Thankful for the Past

Introduction:

All of us need a second chance from time to time. We mess up and blow things with God and with other people. We are chronic failures if we are being completely honest! And aren’t you glad that God is a God of second chances....and third, and fourth, and fifth chances. That should not mean that we presume upon the grace of God, but we can say as the Psalmist says,

Psalm 103:8–14 (ESV)

8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

9 He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever.

10 He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.

11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;

12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

13 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.

14 For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.

This morning, we are going to look into this truth a little more as we look at the second half of the Book of Jonah. Look with me in your Bibles to Jonah 3.

Jonah 3:1–5 ESV

1 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” 3 So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth. 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.

Pray

Jonah is a story that leaves you hanging. We are going to see what God does in a minute, but it leaves us with a question mark. It is for you and me to answer the question. Shall God have mercy on people? Before you answer, we need to look into the character of the God of second chances this morning.

The first thing we notice is that:

1. God is Merciful (3:1-3)

The Bible says that the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.

Aren’t you glad that God gives us second chances? None of these are guaranteed, but God is merciful. No one could make it with just one shot. Only Jesus could accomplish perfect holiness.

Jonah was given a second chance to obey God by going to Nineveh. He was to do what God sent him to do in the first place.

Notice that the message is still a message of judgment. Jonah is told in verse 2 to speak the message that God tells him to speak against the city.

As believers, that is the call that God has given to each one of us as well. We are called to preach that message that God gives us. We are not to change it or alter it to make people feel better about their situation with God.

Now, that message is first a message of judgment. God is going to punish this wicked and sinful generation. Every generation is the same. Every generation is at war with God and comes into this world with original sin. We have a fallen, sin nature and we rebel against God. We chose our own way rather than obey the commands of God.

But God is also merciful and calls out those who are lost. He has mercy on those who repent, or turn from their sins. He sends people like Jonah to warn that judgment awaits the wicked.

That leads us to the next thing we need to realize.

2. God is Just (3:4)

God is just. What does it mean to be just?

According to the Oxford English dictionary, to be just means to be morally right and fair. So what does that mean concerning God?

It means that God is morally right and fair. Nothing God does is wrong. That also means that God is right when He punishes the wicked.

Nineveh was a wicked city. We talked about last week how wicked they were. They were a brutal people that worshiped false gods. The chief god they worship was known as Dagon.

Dagon was a regional god that was worshiped by the Philistines as well.

Dagon is who the Philistines offered sacrifices to when the gouged out Samson’s eyes

Dagon is the god that the Philistines worshiped when they captured the ark in 1 Samuel 5. It is also the same god whose idol fell facedown multiple times in the presence of the ark of God

When Saul was killed his head was displayed in the temple of Dagon

The Ninevites were wicked and worshiped a false God and deserved to be punished by God. But it is often easier for us to see why other people should be punished and not us. The truth is that God is completely just and right in destroying every person. He doesn’t owe any of us salvation. So for Jonah to be sent to preach judgment to the people was a completely right thing for God to send him to do.

But remember that God is merciful and just at the same time. This was why Jonah didn’t want to go in the first place.

Application

Before we move on, I want to ask you something. Do we sometimes presume upon the mercy of God? Do we feel that God owes us a chance to be saved? We don’t truly realize that it is a gift that God has given us of which we are totally undeserving.

We may not think we are as wicked as the Ninevites were and we may not worship an idol named Dagon, but we are wicked and we do make gods for ourselves. Sometimes this god is our own selves, and sometimes it is something else like power, wealth, or fame.

Anytime we put someone or something before God, we commit idolatry. A simple look at the 10 Commandments will show us how wicked we are. So why does God give us a chance at salvation? Why us? It is his mercy alone. This is not some doctrine that should cause us to have pride in ourselves, but rather it should cause us to bow before the throne of God in humility. We should worship Him that He is a God who saves!

3. God is Forgiving (3:5-10)

Jonah 3:5–10 ESV

5 And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. 6 The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.” 10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

It is very interesting that the Hebrew name for the fish that swallowed Jonah is the word “dag.” Some ancient traditions believed that there was a connection between the words and that the reason that the people of Nineveh responded to the message was because the “dag” spit Jonah out. It is also possible that the stomach acids changed the appearance of Jonah’s skin as well.

It think the answer is a little more simpler than that. God gave to them the opportunity to repent and they did. They were never told to repent. They were only told that judgment was coming. Yet the king called for a fast and a humbling of the people and they repented.

Spurgeon has a wonderful sermon on this passage called “Who Can Tell?” It is an amazing message where over and over again the words from verse 9 are repeated. In the KJV it reads,

Jonah 3:9 KJV 1900

9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?

You see, none of us really knows what God will do. We preach the gospel and hand out tracts and have fall festivals and outreach events because “who can tell” what God might do? God might decide to save someone through these events. We aren’t privy to the list of the names of God’s elect. We don’t know the appointed times of salvation to those who will believe. But we know that God is merciful and forgiving, and when He works salvation in the heart of an unbeliever, He will grant them eternal life. All whom the Lord calls unto Jesus will be saved and not one of them will be lost.

So the king and the people heard a message of judgment and thought to themselves, “who can tell” what God will do?

Why would God send Jonah to preach to them if He wouldn’t save them?

Why would they need to know what God was going to do? Why not just destroy them?

Their hearts showed that they were already being drawn to God for salvation, as wicked as they may have been.

Romans 5:8 says, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

If you are hearing this today and there is even the slightest urge in your heart to turn to Christ, it is the work of God upon you. Turn to Him and He will be merciful to you and save you!

Why would you waste such an opportunity!

4. God is Gracious (4:1-11)

The last scene of the story shows God’s grace and His compassion for the lost.

Jonah 4:1–11 ESV

1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2 And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. 3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?” 5 Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. 6 Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. 7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” 9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” 10 And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

Now, sadly this passage also shows the heart of many believers. Jonah goes outside of the city to sulk. He is mad that God has shown grace to the city and he secretly hopes that they will mess up and God will destroy the city after all.

As he sits on a hill outside of the city, he waits. He waits and gets uncomfortable. He gets hot and the sun starts to scorch his skin.

God, in His mercy, appoints a plant to grow up over his head to give him shade. Now, let’s talk about this for a minute.

If you are here this morning and you don’t believe in miracles, you might call this myth. But, let me remind you again that a God who can bring something into existence out of nothing, and a God who can appoint a fish to swallow a man whole and it not kill him but later spits him out on dry land, can easily cause a plant to spring up and accelerate its growth so that it can cover Jonah and give him shade. This is essentially what happened at creation. On Day 7 when God rested, we had a mature looking world full of mature animals and creatures that looked like it had been there for generations. This is why dating methods cannot fully tell the whole picture for us of how old the earth is. It certainly isn’t millions of years old!

So Jonah delights in the plant and the shade it provides. God has shown compassion to Jonah.

Isn’t that like God? He shows compassion to the ones least compassionate. He gives shade and comfort to His people, even when they don’t deserve it.

But God in His sovereignty wanted to teach Jonah a lesson. So, overnight a worm is appointed to eat the tree and take away the shade Jonah has enjoyed.

In many ways, this shade is much like God’s grace. God grants it to those He will and takes it away from those He will. God gave the Ninevites grace, like He gave Jonah grace under the plant.

Jonah doesn’t get the message. He curses the plant and gets angry with God. He begs for God to take his life rather than see his enemy saved.

Now, the Book ends with a great discussion. A question. Look again at vv. 9-11.

Jonah 4:9–11 ESV

9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” 10 And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

Jonah is mad that God gave salvation to those that he didn’t create. They acted in their ignorance of God. Now, they were not innocent. God has given a witness so that the mouth of every person may be stopped. But the people of Nineveh did not have the same witness that Jonah’s own people had and they still refused to believe the judgment of God would come on them. The Ninevites did and repented.

But God asks this interesting question of Jonah. “Should I not pity Nineveh?” He describes the city as those who are more than 120,000 persons (probably just numbering the men) who don’t know their right hand from their left.

Have you ever had to do the little hand trick to remind yourself of what is left and what is right? You’d be surprised how many people don’t know their right and left apart.

Morally speaking, people aren’t much better. We should not be surprised when lost people act like lost people. We should be surprised when God’s children act like lost people.

You know, sometimes God’s people can act worse than lost people. But God has compassion on people. Both on His children and on the lost.

Conclusion

So the question for us is this. Should God be a God of second chances? Should God grant mercy to those we like the least? Should we sit around sulking while the world is lost and dying? Should we not preach the message that God has given us to preach and plead with people to be saved?

Who can tell what God will do? What will you do?