Gourds or Souls
Gourds or Souls
Scripture:
4 But ait displeased Jonah exceedingly, and bhe was very angry. 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 cI fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art da gracious God, and demerciful, dslow to anger, and of great kindness, dand repentest thee of the evil.
6 And the iLORD God jprepared a ||†gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his agrief. So Jonah †was exceeding glad of the gourd. 7 But God jprepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. 8 And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God jprepared a ||vehement keast wind; and the sun lbeat upon the head of Jonah, that mhe fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, gIt is better for me to die than to live.
Intro to Jonah
4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and bNineveh shall be overthrown. 5 So cthe people of Nineveh believed God, and dproclaimed a fast, and eput on sackcloth, ffrom the greatest of them even to the least of them. 6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and ghe arose from his throne, and he laid hhis robe from him, and eicovered him with sackcloth, and ijsat in ashes. 7 And he kcaused it to be proclaimed and †published through Nineveh by lthe decree of the king and his †nobles, saying, Let neither man nor mbeast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: 8 But let man and beast ebe covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, nlet them turn every one from his evil way, and from othe violence that is in their hands.
Jonah’s Bitterness toward the heirs of God’s mercy
At the very worst we see a prophet with a shocking disregard for human life and a bitter hatred toward those who had experienced mercy. At the very best he was a prophet who misunderstood God’s mercy and had a limited view of God’s plan for the redemption of his own people. While there may have been some reasons for Jonah’s displeasure, it is sad to see him place limits on the same grace that saved him.
Calvin said that the reason for Jonah’s anger was “because he was unwilling to appear as a vain and lying prophet.”3 This “loss of face” would cause him an embarrassing loss of stature in Nineveh. In addition, what would happen when he returned home to Israel?
Another explanation supposes that Jonah had proclaimed devotion to Yahweh in his native Israel with very little success. Israel was experiencing a time of prosperity and resulting lack of dependence on Yahweh. Perhaps Jonah longed for God’s strong hand of judgment to awaken Israel.
Characteristics of Jonah’s prayer in
In this prayer we find a reversion to the “old Jonah” who ran away from God’s stated wish.
The prayer begins with a particle of entreaty, but the petition does not appear until the end. The selfishness of this prayer needs to be noted. The word “I” or “my” occurs no fewer than nine times in the original. Not only does this prayer show an extreme selfishness, but it also indicates Jonah’s shortsightedness.
Conclusion: Gourds or Souls
Losing precious shade in this harsh environment was one matter for Jonah. Experiencing this horrible wind was yet another. Most identify this wind as the “sirocco.” When this wind is experienced in the Near East, the temperature rises dramatically, and the humidity drops quickly. It is a constant and extremely hot wind that contains fine particles of dust. It contains “constant p 280 hot air so full of positive ions that it affects the levels of serotonin and other brain neurotransmitters, causing exhaustion, depression, feelings of unreality, and occasionally, bizarre behavior.”30 The Septuagint translates it succinctly as a “scorcher.”