AP

2 Kings 24:3-4 Surely this came upon Judah at the command of the LORD, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, and also for the innocent blood that he had shed. For he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the LORD would not pardon.

This is a difficult statement in a difficult chapter in God’s revealed Word.  It is difficult because we all depend so much on God’s forgiveness. The very thought that at a particular time in the history of the LORD’s dealing with his Covenant People he “was not willing to forgive” should send chills up our spine.  But by 600 BC God’s patience had run out.  And there was also the important matter of God’s justice.  We must remember – and what better day for remembrance, this being November 11 – that the justification God had been giving to his people for violently and mercilessly displacing the previous occupants of the ‘Promised Land’ was the wickedness of those occupants. Now the privileged beneficiaries of this conquest were behaving just as badly, if not worse, with their worship of man-made idols and the human sacrificing of their children!)

The occasion was the impending destruction of Jerusalem.  For nine centuries they had given lipservice to God’s glorious, life-affirming Law that he had revealed through Moses, and yet somehow they had missed the whole point of it and their rebellious hearts had led them further and further away from him.  In his mercy and grace he had established a monarchy for them to help them live happily under his rule, but for four centuries that also had been misunderstood and abused by its various incumbents, thus having the opposite effect.

On the basis of all this, in the absence of true contrition and repentance, he was unwilling to keep on forgiving; what was needed was a whole new start.  Ironically, this ‘new start’ had been anticipated by the long line of OT Prophets – and, in fact, by the Law itself!  It is perhaps most clearly expressed by Jeremiah: “‘The time is coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. … I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.  I will be their God, and they will be my people. … I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.’” (31:31-35)  This was possible only through the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus, the Saviour – the perfect Man who would die in the place of sinners and thus satisfy God’s justice!

This same Jesus is coming back as Judge and King while people continue to reject his gracious provision of eternal life.  As we wait for his coming, God continues to be patient: “He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9b)  Sadly, when the Final Day comes there can be no further offer of forgiveness for all who have turned their back on Jesus, and the consequences will be a global disaster of which the destruction of Jerusalem in 596-586 BC was only a faint foreshadowing.  We can feel something of Jesus’ pain as he wept over the Holy City: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!  Look, your house is left to you desolate.” (Luke 13:34-35a)

– Bruce Christian