Key Text: Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity 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: and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city (Jonah 4:10-11a).
When the call came to Jonah to preach the judgment of God in Nineveh, capital of Assyrian Empire, the Prophet Jonah fled in the opposite direction, hoping to escape from his unpleasant task. The Assyrians were well known as a cruel and violent people, most hated and feared of ancient conquerors. Jonah’s disobedience was centered around his fear that God would forgive the oppressing heathen city of Nineveh, if it should repent at his preaching. Jonah feared that Assyria would one day swallow up his own little nation; and so he wished to do nothing that might lead to the preservation of wicked Nineveh. So, Jonah refused to become a foreign missionary.
In disobedience to the command of God, Jonah boards a vessel in Joppa bound for Tarshish to escape the presence of the Lord, instead of going to Nineveh (Jonah 1:3). But a wild storm came up, “so that the ship was like to be broken” (Jonah 1:4). The heathen sailors prayed to their individual gods and threw goods overboard to lighten the vessel, but to no avail. They inferred that some god must be angry with some person on board, and they cast lots to discover the culprit, “for whose cause this evil is upon us” (Jonah 1:8). Meanwhile Jonah, asleep in the hold, is discovered by the captain who is shocked to find that he is not saying his prayers like the rest. The captain orders Jonah to beseech whatever god he believes in to save them all from their peril. When the lot fell upon Jonah, he made a complete confession about his identity and about his attempt to escape the obligation laid upon him by God. Jonah bravely suggested that they cast him overboard. The storm promptly subsided when the heathen sailors threw Jonah into the sea (Jonah 1:15). Then the Gentile sailors offered a sacrifice to God and made vows, a noble deed and acceptable worship to God.
Jonah was not allowed to escape his mission by death. So, God prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah and to bear him in his body for three days and nights. Surprised to find himself alive and conscious in the body of the fish, Jonah prayed to God. At the command of God, the fish vomits out Jonah upon dry land at the place referred to as the “Gate of Jonah” near Alexandretta, and he worships the Lord with loud thanksgiving.
For the second time, God commands Jonah to fulfill his mission to denounce the people of Nineveh for their sinful ways, and this time Jonah obeys. The effect of Jonah’s preaching was instantaneous and the whole city turned to God and dons the garments of penance. Even the king of Nineveh joins in this act of devotion and issues a proclamation declaring a general fast for man and beast, and enjoins the wearing of sackcloth for all inhabitants and their cattle in hopes that God’s wrath may yet be averted. Because they repented and changed their ways, God did not destroy them, much to Jonah’s displeasure, “Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish; for I knew that thou are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and abundant in lovingkindness” (Jonah 4:2-3). Jonah had no compassion for the people of Nineveh and was unable to appreciate the parallelism of God’s extension of grace and mercy for both of them. So, Jonah held out hope that God would judge Nineveh and he built a little shelter outside the city and waited to see what would happen. Jonah was “vexed” beyond endurance, “Therefore now, O Lord, take I beseech Thee, my life from me for it is better for me to die than to live” (4:3). God made a gourd spring up over Jonah’s head to shield him from the burning sun. But the next morning the Lord sent a worm which attacked the gourd until it withered away. When the sun rose, it struck Jonah so fiercely that he fainted and he longed to die. God told Jonah, “You are concerned about the gourd, although you did not plant it nor water it. It grew up in a night and it withered in a night. Should I not be concerned about the one hundred and twenty thousand people of Nineveh and the great city which they built?” In verse 8, another servant in God’s arsenal of nature answers His call. This time, “a vehement east wind” with its oppressive heat and its exhausting dust, came to intensify the physical distress of the prophet. The prophet seems to have more compassion for the soulless plant than he had for the city of Nineveh. In verses 10-11, God sharpens His rebuke of the prophet by drawing a contrast between the plant and the city of Nineveh to bring Jonah to repentance. God cares for the heathen and He will spare no extreme to get His message to them, even when the messenger would be deliberately disobedient. God continues to marshal His animate and inanimate creations to bring correction to His messenger and effect His purpose for the world! AMEN!
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