SOME WORM! SOME GOD!
Opening Prayer
Lord, Your care for all amazes Your people.
Read JONAH 4
Jonah’s Anger at the Lord’s Compassion
4 But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
4 But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
5 Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. 6 Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant[a] and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”
9 But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”
“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”
10 But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”
Footnotes:
a Jonah 4:6 The precise identification of this plant is uncertain; also in verses 7, 9 and 10.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
“God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed to us the word of reconciliation” (2 Cor 5:19, NASB).
Think Further
The fish ate Jonah and vomited him up, the animals in Nineveh ate nothing, and the worm (a she-worm, it appears) here in chapter 4, between dawn and the heat of the day, manages to chomp through a plant large enough to shield Jonah. I have heard many discussions about the size of the great he-fish, she-fish’s stomach and whether Jonah could have fit inside, but I have never heard the size of this she-worm’s belly mentioned! I would suggest that to try to rationalize the Book of Jonah is to miss the point. Fish do not usually swallow and vomit up men, however big their stomachs are; animals do not fast; and worms do not eat through an enormous plant in a few hours. Neither do Gentile sailors and cruel Assyrians tend to turn to God to such a degree. Here humans and animals (not to mention the swift-growing plant) behave atypically. Only God behaves predictably, being gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness (2). Having said that, He is not entirely predictable…
God asks the “greatly” (1, NASB) disgruntled Jonah why he should not care about these many Ninevites, especially as they are ignorant, given that Jonah cares about a one-day-old plant, even though he had not grown it (“grow” has the same root word as “great”). He does not remind Jonah that he had compassion on his errant servant who should have known better. The Book of Jonah ends with a serious declaration of God’s care for these repentant humans “… and also many animals”. It seems to me that this is as close as we get to a humorous divine wink: God has noticed the repenting animals. Nevertheless, the God who made the sea and dry ground genuinely cares about animals as well as humans.
Apply
Dear Lord, as an ambassador for You, please help me to care about those who are not my people, as well as the animal kingdom and the rest of creation.
Closing prayer
Lord, grant repentance to those around us as You did to the Ninevites.
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