Dead man walking and yelling!

Friday 6-26-15 (Home in Modesto)

Scripture reading:  Jonah 1-4    2 Tim 2

S.  Jonah 2:1-2  Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from inside the fish.  He said, "I cried out to the LORD in my great trouble, and he answered me. I called to you from the world of the dead, and LORD, you heard me! 

Vs 6  I was locked out of life and imprisoned in the land of the dead. But you, O LORD my God, have snatched me from the yawning jaws of death!

Jonah 3:1-2a  Then the LORD spoke to Jonah a second time:  "Get up and go… NLT

O.  Some people claim Jonah’s story is a myth.  But I believe it, because Jesus believed it and referred to it as true.  God made most fish so that they can draw their life-giving oxygen from the water and he created other sea creatures like the whale that can store great quantities of oxygen in their lungs and come up for a breath of air only occasionally.  The Bible tells us that God prepared a special creature to save Jonah’s life.  One thing is for sure; Jonah thought he was a dead man, but he was somehow kept alive.  And in repentance for his rebellion he prayed and was heard by God.  Now he found himself on a beach somewhere and trying to get himself untangled from stinky seaweed.  Now God spoke to him a second time… GO!  God gave him a second chance.

A.  I wonder what Jonah looked like after being 3 days and nights inside a fish.  He was, no doubt, a sight to behold.  Kids were probably running ahead of him screaming, “Dead man walking and yelling!”  Jonah thunders his message of judgment on the street corners of Nineveh and scares people to death.  He’s not preaching repentance.  He is not preaching salvation.  He didn’t want them saved.  He hated these enemies of Israel.  He was anxious for the 40^th day to come when “boom” the whole city would be destroyed. 

Now Jonah confesses the reason that he ran away from God’s calling in the first place.  He knew that God would listen to the people’s cry for mercy and give them a second chance.  That was his problem.  God is a God of mercy and grace.  He gives second chances.  That bothered Jonah.  So he sits on a hillside next to Nineveh and sulks.  His pride was hurt.  He had promised destruction and now nothing… no thunder and lightning… no earthquake… zero… nothing but love, mercy and grace.  Jonah is mad at God. 

It makes me want to yell at him, “Hey, Brother Jonah, if God was not a God of second chances you would be in… you know where… right now.”   

P.  Once again, Dear Father in heaven, I want to thank you for being a God of second chances and third and more.  I would be on my way to the place where Jonah was heading when he cried out for your mercy.  I was a 13 year old kid climbing a steep cliff at Oceanside Beach, Oregon when in desperation I cried out for mercy.  I seemed destined to be found as another crumpled cadaver on the rocks of that beach below that cliff.  But You gave me a second chance.  You rescued me!  And when you spoke again I got the message loud and clear: “GO!”  Amen.

Ralph

Pick yourself up out of your pity party and GO!