by Jonathan Spurlock
(Holts Summit, MO)
Jon 4:1, KJV: But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
This is amazing: an entire city delivered from destruction and God’s wrath, and the very prophet who brought that message is angry. Was he angry with God, for sparing the city? Was he angry with the people of Nineveh, who repented? Or was he angry with himself, wondering why he came all the way from Israel to Assyria just to see his then-enemies spared from certain death?
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.
Compare this prayer of Jonah with his first prayer, when he was apparently inside the fish’s belly (see chapter 2). Jonah also knew several things about God: He was gracious, slow to anger, merciful, and had great kindness. Even so, he still was not happy that God had not destroyed the Assyrians.
3 Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for (it is) better for me to die than to live.
Incredibly, Jonah had either already died or had come close to death (see chapter 2). At the very least he had an impression of the afterlife. Previously he had promised to fulfill his vows; here, he seems to be expressing regret that he had done so.
Also, compare his wish for death with others. Samson had prayed to “die with the Philistines (Judges 16:30); Saul wanted his armor bearer to kill him so that he would not be captured (tortured?) by the Philistines but he killed himself instead (1 Samuel 31:1-6); Elijah had prayed for God to take his life, after he had run many miles—Mt. Carmel to Beersheba, and then a day’s journey further—to escape Jezebel (1 Kings 19:1-4). There may be others besides these three who thought death was better than life.
4 Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry?
Note that the LORD does not really answer Jonah’s request. He simply asked a thought-provoking question. Had Jonah died at Nineveh, he couldn’t have been used by God anywhere else.
Interestingly, we are not given God’s response to Jonah’s prayer of chapter 2, except that God allowed Jonah to live and ordered the fish to spit him on dry land.
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.
Apparently Jonah was still inside Nineveh before this time. Oddly, the Tigris River was on the west side of Nineveh so Jonah was perhaps several miles away from the principal water supply. How was he going to survive, a foreigner in a foreign land, with no apparent means of support and a desire to die?
It is also a question as to how Jonah knew how make the booth. Israel had been commanded to make, and dwell in, booths for seven days (Lev. 23:39-43) but apparently this was seldom if ever observed before the days of Nehemiah (Neh. 8:13-17). We are not given any dimensions for the booth itself, nor how long he stayed in the booth. Did he stay in the booth for the entire 40 days he had prophesied for Nineveh’s destruction?
6 And the LORD God prepared a gourd, 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.
Preparation is one of the themes in this book. Jonah prepared for a journey to the end of the known world (Tarshish) but found that God had prepared a storm and a great fish. Now Jonah had prepared for his journey (mission?) to Nineveh, perhaps expecting God to destroy the city, but God had prepared the hearts of the Ninevites to hear and believe the message of judgment. They repented—all of them!—and even Jesus took notice of this then reminded the Jews of His day about this sign.
So Jonah prepares a booth and waits—maybe for the balance of the 40 days—and tried to find shade while he was dwelling east of Nineveh. Here, God prepares a gourd that seems to have grown quickly and provided relief for Jonah. We don’t know how when God prepared the gourd (it grew over one night, see verse 10), but Jonah was certainly grateful for it!
Note that once again, God provides something better for us than we can make for ourselves:
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