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Over the last few weeks we have seen Jonah's commissioning and flight in Jonah 1:1-2, his time bringing God's presence to the pagan sailors in the rest of chapter one, and his grateful prayer in chapter two. This week we arrive at the herald of the second half of Jonah's story. We will see a similar commissioning this week, albeit with compliance this time, followed next week by his time bringing God's presence to the Ninevites before moving onto a parallel, angry prayer. We will then finish by looking at the lessons presented in the final chapter of Jonah. The text for this week, therefore is Jonah 3:1-3a:

'Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord.

These verses are some of my favourites in the Bible, because they speak so much truth into our lives today; we will look at two key points that can be identified here:

'...the second time...'

These words are important, because we are meant to acknowledge that the word of the Lord had already come to Jonah a first time; those of us who have been following Jonah's story will know that the word of the Lord came to him but he tried to run away. The incredible, unbelievable, yet undeniable truth behind this is astonishing. God clearly spoke to Jonah but he scorned it. He made a conscious decision not just not to follow God's teaching, but to actively run away from it - Jonah rebelled in the most extreme way yet God, by His grace, sent His word a second time. Why? The answer to this question can be found in the gospel of John. John 1:16 tells us that 'from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.' Grace upon grace means that we receive grace, and despite the fact that we scorn that grace and chase after wordly things we know that His grace comes a second time, upon the grace we have already received. This is why the truth of the gospel is so life-changing. Even if we have made active decisions to run away from God's will He sends his word to us a second time. The natural conclusion that could be drawn from this, therefore, is that we could live our lives in whatever sinful way we want, knowing always that God will pour His grace upon us again. Paul addresses this in Romans 6: 'Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means!' Jonah, although he has been an idiot in the past, shows us the proper biblical way of responding in the second half of this passage.

'...Jonah arose...'

So despite the fact that we know God will continue to pursue us with grace upon grace our attitude should be that shown by Jonah in chapter three; upon hearing the call of the Lord we should respond with immediate obedience. This means embracing Scripture as the infallible Word of God, it means getting baptised because we are commanded to, it means celebrating the Lord's Supper on a regular basis with other believers, it means throwing ourselves wholeheartedly into a local church, it means begging God for more of His Spirit on an ongoing basis, and it means sharing the gospel with unbelievers at every available opportunity. Why should we do this? Is it because we have too much free time and need a hobby? No!

I wonder if I could be bold enough to ask you, what is it that God has been asking you to stop, or to start? Has He kept reminding you to give money to the church? Has He kept reminding you to stop going back to that website? Has He kept reminding you that baptism is an important step in a Christian walk? Has He kept reminding you that friends, family members and colleagues are in such desperate need of a Saviour that they need you to share with them? Please, don't hang back waiting for something - respond right now to the word of the Lord!

"Refreshment in Refuge" from Gina Burgess

What's to be thankful for in this?