Jonah 4:1-11
The pardon granted to Nineveh seemed to contradict and to disown Jonah’s proclamation. Alas, the city’s fate carries less weight in his eyes than his own reputation! Forgetting that he himself has just been an object of grace, he finds no joy in that grace but only in his own well-being (v. 6 end).
Jonah reminds us of Elijah, discouraged under his juniper tree (cf. vv. 3, 8 with 1 Kings 19:4). Like Jonah we are capable of getting upset about very small matters. At the very smallest "gourd", that is any precarious shelter which God may take from us, we find a tempest rising within us! Meanwhile the eternal life of multitudes of human beings around us is at stake.
Instead of staying there at his vantage point grumbling (v. 5), what new service presented itself before the prophet? Could he not have gone back into Nineveh which had been spared, this time with quite a different message, proclaiming the name of this God whom he knew to be "merciful" "gracious" and "of great kindness", and who had just confirmed it in such a striking manner? An exceptional opportunity . . . opportunity lost! Let us not miss, through self-interest and hardness of heart, those opportunities which the Lord may put before each of us today (2 Kings 7:9).