Early morning from a bare tan hill: far below in haze the long flat-topped walls of a great city, a river beyond, thin threads of smoke rising; the edge of a rough booth of branches in the near corner.

God’s question

Jonah 4

What do you do when God is kinder than you want Him to be?

11 verses≈ 3 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

1RunningJeroboam II’s Israel, about 770 BC: west to Tarshish
2From the deepA prayer from inside the fish
3Nineveh turnsAssyria’s great city repents
4God’s questionAn angry prophet and a withered plantChapter 4

Jonah’s Anger at the LORD’s Compassion

Jonah, however, was greatly displeased, and he became angry.

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Jonah

So he prayed to the LORD, saying, “O LORD, is this not what I said while I was still in my own country? This is why I was so quick to flee toward Tarshish.

Jonah

I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion—One who relents from sending disaster.

Jonah 4:2

Jonah

And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

God

But the LORD replied, “Have you any right to be angry?”

Reflect

Angry at mercy

Jonah knew God was gracious, and it made him angry. Is there someone you would rather God did not forgive? Tell Him honestly, and write down what you say.

Then Jonah left the city and sat down east of it, where he made himself a shelter and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city.

So the LORD God appointed a vine, and it grew up to provide shade over Jonah’s head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was greatly pleased with the plant.

When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered.

As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint and wished to die, saying, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

God

Then God asked Jonah, “Have you any right to be angry about the plant?”

Jonah

“I do,” he replied. “I am angry enough to die!”

God

Still morning on a bare hill: a tall castor-oil plant over an empty booth of branches hangs dead, its great leaves brown and curled, a few fallen in the dust.

But the LORD said, “You cared about the plant, which you neither tended nor made grow. It sprang up in a night and perished in a night.

God

Late golden light over a great walled city seen from a hill: smoke from many houses, small figures of children on a roof, and herds of cattle and flocks of sheep in green fields by the river below.

So should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well?”

0:11

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Question

Quick question

Jonah sat on the hill east of the city, angry over a withered plant.

How does the book of Jonah end?

You’ve experienced

Jonah 4

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A verse to carry with you

I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion—One who relents from sending disaster.

Jonah 4:2

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