They would not listen

And the Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they would not listen. – 2 Chronicles 33.10

Manasseh was not a good guy. He kept ignoring God and His ways. He did nothing about the problem of false gods. In Judah’s dark days Manasseh did nothing to alleviate the darkness.

Because God loved His people God spoke to the king and the people. Here was their chance. God spoke to them so all they had to do was listen to God and obey His instructions and everything would be fine.

So God spoke, but, in what must be some of the saddest words ever written, they would not listen.

As parents and grandparents we would be uncaring and unloving to not speak to our children when we see them going the wrong way. While they are young we have more control on what they do with it, but as they get older all we can really do is to speak. That's not pushy. That's not butting in. That's the loving thing to do.

But, of course, they don’t always listen.

We can be the same way with our heavenly Father. He tells is all we need in His word. He gives us all the answers. He shows us the results of our choices. When we don't listen, how can we blame Him?

We have a God who communicates with His people. He doesn’t leave us in the dark. The problem is that sometimes we don’t like His answers so we don’t listen. Maybe we ought to do more listening and less try trying to make our own plans work.