Old School Repentance

Transcript

JR 31
03/24/2024
Old School Repentance
2 Chronicles 33:1-20
Jesse Randolph

Well tonight, as we always do on Sunday evenings at Indian Hills, we’re going to spend the next part of our church service diving into God’s holy, inerrant, and perfect Word. As a church, we’re at sort of an interesting spot since we’re “in between” Sunday night sermon series. We recently finished up the book of Jonah and in a few weeks, we will be starting the book of Esther. But in between, we’ve got these Good Friday and Easter services coming up. So, with the concert tonight and these special messages coming up I saw a gap on the preaching calendar and realized I had the option the rare option of choosing whichever passage of Scripture I wanted to preach on so naturally I landed on II Chronicles chapter 33. That’s where you would have gone, too, right? II Chronicles 33?

II Chronicles 33 is an account of Manasseh. A king in Judah who ruled and reigned from approximately 697 B.C until 642 B.C. nearly 700 years before the birth of Christ and just about 2,700 years before the times in which we live today. Seems relevant, right? Seems important, right? To devote an entire evening of learning from a king or about a king who’s from a completely different part of the world, from a completely different time, who is a king over a completely different people. A king who didn’t know about balancing a checkbook, or online bill pay, or planes, and trains, and automobiles. A king who didn’t know anything about electricity, or republican democracy or what a “church” was.

Well, for those of you who call Indian Hills your church home, you know I’m being a tad facetious. You know that not only do I personally love preaching from the Old Testament, and mining the eternal truths it contains for followers of Christ today. More importantly, you know what the Bible itself says to the Christian about the profit of hearing not only the New Testament preached, but the Old.
II Timothy 3:16-17 says how much Scripture? “All Scripture” is profitable, inspired of God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate and equipped for every good work.” Meaning, there are times when we can go to the Old Testament and mine out the truths of the Old Testament and find timeless truths just as timeless and just as pertinent and just as applicable as truths you’d find in Colossians or Luke or Romans or Revelation. See which there are so many truths the modern-day Christian can draw out of the Old Testament as we seek to apply these truths to our lives.

If you’re not there already, please turn with me in your Bibles to II Chronicles 33. To give you some leeway to find that book in your Bibles, I’m going to remind you that in our English arrangement of our Old Testament books II Chronicles is the eleventh of the Old Testament books in the English canonical order. You have the Torah - the first five books of the Old Testament. Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers and Deuteronomy. Then you have the early historical books which are centered around Israel’s conquest and early settlement of the land of Canaan. Those would include the books of Joshua and Judges to which would have been appended Ruth. Then come three more historical books, Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. Each of those by the way Samuel, Kings and Chronicles were singular books when originally written. But over time, each divided roughly in half so you now have in your English bibles I and II Samuel, I and II King and I and II Chronicles which that last one I mentioned, II Chronicles will be the book we’ll be in tonight.

Now, there are many different parallels between Kings and Chronicles meaning I Kings and II Kings, I Chronicles and II Chronicles. Kings was originally authored by a single anonymous author sometime between 561-538 B.C. during the period of Israel’s being in exile. What Kings does is it looks back some four hundred years to recount the progressive descent of the once-unified kingdom of Israel. From the heights of its glory during its earliest years the “golden age” of King Solomon to its sudden division into two kingdoms. With Israel and the ten tribes in the north and Judah and Benjamin in the south. A central theme in the book of Kings are these repeated warnings given to Israel and its rulers by various prophets that were sent by God. Israel’s repeated rejection of those warnings which led to the northern kingdom being hauled off into captivity by Assyria in 722 B.C. and the southern kingdom being hauled off by Babylon in 586 B.C.

That’s a very brief flyover of I and II Kings. What about Chronicles? Well, Chronicles was written later. Most would put its writing sometime between 450 and 430 B.C. Meaning after the Jews had already returned from exile into Babylon and Chronicles paints essentially the same picture of apostasy and decline that the book of Kings does. But it does so by painting that same picture really in a new frame. Chronicles highlights the line of David in particular. From the life of David to the death of David in 971 B.C. to David’s succession by his son, Solomon, to the death of Solomon, to the division of the kingdom, to the decline of the kingdom, to the captivity of the kingdom, to the peoples’ eventual return from the Babylonian exile in 538 B.C.

See the anonymous Chronicler who wrote I and II Chronicles many believe to be Ezra. He provides this look-in on the various kings who reigned through David’s line in the southern tribes specifically. He does so with a special focus on reminding those Jews who had just returned from exile that God would always be faithful to the covenant He had made with King David back in II Samuel 7 notwithstanding the people’s disobedience and the corresponding judgment that they faced.

So, Chronicles, then, written after the Babylonian captivity was both an encouragement and a warning. It was given to encourage Israel with the truth that God was not through with them. But it was also a warning that any future apostasy and idolatry would be dealt with severely. Now, in terms of more of the specific structural features of Chronicles. From II Chronicles 10 on what we see traced out are the kings who ruled in the divided kingdom over the tribes of Judah and Benjamin once the kingdom had split in two. We won’t have time to go through all of these tonight, but those southern kings that ruled during the split divided kingdom era were, Rehoboam, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, Ahaziah, Athaliah, Joash, Amaziah, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, and then our focus of study this evening: Manasseh.

Now, let it be said, straight away that Manasseh was a wicked king. He was an evil king, and we see Manasseh’s wickedness recorded not only in the text we’ll be in tonight, II Chronicles 33. But we see the depths of his iniquity recorded in other places in the Old Testament. In fact, let’s go to some of those other sources to get a feel for just how wicked this king was. Let’s start by looking at Jeremiah 15. Jeremiah was a prophet to the southern kingdom and his prophetic ministry spanned somewhere from around 627 B.C. until 586 B.C. So, if you were paying attention, you heard me say earlier that Manasseh’s reign ended in 642 B.C. and Jeremiah didn’t start prophesying until 627 B.C. some 15 years after Manasseh’s death. But note here, the wickedness of Manasseh’s and the wickedness of his reign had ripple effects all the way into the time that Jeremiah started prophesying.

Look at what Jeremiah 15:1-4 says. It says, “Then the LORD said to me, ‘Even though Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me, My heart would not be with this people; send them away from My presence and let them go! (that’s talking about captivity) And it shall be that when they say to you, “Where should we go?” then you are to tell them, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Those destined for death, to death; and those destined for the sword, to the sword; and those destined for famine, to famine; and those destined for captivity, to captivity.’ ‘I will appoint over them four kinds of doom,’ declares the LORD: ‘the sword to slay, the dogs to drag off, and the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. I will 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.” You see it written there, it’s as plain as day in Jeremiah 15 that the toppling and the defeat and the captivity that Judah was about to face was on account of Manasseh and his wickedness several decades earlier. The calamity that was about to befall Judah in 586 B.C. was “because of Manasseh, (that’s what it says in verse 4) the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem,” all the way back between 697 B.C. and 642 B.C. Well, I’m admittedly leaving everyone here hanging off a cliff at this point. What is it that Manasseh did? What was it that was so wicked in his reigning over Judah? What did this single king do which merited such extreme punishment at the hands of a good and gracious God?

Turn with me over to II Kings 21. This is sort of a parallel account of what we see in our text for tonight II Chronicles 33. Look at II Kings 21:1, “Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Hephzibah. He did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD dispossessed before the sons of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. He built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, ‘In Jerusalem I will put My name.’ For he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. He made his son pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and used divination, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD provoking Him to anger. Then he set the carved image of Asherah that he had made, in the house of which the LORD said to David and to his son Solomon, ‘In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever. And I will not make the feet of Israel wander anymore from the land which I gave their fathers, if only they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that My servant Moses commanded them.’ But they did not listen, and Manasseh seduced them to do evil more than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the sons of Israel.”

We’ll get into all of this once we move over to my exposition proper of II Chronicles 33, but Manasseh was very clearly and very obviously a wicked king. Now, tying all of that in with what Jeremiah would say later about why Judah was going into exile several decades later on Manasseh’s account, look at what comes next, in II Kings 21:10-16: “Now the LORD spoke through His servants the prophets, saying, ‘Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, having done wickedly more than all the Amorites did who were before him, and has also made Judah sin with his idols; therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am bringing such calamity on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle. ‘I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. ‘I will abandon the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they will become as plunder and spoil to all their enemies; because they have done evil in My sight and have been provoking Me to anger since the day their fathers came from Egypt, even to this day.’ Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; besides his sin with which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the LORD.”

In other words, Manasseh had, through his wickedness and through his evil stirred up and provoked the righteous anger of the Lord. Now this next line, in verse 17, is of special interest to us, since it points us to the text we’ll actually be studying tonight, in II Chronicles. Verse 17 says: “Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh and all that he did and his sin which he committed, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?” Then this concluding line, verse 18 “And Manasseh slept with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza, and Amon his son became king in his place.” So, from these two angles in Jeremiah and in II Kings we see this picture painted of Manasseh and his life, and his kingship was anything but rosy, and anything but positive and anything but glowing. Now let’s get to our text, II Chronicles 33 which we’ll see not only has some significant repeated statements and parallels describing the life and reign of Manasseh. It also has our account here one significant addition to Manasseh’s story which is that of his repentance.

I’ve titled this evening’s message Old School Repentance because in our account here in II Chronicles 33 we are given a glimpse into something not mentioned in either Jeremiah or in the II Kings account that I have just read from. We’re shown in this chronicle that Manasseh ultimately repented.

What we’re going to do tonight as we work through II Chronicles 33 is do a bit of a deep dive into what Manasseh’s repentance meant for him and for those who would follow in his line. Not just the kings and the kingdoms who would immediately follow him but for people like you and me, who live on this side of the cross who have put our faith in the Jesus Christ the Messiah, who, like Manasseh came from David’s line.

So, we’ve spent a lot of time on the front porch, let’s get into the house of our text. II Chronicles 33:1-20. To save time I was going to read it as one block, but I think I am going ahead and just read it bit by bit. I’ve broken it up this way. In II Chronicles 33, we are going to go all the way from verse 1 to verse 20, verses 1 through 11, if you are a note taker are going to be the Foreward to Manasseh’s Repentance. The lead up to his repentance. In verses 12 and 13 we are going to see the Fact of Manasseh’s Repentance. In verses 14 through 17 we are going to see the Fruit of Manasseh’s Repentance and then in verses 18 through 20 we are going to see the Fringes of Manasseh’s Repentance. Now this is a spectacular piece of Hebrew narrative which traces out one of the most dramatic turnabouts we see recorded in all of Scripture, for we see this incredibly wicked king and his ultimate repentance before the Lord.

Let’s start with our first heading the Foreward to Manasseh’s Repentance. The whole story here begins when Manasseh was 12 years old. Look again at verse 1 here. We are in II Chronicles 33:1. This will sound familiar since we just read II Kings 21. It says, “Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king.”

Now, we need to pause right there because to know the story of Manasseh to truly understand the story of Manasseh you first need to understand the story of his father, Hezekiah whose life is recorded in the preceding four chapters of II Chronicles: 29-32. Hezekiah, Manasseh’s father was a great king of Judah. II Chronicles 29:2 says this of good king Hezekiah: “He did right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father David had done.” II Chronicles 31:20 said this of Hezekiah: “he did what was good, and right and true before the LORD his God. Every work which he began in the service of the house of God in law and in commandment, seeking his God, he did with all his heart and prospered.”

If you are looking for a boy’s name, if you are having a boy anytime soon, Hezekiah is a good name to go to. He was a godly man. He restored devoted upright worship in the temple. He went on a campaign to destroy all the idols which had invaded and polluted the land and he boldly stood up to, and opposed, the most powerful military force of his day the Assyrians led by King Sennacherib.

In Hezekiah’s day Sennacherib and his Assyrian armies were wiping out city after city swallowing up more and more territory. They were a formidable force for the Assyrians and there was seemingly no way to stop them, and they knew it. King Sennacherib of Assyrian is known for sending this taunting letter to the people of Judah telling them that their destruction and captivity were inevitable and that they should not listen to any words of reassurance from their own king, Hezekiah since even he wouldn’t be able to spare them. Then toward the end of that letter King Sennacherib of Assyria issued these bone-chilling words this is Isaiah 36:18 in fact you can turn over to Isaiah 36. We will be in Isaiah here for a little bit here. Sennacherib in his letter says this. “Beware that Hezekiah does not mislead you, saying, ‘The LORD will deliver us.’ Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?’” He's saying look how mighty I am. No one can stop me. He’s saying, when it comes to this whole war and conquest thing, you’re next and you don’t have a chance against me.

Well, that letter from Sennacherib makes its way into Hezekiah’s hands and what Isaiah 37 records is that Hezekiah not only consulted with the prophet Isaiah about what he should do with this threatening letter from Sennacherib, he goes to the temple to pray to God, to pray to Yahweh and to pray to Yahweh would deliver Judah from the fast-moving force from Assyria. In fact, here’s Hezekiah’s prayer in Isaiah 37:14 records Hezekiah’s prayer for deliverance. It says, “Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD. Hezekiah prayed to the LORD saying, ‘O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see; and listen to all the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to reproach the living God. Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have devastated all the countries and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So, they have destroyed them. Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, LORD, are God.’”

Well, through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord answered Hezekiah’s prayer. Look down in Isaiah 37:34. This is the Lord answering the prayer through Isaiah to Hezekiah. It says, “By the way that he came [meaning Sennacherib], by the same he will return, and he will not come to this city,’ declares the LORD. For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.” Then comes the part of the story that many of us are much more familiar with when we think of Sennacherib and Hezekiah. Look down in verse 36. “Then the angel of the LORD went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men arose early in the morning, behold, all of these were dead. So, Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh.”

Now again you might be thinking to yourself. “Why all this background, Jesse?” “I thought we were learning about Manasseh and his repentance tonight.” We are and we will. We’re getting there! But what we’re doing now is sharpening the contrast between the faithful example that Hezekiah showed and the faithless example of Manasseh his son and how sharply Manasseh diverted from his father’s faithful ways. Hezekiah was a proven man of faith. In fact, the very fact that Manasseh even existed was the fruit of his father’s genuine faith in Yahweh. See, after those 185,000 Assyrians were slaughtered, Isaiah 38:1 just down the page a little bit, says that Hezekiah became “mortally ill.” Being a man of faith and a man of prayer, he prayed, and his prayer is recorded there in verse 3, where he said: “Remember now, O LORD, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight.” The Lord responded to Hezekiah’s prayer in verse 5 of chapter 38. It says that thus says the Lord, the God of David “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.” So mortally ill Hezekiah now has 15 more years tacked onto his life? Guess who’s born in those 15 years of Hezekiah’s added years of existence? Manasseh.

That brings us right back to where we started in II Chronicles 33:1, “Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king.” Now this additional detail, also in verse 1. “And he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.” Now, whenever you see a lengthy reign of a king recorded in the Old Testament, the length of that king’s reign is typically, not always, typically considered a mark of blessing and favor and perhaps even godliness. David, for example, certainly had his sins. He was also known as a man after God’s own heart and reigned for 4o years. Uzziah reigned for 52 years. Not so in the case of Manasseh and his 55-year reign. Manasseh was a ruthlessly evil king. He was a vile and wicked ruler. He was the worst of the worst. To see what I mean let’s drill down deeper into what our text reveals verse 2 says “he did evil in the sight of the LORD according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD dispossessed before the sons of Israel.”

You might recall that going all the way back to the days of Moses, the Israelites had been instructed as they prepared to enter the Promised Land that they were to play no part in any of the pagan practices of those people before them who had contaminated and polluted the land with their idolatry. Instead, they were commanded the Israelites were to wipe out all of those pagan practices and even to wipe out the pagans themselves. Wipe them completely off the map. These were God’s words of warning that God gave to Moses hundreds of years before the days of Manasseh. This is from Deuteronomy 12:28, it says “Be careful (God to Moses here) to listen to all these words which I command you, so that it may be well with you and your sons after you forever, for you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the LORD your God. When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations which you are going in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, beware that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations serve their gods, that I also may do likewise?’” So basically, don’t follow the gods in the ways of the nations that you conquer. Now Manasseh surely would have known these words. He would have been familiar with the Law. But he didn’t care. Rather than doing what the Mosaic Law prescribed and rather than following the God-honoring policies of his father Hezekiah, Manasseh reverted to the detestable practices of the Canaanites who had once inhabited that land. Though he was born to a godly father who feared the Lord, Manasseh opted to follow the very paganism that his ancestors had been ordered to drive out. He deliberately duplicated the depravity of the Canaanites rather than following in his father’s godly footsteps.

Now, as we turn to verse 3. We start getting into some of these specific pagan practices that Manasseh was getting into and promoting and pushing. The first part of verse 3 says, “For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down.” Hezekiah had, in fact, broken down these high places, II Chronicles 31 records that after Hezekiah reinstituted proper worship in the temple, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah, broke the pillars in pieces, cut down the Asherim and pulled down the high places and the altars throughout all Judah and Benjamin. That was in Hezekiah reign.

But Manasseh, once he was in power, reversed course and rebuilt the very high places that his father, Hezekiah, had ordered to be torn down. These “high places” by the way were these simply these, places of higher worship for high worship on elevated ground. They were superstitiously believed to bring you closer to worshipping whatever false deity you’re worshipping. On these “high places” they built altars, not altars to Yahweh as you would find in the temple in Jerusalem, but these crude altars dedicated to the worship of their false deities. In fact, we see that picked up in the next part of verse 3 here of chapter 33 speaking of Manasseh, it says, “he also erected altars for the Baals and made Asherim, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.”

Now these false gods mentioned here the “Baals” the “Asherim” were the “gods” that were worshiped by the ancient Canaanite peoples. Baal was the primary male deity known as the sun or the storm “god.” The Asherah, Asherim, plural, was the primary female deity, who was known as the moon goddess, and you can imagine with male and female counterpart deities involved and depraved minds how sexually driven Baal and Asherah worship was. The whole “worship” experience in fact involved male adherents having multiple sexual encounters with multiple different partners often pagan prostitutes, men and women supposedly as a way to worship and draw nearer to these false gods. Well, Manasseh not only fell into Baal and Asherah worship himself and in doing so, took on as many sexual partners as his own libido could handle. Verse 3 says “he also erected altars for the Baals and made Asherim.” Meaning, he was encouraging the very people he was charged to lead to engage in the same devious practices he was. As if that weren’t bad enough the end of verse 3 says that Manasseh also worshipped all the hosts of heaven and served them. In other words, he was eclectic in his false worship. He was not only worshiping the Baals and the Asherim he was worshiping the sun, moon, and stars, which was a direct violation of Deuteronomy 4:19, where God says to the Israelites, “beware not to lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them.”
Manasseh ignored the law of the Lord. He ignored his godly father Hezekiah’s example. But that’s not all he did. He went further. Look at 4-5. It says, “He built altars in the house of the LORD of which the LORD had said, ‘My name shall be in Jerusalem forever.’ For he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD.”

Not content to keep his own false worship of Baal and Asherah or the sun, moon, and stars outdoors, outside in and around the high places that he had built, he brought this false worship from outside the temple, inside the temple. He took all the pollution of false idol worship from outside and brought it inside. What wickedness was swirling around this man’s heart! Not only was he committed to the worship of false gods. He was incredibly calloused and indifferent to what he was doing. So far adrift was his heart was from Yahweh, the God of his fathers, the God of his own father, Hezekiah, that he’s building shrines to worship false deities and bringing them right there inside the pure holy temple of God.

I mean these days, in our day, we hear stories about old rundown churches shutting down and being converted into coffee bars or coffee shops or bars or skate parks. As sad as those stories are they really pale in comparison to what Manasseh was doing here. As he openly paraded these elements of wickedness and darkness, false pagan worship practices into a house of light, the temple of Jerusalem. But it gets worse. Much worse. Look at verse 6. It says “He made his sons pass through the fire in the valley of Ben-Hinnom; and he practiced witchcraft, used divination, practiced sorcery and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger.”

Now if we jump right to the middle of the verse, we see those references to “witchcraft,” and “divination,” and “sorcery,” and “mediums and spiritists” and what this is telling us is that Manasseh was into all forms of the occult. The dark arts. Black magic. Demonism. Wizardry. He had been completely given over to the “god of this world, the prince of the power of the air. Satan.” Once again, he knew better. Because each of the practices he was engaging in were expressly prohibited by the Mosaic Law given to his fathers and passed down to him. Here’s Deuteronomy 18:9, It says “When you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For whoever does these things is detestable to the LORD; and because of these detestable things the LORD your God will drive them out before you. You shall be blameless before the LORD your God.” Again, the very things the Law prohibited, were the very things that Manasseh did. He simply didn’t care. He simply couldn’t be bothered with the commands and proscriptions given in God’s law. He openly thumbed his nose at them, and he completely departed from the example of his godly father, Hezekiah.

But I skipped over if you noticed, arguably the worst part of his wickedness. At the very beginning of verse 6 it says, “He made his sons pass through the fire in the valley of Ben-Hinnom.” Those words, pass through the fire aren’t some clever figures of speech. They’re referring to an incident of actual human sacrifice. Specifically, Manasseh offering his own sons not much bigger than our sunshine kids this evening. His physical offspring as an act of worship to the Ammonite god Molech by burning them alive. Molech was visually depicted by the old Ammonites as a bull whose belly was open and inside the bull’s belly was this furnace and what worshipers of Molech would do was they would throw their children into the belly of Molech literally, into the fire into the furnace as a sacrifice to that god. Manasseh was such a degenerate that he engaged in that very practice himself offering his own sons to Molech “[making] his sons (it says) pass through the fire, literally, throwing them in the fire. Which is why we are not all that surprised to read this summary statement, at the end of verse 6 that “he,” meaning Manasseh “did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger.” As if that weren’t enough, the descriptions of Manasseh’s atrocities continue on in verses 7 and 8: it says “Then he put the carved image of the idol which he had made in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, ‘In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever; and I will not again remove the foot of Israel from the land which I have appointed for your fathers, if only they will observe to do all that I have commanded them according to all the law, the statutes and the ordinances given through Moses.’”

The basic idea here is that Manasseh contemptuously provoked the Lord’s anger even further by placing an idol dedicated to the worship of his false gods in the very house that the Lord had established His name upon. Going back to Solomon’s day in I Kings chapter 8 in Solomons prayer of dedication for the temple, in I Kings 8:20, Solomon declared: “I have built the house for the name of the LORD, (speaking of the temple) for the God of Israel.” The temple was built for the name of Yahweh and by placing an idol in a house that was built for the name of the Lord; Manasseh was engaging in yet another high-handed act of treason, apostasy, rebellion. But he went even further. Besides his own acts of personal idolatry Manasseh compounded his wickedness by leading his own people, his subjects in Judah, into sin. As their king, he was called to be an example to them. But he misled them. So much so, that the people of Judah are described in these shocking and unflattering terms in verse 9 it says, “Thus Manasseh misled Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the sons of Israel.”

Manasseh was a man who was so thoroughly evil, so inconsiderately wicked that he was willing to drag his people, the people of Judah down into the pit of sin that he himself was reveling in. They were worse than all now the “ites” that they had driven out of the land and now justice demanded that Judah be punished. Why? Well, in large part because of Manasseh’s influence the people of Judah were now outdoing the surrounding nations in their debauchery. It was not only Manasseh’s heart now that was far adrift from the Lord, so were the collective hearts of the people of Judah. Nationally, their ears were stopped up. Look at verse 10 it says, “The LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention.” Nationally corporately they paid no attention. Manasseh and the people under his care, the people of Judah loved by this point their sinful, wicked ways. They couldn’t be bothered with the one true God anymore. They couldn’t be bothered with all of God’s stuffy rules and regulations about living upright and holy lives which mirrored His intrinsic holiness. They had a stronger craving for their own sex-fueled, star-gazing worship practices than they did for the God who had given them life and breath and movement and being. Finally, finally, Yahweh had had enough. You recall back in the beginning I had you read a little bit from II Kings. Let’s change the channel and go over to II Kings 21 again. Look at II Kings 21. We’ll pick it up in verse 10 it says “Now the LORD spoke through His servants the prophets, saying, ‘Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, having done wickedly more than all the Amorites did who were before him, and has also made Judah sin with his idols; therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing such calamity on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle. I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. I will abandon the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they will become as plunder and spoil to all their enemies; because they have done evil in My sight and have been provoking Me to anger since the day their fathers came from Egypt, even to this day.” What all of this is portraying was Judah’s imminent destruction and deportation. Yahweh was ready to dispose of Judah. To obliterate this people completely. God was ready to “wipe them as one wipes a dish.” Completely off the map.


Now back to II Chronicles our passage 33:11. This process of punishing Judah began with Manasseh himself being captured by Assyrian invaders and hauled off to Babylon. Look at verse 11 it says, “Therefore the LORD brought the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria against them, and they captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze chains and took him to Babylon.” So, when Manasseh refused to listen to the Lord and turn from his wickedness, God moved the king of Assyria to take Manasseh away to Babylon. They put a hook in Manasseh’s nose as though he was a wild bull. They bound him with bronze chains, and they dragged him off to Babylon.

Changing channels again back to II Kings, I should just have you stay in II Kings. One finger in each book. You go to II Kings and the account of Manasseh’s life in that book ends with these verses 16-18: It says “Manasseh shed very much innocent blood until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; besides his sin with which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the LORD. Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh and all that he did and his sin which he committed, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? And Manasseh slept with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza, and Amon his son became king in his place.” So, the II Kings account ends there. Putting a period on Manasseh’s life by portraying him as this habitual and hardened murderer. A spiller of much innocent blood. But turning the channel back to II Chronicles we do see that there’s more to the story than this.

So far, all we’ve seen is the Foreward to Manasseh’s repentance. In other words, the prelude to this wicked king’s repentance. As we get to verses 12-13 though now, we are going to see the Fact of Manasseh’s repentance. Having been hooked through his nose, having been hauled off the Babylon in bronze chains, with his trail of wickedness and evil in his wake. Look at what happens next in verse 12 it says, “When he was in distress, he entreated the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.”

So, Manasseh was now captive. He’s beholden to the whims of his Assyrian overlord. He’s fearful. He’s worried. It says now verse 12 He’s, “in distress.” These were the circumstances that the Lord used not only to bend Manasseh’s wishes to His divine will but to break Manasseh finally and completely. To this point Manasseh had been chasing after the world and the false sources of delight and worship it was offering him. But now sitting in whatever hole he had been thrown in by his captors, he came to see finally the error and the wickedness of his ways. In his distress it says, “he entreated the LORD his God.” Now that word, those words He entreated the Lord his God, it is a beautiful Hebraic expression. I don’t want us to miss its meaning. The Hebrew expression there is that Manasseh, through his entreaties, get this “softened the face of God.” He softened the face of God. God had been angry at Manasseh and rightfully and righteously so, justifiably so. But when Manasseh entreated God and prayed to God and cried out to God, God’s face was softened. It’s a stirring and a moving word picture. The rest of verse 12 then records that Manasseh “humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.” Then look at how Yahweh replied in verse 13 it says “When he prayed to Him, He (meaning Yahweh) was moved by his entreaty and heard his supplication and brought him again to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.” God has always been a God who responds to the humble in heart. Isaiah 57:15 says: “For thus says the high and exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy, ‘I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.”

II Chronicles 7:14, a passage that’s often wrongly attributed to the United States of America after tragic national events like 9/11. In fact, speaks to how God would respond to Israel the people, the nation, if they would collectively humble themselves in their hearts. You know the passage. You have seen it at Hobby Lobby. “If My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” God has always been a God who responds to humility. Individually and collectively.

So, for Manasseh, though this king was outrageously wicked and idolatrous. Though he was a murderer of his own children. Though he was a desecrator of the holy temple, God was gracious to accept his humble pleas and to pardon and forgive this repentant sinner. This account of Manasseh’s repentance. His real repentance and Yahweh’s corresponding forgiveness. It jars us we’re like could God actually forgive somebody like that? But then we remember these words from Ezekial 18:21, “But if the wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed and observes all My statutes and practices justice and righteousness, he shall surely live; he shall not die. All his transgressions which he has committed will not be remembered against him; because of his righteousness which he has practiced, he will live. ‘Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked,’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘rather than that he should turn from his ways and live?’” God, in other words, is a gracious and forgiving God. He always has been, and He always will be. He offers forgiveness and mercy to those who in the world’s wisdom, seem to be unforgivable. More on that in just a second.

Sticking with the II Chronicles account. What we are going to see next in terms of Manasseh’s repentance is that next came obedience. So, there’s the fact of repentance but now comes the Fruit of Manasseh’s Repentance. To borrow from the words of John the Baptist would use many hundreds of years later, Manasseh bore fruit in keeping with repentance.” Matthew 3:8. The fruit of this formerly wicked king’s repentance is described in verses 14-16. It says “Now after this he built the outer wall of the city of David on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entrance of the Fish Gate; and he encircled the Ophel with it and made it very high. Then he put army commanders into all the fortified cities of Judah. He also removed the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the LORD, as well as all the altars which he had built on the mountain of the house of the LORD and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside the city. He set up the altar of the LORD and sacrificed peace offerings and thank offerings on it; and he ordered Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel.” For the sake of time, we won’t go too deep into all that is being described here but what I do want us to do is just take note of the verbs in those three verses. Because those verbs portray action. Manasseh’s repentance brought about action. Manasseh’s repentance bore fruit which evidenced that his repentance was real. Note the verbs in verses 14-16: He “built.” He “encircled.” He “made it very high.” He “put army commanders” where they needed to be. He “removed the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the LORD.” He “threw them outside the city.” He “set up the altar of the LORD.” He “sacrificed peace offerings and thank offerings.” He “ordered Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel.” Action. Manasseh’s repentance, in other words, led to reformation. It was real. To borrow from some familiar New Testament language. II Corinthians 5:17 The old had passed and the new truly had come. But as we read on, we see that Manasseh’s repentance only got him and the people under his rule in Judah so far.

This is our fourth aspect of his repentance. The Fringes of Manasseh’s Repentance. Though Manasseh’s individual repentance was genuine there were still traces of apostasy and rebellion in Judah as a nation. Which had carried over from these decades of unfaithfulness and wickedness that Manasseh had led them into before he repented. Look at verse 17. Despite Manasseh’s repentance look at what it says here. “Nevertheless, the people still sacrificed in the high places, although only to the LORD their God.” In other words, while Manasseh did a full about-face, and completely turned to God in repentance, the people of Judah only did a half-turn. They were now worshiping the right God; they were just worshiping Him in the wrong places. It says, “The people still sacrificed in the high places.” The lesson here is that half-right worship of a holy God is wholly wrong.

Reading on in verses 18-19. We are told, “Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh even his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the LORD God of Israel, behold, they are among the records of the kings of Israel. His prayer also and how God was entreated by him, and all his sin, his unfaithfulness, and the sites on which he built high places and erected the Asherim and the carved images, before he humbled himself, behold, they are written in the records of the Hozai.” Now those words that I just read aren’t referencing II Kings the parallel account that we have already gone through, these are referencing certain lost records. Which God apparently saw fit not to include in the canon. But must have provided further details related to the events leading up to Manasseh’s repentance. And last, we read in verse 20, “So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house. “And Amon his son became king in his place.” Manasseh’s repentance was real. But Manasseh’s repentance was individual. Though his sin was forgiven the decades of carnage and carnality and wickedness he had left in his wake, meant that the ripples of his own repentance only extended so far. There were still evil, unrepentant people in his kingdom who had been influenced by his old ways. He still had an evil, unrepentant son who was going to followed him onto the throne. Manasseh couldn’t repent on any of their behalf. He couldn’t force his repentance on others. Because Judah as a nation and Judah as a people, remained unrepentant even after repentant Manasseh died. We know as we read the rest of the account in the Chronicles that they were eventually hauled off into captivity, as a consequence for their grievous compounding sins against Yahweh.

Now as we’ve been working our way through this text this evening, I’ve admittedly been holding one card behind my back. See, I selected this text this evening not only because it’s an interesting story of a once-wicked king who turned to Yahweh 2,700 years ago. Rather, I selected this text because it pictures what we all must do in order to have a right relationship with the eternal God of heaven and earth. Recall, there was here a “foreword” to Manasseh’s repentance. Just as there was for each of us. Before we each turned from our sin and repented and believed in our day, in Jesus Christ. We were like snails, like slugs, leaving behind a slimy track of sin as we inched our way toward the precipice of hell. For some that was through a life of drugs and alcohol. For some of us that was a life of sexual immorality and depravity. For some of us that was a life of self-righteous, do-gooding “Churchianity.” Similar to Manasseh there was darkness in our hearts. An evil in our lives before the light of the gospel flooded our hearts. We’ve also seen that there is this “fact” of Manasseh’s repentance. Not just the foreward but the fact. When in his distress, verse 12 “he entreated the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.” So, it was with us. There was that moment where we bottomed out. Where we realized how spiritually bankrupt, we were. Where we realized how empty it was to chase after certain dreams, and hobbies, and passions, and lusts, and idols, which would never ultimately satisfy. We also saw that there was “fruit” that went along with Manasseh’s repentance. As he “built.” And “encircled.” And “made.” And “put.” And “removed.” And “threw.” And “set up.” And “sacrificed.” And “ordered.” So, it was with us. As we repented and trusted in Christ, turned from our old ways of living and put on new ways of living through the power of the Spirit which honored our Savior.

Last, we saw that there were “fringes” limits borders to Manasseh’s repentance. Meaning, that though his repentance was genuine, it was individual. Though forgiven, his horrific example from his earlier life of sin and debauchery continued to have this lasting rippling effect. Just because Manasseh turned to Yahweh in repentance didn’t mean that everyone in his kingdom including his sons and his subjects would do the same; and so, it is with us to remember that. We can put our faith in Christ but that doesn’t mean that family members or doesn’t mean friends are going to follow right in the wake. We need to call on them and implore them to trust in Christ for salvation.

Here’s where I’ll leave it tonight. Especially for those here tonight who have not tasted the sweetness of forgiveness portrayed by the God who is speaking to and through Manasseh. You need to know that Manasseh’s God is the same God who reigns and rules over all peoples and nations including you today. You need to know that this same God responds as He did to Manasseh to those who humble themselves and come to Him in repentant faith. You need to know that the flesh you are feeding in your unrepentant state right now is the very enemy of your soul because what your sinful flesh is telling you is that you’ve gone too far. That you’ve sinned too much. That you’ve sinned too grievously. That the forgiving arm of God cannot reach you and that’s a lie.

Because you can be forgiven. No one is outside the reach of God’s forgiveness. If they will just come to the end of themselves. Humble themselves. Repent of their sin. Put their faith in God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Trusting that what He did for them on Calvary’s cross is sufficient to pay the penalty for all their sins. It will secure forgiveness from a holy and righteous God. You’ll have the promise of eternal life secured. It’s the very thing we are celebrating next week as look at the cross of Christ on Good Friday and Easter. I’m going to close our time tonight with Psalm 130:1-4: “Out of the depths I have cried to You, O LORD. Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared.”

Let’s pray.