In 2025 I’ve been using A Year in the Old Testament for my morning Bible time. The book follows the lectionary readings for the church year, which includes a psalm, passages from the Old and New Testaments, a brief meditation on the readings, and a short prayer. I’ve loved many things about this approach, including learning more about the church seasons, festivals, and commemorations, as well as seeing the way Scripture so beautifully weaves together.

Last week’s reading included passages from 2 Chronicles 33, which detail the reign of King Manasseh in Judah. I remembered him as one of the most wicked of the ancient Israelite rulers, but I’d forgotten about his redemption. The power of that story has stayed with me, and I wanted to share some of my thoughts about it with you.

In His love,

Amanda

xoxo

The Father of Lies

In John 8:44, Jesus says of Satan: “He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”

Satan has always hated the truth, and he’ll do anything to corrupt it. Oftentimes, he’ll add a half-truth to make it seem as though his words are legitimate, or to cast doubt in our minds. Make no mistake: a half-truth is a full lie.

One of the biggest lies Satan would have us believe is that our sin, or the sins of others, causes permanent separation from God—that there are things we and others have done that Jesus Christ’s blood can’t cover.

The devil whispers, “Did God really say that when you confess your sins, He’ll forgive them and cleanse you from all unrighteousness? Surely, you must do something to earn back God’s love and favor. But can you ever do enough? Maybe God won’t even accept your confession because He doesn’t love you anymore. What you did was pretty awful…”

Yet we need look no further than the ancient Israelite king Manasseh to know that no one is ever too far gone for the Lord to redeem.

The Lord’s Boundless Grace & Mercy

Manasseh’s list of sins was incredibly grievous. He engaged in occultic practices like witchcraft and sorcery. He worshipped idols and even built altars to these false gods in the Lord’s temple.  And he sacrificed his own sons to these pagan gods.

The writer of 2 Chronicles summarizes these events as follows: “So Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel” (33:9). As if it wasn’t enough for Manasseh to commit his own sins, he also led his people away from the Lord.

It would be easy to look at Manasseh and think, Wow, that guy is totally evil! There’s no way he could ever be saved. Thankfully, the Lord’s ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts. What we perceive as a dead end might actually be a divine detour.

Because of Manasseh’s refusal to repent, he was taken into captivity in Babylon. While there, he experienced a change of heart: “Now when he was in affliction, he implored the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed to Him; and He received his entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God” (2 Chronicles 33:12–13).

After returning to Jerusalem, Manasseh removed all of the foreign gods from the land of Judah, made offerings to the Lord, and commanded the people to serve Him.

This kind of turnaround is only possibly with God’s intervention.

Praying for the Lost

Since reading the story of Manasseh, and in light of current events, I’ve felt compelled to pray for unbelievers. The past couple of weeks have highlighted that so many people in the world are lost and living in darkness. As I once did. As we all did.

In Romans 5:8 and 10 Paul wrote, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. … For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”

It’s a humbling reminder that without the Lord’s saving grace, we, too, would still be His enemies.

Today, people are committing acts just as heinous as those Manasseh committed. And maybe we ourselves have done horrible things. We must call out evil when we see it, and calls to repentance should follow those declarations, for God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4).

We should resist the lie that anyone is beyond God’s reach, doomed to be His enemy forever. Manasseh’s story clearly demonstrates that God didn’t give up on him. The Lord doesn’t give up on anyone, and neither should we.

Let us not “be overcome by evil,” despairing at the state of the world around us, “but overcome evil with good,” through loving and obeying God and loving neighbor (Romans 12:21). And let us pray for hearts that genuinely desire the salvation of all people, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version^®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.