A DO OVER

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”

Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh.

Jonah 3:1-3a

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

We’ve only covered a mere two chapters in the life of Jonah but what a two chapters it has been, jam packed with lots of drama and its associated twists and turns. If you’re just joining us, here’s what you missed:

1. God chose a man named Jonah, a Galilean, to travel more than 500 miles to the northeast into a foreign land to deliver a message to the people of Nineveh, Assyria’s capitol city.

2. This man Jonah decided to disobey God and ran away from Him, going south from Gath Hepher to the seaport of Joppa where he caught a ship heading more than 2,500 miles west to the Spanish port of Tarshish.

3. Once at sea, God sent a mighty storm which caused the seas to become dangerous, placing everyone on the ship at risk. Sensing that the gods were at work and targeting someone on the ship, the crew cast lots and identified Jonah as the guilty party onboard.

4. Jonah subsequently confessed that he was a Hebrew and had run from the Lord God Almighty, the God of Israel. He told the crew to throw him over the side of the ship so he would perish and spare everyone else. The crew tried everything to try and avoid doing what Jonah told them to do but it became their only resort.

5. The crew threw Jonah overboard and the storm calmed immediately, leading all the people on the ship to acknowledge the God of Israel with praise. While this was going on, Jonah sunk into the deep and would have perished had God not sent a great fish to swallow him up. Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish.

6. While inside the great fish, Jonah lifts up a wonderful prayer of praise for the way God rescued him from the pit and then recommits himself to the Lord’s service, vowing to obediently make good on any second chance God may provide.

And with that, God had the great fish spew Jonah onto dry land, the advent of what constituted a “do over” for His chosen servant. Let’s see what Jonah did after being given a second chance:

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”

Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Jonah 3:1-3a

Note here that God’s tasking was no different than the first time he approached Jonah. It wasn’t as if God recognized Jonah had a problem with the first task and decided to give him something else to do, something he would like to do better. No, God gave His prophet the exact same mission as the first time. Jonah was to travel northeast to the “great city of Nineveh” and proclaim the message God would give.

That was it. It was a classic “do over”. Sort of like an Old Testament “groundhog day” with Jonah waking up from his time in the great fish only to realize he was right where he started before he decided to try and run away from the Lord. Jonah didn’t mess up his second chance.

We know this because the scriptures tell us so. God told Jonah to go and that’s what he did. This time, he “obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh”. We’ll see what happens tomorrow but before we close for today, we need to keep this truth in mind about the Lord who is the same Lord today as He was in the days of Jonah:

We serve a Lord who specializes in “do overs”.

It’s true, isn’t it?

I mean, just the very fact that I am alive and writing this, and you are where you are in the world reading it testifies to the fact we serve a Lord of not just second chances but third, fourth, fifth, so on and so forth. Maybe no one will ever have an exact count of the number of times the Lord they have been redeemed.

God gave Jonah a “do over”, a chance to choose obedience over sin again. He does the same for His people today.

Jonah learned from his past mistake and got it right the second time around.

How are we going to respond when the Lord opts to give us another try?

My prayer is that we will model Jonah, renew our commitment to the Lord, and uncompromisingly do what He commands us to do.

It’s only the smart thing to do when He allows us a second chance to do something right and righteous.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
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