Jonah's Vine

6 So the LORD God appointed a plant and it grew up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about the plant. 7 But God appointed a worm when dawn came the next day and it attacked the plant and it withered. 8 When the sun came up God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah's head so that he became faint and begged with all his soul to die, saying, "Death is better to me than life." 9 Then God said to Jonah, "Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?" And he said, "I have good reason to be angry, even to death." 10 Then the LORD said, "You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. 11 "Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not (13) know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?" - Jonah 5

God told me this story yesterday to convict me of my own petty concerns. I have been happy - but would I be if the little things that I deem so important withered away in the sun? And do I care more about the things that make my life comfortable and enjoyable than about the masses of unsaved people?

As a society, we value comfort and personal fulfillment very highly. Will we be ready when God calls us to discomfort and frustration for the sake of the Name? Jesus addressed this same issue to His disciples shortly before one of them betrayed Him. "Remember the word that I said to you, ' A slave is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also" (John 15:20). Cryptic if taken out of context, the principle that 'a slave is not greater than his master' clearly means that we - slaves of Christ and of the gospel, as Paul says - are not greater than Christ and should not expect to be treated better than He was. But don't we?