# 28 - The Divine Deliverance Again
Jonah 4:6: ”And the LORD God prepared a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very grateful for the plant.”
“Then the Lord God provided a plant that it might come up over Jonah…”
Though Jonah had prepared a shelter for himself, God decided to prepare a plant to cover him. Perhaps the shelter that Jonah had prepared for himself was not good enough to protect him from the heat of the sun, so God miraculously provided a plant to protect him. How kind of the Lord to protect a person who in anger is questioning his act of mercy on the people of Nineveh.
This reminds us of the time when Adam and Eve made coverings for themselves to hide their shame after they rebelled against God’s commandment to not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Their covering was not good enough, so the Lord covered them with tunics of skin and clothed them. Here again, we see man’s rebellion and God’s mercy and love at play in the lives of his rebellious children.
What love is this that pardons the sinner and takes care of the rebel as well? Where would we be if had not received the mercy of God despite our sin and the love of God, despite our rebellion?
The Church of today has to a great degree not only rebelled against God’s call to make disciples of all nations, but we’ve gone off on a tangent, living our lives in total rebellion of God, disdaining Him, making a laughing stock of ourselves to the world, and destroying all that He took the pains to build when He sent His Son Jesus into the world to save the world. We’re at the centre of our own lives – not God and we no longer care for the people God cares about. Oh how badly we need the mercy of God for our sin and rebellion. His love and mercy are available to us if only we are willing to repent and get back on track to being and doing what we were saved to – loving God and loving our neighbour.
“That it might be shade for his head to deliver him from his misery.”
One can imagine how the people of Nineveh perhaps were celebrating God’s goodness and mercy toward them in not sending his wrath on them. Not only must they have been rejoicing in gratitude to God for his mercy on them, but the angels in heaven must also have been rejoicing at the repentance of the entire city. Jesus, while telling the parable of the lost sheep talked about the rejoicing there is in heaven over one sinner who repents, “I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.” But outside the city, it’s quite a different scene - Jonah, instead of joining them in their rejoicing and celebration is sulking in the sun.
We all know the ill-effects of exposing ourselves to scorching heat – dehydration, fatigue, sun stokes, etc. The shelter that Jonah had prepared for himself was obviously not providing sufficient protection from the scorching heat of the sun, so God provided another means of adequate shade to protect his head – a plant. It seems that Jonah was already experiencing the effects of the scorching heat of the sun, because the verse says, “to deliver him from his misery.”
There’s another kind of misery that the world is being scorched by - not just today, but since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, and that’s the misery of sin. Sin has tarnished the heart and mind of man to such an extent that it has affected life in every possible way. We The Church know the answer to this age-old problem of sin is Jesus. We need to do all we can to share this good news of Salvation with whoever, whenever, wherever, and however possible.
God has once again provided a ‘shade’ from the scorching misery of sin by making the helmet of Salvation available to all who will believe. No wonder Apostle Paul, while talking about the armour of God in Ephesians 6:10-18, used the picture of the Helmet to refer to Salvation. It’s this Salvation that renews our minds and a constant faith in it that keeps us on track as well.
Sadly, not only do the minds of those in the world need to be renewed but even the minds of us in The Church need to be renewed as well – we need to repent (have a change of mind) and turn back to God and His calling on our lives. We’ve forgotten the calling of God on our lives, forgotten our identity in Christ and our purpose for living as well, and are living self-centered lives, caring nothing about the perishing world around us. Our attitude to the world around is no different than Jonah’s attitude to the people of Nineveh.
So Jonah was very grateful for the plant.”
Now we find a change in the attitude of Jonah, in response to God’s act of kindness to him by preparing a plant to provide shade for his head. He is now filled with the attitude of gratitude. But it looks like the one person Jonah is still concerned about is himself. He is grateful for the plant because it offers protection to him – nothing seems to have changed in his attitude towards the people of Nineveh.
The verse does not mention that Jonah was grateful to the Lord for the plant, it just says that he was grateful for the plant. That plant did not grow up miraculously on its own – it was an act of God on his behalf, but given the negative attitude Jonah had toward God at the time, it looks like Jonah is hesitant to give God the glory and is merely grateful for the plant. How similar to the way we talk today as well. How often either we have said, or we’ve heard someone say, “Thank goodness…” for something good that happens as if goodness was a person. Or, “I’m so glad I escaped an accident.” We’re so hesitant to give God the glory by saying, “I thank the Lord for His protection, provision, guidance, etc.”
One of the greatest attitudes we as The Church need to always have in life is that of gratitude. In fact, it’s this attitude that should be one of the motivating factors for everything we do as believers. The Apostle Paul, after explaining in great detail in 11 Chapters about God’s plan of Salvation for the whole world, begins Chapter 12 with these words, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” He is saying in effect, ‘Seeing all that God has done for you – the mercy He has shown you, now offer your bodies…” All we do should stem from an attitude of gratitude to the Lord for what He has done for us. It’s not a repayment that we’re giving God, but rather an expression of our thankfulness to Him for all He has done for us.
What are we, The Church grateful to God for today? Are the things we are grateful for things pertaining only to ourselves or are we grateful to the Lord for His love, mercy, and grace that He is showering on other people as well? We need to move away from self-centered prayers and praise and include others as well in our thanksgiving and requests. We can’t afford to be careless about the needs of those around us – especially a lost world heading to a lost eternity. We’ve been given a mission – to “Go and make disciples of all nations,” so we must do that out of love, and gratitude, not out of a sense of compulsion or duty.
Let’s pray for the people around us who have not yet come to know the amazing merciful God we enjoy a relationship with, and let’s do all we can to reach and disciple them. And when they come into the family, let’s not sulk in the sun like Jonah, but rather, let’s rejoice like, and with the angels in heaven.
