by Daniel H. King, Sr.

The case of King Manasseh in the Bible is one that has always troubled me. He is clearly marked out in Scripture as one of the most evil men who ever led the people of Israel. He is also noted for the fact that it was on his account that God finally gave up on his people and left them to their fate with their enemies. Their sins had “found them out” under the aegis of king Manasseh. So, even though others before him had done wrong and left the nation the worse off for their vapid leadership, Manasseh put the final touch to the process, and so he bore the blame and took responsibility for the fall of the nation. Here is the account of his reign and the prophetic view of God’s judgment upon the land on his account:

Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “In Jerusalem will I put my name.”  And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. And he burned his son as an offering and used fortune-telling and omens and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger. And the carved image of Asherah that he had made he set in the house of which the LORD said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever. And I will not cause the feet of Israel to wander anymore out of the land that I gave to their fathers, if only they will be careful to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the Law that my servant Moses commanded them.” But they did not listen, and Manasseh led them astray to do more evil than the nations had done whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel. And the LORD said by his servants the prophets, “Because Manasseh king of Judah has committed these abominations and has done things more evil than all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and has made Judah also to sin with his idols, therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such disaster that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria, and the plumb line of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down (2 Kings 21:1-13).

The narrative here in Kings makes no excuses for him and shows the man no mercy. Frankly, the reason for this seems to be the fact that in no sense did he deserve mercy. He was a wicked man, pure and simple. He was in charge and when he became the king he had the potential to be as good a man as Josiah ever was, or even as much so as his own father Hezekiah. But he chose another route. Hezekiah’s friendship with the prophet Isaiah was something that he instantly rejected, and with it the desire to please God and give heed to his words. Ancient tradition among the Jews informs us that this terrible man ordered the murder of Isaiah. His men chased the prophet, who hid within the hollow of a large tree. The king’s servants found Isaiah in the tree and sawed the tree down with him inside of it, and so he was “sawn asunder” (Heb. 11:37). He decided to reverse all of the good things that his father had accomplished in his days. And for this reason God judged him harshly, and he brought ruin upon the nation of Judah as well.

But that is not the end of the story. And it is not even the part that gives us pause when we read it and reflect  upon it. In the account given to us by the Chronicler, it is further observed that the evil king was taken into captivity by the King of Assyria “who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon” (2 Chron. 33:11). This part is left out of the account in 2 Kings.

At this point in the story it is easy for us all to get aboard the train of sacred history and see that God had brought down this miscreant and delivered justice to this man who had reigned for so long and seen so many opportunities to do that which was right and guide the nation in the light of the Word of God, and yet had never attempted even once to do so. But, once more, this is not where the story ends, and that is not even how the story concludes. Rather, it ends surprisingly and unexpectedly:

And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God (2 Chron. 33:12-13).

The narrator goes on to the tell the story of the way that he corrected his course and made certain changes in his leadership. He reversed many of the things he had done earlier in his life. All of these things seem to indicate that he was genuinely penitent, and that he was truly sorry for all the wicked things he had done. Of course, none of this changed any of the evil he had done. The children he had burned in the fire were still dead. Their horrible sufferings could not be reversed, and their lives could not be brought back. His influence had brought the nation to despair and had turned God against them. Those men and women whom he had influenced while he led a life of idolatry and superstition, many of them were already dead and could not be brought to a proper knowledge of godliness. They were beyond helping. In fact, not even one of the wicked things he had done in his earlier life could be undone and much of the evil he was guilty of was irreversible. For most of us, his story is pretty much summed up by what is narrated in the account in the Book of Kings. We ignore it just like the Book of Kings does. He was just an evil ruler who made Israel to sin and at the last turned God to the side of Israel’s enemies, bringing ruin upon the whole people.

For most of us, his prayer, repentance and conversion is almost an irritating aspect of his life story. Who cares that such a wicked man turned to God, almost on his deathbed, and attempted to make correction for all the evil he had done? We all know that there was little that he could actually do to fix all of the disgraceful evils he was guilty of. And yet, dear friends, this is the very point of the story as it is unfolded in the account given by the Chronicler. The man did repent. He did attempt to make correction for many of the evils he had done. God did hear his prayer. And he was indeed forgiven by God.

That is one of the most important things about this aspect of the history. This story informs us that even the worst of men have the potential of repentance and forgiveness. God is willing to forgive even the vilest of sinners if they show themselves willing to humble themselves and ask him for another chance. Manasseh received another chance at life. Do not forget this or neglect this final chapter of his story. His life did not end with rebellion and judgment. It ended with his feeble attempt at making something worthwhile out of the pitiful remnants of an almost entirely wasted life. That has its negative factors, of course, but there is something very positive about it as well. All was not hopeless. All was not lost. Something was indeed saved, and that something was Manasseh. Perhaps not much else, but to Manasseh, that was surely something!

Finally, it is a narration of the grace and mercy of God shown to an unworthy, undeserving, hopelessly lost, and morally reprobate, sinner, one very much like you and me! God help us to have the humility that Manasseh had to ask him for one more chance, even when we have disappointed him, seemingly, beyond all hope of recovery. Imagine, if you will, seeing Manasseh in heaven. It could happen, if we make it!