Lessons From The Pumpkin Patch

“Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, 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 sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?” (Jon 4:10-11 AV)

The object lesson here struck me a particularly powerful this morning.  As a reminder, Jonah was a prophet to the ten northern tribes of Israel during the reign of Jeroboam II.  Jeroboam II was a secular king that did not introduce hardship to God’s sacred people.  He never did take away the golden calves of his namesake, but he also did not persecute God’s people.  He never introduced more idolatry but rather, turned his attention to the fiscal health of the nation.  In the truest sense of the word, he was a secular king with no mind towards the sacred: good or evil.  Because of the nature of his reign, the kingdom enjoyed prosperity and the prophets of God enjoyed relative peace while fulfilling their calling.  Jonah, in particular, was an affluent prophet called to an upscale locale.  Then God came and changed all that.  The LORD called Jonah to preach to the people of Nineveh.  This was not what Jonah wished to do.  He did not wish to leave his comfortable situation for the mission field.  Even more so, he did not want to preach to these particular people.  The Ninevites were their next-door neighbors, so to speak, and had way too often made victims of the Israelites.  They would invade the eastern territories and do despicable things.  Because of this, Jonah had an understandable bias towards these people.  So, he ran.  We find out the reason for the object lesson above.  Jonah knew that if the word of God came to these people and they repented, the LORD would show them mercy.  That is just what happened.  To teach Jonah His point of view, the LORD gave him the object lesson of the wilted gourd.

After preaching for three days, Jonah was exhausted.  In the heat of the day, he retired to a safe distance expecting the LORD to rain fire and brimstone upon this city.  As the heat of the day became unbearable, the LORD prepared a giant pumpkin for Jonah to carve out and find refuge from the beating sun.  Knowing how cool the inside of a pumpkin can be, I believe it.  Yet, as the heat began to take its toll on the pumpkin, it wilted and became of no use to Jonah.  Verse nine of our chapter tells us Jonah was angry.  He was furious the pumpkin withered.  But an interesting word is used in verse ten.  The Bible uses the word ‘pity’.  That word means compassion or remorse.  Jonah’s anger turned to remorse.  Like unexpectedly losing a loved one, we feel anger at first.  We were not prepared for his or her loss.  Then, that anger turns to remorse.  We realize the blessing this person was and regret they are no longer there.  God then connects the truth here.  Jonah felt remorse over losing something which he neither planted, created, nurtured, nor cared for.  He felt justified in feeling this way.  The gourd was a blessing to him so long as it was with him and now it is gone.  Here comes the ‘ah-ha’ moment.  The LORD then asks Jonah, if you feel remorse over something you upon which you had invested nothing, should not I feel remorse over a nation which I created and nurtured?

Here’s the point.  God loves all people regardless of what they may or may not have done.  God created all souls to love Him and fellowship with Him by faith.  Each human soul is precious in His sight regardless of their personal character or lack thereof.  The love of God is cast upon all souls regardless of what they have done to their fellow man.  Jonah learned a hard lesson here.  The LORD does not have to justify His mercy to anyone.  He is no respecter of persons.  If the LORD can have mercy on the worst of us, shouldn’t we as well?  The real tragedy is, Jonah preached the greatest revival ever recorded in the word of God.  An entire city of tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, turned to God because a single prophet came to town.  Yet, Jonah preached with a bitter spirit desiring God’s wrath upon them rather than His mercy.  Because of a wrong attitude, Jonah preached for no personal reward.  All the labor, for his sake, was for nothing.  If the LORD can have mercy on the worst of us and rejoice at their conversion, we as God’s people should have the same spirit.