11/08/2007
Jonah 4:5 - 11 (HCSB)
5Jonah left the city and sat down east of it. He made himself a shelter there and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city. 6Then the LORD God appointed a plant, and it grew up to provide shade over Jonah’s head to ease his discomfort. Jonah was greatly pleased with the plant.
7When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, and it withered. 8As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind. The sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he almost fainted, and he wanted to die. He said, “It’s better for me to die than to live.”
9Then God asked Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”
“ëYes,û” he replied. “It is right. I’m angry enough to die!”
10So the LORD said, “You cared about the plant, which you did not labor over and did not grow. It appeared in a night and perished in a night. 11Should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot distinguish between their right and their left, as well as many animals?”
You will most likely recognize the name of Jonah as the prophet that was swallowed by the great fish and finally went to Nineveh. He was a very reluctant prophet and his ministry seems to be focused at only one city and at only one time. Jonah, after some calamity, finally relented and went to Nineveh. The city was so large that it would take him 3 days to traverse it and proclaim his simple message: “40 days and Nineveh will be destroyed.”
Jonah did not want to go to this city because it was an enemy city and the last thing he wanted was for Nineveh to repent. “Why give them 40 days?” He surely thought, “just destroy them, Lord.” But he delivered his message then went up on a high point overlooking the city to be witness to their destruction.
He found a shaded spot and on one day, God caused a vine to grow as a covering and on the next day, a worm destroyed the plant. Meanwhile, Nineveh repented and God spared them. At both of these events, Jonah was livid. God asks him, “what right do you have to be angry?”
Jonah whines about the plant, but God reminds Jonah about what is really important.
Are we like Jonah sometimes, whining about our possessions or our situations, yet overlooking the fact that people around us are living without knowing God?
Let us take a lesson from Jonah and remember to keep our focus on the things that God says are important: people.
Jeff Justus
Cleff Publishing
www.cleffpublishing.com
©2007 Cleff Publishing, all rights reserved.
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