The Sinfulness and Cure of Absorbing Passion
A. Mackennal, D. D. Jonah 4:9 And God said to Jonah, Do you well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even to death. The Book of Jonah is a standing rebuke of intolerance among the sacred writings of a most intolerant people. It is because it exposes and rebukes the sin of intolerance that this book has been preserved. The reason of Jonah's disobedience to the heavenly voice is boldly and frankly told in the history. No tenderness for the prophet's reputation is allowed to veil his sin; exclusiveness is laid bare in all its baseness and malignity. There is no need for us to offer other explanations of the prophet's conduct. National antipathy and religious exclusiveness will account for it all. Equally marked in this history is God's determination to expose the workings and rebuke the sin of exclusiveness. Why was the hard and obstinate Jonah called and forced to a work that was so uncongenial to him, a work that goaded him to wildest turbulence, and called out his bitterest passion? It was for Jonah's sake, that his bad heart might be searched and corrected. We have here God's solemn rebuke of a common sin, and many a man may find here searching and humbling lessons. Jonah rebelled against the mission appointed him, but he had to fulfil it. To do God's work is our sole discharge. It is only by obeying God's bidding that we can be purged from the sinfulness that makes obedience unwelcome. God's chosen servants have to yield to Him, though often in the yielding they are searched and convicted of startling wickedness. In the working of Jonah's anger we see the characteristics of all absorbing passion; and God's mode of curing him is an example of the myriad influences by which He restores the self-absorbed to true and healthy life. I. THE SINFULNESS OF ABSORBING PASSION. 1. The sinfulness is seen in Jonah's contempt of life. A man's worth may be measured by the reverence he has for his life. The Gospel, which delivers us from a coward fear of dying, was never intended to foster an equally coward fear of living. 2. The sinfulness is seen in that it works insincerity. Even after Jonah has recognised that God is sparing the city, he still affects to believe that it will be overthrown. He hastens out of it lest he should be partaker of its plagues. Under his booth he pretends that he is awaiting its destruction. What hateful affectation and insincerity! But is it very uncommon? How much of life is wasted because of our refusal to acknowledge that we have outgrown the expectations of the past, or that time and change have swept us far beyond them! 3. The selfishness of an absorbing passion is illustrated in Jonah's contempt for the men of Nineveh. He will not share in their repentance, nor encourage them to hope in God's mercy; he shuts himself up alone to brood over his anger. All passion tends to arrogance. Self-absorption means scorn of our fellows. A single passion may arrogate to itself the whole sphere of life, and constitute itself the be-all and end-all of existence. It is well for us to be aware of this. Our holiest emotions may become overweening. II. GOD'S CURE FOR ABSORBING PASSION. Notice the exceeding gentleness with which God reproves and seeks to restore the angry prophet. The disobedient are constrained by a force too strong for them; but even the ungracious doing of duty brings the spirit into fitness for gentler discipline. The Lord cares for Jonah in his self-will. When God smites the gourd, and sends the vehement cast wind and burning sun to beat on Jonah's head, it is that tie may speak his words gentler than the gourd-shade, and reveal Himself to the stricken spirit as "the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." How different is this from man! We should have been glad that the self-absorbed man should be his own tormentor. God seeks to restore the prophet by awakening love in his heart: awakening his interest, and making him tender over the gourd. Over the wretched, gloomy Jonah, sprung up the wondrous plant, and its leaves and tendrils drew off his thoughts from himself, and as he watched it grow, a new interest was awakened in him. His heart softened to the plant, and he becomes strangely tender and reverential over a gourd. There is something wonderful in life, even though it be the life of a common weed. Jonah loves his gourd, and "has pity" on it when it is smitten. The first result of Jonah's tenderness would seem to be a deeper gloom. Another wrong is added to his suffering; and again he cries for death. But it has not all been in vain; for he is prepared to listen to the voice that once more sounds in his ears. His reply, "I do well to be angry," was bad and bitter; but perverse and sullen silence before God is far worse than perverse and sullen speech. How wonderful is God's answer. The tenderness that was in Jonah, poor as it was, mingled with selfishness as it was, was yet, in its dim and partial way, an emblem of the tenderness of God for every creature He has made! Thou canst not bear that what has lived, and lived for thee, should die. And shall I be careless of the great city? "There is this sacred energy in love, however poor it may be, however mixed with selfishness, that it admits us into the secret of God's counsel, helps us to bear Divine mysteries, and understand God's ways. Since on every hand God has put the tokens and witnesses of His Divine care and tenderness, do we not hear on every hand the voice that calls us from our absorbing passions, from our griefs, our angers, and our woes? Life is worth living when every human creature is felt worthy of our love: the voice of duty will sweetly beckon us to human sympathy and human helpfulness. And so the dark mystery of your life will be read. In God's care for all men you will find yourself surrounded by God's care for you. The wise and blessed purpose of the individual destiny is seen in the one eternal purpose of love to men. (A. Mackennal, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death. WEB: God said to Jonah, "Is it right for you to be angry about the vine?" He said, "I am right to be angry, even to death."