For over a decade I officiated college basketball. Early in that endeavor I was eager to climb the ladder to get a better schedule and, if possible, earn my way into higher divisions. While working some games in a summer league I found out there was a veteran NBA official in the gym that was giving advice to one of my partners. Eager to receive the same treatment, I introduced myself, but it did not go well. In an attempt to break the ice, I asked a question that he unexpectedly took as an offense. I was caught off guard when he responded with an intentionally sarcastic remark and a facial expression to match. Then I was offended.
Over the years I repeatedly heard from other referees how much they admired that official. They said how genuinely nice he was and how eagerly he helped others improve. Every time I thought to myself “You don’t know what I know.” Regardless of how glowingly others described him, I had made my determination. My experience shaped what I believed was the “true” man, making it hard for me to let it go. Since then I’ve thought about how I would respond if I was able to see him again.
Have you ever written someone off? My experience was a minor personal offense, but you might’ve been legitimately hurt to the point where you want nothing more than for that person to receive God’s judgment. Perhaps you would even struggle to grant forgiveness if it was genuinely requested. Are there things that a person just can’t ever come back from?
Consider the curious case of King Manasseh. In Old Testament history the line of kings of the divided kingdom of Israel and Judah is a rogues’ gallery of wildly disreputable men. With only a few “good” kings interspersed among them, the succession of evil monarchs that ruled during those years devolved increasingly flagrant sin. It peaked when Manasseh assumed the throne of Judah.
And [Manasseh] did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel…And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. And he burned his son as an offering and used fortune-telling and omens and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger…and Manasseh led them astray to do more evil than the nations had done whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel. (2 Kgs. 21:2, 5–6, 9)
Could there be a greater villain in all of the Old Testament? He betrayed God, his nation and his family in the most despicable ways. They were so shameful that God declared He would have nothing more to do with them.
Here’s the curious part—it’s not the last place Manasseh is mentioned in the Bible. After being captured by an opposing king, Manasseh “entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to Him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea…” (2 Chr. 33:13). He couldn’t undo all the evil practices he had previously instituted, but Manasseh “took away the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the Lord…and he threw them outside of the city. He also restored the altar of the Lord and offered on it sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving” (2 Chr. 33:15-16). Again in verse 19, “he humbled himself” before God.
Wow. That is difficult to reconcile. The incomparably holy and supremely just God granted forgiveness to THAT man. It did not repeal God’s earthly judgment on the nation, but it reversed the course of Manasseh’s eternal destination.
That puts forgiveness into an entirely different light. Are there things that a person just can’t ever come back from? If we learn anything from the curious case of King Manasseh, then we have our answer. Any who humble themselves and genuinely seek forgiveness will find it in Christ.
Will they find it in you? Are you withholding forgiveness in the face of genuine repentance? If so, you may have some repenting of your own to do.
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (Eph. 4:32)