Second Chance (Jonah) Series

Jack Eppolito from Tulsa, Oklahoma, was hurrying his 11-year-old daughter to school. He turned right on red where it was prohibited. “Oh, oh,” he said, realizing his mistake. “I just made an illegal turn.”

“It's all right,” his daughter replied. “The police car behind us did the same thing” (Jack Eppolito, Tulsa, Oklahoma, “Lite Fare,” Christian Reader; www.PreachingToday.com).

It looks like Jack got himself into some real trouble. Perhaps, that’s where you find yourself these days. Through one bad choice, or maybe several bad choices, you find yourself in some real trouble.

Do you want out? Then I invite you to turn with me to the book of Jonah, Jonah 1, where Jonah, a prophet of God, made a bad choice and found himself in the belly of a big fish at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.

Jonah 1:1-3 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD (ESV).

God called Jonah to go to Nineveh, the Assyrian capital city, 550 miles east of Israel. Jonah decided to go the exact opposite direction, to Tarshish, on the southwest coast of Spain, 2500 miles west of Israel. He was trying to run away from God as far and as fast as he could go, but of course that’s impossible.

Jonah 1:4-6 But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish” (ESV).

God chased after Jonah with a storm, which Jonah tried to ignore by going as far down as he could to the inner part of the ship. The ironic thing is that the pagan sailors showed more spiritual sensitivity than God’s prophet did. They pray to their gods and urge Jonah to pray to his God. Then they try to determine the cause of the storm.

Jonah 1:7-10 And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them (ESV).

They were afraid, because they knew Jonah was rebelling against the most powerful God they had ever experienced. Their gods were mere idols, deaf and dumb pieces of stone and metal, powerless to do anything. Jonah’s God hurled storms across the sea. He was real!

Jonah 1:11-16 Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. Therefore they called out to the LORD, “O LORD, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O LORD, have done as it pleased you.” So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows (ESV).