God provided

“Then the Lord God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine.” Jonah 4:6
In reading through the book of Jonah, we can often wonder why God bothered including chapter 4. After Jonah finally went to Nineveh, he preached a message of judgement, the people repented, and God did not send calamity. Then in chapter 4 we read of how Jonah pouted, and the Lord taught him a few things. But there is a recurring phrase that I want to pick up on: “God provided”.
In Jon. 1:17 we read, “But the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah”. In Jon. 4:6-8 God provided first a vine, then a worm, then a scorching east wind. Some of these things were good – if it hadn’t been for the fish, Jonah would have drowned; and the vine gave welcome shade from the sun. But some of them were bad: the worm chewed the vine and caused it to wither, and the wind made Jonah dehydrated and miserable.
Here’s the lesson for us: Not everything provided by God was good (in and of itself), but they were all necessary. God was teaching Jonah to have a merciful attitude towards the Ninevites. He showed Jonah that he had had more concern for the vine, which he was not in control of, than for lost souls. Is God teaching you something about your attitude, through what He ‘provides’?