LINK: 2 Chronicles 33
parallel passage: 2 Kings 21
BACKGROUND
Manasseh began his reign around 697 B.C. at the age of twelve. Most likely he co-reigned with his father Hezekiah for a number of years. His claim to fame is that he was the most wicked of all the kings of Judah. What a sad legacy!
Hazekiah had done a lot of work to reform the nation and turn the people back to God, but Manasseh undid all of his father's work. He built altars to more and more gods, and even put altars in the temple itself. He didn't just build altars, though, he practiced the pagan religions, even putting his own sons through the fire for the god Molech. Under Manasseh's leadership, the people of Judah declined to a point below the low morality of the former inhabitants of Canaan. How very sad!
God sent prophets to Manasseh and the people, but they did not heed them. So the Lord brought the Assyrians to Judah. They captured Manasseh and led him as a captive to Babylon. This was probably during the reign of Ashurbanipal in 648 B.C. Babylon was like a second capital in Assyria at that time. During this captivity, Manasseh turned to the Lord and was humbled. When he was released and returned to Jerusalem, he began a reformation in keeping with his repentance.
But much damage had already been done and Manasseh's reform didn't "take." When Manasseh died, his son Amon ruled Judah and led the nation back to the former ways of his father. Amon never humbled himself and ruled for only two years before his own servants conspired against him and murdered him.
In the end, Manasseh was blamed for the destruction of the kingdom of Judah. The following passages refer to the destruction of Judah by the Babylonians.
Surely at the command of the Lord it came upon Judah, to remove them from His sight because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, and also for the innocent blood which he shed, for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; and the Lord would not forgive. (2 Kings 24:3-4)
And I shall make them an object of horror among all the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem. (Jeremiah 15:4)
REFLECTION/APPLICATION
Our actions can have effects that reverberate through the succeeding generations. Hezekiah's repentance apparently had much less effect on his son Manasseh than his disobedience did. And Manasseh's repentance had no affect on his son Amon. It was probably too late. By the time his father repented, Amon would have already been well down the wrong path in his life.
I think deeper than the outward actions themselves, the heart attitude is passed down to the next generation. And here is where I look at my own heart and wonder, "What messages am I sending to my children? Does the attitude of my heart match the teaching of my lips? Am I demonstrating to them an attitude of humility before the Lord?" Sometimes I harbor sin in my heart. Do I think my children don't notice? When they watch my life, what are they learning?
And it doesn't just affect family. These kings led the entire nation of people astray into idolatry and immorality. Each of us has a circle of influence. There are people around you who notice what you do and what your attitude is. What kind of an effect do you have on them?
PRAYER
Lord, teach us to be truly humble before you. Let us seek you whole-heartedly and thereby demonstrate YOU to those around us. Help us to lead our children to have humble hearts before you, God. Help us to have an effect on others that reflects what you have done in our lives as our savior. In the name of our wonderful savior, Jesus, amen.
5 comments:
Yep, he was pretty bad!
And YET - evidently we will meet Manasseh in heaven one day. He "seduced" Judah and the people of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations around them and yet he was humbled by God and turned to the Lord.
I think we need to be careful not to blame or praise parents for their children's spiritual states. We are to be good examples; we are to love the Lord for who He is and try to please Him because He is the only one worth pleasing, but not to guarantee that our children follow Him. There is no guarantee. God is the perfect Father and His children disobeyed (disobey). Josiah (yet to come in 2 Chron.) sought the Lord while young - he had a wicked grandfather who repented late in life and he had a wicked father. Hezekiah loved the Lord - not perfectly (who loves and follows God perfectly?)- and yet his son initially chose to please himself and do evil. If I thought I had to follow God perfectly for my children to follow Him, I'd give up!
I've meant to bring this up before, but never have. I'm not disagreeing with anything you've said here, just wanting to discuss this issue so that we're not overly simplistic.
That's a good topic, Becky. I hope I didn't come across as saying that parents are *responsible* for their children's spiritual decisions/states. But parents *do* have an effect on their children and need to parent responsibly and teach their children (and it was this aspect that I was examining in my own life today).
I like how you said there are no guarantees. That's very true! Also, parents do not (should not try to) have *control* over their children's hearts. There comes a point (many points, actually) when the child makes his own choices.
It's really not a simple, cut-and-dry thing. Not even close! But the only things *I* can do as a parent are do my best to live a God-honoring life in front of my children, teach them God's word, and pray for them. It is never a parent's responsibility to *make* a child (or anyone else, for that matter) holy.
I appreciate your comment, Becky. I hope I'm making sense (I'm operating with a sleep-deprived brain right now).
Exactly. No question that we need to have humble hearts that seek God - if we do, our children will see! And we are told to talk to them of what we're learning of God's word and to pray for them.
I think too often we think that "if" we do this "then" this will happen and it's not that simplistic. I'm not sure why Manasseh sought evil and seduced the people to evil. The Bible doesn't say. No question he did, though. I wonder at his own heartbreak when he did repent. He was forgiven, but consequences remained; he couldn't undo what he'd already done. Sad.
Sorry you're sleep deprived! School? Work? All the above?
I think my sleep deprivation was caused by stress. I couldn't sleep the night before. It's just the stress of having too many things to do and not a lot of time to get them all done before their various (soon) deadlines.
Post a Comment