Shabbat Shalom everyone. Let us turn in our Bibles to the book of Yonah, the book of Jonah, please, today. I'm going to read today Jonah chapter 4. This is the final chapter in the book of Jonah. It's a very interesting chapter because we can see in this last chapter the heart of God, not only towards his servant Yonah, not only towards the nation of Israel, but here we see as well the heart of God towards the nations of the world. So I'm reading Jonah chapter 4, beginning from verse 1. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. And he prayed unto the Lord, and 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 know 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 will to be angry? So Yonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, a sukkah, and sat under it in the shadow, until he might see what would become of the city. And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Yonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief.

So Yonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. But 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 Yonah, 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 Yonah, Dost thou well to be angry with 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 madest it grow, which came up in a night, and perished in a night.

And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons, that cannot discern between their right hand, and their left hand, and so much cattle? And the reading of the whole book, ended with a question. If you notice that, as we have ended with verse 11, the whole book of Yonah, Hanavi, Jonah the prophet, have ended with a question mark. God is saying to Yonah, listen, should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein there are more than 120,000 persons, that cannot discern between their right hand, and their left hand, and so much cattle? That's how the book of Jonah is ending, with the question that God has asked his servant, the prophet Yonah Hanavi.

Well, if you remember, dear beloved brothers and sisters, we just concluded in our previous ministry meeting, to deal with the third chapter of the book of Jonah, where we saw Jonah entering into the city of Nineveh, one day journey towards the central part of the city, and as he was going to the city, he was this time in his second call by the Lord, he was doing the bidding of the Lord, and he was preaching there in that city, and he was saying to Nineveh, yet 40 days and Nineveh be overthrown. He said to Nineveh in Hebrew, Od 40 yom ve Nineveh nehepechet. Within 40 days, Nineveh are going to be judged.

Nineveh, judgment is coming. And that city, which was a terrible city, the city of the Assyrian Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria, when they heard the message of Jonah, which was a message of judgment, a message of condemnation, a message that there is judgment coming upon that city of Nineveh, the whole city have repented. I mean, it was amazing to see, because we find out that the people of Nineveh proclaimed Ephes. They believed the word of God. They put on sackcloth from the greatest of them, even to the least of them. And even the king, beloved brothers and sisters, have arose from his throne, and he laid his robe aside, and he sat with sackcloth and ashes.

What an amazing thing. Can you believe that? A preaching that the judgment is coming, and a whole city repenting before God? It was an amazing sight to see. In fact, if you remember, when Shimon Petros, one of the earlier Hebrew believers of the church age, when he was presenting the message of the gospel to our own people in the city of Jerusalem, he preached one message, and three thousand Jewish souls came to believe that Yeshua was the Mashiach, the Messiah. But even that was small in comparison to the great revival, if you will, in the city that is called Nineveh. And those people were known to be very, very cruel.

People that were going now in a future day to destroy the nation of Israel, to take our own people captive into Assyria. It was those people to whom God sent his messenger Jonah. It was those people that have turned to God, as we read in verse 10 of Jonah chapter 3, that when God saw their works and that they turned away from their evil way, that God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them, and he did it not. That's such a precious thing to see the heart of God, the grace of God. When there is repentance, when there is a change of mind, when there is a change of direction, God is always willing to receive mankind to himself.

This is the way the God of Israel is. This is the way the God of the Bible is. And before we're going to move to chapter 4, I must make this in connection with the words of Yeshua the Messiah to our leaders, the rabbinical leaders of the first century, and look what he said to them in Matthew chapter 12. When he came in his first coming, and he presented himself as Israel's Mashiach, what do you think the leaders of our own people did? They did not recognize him as the Messiah. They did not acknowledge him and repented before God. They did not accept him. So Yeshua said to them in Matthew chapter 12 and verse 41, look what he said to them.

The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Yonah. And behold, a greater than Yonah is here. Yeshua the Messiah said 2,000 years ago when he was presenting himself as the Messiah of Israel, as the Redeemer of the nation of Israel, when he presented himself before the leaders of our own nation, the leaders did not accept him. Many of the rest of our nation did later on accept him, but the leadership refused to accept the Messiahship of Yeshua. And you notice how he validated the truth of the book of Yonah and the truth of the prophet Yonah by saying this statement.

The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn this generation because the men of Nineveh, they have repented at the preaching of Jonah. They repented. But here you have greater than Jonah, meaning himself, and he was rejected and his preaching was rejected. And brothers and sisters, that tells us that the truth concerning the person of Yonah the prophet, the truth concerning the message that he gave to the city of Nineveh had been validated by the person of Yeshua the Messiah who gave the testimony to the leaders of Israel at his first coming. And so, we are moving now into chapter 4, and in chapter 4, verses 1 to 11, we see now how God is dealing with his servant Yonah.

The problem here with Yonah is not so much his rebellion, which have occurred already in chapter 1, but here we find out God dealing with the attitude of his servant Yonah. The whole city of Nineveh have repented, and God has changed his mind, and he did not judge the city of Nineveh. And so, instead of Jonah singing praises to God and saying, Lord, I am amazed how you have used me as a vessel to lead so many people to thyself, look how the chapter began in chapter 4, in verse 1. Yonah was very angry. Look, it says here, but it displeased Yonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.

I mean, it is amazing. How could he be angry? How could he be upset? Look, the Hebrew word, Vayara' leyonah. It made evil for him. He felt very bad, because God did not judge the people of Nineveh. So, it says here that it displeased him exceedingly very much. He was very angry. You know, sometimes, when we don't understand the plan and the purposes of God, we end up to be angry with God. When things do not go our way, we seem to be angry with God. You remember, it happened a long time ago for a man by the name of Cain. Cain was angry with God because God had accepted the offering of his brother Abel, and he did not accept his offering, and Cain was angry with God.

In fact, we read that he went out of the presence of the Lord. We never read of Cain returning back. And God said to Cain, Why are you angry? You can bring the offering that I have instructed in the Scripture, and I will receive you. But he was angry with God. And when he was angry with God, he went and he murdered his brother. That's what happened to us when we are outside of the will of God. We are angry with God, as if God made a mistake. You know, Isaiah said to our people many years ago in chapter 55 and verses 8 and 9, he says, My thoughts are not your thoughts.

My ways are not your ways. For as the heavens is higher than the earth, so are my thoughts higher than your thoughts, and my ways are higher than your ways. Brothers and sisters, when things do not go the way we like them in our life, are we going to blame God for that? Are we going to be angry with God? Don't you realize that just before this experience that Jonah is being angry with God, Jonah was three days and three nights in a fish's belly. And he himself cried to God for mercy in chapter 2, if you remember. He says, I cried unto the Lord by the reason of my affliction.

And you have heard me, Lord. And now, because the people of Nineveh have repented, Jonah is angry. He's upset because God did not judge the people of Nineveh. That shows us, brothers and sisters, not only a matter of rebellion, that was chapter 1, but here is an attitude of heart. You see, we learn here that unless we are broken before the Lord and we recognize that the Lord is always right, the Lord is just, the Lord is true, the Lord is always doing the right thing, we are many times, if not most of the time, are doing the wrong thing. And God has been so gracious with us and He preserves us and here we find out how God have repented from the judgment that He was going to pour upon the people of Nineveh and Jonah, instead of praising God and saying, God, I'm so thankful for what you have done, He was angry with him and He was wrath.

And you know, in a sense, it's just like what Cain have been when he was angry with the Lord because the Lord because the Lord did not accept him because he sought to come to God on a basis of his own merit rather than the basis of the shed blood of the innocent animal that God have instructed the parents of Cain, Adam and Eve. So Jonah was angry with God. And so we read in verse 2 that Jonah expresses the reason of his anger to the Lord. Here we see in verse 2, he prayed unto the Lord and he said to him and now we learn certain things that we didn't learn earlier.

He said to the Lord, 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 know that thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness and repentest thee of the evil. See, we learned something that we didn't learn earlier. You remember in chapter 1 when God said to Jonah in verse 2, he said to him, Jonah, you go to Nineveh that great city and cry against it for the wickedness is come before me. Then immediately we find that Jonah rose up and he fled to Tarshish. But what we learn something here in verse 2 of chapter 4, something that happened between verse 2 and 3 of chapter 1.

That's where Jonah has not revealed to us certain things that cause him to flee from the presence of the Lord. Look what we learn again. He said to the Lord, did not, notice that, he prayed, he said to the Lord, oh Lord, was not this my saying? Apparently he said to God something earlier when he first called him to go to Nineveh. What was the saying to God? He said, listen God, did not I tell you? Oh yeah, you're going to send me now to Nineveh and you said to them cry against him, but I know you God. I know God that you are gracious.

I know that you are merciful. I know that you are slow to anger and you are great kindness and you are going to repent of the evil that you intended to pour upon the people of Nineveh. In other words, Jonah knew the heart of God. He knew that God is gracious. He knew that God is long-suffering and that if someone is repenting, God is always ready to restore that individual. You know, these statements here are very precious to me because I very much remember in my youth, in my early days in life, when I was even three, four, five, six, seven, when I was a young boy in Jerusalem, in Jerusalem, when my grandfather used to take me to the synagogue.

And I remember if there is any song that I remember clear as I was a little boy looking up at these bearded men singing that song that Jonah was just mentioning here in verse two. That song is a repetition from the history of our forefathers. If you just please go back to Exodus chapter 34 let me show you that song that had been sung by our people throughout the years. Exodus chapter 34 and verses 5, 6, and 7 that already years ago when Moshe, when Moses was in a mountain in the presence of the Lord, the Lord right there have revealed the goodness and the graciousness of God. chapter 34 and verse 5, 6, and 7 of the book of Exodus.

The Lord descended in the cloud and he stood with him there. Moses is the one that he stood with and he proclaimed the name of Jehovah, the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before Moses, before him, and he proclaimed, listen to the proclamation. The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering and abundance in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. Notice that forgiving, listen, iniquity and transgression and sin. This is the song that had been sung for years among our people Israel. In Hebrew we say, Adonai, Adonai, El, Rachum, Vechanun, Erech hapayim, V'rav chesed, V'emet. Nucer chesed la'alafim, Nucer avon, v'pesha, v'chata'ah.

Oh Lord, he was saying, you are merciful, you are gracious, you are long-suffering, you are abundant in goodness and in truth and you are keeping mercy for thousands and you are forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. And those three words, forgiving iniquity, forgiving transgression, forgiving sin, these are the three Hebrew words that has to do with sin.

Chet, avon, v'pesha, those are the three areas in which beloved brothers and sisters, we are all participated, we all came short, chet, we came short of the glory of God, this is sin, we all have transgressed the law, this is peshah, this is transgression, and we all, as it says in iniquity, we all have a crooked heart and a crooked nature that is going not right and God had to deal with our sin and our sins and that's why the Messiah had to come, that's why Yeshua had to come to this world in order to deal with our sin and sins and here Jonah is saying to God, listen, God, I know that you are

going to forgive their sin because you are a gracious God, you are a merciful God, you are slow to anger, you are a kind God and you are going to repent and you are not going to judge them and you know brothers and sisters think about the mistake that Jonah did here is that he knew God and God's manner and God's ways but he did not allow this to be applied to the people of Nineveh, he applied it to himself, he applied this to the nation of Israel, he applied it to the northern kingdom, but when it come to showing grace and mercy towards the people of Nineveh, Jonah was not happy with it and

he knew that God will forgive their sins if they will only repent.

Now if you look at yourself, look at us brothers and sisters, if God is going to have to judge us for the sin and sins that we have committed, if God is going to have to tell us depart from me ye workers of iniquity, because we by nature deserve the judgment of God, but he was so merciful towards us when he has sent Yeshua, our Mashiach, the Messiah, to forgive our sins and to pay for what we could not pay. I do not want to go to all the verses in Scripture, but if you read Nehemiah, the servant of the Lord in chapter 9, repeated the very same thing, the Lord is gracious and merciful and slow of anger.

You read the psalmists of Israel, the singers of Israel, Psalm 103 verse 8, Psalm 116 verse 5, Psalm 117 and verse 2, you will find again and again and again how the nation of Israel were singing of the graciousness and the mercy of the Lord towards our nation Israel. So, Jonah was angry with God. He told him the reason. He says, before I even came to here, I knew what kind of God you are. You are a gracious God, you are a merciful God, and you are slow to anger. And I knew that you were going to forgive them. You are going to repent of doing that judgment that you were supposed to do, and you did not do that.

Now, some people say, and I think it's wrong, that Jonah simply hate the Gentiles. I don't believe so, that Jonah was hating the Gentiles because he knew the heart of God. But here, brothers and sisters, we have to learn something that Jonah knew, that you and I do not see it immediately right here, but Jonah knew here in chapter 4 and verse 2, he knew that there is coming judgment upon his own nation, the people of Israel. And he knew it from a previous contemporary prophet that Israel is going to be judged through the nation of the Assyrian. and he knew that if God is not going to judge the Assyrian, later on, the people of Nineveh, the Assyrian are going to come and take the Jewish people, the nation of Israel, captive.

And they are going to punish the nation of Israel. God has already declared it through the prophet. And that's why in the prophet of Amos, I'm just going to read that verse, in chapter 6 and verse 14, God says, Behold, I will raise up against you, namely Israel, a nation, or house of Israel, says the Lord God of hosts, and they shall afflict you from the entering into Hamath unto the rivers of the wilderness. In other words, Amos received that information from God that God will raise a nation, and that nation will discipline his own people, the people of Israel, because Israel rebelled against the Lord as well.

So Jonah knew that, and by knowing it, he did not want to spare the people of Nineveh because Nineveh later on in the future, they will come and they will be the one who will afflict his own people. And he didn't want it. He didn't want this to happen. And that's why Jonah did not go to the Nineveh and he was angry that God have repented. Now, again, there are many, many ways to look at it. I personally do not think that Jonah hated the Gentiles. If he knew the heart of God, God was not only that he elected Israel as a nation, but God had in mind that through the nation of Israel, Israel will be light to the Gentile world, and many of the nations will ultimately come to faith in the God of Israel in the future day.

Well, we are going to move on right now in verse 3, Jonah's request from God. Look at this. Jonah, in this verse, and I'm going to read now in verse 3, Jonah now said to the Lord, look what he's saying. He said, Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech thee, my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live. See, Jonah right now, he's been in such a despair, and he's such a weariness of life that he's saying to God, listen, God, take my life away. I do not want to live here anymore because, look, I'm weary, I'm in despair, look at what's going on, look what's going to happen to the nation of Israel, even though he doesn't mention it here, I'm in despair, and therefore he says, I better take away my life from me, it is better to die than to live.

By the way, he was not the first one who asked that his life will be taken away from him. There were quite a few servants of the Lord that have asked that they are so weary from trials and problems in their life, they are so much in despair that their life will be taken away. You remember Moses said it to the Lord, he says, take away my life from me. If you are not going to lead us and so on, take away my life from me. Elijah or Eliyahu Anavi after he was fleeing from that Jezebel, he fled away and then he said to God, take away my life from me.

He himself was in such a distress that he wanted that his life will be taken away from him. And you know, even Job, when Job was in so much distress, Job himself said this in the earlier chapter of his book, in chapter 3, Job said, let the day perish when I was born, he said, and the night in which it was said there is a man child conceived. He says in verse 4, let that day be darkness, let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon this day. Job was also in distress and in despair, and he wanted his life to be taken away from him.

And don't you and I, brothers and sisters, sometimes when things are not going our way, and we have problems mounting upon us, we say, oh, I'm sick and tired of life, who needs it? And it's like that you cannot take it anymore. And we began to ask God, take away my life, I'm just fed up from all the problems that I have. So he began to request from the Lord because of the weariness of his journey, because of the stress that come upon his life, he ended up requesting from the Lord to take away his life. Moses did it in Exodus, Elijah did it in 1st King 19, Job did it in Job 3 and on, and many others throughout history requested that the Lord will take away their life.

Well, look at this, God now is so gracious in his dealing with Jonah, and so in verse 4, look at the patience and graciousness of God. God now questioning Jonah, and he said to him, Jonah, does that well to be angry? Are you right to be angry with me? And so, you know, it will be the reverse. Man will be the one who is in charge there. Man will take Jonah and just finish with him. Who needs you? Who do you think you are being angry with God? But God told Jonah, are you doing well when you are angry or not? Look at how gracious God.

He's so patient with us. When we deserve to be disciplined by him, when we deserve to be judged by him, he's long suffering to usward. He's patient with us. He's so gracious with us. He's dealing with us in hands that are very tender, and yet a time he needs to give a strong discipline, but here with his servant and his attitude, God is saying to him, Jonah, do you do well to be angry? Is there any reason for you to be angry? And so when God asks such a question, usually he wants to bring out something that we have that's troubling us in our hearts.

Oftentimes time in scripture, God asks people questions. You remember when he asked Adam and Eve, where are you, Adam? You think he didn't know where Adam and Eve were? He knew they were hiding behind the trees. He knew that they disobeyed him, and he asked him, Adam, where are you? He want Adam to come out and bring him an answer. With Cain, he said the same thing. Cain, why are you angry? He wanted Cain to bring out of his heart the issues, the problem, that he had with Elijah. You remember asking Elijah, what are you doing here? I didn't send you here. And Elijah had to come out and to tell God his problem.

And you remember even Judas, Yeshua told to Judas, do you betray the son of man with a kiss, Judah? You remember when he betrayed him with a kiss? He asked him because he wanted him to bring out of his heart what is ailing him. And you remember what Judah did? Judah, because the Lord asked him this question, do you betray the son of man with a kiss? Remember what Judah did? He went and he hung himself because he knew that he had sold an innocent man. And that's the way God is. And we brothers and sisters again to you and I when you had problems in your life and you are angry with God, first of all realize that he is right and you are wrong.

That he is just and you are unjust. That his thoughts are above your thoughts, are higher than your thoughts. But secondly, tell him what ails you, what is your problem. So when we can share with God our problem, we take it out in prayer, we can tell him, Lord, it's troubling me, I don't understand why these things are happening to me in my life. And then he will begin to help us, to assist us, to minister to us, to share this with us. It's the same thing with the husband and wife in our relationship. When we have things that are burdening us and I can tell it to my wife, and my wife can tell it to me, and we can discuss this and talk it over, it helps us to settle things.

With our children, with our friends, even with brothers and sisters, when we have friction with each other. And how beautiful it is when we can come and say, brother so-and-so, what is the problem? How can we deal with the issue? What is going on? Why is it that it's like so? And we can talk it over and we can say, oh boy, you know, really we shouldn't have gone in that direction. We should have been already settling things and we wouldn't have all this friction all these years. Well, here God is talking to Yonah and he's telling him, is it right for you to be angry, Yonah?

Is it right? Do you do the right thing by being angry? Well, Jonah, of course, was not yet ready to be restored in his attitude. So, in verse 5, look at the reaction of Jonah. Instead of coming to the Lord and he says, no, I'm sorry, Lord, I was angry and I shouldn't and you are right and I'm wrong. You know what Jonah does? He leaves the presence of the Lord and he says here in verse 5, Jonah went out of the city and he sat on the east side of the city of Nineveh and there he made a sukkah in Hebrew sukkah, the feast of booth, similar to the feast of booth, sukkot, sukkah, or a booth and he sat under it in the shadow until he might see what would become of the city.

Well, Jonah was not ready to be restored yet. He was hoping, leaving the question of the Lord, going up, sitting in the east side, perhaps on a little hill somewhere there, watching the city of Nineveh and kind of waiting to see whether they're going to fall back into sin and God will judge them. Look at this. What a shame in the attitude, the wrong attitude of Jonah. You know, sometimes this reminds me of sometimes when we have problems, problems with people or with each other, we are sometimes sitting at the side waiting for someone to fall. So we can say, I told you so, you see, oh, I'm so happy that that happened to you.

That's not the ways of God. God is not waiting for us to fall. God is not waiting for Nineveh to go astray. God is not waiting for anyone to go. God wants to forgive after repentance so that person or that city or that family will be restored and walk with the Lord. But Jonah, apparently, he was waiting here in this hill there outside of the city of Nineveh waiting to see what will become of that city. What is going to happen? Will they remain repentant and continue in the right way or will they fall back into sin and God is going to judge the city?

And that is a wrong attitude in the life of Jonah. That is something that should not be in our hearts. When we see one repenting and turning back to the Lord like we read in Luke 15, there is a joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repents. That's what Yeshua the Messiah said. So now God in verse 6 to the end, he now shows us in two ways how he teach Jonah a lesson. He's teaching Jonah a lesson here to show the necessity to have the heart of God in the life of Jonah and for you and I to have the heart of God in our own life.

The first lesson is found in verses 6, 7 and 8. This is a very interesting lesson because he says now in verse 6, the Lord God prepared a gourd. That word for gourd is the Hebrew word kikayon. The word kikayon actually is a special plant. It grows kind of rather fast. it is a tall plant and it is really like a castor oil plant some suggest. It is a plant that in Hebrew we call it kikayon. In English we call it gourd. And so God made a gourd made up 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 for the gourd. You see God in a supernatural way you can see the hand of God here he prepared in Hebrew yaman vayaman Elohim kikayon. The Lord God made a kikayon he made especially a plant to grow in a moment for the benefit of Jonah. Just the same like he prepared a fish to swallow Jonah. Just the same like he sent the strong wind specifically to deal with Jonah in a miraculous way. You can see he's in full control. He's trying to teach his servant a lesson. And so he made that kikayon to grow very fast and Jonah was very happy.

Why? Well, you are in a Middle Eastern desert. The sukkah that he had made, the booth that he had made was very nice but apparently did not cover and give him enough shade. So he was in heat, he was tired, he was miserable, he was complaining against God, he was rebelling, his attitude was very poor. So God says, look, I'm going to make something for Jonah so he will be comfortable. So he planted in a moment he made a kikayon a gourd to come up over Jonah. Jonah now received the shadow out of this, oh, now his sweat disappeared, he's in comfort zone, oh, what you need is a glass of cold water and you are in a great state.

He was happy. So he made that kikayon, the kikayon gave him shade, shadow, and what happened, that he was glad, look, it says he was exceedingly glad because of the gourd. He was so happy that this kikayon came to help him. We never read that he knew where it is coming from, he just simply was satisfied with the refreshment that he received from that gourd, from that kikayon, from that plant. Then look at this, in the next verse we find out again that now God had prepared a worm. This prepare is the same word that we have in verse 6, and in the same word that we have in chapter 1, verse 17, God placed, he prepared in a special way a worm.

The Hebrew word here for worm is tolaat. Tolaat is the worm out of which this kind of worm is scarlet color. When you squeeze that little worm, the red blood coming, you get the colors scarlet. It's the same word that Yeshua said in Psalm 22, verse 6, he says, I am a worm and no man. I need tolaat. I'm no one. I'm looked upon as no one. I'm stepped upon as no one. I'm being judged by the world and by God as no one. In other words, he called himself tolaat, a worm. And here God made that worm. And that worm, notice verse 7, that worm when the morning arose the next day, that that worm smote the gourd that it was withered away.

God intentionally made that worm, brought this worm to the gourd, and it ate the kikayon, that special plant, and it withered away. It died. And now when the plant died, Jonah did not receive anymore the shade that he had in the midst of the day because of the heat of the day. So now Jonah had no more that shade that he enjoyed so much. Well, then thirdly, beloved brothers and sisters, look at this. Not only that God prepared a gourd, not only that God prepared a worm, now in additional to that, the sovereign God, in verse 8, prepared a vehement east wind. Look what it says in verse 8.

And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind. In Hebrew we call it it was in the Middle East. When a wind comes from the east, it's called sharav, or in Arabic it's called hamsin, in Hebrew it's called sharav. It's a very strong heat, and the wind itself is so strong, comes from the east, beating upon the body, you can barely be able to pursue, because of the strength of the wind and the heat of that wind, which is called sharav. In the Hebrew, it's called ruach kadim, it's an east wind, and so this east wind caused that the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, and then he fainted, and he wished himself to die, and he said it is better for me to die than to live.

This time he couldn't take it anymore. Before he asked God, he said it's better for me to die because God did not do what he told Jonah he going to do that he is going to judge the Nineveh. He repented and he did not judge them. So Jonah was upset with God so he said I want to die. Now Jonah is saying again I rather die it's not worth for me to live. Why? Because the kikayon disappeared, the wind with the heat of the sun came upon him, and he was as it says here in verse 8 that he fainted, the word for faint here, he kind of couldn't bear it anymore, and then he says he wished himself to die, and he said it is better for me to die than to live.

He couldn't take it anymore, and now God is teaching Jonah the second lesson, and this time it's not from the gourd, it's not from the worm, it's not from the wind, now God is speaking to Jonah and he's appealing to Jonah verbally, and he's saying to Jonah, and that is the conclusion of this book, he questioned Jonah in verse 9, and he said to him, Jonah, do you do well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death. God asking Jonah, why are you angry now with the gourd? Because of the gourd? Are you right to be angry because of the gourd?

Because of the kikayon? He said, yes, I have a right to be angry because of this kikayon, because the kikayon, this plant, gave him shade, and now it disappeared, it didn't give him shade anymore. So he was upset. He says, are you right to be upset because of the gourd? He says, yes, even unto death. And then the Lord told him, okay, Jonah, verse 10, listen, brothers and sisters, he said to him, God, the Lord said unto him, you have pity on the gourd for the which you have not labored, neither you made to grow, which came up in a night, and it perished in a night.

And you want me, and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein there are more than 120,000 persons that cannot discern between the right hand and the left hand and much cattle. Jonah, see what he's saying to Jonah? Jonah, you are angry with the plant. You didn't work for that. You didn't labor to make it grow. It came in one night, and it disappeared in a moment. It came for a short time, and it disappeared. And you are angry with the Kikeyon, because the Kikeyon disappeared, and you do not want me that I should spare the great city of Nineveh, which have more than 120,000 men or persons that cannot discern between the right hand and the left hand.

And there are many cattle here. And for this, you don't want me to spare them? If you wanted to spare the plant, you don't want me to spare those people that cannot really discern between right and wrong, right hand and left hand? You see what he's saying to Yonah? Yonah, you have the audacity to be angry because Kikeyon, that you didn't labor for that. It came your way for free, and it disappeared and you are angry because of this. And you expect me not to care for the people of Nineveh? That's what he's saying to Yonah because Yonah needed to learn the heart of God.

The heart of God, brothers and sisters, is large, is not limited to our thinking and our desires. God's heart is so large and open if men will only turn to him and accept him, God will forgive and restore and bring people to himself. And here, brothers and sisters, God wanted Yonah and he wants you and I to learn that lesson of the heart of God. He wants us to be people after God's own heart, to be different, not to act in the flesh but to act in the spirit, to have the mind of the Messiah. As Paul said in Philippians chapter 2 verse 5, let this mind be in you as it was in Yeshua, the Messiah, to have the mind of God, the heart of God in our life.

He wants us to have a priority right. See, Jonah's priority was definitely wrong. His priority was more, he cared more for the plant than for people. He cared more for the plant, they died than for the people that were going to die eternally had they not repented. Priorities important for us to be right in our life. He wanted to teach Jonah of the sovereignty of God, that God is sovereign and God has his way, he's higher than our way. And he wanted Jonah to recognize that God is the one, he is the potter and man is the clay and he can do as he please with his own creation.

And so brothers and sisters, this is the conclusion of the book of Jonah. We learn from this book that the heart of God is large, is for mankind. If someone would only repent and turn to the Lord Yeshua, the Messiah, God is going to accept him, doesn't matter what nation he or she are coming from, doesn't matter what people, what background, what status in life one has, it doesn't matter who we are, the important thing is to turn to the Lord, to accept what God has done for us through the person of the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. And Yeshua the Messiah in Matthew chapter 12 validated the fact that Jonah was indeed a prophet, and that Jonah was indeed a man that was sent by God to preach the message of God to the nation of Nineveh, and thank God that many of them have turned, in fact the whole city have turned to the Lord.

By the way, from history we find out, and I'm going to conclude with this, that actually the people of Nineveh later on had to be judged by God, because they went back to their own way, and God ultimately judged Nineveh. But the point is, when they turned to the Lord at that time, God, in His mercy and grace, forgave their sin, and did not judge them. May the Lord encourage us with this, and may the Lord give us to have the heart of our Lord Jesus the Messiah. Can you say amen to that? Amen.