Jonah 4:1-11
1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
2 And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest 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, Doest thou well to be angry?
5 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 gourd,a and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.
7 But God prepared a worm when the morning rose 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 vehementb east wind; and the sun beat upon 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, Doest 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 pityc on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:
11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?
Contents: Jonah's displeasure over God's action toward Nineveh. The sheltering gourd.
Characters: God, Jonah.
Conclusion: Though there be these who find it in their hearts to quarrel with the goodness of God and His sparing, pardoning mercy to others (to which we all owe it that we are out of hell), yet God will justify Himself in the methods of His grace toward repenting sinners. As God values a human soul, so should we look upon it as worth more than all the world.
Key Word: Displeased, Jonah 4:1.
Strong Verses: Jonah 4:4; Jonah 4:2.
Striking Facts: Jonah (Matthew 12:40) is used as an illustrious type of Christ who was buried and arose (1 Corinthians 15:4) after three days. As God prepared Jonah's grave, so He prepared Christ's. Both were buried in order to their rising again for the bringing of the doctrine of repentance to the Gentile world.