That Didn't Take Long. But Why?

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I had purchased my first “nice” car. I was maybe 21, thinking I was something and kept it waxed to a mirror finish. The velour seats got special treatment. And those tires shined! 

One afternoon I took it for a “quick inspection” and in a matter of minutes started out of the parking lot only to have my tire fall off and roll out into a busy four lane road.

As I stepped out to look at my crumpled front end someone nearby said, “well that didn’t take long”! True words.

I wrote last week about Hezekiah recovering what his father’s self-centeredness ruined. He had seen enough, suffered enough, and said, “enough”!

Then he destroyed his father’s idols.

Tore down the pagan altars.

And did a bunch of heart and housecleaning.

I can almost hear him saying,

“I don’t want my children experiencing what I did and saw”.

“They’re not going to grow up like I did”.

“I came out of a heathen lifestyle and I’m not going back. Neither is my family”!

But then something almost inexplicable happened. It’s here in 2 Kings 21:2-9.

What got into this guy?

This verse in Eccl. 9:18 might explain it. And it didn’t take long either.

You read in 2 Kings 21:1 that Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign…

Dad did some foolish things and was probably distracted or unavailable doing his king stuff.  But then he died when Menasseh was only twelve. That’s rough on a young person.

Is he bitter? Mad at God? Hurting on the inside and lashing out?

Whatever it is, he wants nothing to do with the good his dad did and throws it all away.

It’s ugly. Costly. Destructive. And it didn’t take long.

What got into this guy might not be that hard to explain.

You desire what dad didn’t allow or God forbids (for good reasons!)

You take out your frustration by doing unhelpful stuff instead of taking it to God.

You drift, enjoy the distractions, and slowly let the crud creep back in.

You let the questionable people, places, and pleasures get too close and kind of like it that way. And it only takes one.

Pretty soon, you’re all in on the wrong things. Even wicked things. We’re like that.

But when the wheel comes off your life, something else can happen fast.

It finally gets bad enough where you don’t like what it’s doing or costing anymore. So, like Manasseh, you humble yourself and turn to God.

You can read what happened here in 2 Chr. 33:10-20. You really should. It’s encouraging.

And it didn’t take long either!

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