Jonah 4:8
And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live. And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live.
After the worm destroyed the gourd and it withered, at sunrise God prepared a fierce, vehement east wind and let the rising, scorching sun beat down upon Jonah's head until he fainted from the heat. In that distress he wished in himself to die and said it was better for him to die than to live, repeating the wish to die he had uttered after Nineveh was spared. His cry was a complaint against God in disappointment, preferring death to life.
His reaction exposed anger, self-concern, self-pity and selfish sorrow, centered on his own disappointment, personal humiliation and loss of shelter and comfort. Instead of dwelling on the lives of Nineveh, he focused on himself rather than on God's mercy in sparing the city and granting a reprieve. The hardship was a deliberate object lesson to rebuke that spirit and teach him to value the people as God did. It set Jonah's pity for a gourd that had sheltered him for a night, which he had not planted or grown, over against God's compassion for the great city, its inhabitants and their need for mercy.
Jonah's disappointment parallels that of those who expected Christ to return in 1844, who like him complained against God over unfulfilled expectation. Like him they in grief and discouragement felt like fleeing the world rather than continuing to live in it. The proper response when God grants the world more time to hear the warning and prepare is not selfish sorrow but rejoicing in the reprieve. Sorrow over disappointed expectation is not to obscure the good accomplished, and the work still to be done is to continue bringing sinners to repentance and salvation.