In this fourth chapter of the Book of Jonah, (Jonah 4), the prophet Jonah has a strange reaction to his success. He's angry, and sulky. He thinks he knows better than God does. What is this story about?

Rev. George McCurdy, in his exegesis of this chapter, offers a summary in his Study Guide for the Book of Jonah, which is available for free as a .pdf, for your use. Below, we've excerpted part of his summary, and edited it for use in this context.

The people of the Jewish church in Jonah's time didn't want to reconsider their belief in their "most-favored-nation status." They challenged the Lord. They couldn't understand why He wanted to save their enemies in Nineveh.

Despite the hard lessons in chapters 1 and 2, and his success as described in chapter 3, Jonah still thought he knew better than the Lord. He thought that God was being too soft and loving -- too forgiving -- and that He needed to come around to Jonah’s tougher view.

Jonah got so angry and vengeful that he preferred to die rather than approve of the Lord’s way to save the Ninevites. His self-love wanted shade -- protection for its concepts. The Lord needed to bring such thinking to an end; the worm brought about death to the gourd from within. The Lord then sent a vehement east wind, that represents a blowing away of the stagnant thinking of the church.

The Lord's heavenly sun shone upon Jonah, but he felt faint. Here, Jonah's insistence on his own troubling view of things made him uncomfortable with the Lord’s view. The Divine guidance offered him a way to learn to enjoy the success of his neighbors as his own, but he wouldn't take it.

For us, then -- what? This story is telling us that we can't just keep the truths of the Word for ourselves; we have to go to Nineveh and share them. And then, if people start to hear them, and use them to turn their lives around, we can't allow ourselves to get resentful that the Lord accepts their repentance and forgives them. It's a very human reaction; think of the disciples vying to be first in the Lord's command structure (Luke 9:46), or the brother of the prodigal son (Luke 15:28-29), or the workers in the vineyard who had worked all day for a denarius (Matthew 20:10-12). But... it's not a good reaction. The Lord doesn't admire it in Jonah, and doesn't admire it when it crops up in our minds, either.

Rev. Martin Pennington recommends several explanatory passages from Swedenborg's theological writings:

"Shade or shadow means the perception of good and truth lies in obscurity." (Arcana Coelestia 2367)

"A vine is spiritual good (the spiritual church)". (Arcana Coelestia 217)

"A worm represents falsity gnawing away and tormenting one." (Arcana Coelestia 8481)

"'And the sun grew hot' in the contrary sense means self-love and love of the world." (Arcana Coelestia 8487)

And... here's a link to an interesting (audio) sermon on this chapter, by Rev. Todd Beiswenger.

2496. Genesis 20

1. And Abraham travelled from there towards the land of the south, and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur; and he sojourned in Gerar.

2. And Abraham said of ¹ Sarah his wife, She is my sister; and Abimelech King of Gerar sent and took Sarah.

3. And God came to Abimelech in a dream in the night, and said to him, Behold, you will die because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is married to a husband.

4. And Abimelech had not come near her, and he said, Lord, will You kill even a righteous nation?

5. Did he not say to me, She is my sister? And she herself also said, He is my brother. In the uprightness of my heart and in the blamelessness of my hands have I done this.

6. And God said to him in the dream, Yes, I know that in the uprightness of your heart you have done this, and I also withheld you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not allow you to touch her.

7. And now return the man's wife, for he is a prophet, and will pray for you, and you will live. And if you do not return her, know that you will certainly die, you and everyone who is yours.

8. And in the morning Abimelech rose up early and called all his servants and spoke all these words in their ears; and the men were very much afraid.

9. And Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, What have you done to us, and what sin have I committed against you, that you have brought great sin on me and on my kingdom? Deeds which ought not to be done you have done to me.

10. And Abimelech said to Abraham, What did you see, that you have done this thing?

11. And Abraham said, Because I said, Surely there is no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me on account of my wife.

12. And also she is truly my sister, my father's daughter but not my mother's daughter; and she became my wife.

13. And it happened, when God caused ² me to depart from my father's house, that I said to her, This is your kindness which you may do for me: at every place we come to, say for me, He is my brother.

14. And Abimelech took flocks and herds, and men servants and women servants, and gave to Abraham; and he restored to him Sarah his wife.

15. And Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before you; dwell in that which is good in your eyes.

16. And to Sarah he said, Behold, I have given a thousand-pieces of silver to your brother; behold, it is for you a covering of the eyes for all who are with you, and with all; and she was vindicated.

17. And Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife, and his women servants, and they gave birth.

18. For Jehovah had completely closed every womb of Abimelech's house because of the matter of Sarah, Abraham's wife.

CONTENTS

In Chapter 12 above the subject was Abraham's sojourn in Egypt, which meant the instruction that the Lord received in factual knowledge when He was still a boy. In the present chapter the subject is Abraham's sojourn in Gerar, where Abimelech was. This sojourning in a similar way means instruction received by the Lord, but now it is in matters of doctrine regarding charity and faith. Dealt with in particular here is the origin of the doctrine of charity and faith; that is to say, that this doctrine is spiritual deriving from a celestial origin but is not from the rational.

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