Jonah 4:1-11

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa. 55:8-9).

Jonah’s way most certainly was not God’s way. The opening verse of chapter 4 reveals that Jonah was displeased and angry because God spared Nineveh (3:10). The Jonah which calls out to God in prayer in verse 2 is the same Jonah who earlier sought to flee from God and go to Tarshish.

Jonah’s words reveal that Jonah is not gracious as God is gracious, that Jonah is not merciful as God is merciful, that Jonah is not slow to anger as God is slow to anger, that Jonah does not possess God’s loving kindness, and that Jonah, unlike God, is not one to relent from inflicting harm. God’s love was not found in Jonah before he went to Nineveh and it was not found in Jonah after he saw the Ninevites repent of their evil ways. Jonah’s words reveal that he is angry that God did not spare Nineveh and that he was filled with despair — with so much despair that he beseeched the Lord to take his life.

Jonah is not the first prophet to express despair. Elijah also asked the Lord to take his life (I Kings 19:4). Both Elijah and Jonah were overcome by self-pity. Elijah’s despair was triggered by his failure to stand against Jezebel; Jonah’s was by Nineveh’s repentance — something which Jonah did not want. Jonah did not want what God wanted.

God answers Jonah’s death request with the question: “Doest thou well to be angry?” Jonah did not answer God’s question. He went out of the city and made a booth to provide comforting shade and waited to see what God would do.

God had sent Jonah to Nineveh to cry out against its wickedness. God was so angered by Nineveh’s wickedness that He was prepared to destroy the city. God made His anger known such that Nineveh might change its ways. Jonah was angered because the Ninevites repented. In deed, Jonah’s words of verse 2 reveal that he did not want what God wanted. He did not want to prophesy against Nineveh because he wanted the city destroyed. Jonah did not want Nineveh to change its ways. Jonah left the city and built a booth and camped outside the city and waited to see what God would do. Jonah had done what God had said to do and now he was waiting to see if God would do what Jonah wanted done.

God was unwilling that Jonah should sit and stew in hate. God in His love for Nineveh made their sins known to them and God in His love for Jonah, likewise, reached out to him that he might see his own failings.

The Lord caused a broad-leafed vine to sprout and spread over Jonah’s shelter. It provided a wonderful shade that protected Jonah from the blazing sun. Jonah’s anger turned to gladness. Surely the Lord was good to him. His gladness was short lived. The gourd provided a single day of comfort. Before dawn of the next day, a worm chewed upon the roots of the vine, causing it to wither. The Lord then directed the east wind to blow on Jonah, causing him great discomfort.

Jonah’s self-centered nature is vividly revealed. Like the leaves of the vine, he wilted. Jonah despaired and said, “It is better for me to die than to live” (v. 8). Jonah was speaking to himself but God heard his words. God made it known to Jonah (and He makes it known to us) that Jonah was angry because God caused a worm to destroy the gourd vine that had provided him comfort. The Lord asked Jonah, “Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd?”

When the Lord asked Jonah if his anger were justified on the first occasion in verse 4, Jonah was silent. This is not the case in verse 9. Jonah declares that his anger is justified unto death. Jonah expressed the thoughts of his heart — he felt that God should honor him. This is last word, thought, and action of Jonah.

“Then said the Lord . . .” (v. 10). The words which follow are words of truth and rebuke. The sad truth for which Jonah had no answer is that he cared more for a gourd that provided a day of personal comfort than he cared for the lives of sixty thousand inhabitants of Nineveh who could not discern between their right hand and their left hand.

The book of Jonah ends with God asking Jonah a question which he cannot answer. The Lord asks Jonah to provide a reason which would justify His withholding grace from the immature and the innocent. Jonah is silent.

New Testament believers rejoice in Jonah’s silence because we are the recipients of God’s unmerited love. God has made His love known and we have accepted the gift given to all who believe. We rejoice in the knowledge that it is God’s will that none should perish but that all should come to repentance II Pet. 3:9). We rejoice because God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son such that men may not perish. We rejoice because the Son has revealed the Father to us. We rejoice because God is God.

Let us declare that which we have received.