Articles
The Past Isn't Too Great
In the adult class this past Wednesday we briefly touched on a situation that happens quite often for many people. The feeling that I now can’t become a Christian because of all the bad things that I have done or all the years that I have devoted to sin. We talked about the apostle Paul and his past and de-spite that past, we see that God was able to and chose to use him. Jesus said to Ananias in Acts 9:15 -16“Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suf-fer in behalf of My name.” The same man that was traveling great distanc-es to capture Christians is now chosen to be someone who would travel great distances to teach the gospel! A man that described himself as the foremost sinner in 1st Timothy 1:15-16 is now working to help others turn from sin. If God can use someone like Paul, He certainly can use and accept someone with a dark past today. Also, we need not forget that we all have a past. We all have things that we did in the past that we aren’t proud of, but regardless of whatever those things may be, God’s forgiveness, grace, mercy, and love, are all greater!
I want to spend a brief moment on Barnabas again as we did in class this past Wednesday. Barnabas was willing to take Saul to the disciples following many people refusing to associ-ate with him out of fear. Barnabas came to the knowledge of Saul’s interaction with Jesus on the road and his newfound dedication to Christ. Upon having this knowledge, he shared it with the apostles, and they didn’t hinder Saul from speaking out freely and boldly. What great examples of not letting someone’s else’s past define your own current view of them.
For the rest of this article, I want to use an example that is similar in a way to Paul’s. To talk about someone who was so devoted to evil that he was even compared to the wickedness of Ahab in a specific setting. Yet, that man was able to humble himself and God had mercy on him and if God can have mercy on a man that devoted to evil, He can do that today too. The man I’m referring to is King Manasseh. Manasseh was the son of King Hezekiah who was overall a very good king. Manasseh on the other hand was the complete opposite for most of his time as king. In 2nd Chronicles 33 we see a laundry list of the things that he did. We learn in this chapter he rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah had destroyed, built altars for Baal, made an Asherim (Which was also called Asherah- a female deity) like Ahab did as 2nd Kings 21:3 says (to be in the same com-pany of Ahab is not a good thing to say the least!), he built al-tars and put them in the house of the LORD, built altars for the heavenly lights, made his sons pass through fire, practiced divination, shed innocent blood until he filled Jerusalem from one end to the other as 2nd Kings 21:16 says, and more! This was an evil man, and a man that mislead many people. 2nd Kings 21:9 says, “But they did not listen, and Manasseh en-couraged them to do evil, more than the nations whom the LORD eliminated from the presence of the sons of Israel.”
This brings us to 2nd Chronicles 33:11. Since Manasseh and his people didn’t pay attention to the words of the Lord, God brought the commanders of the king of Assyria against them, and they captured Manasseh with hooks which some suggest were put in his face. They bound him in bronze chains and led him to Babylon. As he is distress though, he begins to seek God. He humbles himself greatly before God. In v13 we see that he prays to God and notice what he said in this verse. “When he prayed to Him, He was moved by him and heard his pleading, and brought him back to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD alone is God.” God was moved by Manasseh’s prayer! This man who we have clearly see was about as evil as they come in the Bible and yet God was moved by His prayer. His humbling of himself, his pleading in pray to God, and his repentant heart moved God. Again, this is the same guy that encouraged the people to do more evil than the nations that God had already eliminated from the land. This is the same guy who shed much innocent blood. Yet, God has mercy on Him. This also clearly wasn’t a case of when mat-ters got better for Manasseh that he then went back to evil. If you were to keep reading into v14-17, you’d find some of things the things Manasseh does includes removing idols from the temple, setting up an altar for the LORD, offering peace and thanksgiving offerings on the altar, and ordered the people to serve God. A man as evil as he was had now become a changed person and similar to Paul, he began to proclaim worship to the God he was once against.
Manasseh along with Paul are both great examples to display the fact that no one has ever done too much wrong in their past to keep them from not having a righteous present and future. Both did horrible things and yet both received mercy from God. They are also both great examples of it not being too late. I mean Manasseh was being led to Babylon it seems when you read v11-12 and yet God has mercy on Manasseh and allows him to go back. Let’s not allow these lies to live in our minds or others, but let’s embrace the grace of God, the grace we always need!
