We read that Manasseh provoked the Lord to anger. We too can sometimes provoke Him: “Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?” (1 Cor. 10:22). As a child of God, if we behave like those who are without hope and without God, the discipline of our God and Father will also come upon us, and His discipline has a very specific purpose: it is so that we partake of His holiness (Heb. 12:10). And if we are exercised by it, it will bear fruit.

We see a positive illustration of this in the life of Manasseh, who was exercised by God’s discipline. The Lord first took the time to speak to the king and the people, but unfortunately “they would not listen” (2 Chr. 33:10). So He spoke a second time more severely by using the king of Assyria to capture and bring Manasseh in bronze chains to Babylon. There, in his distress, “he implored the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before [God]” (v. 12). And, let us notice it carefully, God “received his entreaty, heard his supplication” (v. 13). This shows us two things:

—First, that Manasseh’s sin was really, really bad. He provoked the Lord, and the judgment that will come later on the kingdom is in part attributed to Manasseh’s evil deeds (2 Ki. 24:3).

—Second, that when God says He is “compassionate and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in faithfulness and truth” (Ex. 34:6 nasb), it is really, really true.

If, like Manasseh, being under God’s discipline, we understand our faults and “confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn. 1:9). Is there any sin too great that He cannot forgive? No, and we have the proof of this in Manasseh. The fruit of God’s discipline is restoration and fellowship with Himself. What a blessing it is for us!