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 2 Corinthians 2:5-11

Because we are the body of Christ, and joined to one another, what one does, he/she does to all (5). It’s good to remember this. We implicate others in our conduct, whether that is positive or negative. Whatever we do to one of the least of Christ’s brothers we do to Him.

Paul’s letter (rather than the initially planned visit) had produced a good result. Church discipline had taken place (6). Paul saw that it was sufficient. He didn’t want appropriate chastisement to slip over into unduly harsh treatment. We can so easily go ‘over the top.’ Paul saw that ‘enough is enough’ and after the ‘smack’ it is important to follow up with a ‘hug’ and a ‘cuddle’. So I don’t want you to come down too hard. What the majority of you agreed to as punishment is punishment enough. Now is the time to forgive this man and help him back on his feet. If all you do is pour on the guilt, you could very well drown him in it. My counsel now is to pour on the love (6-8) The Message.               

Verse 9 reads like this in The Message: The focus of my letter wasn’t on punishing the offender but on getting you to take responsibility for the health of the church.

It can be hard to forgive certain things. It doesn’t come cheap to reach out a hand of friendship to one who has hurt you. But when we realise that we live in the sight of Christ (10) we recognise the obligation on us to forgive. He has cancelled such an enormous debt in my case. How can I fail to cancel your much smaller debt?

So if you forgive him, I forgive him. Don’t think I’m carrying around a list of personal grudges. The fact is that I’m joining in with your forgiveness, as Christ is with us, guiding us. After all, we don’t want to unwittingly give Satan an opening for yet more mischief we’re not oblivious to his sly ways! (10, 11).The Message

Unforgiveness, bitterness and the like are major weapons the devil will use to bring us down and damage the church, if we let him. He will turn these armaments on us given half the chance (11). But we have God – given insight into his schemes and ‘forewarned is forearmed.’

Prayer: Lord, enable me not to allow any root of bitterness to grow up in me. Help me to practice the grace of total forgiveness.

 2 Corinthians 1:23 – 2:4

Leaders can be criticised for many things. Sometimes the flak that comes their way is deserved. A lot of the time it is unjust. (I saw a cartoon some while back. It depicted a pastor’s grave, and on the headstone the epitaph read: ‘I told you the job description was impossible!!’) But whether they deserve the finger wagging in their direction or not, here is one thing that is true of genuine Christian leaders: they love their people far more than those ‘sheep’ ever realise. Paul had been the recipient of much criticism from the Corinthians. They were egged-on by self-appointed ‘super apostles’, who had a vested interest in bad-mouthing Paul, and some in the church at Corinth hurled mud in his direction. A portion of it inevitably sticks. Whether it has a right to or not, it does leave traces. They were saying that Paul was fickle. ‘He makes plans lightly, and then just breaks them. He lets you down. He’s not reliable.’ Paul admitted that he had intended to pay them a visit, but the reason he delayed was because he knew that if he came to them at that time he would only cause them pain. He would have to come wielding a big stick, such was the terrible situation in the church. He wanted to spare them that (23) because he loved them so much. He really did not deserve all the muck winging its way towards him. He decided to try to deal with the thorny issue in a letter and so thus clear the way for a happier visit later

Now, are you ready for the real reason I didn’t visit you in Corinth? As God is my witness, the only reason I didn’t come was to spare you pain. I was being considerate of you, not indifferent, not manipulative…That’s why I decided not to make another visit that could only be painful to both of us. If by merely showing up I would put you in an embarrassingly painful position, how then would you be free to cheer and refresh me? That was my reason for writing a letter instead of coming – So I wouldn’t have to spend a miserable time disappointing the very friends I had looked forward to cheering me up. I was convinced at the time I wrote it that what was best for me was also best for you. As it turned out, there was pain enough in just writing that letter, more tears than ink on the parchment. But I didn’t write it to cause pain; I wrote it so you would know how much I care – oh, more than care – love you! The Message.

The banks of his heart were bursting and overflowing with love for them. Paul was so intent on setting the record straight that he actually called God as his witness (1:23). Although he was in the ‘dock’ and stood accused, he knew that God who knows all things would speak for him and back him up.

Think twice, even three times, before you criticise a church leader. No, it is not that he or she is immune from criticism. They are not perfect and will inevitably get some things wrong; perhaps even badly wrong at times. But when we judge others we do so imperfectly. We don’t know the whole story. We probably don’t even know close to half. So we should be very careful about too freely donating our opinions. That ‘shepherd’ you feel jaundiced towards almost certainly loves you far more than you think.

Pray for those who lead you and encourage them. Certainly you should tell them when they are wrong, but do so lovingly, letting them know how much you care for them. Be very careful about judging the motives that you do not have eyes to see.

Prayer: Thank you Lord for giving us shepherds to lead us. Help us to be quick to believe the best about them, and always hold them in our hearts and prayers.

2 Chronicles 33:14-20

‘Things can change.’ People can change. Let us say it again: God answers prayer (18, 19). Be encouraged.

You know those ‘before and after’ pictures? Like, ‘This is me before the diet, and this is me afterwards!!’ When someone turns to God (or comes back to God) there is always an Afterwards… (14). He or she will look different. They will act differently. There will be impressive change. People may be invited to tell their story, but the transformed life itself will tell the most eloquent story. Afterwards…

• There will be a rebuilding of broken down things and a guarding of the life against enemy attack (14). You will be aware of vulnerabilities and weaknesses and you will seek to strengthen those areas because you will not want to fail your Lord. Manasseh did not rebuild the entire wall, only a section of it that was threatened. The ‘new’ person will want to don the whole armour of God (Eph.6:10-20) and be able to stand and withstand. (He tightened up the defense system by posting army captains in all the fortress cities of Judah. The Message.)
• There will be a ‘getting rid’ of things that do not belong in the ‘temple precincts’ of your life. (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20). You will have an instinctive sense of what is foreign; an ‘illegal immigrant’, spiritually speaking. He also did a good spring cleaning on the Temple, carting out the pagan idols and the goddess statue. The Message.
• As well as a throwing out of rubbish (a removal of all that ought not to be there) there will be a restoring of what should be there (16). He put the altar of GOD back in working order and restored worship… The Message.

But we also have to be realistic. Afterwards…you can’t expect everything in the garden to be rosy (17). Manasseh had led his people very far away from God (33:9). Although he had turned back to God, the people did not fully do away with everything they should have done. In verse 19b we see the terrible truth that what we have done we have done. It cannot be undone. Sins have consequences, and although they can be forgiven and removed, the consequences regularly stick around. So it is possible to know the peace of a clean conscience, and yet still rue the things you have done.

In my church at Wigan I had a good friend, and I often felt, when we went out onto the streets to share our faith, that he could relate better to many of the people we met. He’d done his fair share of the ‘pubbing and clubbing’ etc. He’d ‘been there, done that and got the tee shirt!’ He knew, like Ecclesiastes, the emptiness of such a life. I remember saying to him one day, ‘I wish I had a story like yours.’ ‘No you don’t Steve,’ he replied in a kind but firm way. ‘You don’t want a story like mine.’ His sins had gone, but the scars remained.

Prayer: Thank you Lord for the ‘afterwards’ experienced by everyone who is in Christ and who becomes a new creation.

 2 Chronicles 33:10-13

‘Things can change’ – and so can people!

When GOD spoke to Manasseh and his people about this, they ignored him (10) The Message. As I said previously, Manasseh put in the ear plugs (10). There are none as deaf as those who will not hear! Can you imagine a situation where the Queen speaks to you and you refuse to listen? It would be so rude. Someone infinitely greater in power and wealth wants our attention. Will we give it to Him? It should be a priority for believers to want to hear God.

How good of God it was to not give up on Manasseh (11). The Lord had been speaking severely to him to warn him and his people, but now His tone got even harder. This was a ‘severe mercy’, but it worked! God got his man. The ‘Hound of Heaven’, as Francis Thompson put it, pursued him and cornered him. This reminds me of C.S. Lewis saying that he became ‘the most reluctant convert in all England.’ Notice the So at the beginning of this verse. It brings to us once again the clear point that sin has definite consequences. It is a serious thing to resist God on any matter.

At our first church house party, Pastor Dave Green hammered home the message that ‘Things can change.’ I’ve never forgotten that line. Don’t give up on anyone, however low they have sunk; no matter how far out on the tide they may have drifted (12, 13). If Manasseh could be converted, anyone can be. The ‘Hound of Heaven’ can sniff out anyone, however thick the camouflage they’re hiding behind. Now that he was in trouble, he went on his knees in prayer asking for help – total repentance before the God of his ancestors. As he prayed, GOD was touched; GOD listened and brought him back to Jerusalem as king. That convinced Manasseh that GOD was in control. The Message. So long as this story stands on the page of revelation, no sinners need despair of mercy. There was hardly a sin possible to man that Manasseh did not commit…And he made his people do worse than the heathen. Then came awful sorrow. Bound in fetters, exposed to consummate cruelty and disgrace, he was carried to Babylon, and thrust into the dungeons, where other captive princes were immured, with little chance of liberation or permission to revisit his native land. But there the Spirit of God did his work. He humbled himself greatly and prayed. What tears, and cries, and bursts of heart-broken penitence were his! How those walls were saturated with the breath of confession, and those stone floors indented by his kneeling at perpetual prayer! And God came near to his low dungeon, and graciously heard his supplication, and brought him back again. F.B. Meyer: Great verses through the Bible, p.162.

‘Things can change’. People can change. Don’t give up on anyone or anything. Manasseh had sinned greatly, but now he humbled himself greatly. He had grown up in a godly home and lived in the midst of a ‘revival’ you might say. Perhaps, in his distress all that good seed finally began to sprout in his heart. The prodigal came home. It wasn’t just his father he remembered, it seems, but his fathers (12). There were many other godly kings he knew about. When we pray for our loved ones we do not know what they might have to go through to come to Christ. It is not easy for us to face this, but God has tools in His toolbox that can do the job. Never doubt it. He can unlock any heart. He is the God of restoration, and be encouraged that He is still moved by entreaties. ‘Things can change’ – and so can people!

Prayer: Today Lord I pray for  ——- knowing that only you can change their heart. But I am convinced that you most certainly can.

 2 Chronicles 33: 1 – 9

There is no cast iron guarantee that your children will share your faith and live as you want them to. You can be an example to them, pray for them, point them in the right direction, and give them an environment in which to flourish spiritually. But if that doesn’t happen, it does not necessarily reflect badly on you, even though the devil will accuse and slander you and tell you that it most definitely does! Godly people can have ungodly children. No doubt Hezekiah’s heart would have been broken if he had seen what this tender plant of boyhood flowered into: an ugly weed of a God-dishonouring life.

He reintroduced all the moral rot and spiritual corruption that had been scoured from the country when GOD dispossessed the pagan nations in favour of the children of Israel (2). The Message. The fact that God had driven out the nations who followed these practices before the Israelites should have been a big clue to Manasseh that he ought not to go down that route. But he did. We can be blind to glaringly obvious lessons. It seems to me that Manasseh was wilfully blind and deliberately deaf. He put in the ear plugs. He did not want to know. He did not learn from the past or listen to the prophets, so he had to live with the punishment God sent him. Some people only learn the hard way. Warren W. Wiersbe: With the Word, p.251.

You can only be faithful in your generation. After you there may come someone who undoes all your good work (3-5). You can’t do anything about that. Just make sure you keep to your lane and run a good race yourself.

He rebuilt the sex-and-religion shrines that his father Hezekiah had torn down, he built altars and phallic images for the sex god Baal and the sex goddess Asherah and worshiped the cosmic powers, taking orders from the constellations. He built shrines to the cosmic powers and placed them in both courtyards of the Temple of GOD, the very Jerusalem Temple dedicated exclusively by GOD’s decree to GOD’s Name (‘’in Jerusalem I place my Name’’). He burned his own sons in a sacrificial rite in the valley of Ben Hinnom. He practiced witchcraft and fortune-telling. He held séances and consulted spirits from the underworld. Much evil – in GOD’s view a career in evil. And GOD was angry. The Message.

Things went from bad to worse under his leadership (7-9). It was an appalling situation.

Manasseh was vile. They don’t come any worse than this man do they? There surely could be no hope for such as him. Well, if you think that, it’s understandable, but you would be mistaken. We are about to witness a miracle. So stay tuned.

Prayer: Thank you Lord that at the darkest hour the daylight can come flooding through.

 2 Chronicles 32: 27-33

It is repeated here that Hezekiah had very great riches (27, 29). Some people do. There are those who are entrusted with more than others. What we must always remember is that our wealth is a sacred trust. It is not ours but God’s, and we must use it as He directs (and not turn a deaf ear when He says to give and share.) Hezekiah ended up very wealthy and much honoured…God saw to it that he was extravagantly rich. The Message

Hezekiah had very great honour (27, 23). In the wake of the deliverance from Sennacherib he was highly regarded by all the nations (23).But remember A man can receive only what is given him from heaven (John 3:27), and some are handed more resources than others; some are granted more power and influence and eminence than others.

Hezekiah had very great success. In verse thirty we are given just one example of this in his work on a great water supply project.

So Hezekiah had a lot going for him. However, if you are given much, much will be required of you. Sad as it is to say:

Hezekiah also had a great fall (31). No matter how great you have been or how outstanding your record may be, pride will take you down. I remember a friend of mine, a fine church elder I worked with at one time, saying, ‘’I don’t want to be a proud man, because God says He ‘opposes the proud’, and the Lord makes a formidable opponent. I don’t want to have Him opposing me!’’ (See James 4:6) I remember the utter sincerity with which he said this. He was clearly aware of the insidious temptation to be proud, but didn’t want pride to rule his heart and have the final say in his life. But when the rulers of Babylon sent emissaries to find out about the sign from God that had taken place earlier, God left him on his own to see what he would do; he wanted to test his heart. The Message. A church leader was writing about a much esteemed colleague. He said that he was a man with great gifts, and he wondered why his friend had remained in a fairly small sphere of service and not received greater recognition. When he mentioned this to him one day his reply was to the effect that he didn’t think that he would be able to handle such success. This response showed great self- awareness and humility of heart. It is no doubt true of some of us that we could not handle elevation in the eyes of men. God’s law of gravity says that ‘what goes down must come up’ (1 Pet.5:5, 6). But what goes up can come crashing back to earth with a bang and cause serious injuries. He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8).

However, the last word on Hezekiah is a good word. We can thank God for His grace and mercy. One blot on the page doesn’t have to totally ruin a life’s work and won’t necessarily disqualify from a good overall mark. I believe the Lord was pleased with his ‘paper’ and the Biblical record shows this. We marvel at such grace, that no fall need be fatal or final.

Everyone in Judah and Jerusalem came to the funeral. He was buried in great honor. The Message. May the autobiographies we are writing with our minutes, hours and days reach a good conclusion. Make it your aim, by God’s grace, to finish strong and finish well.

Prayer: Lord God make my life an inspiration to others.

 2 Chronicles 32:24 – 26

Either side of the story of Hezekiah’s miraculous deliverance, we are shown that bad things can happen to good people (32:1, 24). Just because you belong to God it doesn’t mean that you won’t run into illness and trouble. At the peak of his God-given success and fame (In those days: verse 24) the king got deathly sick. But that was not the whole story, because he also got healed. Derek Prince said that he once did an exercise. He took a blue pencil, and went through the entire Bible, underlining every reference to divine healing. ‘What do you think I ended up with?’ he asked. ‘A blue Bible!’ was the answer. The Lord still answers prayer for healing; in these days He goes on giving miraculous signs. Don’t lose sight of the fact that Hezekiah was at the point of death. We do often throw in the towel when we see a person drawing near the gates of death. We tend to feel it’s all over before it is. It’s a good job Hezekiah didn’t let the evidence of his body choke off his prayer. Pray to the LORD. He is ‘Lord’ of life and ‘Lord’ over death; ‘Lord’ over every sickness and disease.

We have seen that Hezekiah was a great and godly king, but he was also an imperfect man. He was flawed. But the sign, instead of making Hezekiah grateful, made him arrogant. The Message. If God should entrust us with miracles (or further miracles) will we be thankful or become proud? How we respond to trial is an index of character. But we also expose something of our true selves in our reaction to God-given blessings and His supernatural interventions. Some people allow these things to go to their heads. This story also reminds us not to put any leader on a pedestal. We get some surprises; there are nasty shocks in the Christian walk. When certain people fall we can be devastated because we regarded them as such heroes. So while it is right to respect our leaders, let’s not pin our hopes on anyone but God Himself. He is the only One who will never let us down. Only He is totally trustworthy.

Pride has repercussions (25). All sin does. It leads to unwanted consequences. And, sadly, when leaders fall they usually take other people down with them. They are tied together by an invisible rope. Leaders affect their Judah and Jerusalem; their sphere of influence. But God is gracious and merciful (26). If we will repent of our wrongdoing, whatever form it takes, we will find real forgiveness. Let that thought encourage you today and drive you to your knees if necessary.

There are two references to Hezekiah’s heart in (25, 26). ‘The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart.’ Physically Hezekiah got better; spiritually he developed (or started to manifest symptoms of) heart trouble. So, Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life (Proverbs 4:23). Your life and ministry flow from your heart. Keep that ‘well’ unpolluted and uncluttered.

Hezekiah weathered the invasion and the illness, but he capitulated to pride. It began when he failed to thank God for sparing his life, and apparently even God’s chastening did not cure him. The extent of his wealth and the praises of the visiting dignitaries made Hezekiah proud, and God had to deal with him…You may be in greater danger when things are going well than when you are fighting a battle, so keep alert. Warren W. Wiersbe: With the Word, p.251

We will think more about those visiting dignitaries tomorrow.

Prayer: Thank you Lord that you still heal today. Thank you for my ‘blue Bible’. This day I ask healing for… (fill in the blank with names of those you want to pray for.)

 2 Chronicles 32: 20 – 23

What do you do when you are ‘in it up to your neck’? Where do you turn when you are up against overwhelming odds? As we have seen, Hezekiah did what he could. It would appear that he did everything he could. But in all of that, and above all, he put his trust in God. Confidence in God did not preclude prudent action, but wise decisions alone were not enough.

So Hezekiah formed a prayer alliance with the prophet Isaiah (20). What a prayer partnership this was! Jesus taught that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them (Matthew 18:19, 20). It is a powerful thing to pray in agreement with a fellow Christian. When you have a mountain to move, why not ask someone you trust to pray the situation through with you.  For three separate years I had a prayer partner. I asked three different people to join me in prayer and Bible Study for a twelve month period each. During that time I was facing a major crisis in my family, and I drew great strength and encouragement from these prayers. Over a period of time there was progressive healing, and I believe God heard and answered marvellously. (Of course, the prayers of a Christian husband and wife can be so effective, and this supplies a big reason why the devil wants to stop marriage partners praying together.) When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, My Father in heaven goes into action. And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I’ll be there. The Message.

The Biblical record is clear in saying that God:

• Saved the day (22a);
• Took good care of His people (22b);
• Elevated Hezekiah ( 23b: All the surrounding nations were impressed – Hezekiah’s stock soared. The Message.)

The great deliverance came about in answer to prayer. Who would have thought though that it would come about in the way it eventually did? Sennacherib was forced to return home in disgrace, tail between his legs. When he went into the temple of his god, his own sons killed him (21). The Message. Who could have imagined God dealing with the seemingly immoveable problem in this fashion? Sennacherib was overthrown from within the intimate bonds of his own family.

F.B. Meyer  makes the point that verse 20 follows naturally from verse 19: It was the indignity done to Jehovah that stirred these two holy men to the heart. Not that their lives, and the lives of their people, and the beautiful holy city were in danger; but that Sennacherib spake against the God of Jerusalem, as against the gods of the people of the earth, which were the work of the hands of man.Oh that we were possessed with a similar zeal for God, so that we might look at sin as it affects Him, and lament over the awful wrongs which are continually being perpetrated against his holy, loving nature! What an argument this would give us in prayer.

Prayer: Thank you Lord that Everest-sized mountains are still moved by faith. And thank you for all those who pray with me and for me. You are good.

 2 Chronicles 32:16 – 19

The messengers felt free to throw in their personal comments, putting down both GOD and God’s servant Hezekiah. The Message. Even Sennacherib’s officers felt free to pitch in with further derisory comments. It would not be true to say that such scoffing does not affect us. This is perhaps one of the main ways we are persecuted in the U.K: through cynical mickey-taking. It can hurt deeply and draw emotional blood. But however much mockery, scorn and derision may come our way, may God strengthen us to stand firm in the faith and to stick by Him and His cross. However loud the laughter and however raucous the language, it does not alter the reality of God nor the fact that ‘in the end, Jesus wins!’ (That’s how a simple man summed up the Book of Revelation.) Don’t let such a toxic atmosphere drive you into hiding as a Christian. If we confess Jesus before men, He’ll confess us before His Father. Don’t cease to be his servant (16). Don’t stop serving your Master because many senseless people don’t like Him and speak ill of Him. One day you will glad you were not ashamed when He shows Himself unashamed of you.

Mark Twain said, ‘A lie will travel half way round the world while the truth is still putting its boots on.’ But a lie is still a lie, no matter how many times it has had its passport stamped! Here is a repetition of the lie so loudly and forcefully proclaimed previously (17;13-15). For all that the volume is turned up loud it remains a lie. This lie was soon to be exposed, as all falsehood eventually will be. ‘Truth will out.’  You can’t stop it. May God give us eyes to see through the camouflage of deception and hold onto the truth, even though it may be in the face of a torrent of error. Verse 19 shows how mistaken Sennacherib and his crew were: They contemptuously lumped the God of Jerusalem in with the handmade gods of other peoples. The Message.

As we have seen in recent days, our enemy seeks to get our knees knocking on the way to crumbling altogether. He doesn’t want us standing, but on the floor. He uses intimidation tactics (18): The messengers would come up to the wall of Jerusalem and shout up to the people standing on the wall, shouting their propaganda in Hebrew, trying to scare them into demoralized submission. The Message. In the Ephesians 6 passage, where Paul calls four times for believers to stand in the face of the great battle we’re involved in (11, 13, 14), he also says this: In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one (16). In those days they had a sort of early version of the Molotov cocktail. It was an arrow, dipped in pitch, and set alight. It was then fired at the opposition. But the Roman soldier had a great body length shield to hide behind. It was made of wood and covered with leather. When the arrow whooshed into it, the flame just went out. Our enemy has many ‘fiery darts’ of fear that he regularly hurls our way. But through faith in God we can put them out. They need not harm us. There is a saying that goes, ‘Fear knocked at the door; faith answered, and there was nobody there!’ Somebody estimated that there are 366 ‘Fear not’s’ in the Bible. He said, ‘That’s one for every year, including leap year!’

Prayer: Lord grant that trust in you will evict all fear from my heart.