The God of the 2nd Chance
Dr. James Smith
Jonah 2
10 October 2004
When we last left Jonah, we found that he was literally in “deep water” with God. He had flagrantly disobeyed God’s clear call on his life and fled in the exact opposite direction.
And like Jonah, many of you have also deeply experienced the truth that “you can run from God, but you can never hide from God.”
This brings us to even greater ironies in Jonah’s life that are equally instructive for us.
As we know from chapter 1, God had called Jonah to preach His word in Nineveh. One of the great ironies is that the word, “Nineveh,” actually means something like “fish house.”
Jonah foolishly decided to flee from the “fish house” (Nineveh), only to find himself in yet another fish house . . . the belly of a large fish.
And to add to this irony, the fish seems to be more willing to obey God’s commands then Jonah himself.
Now much has been made of the fish in the book of Jonah. In fact, when adults as well as children think about the Book of Jonah, their minds invariably turn to the “whale.”
But you’ll notice that it is only mentioned 3 times in the whole book in 1:17, 2:1 and 2:10. After all, much more could have been said about the fish, but it was never meant to be the main subject.
Instead it helps to frame the Psalm of chapter 2. Obviously, chapter 2 is very different from the rest of the book. It is a kind of poetic prayer while chapters 1, 3 and 4 comprise the narrative story.
And just as we noticed a chiasm in 1:3 last week, we will notice that these 3 verses, which help to frame the psalm of chapter 2, form their own orderly chiasm.
Again, chiasms are found in different parts of the Bible and take common terms or ideas from the first line and reverse them in a parallel line, giving rise to an AB//BA type pattern.
Take a look at the handout in your bulletin.
As interesting as it may be, the fish itself is not the important part of chapter 2, but rather, it highlights the irony as well as the seriousness of Jonah’s situation.
The power struggle that began in chapter 1, continues into chapter 2 with God checking Jonah’s defiance and disobedience.
Ironically, being swallowed by the fish, thwarts the death by drowning that Jonah was seeking. Once again, Jonah finds that “you can run from God, but you can never hide from God.”
As we discovered in our series on the Psalms last month, different Psalms have different orientations depending on the seasons of our lives. Here in chapter 2, we have a composite psalm.
Verses 3-7a function as a psalm of disorientation, that is, a psalm that is uttered to God by a person whose life has “fallen apart.”
Verses 7b-10 function as a psalm of new orientation, that is, a psalm that is uttered by a person who has been surprised by God’s goodness and grace, when it was least expected. Psalms of new orientation are frequently songs of thanksgiving.
If we look a little closer at verses 3-7a, we will find that Jonah’s descent into sin and disobedience finds it completion, which began in chapter 1.
You will recall that Jonah ran away from God’s clear will for his life by going down to the port city of Joppa in Israel, buying a ticket and then going down to the ship.
Once on board, he went down into the belly of the ship and then he laid down and fell into a “death-like” sleep. Later, Jonah was thrown down into the water by the sailors only to be swallowed by a large fish going down its throat and down into its belly.
Here in chapter 2, Jonah declares that he sank down into the depths of the sea and even down to the very “roots” of the mountains themselves. In short, he went down to the grave and knew that he was as good as dead because of his sin.
The good news though is found in verses 7b-10. In fact, verse 7 functions as “the psychological center” of chapter 2 and it tells us that just when his life was almost over, Jonah finally remembered God and his prayer rose up to the Lord.
Just as we found in our study on the psalms of new orientation, it is when people come to the end of themselves and remember God, that everything begins to change.
And again the change or turn in Jonah’s situation happened only when He remembered the Lord and it was then that he discovered in deep and personal way, that God is a God of 2nd chances.
Here in Jonah’s prayerful psalm, he finally realized that he was the problem. In fact, you will notice that he uses the 1st person singular, “I,” over 20X in this short chapter.
Jonah knew that life and safety are only to be found in being obedient to the will of God.
And it’s ironic that the man who worked so hard to escape from God by going to the furthest place in the known world, only recovered his senses and began to plead with God when he reached the furthest place from life . . . the grave.
It’s far too easy to make fun of Jonah. Because if we’re really honest with ourselves and with God, then we would have to admit that we have been like Jonah more times in our lives then we could ever probably count.
How often have you and I tried to run and hide from God, only to be found out anyway? Deep down each of us know that we can’t hide from Him and that to disobey Him will only led to death, in one way or another.
But the good news for Jonah as well as ourselves is that we have a God who gives 2nd chances.
And sometimes it is only when we hit “rock bottom” in our lives and realize that we can’t even save ourselves from ourselves, that God breaks through smoke and fog our own foolish choices.
The “turn” comes when we are sitting in our own pits that we have dug and we begin to “remember” and call out to God once more.
Like Jonah, we’ve done nothing to deserve that 2nd chance, but God in His mercy and goodness comes to our rescue anyway.
Some of you have probably dug yourself into a hole and can’t see any way out. You act like everything is fine, but really you are dying inside and feel far from God.
But the good news is that if God can rescue Jonah, He can rescue you as well. His arm is not too short to reach in and yank you out of your mess.
You simply need to stop running, remember His love for you and call out to Him. God will come to your rescue. And God will give you a 2nd chance and you don’t have to wait to be swallowed by a fish to experience that.
Let’s Pray
