The Pulpit Commentary — Jonah — Section 103

that strips the trees in autumn, thRt steals strength from the strongest animal, cmd gnaws away the life of the youngest? Verily man and all his earthly good is being "destroyed from morning to evening." 3. In its destr1iction. "God prepared a vehe- ment, east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die." "This wind," says an old expositor, "was not as a fan to abate the heat~ but as a bellows to make it more intense." It may be thnt this vehement east wind was that terrible simoom which was common in that land, and which smote the four corners of the house in which Job's children were. How desolate is the pro- phet now I The burning beams of the sun are baating on his head. His booth is destroyed, his gourd is withered to the roots, and the east wind like a breath of fire is drying up the current of life. His existence became intolerable. He wished in him- self to die. Here, then, is a picture of our earthly good. However abundant in its nature and delicious in its enjoyment, like this gourd it must go from UCI. '!'he worm will gnaw out its existence and the east wind will utterly destroy it, and when it is gone and we are stripped of everything but sheer existence, unless Christ is formed in us the Hope of glory, our life will be intolerable, and we shall seek for death as our only relief. II. As AN EMllLEM OF Gon's DISCIPLINARY PBOOEDUBE. The Eternal, in order to get Jonah into a right state of mind, employs a variety of agency. It is suggested: 1. T}i,at, God discipline.s man by facts. Precepts and theories are powerless in the human soul compared with actual facts. "I have heard of thee," says Job, "by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee." Nature is a system of facts. Human life is an experience of facts, the Bible is a record of facts, and by facts God disciplines the human soul. The gourd was a fact, the worm was a fact, the east wind was a fact, and these facts went down to the centre of Jonah's soul. 2. That these/acts are varied in their character. Here was the pleasant and the painful. The gourd, how pleasant I the simoom and burning sun, bow painful I So now God employs the pleasurable and the painful. to discipline our souls to virtue. He employs the small and the great. Here was the insignificant worm and vehement wind. "Lo, aU these things worketh God oftentimes with man, to bring back bis soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living" (Job :xxxiii. 29, 30). 3. That these facts are adapted to their end. Jonah did not wish that mercy should be shown to the Ninevites. He desired their destruction. This was bis state of mind, and a bad state of mind it was, and God dealt with it by giving him a lesson in personal suffering. He taught him what suffering was. CoNCLUBION. 1. Let us not trust in earth'ly good. It is but a mere gourd. It must wither and rot. "All flesh is grass." Trust in righteousness. "Trust in him that liveth for ever." 2. Let us improve under the disciplinary influences of Heaven. Life is a moral school, a school in which the great Father seeks to make his children meet for ihe " inherita.nce of the saints in light."-D. T. Vers. 9-lL-God reasoning with man. "And God said to Jonab, Doest thou well to be angry for the gonrd?" etc. The whole Book of Jonah develops at least the following truths : L That the regard of Heaven, even under the old dispensation, was not aonfined to the Jews. Jonah was sent to Nineveh, a city far away from Judma, whose population had neither kinship nor sympathy with the Jewish people. It is represented as a bloody city, full of lies and robbery, its ferocious violence to captives is portrayed in its own monuments. The opinion that once prevailed very extensively in the Christian world, and which still prevails to a certain extent, that the Eternal Father confined his interest and communications entirely to the descendants of Abraham, is without foundation; Nineveh, Egypt, and Babylon were as dear to him as Jerusalem. Be revealed himself to Pharaoh as well as to Moses, and to Nebuchadnezzar as well as to DanieL 2. That wickedness, if persisted in, must end in roin. " Arise," says Jehovah to Jonah," go ... to Nineveh, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me." And because of its wickedness it was on the verge of destruction. So it ever is, sin leads to ruin. " The wages of sin is death." 8. That tt'tl,a repentance will re.scue a peop~ from their threatened doom. Though the ruin of Nineveh seemed 11,ll but settl~d to take place in about forty days, yet because it repented the terrible .aoom wu averted. "When God eaw their works, that they had repented of their ev~ OH, IV, l-11.] 'l'HE BOOK OF JONAH. 101