0233. Jonah Under the Gourd

Jonah Under the Gourd

"And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah" (Jon_4:6).

1. Jonah having delivered his message, went out of the city and sat down to see what would happen. He had no love for Nineveh, and he did not want Nineveh to heed his word, nor to repent, for Jonah knew that God was "merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness." Thus when Nineveh repented and God spared the city, Jonah held controversy with God. He bemoaned his very life and prayed to die.

2. Over the angered Prophet God prepared a gourd. "And Jonah was exceeding glad for the gourd." The hot sun had been blistering his head, the winds had been scorching his face, so he was glad for the gourd.

How strange it was that Jonah wanted a protecting gourd for himself, and unrelenting judgments for Nineveh. But so it was.

3. God prepared a worm. There are four things prepared in this record. (1) The great fish was prepared; (2) The gourd was prepared; (3) The worm was prepared, and (4) The east wind was prepared. God brought about just those things that were needed to manifest His grace.

When the worm came and the east wind followed, poor Jonah was at his row’s end; he fainted and longed to die. Then God once more had Jonah where He could speak to him. The belly of the fish had sufficed to bring Jonah to the place of obedience, but the gourd and the worm and the hot wind were needed to bring Jonah to appreciate the compassionate heart of God.

And God said: "Thou hast had pity for the gourd * * and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six-score thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?"

Nowhere in the Bible can we look any deeper in-to the heart of our blessed God than here. His goodness and His severity is set forth, side by side. His threatened judgments on Nineveh; His storm, His hot sun and winds, all reveal His wrath against sin: His prepared fish, His prepared gourd, and His "should not I spare Nineveh?" all reveal the exceeding riches of His mercy and of His grace.

Stop one moment, in conclusion, and meditate upon those two expressions which reveal to us the accumulative reasons that God gives for sparing Nineveh. "Sixscore thousand children" (who cannot discern their right hand from their left). "Much cattle."

Children and cattle, both are encompassed by the compassionate God. My God is a God of all grace, to Him I bend the knee, and worship and adore His name.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR