Day 130
Reading: 2 Chronicles 33:1 - 2 Chronicles 34:33
There is a force in the spirit realm that many today don't like hearing. Many people don't want to hear the word repentance. Repentance is a force that changes situations creating a turnaround. Repentance has been misconstrued to be a bad word conveying an impression of one having been so evil. When the word is mentioned it evokes an uneasy feeling that many today feel is not palatable to the time and age we live in. However, repentance is a key we need to see restored in the Kingdom of God. Remorse is not to be confused with repentance. Repentance goes further than remorse.
Remorse is to be filled with guilt and shame because of our actions or words. It a form of regret filled with sorrow. It may lead to tears however it doesn't lead to a change in character. Repentance, on the other hand, goes one step further. Repentance not only has regret but one also turns from their pattern making the choice and acting out the choice to live right. So one may be remorseful that they were caught lying but a repentant person doesn't lie again. They turn from the position of lying constantly to being a vessel who speaks the truth only.
Manasseh became king at the death of his father Hezekiah. Manasseh was nowhere near in similarity to his father. He introduced idolatry to a scale never seen. He even had his sons walk through fire in a ceremony dedicating them to evil. He did so much evil that the Bible says He provoked God to anger. Many times God sent prophets to Manasseh telling him and the nation to change their ways however they didn't. Soon the Assyrians who Hezekiah had defeated conquered the land and Manasseh was carried away captive to jail in a foreign land. While in jail he turns to God and repents of his worshipping idols. Manasseh in jail runs to God and makes God his centre of worship. Manasseh humbled himself before God, cried for mercy and God in His infinite mercy restored Manasseh back to his kingdom. It was then that Manasseh knew the Jehovah is God and not the idols he worshipped before.
Manasseh is the representation of many believers today. We want to do our own thing. We box God to a corner and supposedly worship Him although our hearts are filled with other desires and pursuits that we seek after more than God. It is only when we find ourselves in some form of jail that we run to God and seek for His mercy. Can you imagine a child running and living away from the parents and then one day coming back home and saying I want to return? The child may return because of the love of the parents however they will have lost a lot of time and blessings they would have accrued while growing up with the parents. Child of God understands that when we run a cyclic lifestyle of worship which runs from captivity to liberty and back to captivity we never get to experience the fullness of God. This was the lesson of the book of Judges. The children of Israel never saw the glory of God in a greater dimension. They only experienced victories when they were delivered from captivity.
Josiah was a king with a great prophecy. In 1 Kings 13:1-3 a prophet tells Jeroboam that God would raise a king from Judah named Josiah who would destroy the altars of baal that had been set up in Bethel by Jeroboam. Josiah became king at a young age. 8 years after his ascension to the throne he began to seek God. A new beginning was about to dawn on the land. He purged Jerusalem and Judah of all the idolatry and burned the priests of baal. After the purge in the eighteenth year, he instructed that the House of God be repaired. In the process, they found the Book of the Law which was taken and read to Josiah. When he heard the words of the Book of the Law, he grieved by humbling himself and immediately sent Hilkiah the High Priest and others to see Huldah the prophetess to inquire the mind of God. The prophetess confirmed that the promises of God's wrath would be fulfilled since the generations before didn't keep the Law of God. However, God in His mercy reveals that because of the attitude of the King judgement would be withheld until after his reign.
What was it that God loved Josiah for Him to postpone the inevitable calamity the kingdom faced? His repentant heart. Josiah was willing to cry for mercy not for his sins alone but for the generations before. God saw a man willing to repent on behalf of the nation. He saw a man who understood the words God told Solomon at the dedication of the temple, that if God's people turn from wicked ways and seek His face then He would heal the land. God saw in Josiah a man willing to humble himself on hearing the Word of God. Child of God don't wait for a prophet to speak the Word, study the Word and let us humble ourselves before God and seek His face.
Memory Verse: 2 Chronicles 34:30
Decree:
2 Chronicles 34:27
because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against its inhabitants, and you humbled yourself before Me, and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you,” says the Lord. (italics mine)
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