Jonah’s anger and vexation continue unabated. The question posed by the Lord should have revealed to Jonah the absurdity of his position. 

“Are you right to be angry at me for having mercy upon whom I will?” is the essence of the question put to Jonah. The answer is self-evident.

However, Jonah remains stubbornly opposed to God’s will.

I. JONAH LEAVES THE CITY

1. This would have been the right action had Nineveh rejected his message. “And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet,” Matthew 10:14. But it was the wrong action when the message was believed. He should have entered into the joy of the city and sought to teach the new converts. Acts 8:4-8, 14. 

2. He went to the east of the city. This was the side furthermost away from Israel! It clearly shows that he felt he could not go home! There would have been many in Nineveh who would have welcomed him into their home, Lydia, Acts 16:15

3. He made a booth. It is very hot there. He planned to stay for a short while at least. A booth was made of branches, formed into a shelter,

4. He was waiting to see what direction things would take in the city. Perhaps he hoped for a short-lived repentance and the city to be destroyed after all!

II. THE LORD PROVIDES A SHELTER

1. Jonah’s booth would have failed him very quickly. Leaves would have withered in the sun. Our constructions cannot aid us. We need a living shelter provided of the Lord.

2. This was a plant which supernaturally grew up to provide shade. It may well have been some sort of palm tree. Most commentators believe it was not what we consider a ‘gourd’, a pumpkin-like plant.

3. The ‘gourd’ speaks of Christ. The One who “shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground,” Isaiah 53:2. He is the “prepared” one. It is under Him we find shelter. Isaiah 25:4.

4. How glad Jonah was of the shelter. The word “exceedingly” is the same as that used to express his anger. How kind is the Lord that He should bless him so! 

He was glad for the shade of a gourd, given him by the Lord, but sad and vexed at the mercy of the Lord granted to 100,000s that brought them shelter from the wrath of God!!