3 Powerful Examples of Extreme Grace

I’ve heard people talk about how harsh and angry God appeared in the Old Testament. Yet, that’s not the image I receive when I consider His long history with His people. Some, like Moses, the Old Testament prophets, and rulers like Josiah and Hezekiah, honored Him by representing Him well. Numerous others, however, met the Lord’s faithful care with deliberate and horrendous rebellion.

Considering the evil some of these individuals engaged in, one might expect God to retaliate with immediate judgment. Instead, our merciful Creator exhibits extravagant grace, as displayed to one of the most depraved leaders in ancient Israel’s history.

This is how Scripture describes King Manasseh:

“He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had demolished; he also erected altars to the Baals and made Asherah poles. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshiped them. He built altars in the temple of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, ‘My Name will remain in Jerusalem forever.’ In both courts of the temple of the Lord, he built altars to all the starry hosts. He sacrificed his children in the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, practiced divination and witchcraft, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger” (2 Kings 21:2-6).

And in 2 Kings:

“Moreover, Manasseh also shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end — besides the sin that he had caused Judah to commit, so that they did evil in the eyes of the Lord” (2 Kings 21:16).

This is Nazi-Germany level atrocities. Imagine living in an environment in which your national leader became so consumed with darkness, he murdered his own children, and presumably encouraged others to do the same. If anyone deserved damnation, King Manasseh did. And in fact, that was precisely where he was heading.

During this time, the Lord continually reached out to His people through the prophet Isaiah, urging them to return to Him. This was also when He reiterated His love for the nation (Isaiah 41:5-10) and His promise to one day send a Savior into our mess to begin to set things right (Isaiah 40:3-5).

In this, we glimpse the heart of a faithful, merciful Father in relentless pursuit of His wayward children. As He so clearly and beautifully stated in Isaiah 30:18, He longs to be gracious toward us and rises to show us compassion. This implies a hope-filled waiting in which He watches us closely, drawing us near the moment we turn back to Him.

For King Manasseh, that didn’t occur until he found himself in a desperate place, stripped of his pride, power, and self-reliance.

In 2 Chronicles 33:10-11 we read:

“The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention. So the Lord brought against them the army commanders of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh prisoner, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon.”

Notice, however, how God brought life and light to Manasseh’s dark and hopeless situation.

“In his distress he sought the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his ancestors. And when he prayed to him, the Lord was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea; so he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is God.”

This account reminds me, no matter the depth of our sin, redemption is only a prayer away.

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When I feel discarded, unvalued, and envious of blessings God provides someone else, the story of twelve siblings raised in a dysfunctional home during a life-threatening crisis helps correct my perception. Genesis introduces us to this family, Joseph, the father’s “golden child,” and the effects of parental favoritism, in chapter 37.

“Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him” (Genesis 37:3-4).

Oblivious or apathetic to their pain, Joseph bragged, twice, about a dream the Lord gave him foretelling his role as a future leader. Presumably, God showed him this to provide the hope and assurance he’d need to survive the dark years to come — not so that he could further antagonize his deeply wounded brothers. Eventually, their pain turned to homicidal rage when Joseph approached them in the fields wearing an elaborate robe that loudly proclaimed their father’s favoritism. They plotted to kill him, threw him into a cistern in the wilderness, and planned to say a wild animal had devoured him.

Greed quickly changed their minds, and they sold their brother to Midianite merchants, who took him, enslaved, to Egypt. There, Joseph was falsely accused of sexual assault and thrown into a dungeon, where he remained for two years. From a human perspective, his situation was hopeless and the dreams God implanted in his soul were dead.

As we follow his story, however, we see that nothing and no one can thwart God’s plans. In fact, the Lord used the brother’s hateful act to lead Joseph, physically and spiritually, to the place necessary for the fulfillment of his dream. While in prison, God orchestrated events allowing Joseph to warn the Pharaoh of an upcoming and severe famine. This enabled the powerful ruler to preemptively store enough grain to keep his people, and countless others – Joseph’s family included – from starvation. His God-given wisdom also elevated him from a forgotten prisoner to second in command of the greatest nation at that time.

As the former braggart turned wise and humble leader later told his brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Genesis 50:20).

Here’s what I find beautifully shocking. The Lord was working on the brother’s behalf the entire time. Yes, He was fulfilling His plans for Joseph, but this was for their benefit as well. This reminds me of His promise in Romans 8:28, which states:

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

He didn’t cause or condone their sin or Joseph’s pride, but He did bring beauty and life from it. He can do the same for us. Our Lord excels at exchanging ashes for beauty and bringing good from our greatest mess-ups.

That’s extreme grace.

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Years ago, while experiencing marriage difficulties, God jolted me out of my self-obsessed inner monologue through an image from the night before Christ’s death, found in John 13. This chapter tells us about a solemn and profoundly intimate meal He shared with His disciples. In verses 1-5, we read:

“It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him” (John 13:1-5).

The Lord knew, long before this moment, that Judas would betray Him to the religious leaders. Yet, He not only allowed His double-crosser into the tight circle He’d created, He also knelt before him and humbly washed his feet.

What went through Judas’s mind as the Christ gently cradled his callused heels in His hands and poured clean, refreshing water on his dry and dirty skin? Did his soul ever leap at the Savior’s touch? Or had he already hardened himself completely to the forgiveness Christ offered?

Notice also how the Lord reached out to him in the meal that followed. Based on details recorded in the gospels, Judas most likely sat on Jesus’ left, and therefore, in the place of honor. According to David Guzik from the Enduring Word, Jesus showed additional “courtesy and esteem” when he handed Judas a piece of dipped bread.

It appears Jesus was lovingly offering His betrayer one last chance to change, but not because He wanted to avoid the cross. I believe what grieved Him most was knowing where Judas was heading. Sadly, “the son of perdition” as Scripture calls him (John 17:12) refused Christ’s merciful invitation, and, “As soon as Judas took the break, Satan entered him” (John 13:27) and he committed one of the most atrocious evils in history.

This verifies, in a powerfully vivid way, the truth recorded in 2 Peter 3:9, which says that God doesn’t want “anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”

Again, that’s incomprehensible grace. The Lord showed grace in offering Judas the first piece of bread. But He also demonstrated grace in allowing Judas to walk away.

Jesus loves each of us, from the church pastor to the prostitute, from the courageous martyr to the persecutor, with the same relentless, selfless, pursuing love. But He also respects our free will and elevates our human dignity by honoring our ability to choose.

I’ve wondered how Judas’ story might have ended had he received the precious gift Christ offered. The Lord still would have died for all mankind, completing the Father’s plan, etched into motion from the beginning of time. But Judas could have relinquished his part in the arrest, thereby avoiding the soul-crushing shame and regret that drove him to suicide.

This reminds us that the Lord offers us each countless chances to receive the life He offers. But it also serves as a warning that, should we persistently resist Him, there will come a time when our decision becomes final. May we all heed God’s words, recorded in Hebrews 3:15: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion,” because “now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2).

For those of us who’ve accepted the life He offers, may this account nourish and strengthen our hearts by assuring us of His. The One who showed kindness to Judas, knowing the man’s role in His upcoming crucifixion, responds to our moral failings with mercy and compassion as well. What’s more, we can stand secure knowing, once we’ve trusted in Him for salvation, His faithful grip on us remains.

As Jesus Himself declared in John 10:28:

“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.”

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