SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/24/2025
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “A Fitting Analogy”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jonah 4:6-8
Message of the verses: “So Yahweh God appointed a plant, and it came up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his miserable evil. And Jonah was extremely glad about the plant. But God appointed a worm at the breaking of dawn the next day, and it struck the plant, and it dried up. Then it happened that as the sun rose up, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun struck down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and asked with all his soul to die and said, “Death is better to me than life.”
I have to say that studying this last chapter of the book of Jonah is opening up to me new truths that I have not known before, and for that I am happy that the Holy Spirit of God was surely instrumental in giving insights to John MacArthur as he wrote this commentary on Jonah. With that said, and with the truth that I have surely not gotten all that is in this fourth chapter I am happy to continue to quote from MacArthur’s commentary in order to share to those who will read my Spiritual Diaries as I post them onto my blog. One of the things that I can see in the book of Jonah chapter four is the graciousness of God in how He dealt with Jonah.
“Yahweh graciously created this protection for Jonah to deliver him from his miserable evil. The phrase miserable evil is rendered in different ways by English translations, often having the idea of misery or discomfort. However, the Hebrew word itself is the specific word for evil, the very same term used to describe Jonah’s assessment of Nineveh’s repentance (Johan 4:1). While the prophet had a completely warped view of evil (see discussion on 4:1), God was working on Jonah to show him the true nature of evil. The repentance of Nineveh’s people was not evil; but Jonah’s stubborn misery was, as he brooded selfishly because of God’s saving grace. To deliver someone (whether Nineveh or Jonah) from evil was not evil; rather, it was the highest good. As Jonah sat comfortably, sheltered from the miserable evil of the scorching sun, the Lord was making the point unmistakably that the grace Jonah resented when it was given to others was actually what he welcomed for himself—and it was very good!
“Additionally, the Lord demonstrated that the expressions of grace should produce rejoicing and not resentment. Anything less is evil! When God delivered Jonah from the intense heat, Jonah was extremely glad about the plant. The idea of gladness is not merely an external act of shallow happiness but an internal attitude of deep rejoicing and bliss. The plant and the protection offered caused Jonah to respond with delight and joy. In Hebrew, the text states that ‘Jonah was glad…with great gladness,’ mirroring the structure Jonah’s evaluation of Nineveh’s repentance when ‘it was evil to Jonah…a great evil’ (Jonah 4:1). God provided the prophet a taste of His goodness to show him that grace was the opposite of the great evil he claimed was.” I will stop here for a moment because I think that part of the mystery of this fourth chapter is beginning to make sense to me, that is what God provided a plant and then took it away from Jonah, as it was all His teaching to Jonah to show him the wrong that he was doing. We go on now “At the same time, Jonah’s response revealed how deep-seated his hatred was, as he expressed elation about the plant while exhibiting only contempt for the grace that offered salvation to Nineveh. God used this plant to expose Jonah’s self-centeredness and hypocrisy. Though the prophet received God’s grace for himself with joy, he responded to God’s grace toward others with anger.” I think that the word selfishness is what we can see in Jonah’s heart, but it was also that he was angry as it seems to me that he hated the Ninevites for the evil that they were doing. I will quote one more paragraph from MacArthur’s commentary this morning.
“The Lord’s object lesson took an unexpected and dramatic turn as God appointed a worm. Yahweh had appointed a fish (Jonah 1:17) a plant (4:6) to deliver. This time, He appointed a worm to destroy. While the exact species of this worm is unknown, worms were well know to attack and kill plants (cf. Deut. 28:39) and to spoil food (Exod. 16:20). In this instance, God ordained the worm to remove the protection He had graciously provided through the plant.” Looks like we will have to get more into this in my next SD.
Spiritual Meaning for my Life today: I have mentioned earlier that one of the greatest things in my life is to be able to be used of God to bring salvation to a person that the Lord has brought into my life, and so that lesson from Jonah as he was unhappy that God gave salvation to the Ninevites does not apply in my life. However it seems that I am fixated on the things that are going on in our country at this time as we have a political party that is desperately trying to do great harm to our country, and I do not like that this is going on.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Not to be so fixated on what is going on in our country, but to be praying that the Lord will solve this problem which will take the pressure off me, so that I will not be angry about what is going on. The Bible tells us to be angry and sin not and then we are not to let the sun go down on our angry. We are to have peace because God is in control, and He really doesn’t need my help to handle this problem.
11/24/2025 9:37 AM
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