16). [Note: Stuart, p. 507.] <\/span><\/p>\n "Not to be able to distinguish between the right hand and the left is a sign of mental infancy." [Note: Keil, 1:416.] <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n It would be unusual if this referred only to chronological infants, however.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n "Their inability to discern ’their right hand from their left’ must refer to their moral ignorance. Though responsible for their evil deeds and subject to divine judgment (see Jon 1:2), the Ninevites did not have the advantage of special divine revelation concerning the moral will of God. Morally and ethically speaking they were like children." [Note: Chisholm, Handbook on . . ., p. 416. Cf. Wiseman, "Jonah’s Nineveh," pp. 39-40.] <\/span><\/p>\n We normally have compassion for those with whom we can identify most closely, but God also has compassion on people who are helpless. Spiritually they are those who do not know God, those who are "lost."<\/p>\n People naturally go to one of two extremes in their attitude toward animals. We either look down on them and treat them inhumanely, feeling superior, or we elevate them to the level of persons and grant them rights that they do not possess. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals tries to guard us from the first attitude. The "animal rights movement" tends to promote the second attitude. God has compassion on animals as creatures living below the level of humans that need His grace. This should be our attitude to them too (cf. Gen 1:26; Gen 1:28; Psa 8:6-8). The reference to animals concludes the book and is the final climax of God’s lesson to the prophet and through him to God’s people in Israel and in the church. If God has compassion for animals, and He does, how much more should we feel compassion for human beings made in God’s image who are under His judgment because of their sins (cf. Jon 3:8)! We must never let our concern for the welfare of God’s people keep us from reaching out with the message of hope to those who oppose us.<\/p>\n "It is possible of course, that the animals are mentioned because animals are ipso facto<\/span> innocent and also lack intellectual prowess. Thereby Jonah and the audience would understand that the Ninevites, likewise, are innocent and stupid. But a more likely reason for the mention of animals is that they constitute the middle point in the worth scale upon which the argument of Yahweh is based. That is, the people of Nineveh are of enormous worth. They are human beings (’dm<\/span>), and they are the citizens of the most important city of their day. The animals (bhmh<\/span>) in turn are of less worth, but still significant in the economy of any nation or city. . . . The gourd, on the other hand, is of minor worth. . . . Jonah has furiously argued for the worth of a one-day-old plant (Jon 4:9 b). He can have no good argument, then, against the worth of Nineveh, with all its people and animals." [Note: Stuart, p. 508.] <\/span><\/p>\n "God’s question captures the very intention of the book. The issue is that of grace-grace and mercy. Just as Jonah’s provision was the shade of the vine he did not deserve, the Ninevites’ provision was a deliverance they did not deserve based upon a repentance they did not fully understand."Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
II. <\/strong>If we can take this view we may well consider how different the tone of this prophecy is from that which we should expect from the accuser of Nineveh. It is full of tender feeling and humane regret. I will weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibmah:<\/strong> I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh:<\/strong> for upon thy summer fruits and upon thy harvest the battle shout is fallen . . . Wherefore my bowels sound like an harp for Moab, and mine inward parts for Kirheres (Isa 16:9<\/span>; Isa 11:1-16<\/span>). We cannot recognise in these words the voice of the Jonah who went to Nineveh; and, indeed, it may be the voice of another Jonah, whom Gods gentleness had made great. And, whether Jonah learned his lesson or not, the story remains–a poem, in which man is humiliated and God only exalted. For My ways are not your ways, nor your thoughts My thoughts, saith the Lord:<\/strong> for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts higher than your thoughts. (A. H. Vine.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\nFuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible <\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Many great and fruitful truths lie couchant here. It is manifest, for example, that infants are regarded by God as personally innocent<\/em>. They inherit many of the consequences, but do not share the guilt<\/em> of Adams sin. God here seems to say: What have they<\/em> done? They have had no part in the guilt of the city. Would you bring a storm of judgment upon them?<\/em> It is manifest, also, that unconscious beings may have, really have, a great moral power and place in the universe. When men or women all through the city were crying mightily to God, there was a cry mightier, although inarticulate, going up from six-score thousand unconscious suppliants. The infants of Nineveh did what all her armed men could not dothey helped to turn away the wrath of God, and to draw down his mercy. This reference to the infants tells us that life is good<\/em>. It is implied that it is in itself a blessinga thing to be desired to make one wise. The Prophet had said, It is better for me to die than to live. In an indirect manner God says, It is better to live than to die, better even for infants to live, although they might die without tasting the bitterness of death. Better to live, even in a place like Nineveh, where the wickedness is only arrested for a little, and not extinguished, than not to live at all [Raleigh<\/em>].<\/p>\nFuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
And so ends this remarkable history of a remarkable prophet of God. There are some significant lessons to be learned from this account.<\/p>\nFuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Thoughts that too often lie too deep for tears;<\/p>\nFuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
2. He dares expostulate with God on the subject. It is said that he prayed; but very unlike was this prayer from what he had so lately offered up to God. He begins with justifying himself to God for his flight to Tarshish, insolently insinuating that he was then in the right, having foreseen that this would be the consequence, because, as he suggests, he knew God’s gracious character, and his readiness to receive and pardon returning sinners: a most amazing cause indeed for his displeasure! So ready are passionate people to suggest the most absurd reasons to justify their anger. And now in a passion he is tired of life, and wants God instantly to dispatch him, as if it was better for him to die than to live, <\/em>and bear the reproach of a false prophet: a temper, indeed, very unfit for a dying man: but those who are blinded by their passions are destitute of reflection, and usually deaf to advice. <\/p>\n
1. Jonah retires in sullen silence, and waits without the city, to see what would become of it, having made for himself a booth with boughs of trees, to shelter him from the sun and rain. (See the Notes.) Probably he thought that if the greater judgments were removed, some lesser ones might be inflicted, and save his credit as a prophet; or he might presume that the repentance of the Ninevites would be of no long continuance, and then their ruin would return upon them.
2. Though in his present spirit he little deserved any favour from God, yet He, who is good to the evil and unthankful, thought upon him in his incommodious habitation, and caused a gourd, <\/em>or, as others interpret it, a tree called the ricinus, <\/em>or palma-christi, <\/em>to spring up suddenly, and spread its shadow over him, to deliver him from his grief: <\/em>probably the heat of the sun was very troublesome, and added to his other vexations. Note; <\/em>(1.) They who vex themselves with imaginary ills, are often suffered to feel real misery. (2.) Though we are often froward children, God is a tender father, and pities us even when we deserve punishment. <\/p>\n
5. Jonah relapses into his former fretfulness, and, with impatient discontent at the loss of the gourd, again wishes for death, as a deliverance from his misery. Thus inordinate affection lays a foundation for inordinate affliction.
6. God expostulates with him on his sin and folly. Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? Note; <\/em>It becomes us in all our losses and crosses to check our inordinate discontent and anger, and ask, Do I well to be angry? <\/em>so long, so often, on such frivolous occasions? One moment’s reflection should shame and silence us. <\/p>\nFuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n