Two Responses to Grace
Introduction: The Great Divide
Whenever the gospel is truly preached, it does not produce a bland, uniform agreement. It never results in a polite, shoulder-shrugging consensus. Rather, the true gospel, when it goes out in power, always creates a sharp division. It is a sword that separates. It cleaves a population in two. We see this pattern throughout Scripture, and we see it with startling clarity in our text today. Hezekiah, a reforming king, has cleansed the Temple and is now calling for a national restoration of worship. He sends out an invitation to the Passover, an invitation of grace, calling the apostate northern tribes to return to the Lord. This is a gospel invitation. And what is the result? The result is a great sifting. The invitation forces a choice, and in that choice, hearts are revealed. It produces one of two responses, and only two: scornful mockery or humble repentance. There is no middle ground, no third way. And this is a truth we must recover in our own day. We have for too long peddled a soft, sentimental gospel that aims for broad appeal and offends no one. But a gospel that offends no one is a gospel that saves no one. The message of God's grace in Christ is an affront to human pride, and so it will either be mocked by the proud or embraced by the humble. This passage lays bare the anatomy of these two responses and shows us the sovereign hand of God at work in both.
The Text
So the couriers passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, and as far as Zebulun, but they were laughing at them to scorn and mocking them. Nevertheless some men of Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of Yahweh.
(2 Chronicles 30:10-12 LSB)
The Scorn of the Proud (v. 10)
We begin with the first and most common response to the call for repentance.
"So the couriers passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, and as far as Zebulun, but they were laughing at them to scorn and mocking them." (2 Chronicles 30:10)
Hezekiah’s couriers are carrying a message of mercy. The northern kingdom of Israel had been steeped in idolatry for centuries. They had abandoned the Temple, rejected the Davidic kingship, and set up their own counterfeit worship. By all rights, God could have simply left them to their self-chosen ruin. But in His grace, He sends an invitation through Hezekiah. "Return to the Lord," the message said, "and He will return to the remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria" (v. 6). This is pure grace. It is an offer of reconciliation.
And what is the majority response? Contempt. They laughed the messengers to scorn. The Hebrew here is potent; it indicates a deep, derisive, and dismissive laughter. This was not a polite refusal. It was mockery. Why? Because the call to repent is always an insult to the proud. The invitation to the Passover implied that their current way of worship was illegitimate. It implied they were sinners in need of grace. It implied they were wrong and needed to turn back. Pride cannot bear such an implication. The proud man believes he is fundamentally fine. He has his own system, his own gods, his own righteousness. Hezekiah's invitation was a direct assault on their autonomy and self-sufficiency.
This is the perennial response of the unregenerate heart to the gospel. When Paul preached the resurrection in Athens, what happened? "Some mocked" (Acts 17:32). The message of a crucified and risen Savior is foolishness to the perishing (1 Cor. 1:18). Why would I need a substitute to die for my sins if I am basically a good person? Why would I need to be washed if I am not truly dirty? The gospel exposes the bankruptcy of all human religion and self-righteousness projects, and so the world, which is invested in those projects, laughs. They mock the idea of sin, they scorn the notion of judgment, and they deride the exclusivity of Christ. This laughter is not a sign of intellectual superiority; it is a defense mechanism of a threatened ego. It is the sound of a spiritual dead man whistling past the graveyard.
The Humility of the Remnant (v. 11)
But the scorn of the many is not the whole story. Amidst the widespread mockery, there is another response.
"Nevertheless some men of Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem." (2 Chronicles 30:11)
Here we see the doctrine of the remnant in living color. Though the majority scoffed, "nevertheless some." The gospel always accomplishes its purpose. The seed of the Word never returns void. While the hard-packed soil of the proud heart rejects it, there is always some good soil where it takes root. And what is the defining characteristic of this good soil? One word: they "humbled themselves."
This is the absolute prerequisite for receiving grace. Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less. More accurately, it is seeing yourself as God sees you. These men from the northern tribes heard the same message as their mocking neighbors. But their reaction was entirely different. They did not hear an insult; they heard the truth. They recognized their apostasy. They acknowledged their need. They accepted the diagnosis of their sin and fled to the prescribed cure. To humble oneself is to agree with God's verdict. It is to stop making excuses, stop justifying sin, and to cast oneself entirely on the mercy of God.
Notice the action that follows their humility: they "came to Jerusalem." True repentance is not just an internal attitude; it is a change of direction. It is an act of obedience. They left their false altars and returned to the place God had appointed for worship. They abandoned their autonomy and submitted to God's command. This is what it means to repent: to turn around and go the other way. Faith is not a leap in the dark; it is obedience to a clear command. These men demonstrated their humility by their feet. They walked to Jerusalem. And so it is with us. If we have truly humbled ourselves before God, it will show up in our lives. We will begin to obey His Word, gather with His people, and walk in His ways.
The Sovereign Hand of God (v. 12)
The final verse of our text pulls back the curtain and shows us the ultimate reason for the difference between the mockers and the humbled. It was not due to some inherent goodness in the men of Judah or the remnant of Israel. The cause was far more profound.
"The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of Yahweh." (2 Chronicles 30:12)
Here is the doctrine of effectual grace in the Old Testament. Why did the people of Judah respond with unity and obedience? Because "the hand of God was on" them. This phrase, "the hand of God," always refers to God's sovereign, irresistible power at work. The difference between the scoffer and the saint is not ultimately found in the will of man, but in the hand of God.
God did not simply offer an invitation and then stand back to see who would accept. He actively worked in the hearts of His people to ensure their positive response. He gave them "one heart." This is covenant language, pointing to the promise of the new covenant where God says, "I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 11:19). The natural heart is a heart of stone: hard, rebellious, and unresponsive. It mocks the things of God. But when the hand of God touches a man, He performs a divine heart transplant. He gives a new heart, a heart that desires to obey.
And what did this new heart lead them to do? It led them "to do what the king and the princes commanded by the word of Yahweh." This is crucial. God's grace does not lead to lawlessness. It leads to obedience. Furthermore, it shows the proper relationship between civil and divine authority. The people obeyed the king's command because the king's command was grounded in and expressive of "the word of Yahweh." Hezekiah was not issuing an arbitrary decree based on his personal whim. He was calling the people back to the revealed will of God. A righteous magistrate governs according to God's Word, and the people, when their hearts are touched by God, joyfully obey such commands. This is the pattern for a Christian society. God's sovereign grace creates a people with one heart to obey God's law as it is rightly applied by godly rulers.
Conclusion: The Unchanging Divide
The story of Hezekiah's couriers is our story. The gospel goes out into the world today, and it meets with the same two responses. To the proud, to the self-sufficient, to those who love their sin, the call to repent and believe in Jesus Christ is an object of scorn. They will laugh. They will mock. They will dismiss it as antiquated foolishness.
But "nevertheless some" will humble themselves. Why? Because the hand of God is still at work. He is still in the business of taking hearts of stone and turning them into hearts of flesh. He is still sovereignly calling a people for Himself out of the world. The great question for each of us is this: which group are you in? When you hear the call to abandon your self-righteousness and trust entirely in the finished work of Jesus Christ, what is the reaction of your heart? Is it the cynical laughter of the proud, or is it the humble submission of the penitent?
If you find yourself among the mockers, understand that your laughter does not change reality. You are laughing at the only lifeboat that can save you from the shipwreck of your sin. Your scorn is a testament not to your wisdom, but to your blindness. But the invitation still stands. The grace offered to Ephraim and Manasseh is offered to you.
And if you are one who has humbled yourself, if the hand of God has given you a new heart, then rejoice. Your salvation is not a fragile thing dependent on your own fickle will. It is the result of the mighty, sovereign hand of God. He who began this good work in you will bring it to completion. He has given you one heart with His people, to obey His Word. Therefore, let us walk in that obedience, not as those who are trying to earn His favor, but as those who have already received it by His powerful, saving grace.