God`s Grace Abounds

2 Chronicles 33:10-13 (NKJV):

¹⁰ And the Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they would not listen.

¹¹ Therefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh with hooks,^[b] bound him with bronze fetters, and carried him off to Babylon.

¹² Now when he was in affliction, he implored the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers,

¹³ and prayed to Him; and He received his entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.

The part that amazes me about Manasseh is that he was one of the most wretched kings that Israel had throughout the history, and even after all the horrible things that he`s done, when God sent him into the captivity, he was able to humble himself and cry out to God. Not only did the Lord hear him, but He forgave him and brought Manasseh back to his kingdom and restored his throne to him. This story just blows my mind away by the way God`s mercy and grace abounds and covers the worst of or transgressions.

Some of the important points that God showed me through this scripture were:

Deep inside, all people realize the true existence of the Lord regardless of how much they resist to acknowledge it in their lives or acknowledge it publically. We all deep inside realize that the Lord is the only true God. People always have reverence and belief in God no matter what, even when they choose to play those games with the Lord by rejecting Him and by rebelling against Him claiming that He doesn`t exist. Manasseh did exactly that- he was playing games with the Lord. He was the son of Hezekiah (one of the most godly kings after David (Isaiah 36-38; 2 Kings 18-19) as the scripture tells us, and Manasseh had exposure to the truth of the Lord and the scriptures since he was born, yet he chose to play those games and rebel against God.

 Manasseh was one of the worst of the kings who did the sorcery, the witchcraft, soothsaying, passed his sons through the fire, established the idol in the house of the Lord (in the Temple itself), yet when God sent him into captive, He called out to the Lord for deliverance rather than to all those idols that he worshiped throughout his life.
⁶ Also he caused his sons to pass through the fire in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom; he practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft and sorcery, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. ⁷ He even set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever; (2 Chronicles 33:6-7 NKJV)

I think of Manasseh as an example of how much we toy with the Lord in our daily lives and rebel against Him in disobedience knowingly. We clearly see that although Manasseh was one of the wicked kings and rejected to repent, in the end he knew that only the Lord is the true and living God, and only He is capable to save him from the captivity.

I guess when you have hooks stuffed through your mouth and you are bound with bronze fetters, you would feel pretty uncomfortable to say the least and would be more prone to ask the Lord for deliverance and guidance. Manasseh did exactly that, as we see in the verse 12, that he “implored the Lord his God”, and he knew the Lord was his God.  

This leads me to the next point that I`d like to make, and that`s the importance of afflictions. They always work in humans` lives. No matter how stubborn and proud one can be the afflictions do the trick. Some require to have hooks pulled through their mouth and have bond of bronze fetters on them (like Manasseh had it), and some require other things that get their heart in the right place with the Lord, but the afflictions always work.

When I look at the example of Manasseh, my heart just stops for the Lord. He was such a wicked king, yet the Lord showed grace and mercy to him when he repented while being in captivity. Not only that, but God restored his throne back to him. This is just another confirmation to us of the true God`s plan and goal for each one of us: He is only after our hearts and desires for each soul to be saved. It all comes down to this true statement that John wrote in the gospel:

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16 NKJV).

This is where our Lord`s heart is: our salvation. He loves us so much that even Manasseh, one of the most treacherous and wicked kings when he repented, the Lord forgave him. God is consistent in His message and His character: He cares about everybody without exception. It doesn`t matter what our past is/was, it doesn`t matter how bad of a person we have been in the past; the Lord only concerned about our hearts, so we get saved.

I just can`t stop to wonder about God`s mighty love for us when I think about Manasseh because the history tells us that he was that king who ordered the prophet Isaiah to be sawed in half (reference to that is in Hebrews 11:37), and he was so rebellious against the God`s word that he even established the idol in the Lord`s temple. I mean he was one of the meanest, wicked of the people. I can only picture Isaiah coming to him with the word from the Lord urging him to repent and for the nation to repent in their rebellion, and seeing Manasseh laughing straight in the face and dismissing all the prophecies of the Lord. This is astonishing to see that this same person found God`s grace to abound in his life. God is so loving to us!

I think it`s important to note here another vital point: God`s ability to save even the worst of the human kind, so we could see His glory. This testimony of Manasseh`s salvation cries out to me of our Lord being alive and being vigilant over His word. He never rests until He accomplishes goal for each one of our lives. This is astounding to me to see that if God was capable and willing to save even the worst of the human kind, He is able to move my circumstances and save my husband.

God is faithful to His word, and He will not rest until those who we pray for, would get saved. If you have any doubts about that, I believe that I will have that testimony in my life that all those who I pray for, they would get saved.

If you feel like your life is not worthy of the Lord, or you claim that there is no God, I urge you to stop playing these games. God is alive, and He is the only God that there is. He was the One who created heaven and earth, and all human kind, and only He knows you personally. If you don`t know Him yet, I urge you to seek Him with all your heart, so He could save you just the way He saved Manasseh and me because nothing is impossible to Him.

On the example of Manasseh, we see that he could pray and worship all sorts of the idols in his life, but when the circumstances came to the real business, the Lord was the only One who was able to deliver him, and not only did He do that to show His glory, but He forgave Manasseh.

If you don`t know the Lord as your personal Savior and would like to accept Him into your heart, you will need to repent first. We clearly see throughout the Bible the consistent message of the Lord that He is willing and desiring to save us, but we need to acknowledge our sins and repent genuinely with whole heart in them in order to confess Jesus as our savior.

⁹ that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. ¹¹ For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” (Romans 10:9-11 NKJV)

This message is very clear that we must believe and confess our sins that would produce cleansing change in our lives. Everything that we did before, we no longer do. Just like Manasseh when he returned from captivity, he changed the way he lived after he cried out to the Lord for salvation. That change is the fruit of repentance that we produce when we confess our sins to the Lord openly.