The Pulpit Commentary — Jonah — Section 102

III. TnAT TROUDLBB llllLDOM COME ALONE. It was bad enough to lose the Rhclter of the gonrd, but it was worse to find II vehement east wind springing up jnst after it withered-not one liko ours, cutting in its keenness, but one singularly depressing and relaxing in its effects. It came over the burning desert sands; it drank up fire by the way; it dried the skin, and filled the pores with dust, and beat upon the wayfarer like the blast of a furnace. Jonah found it the more unbearable because his shelter was gone. Sorrow comes on sorrow-financial anxiety, domestic: bereavement, impaired health, unexpected loss, following each other till our souls are overwhelmed, But God fa patient with us, in spite of our angry thoughts; be pities our passionate weeping, and waits till we can say with him who in his agony prayed yet more earnestly, "Thy will, not mine, be done," CONCLUSION, While Jonah was pitying the gourd whose beautiful leaves were withered, and was grieving over the loss of its shade, God pointed him from it to Nineveh, and said, "If you sorrow over this, how much more do I sorrow over th~t? You have not laboured for this gourd, but I have laboured for that city. The gourd could never be worth much, but what might not Nineveh be if only its people were redeemed from sin?" Thus would he point us from the contemplation of life's sadness to the contemplation of its sin. He would remind us that as we would sacrifice any- thing to save the life of one we love, so he bas given bis only Son to save us from sin and death eternal.-A. R. Vers. 6---8.-Emblems of man's earthly good, and Gorl's disci,plinary procedure. "And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over bis head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceed- ing glad of the gourd," etc. I shall use these verses as presenting an emblem of man's earthly good, and an emblem of God's disciplinary procedure. I. As AN EMBLEM OF JUN's EARTHLY GOOD. I take the "gourd" to represent tbi~. What this plant was, whether it was, as some suppose, a kind of encumber, which sprang swiftly from the soil, and covered the booth which Jonah had reared and under which he sat, or a kind of ivy that crept up and overshadowed his dwelling, or some plant of more rapid growth and more luxuriant foliage, it matters not. We are told the Lord ''prepared" it. It was some indigenous plant, characterized by a speedy growth and abundant leafage, and whose growth, perhaps, was stimulated by a Divine infusion of an unusual amount of vegetative force. It was a great blessing at the time to Jonah. It screened him from the rays of the Oriental sun, and refreshed his sight with its verdure. And it is said that "Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd." He felt that it was good. Now, this gourd was like man's eurthly good in three aspects-in its development, its decay, and destruction. 1. In its development. (1) It came out of the earth, The gourd was not a plant sent down directly from heaven. It grew out of the soil, So with all our worldly good. From the earth come all our granaries, our wardrobes, our houses, and all that blesses our material existence. It is all out of the earth. (2) It came out of the earth by Divine agency. It was not the less a Divine gift because it seemed to grow in a natural way. God produced it. He "prepared" it. All the earthly good we possess, even that for which we have laboured with the greatest skill and persistent industry, is the gift of God. He it is that gives us our daily bread, and that furnishes us with food and raiment. 2. In its decay. "But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote tbe gourd that it withered." Not long, perhaps only a few hours, had the gourd spread its shady and refreshing influence over Jonah's dwelling-place before the worm began to gnaw at its vitals and soon smote it. Mark the decaying agent, a "worm." (1) How meanl It was not some huge quadruped of the wild, or some royal bird from the craggy cliffs or towering forests, but a worm. The work of destruction is very easy. We are crushed " before the moth." (2/, How prompt 1 Decay commenced at once. " When the morning rose the next day ' it had done its work. The worrn of decay begins its work with the commencement of our earthly good. It gnaws at the founda• tion of mansions 118 soon as they are built, at friendships as soon as they are formed, at life as soon as it begins. "As soon 118 we begin to live we all begin to die." This worm of decay is working everywhere. (3) How secret I It works unseen, under- ground, It gnaws nt tho vital roots. It 1s an unseen agent. Who sees the worm ]()0 'l'HE BOOK OF JONAH, [arr. IV. 1-11.