Taken from "Your Place in God's Plan", formerly titled And the Lord Appointed You Copyright © 1997 by Lutheran Hour Ministries Revised 2012
God’s plan was for Jonah to go east to a city called Nineveh and to warn the people of their wickedness. But Jonah didn’t like the plan, at least not the way he fit into it. So he made his own plan. He bought a ticket on the next ship headed west. Jonah figured that if God insisted on getting a message to Nineveh, He could always choose someone else. Maybe even someone who lived closer—to cut down on travel time. But God liked His choice of Jonah as the one to carry out His plan. So He sent a storm to take Jonah off the westbound ship and into an eastbound fish, which would take him back toward Nineveh.
God was right on track in selecting Jonah for the job. Jonah must have been a great preacher because after the people of Nineveh heard him they repented and turned to God for help. The city that God had threatened to destroy was saved.
But Jonah didn’t like the way God’s plan turned out in the end. He complained because God had not carried out His threat to wipe out Nineveh. He said, “I knew You were a gracious God and merciful. I knew You’d forgive those people. That’s why I didn’t want to come here in the first place.”
Jonah hoped God would change His mind and destroy Nineveh after all. So he sat outside the city wall (a safe place in case Nineveh was hit by fire and brimstone) and pouted. It was hot and dry outside that wall and Jonah was miserable. But God still remembered Jonah in His plans for the day. He caused a fast-growing plant, probably a castor bean, to grow up beside him to provide a shady spot. And Jonah sat in the shade and waited and watched.
Then it happened: God appointed a worm to burrow in the trunk of the plant. The worm’s activities cut off the plant’s moisture supply. Then a wind dried out the leaves and Jonah lost his shady spot. He was angry with God yet again.
“Look, Jonah,” God said. “You didn’t grow that plant; I gave it to you. Now because I took it away, you are angry. Yet you want Me to take My blessing away from all the people of Nineveh. Don’t you think that, in the whole scheme of things, they are more important to Me than that plant was to you?”
The great fish had turned Jonah around and brought him back to what God had planned. But God worked through the worm to turn Jonah’s heart around and to help him understand how God’s mercy and forgiveness are for all people.
And that’s how God used a worm.