17.
For the third time the Lord prepared something special that He might teach Jonah a lesson. He brought a worm with a insatiable appetite. The comfortable position in which Jonah had found himself, in the shade of a God provided plant, was about to change. Jonah 4:7 Jonah’s shelter, the most welcomed shade provided by the Lord, as quickly as it had sprung up, was just as quickly to die and become totally useless to him. The subject worm is an interesting one in the scriptures and has several meanings.
DESTRUCTIVE. It is used by the Lord to show His disapproval on certain rebellious acts of men. Such as we see with Jonah. It is noted again as a punishment to those who do not obey the voice of the Lord. The disobedient were to have their crops eaten by worms. Deut. 28:39 When the children of Israel gathered manna in the wilderness, they were to gather sufficient for just one day, except for the day before the Sabbath, when they were to gather twice as much, or a double portion. Those who disobeyed and gathered more found that in the morning it had bred worms and had a stinking odor to it. Ex. 16:20 That manna is a type of the Word, the Lord Jesus, the Word made flesh. John 1:1, 14 Herod, when the people proclaimed him to be a god, was eaten of worms and died. Acts 12:23
DERISION. The sinfulness of man, in the sight of the Lord, places them in the category of a worm, a maggot. All have sinned and come short of the glory of the Lord. Rom. 3:23 When the Lord looks upon humanity in such a fashion, it is an astonishing thing that His love would be extended to anything so repulsive. What a place to find a Messianic statement, for the title, Son of man, is one that Jesus used concerning Himself. Job 25:6, John 3:14 Thus it is portrayed, how fully, how deeply the Lord Jesus took our place as a sinner and became like us that we might be made like Him. The man who did not sin, knew absolutely no sin whatsoever, the Lord Jesus. Him, God made to be sin, the sin of the ages, the sin of the whole world, the sin of all men. The filth, the degradation, the utter humiliation, the guilt, the condemnation of six thousand years of the sin of mankind was suddenly his at Calvary. 2 Cor. 5:21 No marvel that His Father forsook Him. That hideous cesspool of the total ungodliness of mankind was accumulated in one place at one time. While we each, individually, bear the responsibility for our sin, He who did not ever sin, took the accumulated unrighteousness of us all. Paid the penalty and purchased our forgiveness, total and full pardon. David, a type of the Lord Jesus, speaking in a Messianic vein, stated that he was a worm. Despised and was a reproach of men. Ps. 22:6 These words could well have been spoken by the Lord Jesus.