(Final study, 23rd Sept, 2021)

I. GOD’S PURPOSE EXPLAINED.

In these closing verses, we have a series of strange events.

* God had sent a worm to destroy the gourd or tree He had caused to grow to offer shade from the sun for Jonah. How marvellously God can take away all our comforts as a means of teaching us our errors.

* God then prepared a hot wind to blow on Jonah. This would blow from the desert and would have been like a blast from a furnace. Note word “prepared”. This the last of those things the Lord ‘prepared’ in this story.  1:17, fish; 4:6, gourd; 4:7, worm; 4:8, wind. All of nature is under God’s control and may be used to teach and  chasten His people.

* Being left without  shelter, Jonah faints. “ . . he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live,” Jonah 4:8.  Life could not be lived without God’s shelter. “If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, now may Israel say; If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when men rose up against us: then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us: then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul: then the proud waters had gone over our soul,” Psalm 124:1-5.

* Jonah was still stubborn. When challenged about his anger by God, Jonah replies defiantly! Who would have thought that the holy prophet could have been brought into this state of mind? How furious and unreasonable are the passions of our flesh.

* Then God explains the design he had in suddenly raising up the gourd, and then in causing it to wither. It was to teach Jonah that his conduct towards the Ninevites was very inhuman and unbecoming of a believer.

* Though we find that the prophet had become a prey to dreadful feelings, yet God does mercifully remind him of his folly. There is no reference to Jonah’s final response but I believe that Jonah repented of his folly. He is referred to in honour in Matthew 12:39-41 and 16:4.

This double use of the prophet’s witness and ministry is an honour indeed. Only David is referred to twice in this manner!

The Lord Jesus speaks of Jonah’s preaching and witness as being of the same character as His own.

That is an honour indeed!