Sunday Sermons
Manasseh
Manasseh
Manasseh, the 14th king of Judah, was the son of King Hezekiah. His 55 year reign was longest and most wicked reigns of any Israelite king.
How Do We Explain Him?
How could Hezekiah, one of the most godly kings, have such a son (2 Kings 20:21)? This is a good question, yet anyone reading the Bible up to this point in history has seen plenty of good men followed by bad sons. Joshua’s faithful generation was followed by a very unfaithful generation (Judges 2:7-9). The righteous Samuel had sons who did not follow the Lord (1 Samuel 8:3). Godly David had such wicked sons as Absalom and Amnon (2 Samuel 13, 15). Some might speculate that maybe Hezekiah was too busy as a king to spend the right amount of time teaching and guiding his son, yet I don’t think that such makes sense. Before we jump to the conclusion that Manasseh was a neglected kid that somehow fell through the cracks, consider the following:
- He began to reign at the age of 12 (2 Kings 21:1), which means he must have been born during the last 12 years of Hezekiah’s life. Yet, three years before Manasseh was born, Hezekiah was told to put his house in order for he was going to die (2 Kings 20:1). In response, Hezekiah fervently prayed (20:3), and God extended his life for another 15 years (20:6). This means that without that prayer and God’s intervention, Manasseh would have never been born. I cannot see Hezekiah or those around him not telling Manasseh this story and impressing upon him that his existence was the result of an answer to prayer.
- Isaiah the prophet was active during this time. Manasseh must have heard him preach, or seen him often as he interacted with his father (20:8).
- It was also during this time that God delivered Jerusalem from the Assyrians. The event in which an angel of the Lord struck 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night was still a very recent event when Manasseh was a young man (2 Kings 19:35).
God had certainly displayed His mighty power right before and during the lifetime of Manasseh. Therefore, Manasseh must have been a young man who was taught about God, told about God, had many godly influences around him, including a father who was one of the best Judean kings and Isaiah the prophet. Yet in spite of all this, he turned against God.
“He Did Evil”: 2 Kings 21:2
“He did evil”. One cannot get any more precise than that. There is no long explanation here about how he might have been confused, was trying to find himself, was on a spiritual quest, or was misunderstood. No, he did evil. Andree Seu Peterson wrote, “These days I am making an effort to become more conscious of the words I choose in reasoning and describing (to myself as well as to others) matters that come up in quotidian living. For example, I don’t see the word ‘relationship’ in the Bible. It isn’t a bad word. But why not opt for a biblical word? Why not say (like the Apostle John) that I have ‘fellowship’ with God, rather than ‘relationship’? And if I cannot use the word ‘fellowship’ without squirming, let the word challenge me to pursue fellowship.
There is potential for veering off course when we veer from the biblical vocabulary in our Christian discussions and thinking. I sat in a four-week Sunday school class on ‘Legalism’—which is a word not even in the Bible! ‘Well,’ you might say, ‘it may not be in the Bible but it is a reasonable inference from many passages in the Bible.’ Perhaps. But why not begin with the biblical data itself rather than a manmade inference, in the interest of safeguarding the tendency to skew?
Consider the word ‘addiction.’ Nowhere in the Bible. But what we do find in the Bible are the words ‘sin,’ ‘stronghold,’ ‘bondage,’ ‘slavery.’ Why not start with these to stay on course? The word ‘addiction’ would be very comfortable in a secular psychiatrist’s office, and he could talk for hours about his client’s addiction to alcohol or pornography without it even occurring to either that there is a moral element” (http://www.worldmag.com/2012/11/getting_the_vocabulary_right ).
Reminders in the Text
The Bible is written with the unbeliever in mind, but it is equally written with the believer in mind. There are a number of times in this chapter where the Holy Spirit is reminding those who are familiar with the word of God, of what they had already read in previous Old Testament books:
- Look! Manasseh is pursuing practices, the types of practices that condemned the Canaanites who were removed from the land: 21:2
- Look! Manasseh is rebuilding places of false worship that his Father had removed: 21:3
- Look! He is doing, not what David did, but what wicked king Ahab did: 21:3
- Look! He is putting idols in the Temple, the very Temple that God has said to David and Solomon that He would dwell there: 21:7
- Look! Keeping the land of promise was conditional, and Manasseh is violating the covenant concerning that land: 21:8
All can be lost in just one generation. Hezekiah had been compared to David (2 Kings 18:3), while Manasseh was more like Ahab. Hezekiah removed all the idols (18:4), and Manasseh rebuilt the idol shrines.
The Seducer: 21:9
Yes, Manasseh led Israel astray, yet the text says, “but they did not listen” (to what Moses had commanded, 21:8). When one is not listening to Scripture, one can be easily seduced.
Very Religious and Very Immoral
To some people, Manasseh isn’t doing anything wrong in pursuing other religious interests. Rather, he was expanding his horizons, growing spiritually, being very inclusive and tolerant, and is simply on a grand quest for enlightenment. If Manasseh lived today you would find him at the local bookstore in the New Age section, and some would view him as very open-minded and spiritual. Yet, along with witchcraft, divination, the worship of the heavens, and pursuing other gods, came “abominations” (21:2). Including human sacrifice (21:6) and shedding a lot of innocent blood (21:16). What impresses me is how superstitious Manasseh becomes when he departs from God. It isn’t as if he finds one thing that satisfies him, rather he is trying everything.
“Now step back from this pile of paganism and note the common virus that infects it all. It’s all about control. In fertility worship I use my practice of sex to manipulate or encourage the heavenly powers to act in the same way and grant fertility. In astral worship I seek out omens that are indicators of future events; likewise in spiritism I want the secret knowledge that will enlighten me on how to act or react in view of what is coming…Paganism is the way I manage my life over against the various ‘powers’ that may determine it” (2 Kings, Dale Ralph Davis p. 305).
He Was Warned
- “And the Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention” (2 Chronicles 33:10).
This warning must have come through such men as Isaiah the prophet.
He is Punished and He Repents: 2 Chronicles 33:11-13
- Even after all of his sins, our merciful God is willing to forgive such a man and give him another chance: 33:13
- The repentance seems genuine, for it is followed by various fruits or deeds. He rebuilds a section of the city of David (33:14), he removes the foreign gods from the temple (33:15), he restored the Lord’s altar (33:16).
Nevertheless: 33:17
In spite of his repentance and reforms, and behaving more like his father Hezekiah, the people still sacrificed in the high places. And the son he had, turned out to be a wicked man (33:20-22). Manasseh did repent and it appears to have been genuine—yet his repentance made no impression upon his son. The impression had already been made. “There may be a warning for us here. A healthy spiritual legacy seldom flows from a late and sudden conversion but from the practice of lifelong and attractive godliness” (Dale Ralph Davis p. 310).
Mark Dunagan/www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net
