Whale's not the hero in Jonah

Paul begins Romans 10: [1] Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.

[2] For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.

[3] For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

"That's what that evil and adulterous generation was doing. Go back to Jonah 4 and watch Jonah do it. He's a picture of that. Jonah's mad at God because God is going to let them (Nineveh) off.

Jonah 4: [5] So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.

[6] And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.
[7] But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.
[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.

"He's going to go out and look over the city and just see what happens to them: 'God's going to destroy them; I'm going to watch them burn!' But he's mad because God isn't destroying them.

"There's another person later on who comes down off a hill, looking at the city, and He says in Matthew 23: [37] O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!

"Absolute contrast in the attitude here and the attitude of the Lord Jesus Christ. But notice Jonah made himself a booth. He's interested in his own personal material comfort. Hot day so he makes himself a little tent to dwell in. And goes and sits there and watches the fate of the city.

" 'And the Lord prepared a gourd.' Now there are four times in the book that God prepares things. He prepared the fish in chapter 1. He prepares the gourd here. We see He prepares a worm and an east wind.

"I heard J. Vernon McGee teach Jonah years ago and he said, 'You know, the fish isn't the hero of the story in Jonah.' Everybody talks about Jonah and the whale. The whale is not the hero. He's an incidental prop.

"Jonah and the Lord are the heroes. Well, the gourd and the east wind aren't the heroes either. But they are things prepared by God as props to teach Jonah.

"Uh-oh, God done killed the gourd. What did he kill it with?  A worm. Jonah went about to establish his own righteousness so God sends a worm and destroys the covering. Now, when you read about a worm in the Bible, does it remind you of something?"