Originally posted: 6/05/2020

When he was in distress, he entreated the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. ¹³ When he prayed to Him, He was moved by his entreaty and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God, (33:12-13).

As I opened by Bible, I saw his name and I remembered.

Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem, (33:1).

I remembered Manasseh’s story from 2 Kings 21; and it was like a gut punch. I reflexively closed my Bible. In truth, I just wasn’t up for it. I wasn’t up for the hunt to find the Lord through all the grime and the filth, and yes, the judgment. Honestly, sometimes it just takes the wind out of my sails. And I prayed, “Lord, help. I really want to see You, and not the evil. Please help me find You in his story.” I had no idea how the Lord would answer that prayer!

In the book of Kings, we are introduced to Manasseh, a very evil king who ushered in the wickedness and idolatry of the surrounding pagan nations; the very nations the Lord had been so Merciful to remove.

He did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord dispossessed before the sons of Israel, (2 Kings 21:2).

And not only did Manasseh act like the pagans, he was worse. Under his reign evil was multiplied. It was almost as though he made it his life’s ambition to not only reject all God’s commands, but to move as far away as possible, in exactly the opposite direction; and to take his entire kingdom with him in the process. And although they had been instructed and warned…

 “…they did not listen, and Manasseh seduced them to do evil more than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the sons of Israel,” (2 Kings 21:9).

And then came His judgment, severe judgment.

I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. ¹⁴ I will abandon the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they will become as plunder and spoil to all their enemies; (2 Kings 21:13-14).

And the writer of Kings adds one final comment to describe this depraved and nastiest of kings.

Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; besides his sin with which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the Lord. ¹⁷ Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh and all that he did and his sin which he committed, are they not written in… (2 Kings 21:16-17).

And coupled together with his great evil is the fact that Manasseh’s reign was longer than any other king in Judah.

Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem; (2 Kings 21:1).

And that’s what I remembered. Fifty-five years of rampant evil and wickedness. And why the next part of Manasseh’s story is not included in Kings… well, I’ll leave that to the speculation of the scholars.

But oh, the kindness, the amazing grace of God revealed in Manasseh’s conversion. And while I was still reeling from the reality of His unimaginable, indescribable Mercy, I read of the brief two-year stint of Amon’s reign. Like children do, he had learned the ways of his father; learned from his evil, but unfortunately not from his humility.

He did evil in the sight of the Lord as Manasseh his father had done, and Amon sacrificed to all the carved images which his father Manasseh had made, and he served them. ²³ Moreover, he did not humble himself before the Lord as his father Manasseh had done, but Amon multiplied guilt, (33:22-23).

And in one split second, that phrase, “but Amon multiplied guilt,” magnified the Magnitude of His Mercy. For although guilt is multiplied by our sin, His Mercy is Multiplied, able to heal and forgive every sin, and is available to everyone willing to come to Him in humility.

Consider the Magnitude of His Mercy Multiplied

Magnitude: “the great size or extent of something.”
Multiplied: “increase or cause to increase greatly in number or quantity.”

The extent to which Manasseh fell into sin is vastly beyond reprehensible. And the magnitude of Manasseh’s sins might cause many to end his story there. But oh, the Magnitude of His Mercy Multiplied; extending vastly beyond the depravity and greatly increasing to meet the one who finds himself with nowhere else to look… but up.

When he was in distress, he entreated the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, (33:12).

• Oh, the Magnitude of His Mercy Multiplied, as He is moved when He hears our entreaties and supplications.
  • When he prayed to Him, He was moved by his entreaty and heard his supplication… (33:13).

• Oh, the Magnitude of His Mercy Multiplied, as He brings us to the place of His Presence.
  • …and brought him again to Jerusalem to his kingdom, (33:13).

• Oh, the Magnitude of His Mercy Multiplied, as He causes us to know that He is God.
  • Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God, (33:13).
    

• Oh, the Magnitude of His Mercy Multiplied, as He restores us to offer our lives in grateful service.
  •  Now after this he built the outer wall of the city of David…Then he put army commanders in all the fortified cities of Judah. ¹⁵ He also removed the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the Lord, as well as all the altars which he had built on the mountain of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside the city. ¹⁶ He set up the altar of the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings and thank offerings on it; and he ordered Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel, (33:14-16).

How do we respond to the Magnitude of His Mercy Multiplied?

It is clear from Manasseh’s story that no one is beyond His reach of Mercy.

Behold, the Lord’s hand is not so short
That it cannot save;
Nor is His ear so dull
That it cannot hear, (Isaiah 59:1).

It is also clear from Manasseh’s story, that the Magnitude of His Mercy Multiplied, the extent of His increasing Mercy is immeasurable and inexhaustible. But it must never be taken for granted.

Rather it should move us. Daily.

And we can learn much from the repentant Manasseh.

When he was in distress, he entreated the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, (33:12).

Every one of us experience distress as the result of sin. When we place our faith in Jesus Christ as the payment for our sin, all our sins are placed on Him and He receives the judgment we deserve. Through Christ, we can know our eternity is secure; we have been bought and redeemed by His precious blood.

knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, ¹⁹ but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ, (1 Peter 1:18-19).

However, this life in a fallen world is plagued by the fallen flesh. And sin separates us from His Holy Presence.

But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,
And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear, (Isaiah 59:2).

When we find ourselves in the place of distress, brought on by the sins of our heart that result in either commission or omission, we too must entreat the Lord our God, in great humility.

Let us learn well from the actions of Manasseh, moved by his distress to call on God in humility and repentance.

Humility is the place of honest agreement with Holy God; agreeing with the truth of who He is and who we are. Humility honestly confesses our condition and understands we are utterly helpless and incapable of doing anything about it ourselves. Humility encompasses both the act of bowing before Holy God in adoration, and in confession. Repentance reverses our direction away from God, and turns us instead to seek after and follow Him.

• When we come before Him in humility and repentance, we can be assured that in the Magnitude of His Mercy Multiplied, He will be moved as He hears our entreaties and supplications.
  • In my distress I called upon the Lord,
    And cried to my God for help;
    He heard my voice out of His temple,
    And my cry for help before Him came into His ears, (Psalm 18:6).

• When we come before Him in humility and repentance, we can be assured that in the Magnitude of His Mercy Multiplied, He will bring us to the place of His Presence.
  • For thus says the high and exalted One
    Who lives forever, whose name is Holy,
    “I dwell on a high and holy place,
    And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit
    In order to revive the spirit of the lowly
    And to revive the heart of the contrite,” (Isaiah 57:15).

• When we come before Him in humility and repentance, we can be assured that in the Magnitude of His Mercy Multiplied, He will cause us to know that He is God.
  • “Cease striving and know that I am God;
    I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth,” (Psalm 46:10).

• When we come before Him in humility and repentance, we can be assured that in the Magnitude of His Mercy Multiplied, He will restore us to offer our lives in grateful service.
  • Restore to me the joy of Your salvation
    And sustain me with a willing spirit.
    ¹³ Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
    And sinners will be converted to You, (Psalm 41:12-13).

How can we not be filled with thanksgiving and praise… continually?

I will bless the Lord at all times;
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
² My soul will make its boast in the Lord;
The humble will hear it and rejoice.
³ O magnify the Lord with me,
And let us exalt His name together, (Psalm 34:1-3).

Oh Lord, please may we bless You at all times, never forgetting all You have done for us. Give us eyes to see others the way we depend on You to see us. May we always remember that no one, not even one, is beyond the reach of Your hand to save and heal and forgive. Father, please bring the increase of Your likeness in our lives, that others would be drawn to the Magnitude of Your Mercy Multiplied.

“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful,” (Luke 6:36).

Let’s Grow Together!