Contemplative Bible Reading

Jonah 4:5-11 (New International Version)

⁵ Jonah went 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 vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine. ⁷ But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine 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, “Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?”
“I do,” he said. “I am angry enough to die.”

¹⁰ But the LORD said, “You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. ¹¹ But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?”

These verses end the story of Jonah. He has escaped the great fish, preached in Nineveh, and, through the power of God, brought about a great spiritual awakening in that great city. Jonah makes a little shelter and sits. God raises a vine to give Jonah shade and then raises a worm to kill the shade. Jonah was comforted; Jonah was cussing.

Once again, read the entire story, God brings home a point to Jonah.

You care about a vine and a worm, but you don’t care about 120,000 people.

I want to scream, “Come on God. Give Jonah a break here. He went to Nineveh, he preached your word, he helped those people. Give him a little shade and rest!”

Truly, God’s ways are not our ways, and God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. Let’s try to understand God’s ways (these are merely frail human guesses). First, God did all this. The part Jonah played was minuscule, and Jonah didn’t want to play his part. Second, foremost in God’s sight are the souls of the 120,000. A vine? A worm? Shade? Are you kidding? Third, we humans tend to be short sighted. We see what is right in front of us and what affects are comfort right now. We usually fail to lift our sights far enough to see the big things.

God, help me to see a little more of what you see every day.