Manasseh, arguably the most evil king in Judah’s history, ignored warning after warning before the Lord finally allowed the Assyrians to take him away as a captive. Imprisoned by the enemy, “Manasseh sought the Lord his God and sincerely humbled himself,” (II Chronicles 33:12b, NLT).
The result? “When he prayed, the Lord listened to him and was moved by his request” (II Chronicles 33:12c).
After a long run as an evildoer, Manasseh repented of his sins and returned to Judah to at last lead the people in the right direction: “Manasseh… removed the foreign gods and the idol from the Lord’s Temple. He tore down all the altars he had built on the hill where the Temple stood and all the altars that were in Jerusalem, and he dumped them outside the city. Then he restored the altar of the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings and thanksgiving offerings on it. He also encouraged the people of Judah to worship the Lord, the God of Israel” (II Chronicles 33:15-16).
Upon Manasseh’s death, his son Amon became king. What the Bible has to say about this guy isn’t much and isn’t favorable: “Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem two years. He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, just as his father, Manasseh, had done. He worshiped and sacrificed to all the idols his father had made. But unlike his father, he did not humble himself before the Lord. Instead, Amon sinned even more” (II Chronicles 33:21-23).
Remember Manasseh’s earlier history? He “murdered many innocent people until Jerusalem was filled from one end to the other with innocent blood. This was in addition to the sin that he caused the people of Judah to commit” (II Kings 21:16a). He set up pagan altars inside the very walls of the Temple. He threw his own sons alive into blazing fires as offerings to pagan deities. He even practiced sorcery, divination, and witchcraft, as well as consulted mediums and psychics.
Obviously, not all of Manasseh’s sons were sacrificed to pagan deities because Amon succeeded him as king and “sinned even more” than his father had, which is almost inconceivable when you look at Manasseh’s track record.
The Bible goes on to say that Amon “abandoned the Lord, the God of his ancestors, and he refused to follow the Lord’s ways” (II Kings 21:22). Manasseh spent the majority of his life doing wrong, but in the end, he was a changed man. And as a changed man, there’s no doubt that he did everything within his power to show Amon how wrong he had been and to encourage him to trust in Jehovah. But Amon “refused to follow the Lord’s ways.”
At only twenty-two years of age, this young king had outdone his father’s many years of evil behavior. He was so bad, in fact, that his “own officials conspired against him and assassinated him in his palace” (II Kings 21:23).
As we’ve seen throughout our look at Israel’s and Judah’s kings, these men made a personal choice as to how they would respond to the Lord’s calling. Every person on this planet must and does make that same choice. Like the seeds in Jesus’ parable (see Matthew 13), some respond with a resounding, “Yes!” while others give an emphatic “No.” Others say, “I’ll think about it” and others say “I’ll try it on my own terms and in my own way.” Lots of replies, but only one correct response: “Yes!”
What is your answer to Jesus’ call on your life?
Copyright © 2013
Judy Woodward Bates
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