Jonah 4:9

Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd?

Jehovah’s appeal to Jonah

I. Jonah’s then mood. “God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry?”

1. Observe the point of this appeal. To be grieved for the gourd was to be grieved for himself.

2. The compliment involved in this Divine appeal. God made Jonah judge in his own case.

3. Note the response of the prophet to this appeal. “I do well to be grieved, even unto death.” Candid, if somewhat passionate.

II. The propriety of the divine procedure. Note the correspondence between the words “pity” and “spare.” God did not contradict the prophet. There is a double contrast presented in this branch of the appeal. The contrast between Jonah and Jehovah; and between the gourd and the city.

1. The labour expended on the city was one reason why God should spare it.

2. The growth of Nineveh was another reason.

3. The antiquity of Nineveh was another.

4. The commodiousness and magnitude of Nineveh was another.

5. The presence of the children and cattle was another. (Samuel Clift Burn.)

God reasoning with man

The amazing interest God takes in mankind is shown--

I. In his reasoning with a man who is in a bad temper. Jonah was angry, and the intensity of his anger became so intolerable that he wished to die. Why was he angry?

1. Because of the Divine compassion shown to the Ninevites.

2. Because of the loss of a temporal blessing.

II. In his reasoning in order to impress this man with the reality of his compassion. The comparison between the plant and Nineveh may be expressed in three questions.

1. What is this plant to the men that inhabit Nineveh?

2. What is this one plant even to the unconscious infants at Nineveh!

3. What is one plant to even the irrational creatures in Nineveh! (Homilist.)

The sinfulness and cure of absorbing passion

The Book of Jonah is a standing rebuke of intolerance among the sacred writings of a most intolerant people. It is because it exposes and rebukes the sin of intolerance that this book has been preserved. The reason of Jonah’s disobedience to the heavenly voice is boldly and frankly told in the history. No tenderness for the prophet’s reputation is allowed to veil his sin; exclusiveness is laid bare in all its baseness and malignity. There is no need for us to offer other explanations of the prophet’s conduct. National antipathy and religious exclusiveness will account for it all. Equally marked in this history is God’s determination to expose the workings and rebuke the sin of exclusiveness. Why was the hard and obstinate Jonah called and forced to a work that was so uncongenial to him, a work that goaded him to wildest turbulence, and called out his bitterest passion? It was for Jonah’s sake, that his bad heart might be searched and corrected. We have here God’s solemn rebuke of a common sin, and many a man may find here searching and humbling lessons. Jonah rebelled against the mission appointed him, but he had to fulfil it. To do God’s work is our sole discharge. It is only by obeying God’s bidding that we can be purged from the sinfulness that makes obedience unwelcome. God’s chosen servants have to yield to Him, though often in the yielding they are searched and convicted of startling wickedness. In the working of Jonah’s anger we see the characteristics of all absorbing passion; and God’s mode of curing him is an example of the myriad influences by which He restores the self-absorbed to true and healthy life.

I. The sinfulness of absorbing passion.

1. The sinfulness is seen in Jonah’s contempt of life. A man’s worth may be measured by the reverence he has for his life. The Gospel, which delivers us from a coward fear of dying, was never intended to foster an equally coward fear of living.

2. The sinfulness is seen in that it works insincerity. Even after Jonah has recognised that God is sparing the city, he still affects to believe that it will be overthrown. He hastens out of it lest he should be partaker of its plagues. Under his booth he pretends that he is awaiting its destruction. What hateful affectation and insincerity! But is it very uncommon? How much of life is wasted because of our refusal to acknowledge that we have outgrown the expectations of the past, or that time and change have swept us far beyond them!

3. The selfishness of an absorbing passion is illustrated in Jonah’s contempt for the men of Nineveh. He will not share in their repentance, nor encourage them to hope in God’s mercy; he shuts himself up alone to brood over his anger. All passion tends to arrogance. Self-absorption means scorn of our fellows. A single passion may arrogate to itself the whole sphere of life, and constitute itself the be-all and end-all of existence. It is well for us to be aware of this. Our holiest emotions may become overweening.

II. God’s cure for absorbing passion. Notice the exceeding gentleness with which God reproves and seeks to restore the angry prophet. The disobedient are constrained by a force too strong for them; but even the ungracious doing of duty brings the spirit into fitness for gentler discipline. The Lord cares for Jonah in his self-will. When God smites the gourd, and sends the vehement cast wind and burning sun to beat on Jonah’s head, it is that tie may speak his words gentler than the gourd-shade, and reveal Himself to the stricken spirit as “the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.” How different is this from man! We should have been glad that the self-absorbed man should be his own tormentor. God seeks to restore the prophet by awakening love in his heart: awakening his interest, and making him tender over the gourd. Over the wretched, gloomy Jonah, sprung up the wondrous plant, and its leaves and tendrils drew off his thoughts from himself, and as he watched it grow, a new interest was awakened in him. His heart softened to the plant, and he becomes strangely tender and reverential over a gourd. There is something wonderful in life, even though it be the life of a common weed. Jonah loves his gourd, and “has pity” on it when it is smitten. The first result of Jonah’s tenderness would seem to be a deeper gloom. Another wrong is added to his suffering; and again he cries for death. But it has not all been in vain; for he is prepared to listen to the voice that once more sounds in his ears. His reply, “I do well to be angry,” was bad and bitter; but perverse and sullen silence before God is far worse than perverse and sullen speech. How wonderful is God’s answer. The tenderness that was in Jonah, poor as it was, mingled with selfishness as it was, was yet, in its dim and partial way, an emblem of the tenderness of God for every creature He has made! Thou canst not bear that what has lived, and lived for thee, should die. And shall I be careless of the great city? “There is this sacred energy in love, however poor it may be, however mixed with selfishness, that it admits us into the secret of God’s counsel, helps us to bear Divine mysteries, and understand God’s ways. Since on every hand God has put the tokens and witnesses of His Divine care and tenderness, do we not hear on every hand the voice that calls us from our absorbing passions, from our griefs, our angers, and our woes? Life is worth living when every human creature is felt worthy of our love: the voice of duty will sweetly beckon us to human sympathy and human helpfulness. And so the dark mystery of your life will be read. In God’s care for all men you will find yourself surrounded by God’s care for you. The wise and blessed purpose of the individual destiny is seen in the one eternal purpose of love to men. (A. Mackennal, D. D.)

The character of Jonah

The immediate occasion of Jonah’s anger was the withering of the gourd. There had been, however, a prior occasion of his wrath. He had been offended with the patience and lenity which God had exercised towards the inhabitants of Nineveh, contrary (as he unreasonably thought) to the commission that had been given him, to threaten their destruction. If Jonah was grieved at the destruction of the agreeable and useful gourd, the destruction of a populous, flourishing, and powerful city ought to be a much more mournful and distressing sight; and if this could be prevented, though it had been threatened, it ought to give him joy. His behaviour exhibits to our view the hurtful effects of that pride and wrath, which, in certain circumstances, more or less arises in the breast of every man. Learn these lessons--

1. That the mind of man, being prone to gratify every passion which it feels to the utmost possible extent, therefore gives the object for which it is conceived that figure and importance in its own imagination whereby it is fitted to afford the most extensive and complete gratification.

2. That the mind of man, being thus disposed to magnify the object of every passion beyond its real nature and extent, it is hereby equally disposed to justify the passion it conceives, however excessive and unreasonable. What use ought we to make of Jonah’s example? It ought to put us on our guard against that fatal self-deceit which leads men to give themselves a false description of the objects of their several passions, and as false a description of the innocence and justice of the passions which they have conceived. Being of a passionate and peevish nature, his pride and anger being raised, by what Jonah apprehended might hurt his interest and reputation as a prophet, every pious, every tender and humane consideration was entirely overlooked. We should learn to put ourselves upon our guard against the influence of this pernicious self-deceit, and to make it, as far as possible we can, the invariable measure of our conduct.

1. To proportion the degree of our affections to the real merit and importance of the cause by which they are produced; and

2. To exclude the false, artificial apologies by which the most unjust and criminal attachments in the heart of man are ready to conceal, or justify their own excess. This conduct will, indeed, require a careful attention to ourselves and much self-correction and command. To enforce this instruction the following reflection ought to be attended to, namely, that the artifice by which the mind of man imposes on itself, in the indulgence of its sinful and irregular desires, whatever present ease or pleasure it may give, must become, ere long, the source of anguish and remorse. We have reason to believe that the consciences of men will hereafter punish them in the same manner for those iniquities which they now commit calmly and without remorse. Without great vigilance and much inspection of ourselves we are in the utmost danger of misapprehending our own character and of justifying ourselves. This dangerous self-deceit proceeds from two causes.

1. From the self-love and vanity which is natural to every man.

2. From the artifice of sinful passions.

By the first, men are laid under a general partiality in favour of themselves, and are disposed to form a more favourable opinion of their own character than it is entitled to. By the second, they are hindered in a more particular manner from perceiving the iniquity and guilt of those parts of their character and conduct which are directed by the influence of their sinful passions. When these two causes of self-deceit meet, they must betray a man into a total ignorance and misapprehension of himself. (W. Craig, D. D.)