Fri, 25 November, 2005: Today’s Bible readings.
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 didn’t want to bring God’s word of judgment to Nineveh, the capital city of Israel’s enemy, and so he ran away. Jonah did not want them to repent and have God spare the judgment, and so he is angry that after God brings him unwillingly to preach to Nineveh, it turns out just as he feared.
In chapter 4, as he sits outside the city, hoping for destruction to come, God gives Jonah an object lesson with a plant that gives him shade from the blistering sun. God appoints that the plant grow up, to Jonah’s great delight. But then God appoints a worm to destroy the plant that has granted relief to Jonah, and he is angry about the death of the plant.
What do we learn from this?
God points out that Jonah is more concerned about his own comfort than he is about the lost people in the enemy capital. One plant that give him shade is more important to Jonah than the thousands in Nineveh.
Where are our priorities? Are we more concerned about our own comfort than we are concerned about the lost around us? Do we see clearly the things that annoy us, but miss the people who need the gospel? Are we like Jonah in our attitude toward the unsaved?
Where is Christ in this passage?
Thank God that He doesn’t require us to earn our salvation. We aren’t saved based upon the fact that we are lovely people who deserve to be saved. God does not act like Jonah and require us to be redeemable before He redeems us.
… God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
