Jonah or Jeremiah?

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God

I know we have a tendency to point a finger at Jonah for running from his assignment from the Lord, but can we be honest here? Who among us would have enjoyed leaving home and going to Nineveh, home of the Assyrians, one of the cruelest nations of ancient history?  

Jonah was to offer the Assyrians an opportunity to get right with God—to repent. But Jonah hated/feared them, and in a rebellious act, he fled in the opposite direction, to get as far from them as possible.

God spoke to Jonah again, and the message hadn’t changed; it was the same as the first. But in the interval between the first and second word, Jonah was pounded by storms, and took a not so pleasant voyage in the stomach of a great fish (some say a whale) for three days. By then, he was prepared to hear and do God’s bidding.

God gave Jeremiah a second word (Jer. 33:1–3). Unlike Jonah, Jeremiah accepted the first word. The second time God spoke to Jeremiah, he received a more complete understanding of what God had told him the first time.   

When God speaks to a Christ follower a second time, what He says will depend on how we responded to His first word. If we disobeyed His first word, like Jonah, His second word will be the same, but perhaps under more dire circumstances. But if, like Jeremiah, we obeyed his first word, He will give us a fuller expression of His will in His second word.

Is the Lord waiting on your obedience? Then be like Jeremiah, and properly respond to your Lord’s instructions the first time.

Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time. (Jonah 3:1)