Jonah – Try again
“And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time,…..” Jonah 3:1
God’s grace and mercy are so good to us. Chapter 3 of Jonah begins with a subtle but profound statement. On the surface it looks like nothing more than God talking again. But when you read verse 1 of chapter 3, what you are reading is the very definition of God’s wonderful mercy and grace.
God very easily could have left Jonah in the bottom of the ocean, in the belly of a fish. After all, Jonah had defied the very command of God to God’s face. He took this defiance to the point of endangering the lives of several sailors. Plus, the motivation for Jonah’s actions was nothing more than pure hatred toward his fellow man. Jonah wanted to see the people of Nineveh go to an eternal hell. Jonah felt that they deserved it. Jonah had passed judgement and he felt that God’s judgement was wrong. So you see, Jonah really deserved what he had received from God thus far through the first 2 chapters of this small book.
But God. Such an awesome two word phrase. God had a plan and he gave Jonah the opportunity once again to be a part of it.
“Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.” Jonah 3:2
God gave Jonah the same command that He gave him in chapter 1. Go and preach to the people of Nineveh. I want you to see something here in chapter 3. Read verse 2 again. Notice that God simply gave Jonah the command to go. God didn’t say anything about how this was the second time that He had said this. God didn’t mention how Jonah had messed up in the recent past. God spoke to Jonah as if this was the first time He had given Jonah the command. God had forgiven Jonah for his past discretion. As a result of this forgiveness, God doesn’t rehash past failures that we have. When God forgives, He forgets. God will not get historical on you.
“I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.” Isaiah 43:25
“And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” Hebrews 10:17
We can rest assured that God doesn’t keep score. He doesn’t sit back and think about how much we should owe Him for all the times that He has forgiven us. God is not like us. How many times have we ever said “You owe me.” to someone? We like for people to feel like they owe us. We like for them to be constantly reminded that we helped them in some way. That way, we can bring it up in the future when it might benefit us. We refer to it as “calling in a favor”. It’s really more like reminding someone of their failure if we are honest. God doesn’t deal with us like that. He doesn’t desire for us to worry. He wants us to live with confidence that He is with us and will never leave us. God knows that we are far more useful and effective when we are not bogged down with doubt. Doubt can be paralyzing.
So Jonah decides to listen to God, and he blazes a trail to Nineveh. He stands before the people and preaches repentance just as God had commanded him. Jonah tells the people that unless they repent, that God will allow them to be overthrown in forty days. This again is a very strong example of God’s grace and mercy. You see Nineveh was a very large and wicked city. It was situated along a very popular trade route. Therefore, you had numerous types of people in the city at all times. These people were representing every area of the world. And what do people take with them everywhere they go? Their morals, religion, and beliefs. So in Nineveh, you were surrounded by every kind of false religion that you could think of. This is a tall task for Jonah. He was easily in the minority as a follower of God. But, he did not let it prevent him from carrying through with his mission. He knew that he had the Creator of the universe on his side and that is all he needed.