Praise the LORD He Repeats Himself

“And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying,” (Jon 3:1 AV)

 

I don’t know about you, but I am glad the word of the LORD comes to me more than once.  He sends His word a second time, a third time, a fourth time, and many more times.  The LORD doesn’t have to do that.  Once would be sufficient.  He would be justified in His saying if He warned or instructed only once.  That is not the God we serve.  Jonah had every reason to believe God was done with him.  He had an attitude regarding the people to whom God sent him.  This prejudice never abated.  The Ninevites victimized the Jewish people, especially those on the east of the Jordan River.  Jonah was a prophet to the northern ten tribes of Israel of whom two-and-a-half were those on the eastern side of the Jordan.  Jonah was from the tribe of Zebulon and would not have had direct contact with the Assyrians, but as he ministered in the north, would have met those of the tribe of Manasseh, who in turn, would have related the atrocities done to their families across the river.  The bias was the driving factor for Jonah to flee westward to Tarshish.  The last thing he wanted to do is to go preach to a people who violently victimized his fellow Jewish brethren and who were as pagan as a nation could be.  His desire was God’s judgment on them.  But in his heart, he knew they would respond and God would show grace.  His bias evolved to hatred and didn’t want to see revival come to his enemies.  Jonah rejected the call of God out of spite.  This spite continued through his preaching and grew as he saw revival come.

Our all-knowing God knew this from eternity past.  He could have used someone else.  He could have tapped someone who would have had a heart for the Assyrian people.  He could have called someone far more gracious who knew what forgiveness meant.  God could have called someone who went to Nineveh with the right attitude and would have complimented his preaching.  Yet, He chose a prophet with a bad attitude.  To fix the attitude, God prepared a whale to swallow Jonah and teach him a lesson in humility by spending three days and nights in the stomach of the beast.  For the moment, Jonah did get an attitude adjustment.  He recommitted to his calling and vowed to preach to the Ninevites.  Once upon dry ground, the word of God came to Jonah a second time.  That is where we pick up the account.  Once on the shore of Nineveh, the word of God came to Jonah a second time.  What grace!

All of us are like my son.  He seldom did what he was told the first time.  We had a nickname for him.  Tell-Me-Twice ______.  I finally had to devise a way for him to learn immediate obedience.  Every time I told him after the first time, that was the amount I would swat his backside.  He learned pretty quickly to pay attention and obey the voice of his father.  That is exactly how we are.  Rarely do we obey the LORD the first time.  We ignore Him.  We think about it and think better of it.  We assume His instruction is optional.  We make arguments as to why we have the right of self-determination and in the present situation, we are exercising it.  There are many reasons why we allow the first instruction to pass without conforming.  It is when He sends His word the second, third, fourth, etc time we realize just how loving and gracious He is.  God is so patient with us.  He is so understanding.  For God to give infinite chances should motivate us to strive harder in faith and obedience.  We have all spent our time in the belly of the whale.  More than once.  And when it is over, the word of God comes again.  Praise be to His name!