Scripture: 2 Chronicles 33: 1-17
Sermon: The Mystery of Manasseh
Topics: Manasseh, Judah, kings, repentance, Lent
Preached: February 21, 2017
Rev. Mike Abma
Reign of Manasseh
33Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign; he reigned for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. 2He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. 3For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had pulled down, and erected altars to the Baals, made sacred poles,* worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them. 4He built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, ‘In Jerusalem shall my name be for ever.’ 5He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. 6He made his son pass through fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom, practised soothsaying and augury and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with wizards. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. 7The carved image of the idol that he had made he set in the house of God, of which God said to David and to his son Solomon, ‘In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name for ever; 8I will never again remove the feet of Israel from the land that I appointed for your ancestors, if only they will be careful to do all that I have commanded them, all the law, the statutes, and the ordinances given through Moses.’ 9Manasseh misled Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that they did more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the people of Israel.
Manasseh Restored after Repentance
10 The Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they gave no heed. 11Therefore the Lord brought against them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh captive in manacles, bound him with fetters, and brought him to Babylon. 12While he was in distress he entreated the favour of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his ancestors. 13He prayed to him, and God received his entreaty, heard his plea, and restored him again to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord indeed was God.
14 Afterwards he built an outer wall for the city of David west of Gihon, in the valley, reaching the entrance at the Fish Gate; he carried it around Ophel, and raised it to a very great height. He also put commanders of the army in all the fortified cities in Judah. 15He took away the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he had built on the mountain of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem, and he threw them out of the city. 16He also restored the altar of the Lord and offered on it sacrifices of well-being and of thanksgiving; and he commanded Judah to serve the Lord the God of Israel. 17The people, however, still sacrificed at the high places, but only to the Lord their God.
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
INTRODUCTION
Way back when I was in 9th or 10th grade in high school, my mother volunteered my babysitting services to this young couple who wanted to sing in the church choir.
My mother would drop me off and pick them up on the way to choir on Wednesday nights.
I got to babysit their 3 kids, the oldest of whom was a rather precocious 3rd grader named Raymond.
Raymond had all the kings of Israel and Judah memorized.
And he loved nothing better than to quiz me.
I always did rather abysmally.
Once things got past David and Solomon, Rehoboam and Jereboam, it was all rather fuzzy for me.
But one thing I remember from Raymond’s quizzes:
The shortest reign was Zimri who reigned 7 days.
And the longest reign was Manasseh, who reigned 55 years.
Manasseh — the longest reigning king of Judah.
The thing about long-reigning monarchs is that they often put their stamp on the people they are ruling.
Take Queen Victoria of England, for example. She reigned over the British Empire for most of the 1800’s. She reigned for 63 years — Queen Elizabeth II is catching up quickly, but Victoria still has the record. In fact, people refer to her reign as the Victorian Era.
ONE OF THE WORST KINGS
In ways, Manasseh also put his stamp on Judah.
Both 2 Kings 21 and 2 Chronicles 33 describe him not only as the longest-reigning king, but also as perhaps one of the worst kings Judah ever had.
In fact, they way they portray Manasseh, it was as if he was the culmination of the worst of all the past kings:
* he practiced divination, magic, sorcery just like the first king, King Saul.
* he set up altars to the Baals, just like so many of the worst kings before him.
* he even offered his own son to these idols in the valley of Hinnom, which was like the sin of King Ahaz before him.
* and perhaps worst of all, he did something no other king had done.
He placed an idol in the Temple itself, in that most holy place in Israel.
2 Kings 21 and 2 Chronicles 33 are agreed that Manasseh led God’s people into more evil than all the nations – like the Amorites and Amalikites – that came before them.
But at verse 9, the stories of Manasseh in 2 Kings 21 and 2 Chronicles 33 go in different directions.
In 2 Kings 21, the Lord comes to Manasseh with words of judgment. God says that he is bringing to Jerusalem and Judah such great evil on them that the ears of everyone who hears about it will “tingle.”
God says he will wipe away Jerusalem the way a person wipes out a dish.
And that is all we hear.
Manasseh’s great sin, and the Lord’s coming judgment.
In Chronicles 33, there is more to the story.
We hear the details of Manasseh’s judgment.
The king of Assyria captures Manasseh.
Manasseh is taken captive, bound in shackles, and marched into exile.
Manasseh repents. He cries to God.
God listens and Manasseh is able to return to Jerusalem and continue his reign.
There he tries to live a different life, breaking down the idols, and building up God’s city and God’s temple.
MYSTERY OF MANASSEH
You can imagine that this has set off something of a great debate among scholars:
What really happened?
Did Manasseh really repent or not?
Tonight, I’m not going to answer those questions, but what I am going to do is try to see how this story fits into the context of 1-2 Chronicles.
It is good to know that 1-2 Chronicles is quite different from 1-2 Kings.
In the Hebrew Bible, 1-2 Chronicles are the final books of their Old Testament.
What the book of Revelation is for us,
1-2 Chronicles is for them.
It has many of the things the 1-2 Kings has,
but at times it leaves things out —
there is no David and Bathsheba story
there is nothing about Solomon’s many wives leading him astray.
At other times, it adds things:
Chronicles has lots of detail of how the Temple operated;
It has lots of detail about Hezekiah’s and Josiah’s purification of the Temple;
And it has the repentance of Manasseh.
So why is 1-2 Chronicles so different from 1-2 Kings?
For one thing, it was probably the last Old Testament book written.
It was written after the exiles had returned from Babylon,
and after they had begun to rebuild the temple and city of Jerusalem.
It was written both looking back at what they lived through,
And looking ahead at what they were looking forward to.
With that in mind,
Take a second look at verses 11-13 — which I think are key.
After recounting Manasseh’s sins, God comes with judgment.
He gives Manasseh into the hands of the King of Assyria.
Manasseh is bound in chains and taken to…..you would think it would be Nineveh, the capital of Assyria.
But no, Manasseh is taken to Babylon…Babylon.
Now remember, Judah would be taken to Babylon 60 years after Manasseh.
While in Babylon,
Manasseh humbles himself,
repents and cries to God.
God hears his prayers,
And restores Manasseh to Jerusalem.
Do you see how the life of Manasseh mirrors the life of Judah?
Manasseh’s story is Judah’s story.
It is a story of a story of sin and punishment, repentance and restoration.
In the Hebrew language, the name Manasseh is a form of the Hebrew verb: to forget.
King Manasseh epitomizes someone who forgets God.
He forgets what it means to be a person of the Torah.
He forgets who he is.
Manasseh’s story in 2 Kings emphasizes God’s justice and his judgment.
But Manasseh’s story in 2 Chronicles emphasizes God’s mercy.
It emphasizes God’s willingness to hear prayer, to forgive and to restore even the worst of Judah’s kings.
No doubt, those who wrote Chronicles thought,
“If God can forgive and restore Manasseh,
He can forgive and restore us too.”
In Chronicles, it is the amazing mercy of God that eclipses the horrendous sins of Manasseh.
CONCLUSION
This is the season of Lent.
This is a season with a renewed focus on repentance.
It is a season we are held captive by winter.
A season we are at times overwhelmed by the misery of the world.
A season in which we may even have hit rock bottom in our own personal lives.
It is a season in which we turn to God,
remembering who we are,
and who God has called us to be.
The writers of Chronicles
narrowed their focus on this one king,
this one repentant king
to show them the way
to a glorious new freedom
in a restored Israel,
with a rebuilt Temple,
and a re-crowned King David.
This season of Lent,
we narrow our focus too.
We narrow our focus to a king:
a king who lived a perfect life, not a wretched one.
A king who remembered who he was and obeyed the will of His Father every step of the way,
not a king forgot and wandered far from the way.
A king who also was in shackles and cried to his heavenly Father.
But when he cried, things were quiet and dark
for he was abandoned by all when he was killed as a common criminal.
In Lent we ponder the deepest mystery there is —
The mystery of God’s justice and mercy all rolled up in one person.
A king whose love is deep enough to die for us,
fierce enough to forgive us,
and patient enough to change us,
even the worst among us.
Lent is a season in
not so much to dwell on our deep repentance,
but rather to ponder the height, and depth, and width of God’s love:
a love that heals and restores
broken people in a broken world.
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