The Pulpit Commentary — Jonah — Section 104

we.ye, he repented ol the evil he said he would do unl;o them; e.nd he did it not" (eh. iii. 10). It ie ever eo. "Let the wicked forsake hie w_e.y, and the unrlghteo_wi man hill thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, e.nd he will he.ve mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will e.bundantly pardon." Amongst the many remarkable and sugges- tive pnese.cree in this book, not the least striking and significe.nt ie that which I have now selected for meditation. I shall employ it to illustrate the amazing interest God tnkos in me.nkind. This is seen- I. IN HIB IlEABONING WITH A MAN WHO IS IN A BAD TEMPEB. That tbe "High and Holy One that inhabiteth eternity" should notice individual man at all is a con• descension transcending our conceptions, but that he should now enter into an argu- ment with one who ie under the influence of a bad temper ie still more marvellous. Jonah was "angry," and the intensity of his anger became so intolerable that he wished to die. "'l'herefore now, 0 Lord, take my life, I beseech thee; for it is better to die than to live." Why was he angry? 1. Because of the Divine ccmpassion shown to the Ninevites. Jonah had proclaimed their destruction in forty days, and fully per- he.ps did he expect that the truthfulness of hie word would be attested by the fact. But the forty days passed away, and no thunderbolt of destruction came; it was pre- served, and preserved by God because it repented. It seems that he would sooner have seen Nineveh in ruins than have had his word falsified before the people. Hie vanity was wounded. He thought more of his own reputation than of the lives of a teeming population. "Doest thou well to be angry?" The question implies a negative. "No; thou doest ill; thine anger is a sinful anger." There is e. righteous anger; hence we a.re commanded to "be angry and sin not." Indignation against falsehood and meanness and selfishness and impiety is a holy passion-a passion that must often flame out in a.11 pure hearts in passing through a world of corruption like this. This, however, was not the anger of Jonah; his anger implied vanity, heartless- ness, and irreverence. 2. Because of the loss of a temporal blessing. The gourd that grew up in a night a.nd mantled his tent with its luxurious leafage, thus sheltering him from the rays of the burning sun, was felt by him one of his greatest temporal blessings. " He was exceeding glad of the gourd." That was now taken from him, the worm gnawed it to death, and as the hot simoom rushed at him, and the rays of the burning sun beat upon his head, he deeply felt its loss, and he was angry ; he was angry with God for depriving him of this blessing. He was thus angry with the Almighty for_showing compassion to the Ninevites, a.nd also for depriving him of this temporo.l blessing. His anger seems to have been not a passing emotion, not a moment- ary flame, but a fire that rendered his life unbearable. "Let me die," he says. The passions of the soul have often extinguished the natural love of life and snapped the mystic cord that unites the body to the soul. Now, is it not wonderful that the great God should condescend to reason with a man in such a state of mind? Man is wont either to shun the individual who is indignant with him, or to hurl anathemas at his head. Not so the Infinite Father. Calmly and lovingly he reasons with his indiguani enemy. "Come now, and let us reason together, eaith the Lord: though your ein.s be a.s scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." II. IN HIS REASONING WITH A MAN WHO 1B IN A BAD TEMPER IN ORDER TO IMPBESS RIM WITH THE BEALl'l'Y OF BIS COMPASSION, "Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which ea.me up in a night, a.nd perished in a night: and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein a.re more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right he.nd and their left hand; a.nd also much cattle?" The Almighty here argues from Jona.h'e pity for the gourd-the plant-to his compassion for Nineveh. The argument is from the Iese to the greater. If you, Jonah, feel pity for that mere vegetable producti~n which you had for a few hours only, and which you yourself did not produce, conceive of my compassion for the inhabitants of Nineveh. The com- pe.rison here implied between the plant and Nineveh may be expressed in three ques- tions, 1. Wl,at is this one plant to the men that inhabit NiMWA P What is the grandest production in the vegetable world, the most stately and symmetrical tree towering as the king of the forest, to one human being? The tree is the production of the earth, cannot think of its Oree.tor, cannot itself alter its own position, is the mere creature of external influences, and must exhaust itself by its own growth; but me.n ii 102 'l'HE BOOK OF JONAH. [on. rv. 1-1,