2 Chronicles 33:14-16 "Now after this he built a wall without the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entering in at the fish gate, and compassed about Ophel, and raised it up a very great height, and put captains of war in all the fenced cities of Judah. (15) And he took away the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the LORD, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the LORD, and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city. (16) And he repaired the altar of the LORD, and sacrificed thereon peace offerings and thank offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel."
This is written of King Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah. He began to reign when
he was twelve years old after his father died. I skipped over the parts
of his life where he was a failure. To be quite honest, I find myself sometimes
becoming low in spirit in this study of the kings of Judah. I say that, and
yet, I know for my own sake I need to continue to the end. I feel I become low
in spirit because I see human nature often at its very lowest and have to
admit, "There I am."
I have always only seen and thought concerning the terrible things that
Manasseh did in his lifetime. Those are the things that I skipped over in
today's devotion. You can read them in the first part of this chapter. He did
many things that his grandfather, Ahaz, had done and probably would have been
proud of him. It seems he may have even invented some things that had not been
done in Jerusalem before. I have dwelt on those things for all my
ministry when it came to Manasseh. He was wicked. He was evil. I admit that
there have been times when I have even thought, "Would it have been better
if Manasseh had never been born?" I write those words with tears, but I'm
guilty of those thoughts.
This morning as I sat down and realized there was not anything more to say
about Hezekiah, I knew Manasseh was next in line. I knew that God had added
fifteen years to the life of Hezekiah and during those years came the birth of Manasseh.
Oh, I sat here and prayed to ask God to help me with my writing. I try to do
that every morning, but this morning the burden seemed extra heavy. For you
see, I'm like many of you... I'm tired of hearing all the bad news of the world
today. I'm tired of being weighed down by all the negative things that are
happening in our nation. I'm tired of the wickedness and hatred and pure anger
that is shown openly on a daily basis. I am tired of the weakness of the carnal
mind of Steve Taylor. I sat here and felt like the words of an Anne Murray
song, "Lord, we sure could use a little good news today."
So I began to read about Manasseh. Yes, I read all the negative and began to
think that maybe I should even stop this study of kings. Then I came to verses
14-16. I began to read, "he built a wall without (about) the city."
(Don't go political with me on this one. I'm not going there.) He put
captains of war in all the fenced cities. Those are things that even a wicked
king would do. But then I read, "He took away the strange gods and idol...
and cast them out of the city. And he repaired the altar of the LORD, and
sacrificed thereon .. to serve the LORD God of Israel."
I know this is longer than usual. Please bear with me. I write this with tears
in my eyes. When we are ready to throw someone away or even worse, ready to
throw ourselves away, God can and will still use them. When we think we are not
fit to serve the Lord, God has a purpose for us. When we are ready to just skip
over someone, I'm thankful that God doesn't skip over them. You see, I
could have been a Manasseh. And so could you have been. Aren't you glad God did
not skip over you? I surely am. Thank you Lord for your blessings on me.