Jonah 3:1

Jonah 3:1 says, And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying,  God never gave up on Jonah.  He still was speaking to Him.  We need to realize that God will always do all He can to protect us and when He delivers us from problems in this world, even those we create, we need to listen for His word to us.  We are saved and delivered for a purpose, and that is to serve God faithfully.  Verse two adds, Arise, go into Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.  God still had the same purpose for Jonah.  He was still to go into Nineveh and preach the preaching that God gave him.  All we today can do is proclaim the message that God gives us.  Jonah still had the same specific calling that he had before.  We today may run so long that God uses someone else to do what He had called us to do.  He would not have destroyed Nineveh without His message going out to them.  He will not destroy people today without His word going out to them.  If I run from God's call to go witness for several years, He would be a cruel God to just let those that I should have witnessed to die without hearing about His salvation plan.  Jonah was being sent to Nineveh not just for those of Nineveh, but so that he might grow in faith as well.  When we are sent to witness, and obey, we grow in our relationship to God, and to those around us.  We are taught compassion for them.  Verse three continues, So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey.  Jonah was through running from God and was now going to his mission field.  Jonah was one man, going to a very large city, that God had said was so evil He was going to destroy it.  When we look at the world today, does the task of reaching the lost seem overwhelming in this evil world?  We may ask what just one person can do, but we need to realize that as God's followers, it is what God can do through one person doing His will that is important.  It is not based on our ability, but on God's.  God did not send an army to Nineveh, but only Jonah, empowered by God's word.