The Plant

Today’s Passage: Jonah 4

Nineveh has turned. God has relented. Jonah is angry. He wanted disaster, and he got mercy. God asks him about a plant, and then about a city. The last word in the book is God’s question about pity.

As you read, hold this: You pitied a plant. Should I not pity a city?

Jonah 4:1–4 (BSB)

¹ Jonah, however, was greatly displeased, and he became angry. ² So he prayed to the LORD, saying, “O LORD, is this not what I said while I was still in my own country? This is why I was so quick to flee toward Tarshish. I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion—One who relents from sending disaster. ³ And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” ⁴ But the LORD replied, “Have you any right to be angry?”

Jonah is angry that God is compassionate. That is not a holy kind of anger, and we should not dress it up as if it were. Jonah knows the old words about God. He knows that the LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and abounding in loving devotion. He quotes those words as a complaint.

That is why he ran. He did not run because he misunderstood God. He ran because he understood Him, and he did not want Nineveh to receive that kindness.

He would rather die than watch Nineveh live. The LORD asks him one question: Have you any right to be angry?

Jonah 4:5–8 (BSB)

⁵ Then Jonah left the city and sat down east of it, where he made himself a shelter and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city. ⁶ So the LORD God appointed a vine, and it grew up to provide shade over Jonah’s head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was greatly pleased with the plant. ⁷ When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered. ⁸ As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint and wished to die, saying, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

Jonah leaves the city and sits on the east side. He makes a shelter and waits to see what will happen. He still wants the ending he preached. Then the LORD God appoints a plant to grow up over Jonah’s head and ease his discomfort. Jonah is greatly pleased with the plant. He is not pleased with the mercy God showed the city. He is pleased with the shade.

The next day God appoints a worm, and the worm attacks the plant so that it withers. Then God appoints a scorching east wind, and the sun beats down on Jonah’s head. Jonah grows faint and wants to die again. The comfort lasted one night, and his joy went with it.

Jonah 4:9–11 (BSB)

⁹ Then God asked Jonah, “Have you any right to be angry about the plant?” “I do,” he replied. “I am angry enough to die!” ¹⁰ But the LORD said, “You cared about the plant, which you neither tended nor made grow. It sprang up in a night and perished in a night. ¹¹ So should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well?”

The English says “ cared (חוּס) ḥûs, pronounced KHOOS. Strong's H2347, to pity, look on with compassion, spare. This word really means pity. Jonah pitied a plant he never grew. God asks if He can pity a whole city too, which is the real question of the book. .” The Hebrew word means pity.

You pitied a plant. Should I not pity a city? God names more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. God counts them. Jonah counted a vine.

The book ends on that question. Jonah does not answer. We are meant to sit with the question, not to rush in and make Jonah feel better, and not to treat his anger as if it were right. The plant was a small mercy. The city is the large one. God will not apologize for the large one.

The plant withered. The question still stands. Should I not pity a city?

Personal Application

1. Whose mercy from God has felt like a loss to you?

2. Where have you pitied your own comfort more than people God pities?

Today’s decision: Name one person whose mercy from God has bothered you. Ask God, by name, to give you His pity for them. Do not explain the anger away.

Pray to Close

The central truth: You pitied a plant. Should I not pity a city?

Praise: praise Him that He is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving devotion.

Give thanks: thank Him that He pities people you would rather see judged.

Confess: tell Him where you have been angry that He is kind.

Ask: ask Him to break your love of small comforts, and to give you His pity.