“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Rom 3:23
We all fall short of God’s perfect standard of righteousness. My life is the epitome of what falling short looks like, with the aftermath of being abducted to the long road of recovery and allowing God in to transform my life. But today’s focus is on someone in Biblical history that may best showcase God’s character, faithfulness, and mercy in response to a desperate cry for help from one of the most evil kings recorded in Israel’s colorful history, who led an entire nation astray. Found in 2 Kings 21 and 2 Chron 33, Manasseh, King of Judah, reigned approximately 698 to 642 BCE in the Southern Kingdom. For a moral frame of reference, his counterpart of the Northern Kingdom of Israel was the notorious King Ahab, whose wickedness surpassed those before him (along with his wife, Jezebel, whose reputation precedes her).
During his 55-year reign, Manasseh’s influence brought about such moral corruption on a national level that, according to Jer 15:4, he remains known as the culprit responsible for the nation’s 70-year exile in Babylon. His very name in Hebrew means “he that causes to forget,” and indeed did he! So with all this, I thought to go a little deeper into his life because as the saying goes, “those who don’t know history are bound to repeat it”.
God says in His word that He desires mercy over judgment. And I think that Manasseh’s life is a great example of that. God is faithful to warn of impending judgment, which should be viewed as an act of mercy in calling us unto repentance, to become rightly aligned with Him. In giving warnings, sometimes God must act in such a way that either shakes us awake, or even shocks us to our senses to get through to the most hardened of hearts, calloused by a life entrenched in sin, or years of lukewarm complacency. Though God’s warnings may be harsh, the desired outcome is unto salvation as He wills that none should perish. I know this all too well in my own life, having been pulled from the pit. Manasseh’s life is no exception with the shock and awe sometimes necessary, while at the same time exemplifying God’s grace and forgiveness, even to the most fallen and depraved.
By all appearances, Manasseh had a good upbringing as his father, Hezekiah, was counted among Judah’s righteous kings during his 29-year reign, being known for his religious reforms and adherence to God’s laws and covenant. While there is a curious clue in Isa 62:4 mentioning Manasseh’s mother’s name, Hephzibah, in reference to being forsaken and the land being made desolate (as well as a promise for restoration), it seemingly hints at her possible influence in his upbringing and rebellion that followed.
Manasseh’s stain on Judah’s history entailed a long list of sins that were so wicked that his actions and influence brought about a divine reversal of God’s promises of covenantal blessing, prosperity, and safety. Not only did he break covenant by undoing the religious reforms his father had established, he chose to imitate the wickedness of King Ahab, who had been severely judged for his evil and idolatry – the same of which who heavily influenced the Northern Kingdom to its demise and exile a mere 50 years before Manasseh’s reign. The fate of the Northern Kingdom, which resulted in its 10 tribes being lost in history, should have served as a sharp warning still fairly fresh in memory, especially in the mind of one raised to lead a nation.
Not only that, one would think the dramatic history of Israel would have been remembered, of how their ancestors were freed from centuries of slavery in a miraculous rescue and as an act of God’s faithfulness to a 4-century-long promise to their forefather, Abraham, whom God called His friend. It was through God’s grace that they were given the Promised Land as an inheritance despite their tendency to rebel. This inheritance was contingent on their faithfulness to God and His laws, to remain in right relationship with Him. To be a distinct people, chosen and marked, to lift God’s Holy Name and bring glory to His righteousness by rightly living for Him founded on, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind” and, “Love your neighbor as yourself” Mark 12:30-31 making the God of Israel unique as a relational God whose kingdom was based on Agape love.
Yet, Manasseh adopted and surpassed the sins of the previous inhabitants, the Canaanites and Amorites – the same of whom God had removed from the land in judgment due to their extreme wickedness after giving them 430 years to repent. Scripture gives examples in history of the cyclic nature and progression of sin, and how idolatry, essentially anything that we put above God, giving Him second place, leads to a downward spiral and separation from Him. In John 15:5-6, Jesus stresses the importance of staying connected: “I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in Me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers.”
Without the necessary connection to our Creator, with Him being first and foremost as our daily source and foundation, the door is left open to the slippery slope that leads to deliberate persistent sin, hardness of heart, and full-on depravity. With a seared conscience, the unrepentant heart is at risk of God backing off in response to the persistent rejection of Him and His ways, and puts us at risk of God lifting His hand of protection while handing one over to the desires of their own heart.
Rom 1:28-31 states, “And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a worthless mind to do what is morally wrong. 29 They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful.“
Scripture says that King Manasseh “seduced” the nation into sin that was in direct violation of their covenant, intentionally leading the nation away from God with state-sponsored idolatry and the adoption of perverse pagan practices, which produced behavior to levels of utter depravity in sins natural progression. In taking a closer look at Manasseh’s list of moral failures, of Isa 59:7-8, many attribute to his reign, “Their feet run to evil, And they hurry to shed innocent blood; Their thoughts are thoughts of wrongdoing, Devastation and destruction are in their paths. 8 They do not know the way of peace, And there is no justice in their tracks; They have made their paths crooked, Whoever walks on them does not know peace.”
Sadly, as demonstrated throughout history, an increase in persecution goes hand in hand with moral decay. 2 Kings 21:16 says, “Manasseh also murdered many innocent people until Jerusalem was filled from one end to the other with innocent blood. This was in addition to the sin that he caused the people of Judah to commit, leading them to do evil in the LORD’s sight. So much so that the Lord would not pardon”. Filling “from one end to the other” and, “the Lord would not pardon” emphasizes the mass bloodshed taking place and the injustice regarding it. Such acts are taken personally against God Himself, as we are made with intention and in His image.
Not only that, Manasseh sacrificed his children to be burned in worship to the Canaanite god Molech. A despicable act in direct violation of God’s previous command found in Deut 18:9-12: “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, be very careful not to imitate the detestable customs of the nations living there. 10 For example, never sacrifice your son or daughter as a burnt offering. And do not let your people practice fortune-telling, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft, 11 or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord. It is because the other nations have done these detestable things that the Lord your God will drive them out ahead of you.“
As a poster child for rebellion, Manasseh pushed every boundary in violation of God’s law and covenant. He practiced witchcraft, divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He also rebuilt the high places that his father had torn down to the Canaanite pagan fertility gods, Baal and Asherah, whose worship practices involved sexual perversion. In addition, he defiantly took it a step further to erect altars for such in the Temple of God, desecrating God’s House with temple prostitution, not to mention blatantly placing other gods in His presence. Manasseh also erected altars to worship all the starry hosts, following after the Babylonian and Assyrian religions.
Ultimately, the nation was without excuse in falling away from God as they were familiar with His laws and their sacred covenant with Him. As to be expected, warnings ensued as found in 2 Kings 21:10-13, “…Manasseh, king of Judah, has committed these detestable sins. He has done more evil than the Amorites who preceded him and has led Judah into sin with his idols. 12 Therefore, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. 13 I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line used against Samaria and the plumb line used against the house of Ahab. I will wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. 14 I will forsake the remnant of my inheritance and give them into the hands of enemies. They will be looted and plundered by all their enemies; 15 they have done evil in my eyes and have aroused my anger from the day their ancestors came out of Egypt until this day.”
2 Chron 33:10 states, “The LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they ignored all his warnings.” In His mercy, God had been patient with the nation, bearing long with their cyclic patterns of apostasy as if they were a glutton for punishment in complete disregard of their own history that had spanned some 800 years since their memorable rescue from slavery in Egypt. The mention of the measuring line and plumb line indicated the thoroughness and precision of judgment to be carried out, with the imagery of tools used for ensuring accuracy and consistent standards representing God’s righteousness. The wiping of the dish and turning it upside-down further emphasized the seriousness and gravity, signifying total destruction and removal.
With warnings disregarded, God used the Assyrians to take him into captivity to Babylon with a hook in his nose and bound with bronze shackles. This consequence should have served as a sharp warning to the nation as a whole of their own impending exile if they continued in their defiant sins against God. Interestingly enough, Manasseh was captured and sent captive to the very nation of the false gods he served, the same of which could not provide deliverance – a point that no doubt God was driving home in this judgment. The turning point for the king is found in 2 Chron 33:12-13: “And in his distress, Manasseh sought the favor of the LORD his God and earnestly humbled himself before the God of his fathers. 13 And when he prayed to Him, the LORD received his plea and heard his petition. So He brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD is God.“
With his newfound respect and reverence for God, Manasseh did not take lightly his restoration, as he moved forward with reforms to reverse the state-sponsored idolatry he had once promoted, and even commanded the nation to serve God alone. He tore down the pagan altars and removed the idols, throwing them out of the city, which made a statement of casting off sin, and he restored the altar of the Lord. “However, the people still sacrificed on the high places, although only to the LORD their God.” 2 Chron 33:17 This seems to suggest a compromise on the part of the people in their failure to break off old habits and mindsets with their continuance of worshipping at the same pagan sites, and, may indicate that they lacked true repentance as their actions reflected an irreverence to God’s previous commands of where to worship as recorded in Duet 12:5.
While the life of Manasseh showcases the justice of God tempered with mercy to those who are humbly repentant, the damage done to the spiritual health of the nation was evidenced by their continued rebellion, that even his captivity was not enough to bring about a genuine repentance that accompanies a reverential fear of the Lord. Around 60 years and 6 kings later, their fate was sealed in the 70-year exile. The nation had been so entrenched in wickedness and mass bloodshed of the innocent, that their unrepentant sins could no longer be overlooked. Eventually, such calls for judgment and accountability.
Even the righteous reign of Manasseh’s grandson, Josiah, only served as a delay in the impending judgment. God does not take lightly the shedding of innocent blood. And under the old covenant, the shedding of such required the blood of the one responsible to drive home the point the high value God places on life. Though merciful and long-suffering, eventually God’s righteous justice comes to the forefront. “Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but leave room for God’s wrath. For it is written: “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” Rom 12:19
The example of Manasseh’s life and how one person’s influence could derail a nation highlights the importance of godly leadership, and of course models the impact on an individual level to those around us. Manasseh’s life also serves to demonstrate the mighty power of God to orchestrate just judgment amidst His great mercy and compassion towards genuine repentance with humility. The history of Judah should further serve as a wake-up call to our generation that, as loving and patient as God is, there comes a time when the cup of iniquity is filled to where He can no longer overlook unrepentant sin. And in His righteousness, God has to act in an attempt to call us back to the only path leading to eternal life with Him.
While we are wonderfully blessed to be under the New Covenant of being saved by grace through faith in Jesus, God’s righteous standard remains. Something I learned in my own life is that grace is not a license to continue in old lifestyles. While our past is washed away by His blood, we are called to move forward in newness of life in Christ Jesus, to actively turn away from our old patterns of sin. His death, burial, and resurrection broke the power of sin over us so that strongholds in the form of cyclic behavior can be broken off so that we are no longer being held captive to habitual sin. While the process of sanctification will continue until Jesus comes back, we surrender to allow Him to work through us in our daily life, and heed the convictions of the Holy Spirit.
Another thing I learned in my life of rebellion and complacency is that when we seek to invite Jesus into our hearts as our Lord and Savior, we acknowledge that God’s covenant is not an insurance policy or set-it-and-forget-it. It’s a personal relationship that He wants with us, as we were created to have a bond with Him, to be family. Sin separated us from God, so He entered His creation to suffer the penalty and pay the ultimate price for all humanity, to all who would accept His sacrifice to reconcile us back unto Himself to once again have closeness and communion with Him. Manasseh’s life is a beautiful reminder that no matter what we’ve done in the past, we can leave our old life behind to become a new creation in Christ Jesus; Christ laid down His life for us, so that we could be raised to new life, living for Him.
And as we enter into this special covenant relationship with God, the New Covenant sacrifices we bring are our praise, thanks, and worship with a humble heart of gratitude for God’s gift of salvation through the precious blood of Jesus. How gracious is our Creator to personally pay the price for our sin! He came to break us out of the enemy’s prison camp to remove the heavy chains of sin that yoked us to the evil one, and invites us to walk with Him with His yoke instead. In the imagery of the yoke mentioned in Matt 11:28-30, it implies that He is right beside us in our walk. God invites us to give Him our heavy burdens and to walk with Him. And like Abraham, Moses, and others, He will call us His friend and family. Is there anything more wonderful?
“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matt 11:28-30
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