As I look back over the years of my life, I desperately wish that I could change some things. Boy, do I wish I could change them! Lord, if only I had a second chance; if only I could do it all over again, I know things could be different. I'm sure I wouldn't make the same mistakes twice; would I? But then, like they say, hindsight is always 20/20. It's always easier to see my mistakes after I have committed them and endured the consequences. How come I don't see them before I create the problem?
Is it because I'm so stubborn? Is it because for some dumb reason I always think that I am right?
I remember that when I was a little boy I had a problem with that back then. For example, I never wanted to wear my jacket. My mother would always remind me, “It's cold outside. You better put your coat on so that you don't get sick.” But of course, I knew better. “Aw, I don't need a coat,” I replied, and went outside without it. Well, she was right. I got sick and as a result missed out on many things – all because I thought I knew better and wouldn't listen to someone else's wiser advice.
King Solomon wrote in the Book of Proverbs (12:15), “The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice.”
How true that is. Whenever I think I know better and refuse to listen to someone else's counsel, especially not Yours, the Bible is right. I am nothing less than a fool. Sometimes it would even seem that I would rather be wrong than to admit my error and be shown the right way by You. How could I not listen to You? That's the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden – not listening to You! But You know all things; to You nothing is hidden. How foolish I am in my sinful nature, my pride, my stubbornness when I do not heed Your counsel.
I don't want to be that way, not as one of Your redeemed who believes in You. It distresses me when I see myself falling into it time and time again. I wish I could change that. If only I had a second chance to do things over again.
Is it possible to have a second chance? Is it possible to get a fresh start? I know that I cannot change what the past has been. But I can approach the present and the future differently – from Your point of view. I would love to hear You say something about this, something that would first comfort me, and then something that would help and inspire my conduct for the days ahead.
I think this is it in our text this morning. Here You call us to repentance - and more; here You show us the life of forgiveness .
I. Forgiveness ! You Call Us to a life of Forgiveness. What does that mean?
I looked up the word “ forgiveness ” in the dictionary the other day. It said that forgiveness meant “ to give up resentment against or the desire to punish; to stop being angry with; to pardon; to cancel a debt. ” The more I thought about it, the more I realized that for us that's probably easier said than done. For example take the story of Jonah.
Jonah was Your prophet whom You wanted to send to the eastern city of Nineveh in order to preach against it. The people there were very, very wicked, and You were extremely upset with them. You were so angry that You gave them only 40 more days to repent of their wickedness against You. If they didn't, You would destroy them – all of them just like You did with the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Jonah was to go there to warn them.
But in that very thing You held out to them the possibility of forgiveness, otherwise You would have wiped them off the face of this earth immediately. Instead, You sent the prophet Jonah to warn them to turn from their ways.
You see, even in the most extreme circumstances, with You forgiveness is always possible. That's why David wrote, “If You, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with You there is forgiveness” (130:3f). You can stop being angry with sinners, You can cease in Your desire to punish them because You are ready and willing to put all disobedience behind You. Like the Psalmist says (86:5), “You are kind and forgiving, O Lord, abounding in love to all who call to You.”
But Your prophet wasn't. When he received Your call to go to Nineveh, he got on board a ship going in the opposite direction. Why did he do that? At least in part because he couldn't give up his resentment against a people who had mocked You and had made life so hard for him and his fellow Israelites. He wanted to see these abusers in his life punished. His words portrayed this attitude within him when he later told You, “I know that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in
love, a God who relents from sending calamity”(4:2). It almost sounds like he was angry about the reality that You forgive all sin. And because of that Jonah ran from Your assignment to call Nineveh to repentance and a life of forgiveness in You.
Like Jonah there are times that I don't want to give up my resentment either. I don't want to stop being angry at those who have hurt me and continue to do things that make my life difficult. I want to see them get their due! But where would we be if You held that same attitude over us who daily sin against You?
You could be rough with us. You could have been rough with Jonah. And You were, but to a measured extent. In his disobedience to Your command, You had him thrown over the side of the ship in which he thought he was making his escape. Then You had him swallowed by the great fish. For three days You left him in his distress. But You never abandoned him, nor did You even punish him. Discipline? Yes, just like loving parents discipline their children, sometimes harshly, when they need it. But such discipline is always done with loving care, firm but loving, and with a guiding purpose behind it.
When Your prophet saw the error of his ways and the stubbornness of his own heart, he repented, and You graciously delivered him from the belly of the fish. Why? Because You are a forgiving God, calling us to a life of forgiveness in You. Y ou drop the memory of our sin, You forget it , and You reclaim us as Your own, just as You re-commissioned Jonah in our text. You give us a second chance , and a third, and a fourth, and a fifth. As often as we sin and return to You, You put it all behind and say, “Your sin is dropped; I have forgotten it for Jesus' sake.” You don't even say another word about it.
I remember something like that happening when I was a little boy. My parents used to let me go play in a lot of places. But there was one spot in the woods that was too dangerous for me to go, a place where I could get hurt badly.
One day I disobeyed my parents when I saw my older brothers go off to that spot. They told me to go back home, but I stubbornly refused. Coming to a steep hill they began throwing rocks and sticks from the top of the hill into a pool of water below. One of the sticks landed just a little ways down. I went to get it. My brothers warned me, but I went anyway. As I reached for it I slipped and fell into a drainage ditch that ran down the side of the hill. It was filled with water. Down I slid, head first into a pile of rocks below. I could have been hurt badly, but escaped without a scratch. Caked in mud, scared, and crying they took me back home. And I was sorry, boy was I sorry! My parents understood what had happened, saw how scared I was, heard my cries of “repentance,” and simply took care of me. They could have scolded me forever for my foolishness and stubborn disobedience. But they never said another word. Instead they assured me of their love.
Lord, You have done the same, even more for me in Your Son who died on the cross to pay for my sin. Through My Savior You Call Me to live in such Forgiveness and say, “I will forgive (your) wickedness and will remember (your) sins no more” (Jer.31:34). No more! What a sweet sound in every sinner's ear! Dropped, forgotten, remembered no more!
O Lord, restored in grace, restored in position, given a second chance, comfort me when my mistakes rise up to haunt me. Comfort me for Jesus' sake. Keep me from falling again. Guide me to rejoice in Your grace. And as You have so richly forgiven, help us to forgive those who trespass against us. Forgiveness – The Savior Calls Us to live our lives in It.
II. So get up and go with my words, for where there is time, there is still hope.
And since that's the case, help me to approach the present and the future differently.
You've given me a second chance. You've even given me a third and a fourth chance. Indeed, in Your forgiveness You will give me many more chances to start over again and to live my life for You. And You won't say another word about my mistakes, just like You didn't say anything more to Jonah.
A second time You came to him with the same directive that You had given at first. But now Jonah had a different perspective on it. “Get up!” You said. “Go to Nineveh! Proclaim to it the message I give you.”
It was a message of repentance. “Forty more days and Nineveh will be destroyed.” It was a message that had to be carried to the people in the city. To not go with it would mean disaster – eternal disaster for them, and even for Jonah (Ez.3:17f). In Your Word You ask us, “How can people call on the One they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” For Jonah to not get up and go with Your words would have far reaching consequences. What was he going to do?
Why, he got up and went. Experiencing Your forgiveness in his life, he did something with it. For three days and more he went back and forth within the city, preaching Your word wherever he went. And the “Ninevites believed You from the greatest of them, even the king, to the least.” There was still time for them. And where there is time, there is hope. They repented, they turned to You, and they lived in Your forgiveness.
What a miracle, O Lord! Outside of Your own resurrection from the dead, this has got to be one of Scripture's greatest miracles, an entire city of some 500, maybe 600 thousand people, an entire city seizing the time You graciously gave them, repenting, and living for joy in Your forgiveness. And You remembered their sin no more. Where there is time, there is always hope with You.
Dear Lord, there is so much here that I need to dwell on, so much about Your compassion, so much about Your patience, so much about Your desire to have us all – all of us from the greatest to the least. You are so different from us. You are a God who is not affected by size or importance. You want the mighty and the great numbers to come to You, but You also want the lowly and the small – yes, even me. You give ample evidence of a great forgiving love.
O God, if that grace is not enough to change me in my stubbornness, nothing will. Like Paul says, “Your kindness leads to repentance” (Ro.2:4).
O God, if that grace is not enough to comfort me and to get me up and going for You, nothing will.
O God, if that grace is not enough to make me want to proclaim Your Gospel, nothing will. Your grace is enough and there still is time – 40 days, 40 years, 400, or 4,000 it doesn't matter. Up until the end there is always time to return to You and to work for you.
But the time is short. Your call is urgent to “catch men” now. Grant that I seize it to today, tomorrow, and as long as I am here so that I live my life to Your glory, to my good, and to the eternal welfare of others. For in Christ You have given me a second chance , and my life is changed; for Jesus' sake. Amen.