THE ONGOING NEED FOR REVIVAL – 2 Chronicles 32:32-33:25

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on March 11, 2018 under 2018 |

Preached Sunday, March 11, 2018 from 2 Chronicles 32:32-33:25

Theme: Each new generation must have its own fresh spiritual awakening.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

Over the past few months, we have been considering together the story of King Hezekiah in 2 Chronicles 28-32. We have been learning about the great spiritual awakening that God had brought about under Hezekiah’s reign. This morning, we take a final look at this story—and at a final lesson that Hezekiah’s life has to teach us.

And interestingly, it has to do with what happened after Hezekiah’s life story had ended.

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At the end of 2 Chronicles 32, we’re given these concluding words about the life of this great and godly man Hezekiah—King of the Jewish people:

Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his goodness, indeed they are written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, and in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. So Hezekiah rested with his fathers, and they buried him in the upper tombs of the sons of David; and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem honored him at his death (2 Chronicles 32:32-33a).

What a great life it was that Hezekiah had lived. He was born of a father named King Ahaz who was a very ungodly and wicked man, and who had led the people of his kingdom down the path of sin and idolatry and rebellion against God. But when Hezekiah came to the throne, God had used him to bring about a great spiritual awakening for his people. He led them back to God. He led them in cleansing the temple in Jerusalem of all the elements of idolatry that his father had brought in, and helped them to restore the priesthood to faithful service. He reached out to the people throughout his kingdom—and even into the northern tribes of Israel—and invited them to come back to the worship of God with their kinsmen in Jerusalem. He led his people in restoring and celebrating the holy feast of Passover before God in an honorable and obedient way. He helped his people to resume their support of the temple’s ministry. And God brought about great civic reforms and great military victories for His people through Hezekiah.

You’ll notice that this passage begins by telling us that Hezekiah was remembered for “his goodness”, and that the record of that goodness was written down in other places of the Bible. (And by the way; wouldn’t you love to have that be your testimony?—forever recorded in the pages of God’s book?) We’re even told of how they buried him in the place where they had buried the most esteemed and godly of the kings of the Jewish people—King David, and his son King Solomon. What an honorable end King Hezekiah’s end was.

But then; it’s almost with an ominous tone that we read the final words of verse 33;

Then Manasseh his son reigned in his place (v. 33b) …

I say ‘an ominous tone’, because Manasseh went on to rebel against everything that his father had stood for, and basically brought about a complete reversal of his father’s revival.

You might remember that—in Chapter 32—we were told the story of how Hezekiah had nearly died; but that God had graciously heard his earnest prayer and gave him another 15 years of life. That fact brings important insight to what we read in the first verses of Chapter 33—and to the first words of the Bible’s story of Manasseh’s life. We’re told;

Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem (33:1).

That would mean that when Hezekiah had been sick and had nearly died, his heart was broken because he had not yet had a son to carry on the royal lineage of King David—a son through whom God’s promise to David about the Messiah would be fulfilled. But the Bible tells us that Manasseh became king at the tender age of twelve—letting us know that God not only spared Hezekiah’s life, but also answered his longing for a son to be his successor in the lineage of David shortly thereafter. God not only blessed Hezekiah; but also fulfilled His covenant promise to King David. And God even blessed you and me as well; because it was through Hezekiah’s lineage that our Savior Jesus Christ—the long-promised Son of David—was born.

And I believe we can be very certain that—throughout those twelve years that he was able to do so—Hezekiah taught his son Manasseh everything that he himself had learned about God’s faithfulness. He would have told his son about all the great things God had done through him for His people; about the great revival He had brought forth; about the great victories and mighty miracles God performed; about the need to follow God devotedly and obey His commandments faithfully. When good King Hezekiah had finally left this earth and had gone to be with the God he loved and served, he would have left some very clear footsteps for Manasseh to follow.

But tragically, Manasseh rejected it all. We’re told in verse 2;

But he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel (v. 2).

And did you know that the rebelliousness of this man Manasseh was what led God to finally send the Jewish people into exile into Babylon for seventy years? That was something that God had warned that He would do from long before. Certainly, Hezekiah’s faithfulness—and the revival that occurred under his reign—helped to postpone that promised judgment. But judgment finally came; and it was Manasseh’s extreme rebelliousness that proved to be the last straw. It says elsewhere in the Old Testament—in 2 Kings 21:10-16;

And the Lord spoke by His servants the prophets, saying, “Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations (he has acted more wickedly than all the Amorites who were before him, and has also made Judah sin with his idols), therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Behold, I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab; I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. So I will forsake the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become victims of plunder to all their enemies, because they have done evil in My sight, and have provoked Me to anger since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.’” Moreover Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides his sin by which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the Lord (2 Kings 21:10-16).

And from all this, I hope you can see that the revival under King Hezekiah ended with Hezekiah’s generation. Revivals are not ‘trans-generational’ events. Each new generation must have its own fresh awakening from God. And if that new generation does not experience an awakening of its own, things don’t just stay neutral or coast along on the glories of the past. The memory of the revival from the previous generation fades away—and that unawakened generation quickly declines into ‘degeneration’!

* * * * * * * * * *

I have thought much about this lately—especially after the home-going of Dr. Billy Graham. What a powerful force he was for the spread of the gospel over the past couple of generations! I myself prayed to receive Jesus Christ as my Savior as a result of his ministry. Many of us can say the same thing; and can all be very grateful that God gave him to minister in this world. He was an instrument of God in two great ‘generation-transforming’ revival movements in our nations history—the ‘mid-century resurgence’ of the 40s and 50s, and the ‘Jesus Movement’ in the 70s.

But now that he is gone, who will proclaim that message of the gospel in such a powerful way today? Will God raise someone else up with such a ministry—someone through whom our children and grandchildren and our nieces and nephews might hear the message preached so constantly and so faithfully and through so wide a platform as his was? Is there someone who will become God’s powerful instrument of spiritual awakening—on such a global scale—in the generation now coming to age? I am praying so. I hope you are, too.

Prior to the days of King Manasseh’s, that ‘someone’ was his own father Hezekiah. But now, Manasseh’s generation needed an awakening of its own. And without that spiritual awakening—without God’s provision of a human instrument to lead the people in revival—Manasseh and his generation almost immediately began to slide downward into horrible rebellion and sin.

Look at what we’re told in 2 Chronicles 33:3. It says;

For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; he raised up altars for the Baals, and made wooden images; and he worshiped all the host of heaven and served them (v. 3).

Do you notice that we’re told that he “rebuilt” the pagan places of worship “which Hezekiah his father had broken down”? Manasseh was deliberately—intentionally—with a high-hand—rebelling against the God of his father. He reinstated the idolatry that his father had abolished. He brought the spiritual awakening of the previous generation to a swift and decisive end. How horrible this was!

And his offense toward the God of his father grew even worse—even to the point of defying the covenant promises that God made toward His Jewish people, and even to the point of instituting human sacrifice to false gods. Verses 4-8 tell us;

He also built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem shall My name be forever.” And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. Also he caused his sons to pass through the fire in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom; he practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft and sorcery, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. He even set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever; and I will not again remove the foot of Israel from the land which I have appointed for your fathers—only if they are careful to do all that I have commanded them, according to the whole law and the statutes and the ordinances by the hand of Moses” (vv. 4-8).

Do you remember the good words spoken of Hezekiah at the end of his life? Well; by contrast, look at verse 9!

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 (v. 9).

We sometimes think that a generation after a great spiritual awakening will simply live off of the great changes brought about by that revival—whether they experience their own awakening or not. But this passage from the Old Testament clearly shows us that this is not so. In fact, I can’t think of a greater example in the Bible of how one generation’s revival cannot just spill over into another. It reminds me of the parable that Jesus taught in Matthew 12—a parable that Jesus taught to the Jewish people who rejected Him in His own day;

“When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation” (Matthew 12:43-46).

And so also, it seemed, with Manasseh’s generation!

* * * * * * * * * *

Now; the time eventually came when God had enough. The benefits of the previous generation’s awakening would not protect Manasseh and his rebellious generation from judgment. So we’re told in verses 10-11;

And the Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they would not listen. Therefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze fetters, and carried him off to Babylon (vv. 10-11).

The Assyrian empire was a remarkably brutal one at that time; and you can take what the Bible says about them quite literally. The king of Assyria led Manassah—the rebellious king of Judah—away into captivity with hooks through his nose and his jaw, and bound in chains—as was their custom. What a humiliating consequence of this remarkable rebellion against God.

But God was also remarkable in His grace. Verses 12-13 go on to tell us this about Manasseh;

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 (vv. 12-13).

Now; the Bible then goes on to tell us about the reforms that Manasseh made after God had brought to the throne. He built up his military and fortified the city. He also took away the gods and idols from the temple. He even repaired the altar of God in the temple. But nevertheless, the rebellion of Manasseh led to judgment in his generation—and beyond! Later on in the Bible’s history, we’re told about how the city of Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians, and how entire kingdom of Judah went into captivity into Babylon for 70 years. And when that horribly judgment finally happened, we were given the reason for it all in 2 Kings 24:3-4;

Surely at the commandment of the Lord this came upon Judah, to remove them from His sight because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, and also because of the innocent blood that he had shed; for he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, which the Lord would not pardon (2 Kings 24:3-4).

We’re also told, in Jeremiah 15:4, that God declared;

“I will hand them over to trouble, to all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem” (Jeremiah 15:4).

Each new generation absolutely must experience its own spiritual awakening. But the generation of Manasseh did not experience one. Instead, they rebelled against the awakening of the generation that came before them; and the revival of that previous generation could not prevent judgment from finally coming.

* * * * * * * * * *

Now; you might expect that the next generation might learn from history. But no. If we read on down a bit further—beginning at verse 20—we find out what happened in that next generation;

So Manasseh rested with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house. Then his son Amon reigned in his place.

Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. But he did evil in the sight of the Lord, as his father Manasseh had done; for Amon sacrificed to all the carved images which his father Manasseh had made, and served them. And he did not humble himself before the Lord, as his father Manasseh had humbled himself; but Amon trespassed more and more (vv. 20-23).

You have to wonder who was the most guilty; don’t you? Was it Manasseh—who saw the blessings that came from his father Hezekiah’s faithfulness, rebelled against it, suffered judgment, and cried tears of repentance? Or was it Amon—who saw both the blessedness of his grandfather’s faithfulness to God, and the judgment of his father’s rebellion against God, and knowingly chose to go the way of rebellion?

Not even the repentance of his father Manasseh could rescue Amon and his generation. We’re told in verses 24-25;

Then his servants conspired against him, and killed him in his own house. But the people of the land executed all those who had conspired against King Amon. Then the people of the land made his son Josiah king in his place (vv. 24-25).

Josiah went on to be a king under whose reign God granted another great spiritual awakening. But this simply proves the lesson these final stories teach us. Revivals cannot transfer from one generation to another. Revivals involve the transformation of the hearts of individual men and women—restoring them to God personally. Each new generation absolutely must have its own fresh spiritual awakening.

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So then; what do we do? I believe the only generation we can have anything to do with directly is this one. We need to pray for—and work for—an awakening in the one that we’re in. We need to pray for God to raise up another faithful instrument for revival in our time—or perhaps several. We need to pray for another Billy Graham for our time; or another D.L. Moody; or another George Whitefield. We need to pray for the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ to be faithfully preached in the anointing of the Holy Spirit. We need to commit to proclaim it ourselves—and faithfully live it ourselves.

But that doesn’t mean that we cannot still impact the generation to come. We can leave our example of faithful devotion to God. We can leave faithful footprints to follow. We can remember what it says in the first few verses of Psalm 78;

Give ear, O my people, to my law;
Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings of old,
Which we have heard and known,
And our fathers have told us.

We will not hide them from their children,
Telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord,
And His strength and His wonderful works that He has done.

For He established a testimony in Jacob,
And appointed a law in Israel,
Which He commanded our fathers,
That they should make them known to their children;
That the generation to come might know them,
The children who would be born,
That they may arise and declare them to their children,
That they may set their hope in God,
And not forget the works of God,
But keep His commandments;
And may not be like their fathers,
A stubborn and rebellious generation,
A generation that did not set its heart aright,
And whose spirit was not faithful to God (Psalm 78:1-8).

Let’s labor to tell this generation about our Lord Jesus Christ; and urge people within our own sphere to look to Him and believe on Him and trust in the saving grace God has provided on His cross.

And let’s also pass that faith on to the generation to come—laying out faithful footprints to follow—trusting God to open their hearts to the message of the gospel—praying that they will respond in their time.

For each new generation must have its own spiritual awakening to the gospel of Jesus Christ—including this one!

EA