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Jon_4:7 But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.
Ver. 7. But God prepared a worm] All occurrences are to be ascribed not to nature, fate, or fortune, but to God, who, as he is great in great things, so is he not little in the least, maximus in magnis, nec parvus in minimis. He prepared first the gourd, and then the worm, and then the wind. He was the great doer in all. He so attempereth all that his people shall have their times and their turns of joy and sorrow. These two are tied together, said the heathen, with chains of adamant; hence also Ageronia’s altar in the temple of Volupia (Plut.). See the circle God usually goes in with his, Psa_30:5-7, &c., to teach them that all outward comforts are but as grass or flower of the field, which he can soon blast or corrode by some worm of his providing. Moneo te iterumque iterumque monebo, saith Lactantius, I warn thee, therefore, and will do it again and again, that thou look not upon those earthly delights as either great or true to those that trust them; but as things that are not only deceitful, because doubtful, but also deadly, because delicious. There is a worm lies couchant in every gourd to smite it, a worm to waste it, besides the worm of conscience bred in that froth and filth, for a perpetual torment.
And it smote the gourd that it withered] Plants have also their wounds, diseases, and death, saith Pliny (lib. 17, cap. 14). The gourd being gnawed at the root, and robbed of its moistness, withered. Sic transit gloria mundi. So fleeting is the glory of the world. But "the righteous shall flourish like a palm tree" (not like this palm crist), Psa_92:12. Now the palm tree, though it have many weights at the top and many snakes or worms at the root, yet it still says, Nec premor nec perimor, I am neither borne down nor dried up; but as Noah’s olive drowned, kept its verdure; and as Moses’ bush fired but not consumed; so fareth it with the righteous, "persecuted, but not forsaken," &c., 2Co_4:8-9, and at death a crown of life awaits him, quanta perennis erit, an imperishable crown, an inheritance undefiled, and that withereth not, 1Pe_5:4, that suffereth no wasting away but is reserved fresh and green for you in heaven; like the palm tree, which Pliny saith never loseth his leaf nor fruit; or like that Persian tree, whereof Theophrastus saith, that at the same time it doth bud, blossom, and bear fruit.