The Creator and Preserver – September 26, 2026

Listen to Devotion

Jonah wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.” But God said to Jonah, “Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?” “I do,” he said. “I am angry enough to die.” But the LORD said, “You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?”
Jonah 4:8-11

The Creator and Preserver

Jonah was very angry because God turned from his threat to punish the people of Nineveh. God worked to bring Jonah to repentance. He caused a vine to spring up overnight, and the next day its large leaves gave Jonah relief from the intense heat of the sun. But the cold heart of Jonah was not melted by the mercy that God showed him. The next night, God provided a worm that killed the vine. When the sun blazed the next day, Jonah was left without shade. He was so distressed about the loss of the vine that he told God, “I am angry enough to die.”

God used that vine to teach Jonah an important lesson. Jonah merely had self-interest in the vine. His only concern for the vine was the protection and comfort it brought him.

God wanted Jonah to think about the vine from the viewpoint of the one who caused it to grow and cared for it—a perspective quite different than Jonah’s attitude. The grower and the gardener demonstrate a deep concern for the well-being of the vine. Then the Lord applied the lesson. He is the creator and preserver of all people, in