#1152 Jonah 4 You Pity The Plant

 

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2 And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. 3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?”

5 Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. 6 Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. 7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” 9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” 10 And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” Jonah 4 ESV

Jonah 4

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly - What? Jonah's response to God's call was to run away from it, and now he has been brought back to this work, and it is a success. Jonah has seen the salvation of a whole city, truly repenting, turning to God, and he is angry. Men give their whole lives up, everything that the world would consider important, to go into the mission field. Jim Elliot and Nate Saint could have been men of means, lived great lives in the U.S., made good money, be held in high esteem by peers. The same for Hudson Taylor, he could have had a much easier life in the UK, and the same for so many that he influenced, like the great Olympian, Eric Liddell, who ran away from fame to pursue the hearts of the lost, for the glory and honor of Christ. Jim died at the hands of those he was trying to reach. 

We explored some of the reasons for not wanting to do God's will, in Chapter 1 Part 2, but now we will hear some of the reason why from Jonah's own mouth.

Is not this what I said when I was yet in my country - This is like saying, "I told you so", but to God, and you are not going to tell God anything He doesn't already know, and He knows your motives better than you do. This is what He wanted you to do, so you're not bringing any new evidence or thoughts to the table that would dissuade Him, in fact, when we do come to Him on behalf of someone else, hoping for Him to change a person's course of action, it is often because He has brought us to His will in prayer.  

1The king’s heart is a waterway in the hand of the LORD; He directs it where He pleases. 2All a man’s ways seem right to him, but the LORD weighs the heart. 3To do righteousness and justice is more desirable to the LORD than sacrifice.… Proverbs 21: 1-3

…12But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God— 13children born not of blood, nor of the desire or will of man, but born of God. 14The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.… John 1: 12-14

…2You crave what you do not have; you kill and covet, but are unable to obtain it. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3And when you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander it on your pleasures. 4You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.… James 4: 2-4

That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish - Jonah was more concerned about his will, which was to not do God's will. Christ calls us to deny ourselves, and Jonah wants no such call. So what did Jonah know?

For I knew that You are a gracious God and merciful - This is what he knows about God, and sadly, one has to wonder, does he not understand this for himself? When Jonah came to God, was it for what he was owed or for mercy? He is angry because He knows God to be merciful, and when God sent Him to preach to Nineveh, he was afraid of this very thing, that his enemies would repent. So notice some things about Nineveh's salvation, it was not the will of Jonah, in fact, the preacher did not want them to be saved. He was a racist, and they were not Israelites or Jews, just uncircumcised pagans. If you look at the time frame, which is most probably around the period of Elijah and Elisha, Israel was in poor shape spiritually too, so he may have wondered, "why didn't you send me to my own people and provide such fertile ground there?" 

25I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you will not be conceited: A hardening in part has come to Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. 26And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come from Zion; He will remove godlessness from Jacob. 27And this is My covenant with them when I take away their sins.”… Romans 11: 25-27

34 Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right. 36 You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.

44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. 45 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles. 46 For they heard them speaking in tongues[b] and praising God.

Then Peter said, 47 “Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.” 48 So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days. Acts 10: 34-36 and 44-48

…2I have deep sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my own flesh and blood, 4the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory and the covenants; theirs the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises.… Romans 9: 2-4

Slow to anger - He could see God's patience in that history has continued even to his day, and he could see it whenever he looked at the state of his own country, which may cause the wandering mind to think their is something else other than grace. Maybe it's because I can trace my lineage back to Abraham, or David was a distant relative, or I have the words of the living God in a book on my coffee table. If you open that book you will find that God has a much higher standard than that, and you showing up to sit in a pew, to sing with your lips, while you keep your heart for yourself, you are only testing God's patience.

…23But a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” 25The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us.”… John 4: 23-25

13Therefore the Lord said: “These people draw near to Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is but rules taught by men. 14Therefore I will again confound these people with wonder upon wonder. The wisdom of the wise will vanish, and the intelligence of the intelligent will be hidden.”… Isaiah 29: 13-14

Steadfast love - God's definition of love is always an action, and it is not waiting like ours for a feeling, it is a state of selflessness, not even waiting for the object to become worthy, for without Him we could do nothing of the sort. 

…7Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9Therefore, since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from wrath through Him!… Romans 5: 7-9

Relenting from disaster - Forgiveness, cancelling the debt.

Please take my life from me - I would like to make fun of him, and at some points in reading this, you just think, yeah, please take his life so he will shut up, it's so ungrateful and embarrassing. I think I have never seen someone so self involved, but God chose to save this self centered, bigoted man, and when I am honest with myself, I have been unforgiving, I often put my so called "needs" before others, and I have acknowledged God's existence while refusing to acknowledge His Lordship. I have said things to God that I am too scared to repeat here, and I have wished that I was dead on more than one occasion. The opportunity has come for me to witness to an enemy, and I did not deem them worthy of my time, I wished them ill instead.

Do you do well to be angry - He is asking Jonah to think about it, what good is it to kick against the pricks? Have you not been given much, forgiven much? "I could have killed you when you went to Tarshish, but I spared you." 

Went out of the city - He left and made a booth, often this is a tent, a small shelter, a temporary dwelling. He did not stay and continue to teach the people, but sat back at a distance hoping for their demise. 

God appointed a plant - God is always teaching his servants, and he knows just the thing for someone who can only think or care about themselves. 

I want to lay the stress especially upon these three sentences in my text, "God prepared a gourd." "God prepared a worm." "God prepared a vehement east wind." The life of Jonah cannot be written without God; take God out of the prophet's history, and there is no history to write. This is equally true of each one of us. Apart from God, there is no life, nor thought, nor act, nor career of any man, however lowly or however high, Leave out God, and you cannot write the story of anyone's career. If you attempt it, it will be so ill-written that it shall be clearly perceived that you have tried to make bricks without straw, and that you have sought to fashion a potter's vessel without clay. I believe that, in a man's life, the great secret of strength, and holiness, and righteousness, is the acknowledgment of God. When a man has no fear of God before his eyes, there is no wonder that he should run to an excess of meanness, and even to an excess of riot. In proportion as the thought of God dominates the mind, we may expect to find a life that shall be true and really worth living; but in proportion as we forget God, we shall play the feel. It is the feel who says in his heart, "No God," and it is the feel who lives and acts as if there were no God. In Jonah's life, we meet with God continually. The Lord bade the prophet go to Nineveh, but instead of going there, he took ship to go to Tarshish. - C. H. Spurgeon

Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant - The greatest evangelist of all time, if we go by numbers and speed, a witness to a whole city that repented, mad about that, those lives were insignificant to him, even bothersome, but look at this plant. Someone asked me one time why I bother using my free time to study God's word so much, or why I even bother bringing Him up to people that think ill of Christianity, or have an apostate view of religion? I thought about it for a moment, and I said, "honestly, I would rather go fishing." I would be ecstatic over a good day on the water, some big girls on the end of my line, pictures, bragging rights, that's me. But sometimes that's not where God sends me, and then He makes it even more difficult by saying not to forsake the assembling of ourselves; maybe I am more like Jonah than I care to admit. Sometimes He calls us out of the water, and we should be excited about that, eagerly anticipating whatever He has planned next.

15When they had finished eating, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love Me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he answered, “You know I love You.” Jesus replied, “Feed My lambs.” 16Jesus asked a second time, “Simon son of John, do you love Me?” “Yes, Lord,” he answered, “You know I love You.” Jesus told him, “Shepherd My sheep.” 17Jesus asked a third time, “Simon son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was deeply hurt that Jesus had asked him a third time, “Do you love Me?” “Lord, You know all things,” he replied. “You know I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.… John 21: 15-17

God appointed a worm - The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. I remember when my health took a serious plunge just a few years ago, and it kept getting worse, so bad that I tried to sell my kayak, since I didn't think I would be able to manage paddling out anymore. Jonah has something that he loves, this plant, and it helps him directly by providing shade and a possible wind break, yet God takes it away from him. Was it wrong for Jonah to like the plant or me to love the woods and water? No, it is the degree, that to which place I put it in my heart, where it sits upon the priority post, if it is more valuable to me than a person, made in God's image, then it has climbed up so high on the post as to be at the top, on a pedestal. This is an idol, and God has every right to the things that He has made, whether me or the plant, or my kayak, it should all belong to Him, and here He takes it back to teach Jonah. God is also in our sorrows.

…20Then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped, 21saying: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.” 22In all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing.… Job 1: 20-22

It was only a worm, but that was enough to destroy the gourd. Oh! how soon may our earthly comforts be taken away from us! There is a little fluctuation in the markets, and the prosperous merchant becomes a bankrupt. A little red spot appears in the cheek of your fair child, and in a few weeks she is taken away by decline or consumption. A very little thing may soon destroy all your comforts, and make them to be like the withered leaves of Jonah's gourd. It was also, probably, an unseen thing that wrought this havoc. Very likely Jonah did not see that worm. God prepared it, but the prophet did not discern it, until he saw the destruction it had caused. And, my clear friends, some little unseen thing may yet come to you, and turn into grief all your present joy. Besides, it was a very foul thing, a worm, a maggot, at the root of this gourd; and through this foul thing it withered and died. It is sometimes the sharpest bitterness of our grief when we have our joy spoiled by somebody else's sin. The venomous whisper of a wicked gossip, a foul drop from the black tongue of slander, has poisoned the very well-spring of domestic bliss. In Jonah's case, the Lord prepared the worm; and although no evil thing can be charged against the good God, yet at the back of man's free will there is the great truth of divine predestination, which, without taking any evil upon itself, yet overrules even the waywardness of man for the Lord's own glory. People often think that there is no worm which can eat into their comfort; but God can prepare one, as he did in the case of the prophet. He as much prepared the worm as he prepared the gourd, he as much destroyed the comfort as he first of all gave it to his sorrowing servant. - C. H. Spurgeon

Appointed a scorching east wind - Wind from the east, fishing the least. Of course this is the nail in the coffin, who can bear the east wind? The disappointment of the plant breaks way to even more, worse trouble. God gave the plant, gave the worm, gave the wind, rich or poor it doesn't matter, God will still have to give, or we will perish in our sin. 

Brethren and sisters, unless the Spirit of God comes upon us in power, we shall not grow holy through our trials. Though we were washed in a sea of fire, we should not lose an atom of our sin by suffering. Nay, the very flames of hell shall never purify a soul, or purge away a single sin; he that is filthy shall even there be filthy still. There is nothing in suffering, any more than there is in joy, in and of itself, to make a man holy. That is the work of God, and of God alone; yet God overrules both our joy and our grief to accomplish his own divine purpose by his Spirit. It is God who sends the wind; so, once again, I want you to pause, and bow your heads before him who sends all your trouble. Do not be angry with God for what he does to you; but feel that it must be right even though it should tear everything away from you, though it should leave you a widow and houseless, though it should strip you, and though it should even slay you. God is God still; and the deeper your trouble, the greater are your possibilities of adoration; for, when you are brought to the very lowest, it is that, in extremis, you can raise the song in excelsis, out of the deepest depths you can praise the Lord to the very highest. When we glorify God out of the fires of fiercest tribulation, there is probably more true adoration of him in that melody than in the loftiest songs of cherubim and seraphim when they enjoy God, and sing out his praises in his presence above. - C. H. Spurgeon

It is better for me to die than to live - Don't we sound like children when we get to this, "nobody loves me, my life is over, ruined I tell you, quit laughing, I wish I were dead, if I can't have this, that or the other, then I shall not be happy and obviously I would be better off dead." Jonah has gotten to that point again, a flare for the dramatic, but maybe it's more serious than the other times he wished for death.

Do you do well to be angry for the plant - What a patient instructor, what has kept His hand from falling upon this fly, or Jonah? Who told you, you were naked, did you eat of the forbidden fruit? God knows the answer, so it is not for His sake, but come on now, answer, do you have the right to be this angry at God, who only owes you eternal hell? 

Yes, I do well to be angry - So now you teach God? You feel justified somehow in this, you feel, feelings.

For which you did not labor - God made the plant, it belongs to Him, and God made you, a more frightening thing will be if He doesn't claim you, if you are given over to yourself and your feelings. He had to bring you to the place to do right and you still don't know what is. Even the farmer that plants a seed has more claim than you, yet he did not invent the ground or the seed, and those hands and mind were also gifts. The Holy Spirit tilled the soil of Nineveh, God broke you and turned you around by extraordinary means to do that which the great Creator of the universe called you for, to cast the seed that He gave you. He granted repentance, He caused growth, you would be in Tarshish in your disobedience. 

And should I not pity Nineveh - God made them too, and they are human beings like you, though you think yourself superior. Who is so just and fair that they can call out God? Who is it that has all knowledge and understanding? I was talking about this most basic concept, this root, with a friend today, and how is it that no one can sit down with people they have different views with politically, look across the table and see themselves, the image of God staring back at them, and from that commonality have compassion? He and I are very different from one another, but for years we have been able to disagree, yet identify problems and still solve them together. I have more in common with any human on this earth than with God, we are all sinners and all come from Adam and Eve, we all need God's grace, and those like me, who have asked for it, believed in it, must give it freely as I have also freely received. 

…19We love because He first loved us. 20If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And we have this commandment from Him: Whoever loves God must love his brother as well.… 1 John 4: 19-21