One of the most chilling statements in the Bible is found at the end of 2 Kings 24:4, “…and the LORD would not forgive.” It took God some 1,200 years for Him to judge Israel for her sins. We can then ask, why does God bring severe judgment upon one generation over another, such as the flood? We are given some reasons in Genesis.
“Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually …Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth … (Genesis 6:5, 11, 12) Since Adam fell in the Garden, sin has dominated the human race, however, men still retain a moral character. For this reason, men are not entirely evil, therefore, cultural norms change from one generation to another.
In the case of the world prior to the flood, men having lived so long, they all became very evil, and turned their hearts against the things they knew to be right, and just, and good. There could not be found a man, except for Noah, who retained any moral decency. After the flood, God chose Abraham, through whom He would use a nation to reveal His Law, promises, Holy Word, and eventually the Messiah who would save all those who believed in Him.
We can see the reality of changing moral norms best in the book of Judges. “The people served the LORD all the days of Joshua …and there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel.” Each following generation became worse than the one before “…They turned aside quickly from the way in which their fathers had walked in obeying the commandments of the LORD; they did not do as their fathers.” (Judges 2:7, 10, 17)
The nation Israel was always comprised of a remnant who believed, but the majority rejected the monotheistic God of Abraham, even though they were descended from him. Therefore, the Apostle Paul tells us, “For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel.” (Romans 9:6) Therefore, the nation of Israel grew worse and worse from one generation to the next, as they continued to reject the law of God.
We are told in Romans chapter one, that God gives men over to their lustful desires to be ensnared and brought into slavery to those desires. In other words, God gives people over to what they want. We are told that God does this because they reject the light of their conscience, and even worse they reject the Council of God’s holy word. God rejects men and Nations in this process whereby men are revealed to reject Him.
God rejected Israel for a three-fold reason as revealed in II kings chapters 21 to 24. 1) For all the idolatries and sorceries in connection with them. In particular, Asherah, the female goddess of sexuality. 2) For the innocent blood that was spilled, in other words, for the lack of regard for other Men who are created in the image of God. 3) In their idolatry they offered up their children on an altar of sacrifice to appease the gods, so that they might prosper themselves.
They rejected God’s holy commands “But if there is a man who hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and rises up against him and strikes him so that he dies …You shall not pity him, but you shall purge the blood of the innocent from Israel, that it may go well with you.” (Deuteronomy 19:11-13
All these sins multiplied and culminated in the reign of Manasseh. “He (Manasseh) did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD dispossessed before the sons of Israel ….For he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. He made his son pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and used divination, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD provoking Him to anger. Then he set the carved image of Asherah that he had made, in the house of which the LORD said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever …and Manasseh seduced them to do evil more than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the sons of Israel …Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another…” (2 Kings 21:2, 5-7, 9, 16).
“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, and also for the innocent blood which he shed, for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; and the LORD would not forgive.” (2 Kings 24:3, 4)
When Israel entered the land they were told to destroy all of its inhabitants, because God’s Wrath was full due to the multiplied sins of the people of that day. We are told in our present Passage that Manasseh did worse than all of those people. Therefore, God brought judgement upon His chosen people Israel. First, they went into hard bondage for 70 years. Approximately four hundred years after their return, in 70 AD they began to be scattered throughout the world
In our own day in America, we have turned away from the Faith of Our Fathers, God’s Commandments and the sacrifice of His Son. We have turned to spiritists and divine soothsayers at an alarming rate, and rejected the Bible. We have rejected capital punishment, which is meant to carry out justice upon those who spill innocent blood by murder. We have sacrificed our children, 60 million abortions, on the altar of Our Own irresponsibility and selfishness. We are guilty of the shedding of innocent blood. We are guilty of the sins of sexuality, perverting the man woman relationship, family, and all matters relating to purity of devotion of one man and one woman. Therefore, the words of 2 Kings hang over our heads, “… and the LORD would not forgive.”
No one knows the times for God’s judgement but God alone. “And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, (Acts 17:26) No one knows whether or not God will exercise grace or judgment. What we do know is that the circumstances for such judgment is in process here and now. Indeed, judgment has been falling, in the form of slavery to the sins of idolatry, irresponsibility to carry out capital punishment, abortion (murder of our young), sexual and immoral conduct. One other judgment has fallen in the matter of unbelief by turning our back on the Christian faith that had been so prevalent in America, but has been replaced by Darwinism or a form of pagan Pantheism, otherwise called evolution.
There is no person worth knowing like the Son of God. You can read an exposition of His life and character from the words of scripture in my book, THE JESUS YOU NEED TO KNOW.