MORNING MESSAGE: John Cline
Text: Hebrews 11:32-38;2 Kings 21; 2 Chronicles 33;34:1-13
Manasseh is generally considered to have been the most wicked king in Judah’s history. His father, Hezekiah, had been the best king of Judah up to that point. It’s hard to imagine that someone as righteous as Hezekiah could have a son as evil as Manasseh but Manasseh’s evil may have been because he was born and raised during the final 15 years of Hezekiah’s life, a period in which Hezekiah’s faithfulness had faltered baltered and sin and pride had taken hold, so Manasseh really had not known his father’s godly side but only his sinful one. In his earlier, faithful days as king, there were two significant things that Hezekiah did: 1. He tore down the altars to false gods which had been erected in “high places” throughout Judah, and 2. He reopened the Temple in Jerusalem, restoring the worship of YHWH God within. But then Manasseh undid all the good his father had done, sad to say.
Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for fifty-five years. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he also erected altars to Baal and made an Asherah pole, as Ahab king of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshipped them. He built altars in the temple of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, ‘In Jerusalem I will put my Name.’ In the two courts of the temple of the Lord, he built altars to all the starry hosts. He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practised divination, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger. (2 Kings 21:1-6)
I know how we moderns think. We think, “It was certainly stupid of Manasseh to rebuild the altars to Baal and Ashtoreth that his father had torn down, and what was with Manasseh worshipping stars, planets, the sun, moon, and galaxies, practicing divination, seeking omens, and consulting mediums and spiritists? So stupid! But sacrificing his own son, well, that was truly evil.” That’s how we moderns think, not putting two and two together in recognizing that it was Manasseh’s rejecting of God and worshipping false gods that convinced him to sacrifice his son in a fiery altar to a foreign god, probably Molech, maybe Baal. Certainly, child sacrifice did not come out of thin air. It was promoted in those other religions. Child sacrifice is, of course, still practiced today all around the world in the form of abortion (which, comes from the pit) – except amongst practicing Christians or Jews, for we respect God’s Law and holiness. Why are Christians and Jews the only religions in the pro-life movement? Because we are the ones who understand God’s holiness and respect His laws (and that is not to criticize anyone who has had an abortion). Manasseh’s sinful actions came out of his belief systems.
The New Testament, without mentioning his name, references one of Manasseh’s sinful actions. In Hebrews 11, the beloved “Hall of Faith” chapter, we find a list of various faithful servants of God in Old Testament times who were saved by their faith and their righteous actions. By the way, they were saved before the time of Jesus, a fact for us to ponder. Thus, in Hebrews, the writer mentions by name Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, the Israelites who entered the Promised Land, and Rahab the Gentile prostitute who guided them in. The writer of Hebrews then continues on by listing various other faithful people, their victories, and their violent deaths.
And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated – the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground. (Hebrews 11:32-38)
We have preached about all of the people mentioned, so their stories are not foreign to us, but let’s do a pop quiz in review: Who was it that saw lions’ mouths closed? Daniel. Who was it that had the fiery flames all around them quenched? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Who were the women who received back their dead family members? Two unnamed women during the ministries of the prophets Elijah and Elisha. Finally, who was it that was “sawed in two” for his faithful service to YHWH God? This is where Manasseh comes in. It was Isaiah the prophet who was “sawed in two”. Isaiah had been God’s spokesperson during the reign of King Hezekiah and Hezekiah’s go-to-guy for a word from God. Tradition is very strong and was firmly held as being true in both ancient Jewish writings and Christian ones such as Hebrews 11 that once Hezekiah died, Manasseh saw his chance to silence God’s voice and so he went after Isaiah and, catching him, had Isaiah “sawed in two”. Manasseh was a horrible person!
He took the carved Asherah pole he had made and put it in the temple, of which the Lord had said to David and to his son Solomon, ‘In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my Name for ever. I will not again make the feet of the Israelites wander from the land I gave their ancestors, if only they will be careful to do everything I commanded them and will keep the whole Law that my servant Moses gave them.’ But the people did not listen. Manasseh led them astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites. (2 Kings 21:7-10)
Manasseh was not only himself a sinful and evil person but he also led his people of Judah into sins that were worse than those of the nations around them. That is a deep statement to ponder!
The Lord said through his servants the prophets: ‘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. 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. I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line used against Samaria and the plumbline used against the house of Ahab. I will wipe out Jerusalem as one wipes out a dish, wiping it and turning it upside-down. 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; they have done evil in my eyes and have aroused my anger from the day their ancestors came out of Egypt until this day.’ Moreover, Manasseh also shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end – besides the sin that he had caused Judah to commit, so that they did evil in the eyes of the Lord. (2 Kings 21:11-16)
Manasseh had been forewarned by God through His prophets to repent of his ways, or else horror would fall on him and his nation. Well, when that horror did fall on them, Manasseh was convinced and convicted and, miraculously, he repented of his sins and changed his ways.
The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention. So, the Lord brought against them the army commanders of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh prisoner, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon. (2 Chronicles 33:10,11)
Can you imagine being pulled away from your homeland with bronze shackles around your heels and wrists, and by a rope attached to a horse on one end and, on the end, to a hook which had been dug into your nose? Manasseh was “distressed” by all that, we will read. In its root meaning, the Hebrew word for “distressed” involves a feeling “besieged” or “hemmed in”, placed in a bad situation with no way out. As Josephus, the famous Jewish historian, put it, Manasseh came to his senses and rightly so “esteemed himself to be the cause of it all.” He saw that he had no one to blame but himself for his and his nation’s problems. Manasseh came to the place of humbly submitting to the Lord and he changed his ways.
In his distress he sought the favour of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his ancestors. And when he prayed to him, the Lord was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea; so, he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is God. (2 Chronicles 33:12,13)
“Manasseh knew that the Lord is God” – what a fantastic statement! This can about because of Manasseh’s repentance, which led to spiritual wisdom and godly actions!
Afterwards he rebuilt the outer wall of the City of David, west of the Gihon Spring in the valley, as far as the entrance of the Fish Gate and encircling the hill of Ophel; he also made it much higher. He stationed military commanders in all the fortified cities in Judah. He got rid of the foreign gods and removed the image from the temple of the Lord, as well as all the altars he had built on the temple hill and in Jerusalem; and he threw them out of the city. Then he restored the altar of the Lord and sacrificed fellowship offerings and thank-offerings on it, and told Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel…The other events of Manasseh’s reign, including his prayer to his God and the words the seers spoke to him in the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, are written in the annals of the kings of Israel…Manasseh rested with his ancestors and was buried in his palace. And Amon his son succeeded him as king. (2 Chron 33:14-16,18,20)
Amon, unlike his father Manasseh who had reigned for a very long time – 55 years – was on the throne only briefly, two short years. Manasseh had sinned but repented. Unlike his father, Amon sinned but did not repent and his many sins, in fact, “increased his guilt”. An uprising against Amon resulted as some of his fed-up people killed him.
Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for two years. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as his father Manasseh had done. Amon worshipped and offered sacrifices to all the idols Manasseh had made. But unlike his father Manasseh, he did not humble himself before the Lord; Amon increased his guilt. (2 Chronicles 33:21-23)
As you already know, short reigns of sinful kings in both Israel and Judah were due to their own people taking matters into their own hands and murdering those kings. Murder is never acceptable or right, but being murdered would be Amon’s end, as well.
Amon’s officials conspired against him and assassinated him in his palace. Then the people of the land killed all who had plotted against King Amon, and they made Josiah his son king in his place. (2 Chronicles 33:24,25)
As the saying goes, if you “live by the sword”, you will die by it. Predictably, both Amon and his murderers died by the sword. So, after only two years as king, Amon was out, and his son Josiah was in.
Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for thirty-one years. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left. In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David. (2 Chronicles 34:1-3a)
Elsewhere, Josiah’s mother’s, Jedidah, is named. Think about how spiritually strong that lady must have been. She reared a remarkably faithful son while paddling upstream, as it were, against the powerful current of the sins of her husband King Amon. That Jedidah was named in the Bible is because of her importance in Josiah’s story. Josiah was only 8 years old when he began to reign, so, it is believed, his godly mother had an influential role in his early years as king. Then, after 8 years on the throne, Josiah had a spiritual awakening which would grip and strengthen him so much that by the age of 20, he would courageously do a thing no king before him had ever dared to do.
In his twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah poles and idols. Under his direction the altars of the Baals were torn down, he cut to pieces the incense altars above them and smashed the Asherah poles and the idols. These he broke to pieces and scattered over the graves of those who had sacrificed them. He burned the bones of the priests on their altars, and so he purged Judah and Jerusalem. (2 Chronicles 34:3b-5)
Purging his own nation of Judah from the sinful altars of false gods and smashing the idols and Asherah poles throughout the land, and then burning the bones of the priests who had served those false gods was awesome, but it doing so was just the start for Josiah as he next did the same thing throughout the entire Promised Land, which meant purging the areas which the northern nation of Israel had inhabited but been exiled from because of their worshipping of those false gods.
In the towns of Manasseh, Ephraim and Simeon, as far as Naphtali, and in the ruins around them, he tore down the altars and the Asherah poles and crushed the idols to powder and cut to pieces all the incense altars throughout Israel. Then he went back to Jerusalem. (2 Chronicles 34:6,7)
We will conclude our study of Josiah next Sunday but will today mention one more good thing he did when he was 26 years of age: he repaired God’s damaged and desecrated Temple in Jerusalem.
In the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, to purify the land and the temple, he sent Shaphan son of Azaliah and Maaseiah the ruler of the city, with Joah son of Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the temple of the Lord his God. (2nd Chronicles 34:8)
Unlike his great-grandfather, Hezekiah, whose shining star of faithfulness had faded in the latter years of his life, Josiah’s star never faltered and his faithfulness to going never failed. He remained true to God. More than any king before or after him, the words of Jesus that the greatest commandment for a human to keep is that from Moses: to “serve the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength”, this could be said about Josiah. If you want to have a model of how to live such a life, Josiah is your man. 2 Kings reads this way:
Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the LORD as he did – with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses. (2 Kings 23:25)
Wouldn’t you love that to be said about you as your legacy, to have on the epitaph of your gravestone? It is possible, for as the bible says, none of the commandments God has given us are too difficult to keep. The only variable in play is our willingness to keep them. But, as Moses said and Jesus reiterated, we can keep God’s laws, all of them. So, in closing, do you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength? Let’s pray…
