Rebellion
From a
worldly perspective, how sad it is to see such an evil king come immediately
following the godly king Hezekiah. Yes,
Hezekiah made his mistakes; but Hezekiah generally reformed the land. He was repentant and he genuinely desired his
heart to be reformed.
Manasseh,
on the other hand, established altars in the temple to other gods. Manasseh worshipped not just the God of the
Hebrews, but all the gods that he knew about.
Manasseh sacrificed his own son as he followed the ways of the Canaanites
who dwelled in the land before the Hebrew people. Jewish tradition says that it was by
Manasseh’s order that Isaiah was literally sawn in two (see Hebrews 11:37 for
what could be a vague reference to this tradition).
It is sad
to see how some rebel against the ways of their parents. Well, in truth, we all rebel at some point
against our parents. But it is
especially sad regarding the lengths that children will go in rebelling against
the wisdom and godliness of their parents.
It seems as though some people in this world are simply hard-wired for
rebellion.
On the
other hand, it is even sadder to see people rebel against God and God’s
ways. And in this case, I think it is
fair to say that we are all hard-wired for rebellion against God. It is by definition what it means to be
sinful. Sin is rebellion against God,
and all human beings have fallen short of the glory of God because of our
sinfulness. Human beings by our very nature
are hard-wired for rebellion against God.
In this
way of thinking, no one of us is actually any better than Mannasseh. Sure, we may not sacrifice our children to
the gods or erect altars to these other gods in the space dedicated to worship
God; but we are not without our problems.
We prioritize the things of this world above the calling of the
Lord. We come to worship worried and
concerned about the things in this world instead of filled with a desire to
worship. We are not without our false
idols – we just don’t make images of them and set them up and pray to
them. We are not without our sacrifices
to things other than God’s calling for us – they just don’t involve the
shedding of someone’s blood. From a
worldly perspective, our rebellion against God doesn’t have near the magnitude of
consequences as the problems of Manasseh.
But on a divine scale, it is still rebellion against God.
Turning to 2 Chronicles 33
But here
is where it is so important to read 2 Chronicles 33. There we not only hear about Manasseh’s
idolatry and his leading of Judah into sin, but we also hear about his
repentance and contrition. We hear about
how Manasseh is dragged into captivity and falls before the Lord. Manasseh entreats the Lord for forgiveness
and he receives it. Manasseh goes back
home and begins to lead with a different flare.
From the perspective of Chronicles, it would seem that with an eternal view
Manasseh finds God. That is a very good
thing.
This is
why I have said “from a worldly perspective” twice in the blog. From a worldly perspective, Manasseh lives a
horrible life before God takes over. But
from a divine perspective, Manasseh finds God in the end. It is sad to see a person choose a life of
pain when their choices separate them from God.
But when they find God in the end, the sadness is replaced with joy.
Consequences
However,
while Manasseh may find forgiveness and Manasseh may find God – there are
consequences that play out regardless of Manasseh’s stand in forgiveness. Manasseh’s deeds are still remembered as evil
in spite of his repentance – although the account in 2 Chronicles does mention
that Amon does not repent as Manasseh did.
Amon had learned enough from his father’s life before repentance. He chooses those ways rather than God’s ways.
This is
the hardest part of life for me. I
desperately want forgiveness to imply that the consequences go away, too. But the truth in life is that while we may
find forgiveness from God, the consequences of our actions are still very much
real. That is a very important lesson to
learn, and it is why I so often separate the issues into the “worldly side” and
the “spiritual side.” The consequences
of our actions may still remain when our actions have proven evil and we have
sought God’s repentance, but the consequences are easier to bear when we
remember that those who have a contrite and repentant heart have found eternal
mercy from their God regardless of the consequences that must be handled.
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