Post by Cindy on Apr 20, 2016 11:38:58 GMT -5
Please read JONAH 4:1–11 before reading what the following commentaries have to say about it. (or you can hover your mouse over each scripture reference and you'll see the scripture as a pop up.
Jonah’s anger (Jonah 4:1–2)
In verse 1, Jonah’s anger boils over. It had been bubbling up inside him and now comes spilling out when he sees the Lord relenting from the threat of overthrowing Nineveh. It is a depressingly ugly mood. As the Lord turns from his anger at the close of chapter 3, so Jonah turns to his at the beginning of chapter 4. He was happy to be a prophet of doom but only so long as the doom was to occur. When God sees the repentance of Nineveh and lifts his threat of destruction, so Jonah lifts the shackles on his otherwise dormant emotions and gives full vent to them.
It is not just a little irritation that Jonah feels—it is absolute fury. Literally ‘it was evil to Jonah a great evil’. These are shocking words. It is one thing when people rail against God for troubles and calamities in life. Jonah’s fury is different. He is enraged that there is no calamity. He looks at the kindness and mercy of the Lord and calls it evil. For him, Nineveh had got away with it too easily. Even though their repentance had been genuine enough, surely their violence and immorality was so deep-seated and extreme that it merited some kind of punishment from God. Or so Jonah thinks. He does not use the words ‘cheap grace’ but that is what he means.
Jonah’s prayer Jonah 4:2–3
His mood was black and his complaint was out of order but at least Jonah pours out his burden before the Lord. It was certainly better than running away. More than that, it was actually a good response. It is very easy to avoid prayer with the excuse that we need to wait until we feel more in the mood for it. But sometimes it is the very mood itself that needs to be brought before the Lord. There are many instances in Scripture where people are rebuked for their approach to the Lord, but it is usually because of self-righteousness and hypocrisy. We do not find those who genuinely wish to engage with God being turned away. We may cringe at the intemperateness of Jonah’s outburst, but God himself seems perfectly at ease with it.
The effect of Jonah’s mood
However, the fact that the Lord does not rebuke Jonah does not mean that his emotional state does not matter. It does. Moreover, Jonah must answer for it. We also see in these verses where Jonah’s mood takes him. It is not a welcoming place.
(1) ISOLATION
Jonah is on his own (Jonah 4:5). We might well ask ‘why?’ It is clear from chapter 1 that Jonah is a bit of a ‘loner’. He had more of an excuse on the ship since, on that occasion, he was among pagans. But here there is no such justification. There may be times when believers are called upon to battle it out alone, but it is not very often and it is not here.
Staying on in Nineveh would have been the obvious thing for Jonah to have done. Following the city-wide revival, he would have been among fellow believers in Jehovah, who needed to know more about the God before whom they had bowed. The Ninevites already appreciated Jonah for his part in bringing them God’s word and would have provided an eager audience for him. But instead of exercising a useful ministry among these new converts, Jonah cuts himself off. His hostile mood to God’s withdrawal of the threat of punishment has the inevitable effect of putting a distance between himself and the Ninevites. They have been the recipients of God’s grace, but they are no friends of Jonah. It is Jonah’s mood which means he wants nothing to do with them. Isolating himself in this way has led to useless inactivity.
(2) SELF-JUSTIFICATION
The words ‘I’, ‘me’ or ‘my’ occur nine times in the Hebrew in verses 2–3 alone. Jonah is totally wrapped up in his feelings. The simmering resentment he feels towards God bursts out in self-justifying poison. Just listen to him: ‘O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.’
Jonah appeared to have made such strides after his experience of the storm and the whale, but indulging misguided thoughts have brought the return of all his old emotions and he is walking backwards. Jonah genuinely felt that God’s readiness to forgive proved that his own initial instincts to opt out of this particular mission in the first place had been right all along. The Lord, he told himself, had been far too compassionate. The Ninevites had persuaded him to relent far too easily. Jonah may have repented from his earlier behavior, but, on reflection, he was coming round to thinking that events had vindicated him. Jonah had been consistent throughout—it was God who had changed his mind.
(3) ACCUSATIONS
The flipside to self-justification is condemnation of others. ‘If I am right,’ one reasons, ‘then the other person must be wrong.’ In this case, Jonah believes he is right—so God must be in the wrong. As far as Jonah was concerned, the problem was not simply that the Lord was gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love; it was more that he was always gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. His accusation was that the Lord should be able to discern those times when it was appropriate to be compassionate (and no doubt he could cite the example when he himself was in trouble in the fish) but there are other times when God ought to show a more ruthless streak. Clearly Jonah felt Nineveh was the classic example where their sin cried out for a firmer line—hence his anger against the Lord. Whatever happened to Jonah’s promised song of thanksgiving (Jonah 2:9)?
(4) IRRATIONALITY
Jonah’s statement that he wanted to die (Jonah 4:4) is an attempt to impress God with just how strongly he feels about this matter. He has been here before (Jonah 1:12). It sounds as though he has hit the rock-bottom of despair but, in truth, it is more a question of being irrational. A short while ago he had been offering a sacrifice of praise at having been delivered from drowning and from the belly of the whale. Now he wants to die. And what has intervened to make him change his mind? It was nothing other than a city-wide repentance, met by the grace of God. Jonah has allowed his feelings to dominate his thinking. No wonder he becomes irrational.
(5) FOLLY
In Jonah 4:5, Jonah builds himself a shelter, presumably from bits and pieces of dry branches lying around in the arid environment. It was probably a somewhat pathetic and rickety affair. There he sits, partly to sulk and partly to blackmail the Lord, telling himself and God that he will not budge until the Lord relents and destroys the Ninevites as promised. It is a sinfully dangerous game that he is getting into.
(6) LACK OF PERSPECTIVE
This point will only become clear in later verses, but the Lord is about to teach Jonah a valuable object lesson through a plant. As Jonah sits in sullen isolation, the Lord miraculously provides a vine that shoots up overnight. He awakens to find that his home-made shack has had a divine makeover. Structurally it has been made secure as the tendrils of the covering plant have bound it together; aesthetically it has been turned into a delightfully cool arbour by the luxuriant leaves.
In kindness, the Lord has provided the vine to give protecting shade for Jonah (Jonah 4:6), but Jonah’s delight is wildly out of proportion. Because he has allowed his feelings to dictate his life, he has lost all sense of perspective. Euphoric over a plant and indifferent to the destruction of a city, he stands in need of divine instruction.
The Lord’s question
In the midst of this, the Lord asks Jonah: ‘Are you right to feel this way?’ (Jonah 4:4) We as readers would look on and say, ‘Of course he’s not right.’ Even Jonah himself does not seem overly confident in his position and declines to give an answer.
It is an important question because it shows us that the Lord expects an answer. In our culture we tend to the view that moods of whatever complexion are just ‘one of those things’. Partly by temperament and partly by circumstances we excuse ourselves that they just come and there is not much that any of us can do about it. We would therefore dismiss the question as missing the point. However, the fact that the Lord asks it shows that we are responsible and answerable for our moods. We shall see next time that the Lord is not going to let Jonah get away with not answering the question. He will ask it again until he gets an answer.
Sun, wind and worm (Jonah 4:7–11)
Once again Jonah and the Lord are locked in battle. It is not a fight between enemies but a struggle for mastery between friends. As a contest it is unequal and there will only ever be one victor, but the Lord’s purpose in engaging in battle is not to punish Jonah. He wishes instead to teach him. Jonah will emerge from this conflict humbled and, we trust, more effective.
Just as the Lord had provided the great fish in 1:17 here, having provided a vine (v. 6), he now provides the worm (v. 7). The choice of food of a mighty fish is directed by the Lord, but so too is that of a little worm. A scorching east wind will shortly be provided also (Jonah 4:8).
The experience of battle in this final episode of the book exposes Jonah and reveals him in his true colors.
Jonah’s heart revealed (Jonah 4:7)
In Jonah 4:6, we have seen Jonah deliriously, almost embarrassingly, happy. It is the happiest he has been, despite having been God’s instrument for the most glorious spiritual revival the world has probably ever seen. His delight has been fuelled by the miraculous provision of a plant. Now he can sit in the cool of the shade and watch as Nineveh is destroyed. He knows that the vine is a divine gift, and it is possible that he sees it as the Lord’s reconsideration of his decision to forgive Nineveh in the light of Jonah’s personal protest. Jonah dares to believe that the Lord has come round to his way of thinking after all. If so, he takes it that the kind provision of a shade from the burning heat must be God’s way of apologizing to him. This is vindication of the highest order.
With these delightful thoughts swimming around his head he sits down for a front-row viewing of the coming spectacle. But—and it is a big but—a tiny, insignificant worm is on its way. The worm is an ever-present reality in the context of death and decay (Mark 9:48). It is fitting that such a symbolic creature should be directed to be the means of highlighting the internal rottenness of Jonah’s ethical code.
It was an act of compassion for the Lord to provide the covering protection for Jonah, but when his heart went after it, it was an even greater act of kindness for the Lord to remove it. In kindness the Lord may allow us our toys, but he can remove them at a stroke to teach us that our joy should be in him alone.
Jonah’s folly revealed (Jonah 4:8)
As the new day dawns in Jonah 4:7, Jonah is completely oblivious to what awaits him. His anger has gone and there is much in life to delight him. Perhaps his spirits soar even higher as he senses the wind picking up and wonders if this is a harbinger of the storm of destruction about to engulf Nineveh.
But then the joy drains from him as he notices the leaves turning dry and brown before his very eyes. Maybe he inspects the base of the vine and realizes that it has been attacked. Perhaps he sees the worm and even stamps on it in frustrated anger. If so, it is too late. His beloved plant is gripped by death and he knows there is nothing he can do about it.
As the vine shrivels and dies, so the protecting and binding canopy over Jonah’s little shelter drops away. At the mercy of the increasing wind the structure quickly disintegrates. Swept by swirling sand, the remnants of what was once his delightful abode are soon covered and lost to view. This is not a cool breeze but the hot sirocco wind that intensifies the heat. Jonah is left exposed in the searing temperatures. Just as the worm has attacked the plant, so now the sun gets up and attacks Jonah. He grows faint as the sun blazes down on his head (Jonah 4:8). It is probably a case of severe sunstroke. The full horror is beginning to dawn on him. This sand storm is not for Nineveh at all—it is for him!
At this point Jonah’s folly is revealed. He knows that the vine is dead but wishes to go with it.
In the first storm in chapter 1, Jonah had been brought to the edge of eternity, asking to be thrown overboard in preference to seeking the face of the Lord. Here in a second storm, he once again seeks the relief of death itself. The heat and the wind may have been unbearably fierce, but Jonah’s readiness to opt out of life is becoming a habit. And it is all because he is not happy about God’s mercy.
Jonah’s emotions revealed (Jonah 4:9)
The death of the plant has re-kindled Jonah’s anger. His joy lasted a day—equivalent to the life of his choice weed. But the appetite of a single worm has killed the plant and killed Jonah’s happiness. His fury returns, having gone full circle. Last time round it was anger against God for the way in which he exercised his right to show mercy. This time it is anger against God for the way in which he exercises his right to destroy. Jonah believes passionately that the Lord has got things the wrong way round. Towards the Ninevites he should have shown the firm hand of justice—after all they deserved it. The plant, on the other hand, had only done good in its brief life. There was therefore every reason for the Lord to preserve its life.
Jonah’s own suffering merely heightened the sense of unfairness that he felt towards God. In the background may have been unanswered questions as to why he had to face such repeated and severe ordeals for what he felt were fairly minor offenses, when the violence and immorality of the Ninevites was met with nothing less than an absolute discharge and the full blessing of the judge. The thought that the Lord was playing with him was further provocation—why provide a vine for his comfort, only to take it away again? Nobody likes being mocked.
So when the Lord repeats the question of Jonah 4:4 and asks him whether he has a right to be angry, you can almost hear him spit the words out: ‘I do. I am angry enough to die.’
Jonah’s thinking exposed (Jonah 4:10–11)
Quiet reason does not always work when someone is in a foul mood. It is quite likely that it did not work here either—at least not immediately. Nonetheless it does not stop the Lord putting forward solid arguments as to why Jonah needs to think again. Having asked Jonah about his anger, the Lord will see the conversation through, wherever it leads. He could have rebuked Jonah for his discourteous reply or ignored him altogether, but once again the Lord chooses to answer the substance of Jonah’s complaint.
The Lord asks Jonah to compare the vine with the city of Nineveh. That means a single, unfeeling plant against 120,000 morally illiterate people (although they were blameworthy in their wickedness, they were nevertheless spiritually ignorant). Jonah had done nothing for the vine, whereas the Lord was behind both the plant and the city, in his role as creator and upholder of life. The vine shot up overnight, but the origins of Nineveh go back to the book of Genesis. The death of a plant may be one thing, but the destruction of human and animal life is another thing entirely.
Now, here is the point: both the Lord and Jonah have shown a tearful pity (as the word translated ‘concerned’ in verses 10 and 11 means in the original Hebrew). Jonah’s emotions have all been directed at the life of the plant. God’s passion has been directed at the life of Nineveh. The Lord does not tell Jonah that he is wrong to feel pity for the plant. Instead, he asks the simple question: ‘Jonah, if you feel pity for the plant, why should I not be allowed to feel pity for the city?’
The unanswered question
The Lord has the last word in the book of Jonah, but since it is a question, the final word ought to belong to Jonah. Unlike his hasty response in Jonah 4:9, on this occasion there is no answer. There may be two reasons for the silence. First, the book is its own answer. In other words, the very fact that Jonah recorded his experience in self-effacing detail is as clear an indication as anyone could want that he understood the lessons the Lord had been teaching him. More than that, he absorbed those lessons and was anxious that others should also profit from reading the account. Had he walked away at the end of chapter 4, nursing his bitterness, there would have been no book of Jonah. Jonah’s response, unrecorded as it is, can only be a full-hearted ‘yes’.
The other reason for the silence is that if Jonah had recorded the answer he gave we would have missed the point that, in a sense, the question is directed at us. All of us who read the book of Jonah are required to give our own response. In our case, the thing we cherish is likely to be something other than a plant, but the point is still just as valid. How does the worth of an immortal soul stack up against our chosen toy, whatever that toy may be? The question is asked in terms of the souls of others, but it can also be asked of the individual’s own soul. Jesus asked the same question in a slightly different form: ‘What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?’ (Matt. 16:26).
It is a question that is never answered just once, but needs constantly repeating. And it is the question with which the book fittingly closes. Opening up Jonah. Opening Up Commentary
Jonah 4:10–11 Baker paraphrases the Lord’s response this way: “Let’s analyze this anger of yours, Jonah It represents your concern over your beloved plant—but what did it really mean to you? Your attachment to it couldn’t be very deep, for it was here one day & gone the next. Your concern was dictated by self-interest, not by genuine love. You never had the devotion of a gardener. If you feel as bad as you do, what would you expect a gardener to feel like, who tended a plant & watched it grow only to see it wither & die? This is how I feel about Nineveh, only much more so. All those people, all those animals—I made them; I have cherished them all these years. Nineveh has cost Me no end of effort, and it means the world to Me. Your pain is nothing compared to Mine when I contemplate their destruction” The Bible Knowledge Commentary
Jonah’s anger (Jonah 4:1–2)
In verse 1, Jonah’s anger boils over. It had been bubbling up inside him and now comes spilling out when he sees the Lord relenting from the threat of overthrowing Nineveh. It is a depressingly ugly mood. As the Lord turns from his anger at the close of chapter 3, so Jonah turns to his at the beginning of chapter 4. He was happy to be a prophet of doom but only so long as the doom was to occur. When God sees the repentance of Nineveh and lifts his threat of destruction, so Jonah lifts the shackles on his otherwise dormant emotions and gives full vent to them.
It is not just a little irritation that Jonah feels—it is absolute fury. Literally ‘it was evil to Jonah a great evil’. These are shocking words. It is one thing when people rail against God for troubles and calamities in life. Jonah’s fury is different. He is enraged that there is no calamity. He looks at the kindness and mercy of the Lord and calls it evil. For him, Nineveh had got away with it too easily. Even though their repentance had been genuine enough, surely their violence and immorality was so deep-seated and extreme that it merited some kind of punishment from God. Or so Jonah thinks. He does not use the words ‘cheap grace’ but that is what he means.
Jonah’s prayer Jonah 4:2–3
His mood was black and his complaint was out of order but at least Jonah pours out his burden before the Lord. It was certainly better than running away. More than that, it was actually a good response. It is very easy to avoid prayer with the excuse that we need to wait until we feel more in the mood for it. But sometimes it is the very mood itself that needs to be brought before the Lord. There are many instances in Scripture where people are rebuked for their approach to the Lord, but it is usually because of self-righteousness and hypocrisy. We do not find those who genuinely wish to engage with God being turned away. We may cringe at the intemperateness of Jonah’s outburst, but God himself seems perfectly at ease with it.
The effect of Jonah’s mood
However, the fact that the Lord does not rebuke Jonah does not mean that his emotional state does not matter. It does. Moreover, Jonah must answer for it. We also see in these verses where Jonah’s mood takes him. It is not a welcoming place.
(1) ISOLATION
Jonah is on his own (Jonah 4:5). We might well ask ‘why?’ It is clear from chapter 1 that Jonah is a bit of a ‘loner’. He had more of an excuse on the ship since, on that occasion, he was among pagans. But here there is no such justification. There may be times when believers are called upon to battle it out alone, but it is not very often and it is not here.
Staying on in Nineveh would have been the obvious thing for Jonah to have done. Following the city-wide revival, he would have been among fellow believers in Jehovah, who needed to know more about the God before whom they had bowed. The Ninevites already appreciated Jonah for his part in bringing them God’s word and would have provided an eager audience for him. But instead of exercising a useful ministry among these new converts, Jonah cuts himself off. His hostile mood to God’s withdrawal of the threat of punishment has the inevitable effect of putting a distance between himself and the Ninevites. They have been the recipients of God’s grace, but they are no friends of Jonah. It is Jonah’s mood which means he wants nothing to do with them. Isolating himself in this way has led to useless inactivity.
(2) SELF-JUSTIFICATION
The words ‘I’, ‘me’ or ‘my’ occur nine times in the Hebrew in verses 2–3 alone. Jonah is totally wrapped up in his feelings. The simmering resentment he feels towards God bursts out in self-justifying poison. Just listen to him: ‘O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.’
Jonah appeared to have made such strides after his experience of the storm and the whale, but indulging misguided thoughts have brought the return of all his old emotions and he is walking backwards. Jonah genuinely felt that God’s readiness to forgive proved that his own initial instincts to opt out of this particular mission in the first place had been right all along. The Lord, he told himself, had been far too compassionate. The Ninevites had persuaded him to relent far too easily. Jonah may have repented from his earlier behavior, but, on reflection, he was coming round to thinking that events had vindicated him. Jonah had been consistent throughout—it was God who had changed his mind.
(3) ACCUSATIONS
The flipside to self-justification is condemnation of others. ‘If I am right,’ one reasons, ‘then the other person must be wrong.’ In this case, Jonah believes he is right—so God must be in the wrong. As far as Jonah was concerned, the problem was not simply that the Lord was gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love; it was more that he was always gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. His accusation was that the Lord should be able to discern those times when it was appropriate to be compassionate (and no doubt he could cite the example when he himself was in trouble in the fish) but there are other times when God ought to show a more ruthless streak. Clearly Jonah felt Nineveh was the classic example where their sin cried out for a firmer line—hence his anger against the Lord. Whatever happened to Jonah’s promised song of thanksgiving (Jonah 2:9)?
(4) IRRATIONALITY
Jonah’s statement that he wanted to die (Jonah 4:4) is an attempt to impress God with just how strongly he feels about this matter. He has been here before (Jonah 1:12). It sounds as though he has hit the rock-bottom of despair but, in truth, it is more a question of being irrational. A short while ago he had been offering a sacrifice of praise at having been delivered from drowning and from the belly of the whale. Now he wants to die. And what has intervened to make him change his mind? It was nothing other than a city-wide repentance, met by the grace of God. Jonah has allowed his feelings to dominate his thinking. No wonder he becomes irrational.
(5) FOLLY
In Jonah 4:5, Jonah builds himself a shelter, presumably from bits and pieces of dry branches lying around in the arid environment. It was probably a somewhat pathetic and rickety affair. There he sits, partly to sulk and partly to blackmail the Lord, telling himself and God that he will not budge until the Lord relents and destroys the Ninevites as promised. It is a sinfully dangerous game that he is getting into.
(6) LACK OF PERSPECTIVE
This point will only become clear in later verses, but the Lord is about to teach Jonah a valuable object lesson through a plant. As Jonah sits in sullen isolation, the Lord miraculously provides a vine that shoots up overnight. He awakens to find that his home-made shack has had a divine makeover. Structurally it has been made secure as the tendrils of the covering plant have bound it together; aesthetically it has been turned into a delightfully cool arbour by the luxuriant leaves.
In kindness, the Lord has provided the vine to give protecting shade for Jonah (Jonah 4:6), but Jonah’s delight is wildly out of proportion. Because he has allowed his feelings to dictate his life, he has lost all sense of perspective. Euphoric over a plant and indifferent to the destruction of a city, he stands in need of divine instruction.
The Lord’s question
In the midst of this, the Lord asks Jonah: ‘Are you right to feel this way?’ (Jonah 4:4) We as readers would look on and say, ‘Of course he’s not right.’ Even Jonah himself does not seem overly confident in his position and declines to give an answer.
It is an important question because it shows us that the Lord expects an answer. In our culture we tend to the view that moods of whatever complexion are just ‘one of those things’. Partly by temperament and partly by circumstances we excuse ourselves that they just come and there is not much that any of us can do about it. We would therefore dismiss the question as missing the point. However, the fact that the Lord asks it shows that we are responsible and answerable for our moods. We shall see next time that the Lord is not going to let Jonah get away with not answering the question. He will ask it again until he gets an answer.
Sun, wind and worm (Jonah 4:7–11)
Once again Jonah and the Lord are locked in battle. It is not a fight between enemies but a struggle for mastery between friends. As a contest it is unequal and there will only ever be one victor, but the Lord’s purpose in engaging in battle is not to punish Jonah. He wishes instead to teach him. Jonah will emerge from this conflict humbled and, we trust, more effective.
Just as the Lord had provided the great fish in 1:17 here, having provided a vine (v. 6), he now provides the worm (v. 7). The choice of food of a mighty fish is directed by the Lord, but so too is that of a little worm. A scorching east wind will shortly be provided also (Jonah 4:8).
The experience of battle in this final episode of the book exposes Jonah and reveals him in his true colors.
Jonah’s heart revealed (Jonah 4:7)
In Jonah 4:6, we have seen Jonah deliriously, almost embarrassingly, happy. It is the happiest he has been, despite having been God’s instrument for the most glorious spiritual revival the world has probably ever seen. His delight has been fuelled by the miraculous provision of a plant. Now he can sit in the cool of the shade and watch as Nineveh is destroyed. He knows that the vine is a divine gift, and it is possible that he sees it as the Lord’s reconsideration of his decision to forgive Nineveh in the light of Jonah’s personal protest. Jonah dares to believe that the Lord has come round to his way of thinking after all. If so, he takes it that the kind provision of a shade from the burning heat must be God’s way of apologizing to him. This is vindication of the highest order.
With these delightful thoughts swimming around his head he sits down for a front-row viewing of the coming spectacle. But—and it is a big but—a tiny, insignificant worm is on its way. The worm is an ever-present reality in the context of death and decay (Mark 9:48). It is fitting that such a symbolic creature should be directed to be the means of highlighting the internal rottenness of Jonah’s ethical code.
It was an act of compassion for the Lord to provide the covering protection for Jonah, but when his heart went after it, it was an even greater act of kindness for the Lord to remove it. In kindness the Lord may allow us our toys, but he can remove them at a stroke to teach us that our joy should be in him alone.
Jonah’s folly revealed (Jonah 4:8)
As the new day dawns in Jonah 4:7, Jonah is completely oblivious to what awaits him. His anger has gone and there is much in life to delight him. Perhaps his spirits soar even higher as he senses the wind picking up and wonders if this is a harbinger of the storm of destruction about to engulf Nineveh.
But then the joy drains from him as he notices the leaves turning dry and brown before his very eyes. Maybe he inspects the base of the vine and realizes that it has been attacked. Perhaps he sees the worm and even stamps on it in frustrated anger. If so, it is too late. His beloved plant is gripped by death and he knows there is nothing he can do about it.
As the vine shrivels and dies, so the protecting and binding canopy over Jonah’s little shelter drops away. At the mercy of the increasing wind the structure quickly disintegrates. Swept by swirling sand, the remnants of what was once his delightful abode are soon covered and lost to view. This is not a cool breeze but the hot sirocco wind that intensifies the heat. Jonah is left exposed in the searing temperatures. Just as the worm has attacked the plant, so now the sun gets up and attacks Jonah. He grows faint as the sun blazes down on his head (Jonah 4:8). It is probably a case of severe sunstroke. The full horror is beginning to dawn on him. This sand storm is not for Nineveh at all—it is for him!
At this point Jonah’s folly is revealed. He knows that the vine is dead but wishes to go with it.
In the first storm in chapter 1, Jonah had been brought to the edge of eternity, asking to be thrown overboard in preference to seeking the face of the Lord. Here in a second storm, he once again seeks the relief of death itself. The heat and the wind may have been unbearably fierce, but Jonah’s readiness to opt out of life is becoming a habit. And it is all because he is not happy about God’s mercy.
Jonah’s emotions revealed (Jonah 4:9)
The death of the plant has re-kindled Jonah’s anger. His joy lasted a day—equivalent to the life of his choice weed. But the appetite of a single worm has killed the plant and killed Jonah’s happiness. His fury returns, having gone full circle. Last time round it was anger against God for the way in which he exercised his right to show mercy. This time it is anger against God for the way in which he exercises his right to destroy. Jonah believes passionately that the Lord has got things the wrong way round. Towards the Ninevites he should have shown the firm hand of justice—after all they deserved it. The plant, on the other hand, had only done good in its brief life. There was therefore every reason for the Lord to preserve its life.
Jonah’s own suffering merely heightened the sense of unfairness that he felt towards God. In the background may have been unanswered questions as to why he had to face such repeated and severe ordeals for what he felt were fairly minor offenses, when the violence and immorality of the Ninevites was met with nothing less than an absolute discharge and the full blessing of the judge. The thought that the Lord was playing with him was further provocation—why provide a vine for his comfort, only to take it away again? Nobody likes being mocked.
So when the Lord repeats the question of Jonah 4:4 and asks him whether he has a right to be angry, you can almost hear him spit the words out: ‘I do. I am angry enough to die.’
Jonah’s thinking exposed (Jonah 4:10–11)
Quiet reason does not always work when someone is in a foul mood. It is quite likely that it did not work here either—at least not immediately. Nonetheless it does not stop the Lord putting forward solid arguments as to why Jonah needs to think again. Having asked Jonah about his anger, the Lord will see the conversation through, wherever it leads. He could have rebuked Jonah for his discourteous reply or ignored him altogether, but once again the Lord chooses to answer the substance of Jonah’s complaint.
The Lord asks Jonah to compare the vine with the city of Nineveh. That means a single, unfeeling plant against 120,000 morally illiterate people (although they were blameworthy in their wickedness, they were nevertheless spiritually ignorant). Jonah had done nothing for the vine, whereas the Lord was behind both the plant and the city, in his role as creator and upholder of life. The vine shot up overnight, but the origins of Nineveh go back to the book of Genesis. The death of a plant may be one thing, but the destruction of human and animal life is another thing entirely.
Now, here is the point: both the Lord and Jonah have shown a tearful pity (as the word translated ‘concerned’ in verses 10 and 11 means in the original Hebrew). Jonah’s emotions have all been directed at the life of the plant. God’s passion has been directed at the life of Nineveh. The Lord does not tell Jonah that he is wrong to feel pity for the plant. Instead, he asks the simple question: ‘Jonah, if you feel pity for the plant, why should I not be allowed to feel pity for the city?’
The unanswered question
The Lord has the last word in the book of Jonah, but since it is a question, the final word ought to belong to Jonah. Unlike his hasty response in Jonah 4:9, on this occasion there is no answer. There may be two reasons for the silence. First, the book is its own answer. In other words, the very fact that Jonah recorded his experience in self-effacing detail is as clear an indication as anyone could want that he understood the lessons the Lord had been teaching him. More than that, he absorbed those lessons and was anxious that others should also profit from reading the account. Had he walked away at the end of chapter 4, nursing his bitterness, there would have been no book of Jonah. Jonah’s response, unrecorded as it is, can only be a full-hearted ‘yes’.
The other reason for the silence is that if Jonah had recorded the answer he gave we would have missed the point that, in a sense, the question is directed at us. All of us who read the book of Jonah are required to give our own response. In our case, the thing we cherish is likely to be something other than a plant, but the point is still just as valid. How does the worth of an immortal soul stack up against our chosen toy, whatever that toy may be? The question is asked in terms of the souls of others, but it can also be asked of the individual’s own soul. Jesus asked the same question in a slightly different form: ‘What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?’ (Matt. 16:26).
It is a question that is never answered just once, but needs constantly repeating. And it is the question with which the book fittingly closes. Opening up Jonah. Opening Up Commentary
Jonah 4:10–11 Baker paraphrases the Lord’s response this way: “Let’s analyze this anger of yours, Jonah It represents your concern over your beloved plant—but what did it really mean to you? Your attachment to it couldn’t be very deep, for it was here one day & gone the next. Your concern was dictated by self-interest, not by genuine love. You never had the devotion of a gardener. If you feel as bad as you do, what would you expect a gardener to feel like, who tended a plant & watched it grow only to see it wither & die? This is how I feel about Nineveh, only much more so. All those people, all those animals—I made them; I have cherished them all these years. Nineveh has cost Me no end of effort, and it means the world to Me. Your pain is nothing compared to Mine when I contemplate their destruction” The Bible Knowledge Commentary
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