SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/26/2025
My Worship Time Focus: PT-5 “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 will continue to quote from John MacArthur’s commentary:
“Because of the relentless heat under the blistering sun, Jonah became faint. The term translated became faint (wayyitallaph) is different than the word used earlier with Jonah ‘fainting’ in the water (behitatteph; see Jonah 2:7). Previously, the term referred to the prophet losing consciousness, but here the term depicts collapsing from thirst and weariness (cf. Isa. 51:20; Amos 8:13). Though different in nuance, the words are similar in sound and meaning, forging a parallel between the two moments in which Jonah became faint—previously, in the depths of the sea, and then in the desert heat. The Lord’s choice of discipline was fitting. Jonah had been hot with anger (Jonah 4:1), having hoped too to see the fiery destruction of the city (4:5). So, God exposed Jonah to the heat of His judgment, as the scathing wind and the searing heat tormented him.
“Strangely, instead of asking God to relieve his suffering and spare his life, Jonah asked with all his soul to die and said, ‘Death is better to me than life.’ He still could not accept the grace of God to Gentile enemies. He would rather be dead! Throughout the book, the prophet in his twisted selfishness repeatedly asked to die, requesting the sailors to throw him overboard (1:12) and then asking God to take his life (4:3). This final instance was no different. Jonah exclaimed the same words he had uttered earlier, ‘Death is better to me than life’ (cf. 4:3). He had reached an even deeper level of defiant intolerance, for in this case he made this request with all his soul.
“Jonah’s words are also reveal an addition to his death wish. Earlier, the prophet had asked for death out of spite for God’s grace. He pleaded to die when God spared the Ninevites (4:3). In that instance, Jonah believed that death was preferable to life in which the Lord extended grace to Israel’s enemies. But here, Jonah wished to die not only because God had extended grace to his enemies, but also because He had removed grace from him. By graciously providing a plant and then taking it away, the Lord gave Jonah a taste of both the goodness of Hi grace and the misery of its absence. The prophet here realized that death is better…than life without God’s grace, since a life in which grace is removed leaves the sinner with nothing to experience except judgment and calamity. Though Jonah was still indigent, and important lesson began to break through to him; that the Lord’s ‘lovingkindness is better than life’ (Ps. 63:3). 11/26/2025 7:38 AM
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