Jonah 4:6-8 And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head… Jonah was not faultless after his prayer and penitence. He undertook his work, and boldly proclaimed his message in Nineveh. His success was beyond expectation. The whole city was moved, and all the inhabitants fasted, repented, and prayed. And in the mercy which is ever his delight, God averted the threatened disaster. "But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry." He was indignant that his message should appear to be unfulfilled, and angry when he found that he had been the means of saving from destruction the most dangerous foes of his own country. Any one who reads the history of Europe at the beginning of this century will understand this feeling. It was with an awful sense of dread that our grandfathers heard that Napoleon had swept into Russia at the head of six hundred and fifty-seven thousand veterans, expecting to return flushed with victory to complete his work of devastation. When the news came that of all that great host only eighty-five thousand men had escaped from the horrors of war and frost and famine, a jubilant shout of thanksgiving went up to Heaven, led by the Christian Church! Sinful though Jonah's feeling was, it was not unnatural, and he sat himself down within view of the city, hoping and praying that at least some smaller disaster would befall it. Our text shows how graciously God sought to bring him to a better state of mind. The withering of the gourd, like the withering of the fig tree, was intended to be an epitome of human experience. Let us learn from it - I. THAT ALL OUR EARTHLY COMFORTS ARE OF GOD'S PROVIDING. When Jonah set himself to watch what would become of the city, he made for his shelter a booth, formed of the interlaced branches of trees, which imperfectly kept off the heat of the sun. And God prepared a gourd, whose broad leaves spread over the booth till good protection was given from the scorching heat, which even seasoned Arabs dared not brave; and Jonah was exceeding glad of it. There was never more danger than there is now of the non-recognition of God's hand in nature and in history. The clearness with which we see natural phenomena tends to make less credible what is only spiritually discerned. But happy is the man who finds every blessing sweetened to him by the thought, "God gave me this." The great purpose of all his dealings with us is to bring us to thought about himself. Sometimes he turns us back to duty, as Jonah was turned, by a storm; and sometimes he brings us back to a right mind, as Jonah was brought, by a blessing - strangely coming, and then as strangely going. II. THAT OUR EARTHLY BLESSINGS ARE OF SHORT DURATION. Their brevity is as much God's appointment as their existence. Notice the emphatic declarations in our text: "The Lord prepared a gourd;" "The Lord prepared a worm;" "The Lord prepared a vehement east wind." In other words, the blessing and the cause of its removal both emanated from him. 1. The gourd withered when Jonah reckoned most confidently on enjoying it. It is so with our blessings too. Examples: The wealth amassed with such difficulty seems secure at last, but unexpectedly it vanishes. The child nursed through all the perils of a weakly childhood dies in the fulness of manhood's strength, etc. 2. The gourd withered from a small and secret cause. A worm at the root killed it. Little things, preventible things, as we think them, often cause our losses. We may be ruined by some one we never saw, and of whom we never heard. A noble reputation may be blasted by a silly slander. Yet there is no awful fate blindly striking hither and thither; there is no hostile power supreme over human events. Of every loss we may say, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the Name of the Lord." III. THAT TROUBLES SELDOM COME ALONE. It was bad enough to lose the shelter of the gourd, but it was worse to find a vehement east wind springing up just after it withered - not one like ours, cutting in its keenness, but one singularly depressing and relaxing in its effects. It came over the burning desert sands; it drank up fire by the way; it dried the skin, and filled the pores with dust, and beat upon the wayfarer like the blast of a furnace. Jonah found it the more unbearable because his shelter was gone. Sorrow comes on sorrow - financial anxiety, domestic bereavement, impaired health, unexpected loss, following each other till our souls are overwhelmed. But God is patient with us, in spite of our angry thoughts; he pities our passionate weeping, and waits till we can say with him who in his agony prayed yet more earnestly, "Thy will, not mine, be done." CONCLUSION. While Jonah was pitying the gourd whose beautiful leaves were withered, and was grieving over the loss of its shade, God pointed him from it to Nineveh, and said, "If you sorrow over this, how much more do I sorrow over that? You have not laboured for this gourd, but I have laboured for that city. The gourd could never be worth much, but what might not Nineveh be if only its people were redeemed from sin?" Thus would he point us from the contemplation of life's sadness to the contemplation of its sin. He would remind us that as we would sacrifice anything to save the life of one we love, so he has given his only Son to save us from sin and death eternal. - A.R. 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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