Category: Second Chance

And Many Animals

On By TimIn Jonah 3, Redemption, Second ChanceLeave a comment

Sometimes I cannot read the Bible without other ideas swirling in my brain. Most of those ideas are just vapidity. Yet every once in a while, an idea coalesces with the Scriptures that is intriguing. It happened this morning.

In reading Jonah, this stood out.

Then he made a proclamation in Nineveh:
“By decree of the king and his nobles:
No man or animal, no herd or flock, shall taste anything. They shall not eat or drink water. Both man and animals shall cover themselves with sackcloth and cry mightily to God. All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. Who knows? God may relent and change His mind. He may turn from His fierce anger, so that we will not perish.”

Jonah 3:7–9 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

To give some context, Jonah was sent to Nineveh because of the wickedness practiced in the city. It is said that the wickedness itself came up before God.

Of course, Jonah didn’t heed God’s command to go and purposed to go to sea traveling in the opposite direction away from Nineveh. God sent a storm on the ship, Jonah persuaded the shipmates to throw him overboard. God appointed a fish to swallow Jonah. In that fish, Jonah came to his senses and was spit out on dry land.

The fish must have brought Jonah very near Nineveh as God commanded Jonah yet again to go and give them His message.

Upon this second command, Jonah complied and did as God said. He preached the coming destruction of Nineveh to the inhabitants of the vast city. The message was heard, even by the leaders of the city. That takes us to the passage above.

Aside from the repentance and crying to God for mercy, there is a tacit confession of sin in the decree. Not only that, all people and animals were to participate in this plea for mercy.

That is where ideas collide. Sometimes, I read scriptures with the objections of skeptics in mind. In this instance, clearly the animals are involved in the plea for mercy. That says to my way of thinking, that the animals are also complicit in the evil of the city, most likely not of their own volition.

The objections skeptics raise are sometimes centered around the genocidal portions of the Old Testament where God wiped out entire nations that included men, women, children and animals. Why “innocent” animals is what some ask.

Implicit in this king’s decree is that animals are used in ways perhaps to perpetrate calamity on others.

It was a passing thought on encountering that, and I pushed on thinking that was probably a fancy imagination.

There is a biblical principle, on the testimony of two or three witnesses, a thing is established. I tend to apply this to what the Scriptures say. But God wants to make sure we understand.

After God relents in bringing judgment to Nineveh because of their confession, Jonah disdains the compassion of God. God gives Jonah a practical lesson in compassion. He uses a plant to comfort Jonah in his angry grief.

God concludes that lesson in a succinct summary.

The Lord said, “You are troubled about the plant for which you did not labor and did not grow. It came up in a night and perished in a night. Should I not, therefore, be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people, who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?”

Jonah 4:10–11 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

It was this last interaction recorded between God and Jonah. The very last phrase is a second witness to that what I thought was my fancy imagination.

Somehow animals are involved in perpetrating evil.

Some commentators think that herds would be destroyed as collateral damage. That is why they are mentioned. I don’t think that is why.

Suffice it to say, cattle… Especially bulls were venerated in the pagan cults. The motif is clear in the Bible, even when Aaron says “these be your gods” for the Israelites. Baal is depicted as a mating bull.

Much of these ancient cults (religious systems) used practices that would upset or modern sensibilities. These cult practices involved sex with animals as well as burning their own children.

It’s easy for a skeptic to reject the Bible on a sophomoric surface level not understanding the contexts in which it is written.

I get this is a bit controversial. But I think that the ideas included in Jonah’s text demonstrate clearly that God is just.

They Have not Known my Ways

On By TimIn Psalm 095, Second ChanceLeave a comment

For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.

Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, and as in the day of Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers tested Me and tried Me, though they had seen My deeds. For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways.”

Therefore I swore in My wrath, “They shall not enter into My rest.”

Psalm 95:7–11 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

I think of these things. I ponder over this idea as it is written in the book of Hebrews. It almost follows this word-for-word. Yet, these are written in the praises Israelis sang to God.

The writer of Hebrews is clear. (I will leave you to find that. I’ve written of it on the past.) He says the Israelites of that generation could not enter His rest because of unbelief.

Of that idea… Some will sometimes use that to teach that the Israelites who didn’t enter somehow lost their salvation. That isn’t so. The indictment against them is clear. “They have not known my ways.” They didn’t believe.

They saw all of what He did for them, but they didn’t know Him. They were afraid of Him. They missed the tender compassion of leading, protecting, and providing for them. That is clearly seen at their reaction when the Lord’s voice thundered from Mt. Sinai (Hebrew 13 summarizes that.) At that time He spoke the law. I am certain as one hears the law has spoken, the immediate reaction to “you shall not” is to apply that personally.

As a result, they were looking at themselves in the mirror of the law. They would see their inadequacies. That would make anyone afraid. Yet God still wanted them to approach Him.

Had they looked to God instead of themselves, trusting that He indeed wanted to meet and commune with them, they could have eventually entered the Promised Land.

See, those Ten Commandments weren’t for us. Well not in the way you’ve probably come to know. They aren’t to be used to measure yourself against and see how good you are. We all fail at it. We couldn’t live up to that standard.

These and the other laws and ordinances were there as a pattern, as all of the Law is… A teacher intended to lead Israel to Jesus. He fulfilled all of those commands. He never appeared before the priest at the temple to give a sin offering.

I am now wondering, did the priests know?

Did they talk among themselves about that?

It’s interesting, yet I ramble.

Every single command in the law has a purpose, to point people to Jesus. That they would easily recognize something very different about Him when He came.

It’s the same for us. We innately know we don’t measure up to the standard. God gives. It is near impossible for any of us to approach Him through the good we do.

But the law points to The Way. It is the other mount of approach… Zion. The one with great company. The one with the new city of God.

He wants you there. He wants you to know His ways. That He forgives iniquity. Today if you hear His voice, don’t cower, don’t run away. Don’t garden your heart. And don’t depend on someone else to approach God on your behalf. Only you can do it for your own salvation.

The Demands of the Adversary

On By TimIn Encouragement, Luke 22, Second Chance, Spiritual WarfareLeave a comment

Then the Lord said, “Simon, Simon, listen! Satan has demanded to have you to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have repented, strengthen your brothers.”

Luke 22:31–32 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

In just a quick perusal today, I encountered this. Sometimes when thinking of other things, and they are set aside, a quick glance at Scripture will provide some insight. I think it rather poignant, too. That is, given the posts of late centering on Peter’s first epistle.

Anyway… It was a discussion on Job one night. Someone had made a remark that God gave permission to Satan to test Job. I shook my head in a clear way to acknowledge that it wasn’t true. The person making the assertion insisted it was true. Let’s see if it is.

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and the Adversary also came among them. And the Lord said to the Adversary, “From where have you come?”
Then the Adversary answered the Lord, saying, “From roaming on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”
And the Lord said to the Adversary, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and an upright man, who fears God, and avoids evil?”

Job 1:6–8 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

Sometimes our English translations don’t transmit the entirety of thought. In some translations, there are translators’ notes. These are included to help understand what is being conveyed. In this case, it would be easy to think the Adversary was just casually walking around looking at things. Not only that, but it one might think it was God Who would bring up the idea of testing Job to the Adversary.

That’s not what’s there. The Hebrew phrase translated have you considered literally means have you set your heart to my servant Job.

It’s like the Adversary is demanding some sort of right. Go back to what Jesus said to Peter. Satan is demanding to sift you. The Adversary demands his rights.

Furthermore, Jesus didn’t give permission to Satan. Satan was demanding what was rightfully his. Jesus prayed for Peter to not succumb to the test. That’s simply because we really are no match for the enemy. Jesus knew that. He is our Advocate. He intercedes for us.

Look what He said to Peter next, “And when you have repented, strengthen your brothers.”

We are no match for the enemy. He may have rights, but he also has boundaries and cannot exceed those.

Then the Adversary answered the Lord, saying, “Has Job feared God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out Your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse You to Your face.”

Job 1:9–11— Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

You might think it weird how the Adversary demands that God bring calamity to Job. It didn’t happen. But what follows is God saying to the Adversary, you have rights to all that is his.

That comes from the fall. Satan wrested dominion of the creation from the one it was given to, Adam. Therefore, all that Job had was part of the fallen world to which the Adversary has rights. Since the cross, those rights are in the process of being revoked permanently.

Jesus told Peter. “And when you have repented.” He was telling Peter of the victory that Jesus would finish shortly. A remedy for Peter falling prey.

Don’t give in to the idea that God has to give permission to the Adversary for him to bother you. He has rights. When we are in sin, that is where he works. But there is a way out of the rights he has.

And when you have repented….

The Second Chance

On By TimIn Jonah 3, Second ChanceLeave a comment

The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, “Get up, go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.”

Jonah 3:1–2 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

Our friend Jonah, after reckoning himself as good as dead—ran away from God’s call. He chose to go his own way. The end of that caused Jonah to submit himself to death.

But then God intervened. Jonah was given a reprieve. God again called on him. How did Jonah respond this time?

So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly large city, a three-day journey across. Jonah began to enter the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “In forty days’ time, Nineveh will be overthrown!” So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast. And everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.

Jonah 3:3–5— Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

Jonah got up and went. The words even seem to indicate a purposeful sense of haste. Perhaps it’s my imagination.

Even though the task seemed insurmountable, even futile before, The size of the task hadn’t changed. Jonah’s faith did.

But then God had gone before him. People received Jonah’s stark warning. They changed, repenting from and mourning their sin.

Think of those around you every day. I am certain you know someone hell-bent. How is it people are going to know that the path they’re on leads to certain destruction if someone doesn’t warn them?

Better yet, how are they to know that Salvation is of the Lord if that truth isn’t shared?

We, as servants of God, aren’t responsible for how those who hear respond. We are responsible for sharing the truth timely and accurately.

Jonah got a second chance to honor the call God gave him.

Do you have a call from God and need a mulligan?

Why not take the time to ask Him now. Jonah did. Look what happened. Many folks were saved!