Redemption

So I was reading the stories of Hezekiah and his son Manasseh in 2 chronicles 32 and 33 and it really spoke to me.

The next few paragraphs are my Sparknotes version of the two chapters so if you already know the story then you can skip down to the bottom.

Hezekiah was known as a great king and when the Assyrians tried to come and take over Jerusalem, Hezekiah fortified the city and rallied the people with a speech about the overwhelming power of God. (I picture it like the scene in Braveheart-one of the best movies ever- where William Wallace talks about freedom for his people. That scene gives me chills everytime!) Anyways, getting sidetracked. Ok so Hezekiah's speech makes the people believe and then because of the people's faith, God sends an angel down and the angel wipes out the entire Assyrain tribe. From here on out, Hezekiah is respected throughout the entire region.

Later in life, Hezekiah becomes ill and asks God for a miraculous sign and God gives it to him, yet Hezekiah is too proud to accept it. Because of this, God's wrath was on him and his country. Then, Hezekiah comes to his senses and repents so God forgives him and he dies an honorable man.

His son, Manasseh took over the kingship when he was 12 and fell into all kinds of evil. He did witchcraft, sorcery, defiled the temple. Basically you name a horrible thing and he did it. Because of this, he fell out of favor with God and the nation had to pay for it. Manasseh was captured by the Assyrians who also took over the land. Finally, when Manasseh is on his last leg, he cries out to God and God has the compassion to forgive him which just blows me away. Basically, for the rest of his life he cleans up his act and does well as a king and Israel prospers.

I took away two main things from all this. One, when you are a leader, your personal actions directly affect those that you are leading. When the kings did good, the nation prospered, when they did bad, the nation suffered and even fell into the hands of others. This means that when we lead we are in a place of higher accountability and responsibility with God. This is nothing to take lightly no matter how big or small the group you're leading. As leaders, we must be people of integrity, personally and publicly.

Number Two: God is a God of redemption. Both of these leaders were considered good, maybe even great kings when they died, yet both of them made foolish, defiant mistakes. Manasseh screwed up as badly as any leader could possibly screw up. He led his people into evil, defied God his entire life, and even then only repented when he was about to be killed, yet God still had the compassion to redeem him and make him an honorable man by the time he died. Whats the point of all this, you ask? There is no need to fear failure. I don't think I could screw up as bad as Manasseh did, and all it took for him to be redeemed was a single prayer. If we live lives fully surrendered to God then there is no reason to fear failure because even if we do fail, we serve a loving and compassionate God who will pick us right back up.

I know this was long and had nothing to do with Uruguay, but I hope this brought some encouragement to those who read it.

p.s. i promise the stuff about Uruguay is coming soon!!!