If you were to read the story of Manasseh from the Old Testament, you would find a story that I believe many of us could relate to. There is not much that is written about this guy who served as king of Judah, but what is shared is gold.

Manasseh was the son of the reigning king of Judah, Hezekiah. Hezekiah was known as one of the “good kings.” He did many things to lead the people in the ways that God would desire. Hezekiah got rid of many of the idols that pulled at the hearts of the people of Judah.

When it was Manasseh’s turn to become king, he did not follow in his father’s footsteps. The Bible is clear that Manasseh returned to the deplorable practices that the LORD had forbidden – even so much as to offer his own children as sacrifices to false gods.

In comes this verse mentioned above. God tried to reach out to Manasseh and the people, but they refused to listen.

The results of choosing to ignore the LORD’s warning is what follows this verse. The king of Assyria comes in and captures Manasseh (2 Chronicles 33:11). These events would be what it took to get Manasseh to the point of recognizing that the LORD is truly the One in control and should be listened to.

There are some that get mad at the LORD for allowing certain things to happen. They may even go so far as to say that “it isn’t fair!” (That’s a whole other topic for another post…)

The truth is that the LORD always tries to reach out and give warning about the direction that our sinful ways desire to take us. The problem does not come on the end of the LORD by Him not warning. The problem lies within ourselves. The problem is that far too many times, we plug up our ears and act like a little child by refusing to listen to the warnings from the Heavenly Father. His ways are not our ways… His paths many times are not the paths that we would have chosen… We don’t like what the LORD says because it is not what we truly want. So we refuse to listen.

Do we hear the warnings of the LORD?