Jonah And The Vine?

The account of Jonah has always been a fascinating story to many people. But, I'd like to focus on a part of the story not mentioned too much. The part I'd like to pick up at is after Jonah had been swallowed by the whale and called Nineveh to repentance. If you don't know too much about Nineveh, at the time Jonah was called to tell them to repent, you should research a little bit about just how wicked Nineveh was. However, through the whale experience Jonah decided that he would go ahead, despite what torture they would do to him, and tell them to repent. After he got about a day into the city he delivered his message, Nineveh took 3 days to cross. Expecting to be taken captive at some point he continued prophesying throughout the city and before he knew it he was out the other side... ALIVE! He had just made it through the most difficult and abominable people in the world and not even a scratch! He had seen the wickedness and abominations of the people and thought that they needed to be destroyed so he decided he would see how God would destroy the people and sat up on a hill over viewing the city, when Jehovah appeared to him.

Instead of being happy that Nineveh had repented of their iniquities and sins and was spared, Jonah was furious with the Lord for sparing them. That night Jehovah caused a plant to grow in order to give Jonah shade from the heat of the day. In a night it grew and the next night it was destroyed by a worm. To teach the lesson to Jonah and to us a little better the Lord helps Jonah realize that if we can have mercy and love for a plant which we didn't create and only knew for a little amount of time, can't we have mercy and love for 120,000 souls that are so mixed up in wickedness they don't know their right hand from their left? The story ends there and not much else is said about Jonah. But, this is what we learn from this story that if a soul is willing to repent, no matter how wicked or abominable they may have been, God will have mercy on us and He will not give up on us. I really do know that He is there and that He cares about us. Let's not wait for a threatening situation to occur before we turn our hearts over to God.