JONAH iv. io, ii 345
to be anything in the ecstasy of being ever," — they are noble words, and breathe the very spirit of the Bible. " With thee is the fountain of life," says the Psalmist in highest adoration of God. Christ, in claiming for Himself that He is one with the Father, speaks of the life that is in Him, and which He has power to give, as the proof of this. " As the Father raiseth up the dead, and giveth life to them ; even so the Son giveth life to whom he will. As the Father hath life in himself ; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself . . . because he is the Son of man." 1
4. No man is so angry as the man who is in the wrong. The angry prophet, leaving Nineveh still undestroyed, betakes himself to the low hills lying to the east of the city. He is half of opinion yet that God's purpose of destruction is merely delayed, not altered. He will wait and see if the fiery shower will not still descend, and Nineveh become another Sodom. To shelter himself from the noonday sun, he makes a booth of twigs and foliage, and, sitting down, awaits the development of the Divine purposes.
Here in this bower he sits and anxiously longs for news respecting the destiny of the city and its inhabitants. He is exceedingly pleased with the comfort and protection this shady retreat affords him. May fire and brimstone destroy both the city and its inhabitants, as long as he is out of the reach of the destructive elements and can sit in his cool and shady bower undisturbed ! He is prepared even to wait a little longer than he could have wished, for the rising of the smoke and flames of the burning city, and for the hearing of the cries and groans of its suffering inhabitants. He would have enjoyed nothing so much as to witness the effect of God's wrath upon the Ninevites. But the heartless man is not allowed to remain long undisturbed in his comfortable self-complacency. Hardly has he begun to realize the luxury of his bower, when the very gourd, which has con- tributed so largely to his comfort, withers away, and at a time when its shelter is most needed. Then in the morning, as the sun rose and shed its scorching rays on the unprotected head of Jonah, he fainted and wished that he would die, saying, " It is better for me to die than to live."
TJ In this impatience of life as well as in some subsequent traits, the story of Jonah reflects that of Elijah. But the
1 A. Mackenna], Christ's Healing Touch, 92.
346 THE WIDENESS OF GOD'S MERCY
difference between the two prophets was this, that while Elijah was very jealous for Jehovah, Jonah was very jealous of Him. Jonah could not bear to see the love promised to Israel alone, and cherished by her, bestowed equally upon her heathen oppressors. And he behaved after the manner of jealousy and of the heart that thinks itself insulted. He withdrew, and sulked in solitude, and would take no responsibility nor interest in his work. Such men are best treated by a caustic gentleness, a little humour, a little rallying, a leaving to nature, and a taking un- awares in their own confessed prejudices. All these — I dare to think even the humour — are present in God's treatment of Jonah. This is very natural and very beautiful. Twice the Divine Voice speaks with the" soft sarcasm: Art thou very angry? Then Jonah's affections, turned from man and God, are allowed their course with a bit of nature, the fresh and green companion of bis solitude ; and then when all his pity for this has been roused by its destruction, that very pity is employed to awaken his sympathy with God's compassion for the great city, and he is shown how he has denied to God the same natural affection which he confesses to be so strong in himself.1
Tf Whole sheets have been filled with the discussion as to what the kikayon, the Gourd, mentioned in the Old Testament only in Jonah was. The dispute is an old one, for when St. Jerome translated it Ivy, St. Augustine was so offended with the translation that he denounced it as heresy. The most popular rendering has been that which identified the kikayon with the Arabic El keroa, the Castor-oil (Ricinus communis). The Bicinus is a large shrub rather than a tree, and has large palmate leaves with serrated lobes, and spikes of blossom which produce the seed, from whence the well-known medicinal oil is extracted in small rough husks. It is wild in all Oriental countries, but it is not a tree used for shade, being of a straggling growth, though of course any one might find shelter from the sun under its large foliage. Generally, however, it would be useless for the purpose. It reaches a considerable size — twelve or fifteen feet in height in the warmer parts of Palestine.
The etymological argument in favour of the Bicinus is, no doubt, strong, but practical reasons cause me to lean strongly to the rendering of our English version, Gourd — i.e., the Bottle-Gourd (Cucurbita pepo). The Gourd is very commonly employed in Palestine for the purpose of shading arbours. Its rapid growth and large leaves render it admirably adapted for training on trellis work. In the warmer parts of America also, it is the favourite plant