Year 6, Day 331: 2 Chronicles 33

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Ambition, Appetite, Approval

• Ambition: We all need a goal to which we can strive.  When our ambition comes from God, we find fulfillment in our obedience into that for which we have been equipped because our Out is in proper focus.  But when our ambition comes from ourselves, we find ourselves chasing after our own dreams and trying to find fulfillment in accomplishments of our own making.
• Appetite: We all have needs that need to be filled.  When we allow ourselves to be filled with the people and things that God brings into our life, we will be satisfied because our In will be in proper focus.  But when we try to fill ourselves with our own desires we end up frustrated by an insatiable hunger.
• Approval: We all need to feel as though we are accepted.  When we seek the approval of God, our Up is in the right place.  But when we seek the approval of other people besides God, we open the door to pursuing false gods and risk putting someone or something other than God in our Up position.

This section of the history of the kings is quick to sadden.  Hezekiah just brought about a great revival.  Many of the bad trends that had been occurring in Judah were fixed.  The places of false worship were torn down.  The false gods were removed.  The law was copied and spread throughout the land.  So many good reforms and revisions were done underneath Hezekiah.  The reason that this section of the kings account saddens me is because we truly see how quickly things change.

The next king to come to power is Hezekiah’s son, Manasseh.  Manasseh turns away from Hezekiah’s reform.  He puts things back the way that they were.  Soon the temple is scandalized again.  Soon the child sacrifices are being done again.  Soon the ways of God are abandoned.

I don’t know why Manasseh is so quick to change.  It could be that he was young before Hezekiah’s reform and therefore he learned to imitate the sinful Hezekiah and not the reformed one.  It could be that Manasseh was more interested in himself and his own desires than in following God’s ways.  It could be that he wasn’t a king who managed the people well and simply allowed them to do as they pleased while he did as he pleased.  We don’t know why the reversal came so quick.  We simply know that it did come very quickly.

We see here the compelling power of human sinfulness.  We all have an insatiable appetite for something.  We all will do things to seek the approval of others.  We all will follow our own ambition to get what we want.  As the Bible teaches, sin is always crouching at the door.  We, like the Hebrew nation, can slip from obedience to sinfulness in what seems like the blink of an eye.  Vigilance is necessary.  It is not a matter of if we will fall under temptation.  We will fall under temptation, the only question is when and how we will respond.

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