A Second Chance

When Thomas Edison was working on his invention of the light bulb, I read that the finished product required a team of men to work twenty-four consecutive hours to assemble the first bulb. When they were finished Edison handed the bulb off to a young man who was told to carry it upstairs. That poor man nervously cradled the bulb like it was a premature infant, so worried that he would drop it. And that is exactly what he did. The bulb shattered in a million pieces. 

The crew went right back to work, and twenty-four hours later they completed the second light bulb. Who do you think Edison entrusted to carry the bulb upstairs? He handed it off to that same young man who had already destroyed their first bulb, but this time that assistant successfully carried the bulb up the stairs. Sometimes we all could use a second chance. 

That truth is one of my favorite aspects of the ministry of the prophet Jonah. It is widely known that he was called by God to go to the great city of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire. The city’s magnificence was rivaled only by its wickedness. We can’t blame Jonah for not wanting to go; archaeological evidence shows us that the Ninevites, led by their cruel king Ashurbanipal, impaled prisoners of war and left them to die in the sun; they beheaded victims and stacked their skulls outside the city gates as a warning to would-be invaders; they skinned people alive; and Nahum tells us they even practiced infanticide by throwing unwanted babies into the streets. Jonah didn’t want to go because he didn’t think people like that deserved God’s mercy and forgiveness. 

So Jonah decided not to go to Nineveh. He chose Tarshish as his destination, but he never arrived there. You know the story: God sends a storm, the pagan sailors decide the gods must be punishing them, they throw Jonah overboard, and he is swallowed by a special fish, only to repent and be regurgitated on dry land. 

Armed with a second chance, the prophet commits to keep his vow (2:9), and this time he gets it right (minus the bad attitude, but that is another topic). Because of Jonah’s preaching, more than 120,000 people repent of their unspeakable wickedness and God spared the city for another century. 

Do you always get it right the first time? Me neither. I’m thankful for a God who gives second chances (and third chances!). If you are in the middle of doing something wrong right now, repent of it and ask the Lord for a second chance and a fresh start. But don’t miss the real theme of Jonah: “Salvation belongs to the Lord (2:9).” 

Jonah didn’t want to take the gospel to people he thought were undeserving of mercy, yet when he was in the fish’s belly, mercy is what he prayed for. We don’t deserve mercy, but we receive it. Don’t make the mistake of thinking God shouldn’t extend that same undeserved mercy to those we might deem as being too wicked, but share the good news with those who need to hear it most.

Rhetorical Questions

Are you familiar with rhetorical questions? They are questions in which the answer is so obvious that the question doesn’t actually need to be answered; the answer is implied by the question. An example of a rhetorical question would be, “If everyone else jumped off a bridge, would you?” There is also this classic one from the Bible: “Oh death, where is your victory? Oh grave, where is your sting (I Corinthians 15:55)?” 

Parents are notorious for asking rhetorical questions: “Do you want me to pull this car over?” “Do you want a spanking?” “Do you think I’m joking?” “Do you think money grows on trees?” “What do I look like—a bank?” Children know that the only answer is to either say no or else just be quiet. I’ve never heard of a child saying yes when asked if he needed a spanking. 

We understand that rhetorical questions are not intended to be answered, but if you ever do venture an answer to one, you better get the answer right. One of the few times I have seen a rhetorical question answered is in the book of Jonah. Near the end of the story God’s wayward prophet is having a private pity party because the gourd that was giving him shade spoiled overnight because of a worm that the Lord prepared for the occasion. Jonah is miserable. He should have been on cloud nine because he had just preached the gospel in Nineveh and more than 120,000 people believed his message and repented of their sins. God spared the city from destruction because their faith was sincere. 

Jonah was furious that God forgave them, and he was sad because a plant died. God hit him with a rhetorical question that was meant to make him think. He asked, “Do you do well to be angry over a gourd(4:9)?” Classic rhetorical question. This is supposed to be the part where Jonah’s head drops in shame. He ponders for a moment, and then says, “You’re right God. Of course not. Man, my priorities are out of whack.” But that isn’t what he says at all. Jonah answers God’s rhetorical question, and he gets the answer wrong by saying, “I do well to be angry, even unto death.” In other words, “Yes God, I’m angry enough to die!” 

Rhetorical questions aren’t supposed to be answered, and they certainly aren’t supposed to be answered wrong. I believe Jonah gave us this humorous story to help make a memorable point. As Jonah prayed from inside the belly of the great fish, “Salvation belongs to the Lord (2:9).” It is God’s job to save sinners, and it is our job to help sinners make the choice to seek salvation. We can lose sight of that when life gets in the way. We may let little things get under our skin and then get us down. When we get down we can throw ourselves a pity party, and then we stop doing the important things God has called us to do. 

God just may use His Holy Spirit to challenge our priorities. If He does, I hope you do a better job than Jonah. Do you really want to make that same mistake? 

Helping a Brother

  

Sadu Sundar Singh was part of the Sikh religion, but he converted to Christianity. He told the story of the time he and his friend were traveling through a pass in the Himalayas and they came across an injured man laying in the snow. Singh knew they needed to do something to help this man, but his friend tried to talk him out of it, saying that helping the man would surely result in their own death. Singh was determined to help, so his friend abandoned him and went on ahead. 

Singh lifted the wounded man up and gave him a piggyback ride. Eventually Singh’s body heat warmed the injured man, giving him new life. Soon, instead of being carried, the two men were walking side by side, and then they came across someone laying facedown in the snow—Singh’s friend, who had eventually collapsed and froze to death.

Don’t miss the irony: Singh’s friend chose not to help someone in order to spare his own life, yet he lost it; Singh determined to help, and their shared body heat saved both lives. I believe helping someone is always the right thing to do, even if it doesn’t seem like it at the time. God used one His prophets, Obadiah, to issue a rebuke to the Edomites because they refused to help Israel in their time of need. He said, “For violence against your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever (v.10).” 

He refers to Israel as “your brother Jacob” because the Edomites were the descendants of Jacob’s twin brother Esau (Esau’s nickname was Edom), and Jacob’s name was changed to Israel, making the Israelites his descendants. The Israelites and Edomites were brothers, but when Israel was in trouble, the Edomites stood by, and even rejoiced at Israel’s calamity. When the Babylonians invaded Israel, the Edomites looked on with joy, and even blocked the roads so that the survivors from Israel could not retreat to safety. God was not pleased with their refusal to help their brother.

The Edomites were the opposite of the Good Samaritan of Luke 10. When the religious men chose not to give aid to the wounded man, the Samaritan chose to act like a good neighbor. That is how the Lord wants us to live. In fact, Jesus used that story to illustrate the command to love our neighbor as ourselves, which is the second greatest commandment. 

Helping someone is never the wrong thing to do. I would rather be known as someone who goes out of my way to help than as someone who thinks of myself first. Being selfless saved Sadu Singh’s life, and refusing to help cost his friend his life.

Alexa

I have never been too good at using technology, but it recently occurred to me that I have robots doing my bidding. About a year ago we brought Amazon’s Alexa into our house. Alexa is there at a second’s notice to answer any question, remind us of things, set alarms, play music, and a host of other things. Depending on how much a person wants, Alexa can turn on your lights, coffee makers, or even lock your doors, all at your command. I was laying in bed on Sunday afternoon, and not wanting to get up to let the dog out, I said, “Alexa, drop in on Reagan.” At that point I basically had an intercom system where I can hear my daughter and she can hear me (and the government can hear us both, I’m sure). Before I could ask her to let the dog out, I could hear her saying, “Alexa, what time is it?”

It struck me how much we rely on technology to do things we can easily do ourselves. My children don’t even appreciate how new this all is, how quickly our world is changing. Remember telephones? We used to use them to call people. If you had a question, you dialed a person’s number and if they answered, you talked over the phone. Now we text or use some other messaging service. With my iPad open I can just say, “Hey Siri, send a text.” Once I dictate the message, it is sent and I just wait on a reply. I heard a radio host recently talk about how rude it is to call people. There is nothing worse, she said, then the sound of a phone ringing, because the only people who call are unsolicited telemarketers. 

Language is also changing. Every day there is a new list of words we can’t say. If you said it last week, no problem; if you say it today, your show is cancelled. The world is changing at an alarming rate. Some of this change is good, some is bad, and some is neutral, but it is changing quickly. 

If all this change unsettles you, I have a good reminder: God’s Word is eternally unchanging. While some liberals may try to reinterpret this or remove that, the Bible is settled and the canon is closed. I love Psalm 119:89, which succinctly says, “Forever, Oh Lord, your Word is settled in heaven” We can trust its timeless truths because it is settled and sealed in heaven. God’s Word is unchanging because He is unchanging. Of Himself God says, “I am the Lord, I do not change (Malachi 3:6),” and the author of Hebrews adds that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever (13:8).” 

Our constantly changing world may leave us unsure of how to speak or how to act in society, but God’s unchanging Word gives us assurance on how to speak and how to act. If we build our lives upon the foundation of the Bible, we are going to be just fine. Though all other ground may be sinking sand, on Christ and His Word—the solid rock—I will stand

The Hand in the Glove

We use gloves for a number of different reasons. We may wear gloves when we work with tools like a shovel or rake so that we don’t get blisters or splinters; we may wear gloves when we work on our cars to keep our hands clean; we may wear gloves when we work with raw meat so that we don’t get sick. Many professionals wear gloves—mechanics, surgeons, crime scene investigators, burglars. OK, maybe that last one is a bad example. 

As useful as gloves are, they are worthless on their own. Just because I own a pair of gloves doesn’t mean that the gloves will rake my leaves or change my tire. On their own gloves are just material. Once I put my hand inside the glove it seemingly comes to life, and the glove is limited only by my own abilities. I like to think of the Holy Spirit as being the hand inside the glove. We are the glove, and even though there are a lot of jobs for us—a lot of ways in which we can minister—on our own we are powerless. Once we are saved and filled with God’s Spirit there is no limit to what we can accomplish; we are entrusted with a spiritual gift, and we are empowered to use that gift for the kingdom of God. On our own we can do nothing, but through Him all things are possible. 

In Acts 1:8 Jesus told the disciples, “You will receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses..” When the Holy Spirit comes on us, when the hand enters the glove, we get power. Notice that it is a power that does something. The Holy Spirit does not enter us just for something to do, but because He has something for us to do. Jesus mentioned being witnesses for Him, and that can be accomplished in a number of ways. We can be witnesses through preaching and teaching, through showing mercy, through helping others, through giving, and through living the everyday Christian life. The fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit help us to do just that. 

Is there a hand in your glove? Is God’s Spirit giving you the power to do something for Him? If the answer is no, you need to give your life to the Lord and allow Him to use you. If the answer is yes, then I hope you are using your gift, letting the Spirit use you in order to make an impact in God’s kingdom. 

The Pain of Rejection

Emotional pain is real. As children we were taught that, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” I don’t know who wrote that little jingle, be he shouldn’t quit his day job. We have all lived long enough to know that words can hurt us. In the same way, we can experience emotional pain when people betray us, lie about us, walk out on us, and let us down. 

Dr. Dean Ornish, a clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, conducted a fascinating study on emotional pain. Participants in the study played a video game in which they simply tossed a ball to other players. They were told there were people in other rooms controlling the other players, but that wasn’t true. The video game was programmed to slowly exclude the person being studied. In other words, the ball was being thrown to everyone except the person holding the controller, which made that person feel rejected and left out. 

The study showed that once the person began to feel rejection, it activated the anterior cingulate and insula parts of the brain where pain is registered. Ornish concluded, “Subjects’ brains responded the same way as if they experienced physical pain. Rejection doesn’t just hurt like a broken heart; your brain feels it like a broken leg.”  

We’ve all been there. We have all felt the pain of rejection. In Psalm 27 King David prayed, “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take care of me (v.10).” We don’t have any reason to believe that David’s parents ever forsook him; his mother’s name is not found in the Bible, but in Psalm 86:16 David said he served God just as his mother did, and in I Samuel 22 David asks Saul for permission to let his parents come stay with him. It is believed that “When my father and my mother forsake me” was a common expression to refer to the hardships of life. 

David felt his share of rejection, even to the point where his own son led a mutiny against him, and many people chose Absalom over David. That had to hurt. I’m sure anyone reading this has also felt the sting of pain from rejection. That is why I love how David finished verse ten, saying it was the Lord who helped him through the pain of rejection. Let that be the same for you. If you are experiencing a broken heart that feels more like a broken leg, call out to God, that Friend who sticks closer than a brother.

The Camel and the Needle

“It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus famously said those words in response to the rich young ruler choosing to walk away sad rather than wholeheartedly following Jesus. The thought of a camel going through the tiny eye of a needle is humorous, but is that really what Jesus said? Let’s face it, that is impossible to do.

I remember being taught that there was a gate in the wall around Jerusalem called the Needle’s Eye. The point of the illustration, according to this theory, is that the only way a camel could fit through the Needle’s Eye was if someone unloaded whatever burden the camel carried, and then the camel would have to essentially scoot through it. Difficult, yes, but not impossible. There is one problem with this theory, though, and that is this: there is no evidence of there ever having been a Needle’s Eye in the wall. It is not mentioned in the Scriptures, the Talmud, the Mishna, or any ancient writings. It is purely a fabrication. In fact, in the Jewish New Testament the phrase is actually “through a needle’s eye.” If there was any such Needle’s Eye Gate, surely the Jews would have translated the verse accordingly. Wuest’s Greek New Testament says “through the eye of a sewing needle.” 

Another explanation is that there is a scribal error here. The Greek word for camel is kamelos; kamilos, on the other hand, is the word for a large rope or cable. Perhaps Jesus was saying it is easier to thread a needle with a rope than for a rich man to be saved. This sounds good, and would even be a clever play on words from Jesus, but that cannot be the case. All three Synoptic Gospels contain this line, and all three say camel. This would require not one, but three scribes making the same error. It would probably be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for that to happen. 

So where does that leave us? Taking it exactly as Jesus said: this is impossible. We really understand that by looking at what He said next: “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God (Luke 18:27).” My belief is that people want to water down the language of Jesus because they do not like the thought of wealthy people being unable to enter the kingdom. The point Jesus is making, however, is not about wealthy versus poor people, but about the general impossibility of mankind being saved. It is impossible for anyone to be saved because we all are born as sinners, and as the Bible says, as enemies of God. 

But the good news is seen in the next phrase. With man, salvation is impossible, but with God, all things are possible. All who call upon the name of the Lord can be saved. We cannot come to God on our terms, in our strength, or with our resources. We must come to Him bankrupt, asking Him to do what only He can do. And He will. We cannot buy our way into heaven or work our way there. That is as impossible as a camel going through the eye of a needle.