The Worm That Ate A Tree
Jonah 4:4-8 (The Message)
‘God said, ‘What do you have to be angry about?’
But Jonah just left. He went out of the city to the east and sat down in a sulk. He put together a makeshift shelter of leafy branches and sat there in the shade to see what would happen to the city.
God arranged for a broad-leafed tree to spring up. It grew over Jonah to cool him off and get him out of his angry sulk. Jonah was pleased and enjoyed the shade. Life was looking up.
But then God sent a worm. By dawn of the next day, the worm had bored into the shade tree and it withered away.’
How are you doing with the 10th Commandment? You know, the one about ‘coveting’, envying, or as The Message has it: ‘Do not set your heart on anything that is your neighbour’s.’ Social media doesn’t help. Bombarded with photos of other people’s blessings: beautiful hair, sporty bodies and exploits, sparkly rings, fab cooking, sun-kissed hols, cute kids, glasses raised in celebration, am I the only one who sometimes feels a nasty little worm of envy uncurl? Or even jealousy?
Envy is bad enough – jealousy is worse. Envy is wanting something someone else has got; jealousy is believing it’s my right to have it, not theirs!
Jonah is riddled with jealousy. God has let him go, almost literally, through hell and back: he’s had a terrible time, three days in the stinking belly of a fish, then sicked up on the shore. He has, at last, done what God had told him to do and delivered God’s dire warning to the great and wicked city of Nineveh. Now Jonah is waiting with pleasurable anticipation for them to get what they deserve. Bam!
AND GOD LETS THEM OFF! How gross, how unfair is that! Jonah sulks. All they did was sincerely repent and they’ve got God’s blessing, forgiveness and no dire consequences. ‘These people’ thinks Jonah, ‘don’t deserve a good life; they deserve to die.’ God begs to differ.
When God makes a worm shrivel the tree shading Jonah, he demonstrates that both judgment and mercy belong to him. In Exodus ch.33, when the Ten Commandments provide the law against which people can be judged, God declares:
‘I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.’
This does not mean that God is capricious, but rather that his heart’s direction is always towards love and forgiveness and grace, undeserved mercy. For everyone!
Prayer – Should that little worm of envy or jealousy rear its ugly head, this is a good prayer: ‘Lord please gentle my envy/jealousy into enjoyment.’ Rejoicing in other people’s blessings is one sign of christian maturity.