Jonah 4:6 And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head… Here the Lord doth first give Jonah matter of delight in a plant miraculously raised up to cover his booth, and keep him from the heat which increased his grief. Then again, his passion is stirred up by occasion of the Lord's sudden removal of the gourd, and raising such a wind as might effectually make the sunbeams beat upon him. By all which the Lord lays a ground of more sensible reproving of him for his former bitterness. Doctrine — 1. A spirit once broken and embittered with troubles is easily grieved and stirred up. 2. The Lord, in healing the infirmities of His people, uses first to lance their sores, and discover more of their putrefaction, before He apply any healing plasters; there. fore is Jonah's passion more kindled ere the former distemper be healed. 3. God in His holy providence may ensnare men who are wilfully given to passions, with more occasions to vent more of their corruptions. 4. From this sending of the gourd and the worm, and the effects of it in Jonah, we may see — (1) The vanity of all earthly delights, in that they all carry a worm of instability in their root, which in short time will turn upside down all the expectations which men have from them. (2) Much delight in earthly contentments is ordinarily a fore runner of much sorrow in their removal. (3) Passion given way unto will soon turn men furious and absurd. So little are men themselves in their passions. (George Hutcheson.) Parallel Verses KJV: And 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. |
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