Jonah 4

Jonah 4:1-4

Here is, 1. ‘Jonah’s rejoicing at God’s mercy to Nineveh, ver. 1, 8, 3. 2. The gentle reproof God gave him for it, ver. 4. 3. ‘Jonah’s discontent at the withering of the guard, and his justifying of himself in that discontent, ver. 5—9. 4. God’s impending of it for his conviction, that he might not in the angry at the fearing of Nineveh, ver. 10, 11. Man’s badness and God’s goodness serve here for a fast as well other, that the former may appear the more exceeding fujist, and the latter the more exceeding gracious.

1. BUT ‘it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. 2. And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray ther, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore? I feel before unto Tarbish: for I knew that ’thou art a gracious God, and merciful, flow to anger, and of great kindness, and repented thee of the evil. 3. Therefore now, O LORD, ’take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for ‘it is better for me to die than to live. 4. ¶ Then said the LORD, ’ Dost thou well to be angry?

Never was pervertent’s more strange and unaccountable than here appears in this angry prophet.

1. He is exceedingly displeased at the Ninevans repentance, and the mercy extended to them, which one should have thought would have been the very joy of his heart. Perhaps he had enabled the common Jewish prejudice against the heathen, and was unwilling 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.

2. He dares expolulate with God on the subject. It is said he prayed, v. 2. 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 Tarbish, insisting us in this way that he was then in the right, having foreseen 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, 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 dest to advice.

3. God justly rebukes him for his impatience and confides pervertent. Doft thou well to be angry? What a mild rebuka 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, which should have been his delight? Surely never was greater forbearance; is a stand 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 they impatiently invoked.

4. So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east-side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city. 6. And the LORD God prepared a guard, and made it to come over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the guard. 7. But God prepared a worm when the morning rode the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. 8. And it came to pass when the sun did arise, that God prepared a a vehement east-wind; and the sun beat upon

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The head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live. 9. And God said to Jonah, + Doft thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, + I do well to be angry even unto death. 10. Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd for the which thou hast not laboured, neither made it grow, which came up in a night, and perished in a night: 11. And should not I spire Nineveh that great city, wherein are more than far more thousand persons, that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle?

Jonah 4:5-11

The beginning of strife is usually like the letting-out of water; passion having once taken the reins, goes from evil to worse.

1. Jonah retires in fullen silence, and waits without the city, to see what would become of it; having made him a booth with boughs of trees, to shelter him from the sun and rain. Probably he thought, if the greater judgments were removed, some lesser ones might be inflicted, and save his credit as a prophet; or he might presume 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, or, as others interpret it, a tree called the Ricinus, or Palma Clarifia, to spring up suddenly, and spread its shadow over him, to deliver him from his grief; probably the heat of the sun was very troublesome, and added to his other vexations. Note, (1.) They who vex themselves with imaginary ills, are often suffered to feel real misery. (2.) Though we are often forward children, God is a tender father, and pities us even when we deserve punishment.

3. Jonah was exceedingly glad of this gourd; he rejoiced with a great joy, as the words may be rendered; excessive in his gladness, as he had been in his anger. So easily do her 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.

4. God smote the gourd by a worm 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 ealt-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, which 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 not, that we may be ready to bless God when he takes away, as well as when he gives.

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, v. 8. Thus inordinate affection lays a foundation for inordinate affection.

6. God expostulates with him on his sin and folly. Doft thou well to be angry for the gourd? Note, It becomes us in all our losses and crosses to check our inordinate discontent and anger, and ask, Do I well to be angry? so long, so often, on such frivolous occasions? One moment’s reflection should shame and silence us.

7. Far from standing abashed at this reproof, he daringly vindicates his perverseness: I do well to be angry even unto death. 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.

8. God applies to him for his conviction 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, the creature of a day, which he had used no pains to plant or water; with much more pity might God well regard the vast city of Nineveh, where, besides the other inhabitants, were more than six score thousand infants, unable to distinguish good from evil, besides much cattle. 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 offended. Arguments which should for ever silence his discontent, and lead him to adore the transcendent mercy and righteousness of God. We may reasonably hope 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.

VOL. II. 4 L THE 94.