THE GOSPEL OF LUKE: - Vital Christianity

53THE GOSPEL OF THE SECOND CHANCEA fig tree normally takes three years to reach maturity. If it does not produce fruit by thattime, it is not likely to produce fruit at all. But this fig tree was given another chance.David, Jonah, Peter, Mark and Paul are examples of leaders to whom God gave severalchances. It is not a matter of whether we fall or not, because we all fall, but whether we get upagain.JonahThe first person who turned away from God is Jonah. And the story of Jonah isn't so much abouta fish, but about the God of the second chance.Jonah, a prophet, had been commanded by God to preach to the citizens of Nineveh, the capital ofthe nation of Assyria. Jonah was to tell the Assyrians that judgment was coming. And he knew that if hedid that, they could repent and they might be forgiven. That was difficult for Jonah to deal with since hehated the AssyriansThe Assyrians were easy to hate. They were arrogant and cruel conquerors, and Jonah despisedthem. To tell Jonah that he was to preach to the Assyrians was like asking a man whose family had beenthreatened by terrorists to offer those terrorists complete forgiveness.Forgiveness? Nothing would have pleased Jonah more than to see the whole bunch of theAssyrians wiped off the earth. Those Assyrians may have mattered to God, but they didn't matter toJonah.God had directed Jonah to travel east over land to Nineveh. But Jonah booked passage on a shipheaded west toward Spain. During that journey, a tremendous storm arose, and Jonah ended up in theMediterranean Sea. That's when the fish swallowed him. But God allowed Jonah to survive beingswallowed by that fish. You might have thought that God would have given up on Jonah and draftedanother prophet easier to work with.But, in the middle of the book of Jonah there is a most interesting phrase. I think it's the mostinteresting phrase in the book. It says,"The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time."Deliberately, consciously, stubbornly, Jonah had run away from God. Yet, God came to theprophet a second time and allowed him to carry on his ministry.