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Jonah 4

Chapter 4 in 30 seconds

Jonah is furious that God was nice to his enemies. I knew You were gracious, he says, that's why I ran! He sulks outside the city. God grows a plant for shade, sends a worm to kill it, and asks the last question of the book: You cared about a plant. Should I not care about a city full of people?

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In this chapterThe Big QuestionWhy Was Jonah Angry? · after verse 5

Jonah’s Anger at Yahweh’s Compassion

¹Jonah, however, was greatly displeased, and he became angry. ²So he prayed to Yahweh, saying, “O Yahweh, 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. I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion—One who relents from sending disaster. ³And now, O Yahweh, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

JON 4:1[NOTE]ANGRY AT MERCY. Jonah was glad to be saved by grace in chapter 2 and angry that Nineveh got the same grace in chapter 4. See Why Was Jonah Angry?
JON 4:2[NOTE]GRACIOUS AND COMPASSIONATE. Jonah is describing God, not quoting Him, so it prints black. His words come from God's own words to Moses, Exodus 34:6. Joel 2:13 uses the same line.

⁴But Yahweh replied, “Have you any right to be angry?”

⁵Then 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. ⁶So Yahweh 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.

JON 4:6[MIRACLE]Plant grew up in a day; worm destroyed it
JON 4:6[NOTE]THE PLANT. In Hebrew, qiqayon, maybe a castor bean plant or a gourd. Augustine says a church nearly rioted when Jerome called it ivy.

The Big Question

Why Was Jonah Angry?

Mad at Mercy

Jonah 4:1 to 11

WHAT HE SAID: Jonah finally tells God why he ran: I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion, 4:2. He was not afraid God would fail. He was afraid God would forgive.
THE QUESTION: Why would a prophet of God be angry enough to die because a city was spared?

Why Was Jonah Angry? · A Closer Look

Exodus 34:6 · Luke 15:25 to 32 · Matthew 5:44

A CRUEL ENEMY: Assyria was known for terrible cruelty to the peoples it conquered, and it was the great threat to Israel. Jonah may have known that a spared Assyria could one day destroy his own people, and within about 40 to 60 years it did.
PROUD OF HIS PEOPLE: Jonah loved Israel and wanted God's mercy to stay with Israel. Many see his anger as national pride that left no room for outsiders.
HIS REPUTATION: Some think he felt like a false prophet, since he said Nineveh would fall in forty days and it did not.
GOD'S ANSWER: God does not yell. He grows a plant, takes it away, and asks a question: You cared about the plant, which you neither tended nor made grow. So should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people, and many cattle as well? 4:10 to 11.
THE OLDER BROTHER: Jesus told of a son who came home and an older brother who was angry at the party, Luke 15:28. Like Jonah's book, that story ends without telling us what the angry one did.
WHAT IT SHOWS: It is easy to love grace for yourself and hate it for your enemies. God loves people we would rather see judged.

⁷When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered.

⁸As 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.”

⁹Then God asked Jonah, “Have you any right to be angry about the plant?”

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

¹⁰But Yahweh said, “You cared about the plant, which you neither tended nor made grow. It sprang up in a night and perished in a night. ¹¹So 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?”

JON 4:11[NOTABLE]The book ends with God's question and no answer from Jonah. God cares about people His prophet wanted judged, and the reader has to answer too.
JON 4:11[NOTE]RIGHT HAND FROM LEFT. This may mean little children, or people who did not know right from wrong.

Jonah 4

Jonah’s Anger at Yahweh’s Compassion

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