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Jonah Chapter 4
Jonah 4
The Text
1But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
2And 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 I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.
3Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.
4Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry?
5So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.
6And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.
7But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.
8And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.
9And 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.
10Then 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:
11And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?
Summary of Events
Jonah is upset about God choosing to not destroy Nineveh. He leaves the city and sits in the hot sun where God causes a plant to grow to provide shade for Jonah. The next day God sends a worm to kill the plant. Jonah then says it would be better for him to die. God questions Jonah’s anger about the death of the plant. God asks him why a plant should be spared from destruction but a large city like Nineveh should not be saved?
The Moral Lesson
Before we get into the spiritual teachings of this chapter let’s examine the moral lesson that it presents.
The plant represents the things of this world that bring comfort to mankind, things which God gives to mankind without any prepration on man’s part. Mankind receives relief with the shade of trees. He receives pleasure from a sunny day. God is the one who gives these things to man. Man doesn’t put the sun in the sky or cause the plants to grow, but he pities the destruction of this creation. He feels sorry for animals when they are killed. He has sympathy for the rainforests. He wants to make changes to how he lives so that the effects of his life can be less negative on the environment. Man didn’t labor in the creation of these things. Their existence is all a work of God, but he pities the destruction of them because by nature mankind is very concerned with this world.
But the fact that his fellow man is under the wrath of God doesn’t bother him a bit, does it? He is more disturbed by the death of his pet dog than he is about the fact that his neighbor is on a path to destruction.
The Spiritual Meaning
Jonah is a picture of Christ. The wrath of God that Jesus endured for the sake of the believers actually began when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane. We read that, at that time, Jesus was in great agony:
"And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." (Luke 22:44)
This was because God had begun to pour out His wrath on Jesus. This is confirmed for us by the fact that, at that time, Jesus asked if it could be possible for the cup to pass from Him:
"And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." (Matthew 26:39)
The cup in view is the cup of God’s wrath:
"And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath." (Revelation 16:19)
This was not an act of rebellion on Jesus’ part because, as we can see in the verse above, He desired God’s will above His own. We can understand why He prayed these words. The level of agony He had to endure is something we cannot imagine. It is only because He is also eternal God that it was even possible. His prayer for the cup of God’s wrath to pass from Him was not uttered just once, but three times:
"He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. And he came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy. And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words." (Matthew 26:42-44)
This helps us understand the spiritual meaning behind the events that took place in Jonah chapter 4. Jonah, as a figure of Christ, was looking for an alternative to enduring the heat of the sun. He first made for himself a booth. The word “booth” is translated from the Hebrew word sukkah, which is found 31 times in the Bible and is usually translated “booths” or “tabernacles.” It is the word that is found in the phrase “feast of tabernacles,” and if we were to do a study of this we would discover that the feast of tabernacles is really the feast of the Word of God. The booth that Jonah made points to the Word of God, which shadows mankind from the wrath of God:
"And there shall be a tabernacle [sukkah] for a shadow in the day time from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain." (Isaiah 4:6)
Theoretically, the booth represents mankind’s first hope for salvation: the law of God. If mankind were able to live his entire life in complete obedience to God’s Word, then he would be safe from God’s wrath. However, this possibility does not exist because every person is born into sin. Good works (obedience to God’s law) cannot save us because no matter how obedient we are it is impossible for us to never sin:
"The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies." (Psalm 58:3)
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)
The booth that Jonah made failed to continue to provide shade. This points to the fact that mankind’s efforts to rely on obedience to God’s law (good works) to save him will never be successful.
When the booth failed, Jonah then looked to a plant for protection from the sun. The plant represents mankind. In the book of Ruth we read that Boaz, as a picture of Christ, first turned to a nearer kinsman to Ruth as her redeemer. In that story, that nearer kinsman was a picture of mankind who will not (and cannot) be a redeemer for his fellow man because he himself is also under the wrath of God. This fact is also illustrated in Jonah chapter 4 as the plant fails to provide protection from the sun. God sent a worm to destroy the plant. The worm is a picture of the lowest creature:
"But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people." (Psalm 22:6)
The worm represents Christ as the Judge. Christ emptied Himself of all His glory as He took on a human nature. However, He is still the Judge of mankind and this is illustrated in the fact that the worm killed the plant.
When Jonah saw that neither the booth nor the plant could protect him from the sun he said, “It is better for me to die than to live” (Jonah 4:8). This ties back to Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane when He asked if it would be possible for the cup of God’s wrath to pass from Him. However, He knew that neither of the other two possibilities for man’s salvation (obedience to God’s law or his fellow man) would work, so the only option was for Him to die.
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