Jonah 4:5-9

Jonah 4:5-9 So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow ... And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, ... So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die ... After Nineveh’s great revival, Jonah went outside of the city and made himself a little lean to out of sticks to shield himself from the heat. To teach Jonah a lesson, God made a gourd to grow up and to cover the sticks of Jonah’s lean to. The broad leaves of the gourd gave Jonah much better shade, and he was happy. But that night, God also prepared a little worm which ate the stem of the gourd. The next day, the nice shady green leaves had withered away. Then God made a hot east wind to blow and Jonah became miserable in the sun and the heat. Then, God taught Jonah a lesson about life. Jonah was glad for the gourd when it gave him shade, but Jonah and was aggravated when the gourd withered and didn’t give him the shade. Jonah had pity on the gourd, but he had done nothing to make it grow, but Jonah didn’t have pity upon the hundreds of thousands of people in Nineveh. They were wicked because they didn’t know about a loving God. And Jonah didn’t even care about them! He preached, but he was only obeying God. He didn’t preach because he cared about the people of Nineveh, he preached only to keep out of trouble with God. What a hypocrite! God had blessed Jonah, but Jonah didn’t care if God blessed Nineveh! But often we are just like Jonah. We are glad God takes care of us. And we are glad to know that we have a home prepared for us in heaven someday. But what about our friends? What about other people? Don’t they need to know about God? Don’t they need to be assured of a home in heaven some day? Think about it. Let’s not be cranky like Jonah. Let’s obey God, and actually like obeying God!