The God of Second Chances

Have you ever needed a second chance in life?  There is hardly anything more wonderful than a second chance – and we all need one from time to time – in big ways and in small ways.  But a second chance is not what we expect the prophet Jonah to receive.  Despite the fact that he is a prophet of God – a spiritual leader in Israel—He has proved himself obstinate and rebellious.  It is one thing for a new convert or an immature believer to get it so wrong.  But for one such as Jonah, it is a remarkable story of disobedience and a shocking fall from grace.

At the start of chapter 3, when Jonah has just been returned to dry land after three days in the belly of the fish, immediately we discover something wonderful about the God of this story:  we learn that God is a God of undeserved second chances:  “Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time: ‘Go to the great city of Ninevah and proclaim to it the message I give you.’” (verse 1)  This  verse is quite astounding.  It is as though we have gone right back to the beginning of the book. Chapter 3 and verse 1 looks a whole lot like chapter 1 and verse 1– and this is likely intentional.  We are meant to sit up and take notice of the resemblance, because what we are witnessing in chapter 3 and verse 1 is a wonderful second chance for Jonah – a thoroughly undeserved opportunity to start again.

Back in chapter 1 God sent his word to Jonah and called him to preach against the Gentile city of Ninevah – to be his emissary and representative in a foreign land. It was an awesome responsibility and a huge privilege.  But Jonah wouldn’t do it, and instead got on a boat heading in the other direction. And it took a big storm, a scary swim, and three days in the stomach of a large fish for Jonah to begin to come to his senses.  When we encounter Jonah again at the beginning of chapter 3, he has recently been returned to dry land by way of a vomiting fish, and his future is very much up in the air.  And if it were up to us to make the determination about Jonah’s future at this point, we would likely have benched him.  We might well have all allowed the digestive system of that big fish just to continue its work unhindered.  We might have left Jonah for dead at the bottom of the sea.

For any servant of God – for any follower of Jesus – we all reach stages and walk though seasons where we will wonder:  Can God still use me? Despite my sin and my failure – the ways in which I have let him down – Does God still have a future for me?

And the story of Jonah tells us something precious and wonderful about the heart of God:  it tells us that if we will call upon him – if we will repent and turn to him – there is a future for us.  The repentance piece is so key: chapter 3 comes after chapter 2 – and the Lord had to take Jonah to the very depths of the sea before he would in any way repent.  His repentance was partial in some ways – we see that he’s still sinful and flawed in chapter 4 – but there has been a heart change and a turning to the Lord.  Have your repented of your stubborn or selfish or sinful ways lately?  Turn to God today; a second chance awaits you.