12/05/25

While God forgives the eternal punishment of sin, because of the atoning blood of Jesus, the earthly consequences, or punishments are not diminished. We must not scoff at sin while in our forgiven state of mercy provided by Jesus. Sin is still horrible, disgusting, and, putrid in the nostrils of our God! The earthly punishment for this disgusting act is awful and long-lasting. We see this in our text today.

2 Kings 24:3 NASB95 Surely at the command of the LORD it came upon Judah, to remove them from His sight because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done,

We see in our text that while God shows eternal mercy on a faithful follower of Christ, He also holds the sinner in earthly accountability for their sin. The text says, Surely at the command of the LORD it came upon Judah, to remove them from His sight.

It was the command of the Lord that brought the punishment. The word "command" literally means, "from the mouth." The suffering of sin came about from the mouth of God. The same God who spoke into existence heaven and earth. With this authority, He commanded punishment for sin.

We also see that our text says, "it came upon Judah, to remove them from His sight because of the sins of Manasseh." The punishment didn't just fall on the sinner but it spread to the nation. It fell on all the people. Just like sin spread from Adam to all. So all the people share in the punishment of the individual's sin. It was Manasseh who had sinned. It was his punishment that caused Judah to be exiled.

I wonder ashamedly how many people have had to suffer because of my sins.

Judah followed in the sins of Manasseh and suffered. We must realize that our sins cause others to sin and our deserved earthly punishment is placed on others as well.

Then we also see from this same part of the verse that punishment is long-lasting. At this point, there had been 4 kings since Manasseh. One of those Kings was Josiah who was one of the most Godly Kings that Judah had. Yet even in his leading the nation to revival, and through the time of the 4 Kings, the punishment of Manasseh's sin was still being felt by those in the nation. Your sin has earthly consequences that are long-lasting and fall on many others close to you.

Then the text says "according to all that he had done." This causes us to realize that we can not hide our sins. God sees them all. We might think that they are kept hidden, but God sees them, and they affect others.

This teaches us that while we should be extremely grateful to God that, through Jesus our sins are eternally forgiven. We must not take our sin lightly as they bring about earthly consequences that hurt others as well as ourself for long periods of time.

So today pray with me that we will strive to walk in the way of the Lord. Relying on the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit to avoid sin and praise the Lord for Jesus. Not just for us but for all those around us and those yet to come.

Love Bro. Scott