For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Jonah 4:1-11

1 But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord, ‘Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.’

4 But the Lord replied, ‘Is it right for you to be angry?’

5 Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. 6 Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, ‘It would be better for me to die than to live.’

9 But God said to Jonah, ‘Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?’

‘It is,’ he said. ‘And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.’

10 But the Lord said, ‘You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. 11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left – and also many animals?’

A. Find Out:

1. What was Jonah’s objection to Nineveh being saved? v.1,2
2. What did he feel he wanted and what did the Lord ask? v.3,4
3. Where did he go and why? v.5
4. What 3 things did the Lord ‘provide’? 6-8
5. What did the Lord challenge him? v.9
6. What point did the Lord make? v.10,11

B. Think:

1. What point did Jonah seem to be missing in v.1-3?
2. What did he seem to expect to happen?
3. What point was the Lord trying to make to him?

C. Comment:

    Forty days are up, and Nineveh hasn’t been destroyed. “See,” says Jonah, “just like I expected. I knew God wouldn’t destroy them!” And that he makes his excuse for his disobedience. If he had been thinking rightly, he would have realised that the only reason God hadn’t destroyed them was because they had repented, and they had only repented because he, Jonah, had told them to!

    As we do so often, after a major spiritual activity, our man is left feeling weak and low. I might as well die, is what he feels. The Lord questions him but he gives no answer. He just goes out and from a distance waits to see what happens. Perhaps God will yet judge this city that had had such a bad reputation. He sets up a shelter and waits. It’s hot and it’s uncomfortable. Amazingly a vine grows rapidly up over his shelter and gives him more shade. He’s highly appreciative of it! He doesn’t know it’s a gift from the Lord. Incidentally, we’re not given any time frame for all this. It could be a day, a week or even a month as he waits.

     But then something eats at the vine, and he’s exposed to the sun again and now he is really annoyed. Ah, says the Lord, you’re upset about the loss of the vine, are you? Too true I am, replies Jonah. Why should a wretched worm be allowed to kill it? Hmmm, says the Lord, so you get upset about me saving this massive city? Point taken!

D. Application:

1. Our concerns are often very self-centred.
2. God’s concerned for people. Are we?