4:9
“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.”
We have no quarrel with Jonah. It is the reply of a righteous man. But consider God’s great question, “Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd?” Ought not Christ to have suffered these things? If, alas, in the goodness and mercy of God the gourd had to die, was there not a good reason? Men must repent. Men need not perish any longer because the gourd has died. Christ suffered the final penalty, bearing our sins in His own body on the Tree, and there is an offer of free pardon and full salvation awaiting every sinner who repents. “Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd?” It is energy misspent, it is futile misuse of the Spirit. The urgent need is not anger over the gourd but pity for the perishing. The imperative nature of our calling and vocation is its demand for obedient messengers, present prophets, willing witnesses and pitiful people. Let the wind of God blow upon us and expose us to the ridicule and mockery of those who say we are drunk, yet we cannot forbear any longer to carry the message from God out into the streets of a sin-sick world. “Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd?” Christ has entered into His glory, having done the work which God gave Him to do. Some day we too hope to enter into that glory in the presence of God, and shall we spend our lifetime fleeing from His presence here? The glory of our Lord is enhanced by every repentant sinner we can bring to Him, and our glory will be our Lord’s, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” so there is double incentive to do what we were called to do, chosen to do, sent to do and ought to do.
4:10
“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.”
Our emotions can be stirred by the thought of the wrong done to our Lord when He was here upon earth, and that is quite proper for us. But remember we had no part in His life upon earth. It was God who caused Him to come to us in our need, it was God who smote Him, it was God who caused Him to die. He came to a world in darkness and He perished in an even deeper darkness, and the world saw Him no more. But God’s picture is put here in the book of Jonah to show us that the whole matter was of God, that God did it, that neither pity nor anger will alter it now and that there is need for our pity elsewhere. The gourd and the worm are not the result of some whim of God. The same preparation needed for the great fish was necessary to make the gourd to grow and the worm to smite it. Christ did not appear at some whim of God, for Calvary was foreordained from before the foundation of the earth, and every prophet from Abel onwards shows us Christ had to die. Christ died for a reason. Men needed a Saviour, men needed a way to be reconciled to God, and the only way to reconcile sinful men to a holy God was for Christ to take their sins upon Himself and to die in their stead. This He did, the just for the unjust. And what is needed now is for messengers to go out and preach repentance and remission of sins for all men. Christ has returned to the Father, the wind from God has blown upon us, and instead of fainting let us joyfully carry the good news to all men everywhere.
4:11
“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?”
Our anger and our pity will avail the gourd nothing now. God would direct our anger against sin and our pity over tragedy to the great city beneath our feet. There sin is rampant and souls are perishing, but where are our anger and pity? Jonah must have exceeded all other preachers in greatness, for in one day he converted at least one hundred and twenty thousand people of the baser sort, causing the whole city to repent right up to the king on his throne. It is a target for aim for. Let us start with the common people on the streets, those who cannot discern good from evil, right from left, and leave the king and his nobles to hear word of it themselves. Our aim is sixscore thousand persons in one lifetime. God will watch and wait to see is we be obedient prophets or not. God knows the score, knows every person in the city, has them all counted for Christ, and only waits for His witnesses to appear on the streets. He will listen for one word, “Repent!” And God sees there is much cattle in the city. There is great potential for sacrifice. Jonah did a wonderful work, far more wonderful than perhaps he realized, teaching us what to do and what not to do, showing us new pictures of Christ, portraying the three days and three nights that the Son of Man should spend in the heart of the earth. Who knows if in your lifetime you could not do as much for God, and go home to glory amid a multitude of souls won on the streets of your city for Christ and for the glory of God. God be with you as you make up your mind to take the second chance He offers you. Amen.
