“And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time." Jonah 3:1
Jonah was going in the wrong direction and a whale decided to stop him from destroying himself.
It is the Grace of God at work. Even when we run away God’s prevenient grace follows us and saves us.
We must change Directions. There was an officer in the navy who had always dreamed of commanding a battleship. He finally achieved that dream and was given a commission on the newest and proudest ship in the fleet. One stormy night, as the ship plowed through the seas, the captain was on duty on the bridge when off to the port he spotted a strange light rapidly approaching his own ship. Immediately he ordered the signalman to flash the message to the unidentified craft, "Alter your course ten degrees to the south." Only a moment had passed before the reply came: "Alter your course ten degrees to the north." Determined that his ship would not take a backseat to others, the captain ordered to send a message: "Alter course ten degrees--I am the CAPTAIN!" The response beamed back, "Alter your course ten degrees--I am Seaman Third Class Jones." Now infuriated, the captain grabbed the signal light with his own hands and fired off: "Alter course, I am a battleship." The reply came back. "Alter your course, I am a lighthouse operator. “No matter how big or important any of us think we are, God’s Command stands forth as an unchanging beacon. All our courses must be altered to His will and Word.
Jona has gone one hundred eighty degrees in the wrong direction. Jona did not go to the lighthouse and crash, rather sank into the deep ocean and was eaten by a giant sea animal. Here is a man who was entrusted with the honor of God to bear God’s Word and to do God’s will. He had been given a calling, clear and explicit. And flatly he refused. Jonah became so determined in his disobedience that he declared that he would rather die than do his calling. “Throw me overboard,” he had said to the sailors. Now, having preserved his life, we would have said, “All right, Jonah, go home. We’re glad you repented, but you can’t be of further use to God. Your calling is revoked.” But that is not God’s way. God brings the same commission. He restores, in the way of repentance, and He reaffirms the calling. God was giving him a second chance.
Imagine, for a moment, how Jonah must have felt. Had he not permanently disqualified himself as a prophet? For a period which only afterward Jonah could determine to have been three days (how does one tell the time in a whale’s belly, in the pitch dark, in dampness and slime?), after that, he has been spat back upon the dry land. He felt the internal wrenching of the fish. He is hurled skyward over the water. And he lands on a sandy (or perhaps, stony) shoreline. His eyes and face are shriveled from the darkness. He tries to get his balance. His clothes and skin are covered with slime and stench. He asks the question, “Where am I?” And he reflects on the unusual providence of God which spared his life. The last sight he saw was the heaving, angry sea. Now he is on the dry land again. What was he to do, where was he to go? Where was he? He was in a bewildered state. He could not go back to Israel and be a prophet. And would it not be presumptuous to think that he still was a prophet after such disobedience?
God calls Jonah a second time. (Jonah 3:1-3). “And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey.”
One of the great lessons of Jonah's failure and forgiveness is that God can continue to use those who return to Him. Thankfully, we serve the God of a second chance. Just like Jonah, many spiritual leaders received a second chance to do what God called him to do. Adam sinned in the garden and God covered him. Moses murdered a man and God called him. Elijah quit and complained then God re-commissioned him. Naomi, is a widow in the Bible who lost her husband and two sons in a foreign land and thought her life was over (Ruth 1). However, the Lord hadn’t forgotten Naomi, and through the love of her daughter-in-law and the compassion of a godly man named Boaz, Naomi saw God’s love and was given a second chance (4:13–17). Peter denied knowing Jesus three times. God used him at Pentecost. John Mark deserted the mission team at Pamphylia yet God moved upon him to write the second Gospel.
And that has been the story of the church through the ages. The same God cares for us today. We can see God’s grace in the helping hand of people we may not even know well. But above all, God is willing to give us a fresh start. We just need to see God’s hand in our lives and realize He never stops showing us His kindness.
We have all received a multitude of opportunities to return and serve God. And once God corrected His reluctant prophet, He continued the work He intended. In Jonah's third chapter, we see a picture of mercy and grace. For the second time, God tells Jonah to go preach. God doesn't remind Jonah of his disobedience or where he had just been and why he had been there. God simply said go preach and Jonah did.
I. A sovereign work of God to forgive and change – 3:1. Jonah went to preach. But we must ask, "Why” The People of Nineveh were not praying for revival, nor were they interested. To a degree, Jonah has a point. The Assyrians qualified better as candidates for God's sovereign judgment than as candidates for God's sovereign grace. The people of Nineveh repented including the king and his family. The repentance had nothing to do with Jonah's ability or the Assyrians' worthiness. All we say for sure is that God had a purpose beyond human understanding. As we read in John 3:16, God so loved the world that whoever believes shall become the children. The love of God goes beyond our worthiness to receive it. Perhaps as people of grace, we can look at this from a different perspective. It could be God's plan to produce more good in the world by saving the worst people in the world. No doubt their pillaging stopped for at least a short time. In the end, the revival at Nineveh is nothing short of a sovereign work of forgiveness that produced change.
2. The Power of God’s Word - 3:1-2
God told Jonah go and "preach the message that I tell you." While spiritual renewal may occur without a preacher or prophet, it never occurs with divine truth. And here Jonah declared the Word of God. Interestingly, the prophet didn't sugar-coat the truth out of fear of offending the audience. He neither clamored for their favor, nor trembled from their threats. This scenario reminds the preacher of his duty as a messenger of God.
A. We must speak the truth in love [see Ephesians 4:15]
While we might question Jonah's motives based on the last chapter of his book, declaring the message of God's pending judgment against lost humanity qualifies as an act of love.
B. We offer the truth to all people
He declared the truth to the commoners in the street and leaders in the palace. God's offer of grace extends to all races in all places. This, of course, reminds of our commission to go into the entire world with the gospel.
C. We obey the truth whole-heartedly
When we declare the truth, we do more than simply inform. Instead, we call for radical obedience to the truth of God. The Assyrians responded to the message with genuine repentance. To say it differently, they believed the Word of God and then behaved consistently with the truth. In fact, verse 3:10 indicates that when "God saw their actions" He forgave them and withheld His judgment.
Here we see the work of God on an unexpected group of people – (3:6). This revival was totally unexpected. And, initially, it was undesirable. Consider the probability that this brutal king would suddenly repent and turn to God. For that matter, why did they even listen to Jonah? Some commentators have suggested that the gastric juices of the fish bleached Jonah's skin. But we cannot qualify anything about his appearance.
Paul, the Apostle, had a similar experience with God. While traveling to Damascus to imprison Christians, the hostile enemy of Christ suddenly and unexpectedly encountered God. And that confrontation resulted in a radical change in his life. This truth brings hope to all those parents who plead with their wayward children to return to God and to all those pastors who plead with their indifferent congregations to return to God. God has and can move suddenly on those who don't even expect to hear from Him.
IV. A saving work of God on an undeserving people – 3:10
When God's people experience revival [i.e. Jonah], lost people who completely ignore God come to Him in repentance. To say it differently, God must do something to us before He does anything through us. Notice two key terms here: "saving" and "undeserving." "God relented" or spared the Assyrians from destruction. Of course, this pictures God's grace because the people did not deserve His mercy. We should be careful to remember that no one deserves mercy. But, from a human perspective, if anyone lacked moral decency and deserved wrath, they did.
V. A sanctifying work of God in the culture – 3:7-9
Notice the transformation of the prevailing culture. Only God could produce such a radical change in an entire city. Remember that when God regenerates the soul, outward manifestations of holiness should follow. The convert who feels comfortable in his former rebellion probably never truly repented in the first place.
It is easy for those in the church to cast stones from behind our mortar and brick walls at the sinners. But will that type of preaching or evangelism make a difference in our world? Probably not. The message of repentance, however, can change hearts. If we in the church hope to impact our world for good, we must declare the life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ.
Jonah loved the preaching of Judgment rather than grace and mercy
Jonah's sermon was short and simple. “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned!” (3:4). That’s it. He gets straight to the matter - no beating around the bush, no points all lined up, no plethora of illustrations. He was very excited about preaching “hell, fire, and damnation.” Nineveh was a great city, and he was ready to see it burn. The sins of Assyria were great similar to Sodom and Gomorrah. The capital city Nineveh personified it as full - sins such as polytheism, brutality, exploitation, witchcraft, sorcery, alcohol abuse, prostitution, and illicit sex were in abundance. Jona meant “overturned” in the same way as Sodom and Gomorrah.
But God’s will is fulfilled. “The Ninevites believed in God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. When the 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” (3:5-6)
Jesus would say of Jonah: “This generation is evil. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation” (Luke 11:29-30). Jesus calls our attention to Jonah himself. Jesus tells us that it is our failures that make us useful. Jesus points to Jonah as the message. When Jesus was describing His purpose in Luke 19:10 (NKJV), he chose words filled with great wealth and victory for our lives. He said: “For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.”
A lot of times we mix repentance with judgment. Jonah wanted God to bring judgment to the people of Nineveh. But God wanted to give them a second chance. God wants us to preach repentance and not judgment. Our mission is to bring people to God. Judgment is God's business. Jesus taught the parables about the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son. God comes looking for the lost people in Nineveh just as he was coming after a lost Jonah. God wants everyone to repent and be saved.
Google has been keeping track of the words in English both new words being adopted and words that are getting extinct. They listed the death of certain words or words that are not used as frequently as they once were. For example, the words “The Great War” fell out of use around 1939 when people realized that it wasn’t actually the war to end all wars. There is a word that I have found is dead in our conversations – it’s the word “repent.” The famous poet Lord Byron said, “… the weak alone repent!” Only weaklings repent, only losers. The Bible teaches our problems will only be dealt with through repentance. But the message of the gospel is about repentance. Jonah needed to repent as much as the Assyrians had to.
It’s what Jesus came and preached. He walked around, calling out, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17). It’s what the apostles proclaimed. They cried out, to their hearers, “Repent and be baptized.” (Acts 2:38). The Lord wants us to turn from sin and turn to Jesus - like Jonah here. Yes, those words from the New Testament are meant for unbelievers. It is the same message that we are preaching. Repent and Change for life is short, we don't know when death comes.
God gives us second and third and more chances every day, hoping that we will turn our directions rather than head into disaster.
Blessings 
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