In our last study session we learned that at some point during his reign the king of Assyria had him arrested and taken prisoner to Babylon. The king of Assyria was also the king of Babylon (his forefathers having won a war with Babylon) and he may have been in residence at his headquarters in Babylon at the time. It was common in those times for prisons to be in the basements of the homes of government officials and it may be that Manasseh was held in the dungeon of the king's palace.
Exactly why and how the king captured Manasseh is not told to us in the Bible or in any of the surviving annals of the kings of Assyria. Scholars presume Manasseh rebelled against paying tribute to this enemy nation. Several kings rebelled against Assyria during this era, including King Hoshea of Israel (whose efforts ended in defeat), and Manasseh's father Hezekiah of Judah whose victory was a miracle of the Lord and not due to military strength or political alliances. Manasseh may have hoped to remain independent of Assyria but since he was so abominably unfaithful to the Lord, the Lord was not with him as He was with his father.
But in Friday's study we learned that Manasseh called out to the Lord while he was being held captive. The author of 2 Chronicles informed us that he "humbled himself greatly before the God of his ancestors". Manasseh's repentance must have been genuine, for we were told that the Lord was "moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea". The Lord must have also moved the heart of the king of Assyria to show Manasseh mercy because the Lord "brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom". I wish the Bible had provided us with a detailed account of how the Lord accomplished this but whatever means He used must have left no doubt in Manasseh's mind that his deliverance was accomplished by the Lord alone because the author of 2 Chronicles wrapped up Friday's text by saying, "Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is God."
After being restored to the throne at his palace in Jerusalem, he took steps to make the city more defensible against enemies. It could be that a weakness in the defenses is what led to his capture by the Assyrian army commanders earlier in Chapter 33. "Afterward he rebuilt the outer wall of the City of David, west of the Gihon spring in the valley, as far as the entrance of the Fish Gate and encircling the hill of Ophel; he also made it much higher. He stationed military commanders in all the fortified cities in Judah." (2 Chronicles 33:14)
I know that the saying, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," is not in the Bible but there is some merit to this platitude in that we have a duty to take reasonable precautions. The Lord has helped Manasseh and restored him to his throne but Manasseh has a duty to take reasonable precautions to protect himself and the people of Judah. The Lord has provided Manasseh with the materials and the workers and the soldiers with which to fortify the defenses and it would be lazy and irresponsible if Manasseh did not make wise use of all these resources. We might compare this to our modern use of door locks and seatbelts; the Lord has provided us with these things for our protection and we are wise to put them to use. Another example would be to properly take a medication that has been prescribed to us to treat a diagnosed health condition. The Lord has blessed us with technological advances and medical advances that have the capability to improve our quality of life and to lengthen our lives. If we ignore a diagnosed infection and refuse to take our antibiotics then we risk life-threatening consequences. In this same way, if Manasseh ignores the threat of Assyria and refuses to use the resources provided to him to protect himself and the people, he risks having his nation invaded and his army defeated.
Manasseh is wise to protect his nation and he is wise to transfer his spiritual allegiance from idols to the living God. He displays what John the Baptist would have recognized as "fruits of repentance". In Luke's account of the gospel we find John the Baptist preaching the word of God and urging people to repent. But he didn't want anyone spouting insincere words of repentance and he made it clear that deeds must follow words in order to prove that a person's heart has really changed. So along with their words he expected to see actions and he said, "Produce fruit in keeping with repentance." (Luke 3:8a) If a person claims to have given their heart to the Lord but nothing about the way they live their life reflects that, then there are very strong reasons for believing that true repentance has not taken place. If Manasseh had prayed to the Lord while in the custody of the Assyrians but did nothing for the Lord after being restored to his kingdom, we would be forced to conclude that he only prayed to the Lord while he was in trouble and that he forsook Him afterwards. But we see below that he began religious reforms after he returned to the palace.
"He got rid of the foreign gods and removed the image from the temple of the Lord, as well as all the altars he had built on the temple hill and in Jerusalem; and he threw them out of the city. Then he restored the altar of the Lord and sacrificed fellowship offerings and thank offerings on it, and told Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel. The people, however, continued to sacrifice at the high places, but only to the Lord their God." (2 Chronicles 33:15-17) It would have behooved him (and the people as well) to have torn down all the altars in the land in order to obey the Lord by bringing all their sacrifices to the altar at the temple. As we've discussed many times before, when people are separated from the main body of believers and when they go about the rituals of religion in their own way, they usually stray from the laws and commandments of the Lord. They usually drift from a close relationship with Him. For the remainder of Manasseh's reign they are only allowed to worship the Lord at these altars but this is a temporary reform. A great deal of spiritual damage has been done during Manasseh's long reign and his son and successor, along with a number of the people of Judah, have been heavily effected by his former idolatry. They may be going through the outward motions of serving the Lord but the hearts of a lot of the people are still loyal to pagan gods.
"The other events of Manasseh's reign, including his prayer to his god and the words the seers spoke to him in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, are written in the annals of the kings of Israel. His prayer and how God was moved by his entreaty, as well as all his sins and unfaithfulness, and the sites where he built high places and set up Asherah poles and idols before he humbled himself---all these are written in the records of the seers. Manasseh rested with his ancestors and was buried in his palace. And Amon his son succeeded him as king." (2 Chronicles 33:18-20) The author of 2 Kings adds that he was buried in the garden on his palace grounds. The author of 2 Kings does not, however, record any information regarding Manasseh's repentance. He seems to focus entirely on the king's sins, so I am thankful that the author of 2 Chronicles included the information that Manasseh turned to the Lord.
I don't believe we have any reason to doubt that he was genuinely converted near the end of his life. I believe that when Manasseh passed out of this world he went into the presence of the Lord. It would have been far better (for him and for everyone else) if he had served the Lord for his entire life but at least he did not pass out of this world with his soul lost. Unfortunately, the years he lived in sin have had a terrible influence on Amon who will give himself completely to idolatry and who will never, as far as we know, repent and give his heart to the Lord. His father repented of his sins but the damage to his son had already been done; Amon had already made up his mind not to serve the Lord. This illustrates the importance of turning to the Lord as soon as we come to enough understanding of Him to do so.
Join us tomorrow as we move on to study the reign of King Amon.
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