#DailyDevotion You Are Never So Far Gone That The Mercies Of God In Christ Can’t Reach You
Sept. 14th
Read 2 Chron. 33:1-25
2Ch 33:11-13 Therefore the LORD brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon. (12) And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. (13) He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.
Perhaps it was because he was so young when he took over as king of Judah that Manasseh was able to be so moved to turn from the Lord his God and worship other gods. Despite Hezekiah’s reforms there were still those who worshipped the false gods remained hidden in the court during his reign and only showed themselves once he was dead. We cannot be certain.
What we do know is that Manasseh did more evil in the sight of the Lord than any of the inhabitants of the land who were there before the Lord drove them out by the hands of his holy people. He built foreign altars in the temple, its courtyards and rebuilt the high places. He even sacrificed his own sons to these false gods that he set up to worship. He also did not repent when the Lord sent his word to Manasseh. He so angered the Lord that he sent the Assyrians to bind him and take him to Babylon with hooks and bounds of bronze chain and caused him great distress.
In the midst of his distress he cried unto the Lord, the God of Israel and repented of his sins. It must have been a pretty good, sincere prayer of contrition because it moved the Lord to restore him back to his place of kingship in Jerusalem. It was only then that Manasseh knew the Lord was God. Having been restored to his former place he showed signs of repentance and fruits of faith by cleansing the temple and the city of the false gods and false worship.
We see a couple of things here. One is that what Jesus said is true that when a demon leaves someone and comes back and finds the place empty he brings seven demons worse than himself to make their abode there. At Hezekiah’s death, the demons that drive idolatry came back with a vengeance. Many times we too when we fall back into sinful behavior end up worse than we were before and commit even greater sins. Because we are God’s children through faith in Christ, God will not let us remain there. He will call us back to repentance and faith. He may let us fall into the worse circumstances to make us see the result of our sinful waywardness. Yet like Manasseh, if we do become repentant, if we humble ourselves before the Lord, confess our sins and seek his grace that is found in Christ Jesus our Lord, he will restore us. None of us are too far gone to be out of reach of the saving hand of God.
If you find yourself in sin once again, do not stay there and do not listen to the voices that say there is no hope. Call upon the Lord Jesus Christ and he will have mercy on you.
Heavenly Father, when we fall from grace grant us the gift of repentance that we may turn again to you the source of all mercies and be restored again to the grace found in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.