Albert Barnes Commentary Jonah 4:9

"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." — Jonah 4:9 (ASV)

Do you well to be angry? – ^o “See again how Almighty God, out of His boundless lovingkindness, with the yearning tenderness of a father, almost interacts playfully with the guileless souls of the saints! The palm-christ shades him; the prophet rejoices in it exceedingly. Then, in God's Providence, the caterpillar attacks it, and the burning East wind smites it, showing at the same time how very necessary the relief of its shade was, so that the prophet might be more grieved when deprived of such a good. He asks him skillfully, was he very grieved? And that for a shrub? He confesses, and this becomes the defense for God, the Lover of mankind.”

I do well to be angry, even to death – ^o “Vehement anger leads men to long for and even welcome death, especially if thwarted and unable to remove the hindrance that angers them. For then vehement anger begets vehement sorrow, grief, and despondency.” We each have our own palm-christ, and our palm-christ has its own worm. In Jonah, who mourned when he had discharged his office, we see those who, in what they seem to do for God, either do not seek the glory of God but some end of their own, or at least think that glory lies where it does not. For he who seeks the glory of God, and not his own things but those of Jesus Christ (Philippians 2:21), ought to will what God has willed and done. If he wills anything else, he declares plainly that he sought himself, not God, or himself more than God.

Jonah sought the glory of God where it was not: in the fulfillment of a prophecy of woe. And choosing to be led by his own judgment, not by God’s, whereas he ought to have rejoiced exceedingly that so many thousands, being dead, were alive again, being lost, were found, he, when there was joy in heaven among the angels of God over so many repenting sinners, was afflicted with a great affliction and was angry.

This always befalls those who wish that to take place—not what is best and most pleasing to God, but what they think most useful to themselves. From this we see our very great and common error: we who think our peace and tranquility lie in the fulfillment of our own will, whereas this will and judgment of our own is the cause of all our trouble. So then Jonah prays and tacitly blames God, and would not so much excuse as approve his former flight to Him Whose eyes are too pure to behold iniquity. And since all inordinate affection is a punishment to itself, and he who departs from the order of God has no stability, he is in such anguish because what he wills will not be, that he longs to die. For it cannot but be that his life—who measures everything by his own will and mind, and who follows not God as his Guide but rather wills to be the guide of the Divine Will—should be from time to time troubled with great sorrow.

But since the merciful and gracious Lord has pity on our infirmity and gently admonishes us within when He sees us at variance with Him, He does not forsake Jonah in that hot grief but lovingly blames him. We see from Jonah how restless such men are. The palm-christ grows over his head, and he was exceeding glad of the palm-christ. They bear any labor or discomfort very poorly; and being accustomed to endure nothing and follow their own will, they are tormented and cannot bear it, just as Jonah could not bear the sun. If anything, however slight, happens to lighten their grief, they are immoderately glad. Soon gladdened, soon grieved—like children.

They have not learned to bear anything moderately. What marvel is it then that their joy is soon turned into sorrow? They are rejoiced over a palm-christ, which soon greens, soon dries, quickly falls to the ground, and is trampled upon. Such are the things of this world: while possessed, they seem great and lasting; but when suddenly lost, men see how vain and passing they are, and that hope is to be placed not in them but in their Creator, who is Unchangeable.

It is then a great dispensation of God toward us when those things in which we took special pleasure are taken away. Man can have nothing so pleasing, green, and, in appearance, so lasting, that does not have its own worm prepared by God, by which, in the dawn, it may be smitten and die. The change of human will or envy disturbs court favor; manifold accidents, wealth; the varying opinion of the people or of the great, honors; disease, danger, poverty, infamy, pleasure. Jonah’s palm-christ had one worm; ours have many. If others were lacking, there is the restlessness of man’s own thoughts, whose food is restlessness.