Grace, Not Inherited

[2 Kings 21:1, 6b; 2 Chronicles 33:12-13; 2 Kings 20:19] "Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign... And when he was in distress, he... humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty."

Friends, Hezekiah wept and begged for fifteen more years of life as he lay dying. Manasseh was born within those fifteen years. But the son born from his father's tearful prayer for more life became the very man who rebuilt the idols his father had torn down.

And right around the time Manasseh was born, 2 Kings 20 places before us a striking scene. After Hezekiah proudly showed off all his treasures to envoys from Babylon, Isaiah told him that one day all of it would be carried off to Babylon. And how did Hezekiah respond? "There will be peace and security in my days" (20:19). The text records this not as repentance before judgement, but as a sigh of relief.

Of course, Scripture does not explicitly state that this was the direct cause of Manasseh's evil. But the very placement of these events asks us a question: a faith content merely with peace in its own day — how much ground does it actually prepare for the generation that follows? Hezekiah's faith was genuine, but that faith could not carry Manasseh's heart along with it.

Here we meet a question. Does having a father of faith automatically save the son? Scripture answers plainly: no. Hezekiah's prayers, Hezekiah's reforms, Hezekiah's tears — none of these could bend Manasseh's own heart for him. For most of his fifty-five years, Manasseh knelt before idols of his own choosing.

A parent's knees can never stand in for a child's knees. And a heart that says, "as long as there is peace in my own days," will put concern for the next generation to sleep.

This does not mean, of course, that a parent's faith and intercessory prayer count for nothing. Paul writes to Timothy: "I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you also" (2 Timothy 1:5). The faith of Lois and Eunice truly did flow into Timothy. Intercessory prayer is never wasted. A parent's tearful prayers break up the soil of a child's heart, plant seed there, and prepare ground that may one day bear fruit.

But planting a seed and that seed growing into fruit are two different things. When Paul says he is sure the faith of Lois and Eunice now "dwells in" Timothy, it is not because that faith was passed on automatically, but because Timothy himself received it and made it his own. Manasseh, too, had seed planted in him — the prayers and reforms of Hezekiah. But that seed bore no fruit for fifty-five years, because Manasseh himself filled that ground with idols.

But is filling that fifty-five-year field with idols only Manasseh's story? Today I want to speak this word especially to those raised within Western Christian culture, and to all of us who have been shaped by its influence. Western society was built for a long time upon a Christian civilisation. Church buildings stood at the centre of towns, Christmas and Easter were national holidays, weddings and funerals were simply held in churches as a matter of course. As a result, no small number of people quietly carry the assumption: "I was born in a Christian country, so I am a Christian." Being baptised, a memory of Sunday school as a child, a family history of faithful grandparents — these are often treated as though they were a ticket into heaven. Without worshipping, without praying, without any real interest in God's word or desire to obey it, people simply assume they are, of course, saved. This is the same illusion as assuming Manasseh must have had good faith simply because he was Hezekiah's son — but as we know, he did not.

But 2 Chronicles 33 tells us that when the Assyrian army dragged him away with hooks, in the middle of those chains, he "humbled himself greatly" and prayed. In the lowest moment of his fifty-five years, Manasseh knelt down for himself, for the first time. And God heard that prayer.

Friends, here is the gospel. What saved Manasseh was not his good father. It was not his religious background, nor the length of his years. Only when he himself bowed down did grace take hold of him. And the source of that grace is, in the end, one person — Christ, who in Gethsemane truly and completely laid down His own will. Manasseh's late repentance could only be accepted because of Christ's complete obedience.

So today — are you hiding behind your parents' faith, your church's tradition, your old habits, or the culture of the country you were born into? Or have you quietly set down your concern for the next generation, content that there is peace in your own days? Like Manasseh, I pray in the Lord's name that you would bow your own knees today.