For a number of years, my father, a pastor in Brooklyn, New York, volunteered with a second chance program. Young men and women who had early encounters with the legal system were given a chance to have their records expunged in exchange for community service. They were given a second chance for a purpose.

God gave both Jonah and the people of Nineveh second chances as well. Most of us are familiar with Jonah’s story. After God told the prophet to go to the city of Nineveh, Jonah fled in the opposite direction. The Lord disciplined the prophet with unusual means, and Jonah spent a few nights in a watery jail cell before he was released on parole (read Jonah 1–2).

In chapter 3, we see God return to Jonah a second time with a mission (3:1). God once again told Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh, calling them to repent. Again, Jonah was resistant. Why did he resist? Was it fear? Was it bitterness? As an Israelite who had suffered at the hands of Nineveh, he preferred to avoid this calling.

Thankfully, God didn’t leave the outcome in Jonah’s hands. It was God’s message and His heart on display, as He called a second time for Jonah to deliver this message! We learn that the “Ninevites believed God” (v. 5). Their turnaround was so complete that “a fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth” (v. 5). God had saved Jonah for a reason, and this time the prophet obeyed. “When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened” (v. 10).