FBC Evening Fellowship – March 6, 2022

Well, good evening. I appreciate your taking the time out this evening to watch this little devotional, and I hope you're having a good time together with someone in your home and just enjoying some good fellowship.

I hope you'll spend some time in prayer together. I shared several requests this morning to pray for, and of course we can certainly be praying about this situation in Eastern Europe, Western Russia, and that whole conflict and the chaos that's going on there.

And, well, tonight, speaking of chaos, I want to look at the passage of scripture that was in our devotional reading or Bible reading plan for today, which covers 2

Chronicles chapters 33 and 34. And those couple of chapters, they recount the reign of three different kings of Judah.

And one of them was the longest reigning king of Judah, Manasseh, and then one of the shortest reigns, not the shortest because there's a shorter reigns yet to come, but Manasseh's son

Ammon, who only reigned two years, and then Ammon's son Josiah, who reigned 31 years.

So, these three kings, and it's really kind of an interesting development of events with these men, the lives of these men, because here's why.

Manasseh was one of the most wicked kings of Judah.

So, I mean, in the 55 years that he reigned, he is noted for being the most wicked.

That is, he's done more wickedness than any of the other kings before him and any that would come after him. However, here's the thing.

At one point in his reign, we read in chapter 33, 11, that the Lord brought upon the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took

Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze fetters, and carried him off to Babylon.

So, late in his reign, I mean, we don't know exactly, at least I don't off the top of my head, know exactly what year it was in Manasseh's reign that this occurred.

I suppose if I did a little more study and research, I could find it out, but that's not what

I wanted to really emphasize. The point is that he led Judah into all of this wickedness, and he was guilty of severe bloodshed, and because of it, the

Lord brought the Assyrians into Judah, took Manasseh captive, and took him back to Babylon.

But then, while he was in Babylon, we read next that while he was in affliction, he humbled himself before the

Lord, and in that humility, he expressed genuine repentance, and so the

Lord arranged for Manasseh to be released from captivity in Babylon. He goes back to Jerusalem, continues on as the king, and sets about making some drastic changes.

He got rid of the idolatry, he exhorted the people to serve the

Lord, commanded them to, actually. He repaired the altar of the Lord, sacrificed sacrifices, and thanked offerings, and so forth, and it says at the end of verse 16, he commanded

Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel. Well, eventually,

Manasseh dies, and his son becomes the king, Ammon. Short reign, reigned all of two years.

Now, Ammon was all of 22 years old when he became the king, and so he died when he was 24 years old, and we read that instead of, instead of following in his father's righteous footsteps, we read that he did evil in the sight of the

Lord, as his father Ammon had done. So Ammon looked at the the pattern of wickedness that his father left prior to his repentance, and humility, and captivity, and he patterned his rule after that.

Well, it wasn't a very long one. He only ruled for two years, and then he's removed. Actually, he had a couple servants that killed him, assassinated him.

Well, Ammon, even though he's only 22, 24 years old when he died, he had a son.

He had a son that was eight years old when he became the king, Josiah. All right, so do the math on that one.

That means that Josiah was born when his dad was 16 years old.

Well, anyway, Josiah becomes the king, and he reigns for 31 years, and his reign is marked by righteousness.

We read that he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, walked in the ways of his father's

David, and he didn't turn aside from the right hand to the left. He was one of the best kings of Judah.

All right, so what can we learn? If you, I would encourage you to, if you haven't read that passage, chapters 33 and 34 in 2

Chronicles, go back and do it on your own. I'll highlight a few things as we go here in a few minutes, but what can we learn from the account of these three kings?

Well, the first thing I think is pretty obvious from the reign of Manasseh, and that is sometimes a person won't turn to the

Lord until he reaches rock bottom. I mean, he knows the truth.

He's exhorted by those who proclaim the truth, but he won't listen. He won't turn to the

Lord until he suffers personally and severely, and we see this in verses 11 and 12 of chapter 33.

Manasseh, it took Manasseh being taken captive by the Assyrians and led with hooks.

I don't really want to know what that looked like, but led with hooks back to Babylon, and he's taken into captivity in Babylon.

But verse 13 goes on to say that while he was in affliction, he implored the

Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the Lord God of his fathers.

And God, secondly, we can learn that God is gracious to hear the humble cry of the truly repentant.

God saw Manasseh's heart. This wasn't just a jailhouse conversion, if you will, on Manasseh's part.

It wasn't one of those kind of things where, okay, I'm in trouble. God, you got to get me out of this fix.

And if you get me out of this fix, I promise I'll do thus and so. And then when you get out of the fix, you completely forget about God.

That wasn't the case, and the Lord saw that. The Lord saw Manasseh's heart, and he heard the humble cry of this truly repentant heart, and he responded.

The Lord responded. The third thing we can note is that true repentance will always involve change and some degree of commitment, some kind of commitment.

This comes out in verses 15 and 16 of chapter 33. So Manasseh is allowed to return home to Jerusalem.

He resumes his role as the king of Judah. And verse 15 says that he took away the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the

Lord and all the altars that he had built, that he himself had built, in the mount of the house of the

Lord and in Jerusalem, and he cast them out of the city. He also repaired the altar of the

Lord, sacrificed peace offerings and thank offerings on it, and he commanded

Judah to do the same, commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel, to worship the

Lord. So this is evidence of true repentance.

You would be justified in calling Manasseh's repentance into question.

If he went back to the throne and he did nothing about all of those idols that he left built on the mount of the

Lord, those altars that he even built on the mount of the Lord and the idol that he set up there, if he just let those things be, you'd say,

I don't think he's really repentant and you'd be justified in that. But he was and he demonstrated that by his commitment to the

Lord and the definite changes that are evidenced in the actions that he took.

The fourth thing we can learn from this account of these kings is that a leader, in this case a king, a leader can command and or strongly exhort his people to serve or to worship the

Lord out of a sincere desire for the Lord and a desire to do right.

This is Manasseh's heart, right? He's seen what God can do. He's seen

God's judgment. He's experienced that. He doesn't want that any longer for himself or for God's people.

And so he goes to the people and he commands them, serve the Lord, our

God, the Lord God of Israel. He commands that. Well, a leader can do that but he can't control the hearts of those whom he's commanding.

So verse 17, the people did so to a degree because verse 17 says, nevertheless the people still sacrificed on the high places, but only only to the

Lord their God. Well, sacrificing on the high places was not acceptable. It wasn't pleasing to the

Lord. That was a violation of God's God's will and God's command for being, for worshiping him.

But what I think that indicates is that the people, they knew that outwardly they had to conform.

But they did it in their own way nevertheless. So yes, a leader can command things and control things to a certain degree, but he can't control the hearts of the people.

So in essence, he really can't control the worship that's going on on their part.

A fifth lesson, and this has to do for, this is a good one for parents. A parent's influence can only go so far.

I mean, think about it now. Manasseh had this son Ammon.

Ammon was 22 years old when he became the king, when his dad died. So he grew up in his father's household and Ammon would have seen enough to see the difference between life under his father's reign when

Manasseh was doing wrong, when he was committing evil and he was practicing idolatry.

He saw the consequences of that idolatry, which was his father's taken into captivity.

And he saw his father's repentance. He saw the effects of his repentance.

He saw all of that. But when Ammon died, he forsook the

Lord. So while he was, while dad was alive, apparently

Ammon was pretty much controlled by his father. He would do what his father commanded.

I mean, he commanded everybody else to serve only the Lord, the God of Israel. So Ammon went along with that as long as his dad was alive.

But when his dad died, he forsook the Lord. We see this in verses 22 and 23. It says,

Ammon did evil in the sight of the Lord as his father Manasseh had done. He sacrificed to all the carved images which his father

Manasseh had made and served them. And he did not humble himself before the Lord as his father

Manasseh had humbled himself, but Ammon trespassed more and more. So the point here

I think is that we can learn from this. Even his parents, you know, 3 ,000 years later practically, 2 ,800 years anyway.

The point we can learn is that a child can conform as long as he must.

And he can even seem like he's doing right. But what we can't see is his heart.

What's in his heart will eventually be revealed when the constraints that are upon him are removed.

I've seen this in many, many ways over the years of ministry.

Young people grow up in Christian homes. Parents even send them to Christian schools or raise them in home schools.

And the whole time they're in under the authority and the leadership and the thumb of their parents, everything seems right.

They seem to do right. They look good. They look like they're doing the right thing. They look like they're children of the

Lord. But then they get out from under that and they go off on their own way.

And I've seen too many walk away from the Lord and forsake him. And I'm sure you have seen it as well.

Isn't it sad that Ammon chose to follow in his father's errors, even though he saw the calamity that he brought rather than the virtues of repentance and seeking the

Lord that he saw his father exhibit. And he did that. He made that choice even though he saw the effects of both.

So a parent's influence can only go so far. But here's the next lesson. It may reach, that influence may reach, farther than he knows or farther than he'll ever know.

And here I think of King Josiah in chapter 34, his grandson. So Josiah was six years old when

Grandpa Manasseh died. I think it's pretty safe to say that the only side of Manasseh that Josiah saw in his young age was the the repentant

Manasseh. The Manasseh that did right. The Manasseh that tore down the altars. The Manasseh that served the

Lord God of Israel and served him exclusively. I believe it's safe to say that that's all of Manasseh that Josiah saw.

I mean, how long would it how old would he have to be before he really started noticing some of these things, you know, two, three, four years of age before some of this before he picked up on some of this.

And nevertheless, here's the thing. He rejected the corrupt behavior and influence of his father

Ammon and instead embraced the godly path of his grandfather

Manasseh. So those of you who are dads and parents maybe you're getting up in years and you have children and even grandchildren.

Take some encouragement from this. You be faithful. Keep on keeping on in the right path and trust the

Lord for that influence upon the generations to come after you.

You're establishing a good pattern for somebody to follow. You may never see it just like Manasseh never did.

But if you're faithful, it'll be there for someone to follow. So your influence may reach farther than you'll know.

And then the last lesson that I want us to get from these three kings is that, you know,

I need and you need a Josiah heart. A Josiah heart.

And what I'm talking about is what's recorded in chapter 34 verses 18 to 21.

You know, Josiah very early in his reign, it says in the eighth year of his reign, so he's 16 years old.

He's just a young man. He says while he was still young he began to seek the

God the God of his father David. And in the 12th year he began to purge

Judah and Jerusalem of the high places. So his father Ammon had led again into idolatry.

Josiah sees all this. It disturbs him. He wants to get rid of it and he takes action to do so.

But he began to seek the Lord, but he didn't have much good influence. He didn't even have a copy of the scriptures to guide him for quite a while.

Until we read in verse 8, in the 18th year of his reign he wanted to restore the temple and clean it out, get it back to where it belonged and where it should be in its glory.

And so he initiates a remodeling or a restoration project.

And in that project while they're digging through trash and all this kind of stuff, they find a copy of the scrolls.

They find the copies of the word of God. And they take these to Josiah.

And here's what we read in verses 18 through 21. It says,

Here's why I say, I need a Josiah heart. You need a Josiah heart.

You see a tenderness and a responsiveness to what he hears. It says, Ahicham the son of Shaphan, Abed and the son of Micah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asiah the servant of the king saying,

Go inquire of the Lord for me and for those who are left in Israel and Judah concerning the words of this book that it is that is found.

For great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out on us because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord to do according to all that is written in his book.

What is displayed from his heart here? A tenderness, a responsiveness to God's word, a sensitivity to the instruction of the

Holy Spirit through God's word. A heart that is surrendered to the directives of God's word, to its commands, to its principles.

He's ready to receive it and to obey it. He is eager to.

He's humble before it and he is receptive. This is the kind of heart that we need.

A Josiah heart. So in these couple of chapters, there is so much for us that is just a very rich section of the the closing days of Israel's Judah's history and its kingdom in the lives of these three kings.

I hope this has been a challenge and an encouragement to you this evening and I do trust that when we close here in just a moment, you'll get with whoever you're with, your group together and share some prayer requests with one another and ask

God to intervene in the lives of people who are hurting in the situation in Russia and Ukraine and for God to bless his work, the work of the ministry, even in Sterling.

Our Father and our God, we thank you for this passage of scripture. We thank you for the witness and the testimony of these three kings, both good and bad, because from them we are challenged.

We're challenged to be a people with a heart for you. May that be true of us, each one of us, we pray in Jesus name.