2 Ch. 33: Manasseh Gets Wreck

2 Chronicles 33:13 "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."

The second time through the reign of Manasseh, I wanted to consider what would cause his apple to fall so far away from the tree. Hezekiah may have been a neglectful father, or may have been overstrict, I'm not sure. But a king is a busy guy. Perhaps Manasseh was rebellious, having taken the throne as a youth. He was going to do his own thing, and was going to do it opposite from his dad. 

Manasseh gets a rather interesting description. He essentially replaced God with gods. He went around being as evil as could possibly be. In God's eyes, Manasseh was more evil than those pagan nations Israel was sent to conquer and uproot. And God made efforts to bring Manasseh back, but was ignored. Finally, the Assyrians came and took over, deposing and humiliating Manasseh. On his knees in a dirty dungeon, he humbled himself and repented. And a second 180 is turned. God restored Manasseh to his kingdom, and Manasseh tried to get Israel back with him, but his reputation, and the things he had done made it too late. 

Everything had to be taken away from him in order to get his attention. But in spite of his being more evil than any dude on earth, God managed to get a hold of him and change his life.

Amon was next.

For more on Manasseh, see 2 Kings 21, 9/28/08 Entry.