When Stories Vary

Scripture passage that caught my attention today: 2 Chronicles 33:10-13 The LORD spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they gave no heed. 11 Therefore the LORD brought against them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh captive in manacles, bound him with fetters, and brought him to Babylon. 12 While he was in distress he entreated the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his ancestors. 13 He prayed to him, and God received his entreaty, heard his plea, and restored him again to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD indeed was God.

Observation: An almost identical story is found in the other Old Testament reading today found in 2 Kings 21. However, the 2 Kings version omits the information about Manasseh’s exile, plea for mercy, and God’s restoration of Manasseh to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. In the 2 King’s account, nothing good is said about Manasseh and yet, there is also nothing said about him receiving any kind of punishment for being so bad. Hmmm…

Application: Stories vary. They always do. Some things strike one person as important and anther person as hardly relevant.

Character references are a case in point—the result almost always depends who you ask. Just about everyone is seen in an unfavorable light by somebody, especially if he or she has ever been in a position of leadership.

The books of Kings and Chronicles are considered historical books in the Old Testament. Often times their accounts overlap, almost word for word. But the passages above serve as a reminder that no account of history is devoid of human interpretation, even when it’s found in the Bible. In fact, Biblical accounts of history are always laced with the perspective that God is at work through this history in some way. In the Bible, or at least the Old Testament, things happen because people are faithful, or unfaithful, or swinging between the two.

Interestingly enough, in the Old Testament God is often seen as one who causes a fair amount of human suffering, often as a form of punishment toward unfaithful people or as a reward (plague or military defeat on enemies) for faithful people. In the New Testament God identifies with human suffering and personally takes on human suffering all the way to the cross. But even then, as almost any comparison of the four gospels makes clear, the stories vary.

I’m okay with that. God clearly speaks to and through different people in different ways. Always has. Probably always will.

Prayer: Lord, thanks for the variety of ways in which people of old, and even today, share their understanding of you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

(Readings today included: 2 Kings 21, 2 Chronicles 33, and John 4)