The Pulpit Commentary — Jonah — Section 90

barring the quality of Rincerity, this prayer lacks almost every other element of ecoeptable worship. 1. Ie ia inappropriate in ita matter. (Ver. 3.) It is not abso- lutely nn'd necessarily wrong to pray for <leath. Paul, persecuted and affiicted, ha,\ "a desire to depart nml be with Christ." It is easily conceivable that & believer, broken down end prostrated with incurable disease, sboul<l prny for death as the solo ave.i111ble release. It would be nothing unbecoming if a ripe saint, whose life-work is done, and who longs for rest, should make its early coming a matter of prayer. But Jonah was neither past living usefully nor, in his present temper, rea<ly to die. His death, if allowed, would have advanced no interest either of his own or of others. His work was, humanly speaking, far from being done, and his life, if he put a noble interpretation on it, might be of great im]lt>rtance in the world. He was stapidiy wanting to fling a.way from him, instead of prizing and using it, one of God'~ mo,-t precious gifts, and his own most sacred trust. The desire to die, which some consider the cream of all piety, is as often mistaken as appropriate, aad far less often a duty than a sin. In s~ch cases men "ask and receive not, because they ask amiss." 2. It is improper in spirit. One can easily see that Jonah was in no praying mood. He was angry and insolent. His prayer was really a contentious manifesto--the joint issue of arrogance and discontent. As such it was utterly offensive to God, and itself a new sin in hie eight. The spirit of it, however, made it harmless, as it secured the refusal of its mischievous request. Our union with Christ is a condition of successful prayer (John xv; 7). 'l'he guarantee of its acceptability is our dwelling in Christ; the cause of its fitness is his Word dwelling ia us. The Spirit helps the believer's infirmities, and in these qualities we have the outcome of his work (Rom. viii. 26). The very gist of prayer is a leaving of ourselves in the hands of God. Its inquiry is, "Lord, what wilt thou have me_ to do?" and its request is, "Lord, here am I; send me." Such a. request •is offered in terms of our Father's will, and, being offered in Christ, is ideal prayer to God. But the prayer of wilfulness, of fretfulness, of carnal suggestion in any shape, is lacking in every element that God regards or can accept. "For let not such a one think that he shall receive anything of the Lord." IV. GoD ANSWERS A FAULT-FINDING PRAYER BY REBUKING THE BPmIT OF IT. The rule is that believing prayer is answered (Matt. xxi. 22 ; Mark ii. 24). It is a special qualification of the rule that the answer comes in the form of things agreeable to God's will. Jonah's prayer had enough of faith in it to secure an answer, and yet enough of folly to necessitate an answer very different from the one desired (ver. 4). There was wonderful condescension here. Jonah makes an insane request, and it is mercifully ignored. He makes it in a sinful way, and gets the thing he was most in need of-an admonition, The words imply: 1. .Are you angry on sufficient grounds 1 An enumeration of the antecedents of his anger would have covered Jonah with con- fusion. His contemptibly egotistic refusal to prophesy, as it was his business to do, had not so much been punished, as forcibly overcome, and then forgiven. His life, jeopardized, in the natural course of events, by his own infatuate conduct, had, by a. miracle of mercy, been given back to him from the grave's mouth. His recent ministry eo tardily exercised had been blessed beyond a parallel, to the saving of a mighty city and the glorious illustration of the mercy and grace of God. These grounds of feeling are the only grounds which, as a servant of God, he could consistently regard. '£he others, which bore on possible results to his own official prestige, and Israel's moral attitude and fate, were purely speculative, might prove unfounded altogether, and whether or not should have no place in a spiritual mind. A true prophet is a man who speaks for God unquestioningly, who acts for God undauntedly, who is in fullest sympathy with his gracious purposes, and who knows no personal considerations in his work. Well might God ask, "Art thou wiser than I?" "Is thine eye evil because I am good ?n If a servant may have an interest antagonistic to his masters; if a man "may make bis own narrow capacity the measure by which to judge of the Divine will and the Divine procedure" (Martin); if the salvation of a million strangers is nothing in the balance against a possible hurt to a few of our own friends ;-then Jonah was fitly angry, and we, in a like oase, may fitly be angry also. The words also imply : 2. Is your anger itself a right thing~ 'rhe will of God is the ultimate reason of things. The way of God is unchallengeably right. The office of censor over him does not exist, There is DO provision in his scheme of goverD.Dlent for our being angry, 88 THE BOOK OF JONAH. [oH. IV. 1-11.'