Jul 11 – 2 Kings 21, 2 Kings 22 Acts 28:17-31 Proverbs 16:28-33, Proverbs 17:1-4

2 Kings 21:3

For he rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. 

Manasseh was a bad king. He became king at the age of 12. And reigned over Israel for 55 years. The very first verse to describe his reign says this “He did evil the sight of the Lord.”

Not a good guy. He rebuilt the altars to Baal and other false Gods – even building some in the temple in Jerusalem!  Not one that he He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced divination, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritualists.

It says he led the nation to do more evil than any of the nations that God had destroyed because of their wickedness.

But we only get part of the story here. We will come back to him in the book of chronicles, but just to pre-empt that in 2 Chronicles 33 we get a twist in his story.

God delivered him to the Assyrians. He was taken prisoner, bound, had a hook put through his nose.. found himself really distressed and get this – turned to God!

He humbled himself and repented. 

Here’s a guy who had a really bad race. Messes up his whole life – doesn’t just  lead himself into evil, but an entire nation. He makes them worse than the worst they’d known. No matter how much you’ve messed up, or the bad things you’ve done, I dare say you’ve never led an entire nation down the wrong path.

But he finished the race strong. He turns to God  and turns it around.

Let me tell you – whatever you have done wrong in your life – it’s not something repentance cannot fix. You could have run from God your entire life – you could have done terrible things.

If you are willing to come to him, if you are willing to repent and ask for forgiveness and make Him Lord, then He can change all that right here and right now.

You can start out wrong – but you can finish well.

Acts 28:30-31

He lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. 

This is how we close the book of Acts. Paul living in Rome for 2 years (at his own expense, mind you) preaching and teaching about Jesus with boldness and without hindrance.

What a great way to end. We have read of a fledging movement, that then exploded in Jerusalem and end with this salvation now spreading across the world to the Gentiles too.

The world was never the same again after this. I love that the last words said of Paul are that he was preaching Jesus with boldness – wouldn’t it be great if those were the last words said about us too?