Jonah 4

1. But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry

The Hebrew word translated here as angry literally means “hot” and carries with it meanings of grief. This gives a real picture of Jonah returning to full on drama queen mode. Jonah does not want to see God forgiving the people of Nineveh, he wants to see bolts of lighting from the sky, he wants to see them destroyed from the face of the earth. He has told them God is going to wipe them out, and now he is going to have to tell them that God has forgiven them. Despite what has happened in Jonah’s own life, and how much God has forgiven him, he finds it hard to forgive other people, or to see them forgiven.

Has been forgiven by God made it easier for you to forgive others?

2. He prayed to the Lord, “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.
3. Now, O Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

Jonah is saying here that he knew God would show mercy; that he knew that the people would repent, but instead of celebrating, instead of being pleased that this people have now turned to God, that he is so distressed by it that he wishes he was dead! The people of Nineveh have made Israelite lives a misery, and instead of being the instrument of their destruction, Jonah has effectively saved them from God’s anger by being the person to tell them that God is not happy and will judge them.

4. But the Lord replied, “Have you any right to be angry?”

The word “angry” here can also be translated as “grieved”. God has already forgiven Jonah for ignoring his original call to go to Nineveh, and as someone who has been forgiven by God; it seems that Jonah has little right to be angry when God shows mercy to someone else.


5. Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city.
6. Then the Lord God provided a vine [kikaion] and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine.

Although Jonah knows that God has relented, that he has forgiven the people of Nineveh he still sits a distance away from the town and watches in case God does bring destruction on it. Maybe Jonah hopes to see the place brought to ruin; we get the feeling in verse 5 of someone going to watch a public execution, and trying to arrive early so they can get a good seat. It is as though Jonah has not believed the news that there has been a reprieve, or maybe he believes that God will destroy Nineveh just because Jonah was not happy with God’s decision!

These two verses seem to contradict each other. Jonah built a shelter and then sat in its shade, so what use to him is additional shade from the “kikaion”. The only possible explanation is that Jonah’s best attempts to provide himself with shade had in some way failed, that as much as he had tried to provide for his comfort by building a shelter the sun was still hitting his head! The “kikaion”, translated by the NIV as a vine, is a gourd that grows rapidly to between eight and ten feet and fades quickly if injured.

7. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered.

Certain types of small worm are able to do substantial damage to the root of gourds, resulting in them withering.

8. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah's head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.” But God said to Jonah, “Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?” “I do,” he said. “I am angry enough to die.” 10. But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight.

This whole section gives us a vivid picture of losing perspective. Jonah is sitting where he is, in the heat of the sun, for one reason only; he is hoping to see some one else get destroyed. Jonah’s only reason for being there is that he wants to watch a people destroyed, and instead of worrying about the potential destruction of a huge number of people Jonah is worrying that he is too hot and his shade has gone. He could have dealt with the situation by walking away; instead of sitting in the desert watching this city in the hoping of seeing some one else get in trouble, he could have just left, but instead he sits there getting more and more depressed. Not only is the city not destroyed, but his shade is gone.

What things do you lose perspective about?

Living in the western world it can be very difficult to keep perspective and only worry about the things that really matter.

Do famines and disasters in other countries influence the way in which you view things that happen in your day-to-day life?

11. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?”

God tries to put things in perspective for Jonah by pointing out that if Nineveh was destroyed 120,000 people who don’t know their right hand from their left hand would die, and that livestock would die. It is possible that the reference to people who don’t know their left from their right is to people who have had no education, but it is more likely that this is a reference to children who are not old enough to know the difference between right and wrong. God is trying to wake up in Jonah the compassion He himself feels. If Jonah can not understand that he has chosen to forgive a repentant people, then maybe he can not be so bloodthirsty when he thinks about the children or animals that would die if God brought his judgment on the city. God uses the animals as a contrast between Jonahs concern for the plant, which Jonah is actually only concerned about because it gave some benefit to him.

The story of Jonah ends abruptly; we are left without ever known what becomes of Jonah. Does he acknowledge that God is right to be merciful, does he return to Jerusalem and to the Temple to praise God, or does he spend the rest of his days sitting on the outskirts of a city which has turned to God, failing to ever do so himself? By leaving the story here, we are left sitting with Jonah with the question: Given the choice, would you rather see people who do evil destroyed or come to God? We know that God’s answer is that he would rather show mercy, and that he wants us to make his Name known throughout all the nations.



FINAL THOUGHTS
As with all the books of the Bible, Jonah contains multiple messages. There was a message to the people of Israel at the time of Jonah, in that the story of God’s mercy for the people of Ninevites and their rapid repentance was probably in part intended to shame the people of Israel, as they had after many prophets, continued to sin. There is a message about God hearing the cries of people who are suffering as a result of our actions and the action of others; that God does respond to these cries, and that, with repentance, God responds with forgiveness. We can also apply the message of Jonah to the time of Jesus, and can view it in this setting as an analogy for the relationship between Israel and Gentiles. Many messengers were sent to Israel but often they were ignored; when the message went to the Gentile world the repentance and change was quick and, as such, God responded to it. Within Judaism, the story of Jonah is read at Yom Kippur, a time when people repent of things they have done in the past year. Jonah is a reminder that God calls us to turn around our lives. We have a choice; we either change and turn back to God or face Judgment. Finally, we can consider that, if applying this story today, does the Church represent the people of Israel or the people of Nineveh? The Church has, like Israel, received teaching from God, knows the difference between right and wrong, and is in a relationship with God - does this result in us repenting quickly, or have we become used to our sin, and more slow to turn from evil than Gentiles when they are given the message of God?