Old Testament Grace

READ 2 Chronicles 33–36

Some say that grace came only in the NT, but the grace of God is also evident in the OT. God didn’t change people with a new birth, but by grace He preserved the nation that would eventually give us the Messiah.

King Hezekiah did well but his son started badly. Those who pray for unsaved children can take heart. Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign. He was evil like the abominations of the nations whom the Lord drove out of the land. He even burned his sons as an offering, used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He also led his people to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord destroyed. Then grace changed this man:

The Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention. Therefore the Lord brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon. And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God. (2 Chronicles 33:10–13)

Manasseh got rid of the foreign gods and the idol in the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he had built. He restored the altar of the Lord and sacrificed peace and thanksgiving offerings. He commanded Judah to serve the Lord. They still sacrificed at high places, but only to the Lord. (33:15–17)

The next king, Amon, did evil as his father had done. He sacrificed to idols but did not humble himself before the Lord. Some conspired against him and he died. His son was made king in his place, a mere eight years old. However, Josiah did what was right and walked in the ways of David his father because he sought God. At twelve, he began to purge the high places and idols. When the priests were at work in the temple and found the Book of the Law of the Lord, Amon realized “great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord, to do according to all that is written in this book.” (34:21) A prophetess was consulted who said:

Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the curses that are written in the book that was read before the king of Judah. Because they have forsaken me and have made offerings to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands, therefore my wrath will be poured out on this place and will not be quenched. But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Regarding the words that you have heard, because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before God when you heard his words against this place and its inhabitants, and you have humbled yourself before me and have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the Lord. Behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place and its inhabitants.’ ” (34:24–28)

This too is grace.

Josiah took away all the abominations and the people followed the Lord under his reign. He kept a Passover such as none of the kings ever had. However, when warned by God through a foreign king not to battle with him, Josiah was killed. Then the kingdom declined.

Kings were appointed, Jehoahaz, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah, but none stopped the slide. They did evil with stiff necks and hard hearts, all unfaithful to God and not listening to His prophets. They wound up in captivity in Babylon, the house of the Lord was burned, and the city destroyed.

Then, after seventy years, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him. Let him go up.’ ” (36:22–23)

By the grace of God, His people went home, abandoned idols, and rebuild their city. No, they were not blessed with the Messiah, not yet. He came a few hundred years later and soon we celebrate His arrival!

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)