Shabbat Shalom, everyone, God bless you. Welcome to the Shabbat, Saturday meetings of the Holy Scriptures in Israel. We are happy that you are able to be with us today, and we are going today with the help of the Lord, hopefully, if we are able to conclude with the book of Jonah, Yonah HaNavi. This is the fourth chapter that we are going to deal with for this meeting today. Hopefully, you have your Bible with you, the Word of God open to the fourth chapter of the book of Yonah. Let's pray now and ask the Lord to bless our Saturday Shabbat meeting. God and our Father, we thank you so much for the fact that the salvation is provided for every people, tongues, and nation through the person of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah.

Bless your word today as we are studying it together in the book of Jonah. We pray and ask it in Yeshua's name. Amen. Amen. So, let me read together with you, dear friends and brothers and sisters, the fourth chapter of the book of Jonah. Turn with me to Jonah chapter 4. I would like to read these final 11 verses in this book, where we do read from verse 1. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. And he prayed unto the Lord and he said, "I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish, for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of a great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.

Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." Then said the Lord, "Dost thou well to be angry?" So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow till he might see what would become of the city. And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief, so Jonah was exceedingly glad for the gourd.

And God prepared a worm, when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd, that it withered. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind. And the sun beat upon the head of Jonah that he fainted and wished in himself to die, and said, "It is better for me to die than to live." And God said to Jonah, "Dost thou well to be angry for the gourd?" And he said, "I do well to be angry even unto death." Then said the Lord, "Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not labored; neither made it grow, which came up in a night, and perish in a night." And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than 120,000 persons, that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also much cattle?

And I will stop here with the reading, beloved brothers and sisters. We read the final 11 verses of the final chapter of the prophecy of Jonah. This final chapter is extremely interesting and important, because in this final chapter of the book of Jonah, we really learn what can happen to even a man, a woman of God, a servant of God, if he or she are not aligned with the mind of the Lord. You remember Isaiah said many years ago to Israel, he said, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways. Sometimes, beloved brothers and sisters and dear friends, if we do not have the heart for God, and the heart of God, and the attitude that God wants us to have, we, like Jonah, can incline to be displeased with that which the Lord allows to happen in life, even though at times we do not understand." You remember what Shaul Paul said to the Romans when he said in Romans 8 and verse 28, "For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose." God has a purpose, God has a plan, and God had His own will for the whole world which He had created for His own pleasure.

And here we have, beloved brothers and sisters, a servant that God had raised, a prophet in Israel by the name of Yonah Hanavi, Jonah the prophet, who was called by God to go to a nation, to Assyria, to the city of Nineveh, and to cry against that city. And yet Jonah, as we have already learned, disobeyed God in the beginning of the book of Jonah in chapter 1. And when he disobeyed God, God have allowed him to experience certain experiences in his journey. And if you remember how he was cast down from the ship by the sailors into the water to the Mediterranean Sea, God had prepared a fish, he swallowed Jonah, and Jonah was in the fish's belly three days and three nights.

And after he prayed and repented and confessed his sin before God, then God forgave him. He gave command to the fish to spew Jonah on a dry ground. And Jonah was spewed on a dry ground. And then God sent him a second time to the city of Nineveh in chapter 3. And God, who is so gracious, is the God of the second chance. If anybody will, if anyone will repent and turn to him, he is willing to forgive. And his servant Jonah repented, he forgave him and he reused him the second time. And he sent him now all the way to Nineveh. And this time Jonah didn't go to Tarshish or on the way to Tarshish, he obeyed the Lord.

He went to the city of Nineveh and he cried against the city of Nineveh. The city of Nineveh, if you remember, yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. turning upside down. And imagine, the Assyrians of the city of Nineveh believed God. They believed the message that Jonah presented before them. They believed God. And when they believed God, they repented before God. From the king all the way to the little one, you might say, in the city of Nineveh. They repented. And Jonah's message was accepted. And we read at the end of chapter 3, "Because God saw their works," verse 10 of Jonah chapter 3. "He turned," notice that, "because they turned away from their evil way, and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them, and he did it not." Now, if you and I would have been, let's say, in a mission field, and we would be missionaries, going on to preach the message of the gospel around the world, and the whole city would turn and say, "I accept God.

I accept the message. I accept the person of the Lord Yeshua, the Messiah." We would probably write a long letter to all the people that pray for us, and we would say, "I've just went to that city and that town, and the whole town have accepted the Lord." And one would be so happy because the whole city of Nineveh have accepted the Lord. But we find out something a little bit more about Jonah in the fourth and final chapter that he, as well as you and I, need to learn from the Lord as those that belong to him. In fact, in these 11 verses, beloved brothers and sisters, we learn, number one, in the first, in the first four verses, that Jonah was displeased and his displeasure was manifested in his behavior.

And secondly, in verses 5 to verse 9, we learn about God's object lesson that he provided for Jonah to help him to understand God's heart. Because God was not only the God of Israel, although he called Israel to be a nation, to be a light to the Gentiles, but God is also the God of the nation, the God of the Gentiles. Do you remember what the Apostle Paul said in Romans 3 and verse 29? Is he the God of the Jewish people only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, Shaul Paul said in Romans 3 and verse 29. So we learned that Jonah needed to learn this lesson from God, and God was so gracious with him to teach him these lessons.

And so now that God have repented, and by the way, I want us just to emphasize the word repented. You know, sometimes we don't quite understand the difference between God's repentance and man's repentance. When man needs to repent, when people need to repent, they need to repent of our own evil ways. And that's why in the Hebrew, when it says that man needs to repent, the Hebrew is, the word in Hebrew is a shuvu. Shuvu means turn back to God. Shuvu, return back to God. And when it comes to the Lord repenting of his evil doing that he wanted to do to man, it's not that the Lord needed to change from anything that he is doing evil.

No, the Hebrew word is completely different. It's the word nicham, lenachem. When we read of God repented, it simply means that God in his wisdom have decided for his own pleasure not to unleash the judgment that the people who sinned and repented deserve to receive. When it comes to man's need to repent, the word is shuvu, turn around, go back and return back to God. When it comes to God's repentance, is God in his mercy, he comforted himself in a sense that he will not judge, he will delay his judgment, or will not judge those who are turning back to him and confessing their sins.

God's repentance is holy. Men's repentance come because of their own sin. They need to turn back to God. And so God repented from the evil or the judgment that he had said that he would do on them, and he did it not. Jonah chapter 3 and verse 10. And now notice that in chapter 4, in verses 1, 2, 3, and 4, we find Jonah's displeasure is manifested. And so in verse 1, Jonah was very angry. Jonah, it says here in verse 1, but he displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. You know, it makes you wonder why would Jonah be angry. After all, he obeyed the Lord, he preached the message that God gave him, 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown.

The people of Nineveh repented, they confessed, they turned back to God, they believed God, and God did not judge them. Shouldn't he be happy? Well, why was he angry? And you notice that it is interesting because Jonah's anger revealed that he did not quiet head the mind of the Lord in this present time where he was there. He didn't, he was really thinking in a wrong way. He did not align his heart with the will of God. And you remember, beloved brothers and sisters, that God have already worked with Jonah in his rebellion in chapter 1 when he prepared the fish to cast him into the sea, into the Mediterranean Sea.

God is now working with Jonah's attitude because Jonah still, even though he realized that he had sinned against God, he didn't obey him, now he obeyed him, but God is still working in his heart because Jonah needed to know the mind of the Lord with respect to dealing with other nations without. Again, I remind you that Jonah was one of the only prophets that went outside of the land of Egypt, the land of Israel to give a message to the world. While most of the time in Israel history, the people from among the nations of the world will come to the land of Israel to hear from the prophets of God concerning God's ways.

But here Jonah went unusually out of the land of Israel to the city of Nineveh in Assyria. God's ways we learn from the way he dealt with the people of Nineveh is higher than our ways. Isaiah 55 verses 8 and 9 tells us, "My thoughts are higher than your thoughts, my ways are higher than your ways," saith the Lord. God has the authority and the right to do as he pleases with all people. And Jonah needed to learn this. Jonah needed to learn this. And that's why when Jonah was angry, exceedingly angry, notice it says in verse 1, he displeased Jonah. What displeased Jonah? Back to chapter 3 and verse 9, that God repenteth of his evil.

And that he's not going to judge the people of Nineveh. So Jonah was displeased with this. He chose that his thoughts and his heart was not aligned with the heart of God. The goodness and the grace of God that has been extended now to the people of Nineveh. So notice what we read in verse 2. Jonah 4 and verse 2, Jonah now expresses the reason for his anger. And notice what he said to God. In a sense, you don't know if to laugh or to cry. Because Jonah is saying to the Lord, listen to what he says to the Lord. And he prayed unto the Lord and he said, "I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying?" When I was yet in my country, that is in the land of Israel, therefore I fled before unto Tarshish.

For I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. God, I knew what kind of God you are. This is why I turned and I went to Tarshish in the beginning. Because I knew, God, that you are a gracious God, that you are a merciful God, that you are slow to anger God, that you are of great kindness, the kind of God that you are, and that you will change your mind. You will repent from the punishment that you have intended to unleash upon the people of Nineveh. Now, when you really think about these brothers and sisters, again, we are back to the question of why did Jonah disobeyed when he first went to, instead of going to Nineveh, he went to Tarshish, because Jonah also knew what would happen to Israel by the people of Assyria.

Jonah knew that God would raise the Assyrian to be his rod of judgment upon the people of Israel. In fact, he knew it because Amos have mentioned that, and I just want to reread that verse in the prophet Amos. If you turn with me to Amos chapter 3 for a moment. In Amos chapter 3, in verse 11, we read, "Therefore thus says the Lord God, an adversary there shall be." In verse 11, "Even round about the land, and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be spoiled." Thus says the Lord God, "As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or of a piece of an ear, so shall the children of Israel be taken out, that dwell in Samaria, in the corners of a bed, and in Damascus in a couch." "Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, says the Lord God, the God of hosts, that in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel, upon him I will also visit the stars of Beth El, and the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground." "And I will smite the winter house, and the summer house, and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end," saith the Lord.

"Israel turn away from the Lord, and the Lord is ready to raise up the nation, the Assyrian, to come against Israel and to judge his erring people, his sinful people." Jonah knew that. Jonah knew that. In chapter 6, in verse 14 of the prophecy of Amos, the Lord continued to say in verse 14, "But behold, I will raise up against you a nation, all house of Israel, says the Lord God of hosts, and they shall afflict you from entering into Hamat unto the river of the wilderness." And if you remember, 2nd King 14 verse 25 is exactly where Jonah came from, and he knew very well that the Assyrian will come to be a rod in the hand of the Lord against the people of Israel in order to judge the people of Israel who have gone astray.

Jonah just did not want to go to Nineveh and he knew that God was gracious and he will spare them if they will repent. Now Jonah was wrong to have this attitude of disobedience. He was wrong when he was not thankful to God that the people of Nineveh have repented. But you can see why Jonah did not want to go at first and now that they have repented and God forgave them and did not judge them. Jonah was displeased and exceedingly very angry. And he knew very well the Lord and he knew very well the attitude of God, the heart of God, even though he did not align himself with the heart of God.

Because God is merciful and gracious. I just wanted to read for you one more verse in Exodus chapter 34 that is always very precious to me because we used to sing this in a synagogue many, many years ago. It's still being sung. And as a little boy, I remember my grandfather in the synagogue in Jerusalem and all the bearded men singing this song in a synagogue about the God of Israel in Exodus chapter 34 verse 5, 6 and 7. And the Lord descended in the cloud, that is when Moses was there in the presence of the Lord, and he stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord.

And the Lord passed by before him, this is before Moshe, Moses, and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquities and transgressions and sin. And of course, he is also a God of judgment. He is also judging, he is visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children, upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. And Moses made haste, and he bowed his head towards the earth, and he worshiped. That's the kind of God we have. He is a God of grace, a God of mercy, a God that is slow to anger, a God that is of great kindness, and a God that repenteth of the judgment that we deserve if we will turn to him and confess our sins.

And in a sense, beloved brothers and sisters, in reality, all of us who have turned to the Lord, we receive forgiveness from God because of the person of our Lord, Yeshua, Jesus, the Messiah, who died, who was penalized for our sins. And when we have returned to the Lord. And when we turned to him and repented, we have been received by God and have been forgiven. That is how wonderful God is. And sometimes when we do not align ourselves with the heart of God and with the mind of God and with the ways of God, even God's people, even the servant of God, Jonah, can lose out by enjoying fellowship with the Lord.

And therefore, being angry, he told the Lord, I knew the kind of God you are. I knew this is exactly what I told you when I was in the land. This is exactly why I fled to Tarshish and didn't go to Nineveh. Because I knew the kind of God you are, that ultimately, if the people of Nineveh will repent, you will forgive them. And so now notice that. What does he do? And now the Lord is really dealing with Jonah. Jonah requests from God. Notice what he said now in verse 3. Jonah was saying, because of this, Jonah is there for now. Oh Lord, you remember, he's in prayer.

He's praying because we did read in a previous verse, verse 2, and he prayed unto the Lord. Now he continued to pray and he says to the Lord in verse 3, "Take, I beseech thee, my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." Imagine, beloved brothers and sisters, Jonah was rather to die than live, because God had forgiven the Assyrian and because God said that the Assyrian will judge the people of Israel. And they did. In 721 BC, the whole 10 tribes of Israel were erased from the promised land. And they were scattered all over the nation of the world. And only God will restore the remnant of the 10 tribes of Israel in the Messianic kingdom to bring them back to be a restored nation.

But what we know up till today, what some call the 10 lost tribes of Israel, they are not lost to God. Maybe they are lost to men, but not to God. But that's what happened. The Assyrian did cause havoc among the people of Israel in the latter days because God promised to raise the Assyrian against the northern kingdom because of their evil ways. And so Jonah said, "I'd rather die than live." Now, by the way, it was not Jonah alone that had such a statement said that he'd rather die. In Numbers chapter 11 and verses 11 to 15, Moses said that he would rather die than live because of the way in which Israel, the nation, have rebelled against God and that they rebelled against Moses.

And Moses was saying to the Lord in Numbers chapter 11 that it's too much for me to take all these children upon myself. I cannot do it, God. And that's why, if you remember, in Numbers chapter 11, he said, I am not, verse 14, I am not able to bear all these people alone because it is too heavy for me. And if thou would deal thus with me, kill me, Moses said. I pray thee out of, out of hand, if I have found favor in thy sight and let me not see my wretchedness. God, kill me, I cannot take it. Moses said it in Numbers chapter 11 and verses 11 to 15.

If you remember later on, Eliyahu, Elijah, in 1 Kings chapter 19, he himself, when he was challenged by God, he said to the Lord, he said, "Kill me." He himself, he himself wanted to die. I'll read 1 Kings chapter 19 and verse 4, where, "For he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness." This is Elijah. Elijah, he fled from Jezebel, from Isabella, and he came and he sat down under a juniper tree, and he requested for himself that he might die. And said, "It is enough now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my fathers." And, beloved brothers and sisters, even Job said this.

In Job chapter 3 and verses 1 to 4 and verses 11 and 12, he himself said, "It is better that no one will remember the day that I was born here in this world." Because of the suffering that he had experienced in his life. And you know that, you know, beloved brothers and sisters, don't we sometime in our thoughts, sometime when things are difficult in our life and problems come across our pathway and we can't take it anymore, we might say, "God, I cannot take it anymore." And some of us might even have said, "Lord, I'd rather die than go through all these trials and challenges that happened to me in my life." And indeed, God knows our hearts, our weaknesses and our failures, and graciously he's dealing with his servants.

And so, in verse 4 of Jonah chapter 4, Jonah is questioned by God. Look how wonderful. The way God is appealing to Jonah. He says to Jonah, "Then said the Lord to him." He says, "Does thou well to be angry?" In Hebrew, "Vayomer Adonai, ha-hey-tev chara-lecha." Is it the right thing for you to be angry? Is it the right thing for you to be angry with me, angry with God? If you know that I am gracious, if you know that I am the kind of a God that is merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and I did not judge the people of Nineveh, is it right for you to be angry with me?" God said to Jonah.

This reminds me of Cain. You remember Cain and Abel? The first two brothers that were born here to this world, to Adam ve'chava. Two brothers. Cain and Abel approached God. God received Abel and he did not receive the offering of Cain. Why? Abel came to God God's way. And Cain came to God on his own way. Abel offered blood atonement and God accepted Abel because Abel as a sinner needed forgiveness and the blood makes an atonement for the soul. But Cain did not come to God God's way. And then when God rejected him, he was angry. He was angry with God. And I would like to suggest that there are many today who are angry with God because God cannot accept them on the basis of their human merit, works their own way to approach to God.

God cannot accept sin. Sin has to be forgiven on the basis of the atoning blood. God has set it in order throughout history where the blood of an animal, of an innocent, without a blemish animal, that the blood atoned for the soul temporarily until the Mashiach came in the fullness of the time. And when the Lord Jesus, the Messiah came, sin had been forgiven and removed. We cannot come to God in our own merit, in our own way, because we have a sin nature. Even all our righteousnesses are a filthy rag before God, because God is holy. And so God is graciously speaking to Jonah, and he said to him, "Jonah, are you doing well?

Are you doing well?" And you know, beloved brothers and sisters, oftentimes God asks a question in order to bring out in the heart of his servant the things that are not right in their hearts. You remember when Adam and Eve sinned against God, Genesis 3 verses 9 to 13, God asked Adam and Eve, "Adam, where are you?" He asked the question, "Where are you?" And then he asked him, "Have you eaten of the tree that I told you not to eat from?" He asked him a question, "Why?" He asked him a question, "Why?" Because he wanted his people to realize that they were wrong, that they needed to turn to him to admit that they were wrong.

He challenged and he asked Adam and Eve, also Cain. He asked him in Genesis 4, "Cain, why art thou angry, Cain?" "If you would do well this sin offering at the door, take it and offer it, then you will be accepted." "Is it right for you, Cain, to be angry?" Well, Cain's anger brought about the murder of his brother. And therefore, beloved brothers and sisters, God is often asking question and order. He asked his people question in order that they may see their own hearts that they were wrong. Again, we mentioned Elijah in 1st King 19. He asked Elijah, "Elijah, what are you doing here? Why are you here?

I didn't send you there." So Elijah will come out and he will say, "You know, here I am. I was wrong." And even, beloved brothers and sisters, when Judas, you remember when Judas betrayed the Messiah, Yeshua? You remember what Yeshua said to him in Luke chapter 22 and verse 48? Yeshua, Jesus the Messiah, said to "Judas Ishkroyot", Yehuda Ishkroyot. He's saying to him, "Judas betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?" He asked him. He asked him. Of course, he knew that he betrayed him. But he asked a question that the heart will be revealed. And you know, he asked us many times questions in our life.

"Is these are the right words to say the way you have spoken? Is this is the right attitude to behave towards your friends? Is this the right attitude to think of someone else? Is that the right way, Jonah? Are you right to be angry?" And so now, after we see the displeasure of Jonah being manifested by his behavior, then God teaches Jonah a lesson in order to bring out the heart of God and to change the attitude of Jonah ultimately and to restore Jonah into fellowship with the Lord. And this is so wonderful, brothers and sisters. God always wants the people of God to be restored to him.

He's always working out in our life, in the life of his people, a way whereby if they turn away from him and have gone astray, if their mind is not in the right attitude, if their heart's in the wrong place, he's always working about in their life to bring about a restoration. That's why Romans 8:28, for we know that all things, not only all good things, but all things work together for the good. To them that love God and to them that are called according to his purpose. That's why in our lives sometimes the Lord allows us to go through trials and problems in our life in order to teach us lessons to draw us back to himself, even though we don't like them sometimes.

And so in verses 5 to 9, God's object lessons for Jonah. And notice Jonah resisted at first. Notice what we read in verse 5. When God said to him in verse 4, the Lord said, "Does thou well to be angry?" And Jonah responded. So Jonah went out of the city, he sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and he sat under it in the shadow until he might see what would become of the city." So Jonah didn't quite yet respond in the right way to the Lord. What does he do? Instead of accepting what God is charging him with, what the Lord is saying to him, what does he do?

He's going out of the city of Nineveh, and he's going to the east side of the city, according to verse 5. And then he made himself a sukkah, in Hebrew we call it a sukkah, a booth. And then he sat under the sukkah, and then in the shadow until he might see what would become of the city. He probably was sitting there, outside, and waiting to see, "Well, these people of Nineveh in no time, they will go back to their old ways, and therefore God will end up to judge them, and therefore they will not remain as a city, as a nation, and they will not come against our people in a future day and destroy the nation of Israel as the rod of God." So he's waiting there on the east side, watching what's going on to see what will happen.

Instead of accepting what God has already told him, "Is it right for you to be angry, Jonah?" Instead of saying, "I confess, I repent, the Lord, I know that your will is the only will, you are always right, and submitting to the Lord's authority." But he did not at this time. And so he went out of the city, he sat on the east side of the city, he made himself a booth. The word booth comes from, you remember that we have the Feast of Booth, the Feast of Tabernacles. The Hebrew word is Sukkot. It is a little tabernacle that he made, a sukkah for himself.

And there was some measure of shei that he received there during the day. And then he was waiting to see what will become out of the city of the people of Nineveh. Jonah's attitude was wrong. And the Lord was teaching him this amazing picture lesson in three stages in the next verses. Stage number one is verse six. Stage number two is verse seven. Stage number three is verse eight. And what we read in verse six, the Lord notice again how wonderful the whole book of Jonah always, we can see that God is sovereign and God's providence over everything that is going on in this world.

The Lord had prepared a gourd and he made it to come up over Jonah that it might be a shadow over his head to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. The word for gourd in the Hebrew is kikayon. Kikayon is really a lissy plant. And it is a castor oil plant. Lots of leaves. Kikayon. It's many leaves. And it is providing shade for Jonah. And the Lord graciously, out of his own kindness, notice the word prepared. The word prepared, in the Hebrew it is vayaman. Vayaman simply means he planted there. Imagine, supernaturally the Lord planted just like he did earlier when he sent the east wind, when he sent the storm to the sea, when he calmed the sea, when he sent the fish.

The Lord is in control over everything that is going on in the life of Jonah and in your life and mine as well. And so what does he do? He's preparing a gourd, a kikayon, a leafy plant, a castor oil plant. And the plant in no time grows up to cover, to give shade for Jonah and to deliver him from his grief. You know, God provided for Jonah this comfort of shade so Jonah will not be too upset. And notice Jonah was very happy for the gourd. Now he was displeased, according to verse 1, because God forgave the people of Nineveh. He was displeased with that.

But he was very glad, exceedingly glad, when he had the shade that will cover him from the heat of the day. Now see this, beloved brothers and sisters? He was exceedingly displeased with God's forgiveness for the people of Nineveh. But he was exceedingly happy when he received some shade for himself. Now don't tell me that we don't have this selfish nature, all of us. This nature of us is very selfish. So notice that. So God is teaching him a lesson in verse 6. First of all, he provided that kikayon. And Jonah was very happy. You would think that he would learn a lesson? Now, well, notice that.

Notice that. Now, God continues. Stage number 2 in verse 7. Now, the very same God who prepared the kikayon, the gourd, that leafy plant for Jonah's benefit. In verse 7 we read, and God prepared, notice the very same word in Hebrew, yaman. Yaman simply means he put there, he placed there, he caused it to happen. And God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day and it smote the gourd that it withered. Now, that again, that worm, in Hebrew, tolat, God prepared a tolat, a special worm. And that tolat, that worm, now began to cause, smote the gourd, the kikayon, the leafy plant, that all of a sudden the leafy plant died.

The leaves could no longer, would no longer provide shade for Jonah's comfort. Now, notice what we read here, that when God have allowed this to happen, it prepared the worm. When the morning arose the next day, it smote the gourd and it withered. And now Jonah doesn't have any shade anymore. So, now the third lesson, the third picture lesson that we have here. In the next verse, verse 8, once again, you notice that the Lord is preparing. It is the sovereign will of God. It is the providence of God. It is the control of God. It is the making of God because He is God. He can do all things according to His own pleasure.

For we know that all things work together for good, to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. There is a purpose why he allowed this to happen in Jonah's life. He wanted Jonah to learn the heart of God. And not only to learn about God, but to accept God's will in his life. And so in the next verse, very interesting again, we read in verse 8, now the Lord preparing another thing here. He is placing, He is a Yaman, it says here, and it came to pass, verse 8, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wing. Wind.

Wind, in the Hebrew it is called Sharav or Chamsin. Sharav, in Hebrew, Chamsin, it is a special heat that is in the Middle East that rises up. It is an extremely hot temperature and hot wind that comes into the Middle East. And so now God is preparing that vehement east wind, and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah that he fainted. And he wished, once again, he wished in himself to die. And he said, "It is better for me to die than to live." I don't know, I don't know if you see yourself there. We can see ourselves when things, we don't get our own way and our own will, and things do not come in our own plan and desires.

He says, "I'm fed up with it, I cannot take it anymore." It is better for me to die than to live. Moses said it, Eliyahu said it, Job said it, and here is Jonah saying this, and maybe you and I have said it in our own life as well. And so now notice, in verse 8, that the Lord is orchestrating everything. I mean, I think it is so important to notice this, beloved brothers and sisters. Everything is in the hands of God. Do you know that whenever the Lord allows us in our lives, even though we sometimes don't understand it, the Lord has allowed this to happen in our lives.

And we are called to learn from this, and to submit to the Lord, and to, in a sense, bow to His authority and His ways. "My ways are not your ways," God said to Israel. "My thoughts are not your thoughts." "My thoughts are higher than your thoughts, and my ways are higher than your ways." And so, now that Jonah was once again saying, I'm ready, it's better for me to die than to live. Then, in verse 9, God asked him another question. You remember earlier, in our chapter, in verse 4, the Lord asked him a question. "Then said the Lord, "Dost thou will to be angry?" In other words, are you going to be angry?

You are right to be angry when I forgave the people of Nineveh and I didn't judge them? Are you right to be angry, Jonah, about them? Now God is speaking to Jonah, and He wanted Jonah to understand what happened here about his own personal life. He was happy when he had shade, but he was angry when the shade was removed from him, so he was ready to die. And he was so angry, and so the Lord asked him now in verse 9, as we are drawing towards the end of the book of Jonah in verse 9, "God said unto Jonah," again, notice, "Dost thou will to be angry?" Now this time, He asked him, "Dost thou will to be angry for the gourd?" You see, before He asked him, "Are you angry?" in relationship to him forgiving the people of Nineveh who repented.

Now He's not speaking to him about them, He's speaking to him about Jonah's personal life. Jonah, are you right to be angry for the gourd? And you can see Jonah was not in a suitable condition. He said, "I do well to be angry even unto death." He was upset that he did not have his own way, and that the comfort that he had enjoyed, while he was waiting to see if the people of Nineveh will change their ways and God will judge them. He was comforted to sit there by the side, by the east side of the city. The shade is provided for him without him to do any labor.

With this, he was happy, but when it was removed, he was angry. And so notice this, and I think this is just as we head to the conclusion of this whole wonderful book of Jonah. Jonah, "Does thou well to be angry about the plant?" Jonah in verse 9. And Jonah answered, he said, "I do well to be angry even unto death." And now, beloved brothers and sisters, the conclusion in Jonah 4:10-11, an overall lesson that God was teaching Jonah, and he's teaching you and I as well as we walk here in this world with all our failure and all our shortcomings. This is an amazing lesson.

In verse 10, God pointed Jonah to his own personal concern for himself. And he said to him in verse 10, the Lord said unto him, "Thou hast had pity on the gourd." The word is kikayon in Hebrew. You had a pity on the kikayon on that leafy plant for the which thou has not labored, neither made it to grow, which came up in the night and perished in the night. In other words, Jonah, you were so concerned with the loss of the shade that you received from the kikayon, from the leafy plant. And it came along in the night, and it is withered in the night, and you are angry because of this.

You lost the comfort for yourself. God is saying to Jonah, "You want to make sure that you are comfortable, you take care of yourself." And then notice how he concludes, and the whole book of Jonah is concluded with a question. The Lord says, notice in verse 11, he challenged Jonah's heart. And he said in verse 11, "And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons, another one hundred and twenty persons." The Hebrew word is Adam. Hundred and twenty Adam. Mea ve eserim elef Adam. Hundred and twenty thousand persons. "That cannot discern between the right hand and the left hand, and also much cattle." Jonah, "You were concerned about the comfort of yourself, where the gourd that rose by itself and withered by itself in the night, and you lost the comfort for yourself.

And should not I have concern for a whole city of a hundred and twenty persons who live there, who do not know, as it says here, who wherein are more than hundred and twenty thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand?" And also much cattle? Now, that expression, "Hundred and twenty thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand," some suggested that this is only children. Hundred and twenty thousand. And there were much more than just that beside them. Others suggest that the hundred and twenty thousand are individuals that they were sinners by nature, and they cannot discern between right and left, and they needed a God to draw them to Himself and to lead them into repentance.

So, whether it is 120,000, the whole city of Nineveh, or 120,000 children plus their parents and adults there, maybe half a million people, the issue is that the Lord is teaching Jonah that He is the God of the Gentiles also. So, according to Romans 3 verses 29 and 30 and that He should be submitting to the will of God for all, for all people. And although, yes, the Assyrians later on Nineveh went back, you read the prophet Nachum of the wickedness of Nineveh, and now eventually the people of Nineveh and the people of Assyria came and took the Hebrews, the ten tribes of Israel, into captivity in 721 BC. Yet, yet God's way is the only way that will prevail, and He always knows best, even though sometimes we don't understand.

You remember what Peter said in 1 Peter 4 and verse 17, "The judgment must begin at the house of God"? That if we expect God to judge the world, should not we realize that we need to judge ourselves first? In other words, it's so easy to apply the judgment of God upon everyone else but not on ourselves. And that is the lesson that the Lord sought to teach Jonah. God wants us to know His heart. According to Deuteronomy 8, God said that you may know your heart. That's why God has allowed Israel to walk for 38 years, 39 years in the wilderness that they may know their heart. But also, God wanted Israel, God wants you and I to know Him, to know the heart of God.

He is indeed a gracious God, a merciful God, a God that is slow to anger, a God that is of great kindness and that He would not judge when there is repentance. He will forgive sins. So, God wants us also to get our priorities right in our lives. You know, we sometimes don't have our priorities right in our lives. Jonah needed to learn his priorities even though he didn't want the judgment would come upon his own people by the Assyrians. But if God sent him to give a message, he just needs to submit it and to give the priority in his life to give to God.

God knows best. And then finally, beloved brothers and sisters, God wants us to submit to His sovereignty. He is a sovereign God. And the lesson from the prophecy of Jonah is to learn to submit to His authority. And finally, God wants us to recognize that His ways are higher than our ways. As you have said, and I'm going to conclude with that, Isaiah 55 and verses 8 and 9. For my thoughts are higher than your thoughts. Neither your ways are my ways, says the Lord. And let me repeat it. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. Verse 9 now. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

What an amazing lesson to learn from the book of Jonah. Jonah eventually. Do you know, by the way, brothers and sisters, that in the history of Israel, there is, while the whole book is ending with a question. Should not I spare Nineveh, that great city wherein there are more than 120,000 men that cannot discern between the right hand and the left hand, and also much cattle? In Jewish history, the teaching is that Jonah learned the lesson. And the lesson that he learned is exhibited here in Daniel chapter 9 and verse 9, where Daniel said, and ultimately Jonah said, "To the Lord our God belongeth mercies and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against him." God is the one, he is sovereign.

He is the one that is a supreme. To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness, even though we have rebelled against him. He is sovereign. He does as he pleads. God's people are called to submit to his authority, and Jonah, while we don't read it here, but we trust and believe that ultimately, he recognized God's will, submitted to it, and continued, although we don't have this record, to serve God among the people of Israel as the prophet of the Lord. And so, I think we can conclude here, beloved brothers and sisters, with these verses, and just to remind you of the word of the Lord in Matthew chapter 24, where the Lord Jesus the Messiah said, you remember the word of the Lord there before he went ultimately to the cross?

He said, if you remember concerning Jonah, that there is one that is greater than Jonah is here. And that is exactly what the Lord said in his life when he was here on earth in the Gospel of Matthew, in Matthew chapter 24. There is a greater than Jonah in the midst of the nation of Israel, and that one was none else but our Lord Jesus the Messiah himself. And so, I will conclude with this, and actually, it just came to my mind because I mentioned that it is in Matthew chapter 24, but it is Matthew chapter 12. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the fish's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

And the Lord Jesus said that the men of Nineveh shall arise in a judgment day with this generation, and shall condemn it because they have repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, notice that verse 41 of Matthew chapter 12, greater than Jonah is here. And praise God that we have accepted the one who is greater than Jonah, and his name is Yeshua, Jesus our Messiah. Well, beloved friends, we have finished the prophecy of Jonah, and in the will of the Lord, we will continue next time with another book from the Word of God. So, our God and our Father, we want to thank you for your help with the study of the prophecy of Jonah.

We want to learn from this book, and to apply this to our life, and to align our hearts and our mind with yours. Abba Father, we pray, for we ask it in Yeshua's name. Amen. Amen. God bless you, my dear friend. Until the next time, we say Shabbat Shalom. Shalom Shalom. Bye-bye. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you.