>In his book Assyria: The Forgotten Nation in Prophecy, John Booko quotes a poem by Rev. Charles Vander Ploeg titled “Jonah and the Worm.” That poem describes the plight of Jonah and God’s reaction to Jonah’s anger.

Since I have written two posts dealing with Jonah, Nineveh, and the Assyrians (click here and here), I have decided to publish Vander Ploeg’s poem because I like it and because I think it has a great message

JONAH AND THE WORM
by Rev. Charles Vander Ploeg

When Jonah came out of the belly of the whale,
He went straight to Nineveh and did them assail;
With powerful preaching and pending destruction,
So that the entire city was in disruption.

Then upon man and beast the King proclaimed a fast,
Hoping that God’s anger upon them would not last.
When God saw their repentance then He had pity ,
And said He would not destroy that wicked city.

When Jonah left there he went east and there sat down,
Waiting for the Lord to destroy that wicked town.
After forty days had passed and nothing occurred,
Then Jonah was angry and greatly disturbed.

So then for Jonah God prepared a great big gourd,
And in the shade of it he sat and slept and snored.
A big worm that God prepared then came crawling by,
Ate a big whole in the gourd and caused it to die.

Then Jonah was angry with God and wanted to die,
And said, “I have a right to be angry; haven’t I?”
Then God said, “For that gourd that died you had pity,
And you’re angry because I pitied a city.”

T’was a worm God used to teach Jonah a lesson,
T’was only a worm but Jonah lost the blessin’.
T’was a worm that God used brother Jonah to try,
But Jonah was so mad that he wanted to die.

How many Jonahs there are in the land today,
Who go on a big pout when things don’t go their way,
Some get real angry like brother Jonah of old,
And justify themselves when of their fault they’re told.

When they get real angry they never feel condemned.
They never repent and their ways they never mend.
Like brother Jonah of old they feel justified,
And so in their bad temper they often take pride.

It took a whale to stop Jonah’s flight,
And it took a gourd and a worm to set Jonah right.
So I wonder what the good Lord will have to do,
With some folks who get angry every day or two.

Most people, at one time or another, will experience anger in their lives. Anger is a common emotion and no one is exempt from it. But anger is not a sin. The apostle Paul said: “Don’t sin by letting anger control you” (Ephesians 4:26 ). Thus, Paul recognizes that even believers will be angry, however, people must not allow their anger to control their actions.

This is what happened to Jonah. Jonah became so angry with God’s compassion that he desired his own death. Jonah’s problem was that he desired to see the destruction of the people who lived in Nineveh, while God desired to show his mercy upon those repentant people.

James said: “Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires” (James 1:20). Jonah did not show any compassion with the plight of the Ninevites and became angry when they received God’s grace. What Jonah’s anger reveals is something sad: the man who was called and sent by God to proclaim the message of God’s grace shows by his anger that he did not know the God who sent him nor the extent of his grace.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Anger, Grace, Jonah, Nineveh, Assyria