In his national prejudice against the Assyrian and in the pride that resented the cancellation of his prediction, Jonah objected to the grace of God to that city. What a sad and forcible reminder of the fact that the only hope for mankind lies in God; and what an exhibition of the flesh, even in a child of God.
Now the contrariness of Jonah is used by God to elucidate His right to exercise His prerogative of mercy. While sulkily awaiting developments (4:5), “The Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah…to deliver him from his grief” (v. 6). For this he was “exceeding glad,” showing that while opposed to mercy for Nineveh, he appreciated it for himself. “But God prepared a worm…and it smote the gourd,” and when the sun arose, He “prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished…to die” (v. 8).
What a terrible lesson Jonah’s self-will had necessitated! The destruction of Nineveh would have pleased him well; now he complains at the destruction of the gourd and his consequent discomfort. In divine forbearance God reasoned with him in four distinct ways
His right to show mercy. No fault was found with Jonah’s desire to have the gourd spared (v. 10), though his sorrow was selfish. But if man may pronounce on little matters, is God to be denied His way in great matters? If Jonah thinks a gourd should be spared, is God to be condemned for sparing a multitude?
His right to spare the creatures He made. Jonah thought the gourd should have been spared. But after all, was he competent to pronounce on the matter? Did he ever make a gourd? Could he have protected this one from the worm? For it he had “not labored, neither madest it grow.” Yet, despite this, God allows his opinion regarding the gourd to pass, provided he would realize that God, who had made man and watched his course, knew how to deal with His creatures.
His right to spare a great city. “Should not I spare Nineveh…?” One Assyrian was of great value to God, one whom God has made in His own image. Even the cattle were of more importance than a gourd. Would God spare a gourd for Jonah’s comfort, “which came up in a night, and perished in a night”–with neither spirit nor soul, that even a worm was superior to–yet pander to Jonah’s prejudice by smiting a city that had cried to Him in the day of its distress? How manifestly was Jonah in the wrong, and how manifestly was God in the right! And how conclusively does Jonah, having ceased to speak, prove this with his pen! How abruptly he lays down that pen when the case is made clear.
His right to spare the ignorant. Into the discussion as to whether the clause “sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand,” refers to little children who literally could not discern this, or to the moral condition of the Ninevites, we do not enter. This much we do know, that the idolatrous Ninevites were ignorant of God. The entire period of heathenism until the advent of the Son of God is summed up as, “The times of this ignorance” (Acts 17:30).
Yet all the idolatrous systems from Egypt to Rome were inexcusable in their ignorance (Rom. 1) inasmuch as they glorified not God, whose visible works were constantly before their eyes.
Thus did God spare Nineveh on the ground of mercy. This is according to the “kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man” (Titus 3:4-7), the philanthropy of God. The character of love we are considering has been commended to us, in that, “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). In our misery God intervened, “according to His mercy.”
This compassion, or philanthropy of God, is what we trace in the book of Jonah; and that in a deeper way than the prophet could then do. For as those who know the substance can better perceive the form, so can we in the light of the gospel discern the direction in which God was moving in past times.
Thus we see an underlying, consistent purpose of grace throughout this little book, which unbelievers, ignorant of the ways and grace of God, have sought to ridicule. But as it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent” (1 Cor. 1:19). So has God shown the supposed wisdom of critics to be foolishness before the eyes of all willing to see.