God’s Patience & His Judgment

     Note in 2 Kings21:11 and 12 the use of the words "Because" and "Therefore" to indicate a causal statement. Now we must understand these words in their context. God had long prophesied the doom of Israel, and Judah in particular as a result of their sin and their refusal to submit themselves to His Law and their consistent refusal to walk with Him on a continuing basis. This prophecy of judgment goes all the way back to the even before they even entered the land!
     Yet here we see God say that the coming surrender of the people and the Kingdom to Babylon is "because" of the sin of Manasseh and his sin in all that he did to lead the people away.

The “Lynch-Pin”
     Manasseh is serving as the lynch-pin of God' judgment on the people for the judgment that has been coming for generations and generations. A thing can be "because" of a matter, and yet be "because" of other matters as well.
     Remember that God is a merciful and a patient God, and withholds judgment, often for long, long periods of time. Hezekiah was an example of that principle! He was to die and yet he pled with God and God spared him and gave him 15 more years (frankly - he'd have been better off if he'd have gone to be with the Lord when first called actually...). Nineveh and Jonah is another example. God is patient and merciful. God waits and waits.
     But there is the inevitable (and unpleasant) end to His patience. That is what has arrived to Judah with the Kingship of Manasseh. and yet, even here there is a bit of patience for Manasseh’s kingship itself is some 55 years long! The time God gave is for the people to repent - remember that this is during the ministries of Isaiah and Jeremiah.
     No one can call God harsh or name Him a beast (as so many do these days). At least no one can who has taken the time to read, really read the Old Testament. The God portrayed there is a God of mercy and a God of patience, a God Who gave people opportunity time and again. Men object and rail when they see the judgment and the harsh hand of the justice and judgment of God. But that judgment of God, exercised against the nations is often merely those nations only reaping what they have sown or only they being hoist on their own petard.
     Remember that not only does God have a long history of offering grace and mercy, but he also has a long memory and does not forget offense or debt by those who reject that mercy and insist on making their own way. When time comes for the repayment of that debt, it WILL be repaid, with interest. There is no escape.
     That is the argument for submission and for the embracing of the mercy offered by the Vineyard owner. That He IS the Owner none can change. That there is a debt none can change. The only thing that can be changed is the terms of how the debt gets repaid...

Terrible, Foreboding Language
     Take a moment to observe the terrible language used in verse 12 and following.. "Calamity" is a word used of the worst of human events and experiences. The "plumb line of Ahab" is an awful standard, on that should have frightened the listeners terribly. The concept of being "wiped" like "a dish" a horrible picture to draw concerning any society and judgment coming to it. The "forsaking" of "the remnant", a thing God swore never to do (and ultimately never will do, as He will fulfill those promises in their Messiah the Lord Jesus Christ) is a terrifying thing, as, time and again, God was their only, their ONLY defense against overwhelming odds; especially most recently for both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms. Being delivered into the hand of their enemies (instead of being preserved) and being plundered themselves (instead of doing the plundering) were a horror to contemplate.
     All of this, we're told, in verse 15, because they have done evil "since the day they came of Egypt until this day."(2 Kings 21:1).

It Works Both Ways…
     We noticed earlier that godly son can follow on the heels of an ungodly father and saw it illustrated in the case of Hezekiah. Now we see the opposite in the case of Manasseh, perhaps the most ungodly king in Judah's history, following on the heels of one for the four godly kings, that same Hezekiah.
     We must note, however, that Hezekiah, though a godly man, and greatly blessed and used by God, was not the man that Josiah or Joash was; and he was certainly no David.
     This simply underscores the point that we were making; that God often intervenes and takes a hand in these matters and directs these affairs according to His own plan and purpose.
     It is important to notice that Josiah's trust in Hilkiah was complete, and that Hilkiah's trust in his workmen was, in turn, complete as well. This trust was founded on the fact that there was an increase in spiritual activity and walking with the Lord. The idolatry and filth that had been the habit for the years of Manasseh's reign and the following were gone and things were now much better, and as a result, men were becoming trustworthy as well. The lesson to learned is that with false religion comes evil nature and unrestraint in morality in all areas. With true religion comes honesty, integrity and all that accompanies it.
     Some will suggest that Christianity has had its' share of corruption over the years, and I will agree, but we must be careful to look and see what is true, Biblically observant Christianity and what is not. Where men honor the Scripture, truly honor it with all their hearts, not just their words and their mouths, their hearts and their deeds follow. Where such words are hypocritical, then, as in Jesus' day, the house of God becomes a den of thieves.
     And once again we note that the godliness of the father does not guarantee the godliness of the son. Josiah, one, whom the Lord says had no peer since David himself, has a son who forsakes the things of the Lord.
     Now surely we see the sovereign purpose of God at work here, but we must also see the personal responsibility of each man's will and the necessity of each human being to pursue after and embrace the truth of the Gospel for themselves. Jehoahaz could not ride the godliness of his father passively in heaven - God requires that each man seek him of his own accord in his own time. As a result, Jehoahaz does not enjoy the blessing that Josiah enjoyed - he ends up imprisoned in Egypt - the first back in Egypt since Moses the people out all those centuries before...