MANASSEH – A WICKED KING WHO FINALLY REPENTS

© 2023 by Tom Boynton (editing by Kathy Boynton)

“And Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the chiefest of the sepulchres of the sons of David: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honour at his death. And Manasseh his son reigned in his stead.  Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem:” (2 Chronicles 32:33- 33:1)

During Hezekiah’s reign over Judah, he had struggled with pride.  Having humbled him, God blessed Judah with deliverance from all the false gods that they had begun to embrace.  Hezekiah was one of the very few kings of Judah that did right in God’s sight.  Now he had died and his twelve year old son, Manasseh, had inherited the throne.  In a very short time, Manasseh turned the nation away from God back to the false gods they’d been worshipping.  He became one of the wickedest kings to ever reign over Judah.

Our enemy, the devil is always actively searching for opportunities to turn people away from God.  The apostle, Peter, warned us:

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” (1 Peter 5:8)

Notwithstanding Manasseh’s wickedness, God allowed him a long reign of fifty-five years.  This long reign of evil demonstrates two companion truths.  Though God may grant us times of great spiritual success, as in Hezekiah’s life, we must never lower our guard.  Satan is always ready to trip us up.  He will seek to use past failures to compromise us, or even our children, in the future.

These events also instruct us in another great truth.  Though evil will bring great sorrow into our lives, it is never too late to repent.  Though Manasseh had a long reign of evil, the Lord ultimately brought him to repentance.  He did this by allowing the Assyrians to capture him and take him, fettered, to Babylon.  It was by means of that catastrophe that God changed his heart.

“Wherefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.  And when he was in affliction, he besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers,  And prayed unto him: and he was intreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD he was God.” (2 Chronicles 33:11-13)

Are you and I closely following God’s leading?  Or are we daring Him to use our evil as a scourge to correct us?