Year 3, Day 331: 2 Chronicles 33

Manasseh as King

Manasseh is a king that does a complete turn-around from all the work that Hezekiah had done.  Yes, we can see that Hezekiah had some issues with pride.  But pride isn’t Manasseh’s downfall.  Manasseh falls into the habit of venerating the gods of the Canaanites and the surrounding countries.  Again we see Manasseh construct the Asherim that Hezekiah and the people tore down a few generations earlier.

I’ve said it before, but this point keeps coming back to me.  Isn’t it amazing how culture vacillates between virtue and vice?  Culture is a pendulum, often with one generation swinging back in an adverse reaction to the direction their parents swung.  Momentum is gained for a time – and then lost as the counter-revolution of the next generation comes into view.

Reading through the book of 2 Chronicles, it almost feels hopeless against it.  Human culture is a constant cycle of reformation and counter-reformation.  Humbleness in one generation leads to a self-centered quest for independence in the next.  It is a back-and-forth, a give and take.  Reading through Chronicles, it seems inevitable.

Of course, reading through Kings forces a person to realize that we should be lucky to have a culture that at least vacillates.  The northern kingdom of Israel started rebellion after Solomon and never looked back.  So I suppose that there are worse options than living in a culture that vacillates.  Living in a culture that vacillates at least has an occasional swing into obedience to God.  There is something to be said for that!

Okay, back to Manasseh.  In addition to worshipping Asherah and the other Canaanite gods, he worshipped the stars above, in violation of Deuteronomy 4:19.  We hear that he gave up his own children in sacrifice; we’ve already spoken about how God feels about that.  He used fortune-tellers and oracles and listened to omens.  He even placed a carved image of an idol in the temple of God!

Manasseh seems like he did it all – and not in a good way.  His rebellion was profound.  There were not many things that were abominable to God that Manasseh does not do.

However, let’s look again back at verse 1.  Manasseh reigned in Judah for fifty-five years.  Here again we see that success and longevity is not a sign of God’s blessing.  Here is a king who most-likely does the most vile and abominable things before God and he prospers in the midst of it.

Manasseh’s Repentance

Here’s the kicker, though.  Manasseh does eventually repent.  Although Manasseh was the most evil and vile king to ever live, he does repent.  Unlike some of the evil {but not-quite-so-evil-as-Manasseh} kings, Manasseh does actually come to a place of repentance in his life!

So let’s look at how that comes about.  The king of Assyria comes to town and defeats Manasseh.  Remember that the king of Assyria came under Hezekiah, Manasseh’s father, and Manasseh spared Judah.  But here Manasseh is taken into captivity and humbled.  Everything he has is stripped away.  But it is in this pit of despair that Manasseh finds humble repentance.  It is in this pit of despair that Manasseh submits.  Manasseh has to hit rock bottom before he repents.  But at least he repents.

This is a great story for me to hear.  Manasseh does repent.  The worst of the worst kings of Judah repents.  God forgives Manasseh in spite of all the ways that he has screwed up.  What a great story – even if it had to have been a hard life for Manasseh to live!

Manasseh’s Reform

God sees Manasseh’s repentance and knows that it is genuine.  God allows Manasseh to return home.  Manasseh destroys the carved image that he had put in the temple.  He gets rid of the false worship.  The people still worship at their high places, but at least they worshipped God there instead of the false Canaanite gods.

Manasseh came back to Judah humbled and reformed.  God was great to give him a second chance.  I long to hear Manasseh tell his story in the time in which we will live together with God.  I think that as bad as he was in the beginning that his story of repentance will be quite moving.  It will be impressive to hear how God moved in his life – even as difficult as that movement must have been.

There is something really interesting to note here, however.  Manasseh is buried at his palace, not among the kings.  Although God accepted his repentance and allowed him to come back and try to reform the land, the people apparently did not accept it fully.  Manasseh is not buried with the other righteous kings.  He is buried by himself with some honor.  Isn’t it interesting to note how God can forgive, yet we human beings around the person have a difficult time forgiving genuine repentance?

Amon’s Reign

Manasseh’s son Amon reigns in Manasseh’s place when he dies.  Unfortunately, Amon has learned only the bad ways of Manasseh.  Amon reverts back to the worship of the foreign gods.  He undoes whatever reform Manasseh could have done when God allowed him to return.

In fact, Amon is assassinated before things can get too bad.  But it seems as though things had gotten fairly bad as the people who assassinate Amon are likewise assassinated themselves.  The world reigns in corruption when repentance does not keep it in check.

<><