4. The events of the book of Jonah are believed to have occurred between 800 and 750 B.C., when the Assyrian empire was at its zenith.

Transcription

1 JONAH Introduction 1. Jonah was of Gath-hepher (2KI 14:25). a. Gath-hepher was in the land of Zebulon (JOS 19:10-13). b. The land of Zebulon was part of Galilee (MAT 4:12-16). c. Therefore, the Pharisees demonstrated their ignorance when they said: "Out of Galilee ariseth no prophet" (JOH 7:52). d. Jesus Christ likened Himself to Jonah (MAT 12:38-41). Both prophets arose from Galilee (MAT 2:22-23; 4:12-16). 2. The historicity of the book of Jonah has been questioned by many. a. Jonah is mentioned in the historical record of 2KI 14: i. Here is a record of the prophetic ministry of Jonah to Israel during the reign of Jeroboam II, the son of Joash. His prophecy was one of salvation for Israel. b. The Lord Jesus Christ considered Jonah and his experience as history (MAT 12:38-41). i. To reject the account of Jonah is to make Jesus Christ a liar. One may as well deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ as to deny the experience of Jonah in the whale's belly. c. The book is written as an historical account of actual happenings. i. It is nowhere presented as fiction. We are commanded to think on things that are true and to give no heed to fables (PHI 4:8; 1TI 1:4). If this book is a fable, how can we take it seriously and yet obey these commandments? d. World Book Encyclopedia states: "A large sperm whale could probably swallow a man. But a man could not live in a whale's stomach for more than a few seconds, even if he had not already been crushed to death." i. Dr. Henry Morris says that one man (James Bartley, in 1895) survived a day and a half inside a whale before being rescued. ROM 3:4 says: "Let God be true, but every man a liar." e. Various explanations have been fabricated to explain away the story. i. Some say that Jonah had a dream in the ship while he was asleep and that the book is an account of that dream. i Some say that Jonah was picked up after the storm and shipwrecked by a boat that had a fish for the figurehead. Others claim that a dead fish was floating around and Jonah took refuge in it during the storm. f. "The LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah." i. The Lord could make a fish in such a way as to sustain a man inside. "With God all things are possible" (MAR 10:27). 3. The name Jonah means dove. a. The dove characterizes God's messenger (MAT 10:16). b. Jonah behaved most curiously like a dove according to PSA 55:6-8.

2 4. The events of the book of Jonah are believed to have occurred between 800 and 750 B.C., when the Assyrian empire was at its zenith. Chapter 1: Jonah's Disobedience 1. Jonah was the son of Amittai, which means faithful or truthful. a. The book immediately introduces us to a name that suggests trustworthy testimony. b. The Holy Spirit of truth appeared like a dove (a Jonah) upon Christ (JOH 1:32; 14:17). c. Is it not interesting that such a suggestion as the Spirit of truth is made at the beginning of a book that is maligned as a fable? 2. God called Jonah to preach to Nineveh. a. Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian empire (2KI 19:36). b. The Assyrian empire was the great world empire that preceded Babylon. c. The Assyrian empire has been noted in history for its warlike character (ISA 10:5-12; NAH 3:1). d. The Assyrians became the captors of the northern kingdom of Israel (2KI 17:1-23). 3. Jonah must cry against Nineveh because their wickedness had come up before God. a. cry - Shouting, calling in a loud voice and uttered with effort. b. Jonah's preaching was not to be a smooth self-affirming message! c. Sin is not hidden before God (GEN 18:20-21; REV 18:5). 4. Jonah disobeyed the call of God. a. Jonah states his reason for his disobedience in JON 4:2. i. Jonah did not want God to spare this heathen nation, which was a threat to his own people. It was like God was asking Jonah to sign his and his nation's death warrant. b. Jonah fled the presence of the Lord. i. He outright disobeyed the word of God. God manifests His presence in connection with His word. i In fleeing the word of God one flees God's presence. iv. Jonah here demonstrated his Adamic nature (GEN 3:8). c. "A passion for righteousness, which makes us vindictive and incapable of forgiveness, even in the case of those as cruel as Nineveh, puts us out of fellowship with God" (G. Campbell Morgan). d. Jonah would discover that one cannot escape God (PSA 139:7-10). 5. Jonah fled from God to go to Tarshish. a. Tarshish was a great commercial center (2CH 9:21; EZE 27:12). b. People have a tendency to flee to where the money is when they run from the will of God (1TI 6:10-11). 6. Jonah went down to Joppa, found a ship going to Tarshish, and had the fare to pay his passage. a. In an attempt to avoid preaching to the Gentiles Jonah went to the very place where God would later command Peter to take the gospel to the Gentiles (ACT 10:4-6). i. Peter also bore the name of Jonah (MAT 16:17; JOH 21:15). In a curious way, the word of God to the Gentile Ninevites also came from Joppa. b. Circumstances seemed to favour what Jonah was doing. i. One must not judge righteousness by temporal circumstances. Jonah - Page 2 of 12

3 i iv. The ready way is not always the right way. Some open doors lead to elevator shafts. It is easier to go downhill than uphill. Note Jonah's downward progression in vs. 3, 5. v. Righteousness is determined by the word of God! 7. The Lord chastened the disobedient prophet. a. Jonah's unwillingness did not exempt him from the call to preach (1CO 9:16-17). b. A reluctance to comply with God's call to service angers the Lord (EXO 4:10-14). c. This book is thus a warning to all who turn from the call of God. 8. The great wind was such that the ship was "like to" (reasonably expected to, likely to) be broken. a. This demonstrates the sovereignty of God over the weather (PSA 148:8). b. Safety is found in obedience (PRO 1:33). c. Beware of a Titanic! 9. During the storm, Jonah lay fast asleep. a. "This is a lively image of the insensibility of sinners, fleeing from God, and threatened on every side with his judgments: and yet sleeping as if they were secure" (footnote of JON 1:5 in the Douay Version of the Old Testament). b. Sin tends to lull men into the sleep of insensitivity to God (EPH 5:8-14; 1TH 5:4-7). 10. These mariners tried calling upon various deities in hopes of securing a deliverance from at least one of them. 11. He who should have been reproving Nineveh was being reproved by the shipmaster. 12. By means of a lottery, Jonah's sin found him out (NUM 32:23; PRO 16:33). 13. Jonah professed to fear the God that made the sea and the dry land. How foolish that he should try to flee by sea from the God that made it! 14. Like the Jews of Paul's day, Jonah was a poor example to these heathen of one who feared God (ROM 2:17-24). 15. When these heathen heard that Jonah was an Hebrew, they were exceedingly afraid. a. They must have known something of the terror of the Hebrews' God. b. God had said that He would show His power in Pharaoh to make His name known throughout the earth (EXO 9:16; 1SA 4:8). 16. On board Jonah was a danger to his shipmates whereas Paul was a safeguard to his shipmates (ACT 27:22-24). a. Indeed, "one sinner destroyeth much good" (ECC 9:18). b. What are we to those we are associated with? 17. It was only by casting Jonah aside that the ship would be saved. a. Jonah acknowledged his sin and acquiesced to his punishment as a true penitent does (LEV 26:40-42; EZR 9:13; PSA 51:4; DAN 9:7-8). b. This compares with the principle of church discipline: the church is spared when the offender is cast out (JOS 7:10-13; 1CO 5). c. This can be applied to the believer's personal life: he must cast away his sins to avert the judgment of God (EZE 18:30-31). d. Jonah, as Jesus, offered himself to be put to death (EPH 5:25; HEB 9:14). i. Jonah, however, was offered for his own sins. Jesus was offered for the sins of others (ISA 53:5-6). Jonah - Page 3 of 12

4 e. The mariners acknowledge that the Lord had done as it had pleased Him the same as it pleased God to judge Christ (ISA 53:10). f. Only by the casting away of Christ, Who was made sin for us, could sinners be saved from the wrath of God (2CO 5:21; JOH 11:49-52; ROM 5:8-9; COL 1:20). 18. At first, the mariners rejected God's method of salvation and tried to save themselves by their own efforts. 19. These heathen mariners showed themselves more righteous than the apostate Jews. a. Unlike apostate Israel, these mariners were very sensitive about taking the life of a prophet (MAT 23:37). b. They were reluctant to condemn Jonah, a confessed sinner, whereas the Jews were quick to condemn the innocent Christ. c. Whereas these mariners begged to be absolved from innocent blood, the Jews begged for it to be upon them (MAT 27:24-25). 20. "When we are manifestly led by Providence to do things contrary to our own inclinations [as these mariners were], and quite beyond our intentions, it will be some satisfaction to us to be able to say, 'Thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee'" (Matthew Henry). 21. When the end of the affliction was attained, it ceased. 22. These mariners feared and worshipped the God of Israel when God saved them by His power through the offering up of His servant. Sound familiar? 23. The Lord prepared a fish to swallow up Jonah. a. Jesus called it a whale (MAT 12:40). i. fish - In popular language, any animal living exclusively in the water; primarily denoting vertebrate animals provided with fins and destitute of limbs; but extended to include various cetaceans, crustaceans, molluses, etc. In modern scientific language (to which popular usage now tends to approximate) restricted to a class of vertebrate animals, provided with gills throughout life, and cold-blooded; the limbs, if present, are modified into fins, and supplemented by unpaired median fins. According to the above definition, a whale qualified as a fish before modern scientific language. i If God says a whale is a fish, a fish it is (ROM 3:4). iv. The same world system that says a whale is not a fish says a fetus is not a human being! b. This great fish actually became the means whereby Jonah was saved from drowning in the sea (1CO 11:32). c. Jonah's experience in the whale's belly is a sign of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (MAT 12:39-40). i. Like Jonah in the whale's belly, Jesus lay in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. i This was the only sign given to the generation of Jesus' day. (1) All of Jesus' other signs hinge on the ultimate sign of His resurrection. (2) Without the resurrection, Christ and His miracles become a lie no different than the man of sin (1CO 15:14-15; 2TH 2:3, 9-11). This is a picture of our salvation, which is by the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jonah - Page 4 of 12

5 iv. The whale, the vehicle of Jonah's deliverance, was prepared in advance. Jesus, our salvation, was "foreordained before the foundation of the world" (1PE 1:18-20). Chapter 2: Jonah's Prayer 1. Jonah prayed to God out of the fish's belly and was heard. a. God hears prayers from the most remote places (PSA 61:2; 130:1; LAM 3:55-56). b. This agrees with Paul's admonition in 1TI 2:8: "I will therefore that men pray every where,... c. Let this encourage the child of God who feels very low. 2. Because of his affliction, Jonah cried unto the Lord. a. Recall the definition of cry cited above. b. God was dealing with Jonah as a righteous man by using this affliction to show Jonah his transgression (JOB 36:7-13). c. In crying to God because of his affliction, Jonah was unlike the hypocrites who "in heart heap up wrath: they cry not when he bindeth them" (JOB 36:13). 3. Jonah's experience was a hell. a. God's children can experience the pains of hell in this life (PSA 18:5-6; 116:3). b. Jonah's experience gives an insight into the sufferings of the damned in hell. c. Unlike the hell of the wicked, the hell that God's children experience in this life is one from whence there is an egress. d. Jonah's sufferings also give insight into the sufferings of Christ (LUK 11:30). 4. Jonah was immersed beneath the water in judgment. a. All God's billows and waves had passed over Jonah. i. This describes a soul under the wrath of God (PSA 88:7). This is the language of PSA 42:7. (1) Others before Jonah had been down this path. (2) It is good to be able to trace our experiences in the Scriptures and to beg God to deal in mercy with us as He used to with others who loved His name (PSA 119:132). b. God's judgments in Scripture are sometimes represented as immersions. i. God judged all flesh by immersing it in the Noahic flood (GEN 6:17). God immersed Pharaoh's chariots and his host in the Red Sea (EXO 15:4-5). i The judgment of Babylon was pictured by the immersion of a book in the Euphrates (JER 51:63-64). iv. Jerusalem's destruction was prophesied in terms of a flood (DAN 9:26). v. The judgment of Jesus is described prophetically and by Himself as an immersion (PSA 69:1-2; LUK 12:50). vi. The destruction of Mystery Babylon is pictured as the submersion of a great millstone into the sea (REV 18:21). v The wicked will be cast into the lake of fire (REV 20:15). vi The ordinance of baptism, which pictures the judgment of Christ in His death and burial, is by immersion (ROM 6:3-5). 5. In Jonah's hell he was cast out of the sight of God. a. So, too, was Jesus cast out of the sight of God (MAT 27:45-46). Jonah - Page 5 of 12

6 b. So it will be with the wicked for eternity (2TH 1:9). 6. Jonah's faith and hope shine through the gloom when he says: "Yet I will look again toward thy holy temple." a. Jonah resolved to go the church when he got out of this predicament. b. Jonah's sights will now be set toward the temple, toward God's presence rather than Tarshish, away from God's presence. c. Hezekiah had his sights on the same thing when he was brought low with sickness and impending death (ISA 38:20-22). d. God grants us deliverance that we might praise Him in His church (PSA 9:13-14; 116). 7. The waters compassed Jonah even to his soul. a. This affliction touched his soul as well as his body causing him to feel overwhelmed. b. Again Jonah referenced something from the Psalms (PSA 69:1-2). c. PSA 69:1-2 is a prophetic description of Christ's sufferings. 8. Jonah went down into the depths of the earth. a. Jesus also descended into the lower parts of the earth in his burial (MAT 12:40; EPH 4:9). b. The hell into which the wicked descend is beneath the earth (ISA 14:9, 15; EZE 31:16-18). c. Jonah felt himself imprisoned there for ever (PSA 77:7-9). d. Hell is a prison (2PE 2:4). 9. Jonah's life was brought up from corruption. a. He had sown to the flesh and had reaped corruption (GAL 6:8). b. He was spared physical death after a very close brush with it (ISA 38:17). c. There is also a view here to the promise of the resurrection (ROM 8:21). 10. The remembrance of God and prayer were the balm for Jonah's fainting soul. a. When in trouble, one should not forget the Lord, but remember Him (PSA 143:3-7). b. Thus David encouraged himself in the Lord when he was distressed (1SA 30:6). c. Prayer is the antidote to fainting (LUK 18:1). d. What a difference a prayer can make! 11. Jonah's prayer went from hell to heaven (2CH 30:27). He who fled God's presence was restored to fellowship with God. 12. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. a. Idols are lying vanities: a falsehood that can profit nothing (JER 10:8, 14-15; HAB 2:18-20). b. They who serve idols forsake the true God, the source of their mercy (2CO 1:3; PSA 59:10, 16-17). c. Jonah was observing a lying vanity when he thought he could flee from God. God is not like an idol that one can walk away from. d. God gives us mercy to be faithful in our duty to God (1CO 7:25; 2CO 4:1-2). When we forsake that duty, as Jonah did, we forsake our own mercy, as an idolater does. 13. Jonah's repents and resolves to serve God by sacrificing with the voice of thanksgiving (PSA 50:14, 23; 66:13-16; 107:21-22; 116:17). a. Jonah will settle up by paying his vows in worship. b. Unlike the heathen, Jonah will worship the true God. Jonah - Page 6 of 12

7 c. In publishing God's praise Jonah confesses salvation to be of God, which confession honours God by acknowledging Him as the Author and Means of our deliverance (PSA 3:8). 14. After Jonah's confession, the fish vomited him out upon the dry land. a. Jonah thus became a sign to the Ninevites (LUK 11:30). b. Vomiting Jonah onto the dry land, the whale had no more access to Jonah. c. This prefigured the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Rising from the dead, death had no more dominion over Him (ROM 6:9). d. Thus ended the quarrel between God and Jonah. Jonah began the quarrel, but God began the reconciliation. Chapter 3: Jonah's Preaching 1. God called Jonah the second time to preach to Nineveh. a. God graciously restored Jonah to service. i. Jonah was given a second chance. Penitent sinners make effective witnesses (PSA 51:11-19). b. Jonah was brought back to the will of God revealed to him in the beginning. c. God has a way of making preachers out of rebels (PSA 68:18). d. Jonah was to preach what God told Him to preach. This is what the call to preach is all about (2TI 4:2; 1PE 4:11). e. Jonah was raised out of the fish's belly to serve God as we have been raised from death to serve God (ROM 6:11-13). f. In the foregoing chapter God heard from Jonah in prayer. Now Nineveh will hear from Jonah in preaching. 2. Jonah "went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord." a. Having been afflicted, Jonah now readily obeyed (PSA 119:67; HEB 12:11). b. Jonah's ministry was guided by the word of God. c. After Jonah was resurrected from the fish's belly, God's word was sent to the Gentiles. i. This required a translation of the word of God, but what was translated was still the word of God. In like manner, the word of God was sent to the Gentiles after Christ arose from the dead (LUK 24:46-47). 3. Nineveh was of such great size that it took three days to go through it. 4. Jonah proclaimed that Nineveh would be destroyed in forty days. a. He cried his message as God had originally commanded him (JON 1:2). b. In preaching God's judgment Jonah could speak with great conviction having just experienced it (2CO 5:11). c. In fact, Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites which would give them encouragement to repent (LUK 11:30). d. Paul also preached a message of coming judgment to the Gentiles (ACT 17:31). e. A tenet of the gospel is the proclamation of a coming judgment (ISA 61:2; ROM 2:16). f. Though the wickedness of Nineveh was great, God gave them a reprieve of forty days. g. Forty days gave Nineveh a space to repent if peradventure God would show mercy. Jonah - Page 7 of 12

8 h. "We should be alarmed if we were sure not to live a month, and yet we are careless, though we are not sure to live a day." 5. "The people of Nineveh believed God." a. The people received Jonah's preaching as the word of God and not merely as the word of Jonah (1TH 2:13). b. They heard one prophet with one message and they repented. c. By contrast, Israel heard many prophets prophesying continually and they rebelled (JER 7:25-26). d. In like manner the word of God was received by the Gentiles when it came unto them (ACT 28:28). 6. The people of Nineveh repented at Jonah's preaching (MAT 12:41). a. This would stand as an everlasting rebuke to the Jews who did not repent at the preaching of That Greater than Jonah. b. Jonah preached the ruin of Nineveh without assuring them that they would receive mercy if they repented. In contrast, Israel was assured of great mercies if they repented. c. This was a national reformation proclaimed by decree of the king that resulted in national salvation. d. The least to the greatest participated in the fast. God commanded Israel to do likewise (JOE 2:15-17). 7. This repentance consisted of the following elements: a. They fasted, that is, they did without food and drink. b. They put on sackcloth which is coarse material used in making sacks. i. The king arose from his throne and laid aside his royal garments to assume this attire. Such clothing would be in keeping with sorrow and mourning for sin (JAM 4:9-10). i According to the World Book Encyclopedia the Assyrian king was known as "the great king, the legitimate king, the king of the world, king of Assyria, king of all the four rims of the earth, king of kings, prince without rival, who rules from the Upper Sea to the Lower Sea." iv. This king manifested a changed and humbled opinion of himself. c. The king also sat in ashes to denote his mourning. d. Even the beasts were made to fast and wear sackcloth. i. As the beasts are called upon to praise God, so are they called upon to cry mightily to God (PSA 148:7, 10). The cries of the beast for food are cries to God (JOB 38:41; PSA 104:21). i In the outcome the beasts were saved as well as the people. e. The people cried mightily to God; they did not pray heartless prayers. f. Everyone turned from his evil way, his personal sin. i. They not only fasted for sin, they fasted from sin. Reformation must accompany fasting for fasting to be acceptable to God (ISA 58:3-7). g. Everyone turned from the violence of his hands. Jonah - Page 8 of 12

9 i. violence - The exercise of physical force so as to inflict injury on, or cause damage to, persons or property; action or conduct characterized by this; treatment or usage tending to cause bodily injury or forcibly interfering with personal freedom. Nineveh was a violent city (NAH 3:1). (1) One of its kings, Ashurnasirpal, "was accustomed after his victories to cut off the hands and feet, and the noses and ears, and put out the eyes of his captives, and to raise mounds of human heads" (Davis Dictionary of the Bible). (2) It was all, from the government on down, full of lies. Its people were not trustworthy. (3) It was all full of robbery. (a) Private property was not safe in Nineveh. (b) There was a steady influx of prey. (4) Nineveh was a major crime center with its government very much involved in the crime. (5) Nineveh sounds like our the major cities. i Violence characterizes the way of the wicked (ISA 59:6-8; PRO 4:14-18). iv. The reign of the beast, of which Assyria was a forerunner, will be enforced by violence, though it will boast of peace and safety (REV 13; 1TH 5:3). v. In humbling itself, Nineveh turned from its violence which characterizes the vi. proud (PSA 73:3-9). In summation, this repentance consisted of a change of attitude, a change of behaviour, and fervent prayers. h. Oh, that Israel had done as well as these heathen when God's prophets preached to them! 8. They did not know for sure that God would turn away his anger. a. They repented if peradventure He would repent. b. It is better to chance repenting and perish than not to repent at all, for "who can tell if God will turn and repent?" c. One may gain by repenting (1KI 21:29; DAN 4:27). He will surely lose by not doing so (LUK 13:1-5). 9. Nineveh's repentance was demonstrated by their works. a. True repentance is characterized by works (ACT 26:20). b. Nineveh believed God and showed their faith by works (JAM 2:18-22). 10. God repented of the evil that He said He would do. a. God repented of evil (His judgment) when they repented of evil (their sin). b. This whole scene exemplifies the way of the Lord as set forth in JER 18:7-10. Chapter 4: Jonah's Anger 1. The repentance of Nineveh displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was very angry about it. a. exceedingly - Of degree: Above measure, extremely. b. very - In a high degree or measure; to a great extent; exceedingly, extremely, greatly. 2. "In the first chapter we had him fleeing from the face of God; but here we have him, in effect, flying in the face of God" (Matthew Henry). Jonah - Page 9 of 12

10 3. In a prayer Jonah cites his reason for fleeing to Tarshish at the first as being his knowledge of God as gracious, merciful, slow to anger, of great kindness, and repenting of evil. a. Ever find yourself explaining to God in a prayer why you did what you did, even though what you did was wrong? b. He knew from the nature of God that if Nineveh repented, there was a good chance that God would spare them. c. Jonah was a jealous Hebrew who did not want God to be merciful to Nineveh. d. Jonah was like the Jews of the New Testament era who were provoked to anger by the repentance of the Gentiles (ROM 10:19; 11:11). i. Jesus provoked the Jews of His day when He reminded them of two occasions when God showed mercy to persons outside of Israel (LUK 4:25-29). When Paul told the Jews that he was sent to the Gentiles, they quit listening to him and called for his death (ACT 22:21-22). e. Jonah complained to God about His grace, mercy, and kindness! i. Jonah was quite unlike the angels of heaven (LUK 15:7, 10). God is indeed more merciful than men (1CH 21:11-13). i Jonah's eye was evil because God's was good (MAT 20:15). f. This shows that God's thoughts and ways are not ours (ISA 55:8). i. God will bestow mercy where we would not. God will have mercy on whom He will have mercy whether we like it or not. 4. Jonah prays to God to take his life. a. Jonah would rather die than not have his way. b. It is not uncommon for people to feel this way when they don't get their way. c. Jonah resented God using him to the good of the souls of men. d. This is from a man who praised God in chapter 2 for sparing his life. e. This sounds like Moses who asked God to kill him in NUM 11:11-15 when he felt overwhelmed with responsibility and yet asked God to let him live in DEU 3:24-25 when he wanted to see Canaan's land. f. This sounds like the discouraged Elijah who asked God to take away his life after he fled from Jezebel who attempted to do just that (1KI 19:1-4). g. How fickle man is! h. God's servants can be guilty of some very foolish things. 5. Verse 4 poses a question that we should consider when we are angry: "Doest thou well to be angry?" (EPH 4:26). a. This is a good question with which to weigh any action. b. If any one had a right to be angry with Nineveh it was God. If He could turn from His anger, certainly Jonah ought to! 6. Jonah went out of Nineveh to its east side where he made a booth which he sat in while he awaited the outcome of the city. 7. God prepared a gourd to shelter Jonah to deliver him from his grief. a. This gourd was a large bush with broad leaves. b. God caused this gourd to come up in a night. c. Jonah, who was EXCEEDINGLY displeased over the favour God showed to Nineveh, was EXCEEDING glad over the favour God showed to him. Jonah - Page 10 of 12

11 i. "Persons of strong passions, as they are apt to be cast down with a trifle that crosses them, so they are apt to be lifted up with a trifle that pleases them" (Matthew Henry). While we may enjoy the creature comforts that God provides, God alone should be our "exceeding joy" (PSA 43:4). 8. God prepared a worm the next day which smote the gourd and God prepared an vehement east wind that smote Jonah with heat. a. God prepared four things to deal with his servant: i. A great fish, which protected him from injuries by the sea. i iv. A gourd, which protected him from injuries by the sun. A worm, which destroyed the gourd. A vehement east wind, which drove the heat upon Jonah's head and made him feel keenly the loss of the gourd. b. God rules all nature with a view to His servants. c. Like this gourd, life's comforts can go as quickly as they come. d. Jonah was angry for the gourd. e. Jonah's anger, "even unto death," reveals how very fond he was of that gourd. Imagine wrapping your life up in a gourd! f. Beware! If you want to complain, God may see to it that you have something to complain about. g. "And see here how the passions that run into an extreme one way commonly run into an extreme the other way. Jonah, who was in transports of joy when the gourd flourished, is in pangs of grief when the gourd has withered. Inordinate affection lays a foundation for inordinate affliction; what we are over-fond of when we have it we are apt to over-grieve for when we lose it, and we may see our folly in both" (Matthew Henry). 9. God used this incident with a gourd to reason with Jonah. a. God is gracious to condescend to reason with His erring children (ISA 1:18). b. God's defence of this display of His mercy should encourage us to seek it. c. Jonah had pity on a single, transitory gourd because it benefitted him, whereas the Ninevites had been a threat to his people. d. By contrast, God had pity upon a great city wherein were more than 120,000 children not yet old enough to discern their right hand from their left hand. e. Jonah had more sympathy for a gourd than for children. f. Jonah pitied an insignificant gourd that he had not made. Ought not God to pity a great number of men and cattle which He had made? g. Jonah was like too many today who have more concern for a plant than for a human life. h. The heathen on board the ship were anxious to save one life, but Jonah resented the saving of many lives. i. Again, God's servants can be guilty of some very foolish things. j. There is no record that Jonah ever had a reply to this argument. God's word puts to silence our arguments against Him (JOB 40:4-5; LUK 20:26; ROM 3:19). 10. The history of the New Testament is depicted in this prophecy of Jonah. a. His sojourn in the belly of the whale and his exit from it foreshadowed the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jonah - Page 11 of 12

12 b. His subsequent preaching to Nineveh and its repentance point to the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles after Christ's resurrection and their reception of it (LUK 24:46-47; ACT 26:22-23). c. His anger over Nineveh's repentance answers to the anger and envy of the Jews over the conversion of the Gentiles. Jonah - Page 12 of 12