Thursday, August 3: 2Kings 21- The mystery of God's ways.

Manasseh and Hezekiah represent the opposite ends of the faith spectrum. Hezekiah followed the Lord more faithfully than the kings before him and yet his son was more faithless than all the kings and even in other nations. How does this happen? If Hezekiah rid the land of all those foreign god influences, then where did Manasseh pick them up? Mothers, wives, friends, the Internet? Oh, there was no Internet in Manasseh’s day.

I am trained as an engineer. I want things to be linear and for there to be a formula. Do A and B and you always get C. But with faith, things don’t happen like that. People are self-responsible agents. We each make decisions that influence our lives. A small inquiry here, a dabble there and we can stray from God’s way.

Faith is never easy. It takes constant surrender to God’s will. This means I have to constantly lay aside my will and often the norms of the people around me and I have to march to the beat of God’s drum. Hezekiah was willing to do that; Manasseh was not.

Manasseh wanted to exalt self. He uttered a telling quote in verse 4. “In Jerusalem I will put my Name.”

I wish there was a formula that guaranteed children followed the faith of their parents. But then if that were true, there would be no conversion from one faith to another, people would be locked into the faith of their birth.

Ah, the issue is bigger and more complex than I first imaged it to be…

The best I can do is live my life faithfully and pray that others will see the light of Jesus in my life and be drawn to its glow.

And so the mystery of God’s ways continues…

Lord, magnify any light in my life that shines for You so that others will see You and Your way in me and be drawn to it. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.