Restoration Recipe

Jonah was spiritually awakened to the seriousness of his rebellion. But now he must also be spiritually restored. That process of restoring Jonah is something that begins in the heart of a God who delights to be gracious and merciful. Jonah realises his spiritual bankruptcy and so his relationship with God now becomes his greatest priority in life. Genuine repentance is shown by his longing to have his communion with God restored which is demonstrated by his returning desire for God’s word and his meditation on the Psalms. He re-consecrates himself to God.

God’s response? God recommissions failures! “You failed the first time. Again I say, go to Nineveh.” God’s grief over our failure is only exceeded by his grace after it. When the messenger is wrong, God’s message is obscured so preparing the messenger is as important as preparing the message. The remarkable thing is that, in God’s economy, He uses the experience of our failures to do just that - prepare us. Through Jonah we see how God then treats genuine repentance; he allows us to become all that we should have been in the first place. Experiencing the corrective judgement of God strips away pride and provides fresh compassion for those who currently stand where we once stood, enabling us to adequately share the grace we’ve experienced. In this way, then God turns people into fruitful Gospel communicators.