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Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Second chances are wonderful things, aren’t they? Have you ever had one?
A second chance to redo an exam which you failed, a second chance at a business presentation, a second chance in a relationship which was going well but stumbled badly, a second chance at a first impression, a second chance in leadership? Or how about this… a second chance with God?!
chance
Yesterday we left Jonah the prophet sitting on an unnamed beach having had three days of a nightmare beyond anything you or I can imagine. Jonah chapter 2 ends with this statement: “Then the LORD commanded the great fish and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.”
You’ll recall Jonah was instructed by God to travel overland several hundred miles from Israel to the huge but wicked city of Nineveh, and ‘preach’ God’s message to them. Instead Jonah walked to Joppa and bought a ticket for travel in the opposite direction, on a cargo ship. A God sent storm was so furious the sailors threw cargo into the sea and finally threw Jonah overboard when he acknowledged to them that he was the problem, since he was refusing to obey God. A huge fish swallowed Jonah and Jonah spent three days alive in that dark, unimaginable, whale stomach dungeon.
In his despair, inside that fish, Jonah reflected and repented. Jonah cried out to God for mercy. I hope you spent some good time reflecting yesterday on Jonah chapter 2 and especially the end of his prayer. “When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you LORD, and my prayer rose to You, to Your holy temple. Those who cling to worthless idols, forfeit the grace [of God] that could be theirs.” Have you pondered the profound truth of this statement?
Nearly 7 BILLION people in our world are in that statement… people who everyday forfeit or forgo or do not take advantage of the opportunity to live in God’s grace extended to them through Jesus Christ and His Redemption from their sin. Rather, they hold to religions, theories, even their own efforts… but are living in their sin bondage and destined for an eternity apart from God. That was Nineveh and is most of our world today. Finally, Jonah began to see Nineveh through God’s eyes. Do you see your city, your country, our world through God’s eyes yet? What do you see? What does God want to do about it through you?
Jonah continued… “But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to You, O God. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the LORD.” (Jonah 2:7-9) Have you ever been in that condition my friend, where you felt your life was ‘ebbing away’ due to your own bad choices? When you stopped blaming others, did you turn to God in honest repentance and do you now recognize the glorious restoring work God has done in your life since that dark day?
It seems clear Jonah had deeply reflected on the plight of the wicked city of Nineveh and God’s desire to do something spectacular. Do you see the evidence of his change of heart toward God’s desire to reach the wicked people of Nineveh? “What I have vowed, that I will make good. Salvation comes from the LORD.” I’m imagining Jonah had desperately requested a second chance and vowed that if given that chance he will go to Nineveh as God had instructed him, and he will preach the message God has given him! Have you ever asked God for a second chance? What happened and how did it change your life?
Jonah chapter 3 is only 10 short verses, but gives us the story of one of the greatest spiritual awakenings in the history of mankind. Jonah did make that long trek of several hundred miles to Nineveh, on foot, and he did proclaim the shocking message God had given to him: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned.” By their response, I believe there was much more to Jonah’s message. I imagine he was questioned by city leaders… who was he, where did he come from, what disaster was he predicting, what great force was powerful enough to accomplish this predicted disaster, and what had Nineveh done to deserve such a calamity?
As Jonah identified himself as a Hebrew, and proclaimed that the God he represented was the God of Moses and Joshua, Samuel, Elijah and kings David and Solomon, I imagine the people of Nineveh had heard the miraculous stories of this powerful God and that is why they responded in fear and repentance. Do you see what the people and their great king did?
As I write this tropical storm Eta is setting records. It is the 28th named tropical storm to strike land. Never before have we had that many storms in one year. It has meandered around the Caribbean, striking Central America, then Cuba and twice Florida, and is projected to skirt the US east coast bringing torrential rain and flooding. I don’t ever recall a storm that was as unpredictable in its path as this one, striking so many different land areas and population groups. As hurricane Eta is floundering around while America is floundering in a confusing, contested Presidential election, the world is watching and waits.
At the same time the global Coronavirus has rebounded in many parts of the world and hospitals are again filled to capacity with very sick people and no vaccine. Mobile morgue refrigerated trucks are pulled up outside hospitals in major cities around the world as people are dying faster than their bodies can be removed to overfilled funeral homes. And gravediggers are working overtime to receive the decaying bodies. Is God speaking to us my friends? What do you think God is saying? Is anyone listening? Is anyone responding? Could it be God is sending the very same message to our world today that He sent through Jonah to Nineveh 2700 years ago?
In closing, may I draw your attention to something very significant? It was the common people who heard Jonah’s message first in Nineveh and Jonah’s recollection of their response is this: “The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them put on sackcloth. When news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. Then he issued a proclamation…let everyone call urgently on God. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from His fierce anger so that we will not perish.” (Jonah 3:5-9)
Do you see it my friends? Do you see who believed Jonah’s warning first? Do you see who responded first? The normal, ordinary, everyday people. And do you see what the senior leader of the people did when he heard what the people were doing? Can we apply it to our situation today? How many people worldwide are clamoring for Presidents and Kings to fix the Coronavirus pandemic, as this weekend we surpass 1,300,000 deaths world wide? God holds the answer, the antidote to Coronavirus, for He holds the health of every person in HIS hands. Might God be waiting for a Nineveh style response to this global crisis? How might God respond to the people, you and me and millions like us, crying out to Him for His mercy in our repentance for our rebellion against Him?
And who in America will cry out in repentance for the dishonesty by so many in this election? And who will cry out to God in repentance for more than 61 million legal baby abortions since 1973? Who will cry out to God in repentance for Pedophilia and child pornography and child slavery around the world?
What happens inside your heart my friends, when you read Jonah’s closing statement of chapter 3: “When God saw what the Ninevites did and how they turned from their evil ways, God had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction He had threatened.” A city of more than 125,000 people received from God a second chance at life!
Could it happen in our day, in your city, your nation? What might your part be in such a miracle? I think it’s time to pray, and I’ve found a powerful video song to help us as God speaks into all our hearts about second chances and what He might want to do where you live:
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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