Sunday past, the pastor spoke on how God
gives second chances (in my experience, more that that) by using the story of
Peter denying he knew Jesus. Well, just
the other day I read about an unexpected second chance, one I didn’t remember
in the Bible. Thinking about the story
gave me pause to consider if I would give a second chance to a man who
intentionally- specifically killed my child and many other innocents. I mean, even if I could forgive him because
he was truly repentant, could I work with him again and bless him?
The man’s name was Manasseh, a king of
Judah, who began his reign at the age of 12 and was king for 55 years despite
doing evil in God’s sight (2Kn 21:2).
Now, Manasseh should have known better.
He was the son of Hezekiah who “did right in the sight of Jehovah” (2Kn.
18:3) and it was after God’s miraculous healing that Manasseh was born.
2Kn. 21:1-17
and 2Chr. 33:1-20 record his reign.
- He rebuilt the high places (v.3) (v.3)
- He raised altars for Baal and an image (followed Ahab’s leadership in this) (v.3) (v.3)
- He worshipped and served sun, moon and stars (a new thing to Israel) (v.3) (v.3)
- He built altars of idol worship in God’s house (v.4) (v.5)
- He sacrificed own son(s) to Molech (v.6) (v.6)
- He practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft, and consulted spiritists and mediums (v.6) (v.6)
- He put an idol of Asherah in God’s house (v.7) (v.7)
- He seduced the people to do more evil (v.9) (v.9)
- He shed much innocent blood in Jerusalem (v.16)
- Manasseh and the people ignored God speaking (v.9) (v.10)
Bound in chains, Manasseh was brought to
Babylon under Assyria
(v.11), and there, in distress, he greatly
humbled himself (v.12) and cried out to the God
of his father (v.13). Jehovah heard his prayer and brought him back
to Jerusalem where he finally knew
Jehovah was God (v.13). His acts, his prayer to God and His Word
given through the prophets were written in two unrecovered books: ‘book of the Kings of Israel’ and the
‘Matters of the Seers’ (v.18,19) which I think
would be interesting to read.
Manasseh changed due to the trials he
was in and God reached down to give him a second chance to be king again and do
right. He went back and used the
opportunity to undo much of the evil he had done. Some others God gave 2nd chances
to are: Job who spoke about God
giving chances to man, “…God does all these things, twice, three times, with a
man,” (33:29), Jonah (3:1), the Psalmist (Ps. 30:2; 32:5), and Saul turned Paul
(Ac. 8:3; 9:15).
We have the same opportunity as Manasseh
and the others. First we need to greatly
humble ourselves before God, pray and cry out to Him in repentance, and He will
reach down into our lives to give us another chance. Sometimes we need to do it daily. But God, who knows whether our hearts are
truly repentant or not, is faithful to forgive, and work with us once
again.
If we confess our
sins,
He is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins,
and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness.
1Jh. 1:9