“So Jonah went out from the city and sat east of the city. There He made a sukkah and he sat under it, in the shade, until he saw what would happen in the city.  Then Adonai God prepared a plant and it grew up over Jonah, to give shade over his head to spare him from his discomfort. So Jonah was very happy about the plant.” Jonah 4. 5-6 TLV

On Yom Kippur it is a Jewish tradition to read the book of Jonah. His story resonates throughout the generations.  We can all identify with our resistance to do the will of God. Yeshua, however, identified with Jonah’s mission, message, and manner of death.   He called it the “Sign of the Prophet Jonah”.  Mat. 12. 39-40.  I no more finished reading Jonah’s story with my family, broke our fast with a delicious meal at sundown, when I heard the neighbor putting up his sukkah.  For those who may not know, God commanded Israel to build a booth, sukkah in Hebrew, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month of the year, and to dwell and rejoice in it for seven days.  Any other year I would have would have been competing to be first but finding my joy this Sukkot 2020 is a struggle.

Jonah announced a coming day of judgement, with all the import of a Yom Kippur.  He then climbed a hill overlooking Nineveh, built a sukkah, and waited to see what would happen to the great city.   The parallels to Yom Kippur and Sukkot are hard to miss.  The themes of fasting, vows, prayer, and repentance crescendo on a hillside with our hero building his sukkah.  And to give the reader a neon hint of sukkot, God appointed a plant to grow as shade over the prophet’s head, bringing him “Simchah Gadolah” – Great Joy!  Sukkot is the holiday in which we are commanded to rejoice before the Lord seven days. Lev. 23. 40

I. Sorrow in the Sukkah

“But at dawn the next day, God appointed a worm to attack the plant so that it withered.” Jonah 4. 7 MEV

Jonah no doubt found felt a strong middle east breeze on the hillside as he relaxed in the shade of his sukkah.  The text tells us that God appointed that plant to grow, but then He appointed a worm to consume the plant and, in the process it ate Jonah’s joy.

And so, with the sounds of my neighbor spurring me on, I too began my sukkah the next day.  But even while it is being constructed, I sense a worm has been loosed this Sukkot.  I cannot say why this virus has come, but I do know why that worm got loose in Jonah’s Sukkah. The Lord sent it!  The One who gave Jonah a shade in his sukkah sent a worm to take it away.  Do not despair however, this was God’s mercy rather than judgement.

In just a few days, big cities and rural villages in Israel will be filled with Booths. Building a sukkah may not be your cultural experience, but you can still identify with that prophet on the hill.  Your head is burning, and as you look behind you see the vine destroyed.  And the same One who appointed the vine sent the worm!  Purposely tempering Jonah’s joy, God lovingly redirected Jonah’s attention to the city below.

“Then God said to Jonah, “Is it good for you to be so angry about the plant?” “It is,” he said, “I am angry enough to die!”  But Adonai said, “You have pity on the plant for which you did no labor or make it grow, that appeared overnight and perished overnight. So shouldn’t I have pity on Nineveh—the great city that has in it more than 120,000 people who don’t know their right hand from their left—as well as many animals?”  Jonah 4. 9-10 TLV

II. Rejoicing in Heaven

Perhaps for this reason it is good to read the book of Jonah during Yom Kippur preparing our hearts for Sukkot.   God lessened Jonah’s joy for him to see that God found no joy in what was to take place.

“Say to them: ‘As I live’—it is a declaration of Adonai—‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Return, return from your evil ways. Why will you die, O house of Israel?’” Ezekiel 33. 11 TLV

It brings Him no pleasure to see the lost stumble into eternity without knowing Him. Yeshua, however, revealed what does bring joy to the tabernacles of Heaven.

“I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” Luke 15.10 TLV

Is God tempering our joy this Sukkot?  Perhaps.  As we enter the end times, the events lessening our Sukkot celebrations, should make us aware that Heaven’s joy is also lessened to see the many souls of lost people who do not know Him.  But take heart the same one who raised the prophet Jonah after three days to preach to Nineveh, in like manner raised Yeshua to bring salvation to all who will call upon Him.  Rather than mourning missed opportunity, let us look on the city through His eyes.

Conclusion

I am praying for you in these High Holy Days of 2020.  Not simply for the worm to go away.  I am shifting my prayer focus to the inhabitants of my city who desperately need the “sign of the prophet Jonah”.   Jonah’s three days and three nights spoke of restoration.  But the sign of the prophet Jonah spoke of Messiah’s resurrection, victory of death, and cancelling of our debt to sin.  Yeshua’s three days and nights are also the hope of our resurrection.  Perhaps it is time to beckon the city to our Sukkah on the hill.  I am praying for this generation to do what Nineveh did, repent so that judgment will be stopped.  And I am wondering, just wondering, if the worm in our sukkah this year might also be part of the sign of the prophet Jonah.

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sukkot Sameach

(Blessed Sabbath and Happy Sukkot)