God’s Amazing Grace. (2 Kings 21: 1-26)

The Bible Project Daily Podcast is an in-depth, daily study of the entire Bible, chapter by chapter, verse by verse. 

Episode Notes:  God’s Amazing Grace. (2 Kings 21: 1-26)

Several days ago, we looked at a king named Ahaz and asked the question: “How low can one go?”

 Up to that point in 2 Kings, Ahaz was the worst king Israel had ever had.

 He made alliances instead of trusting the Lord. He changed the worship. He embraced idolatry. And in the most horrifying moment of his life, he sacrificed his own infant son in the fire.

 How low can you go?

 Well… keep reading because the Bible introduces us to another king, a king who somehow manages to go even lower. His name is Manasseh, and what he does is so dark, so hideous, so spiritually twisted, that you almost want to say, “Viewer discretion advised.”

 You’ll see it by the end of the chapter. It’s a truth about the human condition. A truth about sin and a truth about grace, and I genuinely believe most Christians underestimate it.

So, let’s walk through the passage.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, friends. Welcome to the Bible Project Daily Podcast. Today we have reached 2 Kings, chapter 21, and we're going to cover the whole chapter. And we're going to look at God's grace, God's amazing grace. Have you ever thought about how far can God's grace can reach? How low can it go? How high can it reach? Well, several days ago we looked at a king named Ahaz and asked the question, how low can you go? And up to that point in Two Kings, Ahaz was the worst king Israel had ever had. He made alliances with pagans instead of trusting the Lord. He changed the worship in the nation, he embraced idolatry, and in the most horrifying moment of his life, he sacrificed one of his own sons in the fire. So how low can you go? Well, let's just keep reading today, because the Bible introduces us to another king, a king who somehow manages to go even lower. And this man's name is Manasseh, and what he does is so dark, so hideous, so spiritually twisted that I almost want to say viewer discretion required. So why study it if it's that bad? Why walk through a passage filled with idultery, occult practices, blasphemy, and even child sacrifice? Well, let me give you three reasons, friends. Firstly, because the Bible tells us itself that all scripture is profitable. Paul says all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. All of it. Yes, even those long genealogies, even those obscure lists, and even passages like this that we'd probably rather skip. Even chapters like this that make us feel very uncomfortable. This passage is profitable because it explains something many people struggle with or ignore. Because it explains something that many people struggle with. Questions like why did God command Israel to conquer Canaan? Why was the judgment upon Canaan so severe? And why did the exile of God's people come about? And the answers are found right here in 2 Kings 21. But secondly, this passage is important because it also explains more about the justice of God, perhaps in it than many others. The passage shows us that the Canaanites weren't just innocent victims in all of this, they practiced the very sin Manasseh commits here child sacrifice, occultism, ritual prostitution, and even idolatry in the very temple of God. This chapter shows us why God judged them and why God eventually also judged Judah. And another reason, important reason we should study it, is because there is an important spiritual truth here. One I think at heart we know, but we rarely feel or want to address those feelings. You'll see it by the end of the chapter, and it's a truth about the human condition. A truth about the depravity of sin, but also a truth about the grace of God. And I genuinely believe that most Christians underestimate both of those things. So that's the plan today. I hope you'll stay with me as we work our way through today's episode of the Bible Project Daily Podcast. Wow, Manasseh, the king, who went lower than anyone before him. Let me begin by reading the first nine verses for you, which tell us this. Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for fifty-five years. His mother's name was Hepsibah, and he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had destroyed, and he erected altars to Baal and made an Asherah pole, as Ahab, king of Israel had done. He also bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshipped them. He built altars in the temple of the Lord, of which the Lord had said in Jerusalem, I will put my name. In the two courts of the temple of the Lord he built altars to the starry hosts, and he sacrificed his own son in the fire, and practiced divination, sought omens, consulted mediums, spiritualists, and he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger. He took the carved ashera pole he had made, and he put it in the temple, of which the Lord had said to David and to his son Solomon, In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribe of Israel, I will put my name forever. I will not again make the feet of the Israelites wander from this land I gave their ancestors, if only they will be careful to do everything I commanded them, and will keep the whole law that my servant Moses gave them. But the people did not listen, and Manasseh led them astray. So they did more evil than the nation the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites. So the text begins by telling us that Manasseh was twelve years old when he becomes king and he reigns for fifty-five years. So fifty-five years is the longest reign in Judah's history. And as is the pattern in the other evaluations of kings, we are given that evaluation in verse 2. It says he did evil in the sight of the Lord according to the abominations of the nations. He wasn't just bad, he wasn't just rebellious, he wasn't just curtis, it says he was worse than the Canaanites themselves that God had driven out of the land before them. And the text lists his sins for us. He rebuilt what his father tore down. Manasseh, you see, chooses to follow his grandfather, not his father. This is a case of like grandfather-like son, and it's a reminder that even if you grow up in a godly home, even if you have righteous parents, even if you have a good spiritual heritage, you yourself can still choose the wrong path. And our guy Manesseh, he embraced idolatry and the occult in spades. He built altars to Baal, it said, he made an asheropole, he worshipped the stars, he practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft, consulted mediums and spiritualists. This is a catalogue of spiritual rebellion. But it gets worse because it tells us he sacrificed his own son. So just like Ahaz, only worse. This represents the lowest point of human depravity. This is the ultimate rejection of God. That is the sin that Scripture repeatedly calls an abomination. And yet Manasseh does that and goes even further. He desecrates the temple, he sets up a carved image of Asherah in the house of the Lord. Imagine walking into your church next Sunday and seeing the cross removed and an occult image in its place, and the Lord's Supper mocked and being used for pagan rituals. You know, I can't help but think back to the appalling opening ceremony of the Olympics in Paris in just 2024. That's exactly what they did. They mocked the Lord's Supper with Jesus and his apostles, all portrayed as transgender. Now that's bad enough in a secular environment, but imagine doing that in a church. But that's what Manasseh did here. He places an obscene idol in the very place where God says, I will put my name forever here. So this is actually like spiritual treason. He's led the nation deeper into sin than ever before and seduced them to do more evil even than those nations that they drove out of the land. That's the kind of stuff he did. It's one thing to sin, but it's another to lead others into sin, and Manasseh did both. He dragged the entire nation down with them. The text actually says that the people, Judah under Manasseh, practiced more evil than those Canaanites who had been in there before them. Now that gets us to God's grace. You know, God's grace is amazing. We call it amazing, not because we're slightly slaughtered, God's grace is amazing because we are utterly ruined without it. Because as shocking as Manasseh's sin is, God's grace will be revealed as even more shocking. Let's read the next few verses, 10 to 13. Then the Lord said through his servants and prophets, Manasseh, king of Judah, has committed these detestable sins. He has done more evil than the Amorites who preceded him, and has led Judah into sin with his idols. Therefore, this is what the Lord the God of Israel says I am going to bring such a disaster in Jerusalem and Judah that the ear of everyone who hears it will tingle. I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line used against Samaria and the plumb line used against the house of Ahab. I will wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes out a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. Okay. So we've already seen how low Manasseh went. We've walked through that catalogue of sin. There's actually twelve of them. I don't know if you've noticed that if you read the opening text, and each one almost darker than the last. Now comes the big question, what is God going to do with a man like that? Well, verse tells us the Lord spoke to him by his servants, the prophets. So God warned him, God confronted him, God sent Isaiah, Micah, and others to call him back. But Manesseh would not listen, and so finally God announces his judgment, and the consequences mean he will bring calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah, and so much so that whoever hears of it, and of that expression their ears shall tingle. In other words, the judgment will be so severe that people will gasp when they hear it, and that judgment will be complete conquest, destruction, and exile. The Babylonian captivity, as we call it, you see, didn't come out of nowhere. It wasn't random, it wasn't unjust, it was the direct results of these sins that we've just read about. Now Jewish tradition, as well as early Christian writers like Justin Martyr, say that Manasseh actually had Isaiah the prophet, he was the one who had him sewn unto with a wooden saw. Hebrews 11 does indeed mention that some believers were sown unto. We can't be certain, of course, it was Isaiah, but certainly there's good evidence that points that way that it might have been. So imagine this guy desecrating the temple, sacrificing his own son, practicing witchcraft, leading a whole nation into idolatry, and then murdering the prophet who God has sent to try and call him back. That is the depth of Manesse's depravity. The text continues, reading from fourteen through to the end of the chapter. God says, I will forsake the remnant of my inheritance and give them into the hands of enemies. They will be looted and plundered by all their enemies. They have done evil in my eyes and have aroused my anger from the day their ancestors came out of Egypt until this day. Moreover, Manasseh has also shed so much innocent blood that he has filled Jerusalem from end to end, beside the sins that he had caused Judah to commit, so that they did evil in the eyes of the Lord. As for the other events of Manasseh's reign and all he did, including the sin he committed, are they not written in the book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? Manessa rested with his ancestors and was buried in his palace gardens, the garden of Uzzah, and Amon his son succeeded him as king. Then there's a little post script about Ammon, which says Amon was twenty two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for two years. His mother's name was Meshulthameth, daughter of Haraz, and she was from Joppa. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord as his father Manasseh had done. He followed completely the ways of his father, worshipped the idols his father has worshipped, and bowed down to them also. He forsook the Lord the god of his ancestors, and he did not walk in obedience to him. Amon's officials conspired against him and assassinated the king in his palace. Then the people of the land killed all who had plotted against King Ammon, and they made Josiah his son king in his place. As for the events of Ammon's reign and what he did, are they not written in the books of the annals of the kings of Judah? He was buried in his tomb and in the garden of Uzai, and Josiah his son succeeded him as king. So two kings shows Manesse's story ending rather abruptly, doesn't it? But Chronicles, interestingly, does not. The rest of the Acts are written in the Chronicles, the annals of the Kings. That's an attention intentional tip off to tell us there's more to be told when we get into that book. You see, Kings as a book has a purpose. It's to show how the nation's sin led to exile, so it's highlighting the wickedness. But Chronicles, the books that follow, have a different purpose. Their purpose is to show how God restores, rebels, and blesses his people after such events. So it includes some things which Kings leaves out. And if you don't read Chronicles and it's background information in this, you'll miss the most shocking part of this whole story. It tells us about Manasseh's son Ammon and like father, like son. Let me read to you a little bit to give you the background from 2 Chronicles. 2 Chronicles 33, 10 to 13. It said the Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, and they paid no attention. So the Lord brought against them the army, commander of the kings of Assyria, who took Manasseh prisoner, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackle shackles, and took him to Babylon. In his distress he sought the favour of the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the Lord God of his ancestors. And when he prayed to him the Lord was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea. So he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. And then Manasseh knew that the Lord is God. So he actually reigned for only two years. He follows in his father's footsteps, but not Hezekiah's, but Benesse's. He also walked in the evil ways of his father, served several idols, forsook the Lord, rebelled completely. And as we saw in the earlier text, his own servants assassinated him. Rebellion against God will often lead to our own premature destruction. And Ammon is exhibited for just that. The people then execute the conspirators and made his son Josiah king, and Josiah will be a bright light in a dark time. But that's for another episode coming soon. Now if we stopped right there, the story would be simple. Manesseh committed unimaginable wickedness and the nation and his son followed his example. That was pretty much the message of the kings and the narrative from that book. But that's not the whole story because Chronicles is adding something that kings deliberately leaves out. And it changes everything because it tells us that God brought judgment. It says the captains of the army of the king of Assyria took Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze fetters, and carried him off into Babylon. And let's be honest, he deserved it, every bit of it. He's dragged away like an animal with a hook in his nose, chains on his feet, the same way as he had treated others. But then comes the real shock here, because the text tells us when he was in his affliction, he implored the Lord his God. So just pause there a moment and say, wait what? Manasseh prayed and prayed to God. Manasseh the idolater, the murderer, the occultist, the blasphemer. He prays. Yes, it says he prays, and then it says he humbled himself greatly before the Lord God of his fathers. And then it says, shock upon shock, God was moved by his entreaty, and then God heard his supplication and brought him back to Jerusalem. And then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God. So this, in effect, I would say, forget the shocks of the violence early in the chapter. This is the most shocking moment actually in our story today. That being the worst king in Judah's history, the man who desecrated the temple, sacrificed his own son, murdered God's prophet, eventually humbles himself, praise, and God forgives him. That truly is amazing grace. Grace that reaches lower than we can imagine. Grace that goes deeper into even our darkest sin we can imagine. Grace that restores the most unlikely of people. What that tells me, if God can forgive and reestablish Manasseh, then surely He can forgive anyone. If grace can reach him, well it can reach you, friends. If mercy can find him when he's in chains in Babylon, it can find you wherever you find yourself today. So Chronicles confirms that after Manasseh was dragged to Babylon in chains, humiliated and broken, defeated, he repented. He humbled himself, he cried out to the Lord and he sought mercy, and God in his astonishing grace heard him. Then it tells us that Manasseh tried to undo some of the damage he'd done, but it was too late. Did you notice the people have already followed his early example and his son has already embraced his wickedness? But God still forgave him, and God still restored him for a time, brought him back to Jerusalem, and put him back on the throne. And that again is the amazing grace of God. You see, one Kings shows us just how wicked sin can be, but Chronicles show us how great God's grace can be, how amazing God's grace can be, and only by putting these two books together can you really get the full picture. 2 Kings chapter 21 shows us the depth of Manesseh's depravity, and honestly, I don't know of any other passage in Scripture that describes greater wickedness than we've read today. You know, I've preached through nearly every book of the Bible in my life, and this chapter is about as dark as it gets. But Chronicles, when brought in and held in tandem with us, shows us the height of God's mercy. And when you put them together side by side, you can discover two truths that I think people barely grasp. Firstly, most people, even Christians, don't understand how sinful sin really is. But also they don't understand how great, how amazing God's grace is. Let me double down on that. We don't understand how sinful we are, because in reality we tend to compare ourselves to people who are worse than us, and we use that as a measure, and we always will come out looking good, looking okay if we do that. We'll say things like, Well, I've never murdered anyone, but Jesus actually said hatred is murder of the heart. We may say, I've never committed adultery, but Jesus said lust is adultery of the heart. We always try and minimize sin, excuse sin, and even redefine sin. But sin, as an absolute principle, all sin is an abomination to God. And sin destroys people, it damages relationships and it leaves scars. Manesseh sin meant him killing his own son, killing the prophets of God, even the greatest son would say of Isaiah, and corrupting a nation. And he also led his other sons astray. He desecrated the temple and plunged Judah into darkness. So sin is not just a mistake, it's not a misstep, it's not a slip-up. Sin is rebellion against God. And if we understood that and the potential of it in our own life, we would be humbled. But we also misunderstand how great grace is. We underestimate grace. Did God forgive this man, Manesseh? Yes. Did God restore him? Yes. Did God even bring him back and put him on the throne? Yes. That, in the light of what we've read, is almost unimaginable grace. And I can guarantee you there were people in Jerusalem who probably didn't like that at all. The people said he hasn't been sorry enough. He didn't make up for what he did. He doesn't deserve this forgiveness of God. But hear me, friends, forgiveness is never based on how sorry you are. Forgiveness is based only on the blood of Christ. If sorrow became the standard for forgiveness, then how much of your sorrow? Sorrow would ever be enough. People will love to use sorrow as a measuring stick and think, well, this person hasn't been sorry enough for the life they've lived. But Scripture says to him that worketh not, but believeth in him who justifies the ungodly. So it's the ungodly, the sinful people that God is dealing with, not the good people, not the almost good people, not the people who tried hard and failed, the ungodly. Grace, God's amazing grace, is not earned, it's not deserved, and it is never repaid. God's grace is simply received. Manasseh, in reality, couldn't undo much of the damage he'd set in motion. He couldn't bring back even his own son. He couldn't bring back his own son from the grave. He couldn't stop his other son from going astray. He couldn't erase the idolatry, and he couldn't even reverse the national corruption after he was put on the throne. There are consequences to sin, friends, always. If you got drunk and crashed your car, well God may forgive you if you truly repent of it, but you'll still have to pay that fine, won't you? If you break trust, God will forgive you, but rebuilding that trust with Him will take time. If you sow sin, you will reap the consequences, even after God has forgiven you sometimes. But hear me, you can always restore your relationship with God, no matter how far you've fallen. Always. No matter how far you've gone, no matter how deep the sin, no matter how long the rebellion has been, you can always restore your relationship with God, and Manessa's story proves it. So, my friend, that would tell me that if you've never been in this place and you've never trusted in Christ, today's the day to make the decision to run to Him, run to the cross, receive that grace. You cannot stand before God and say, Look how good I am. You can stand before God and simply say, I'm a sinner and I recognize that Jesus Christ died for me. And that is the only answer that will guarantee you forgiveness. That's the only answer that gets you into heaven. Now, in reality, Christians sin. Of course we do. Christians will fail, Christians will fall. But what do you do when you do that? 1 John chapter 1, verse 19 is very clear. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us. And then in verse 7 he adds, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin, not some sin, not the small sins, not just the big sins, not the respectable sins, but all sin. The solution for any unbeliever, the solution for anyone who has fallen short in any way is simply the blood of Christ. And finally, the amazing grace of God, on top of doing all that, forgiveness also restores us. We saw here that God forgave Manasseh, but God also restored Manesseh and brought him back home. And Galatians 6, verse 1 tells us, if a brother is overtaken in fault, then our response should be to restore them, not to shame them, not to crush them, not to gossip about them, but to restore them, and to do it with meekness, with humility, and with a sense of fear, in the sense because you should recognize that you could have just as easily fallen as they did. The whole message today, in one sentence, is simply the fact that we are exceedingly abundantly sinful, but God is exceedingly abundantly gracious. That's the message of the story of Manasseh. In fact, that's the message of the whole Bible, and that, my friends, is the message of the gospel of grace. Amen? Amen. One, we are exceedingly sinful, but also God is exceedingly gracious. No matter how far a person falls, grace can reach even further. No matter how dark the night becomes, mercy can break through for us, and no matter how tangled the consequences of our actions in the past may be, the door back to God is always open. But you know there's another side to the story, a question that naturally follows everything we've seen today. If God is so gracious, how can we live in a way that we can avoid this and that God doesn't actually need to discipline us? And that's where we're going to head next tomorrow. In our next episode, we step into 2 Kings chapter 22 and we meet Josiah at the end of his reign. A man who knows what it is like to walk with God before the crisis comes, before the disciple fails, before the heart drifts. The working theme for tomorrow's episode, which I haven't quite finished yet, but I've currently got the title How to Avoid God's Discipline in Your Life. That would be useful, wouldn't it? It's a message about humility, about listening to the word of God, about softening your heart and choosing obedience early on so that God doesn't have to get your attention later with discipline or consequences. I think it's one of the most hopeful, practical chapters in this entire book of two kings. So I hope you'll join with me tomorrow for that conversation. Until then, friends, rest in his grace and try and walk in the light of that, in his mercy, and remember that that God who restored Manesse can restore anyone, including you. Thanks for being with me today. Bye bye, Fanata.