How far is too far?
How much sinning is too much sinning? How bad is too bad for someone to be and to lose hope of a future with God? How late is too late to come to oneself and reconcile with God? How simply disgusting and awful is it possible to be and turn to God?
Christians are sensitive to these issues. Christians worry about these issues, too, from time-to-time, at least. Christians fear going too far and having committed the ‘unpardonable sin’ and being unable to find their way back to God.
Please turn to 2 Chronicles 33, and let us read together and consider together what we can learn from one ancient example. Once there was an ancient king named Manasseh and he was not the kind of person who seemed to have much hope for a future with God.
v. 1- 10- let’s think about what we learn about Manasseh in these verses.
- 12 years old when he began his reign- he was very young and he had the longest reign of a king of Judah- 55 years, until he was about 67 years of age.
- He was evil- depraved, base, amoral (not only immoral), wicked. As we read, we can see in what ways he was evil.
- He encouraged worship of idols of the heathen. He believed that all roads lead to heaven- we would call him a pluralist and he’d fit in very well in today’s Canada. If this were today, he would have allowed, or encouraged, Buddhist statues to be everywhere. He would have candles all over the place- not for light or effect but for worship. He would encourage people to be free thinkers and to follow their hearts to god. He would have courses offered to help people to find themselves, to plumb their inner depths, to explore their spirituality and that of leaders around them as a current seminar will explore the spirituality of Pierre E. Trudeau at McGill University.
- He rebuilt altars that had existed and which his father had removed, so that people could revert to past practices of materialism, self-help, and worship of the sun, moon, and stars. Astrology became a dominating force in the nation again, and people governed their lives by the movement of these heavenly bodies.
- He built altars in the Temple. He used the place where people knew to meet God and offered them all possible ways to meet god, as seemed good to them all. Were he alive today, he’d bring New Age beliefs into the church, because many like them and believe them. He would bring the health and wealth gospel ideas into the church, because these encourage people and help to keep people positive, hopeful, and trying very hard, even though they are not the message of the gospel. He would bring a focus on ‘you’ and ‘me’ into the church, rather than a focus on Jesus and God; it’s much more pleasant to be centred in the human than to be centred in the divine- it’s much less threatening and requires much less change in belief and behaviour. The already existing churches became centres where unholy beliefs would be melded with scriptural teachings and where some would be kept away from God through those.
- He sacrificed his own children on an altar. This was always a heinous practice to God and God’s people and it involved the idea of invoking the pleasure and favour of a god by giving to him what was considered your greatest treasure- your children. Your hope for a future would be in the children, so there was supposed to be a certain depending on god through doing this because you’ve given up this expression of the future. Were this today, of course, it would involve devaluing of human lives as we see in approval of abortion and the increasing approval of euthanasia. Care of the elderly would become an issue, as it will as we go forward into several decades with a very high number of seniors, when we get there. In some societies, it’s normal to expect seniors to simply go off and die once they have outlived their usefulness. Fortunately, this is not where we’re at now, but some discussions lead us to wonder where some would go, if permitted. With children, more and more dependence on the state to know what is right and good for children would arise; this is not simply in the expression of basic educational norms that are necessary, but goes beyond into regulation of all aspects of care of children.
- He consulted mediums, fortunetellers, and sorcerers. All of this was forbidden from the earliest times but there is a certain appeal to these because they are so very emotional and sensual and mysterious. Today, this would translate into the seeking and following of personal horoscopes (I hope you know that Christians don’t do this!), seeking fortune tellers who might read tea leaves or tarot cards, using the ouija board (I had a frightening experience with that when I was 18 years of age and that was more than enough).
- He encouraged evil. Today, he would focus on lifestyles and the idea that some are inherent and can’t be helped. There would be laws to protect all sorts of personal choices including smoking and drugs. Homosexual lifestyles would be flaunted as an acceptable alternative and marriage union laws would be broadened to include many different options and variations. Pornography would be easily accessible. The Charter of Rights would be invoked, often, in order to enshrine individuals’ rights to free speech on any topic and expression. Laws that would give undue protection to children would be loosened.
- V. 7 speaks of the weight of evil! The biblical author- God- felt that to establish idol worship in God’s temple really expresses the extreme of what was going on in the nation.
- V. 9- Manasseh not only tolerated or permitted evil- he encouraged evil. In the Bible, there are two broad categories of sin- these are evident in the sacrificial system of Leviticus. There are sins of omission, where someone simply fails to do something that they should have done; they omit to do. Then, there are sins of commission, where someone encourages and enables the doing of wrong. Manasseh did both. I’m sure there was lots of debate around that time about ideas and practices that were ‘old-fashioned’ and ‘irrelevant’ to our ‘enlightened age’. We hear this and know that this is a very heady and persuasive argument for people to use. After all, if something is irrelevant or old fashioned, then we get to determine what is relevant and new fashioned and that permits a lot of doing what we might feel is best.
Manasseh was bad- and that doesn’t mean ‘good’. He was evil and is recognized as being the worst king that Judah had; that’s quite a distinction. He lived long, hard, and wicked.
Let’s read on in the story.
v. 11- 12- 13- 17- Wow! This is quite a turnaround. After all that we’ve just looked at, this is what happened. This is absolutely amazing and is a real witness to the graciousness of God and to the power of the idea that ‘where there is life, there is hope’. I’m sure no one would have guessed Manasseh would do this. There is a belief that, among all these other things he did, Manasseh was responsible for killing Isaiah! That’s a big one. We might guess that Isaiah would not consider the possibility- the real possibility- for Manasseh’s repentance. But, here we have it- and not only in words, but one that was followed up by action that changed the nation. There was a powerful witness of God to Manasseh and to the nation! Wow! This is simply incredible- unbelievable! This is not what we’re used to expecting, but this is what we can expect.
Sadly, the repentance seems to have been too late for Manasseh’s son- v. 20, 21-24- he should have learned, but tried to do it the way his father had for so many years, and it didn’t go well with him. He only lasted 2 years- people had had enough of this approach. When they saw the difference, light won over darkness. And the people knew the difference and wouldn’t stand for darkness. Josiah, who followed, was a wonderful king, in the same style and conviction as Hezekiah, Josiah’s great-grandfather.
Manasseh was a person who is hard to identify the likes of in today’s world. He was somewhat a Saddam Hussein type, maybe a Pol Pot type, maybe an Idi Amin type, and a Nicolai Ceaucescu type. There are elements of current Canadian government leaders in him, but there are checks and balances, in our system, that prevent such to the extreme of Manasseh.
However, all the comparisons aren’t really what matters. What matters is the message from this. How late is too late? How big a sinner is too big? How far is too far? Can someone really bad turn to God? Can someone raised in good, who turns bad, turn good again?
These are important questions that impact how we view people and how we have hope for people. We are people of hope, and it is because of such wonderful individuals in our history as Manasseh that we do have that hope. God shows us that there is no too late in this life, there is no too big of a sinner, there is no too far with Him. He shows us that bad people can turn good, and that people who grow up surrounded by good and turn away can turn back.
God tells us: Ro. 10. 8- 12
Then, there’s a powerful and wonderful verse 13- whosoever. There are no limits with ‘whosoever’. There are no time limits, no badness limits, no circumstantial limits, no lifestyle limits. There are no limits to ‘whosoever’ based on evil lives and evil practices. There are no limits to ‘whosoever’ because of sins of omission or sins of commission. There are no limits with God. God’s absolute power will bring people to conversion.
In this life, there is always hope, so we approach people this way. We never ‘write off’ anyone. I heard, recently, of someone who ‘wrote off’ a church youth as being too bad- couldn’t believe the verbiage, even, but even moreso, the incredibly wrong theology. As we approach people, we do so in hope and expectation. We do not give short time to someone because of badness, but pray a little harder and hope a little more. God is in charge and look what he did with Manasseh. Oh, see what God’s people had to endure- that wasn’t nice, for sure, but God is more concerned with the end and eternity than here and now, so God was glorified- and will be glorified in these kind of situation.
May we be incredible people of hope- always looking to God and the great good that He does when He chooses to do it in the lives of even wicked and evil people. Always remember Manasseh.
