King Hezekiah was ill to the point of death. The prophet Isaiah told him to put his affairs in order because he would not recover. Hezekiah wept bitterly not wanting to die. God heard Hezekiah and granted his plea and sent Isaiah back to Hezekiah to tell him God had granted him 15 more years. One of the things Hezekiah did with the 15 years granted to him was to father a son, Manasseh. [2 Kings 20-21]
Manasseh was 12 years old when Hezekiah died, and he became king in his father’s place. He reigned for 55 years. He was a horrible king. The Scripture records that he did evil in the eyes of the Lord. He did the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. He re-built the altars of idolatry his father had destroyed, erected altars to Baal and made an Asherah pole like Ahab had done. He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced sorcery, divination, and witchcraft, consulted mediums and spiritists and generally provoked the Lord to anger continually. He was one of the evilest kings Judah ever had.
So why look at Manasseh? 2 Chronicles 33:10-20 records a change in Manasseh’s life. In judgment for Manasseh’s sins and the sins of the nation, God brought the army of the king of Assyria against Judah and took Manasseh as prisoner. They put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon. While in Babylon, Manasseh had a change of heart and “in his distress he sought the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.”
God heard Manasseh’s fervent plea and brought him back to Jerusalem. The end of Manasseh’s life was far different from the beginning. Manasseh ended his life walking humbly with his God. He rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem and strengthened the defenses of the city. He got rid of the foreign gods and idols and restored the altar of the Lord. He offered fellowship and thank offerings and commanded the nation to serve the God of Israel.
By this time the people were too entrenched in idolatry to respond completely, but Manasseh did what he could to turn the nation back to the God of Israel if only for a short time. Manasseh’s life reminds me of two things . . . it is never too late to walk humbly with God . . . and how much more could be accomplished by walking with God through all of life, instead of just for a short time at the end. Things might have been very different for Manasseh’s nation.
