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Manasseh’s breaking point

2 Chronicles 33:1-25

2 Chronicles 33:1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 33:2 He did what was evil in Yahveh’s sight, imitating the detestable practices of the nations that Yahveh had dispossessed before the Israelites.
2 Chronicles 33:3 He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had torn down and reestablished the altars for the Baals. He made Asherah poles, and he bowed in worship to all the stars in the sky and served them.
2 Chronicles 33:4 He built altars in Yahveh’s temple, where Yahveh had said, “Jerusalem is where my name will remain forever.”
2 Chronicles 33:5 He built altars to all the stars in the sky in both courtyards of Yahveh’s temple.
2 Chronicles 33:6 He passed his sons through the fire in Ben Hinnom Valley. He practiced witchcraft, divination, and sorcery, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did a huge amount of evil in Yahveh’s sight, angering him.
2 Chronicles 33:7 Manasseh set up a carved image of the idol, which he had made, in God’s temple that God had spoken about to David and his son Solomon: “I will establish my name forever in this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.
2 Chronicles 33:8 I will never again remove the feet of the Israelites from the land where I stationed your ancestors, if only they will be careful to do all I have commanded them through Moses– all the law, statutes, and judgments.”
2 Chronicles 33:9 So Manasseh caused Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to stray so that they did worse evil than the nations Yahveh had destroyed before the Israelites.
2 Chronicles 33:10 Yahveh spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they didn’t listen.
2 Chronicles 33:11 So he brought against them the military commanders of the king of Assyria. They captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon.
2 Chronicles 33:12 When he was in distress, he sought the favor of Yahveh his God and earnestly humbled himself before the God of his ancestors.
2 Chronicles 33:13 He prayed to him, and Yahveh was receptive to his prayer. He granted his request and brought him back to Jerusalem, to his kingdom. So, Manasseh came to know that Yahveh his God.
2 Chronicles 33:14 After this, he built the outer wall of the city of David from west of Gihon in the valley to the entrance of the Fish Gate; he brought it around the Ophel, and he heightened it considerably. He also placed military commanders in all the fortified cities of Judah.
2 Chronicles 33:15 He removed the foreign gods and the idol from Yahveh’s temple, along with all the altars that he had built on the mountain of Yahveh’s temple and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside the city.
2 Chronicles 33:16 He built the altar of Yahveh and offered fellowship and thank offerings on it. Then he told Judah to serve Yahveh, the God of Israel.
2 Chronicles 33:17 However, the people still sacrificed at the high places, but only to Yahveh their God.
2 Chronicles 33:18 The rest of the events of Manasseh’s reign, along with his prayer to his God and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of Yahveh, the God of Israel, are written in the Events of Israel’s Kings.
2 Chronicles 33:19 His prayer and how God was receptive to his prayer, and all his sin and unfaithfulness and the sites where he built high places and set up Asherah poles and carved images before he humbled himself, they are written in the Events of Hozai.
2 Chronicles 33:20 Manasseh rested with his fathers, and he was buried in his own house. His son Amon became king in his place.
2 Chronicles 33:21 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 33:22 He did what was evil in Yahveh’s sight, just as his father Manasseh had done. Amon sacrificed to all the carved images that his father Manasseh had made, and he served them.
2 Chronicles 33:23 But he did not humble himself before Yahveh like his father Manasseh humbled himself; instead, Amon increased his guilt.
2 Chronicles 33:24 So his servants conspired against him and put him to death in his own house.
2 Chronicles 33:25 The common people killed all who had conspired against King Amon, and they made his son Josiah king in his place.

Manasseh’s breaking point

The words “what were you thinking?” come to mind when we read about Manasseh. He busied himself undoing all the good that his father, Hezekiah, had done. But even evil Manasseh had his breaking point. Things got so bad that he was carried away into exile himself before he humbled himself, and sought the LORD. Even then, God was in no way obligated to interfere in Manasseh’s self-inflicted judgment. The fact that God did interfere, and bring Manasseh back from exile, is just another example of his great grace – a grace that none of us deserve. That is why it is called grace.

LORD, give us the wisdom to humble ourselves before you are forced to judge us.