New Beginnings: Lesson 2

Overview

New Beginnings in Jonah and David

Scripture is full of new beginnings, and the book of Jonah offers several at once. When the word of the Lord comes to Jonah Jonah 1:1-2, God is offering a new beginning to a people who, by every human measure, did not deserve it. Nineveh was a brutal, wicked city—known for child sacrifice and gruesome cruelty—yet God sends His own prophet to call them to repentance. Jonah flees toward Tarshish, but even his rebellion becomes the occasion for another new beginning: the pagan mariners on the ship come to fear the Lord, offer sacrifice, and make vows Jonah 1:16. And Jonah himself, given time in the belly of the fish, remembers the Lord and confesses, "Deliverance belongs to the Lord" Jonah 2:7-9. He, too, receives a second chance to do God's will.

When Jonah finally preaches in Nineveh, the king and the people repent in sackcloth and ashes, and God relents Jonah 3:6-10. Jonah, however, sulks—he wanted them destroyed. That is where the story turns its mirror on us. How often do we run toward our own Tarshish because we don't want a particular person, group, or enemy to receive mercy? God's patience with Nineveh, with the sailors, and with His stubborn prophet reveals what Peter later affirms: God is slow to anger, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

The story of David shows the same mercy reaching into the life of a believer who falls hard. In 2 Samuel 11, David commits adultery with Bathsheba and arranges the death of her husband, Uriah—two sins that, under the Law, both carry the death penalty Leviticus 20:10. When Nathan confronts him, David does not try to manufacture his own remedy. He confesses. The result is Psalm 51, one of the most honest prayers of repentance ever written: "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love." David knows he cannot create his own new beginning, so he pleads, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me" Psalm 51:10. God does exactly that—and continues to use David, even bringing the Messiah through his line.

The pastoral takeaway is twofold. First, no sin is beyond the mercy of God for those who turn to Him in honest confession; the new beginning is His to give, not ours to earn. Second, because we have received that mercy, we have no standing to withhold the message of it from others—even from the "Ninevites" in our own lives whom we'd rather see judged than saved. Every new beginning in Scripture points forward to the same place: our true new beginning is found in Jesus Christ, who makes all things new and sends us out to share that good news.

Transcript

Thank you. 3s

Lord, we thank you for this morning. 4s

We thank you for your goodness, your glory. 6s

We thank you for every new beginning. 9s

You give us each day. 11s

You allow for us to draw in breath for our hearts to beat, 13s

for our minds to be active and think. 17s

And we thank you so much for your grace. 20s

We thank you for calling us into this congregation. 23s

We thank you for calling us by your spirit to know you better. 26s

We ask that you would use this time together 31s

to let us know you better, to grow in faith, 34s

and to rejoice in knowing that we are yours and you are ours. 37s

Lord, we lift this to you in the name of Jesus Christ. 44s

Amen. 47s

Okay, we're going to do two people today. 48s

Woo! 51s

Actually, there's more than two 53s

because we have quite a few in our first grouping. 54s

So I don't know what it is about Jonah. 58s

I just love Jonah. 62s

And I think I love Jonah because, 66s

oh, he is so human. 70s

Same reason I love Peter. 74s

So we're going to be first in Jonah. 77s

So if you could open your books, your Bibles, 80s

not just your book, but your Bible to Jonah, 84s

if you open up to the center, 89s

you're going to find the books of wisdom. 91s

You keep going to the right. 93s

You're going to find fun people like Amos and Obadaya. 94s

And right after Obadaya, you're going to run into Jonah. 98s

If you find Micah, you have gone too far. 101s

So we're going to start in Jonah today. 105s

So we have quite a few sort of new beginnings 109s

that are found or that are offered in the book of Jonah. 113s

And the very first new beginning is not even for the Israelite people. 118s

So let's just go ahead and start right in the beginning. 124s

The word of the Lord came to Jonah's son, 127s

of a Mithai, saying, go at once to Nineveh, 130s

that great city and cry out against it. 134s

For their wickedness has come up before me. 137s

Okay, so God, even though they are not set apart people, 140s

the Nineveits, God is sending his own prophet to Nineveh 146s

to give them an opportunity for repentance. 151s

Now Nineveh was just terrible. 156s

I find that I don't have really good adjectives today. 160s

So we're going to just be pretty base. 165s

But just awful. 168s

They did the child sacrifice. 169s

They were that group that, you know, if you got in trouble 172s

and you were murdered or you were killed by the king or his people, 178s

then your head would be on a spike and, you know, down the road. 182s

So as a warning for others, the Nineveits were just a gross, bad, evil, wicked people. 185s

And here God is sending his own prophet to the Nineveits 192s

to tell them to go against or to stop their wickedness. 199s

So we have this first opportunity of a new beginning 205s

that is going to be given to the Nineveits, 210s

which is really incredible and speaks greatly of God's grace. 213s

So Jonah knows this and what does he do? 219s

See ya. 222s

He heads out and he is not going to do this. 223s

He's not going to go to these Nineveits who are so wicked and new. 226s

Absolutely do not deserve a new beginning. 229s

Do not deserve the mercy of God. 232s

And so he says, I'm out of here and he heads to Tarshish. 235s

So he is on the ship and as we know, the ship, we're all familiar with this story, right? 239s

So okay, just making sure. 245s

As he's on the ship, the seas start getting crazy and wild 247s

and all of the mariners are freaking out because they're scared that they're going to die. 253s

They're going to perish. 261s

And so the second group of people, so we have the Nineveits who are supposed to be getting this opportunity 264s

to repent. 274s

And then we have these mariners, the semen, that are given a new beginning. 276s

So they're in this boat. 283s

They are thinking they're going to perish. 284s

If nothing happens, they indeed will perish. 286s

And so they start calling out and Jonah does come to them and he says, 290s

this is because of me. 298s

This is what's going on and you're going to need to throw me off the boat. 300s

And so with some hesitancy, they do throw him overboard. 306s

And then they, let's see here, verse 16 of chapter 1 in Jonah, in the book of Jonah. 316s

It says, so after they've thrown him into the sea, the seas ceased from its raging, 326s

then the men feared the Lord even more and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows. 331s

So they are given this new beginning. 338s

They are not perishing in this sea. 343s

They are not perishing on their boat or being overthrown. 346s

And they realize they're given that opportunity to realize the power of the one God. 350s

And so they make a sacrifice to him and make vows. 360s

So we have the Ninevites who are supposed to be given this new beginning. 363s

We have the mariners who are given a new beginning. 368s

And then we have Jonah. 373s

Jonah, Jonah, Jonah, Jonah. 375s

And this is where we come to his very human humanness. 378s

How many of us, when we know, we know what the right thing to do is? 382s

And we try to go to Tarshish. 392s

We don't want to do it. 396s

And that's exactly what Jonah did. 399s

And Jonah, God, gave Jonah time in the belly of the fish. 400s

And he gave Jonah some time to think and some time to really consider his circumstances, his spirit, 407s

and his relationship with the Lord and the power of the Lord. 419s

And kind of get things straight. 426s

Have you ever set someone in time out? 428s

Okay, not your spouse. 430s

I say someone like it's, you know, our peers. 433s

We're not putting our peers in time out. 436s

Have you ever set a child in time out for them to take that time to think? 439s

So Jonah's got this time in the belly of the fish. 443s

And I love the prayer. 448s

He realizes he prays. 450s

He's sitting in the belly of the fish. 452s

And he has time to think. 453s

And as he thinks, he realizes and kind of gets himself centered. 456s

So he has that opportunity to center himself. 461s

And I want to read part of his prayer in verse 7 of chapter 2, or starting with verse 7, in chapter 2. 464s

He says, as my life was ebbing away, I remembered the Lord. 476s

And my prayer came to you into your holy temple. 481s

Those who worship vain idols forsake their true loyalty. 485s

But I, with a voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. 489s

What I have vowed, I will pay, deliverance belongs to the Lord. 493s

And so with that repentance, with that confession, with that prayer, with that acknowledgement from Jonah, 499s

that it is the Lord's will, that deliverance belongs to him, that Jonah is speaking out of turn, or not doing, out of stubbornness. 509s

So then we continue, the Lord spoke to the fish, this is verse 10, and it spewed Jonah out upon the dry land. 523s

Okay, so Jonah is going to get a new beginning. 533s

He's going to get another chance to do God's will. 536s

And he is a prophet, a messenger of the Lord. 541s

And so he had turned and run, he comes back, he's getting this chance, this new beginning. 545s

So we come back again to the original group. 551s

And we've got verse 1 of chapter 3. 556s

The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. 559s

So here's the second opportunity for this new beginning. 564s

Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you. 569s

So Jonah set out and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. 577s

So Jonah is finally going to the Ninevehs. 583s

They are no less wicked, they are no less evil, and he goes, and he proclaims that they need to repent. 587s

They need to turn from their wicked ways. 597s

We go down to verse 6 of chapter 3. 601s

When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, 605s

and sat in ashes. 612s

Then he had a proclamation made in Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles. 613s

No human being or animal, no herd or flock shall taste anything. 619s

They shall not feed nor shall they drink water. 623s

Human beings and animals shall be covered with sackcloth, and they shall cry mildly to God. 626s

All shall turn from their evil ways and from the violence that is in their hands. 632s

Who knows? 637s

God may relent and change his mind. 638s

He may turn from his fierce anger so that we do not perish. 641s

When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them, and he did not do it. 645s

So God had wanted his word to be brought to the Ninevites, to that great city that was filled with evil and wickedness. 658s

And they heard that word. 670s

Jonah went to every corner of the city proclaiming God's word. 673s

They heard it. 678s

They repented from the king down. 679s

Even the animals were to sit in sackcloth, they were too fast. 681s

They have this new beginning in the hope that God would not consume them. 687s

And God didn't. 697s

God gave them that new beginning. 700s

And again, I love Jonah. 705s

Just love him. 707s

He is so angry. 709s

He goes to a mountain or to the overlook. 712s

And he's sitting there and he's just waiting for God to smite the Ninevites. 720s

Just waiting to see them get what they really deserve. 724s

And he's waiting and he's waiting and God does not do that. 728s

So he's still upset. 733s

And so then we're going to go to chapter 4, verse 6, where Jonah is sitting here. 738s

And the Lord, God, appointed a bush and made it come up over Jonah to give shade over his head to save him from his discomfort. 746s

So Jonah was very happy about the bush. 753s

So God, again, is providing for Jonah. 756s

And Jonah has been upset. 763s

And this is where that new beginning, that connection that we have as Jonah's ourselves at times, 766s

where we know the right thing or we know the word that we need to share, 776s

the word that we get to share. 785s

And we try to head to Tarshish because we don't want someone else to get a new beginning. 789s

And in our selfishness, in our selfishness, we kind of go, they get to suffer the consequences. 801s

They've made their bed, they can lie in it. 812s

And we try to play judge and jury over whether or not this person is worthy of being saved. 816s

If this person is worthy of having a new beginning. 826s

So God makes that bush come up. 834s

And Jonah is pleased because he's taken care of. 837s

And then the bush, he appoints a worm to eat the bush, the bush dies, and Jonah's hot. 842s

And again, he says, it would just be better if I was dead. 849s

It would be better if I was dead. 851s

And he complains in that moment and he's upset. 854s

And we see that mercy of God. 859s

We see that love that God has for all of his creation. 862s

Because he says, you're upset about this one bush that came up in a night, 868s

that you had nothing to do with, it's gone. 873s

And you're upset about that. 876s

Why would I not want for my creation, for these people, for these animals? 878s

Why would I not want for them to repent, to turn from their wicked ways? 886s

And so this takes us to Christ and to the gospel and to the letters from Peter 894s

where he says that God is slow to anger. 903s

God is patient. 907s

God's time is not our time because God's will is that all would hear His word. 910s

That all would come and repent and would be saved. 916s

And it is possible because it is God's will. 923s

So the new beginning for all of us is in Jesus Christ. 930s

And it's interesting the story of Jonah, how I think I do connect with it so much. 936s

And this is terrible. 942s

I'm just confessing to you all. 943s

I think I connect to it so much because I don't know that there's a single person I know 947s

that I have had those moments where I'm like, Tarshish man, we're going to Tarshish. 955s

I don't want that person to be saved. 962s

It's terrible. 967s

So thankfully, thankfully we are not God. 970s

And God is much more loving and merciful. 976s

And He gives us a new beginning every single day, every single moment to repent. 978s

And He gives us the opportunity to share His love, His word, so that those around us, especially those that we really don't want to repent. 986s

He gives us the opportunity so that they can repent. 1000s

Okay, so that's our first new beginning. 1005s

So our second one. 1008s

And this one is going to be really familiar with us all, but I can't not do David. 1010s

Right? Because it's just amazing. 1019s

So we know David as the shepherd boy. 1022s

And really, I mean, his whole time with the Lord begins as a new beginning. 1026s

Right? I mean, he's just the runt of the family. 1031s

He's out taking care of the sheep, overlooked as just the little guy. 1034s

And yet, he is the one that God has chosen. 1042s

And so it's really cool to see that, really, when he comes on the scene, he begins with that new beginning. 1047s

So that's really fun. 1056s

So let's go to 2 Samuel, chapter 11. 1057s

2 Samuel, chapter 11. 1062s

So if you go past the Pentateuch and then you'll have judges and Ruth, and then you'll come to 1 Samuel, then 2 Samuel. 1064s

If you go to Chronicles or Kings, you've gone too far. 1073s

So 2 Samuel, David is already King. 1078s

Life is good. 1082s

And, well, I mean, good to a point. 1086s

So then in 2 Samuel, chapter 11, we have a big downfall. 1090s

So there is a time of war or a time of battle. 1099s

And David is at home. 1104s

Let's start in verse 2. 1109s

It happened late one afternoon when David rose from his couch and was walking about on the roof of the king's house that he saw from the roof a woman bathing. 1111s

The woman was very beautiful. 1120s

David sent someone to inquire about the woman. 1122s

It was reported this is Beth Sheba, daughter of Aliam, the wife of Yeraya, the Hittite. 1125s

So David sent messengers to get her and she came to him and he lay with her. 1130s

Now she was purifying herself after her period. 1135s

Then she returned to her house. 1138s

The woman conceived and she sent and told David, I am pregnant. 1140s

So there is a punishment for adultery in the law. 1148s

There is a punishment for adultery in the law. 1156s

In Leviticus, chapter 20, so if we keep our hand here in 2 Samuel and go back to Leviticus, so you are going to go past Deuteronomy, past numbers, back to Leviticus, chapter 20, verse 10, 1158s

If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulterer shall be put to death. 1176s

There is punishment for adultery and here the king of Israel, the king of gods, chosen people, has just committed adultery. 1190s

And there is proof. He knows he committed adultery. 1203s

Did he kill himself? Did he have anyone kill him? No. No, he did not. 1209s

He decides he has got a different plan. 1216s

And so he calls for Eureia, who is in battle to come home and to be with Bethchiba his wife so that surprise her pregnancy must be his for the timing. 1219s

But Eureia is so loyal and faithful to his king. He does not go to spend time with his wife. Instead he stays at the doorstep of the king as a loyal servant. 1235s

So David has to think of something else to do. So David calls the commander and says, I need you to put Eureia at the front of the battle line. 1250s

Knowing full and well that Eureia will be killed, but that will take care of the problem. 1262s

Remember, David is the adulterer. Bethchiba is the adulteress. By law they should be killed. 1269s

But instead her innocent husband, his death is arranged and indeed he is taken to the front of the battle and he is killed. 1280s

And Bethchiba goes through a morning period and then David marries her and she is pregnant and they can announce it to people. 1291s

Well, in God's mercy, oh yeah, I forgot. Sorry. There is a punishment for murder. 1301s

The punishment for murder is death. There are some nuanced things with killing in the mosaic law. So murder is the high hand where you have time to think about it and then you kill someone that is murder. 1311s

If we call man slaughter, like that accidental death that was not intended, there are different provisions for that kind of death in mosaic law. 1335s

But this is clearly a high hand murder. David thought about it. David arranged it. David made sure that Eureia would be killed. 1347s

So the punishment for that is death. Okay. So then Nathan, God in his loving mercy, sends his prophet to David. 1355s

And Nathan tells him a story. Have you ever had someone tell you a story, this fictitious story, but then it's really to prove a point about yourself? 1369s

The thing, the thing, okay, and this is kind of a time out squirrel moment. The thing about studying these various people and the new beginnings and man, it is so convicting and we see why I see just like, oh, okay. 1382s

This is rough. It's just really eye opening for our own, my own human nature. So any who we're back on track now. 1401s

So Nathan brings that law to God. Or I mean to David. He brings God's law to David. And David, he says, you know, what should happen to this man? 1415s

This man, and he uses the story of a man who had a little sheep, a little lamb. And so David is outraged at the wrong of this fictitious man who has done wrong. And he says, that man should be killed. 1423s

That man should be murdered because the punishment for the sin is death. 1438s

And Nathan says, buddy, this is you. This is you. 1448s

Did David go and kill himself? No. Did David ask for someone to kill him? No. No, he didn't. But we do have one of the most beautiful Psalms that he penned out of this. 1457s

Let's go to Psalm 51. Psalm 51. And we go through this every single Ash Wednesday. We say this together as a congregation because it is a psalm of confession, a psalm of repentance. 1470s

But it's also a psalm that is filled with God's mercy and with God's promise. So David begins, have mercy on me. 1489s

According to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sins. 1499s

And he says against you, you alone have I sinned. He knows that the sin that he had committed while it did affect the people around him. 1510s

Truly, it was in treachery to the Lord. It was in treachery to what the Lord has commanded. 1525s

David writes this, and my favorite verse, this is my favorite verse. Verse 10, creating me a clean, hard-o-god and put it right, well, this says new and right spirit within me. I memorized it from the ESV, so I always get it tripped up there. 1536s

But because David knows that he's not going to make his own new beginning, that he can't make things right, but he knows that God can and will change his heart. 1555s

And he knows that God can and will put the righteous spirit within him, that God will give him that new beginning. 1572s

And God does. He absolutely does. And David continues to be one of the great and mighty kings of Israel. 1585s

And he is beloved by the nation. And he is beloved by his people. And God did not turn his back. And God did not quit using David according to God's good will and purpose. 1596s

And of course, we're going to fast forward to Jesus. What line does Jesus come out of? He comes out of the line of David. 1617s

So we have this man who by law should be dead. And he was dead in his trespasses. But by God's grace and mercy, David was forgiven from his repentance after his confession. 1627s

And God continued to use David for his glory and for the service of his kingdom. And out of David, we have the Savior of all time and all places. And so out of David, we have our new beginning. 1650s

Oh, we're awesome on time. Okay, even with all the tangents, this is good. So I wanted to go over these two because Jonah, we've already talked about how he's just, we all have those Jonah moments. 1671s

Or maybe, am I not, I mean, I kind of feel a little bit solo here right now. I'm claiming it for all of us, but I don't know, maybe it is just me. I don't think it is. But we all have those moments, right? 1687s

Those moments of trying to make the judgment call ourselves. And we're given the opportunity for forgiveness and to share forgiveness. And then this side of heaven, when we think about sins, I mean top tier sins, adultery and murder. 1701s

And they are forgiven. And they are forgiven. And God continues to use his servant according to his glory. So, so these new beginnings point us directly to Christ where our new beginning lies and how we move forward in that new beginning. 1720s