The Pouting Prophet

Jonah was displeased with God. “He was very angry” (v4:1), the people of Nineveh repented at his preaching (Jonah 3:4-10). Second Peter 1:21 says, “holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”

Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city and built a booth (little shack or hut). He decided to sit and see what would happen to Nineveh.

The weather was hot and Jonah was in “grief,” so God graciously “prepared a gourd” for Jonah so he could sit in the shade. Jonah 4:6 says, “So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.”

Our Lord said in Matthew 18:33, “Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?”

The Spirit of God portrays men as they really are – with all of their faults as well as their virtues. The Holy Spirit wants us to see what was really going on in the heart of Jonah, and in the heart of God (4:10, 11).