"Let all the earth fear the LORD;
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!
For he spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm." Verses 8-9
Jonah 4:5-11
Still in Jonah, we skip over the whole "big fish" part and finish up with Jonah's sulking. Right. Jonah is sulking. You see, Jonah hates Nineveh. That's why he ran the other way in the first place. He knew that if he went and preached to Nineveh, they would repent, and God would spare them. So now, he's sulking.
Jonah really wasn't a very good prophet, was he?
In this passage, Jonah goes off to watch what will happen. God made a plant spring up to provide shade for Jonah. But then, God brought along a worm to eat the plant and make it die. Jonah got really angry about this. God confronted Jonah about this. Why is he angry about the plant? What right does he have? Jonah insists that he has plenty of right. God then makes his point about the city of Nineveh. How does Jonah justify being so outraged over a plant that he had nothing to do with, yet does not want to allow God to change his direction over a city of people that created?
The book ends rather abruptly, which makes me wonder if we are missing part of it. We never hear of any response from Jonah over this.
Grace and peace, friends!