Day 240, 28th April: 2 Chronicles, 2 Corinthians and Proverbs
How things can change in just one generation?
By Glenn Walsh. Youth & Children’s Minister St Peter’s Hextable.
Todays Readings Are:
2 Chronicles 31:2-33:20
2 Corinthians 1:23-2:11
Proverbs 21:5-16
How things can change in just one generation?
When Hezekiah was king, God’s presence and was known by all. When Hezekiah sinned so did the people, and when he repented so did the people. When Manasseh becomes king things change dramatically. A catastrophic cultural shift happens, Manasseh is driven to wipe out this God relationship by building demonic alters, practicing witchcraft and he even burnt his children as a sacrifice to demons.
Prov21:7 ‘The violence of the wicked will drag them away, for they refuse to do what is right’
This is exactly what happens to Manasseh; unlike in Hezekiah’s day, when the army of Assyria attacks there is no angelic intervention, Manasseh has a hook put through his nose, is bound and dragged away to Babylon.
Manasseh though has a real change of heart which leads him to restore this God relationship to all the people.
In 2 Corinthians St Paul instructs us to forgive, reaffirm and to comfort those who grieve us. Surely Paul’s advice comes through the way God dealt with him when he experienced God’s overwhelming grace.
We all have areas of influence, maybe not as much as a king’s but we can affect and direct the choices of friends, family and associates. Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks and our actions follow. Both Hezekiah and Manasseh came into a living relationship with God through very different journeys. Mine was more like Manasseh, a troubled youth given over to drugs, the occult and crime until He rescued me. For years I doubted that God could really love me until I understood the sacrifice that He paid for me. So what does this God say of you and me, of Manasseh who sacrificed his own children, Hezekiah the proud of heart and Paul the persecutor of the church? “I forgive you my friend and my beloved”.
2 Corinthians 7:10 10 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
Today don’t let the mistakes of yesterday keep you from a living relationship with the God of all mercy, live life with no regrets – We can only learn to forgive when we know we are fully forgiven – He knows and loves you fully.
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