Rocky Road Devotions: Do WHAT?

Thursday, February 27, 2020

Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given you.” This time Jonah obeyed the Lord’s command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all. On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” The people of Nineveh believed God’s message, and from the greatest to the least, they declared a fast and put on burlap to show their sorrow. When the king of Nineveh heard what Jonah was saying, he stepped down from his throne and took off his royal robes. He dressed himself in burlap and sat on a heap of ashes. Then the king and his nobles sent this decree throughout the city: “No one, not even the animals from your herds and flocks, may eat or drink anything at all. People and animals alike must wear garments of mourning, and everyone must pray earnestly to God. They must turn from their evil ways and stop all their violence. Who can tell? Perhaps even yet God will change his mind and hold back his fierce anger from destroying us.” When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened. Jonah 3:1-10[1]

Second chances come in many different areas of life. Relationships, career, health, and even games. Most of the time there is some forgiveness involved, or, at the least, a softening that gives us a chance to make it right this time. Jonah had that. He’d stumbled at the first call to go to Nineveh; this time he made it count. The whole city repented and turned to God, including the king.

It’s a preoccupation of mine how many second chances people walk past. Perhaps one of the more well-known second chances is the pan handler; it’s a bit uncomfortable, but if you avert eye contact you can usually get past that guy on the corner of the street with the sign that always includes anything helps – God bless. What’s “second chance” about that encounter is not merely that guy, or one of his tribe, being on virtually every major intersection you pass, but that we become so adept at ignoring the second chance to love being involved in mercy.

It is safe to say Jonah would welcome the opportunity to explain just how awful it is to enable that guy begging on the corner. In a free country you’re supposed to work and provide for yourself. While it’s probably true that there are some who bear those signs asking your help (and dollar bills) who just find it easier to beg than work, there are probably many more who have just come to the end of their rope, and the knot at the end of that rope is you; they’ve become too accustomed to holding on to that knot, or too afraid to let go.

Jonah got a second chance to deliver God’s message of judgment and mercy. Nineveh was promised destruction if they didn’t let go of the knot at the end of their wicked rope. What was so unusual was the way they believed the message of God and repented…from the throne room to the brothels and barns. The message of judgment brought change and a mission of mercy. All Jonah had to do was let go of his own knotty rope of hatred towards the Ninevites and do as God had directed.

For You Today

Truth is you know that guy with the God Bless sign as well as I do. And you have probably heard this message before about Jonah, and the Scripture I want us both to have annoying us today as we drive past the man or woman holding that sign with one hand, and the knot at the end of his or her life’s rope with the other: