Everyone Gets a Second Chance: Wisdom From the Story of JonahSample

God’s Limitless Grace

Just imagine if a guy walked up and down your street saying that in forty days, your local town or city would be overthrown. You probably wouldn’t take him too seriously, and in almost every case, you’d be right not to. But the people of Nineveh responded to Jonah’s odd message in a completely unexpected way.

They didn’t imprison, torture, or kill him (which would have been an everyday activity in Nineveh). Instead, they repented. To repent means to turn around completely. In this case, the Ninevites turned from violence, terror, and conquest, and instead chose to worship God.

And it was not just the exiled Israelites who repented, or those angry with the current government. It was everyone, from the king all the way down to the lowest servant.

They put on sackcloth and covered themselves in ashes (an ancient way to express sorrow). The king even demanded that the cows be covered in sackcloth and ashes. Were these particularly evil cows? We don’t know. But we know God saw the people’s wholehearted repentance—and responded with mercy.

Now, Nineveh wasn’t some generic ancient city. It was the capital of the Assyrian empire, a notorious civilization feared for its level of physical, psychological, and cultural violence. They maintained power by keeping their subjects and neighbors in terror of what they might do to them.

The Assyrians were also one of the first empires to use mass deportation to destroy nations and cultures. This actually happened to Jonah’s people. When the Assyrians invaded ancient Israel, they destroyed the capital of Samaria and deported the people across their empire.

Just imagine being taken from your community, marched hundreds of miles away, and placed in a village with people who spoke a different language and worshiped different gods, making it next to impossible to continue practicing the same customs and worshiping in the same ways that you used to. It was a brutally effective way to wipe out non-Assyrian cultures and faiths.

So let’s recap. These are people who use violence and fear to terrorize their enemies to wipe out all opposing cultures and faiths. And they’ve been doing this for generations, leaving untold thousands dead or deported. Yet God forgives them. Why? Because with God, everyone gets a second chance. That’s how big God’s grace is.

So what have you done? Nothing so bad as the Assyrian king did—and God forgave him with open arms. He’s ready to forgive you, too.

But how do we respond to His forgiveness?

Radical forgiveness changed Jonah’s behavior but didn’t change his heart. It did change the Ninevites, though. Why? Just like the younger brother in the story of the prodigal son, the Ninevites knew they were broken, causing harm to themselves and others. So, instead of trying to make minor changes to their behavior, they decided to commit their whole lives to God.

Yet something was still holding Jonah back from the genuine faith the Ninevites experienced. We’ll explore Jonah’s reasons tomorrow, but for today, consider the moment you accepted God’s forgiveness and how it’s changed you for the better.

Challenge: When God saved you, He invited you into a new, better life. So today, consider what your life would be like if you had never said yes to Jesus. How would your life be different? What struggles do you think you’d be facing? Then, thank God for giving you access to His unlimited forgiveness through Jesus.