Jonah 4:9-11 And God said to Jonah, Do you well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even to death. And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? etc. The whole Book of Jonah develops at least the following truths: 1. That the regard of Heaven, even under the old dispensation, was not confined to the Jews. Jonah was sent to Nineveh, a city far away from Judea, whose population had neither kinship nor sympathy with the Jewish people. It is represented as a bloody city, full of lies and robbery, its ferocious violence to captives is portrayed in its own monuments. The opinion that once prevailed very extensively in the Christian world, and which still prevails to a certain extent, that the Eternal Father confined his interest and communications entirely to the descendants of Abraham, is without foundation; Nineveh, Egypt, and Babylon were as dear to him as Jerusalem. He revealed himself to Pharaoh as well as to Moses, and to Nebuchadnezzar as well as to Daniel. 2. That wickedness, if persisted in, must end in ruin. "Arise," says Jehovah to Jonah, "go... to Nineveh, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me." And because of its wickedness it was on the verge of destruction. So it ever is, sin leads to ruin. "The wages of sin is death." 3. That true repentance will rescue a people from their threatened doom. Though the ruin of Nineveh seemed all but settled to take place in about forty days, yet because it repented the terrible doom was averted. "When God saw their works, that they had repented of their evil ways, he repented of the evil he said he would do unto them; and he did it not" (Jonah 3:10). It is ever so. "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." Amongst the many remarkable and suggestive passages in this book, not the least striking and significant is that which I have now selected for meditation. I shall employ it to illustrate the amazing interest God takes in mankind. This is seen - I. IN HIS REASONING WITH A MAN WHO IS IN A BAD TEMPER. That the "High and Holy One that inhabiteth eternity" should notice individual man at all is a condescension transcending our conceptions, but that he should now enter into an argument with one who is under the influence of a bad temper is still more marvellous. Jonah was "angry," and the intensity of his anger became so intolerable that he wished to die. "Therefore now, O Lord, take my life, I beseech thee; for it is better to die than to live." Why was he angry? 1. Because of the Divine compassion shown to the Ninevites. Jonah had proclaimed their destruction in forty days, and fully perhaps did he expect that the truthfulness of his word would be attested by the fact. But the forty days passed away, and no thunderbolt of destruction came; it was preserved, and preserved by God because it repented. It seems that he would sooner have seen Nineveh in ruins than have had his word falsified before the people. His vanity was wounded. He thought more of his own reputation than of the lives of a teeming population. "Doest thou well to be angry?" The question implies a negative. "No; thou doest ill; thine anger is a sinful anger." There is a righteous anger; hence we are commanded to "be angry and sin not." Indignation against falsehood and meanness and selfishness and impiety is a holy passion - a passion that must often flame out in all pure hearts in passing through a world of corruption like this. This, however, was not the anger of Jonah; his anger implied vanity, heartlessness, and irreverence. 2. Because of the loss of a temporal blessing. The gourd that grew up in a night and mantled his tent with its luxurious leafage, thus sheltering him from the rays of the burning sun, was felt by him one of his greatest temporal blessings. "He was exceeding glad of the gourd." That was now taken from him, the worm gnawed it to death, and as the hot simoom rushed at him, and the rays of the burning sun beat upon his head, he deeply felt its loss, and he was angry; he was angry with God for depriving him of this blessing. He was thus angry with the Almighty for showing compassion to the Ninevites, and also for depriving him of this temporal blessing. His anger seems to have been not a passing emotion, not a momentary flame, but a fire that rendered his life unbearable. "Let me die," he says. The passions of the soul have often extinguished the natural love of life and snapped the mystic cord that unites the body to the soul. Now, is it not wonderful that the great God should condescend to reason with a man in such a state of mind? Man is wont either to shun the individual who is indignant with him, or to hurl anathemas at his head. Not so the Infinite Father. Calmly and lovingly he reasons with his indignant enemy. "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." II. IN HIS REASONING WITH A MAN WHO IS IN A BAD TEMPER IN ORDER TO IMPRESS HIM WITH THE REALITY OF HIS COMPASSION. "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, wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?" The Almighty here argues from Jonah's pity for the gourd - the plant - to his compassion for Nineveh. The argument is from the less to the greater. If you, Jonah, feel pity for that mere vegetable production which you had for a few hours only, and which you yourself did not produce, conceive of my compassion for the inhabitants of Nineveh. The comparison here implied between the plant and Nineveh may be expressed in three questions. 1. What if this one plant to the men that inhabit Ninevah? What is the grandest production in the vegetable world, the most stately and symmetrical tree towering as the king of the forest, to one human being? The tree is the production of the earth, cannot think of its Creator, cannot itself alter its own position, is the mere creature of external influences, and must exhaust itself by its own growth; but man is the offspring of the Infinite, capable of tracing his existence to its Source, having the power to move as he pleases, and endowed with powers inexhaustible, and ever-increasing development! But if a plant is nothing to one man, what is it to the thousands of men that are found in Nineveh? You, Jonah, would have spared the one plant: shall not I spare the million of men? 2. What is this one plant even to the unconscious infants in Nineveh? "Wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right band and their left hand." What is one plant to a hundred and twenty thousand unconscious infants? Out of those infants will grow sages, poets, saints, kings and priests unto God. What men, in visiting cities, concern themselves with the babes that breathe therein? And yet the purest, divinest, most influential portion of the population are the babes. The great Father regards the infant population. His blessed Son, when here, took babes in his arms, and said, "Of such is the kingdom of heaven." Even one babe is of more worth in the universe than the whole vegetable kingdom. 3. What is one plant to even the irrational creatures in Nineveh? "Also much cattle." Though the cattle are below children in the scale of being, they are greater than plants. They are endowed with sensibilities; they have locomotive powers; and for their use the vegetable kingdom exists. God has an interest in the brute creation. "He openeth his liberal hand, and supplies the need of every living thing." He feeds the cattle on the hills, makes provision for the finny tribes of ocean, feeds the fowls of heaven, and prepares nourishment even for the world of microscopic existences. If God thus regards those creatures, with what kindness should we treat them, taking care that they suffer not, either from want of food or the cruelty of man! Such is a brief and imperfect sketch of the argument here employed to impress Jonah with God's compassion for Nineveh. To use the language of another, "It is very beautiful; if you linger over it, planting your feet in the steps of it, touching the several links of it as you pass along, you will say it is beautiful. The skilfulness with which it is introduced, the forbearance with which it is conducted, the condescending regard to the prophets infirmities, the recognition of human excellence, the delicate allusions, the precious truths hidden in them, the accumulation of force as the argument goes on, the comprehensive linking of the different worlds of life to each other - plants, animals, infants, men - the easy transition from one to another, the abruptness of the close, too, indicating in its own way the completeness of the triumph, - all these proclaim the argument Divine." CONCLUSION. What subject is more suited to cheer and sustain our hearts amid the somewhat saddening associations connected, for instance, with the closing of the year, than the truth that the great God is lovingly interested in mankind? Every year as it passes bears away objects once most dear, the companions of our youth, and the dear friends of our riper years. And how dark, dreary, and depressed we might feel without the assurance that amidst all these changes and bereavements the great Father lives on, and feels the deepest and most vital interest in our weal I Though years, as they roll on, take away from us, and from our world, those whom we have known and loved, the great Father continues here. He has not withdrawn from the world and left it in an orphan state, dreary and desolate. He is here - here with every human being, here reasoning with the thoughtless, enlightening the ignorant, consoling the sad, strengthening the weak, guiding the perplexed, restoring the lost. "God liveth ever! Wherefore, soul, despair thou never! What though thou tread with bleeding feet A thorny path of grief and gloom, Thy God will choose the way most meet To lead thee heavenward, to lead thee home; For this life's long night of sadness He will give thee peace and gladness. Soul, forget not in thy pains, God o'er all forever reigns." D.T. Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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