Second Time Around

[Rev. Gerry Moore Jr.,PhD]

      Jonah 3:1–2) 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."
      Does God have to tell you a second time, like Jonah,
or do you listen when He first asks you to take on a difficult task for
him?
      It's not hard to understand Jonah's refusal. God
wanted to send His prophet to the capital of Assyria, Israel's enemy.
This extremely violent nation, expert at wiping out other countries, was
the war machine of the day, and other countries feared it for good
reason. They were not nice people. But Jonah knew his compassionate God
and feared that instead of punishing the wicked Assyrians, He would
forgive them. preferring his enemies in hell, the prophet refused to do
God's command.
      What was Jonah thinking? we ask ourselves. Didn't he
know God's in control of everything, and if He wants pleople saved, they
will be? It's so easy to see the story clearly when it's from another
person's perspective. But we've done it ourselves, haven't we? God asks
us to speck to a person about Him, and we keep putting it off. We'll do
it "someday." He asks us to begin a ministry, and we resist, figuring
we're not "spiritual" enough.
      When we respond that way, like Jonah, we may end up in
a painful situation. We probably won't enter a fish–s belly, but hurt
can still find us for awhile. In the end, God will bring us to do His
will after all. He gives a second chance, and we'll obey this
time–unless we prefer sitting in the twenty–first century equivalent
of a fish belly.

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