Manasseh had been a terribly evil king over Judah. “The Lord spoke to Manasseh and His people, but they ignored all His warnings. So the Lord sent the commanders of the Assyrian armies, and they took Manasseh prisoner. They put a ring through his nose, bound him in bronze chains, and led him away to Babylon” (II Chronicles 33:10-11, NLT).
The king of Judah and, most assuredly, many of Judah’s people, were taken captive by the Assyrians. Having ignored warning after warning, God used a pagan military force to get Manasseh’s attention. The “ring through his nose” (or hook, as some translations indicate) was certainly no fashion statement. It was linked to those “bronze chains” that bound him, and he was pulled along by it, causing excruciating pain any time he failed to keep up with whoever was, quite literally, yanking his chain.
Life has enough problems without setting ourselves up for unnecessary ones. Yes, when we live wholeheartedly for Jesus, we have troubles, pain, and sorrow. But we’ll never know this side of heaven how much we were spared because of our faithfulness to Him. Don’t wait for a crisis to get your attention; every day’s the right day to focus on the Lord. Manasseh, unfortunately, chose to learn the hard way. Nevertheless, he found a loving, forgiving God awaiting his repentance.
“But while in deep distress, Manasseh sought the Lord his God and sincerely humbled himself before the God of his ancestors. And when he prayed, the Lord listened to him and was moved by his request. So the Lord brought Manasseh back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh finally realized that the Lord alone is God!” (II Chronicles 33:12-13).
“Manasseh finally realized.” Look what it took to for God to get Manasseh’s attention. Yet as evil as Manasseh had been, “when he prayed, the Lord listened to him and was moved by his request.”
While riding high as ruler of Judah, Manasseh tuned out everything his godly father Hezekiah had taught him; but while a prisoner of the enemy, his father’s example undoubtedly flooded his memory and he wished a thousand times over that he had listened to and followed his example. A repentant and humbled Manasseh returned to Jerusalem a changed man, inside and out.
Praying for your own prisoner of the enemy? Don’t give up. We can’t begin to grasp “how wide, how long, how high, and how deep” (Ephesians 3:18b) the love of God is.
“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).
The same guy who’d desecrated the Temple of the Lord and done so much to lead Judah away from God began to point the people back to Him. The same God who can bring water from a rock and turn water to wine can also raise the dead. Spiritually dead Manasseh received God’s forgiveness and finished out his life honoring the Lord.
“God’s mercy is so great that you may sooner drain the sea of its water, or deprive the sun of its light, or make space too narrow, than diminish the great mercy of God.” (Charles Spurgeon)
Copyright © 2013
Judy Woodward Bates
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