Missed Opportunity- “Beyond Forgiveness” – 2 Kings 21 and 2 Chron. 33:10-20

ctsp 08-9-2009 1 Comment

Can someone be so bad that they CANNOT be forgiven? Surely there are some who have made headlines that were beyond redemption because of their heinous deeds, aren’t there? The truth is that anyone can find God’s love and forgiveness, but they must bow themselves before His majestic power to experience His limitless love.The child came into the world on April 20, 1889, the fourth child of Alois Schickelgruber and his wife Klara in the Austrian town of Braunau, near the German border. Alois had been married twice before and had some children from each marriage. He was a low level customs official, described by his housemaid as a “very strict but comfortable” man. He spent most of his off work time in the local beer hall transacting business and sharing time with other men. Though his young son seldom received any affection from him, the boy was showered with love and affection by Klara, his mother. While quite young, his family moved to Passau in Germany where the boy did poorly in his early schooling expressing a desire to be an artist and for awhile perhaps the desire to enter the priesthood. His father died in 1903 after suffering a pleural hemorrhage. As a young man, he lost his dear mother and was rejected by the art school – and the combination of the two events in one year left him broken hearted. Though a vegetarian and “tea totler”, he spent much time in beer halls looking for connection with people. He found that connection in war, when Germany entered into WWI. After initially being found too weak for service, he was eventually compelled into service and saw action against the British and Belgians. He was awarded two Iron Crosses for bravery and rose to the rank of lance corporal. He was wounded more than once and in 1918 he was temporarily blinded by a mustard gas attack in Belgium in October 1918. While in hospital, he heard the shocking announcement of Germany’s unconditional and humiliating surrender to the Allied Forces, despite the constant reports at home as to how great the army was doing. After healing, he joined a military intelligence unit, and later the German Worker’s Party, where his mesmerizing oratorical career began with an emotional delivery of an impromptu speech that captivated his audience. His tumultuous rise to power included a jail sentence for a failed coup attempt in which he became an author – and wrote the first volume of a work that would that sold over five million copies by the start of World War II. In 1928 his party had only 3% of the vote. In 1930 it took 18% and by 1932, with more than 30% of the vote, the party made a back room political deal that thrust their man into the Chancellery of the state. He was appointed to that office in January 1933. Upon the death of Hindenburg in August 1934, Hitler was the consensus successor. By 1937, he was comfortable enough to put his master plan, as outlined in Mein Kampf, into effect. He outlined his plans for world domination and those who objected to the plan were dismissed. He ordered the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland in 1938, invaded Poland in 1939, and most of Western Europe by 1941. Several attempts were made on his life during the war, but none was successful. As the war appeared to be inevitably lost and his hand-picked lieutenants, seeing the futility, defied his orders, he killed himself on April 30, 1945. His long-term mistress and new bride, Eva Braun, joined him in suicide. By that time, one of his chief objectives was achieved with the annihilation of two-thirds of European Jewry.

We all understand what a monster Adolf Hitler turned out to be. What makes men into monsters? I don’t know that I can say. I can say that there are virtually no balanced and sane people that plead for a “better view” of history for Adolf. His memory is entirely loathed by millions around the globe. Yet, his history suggests that several issues began when he was quiet young. While we may try to blame others for his formation, we all bear responsibility for what we become.

Moving backward along a historical time line, much longer ago an archetype of a political and moral monster was born — rather ironically in house of Judah at Jerusalem. The king – Manasseh, arose and did unspeakably evil things. Yet, something unbelievable, something outlandish happened… He repented and God took forgave Him.

His father was a good king — Hezekiah the reformer. (2 Kings 18: 3-7)
His mother was Hephzibah – (means “my delight is in her”) an old Jewish tradition holds that she was the daughter of the prophet Isaiah.
He was exposed to the ways of God from birth, and served in his childhood as co-regent with his father.
This youth seemed a “shoe in” and “couldn’t miss”; he had the genes, the money, and the lineage. What greater advantage can he have been offered?
He seemed destined for greatness, yet appears to have squandered it all…

Why are these stories important? Why do we care about the monsters of the past? We have no real explanation for how they come to be, so what is the point? In the case of Manasseh, God has a point in bringing up his story. It is not a “side point”, but a VITAL QUESTION about the nature of God and salvation..

Can you out sin God’s love? Can you act in such a bad way that even God gives up on you? The Bible answers the question in the life of the worst king of Judah.

Key Principle: You cannot out sin God’s love. You just can’t. Your capacity to do wrong is not as large as His reservoir of love and forgiveness – IF we fall before Him and allow Him to transform us!

The writer of Kings told the story…2 Kings 21:1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Hephzibah (my delight is in her). 2 He did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD dispossessed before the sons of Israel. 3 For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. 4 He built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “In Jerusalem I will put My name.” 5 For he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. 6 He made his son pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and used divination, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD provoking Him to anger. 7 Then he set the carved image of Asherah that he had made, in the house of which the LORD said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever. 8 “And I will not make the feet of Israel wander anymore from the land which I gave their fathers, if only they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that My servant Moses commanded them.” 9 But they did not listen, and Manasseh seduced them to do evil more than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the sons of Israel.

10 Now the LORD spoke through His servants the prophets, saying, 11 “Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, having done wickedly more than all the Amorites did who were before him, and has also made Judah sin with his idols; 12 therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am bringing such calamity on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle. 13 ‘I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummeted of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. 14 ‘I will abandon the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they will become as plunder and spoil to all their enemies; 15 because they have done evil in My sight, and have been provoking Me to anger since the day their fathers came from Egypt, even to this day.’”

16 Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; besides his sin with which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the LORD. 17 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh and all that he did and his sin which he committed, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 18 And Manasseh slept with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza, and Amon his son became king in his place.

Look at the EIGHT CHARGES against Manasseh:

* WICKED AND CORRUPT HEART — Did evil (21:2): (The Hebrew “oseh raah”-worked moral impurity) The beginning place was a heart of wicked and lewd thinking that led him to abominable outward acts. The writer used the words of Moses in Leviticus 18: 24 (The chapter on unlawful sexual participations): “‘Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. 25Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. 26But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the aliens living among you must not do any of these detestable things, 27for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. 28And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you. 29“‘Everyone who does any of these detestable things—such persons must be cut off from their people. 30Keep my requirements and do not follow any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you came and do not defile yourselves with them. I am the Lord your God.’”

* PUBLIC DEFILEMENT — Worked abominations (21:2): (to-ay-baw’ – something morally disgusting or an abhorrence) The wrong thinking led to overt perversions that seemed in line with his thinking. We will not share all that is involved in these practices – it is not publicly appropriate information. Suffice it to say the term is used of bestiality, homosexuality and public orgies that involved children. (cp. Unger).

* DELIBERATE IDOLATRY — Rebuilt the destroyed high places (21:3): (worked at rebuilding) He looked back to perversions of the past and actively moved to bring back the popular but wrong way of acting. Perversions of truth will always have a following among rebellious people. Four kinds of altars were specifically mentioned:

1. Erected altars for Baal(21:3): The most prevalent religious system in the immediate Canaanite context of Israelite culture was the worship of Ba‘al. A network of mythical stories that attempted to explain in narrative the nature and creation of the physical world supported this religious system. Ba‘al religion revolved around the cycles of nature necessary for survival and prosperity in the ancient world, primarily growing crops or raising livestock, as well as the growth of human populations..this myth is more explicitly concerned with fertility, specifically cast in terms of human sexuality. Worship of Ba‘al involved imitative magic, the performance of graphic sexual rituals, including sacred prostitution…”adapted from Dennis Bratcher.. Note the basic things he did in Baal worship – rewrote the Creation account, used public spectacles to carefully entertain people into following the myths, flooded their world with sexually explicit shows and invited them to participate in sexual rites.

2. Made an Asherah pole (21:3) and placed it in Temple court (21:8): “Asherah poles” refer to a type of sacred pillar or tree erected next to altars and associated with sacred prostitution of the Canaanite fertility cul
t. She represented the divine feminine, and her cult was led by priestesses who acted to give guidance and direction. This cult was responsible for clear confusion of God’s intended roles for men and women, as well as the clear intentions for sexuality.

3. Built altars for Heaven’s host (21:5) and worshipped the (21:3) inside the Temple of God (21:4): all the host of heaven, the sun and moon, the other planets, and the constellations.

4. Built a shrine for Molech – Made his son pass through the fire (21:6): He made his son pass through the fire, by which he dedicated him a votary to Moloch (Jeremiah 7, 32), in contempt of the seal of circumcision by which he had been dedicated to God.

· SATANISM – Practiced witchcraft (21:6): (naw-khash’: “whisper” is the word used of the serpent in the Garden – the language of Satan) he murmured or whispered using enchantments and spells.

· SUPERSTITION – Used divination (21:6): observed times-from an observation of the clouds.

· HOAXING AND USING DARK ALLIES — Dealt with mediums and spiritists (21:6): ‘owb (obe — a mumble, i.e. a water skin (from its hollow sound); hence a necromancer (ventriloquist, as from a jar) — bottle, familiar spirit; “ventriloquists,” who pretended to ask counsel of a familiar spirit and gave the response received from him to others. and wizards-wise or knowing ones, who pretended to reveal secrets, to recover things lost and hidden treasure, and to interpret dreams. “A great influx of these impostors had, at various times, poured from Chaldea into the land of Israel to pursue their gainful occupations, especially during the reigns of the latter kings; and Manasseh was not only their liberal patron, but zealous to appear himself an adept in the arts. He raised them to be an influential class at his court, as they were in that of Assyria and Babylon, where nothing was done till they had ascertained the lucky hour and were promised a happy issue.” JFB

· SOWING CORRUPTION — Seduced the people into darkness (21:9): (taw-aw’ — to vacillate, reel or pull astray)

· MURDER – Shed innocent blood (21:16): (nawkee dam is blameless blood) and probably refers to martyring believers that objected to his rituals.

So we have met our man. He is a wicked hearted man who flagrantly practiced of open perverseness, a committed pagan and Satanist, a diehard superstitious man who befriended every dark person and drew his nation into wicked and murderous practices with no regard for innocent lives. Say it as perverted, deranged, murderous. Not much in this resume we see as potential..

Ironically, in some ways he may have thought that his life plan and strategy was paying off. He reigned long, longest of any of the kings of Judah, fifty-five years. Look closer and you will discover that though he reigned long, some of this time he was a prisoner in Babylon, so it is not as good as it appears on the surface. It is also worth mentioning that longevity was not a symbol of God’s satisfaction…yet God was not finished with the story He wanted told of this man. For the “rest of the story” we move to a parallel history, in the Chronicles.

The story from God’s perspective isn’t simply about his disgraces before the world, his God and his subjects. The main character of the Bible isn’t man – but God. In this story, we are reminded that you cannot out sin God’s love. You just can’t. Your capacity to do wrong is not as large as His reservoir of love and forgiveness.

2 Chronicles 33:10 offers a story of God’s grace. First, God sent prophetic warning. The verse opens “The LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention.” This is how God responds to the sinful practice of a monster. He offered additional truth to show the lighted path back to Him. God’s Word is a function of God’s grace, because it directs people back to Him that have lost their way by their own poor choices.

Next, when the Word was not heeded, God sent humbling circumstances in judgment. One of the great aspects fo God’s grace is that He will send smaller judgments to encourage us to turn back before a great judgment befalls us! His judgments are to get us to TURN BACK. In Manasseh’s case, the writer says in verse 11 “Therefore the LORD brought the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria against them, and they captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze chains and took him to Babylon.”

Unbowed by the Word’s warning, the wicked king is taken away, hook in his nose, by an enemy king. He was not free. He was not in control. His power and authority were stripped from him. What the world would see as a great punishment was actually a gracious gift of the God of Judah. Here was the moment of transformation’s beginnings in the heart of Manasseh – he bowed to the Lord. The writer records it this way: 33:12 “When he was in distress, he entreated the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. 13 When he prayed to Him, He was moved by his entreaty and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.”

The eight heinous sins of Manasseh are matched by an eight-part description of his rebirth. Note the phrases:

* He entreated
* He humbled greatly
* He prayed.
* God was moved.
* God heard what he asked for.
* God restored him.
* Manasseh knew RESTORATION was A GOD THING!

Now Manasseh walked in truth. His life was never to return to the darkness of his youth. The writer finished his life story… “14 Now after this he built the outer wall of the city of David on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entrance of the Fish Gate; and he encircled the Ophel with it and made it very high. Then he put army commanders in all the fortified cities of Judah. 15 He also removed the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the LORD, as well as all the altars which he had built on the mountain of the house of the LORD and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside the city. 16 He set up the altar of the LORD and sacrificed peace offerings and thank offerings on it; and he ordered Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel. 17 Nevertheless the people still sacrificed in the high places, although only to the LORD their God.“

Manasseh was a new man! You could see it in every step he took. It is a model of the rebirth and a transformed life:

* He restored the old part of Jerusalem – a call to the past.
* He set a priority on Temple Hill’s protection – a signal to the new priorities.
* He protected all the cities of Judah – a signal of new unity.
* He
removed (tossed out) all pagan gods and altars – a signal of new purity.
* He rebuilt the altar of God – a signal of new reverence.
* He offered “shelmim” offerings – a new gratefulness.
* He ordered total compliance – a new focus.

In the final statement, he lived with a consequence of the return to the past – a return to an old compromise. Though he was changed, there was a penalty in the lives of the others – there always is!

Did God forgive this monster? Yes! Ironically we know this because Manasseh is found in the NT record in Mt. 1: 10 as in the lineage of Joseph (Jesus’ earthly father). You cannot out sin God’s love. You just can’t. Your capacity to do wrong is not as large as His reservoir of love and forgiveness – IF we fall before Him and allow Him to transform us!

Knowing Jesus: “Eating is Believing – Six Principles of Real Fulfillment” – John 6

Knowing Jesus: “Six Places the Truth Cannot Be Found!” – John 7

Categories: 2 Kings, Bible studies