Daily D – 2 Chronicles 33:15-16 | Matthew 3:8

by David Bowman | Aug 3, 2022 | Daily D | 0 comments

2 Chronicles 33:15, 16 He got rid of the foreign gods and removed the image from the temple of the Lord, as well as all the altars he had built on the temple hill and in Jerusalem; and he threw them out of the city. Then he restored the altar of the Lord and sacrificed fellowship offerings and thank offerings on it, and told Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel.

Matthew 3:8 “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.”

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The evidence proving a person has made a transformational change includes a resolute break from the choices and patterns that once characterized his or her lifestyle. As John the Baptist put it, “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.”

Manasseh had a lot of repenting to do. He had a lot of fruit to produce to overcome all the evil he had created and led others to participate in. Read 2 Chronicles 33. If you are loyal to God, you will hate what you see here. Turn to 2 Kings 21:16 and read these damning words:

Moreover, Manasseh also shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end—besides the sin that he had caused Judah to commit, so that they did evil in the eyes of the Lord.

Manasseh was warned. Verse 10 says, “The LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they ignored all his warnings,” (New Living Translation).

Verse 11 tells us Manasseh was taken prisoner. A hook was placed in his nose. He was bound with bronze shackles and exiled to Babylon. Verse 12 tells us what happened next:

In his distress he sought the favor of the Lord his God
and humbled himself greatly before the God of his ancestors.

This is where we would rightly expect to hear Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams sing, Too Much, Too Little, Too Late. Instead, we find God’s heart on full display in verse 13:

And when he prayed to him, the Lord was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea; so he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is God.

If God can transform Manasseh, he can transform you. Verses 15 and above tell us how Manasseh proved his repentance. Some keywords from these verses are removed, restored, sacrificed, and serve.

Repentance leads us to remove the sinful patterns of our lives. Repentance restores broken trust and wounded relationships. Repentance sacrifices the self-centered behaviors of the past in exchange for a special future of God’s good gifts. Repentance leads to service that honors God and blesses others.

Manasseh finished well.

George Eliot is credited with saying, “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.” Manasseh demonstrates this truth. Will you? How well will you finish? Since most of us do not know our expiration date, today is a good day to become what we might have been.

Today is a good day for personal transformation by God’s grace and in his mercy. Pray like Manasseh. Repent like Manasseh. Change your lifestyle like Manasseh. Finish well like Manasseh. Tomorrow may well be too late. Today is God’s perfect timing.

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I will live a transformed life by God’s grace and in his mercy.

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Our Father, I want to be all you ever hoped I would be. Deliver me from the sin habits of my past. Restore me. Rebuild the broken places. Lead me into selfless service. Amen.

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Daily D – Genesis 46:1-4

Genesis 46:1-4 So Israel set out with all that was his, and when he reached Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.

And God spoke to Israel in a vision at night and said, “Jacob! Jacob!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

“I am God, the God of your father,” he said. “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again. And Joseph’s own hand will close your eyes.”

Daily D – Genesis 45:4-8

Genesis 45:4-8 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

“So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, Lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.”

Daily D – Genesis 41:1

Genesis 41:1 “When two full years had passed, Pharaoh had a dream: He was standing by the Nile,”

Daily D – Genesis 39:2-6

Genesis 39:2-6 Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there. The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.

Daily D – Genesis 35:27-29

Genesis 35:27-29 Jacob came home to his father Isaac in Mamre, near Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed. Isaac lived a hundred and eighty years. Then he breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people, old and full of years. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.