[Listen to an audio version of this sermon here]
As we begin a new year, it’s easy to look back and see our failures. We may look back and see that we’ve really blown it. We may look back and find that we’ve wasted so much time or even done worthless or evil things. How do we deal with the guilt and sense of less? More importantly, how do we move forward and begin moving in the right direction? That’s what the Bible is all about! Today, we consider the story of Manasseh who lived 2,600 years ago. His story can still encourage us and empower us to move forward from wherever we are.
Two Key Background Notes
There are two important things to note in order to understand King Manasseh’s story. The first is that he came from good stock. His father was Hezekiah. He was one of the best kings Israel or Judah ever had. 2 Kings 18:5 tells us, “Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him.” He removed the idols. He restored the temple worship. He celebrated the Passover. He led the people back to the Lord. He trusted the Lord in all things. He worked diligently for the justice and defense of the people. There was no king quite like him.
The second thing was the Assyrian threat. The nation of Assyria formed an empire that conquered the nations around them and brutally subjugated them to its will. This was the first of a series of empires in the Middle East: Assyria then Babylon then Persia then Greece and finally Rome.
Hezekiah had to deal with the Assyrian threat. At one point, Jerusalem was surrounded by a huge Assyrian army. Hezekiah prayed to the Lord. The Lord sent an angel to wipe out much of the Assyrian army. The Assyrian king, Sennacharib returned to Nineveh in disgrace, and two of his sons killed him.
The key thing I want you to note here is that Hezekiah lived in a very anxious time in which his life and kingdom was threatened. Anxiety is not in itself sin. It is the emotion that leads us to prepare for threats. The question is what we do with it? Do we seek the Lord, or do we seek our own solution? We seek our own solution to anxiety in two ways. We either withdraw from life or press forward to find our own solution without seeking God. So, the question that confronts us here is, what do we do with the challenges of life? What do we do with the anxiety of life? Do we seek to solve it ourselves or go to God with it?
The question for Hezekiah was, what would he do in this anxious time? Would he turn to his own strength? Would he seek out the gods of the nations around him? Would he seek the Lord? Would he rely on his God?
Hezekiah let his anxiety lift his heart to the Lord. In Hezekiah’s case, he responded to anxiety by seeking the God of his ancestors. In this way, he prospered.
Manasseh’s Awful Reign
The situation was very much the same when Manasseh took the throne. Assyria still threatened. Anxiety was still high. The question is, what would Manasseh do with it?
Whereas Hezekiah was one of the best kings, Manasseh was one of the worst. Listen to all the things that he did.
He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had demolished; he also erected altars to the Baals and made Asherah poles. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshiped them. . . . He sacrificed his children in the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, practiced divination and witchcraft, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger.
He took the image he had made and put it in God’s temple . . . (2 Chronicles 33:2–4, 6–7).
In other words, he was really bad. The result of his bad leadership and example was that he led his nation into evil: “Manasseh led Judah and the people of Jerusalem astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites” (2 Chron. 33:9). Things were getting very bad in Judah.
God did not let all this go without a response. “The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention” (2 Chron. 33:10). They added to all their sins the sin of rejecting God’s warnings.
Now, I want you to notice something here. Manasseh did the wrong things, terrible things. But why did he do all this? He was anxious about the Assyrian threat. He felt desperation to act based on the difficulty of his situation. While no doubt Manasseh should be condemned, there is also something that should elicit our compassion. Just like us, he was facing a very difficult situation. He was anxious. The question was, what would he do with this anxiety? He chose the wrong things in the extreme.
This year has been an anxious time, and this year promises more of the same. What will we do with it? Will we drown ourselves in things that make us escape from it all? Will we furiously try to solve things by our own power? Or, will we bring it before the Lord? This challenge is all based on our ability to see the big picture but also our inability to change most of it. We have to trust the Lord and respond in faith and then work out of that faith where God has put us. That is the proper response to anxious times.
Manasseh’s Wonderful Restoration
In spite of all he did to escape the Assyrian threat, seeking all sorts of gods and illicit guidance, what he feared finally fell upon him. “So the Lord brought against them the army commanders of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh prisoner, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon” (2 Chron. 33:12). Assyria came in and captured him, most likely for not honoring them in the way they thought Manasseh should.
At this point, Manasseh finally listened. “In his distress he sought the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his ancestors” (2 Chron. 33:12). He gave up on doing it himself and finding his own solution. He returned and sought the God of his fathers. His deep distress finally lifted him up to the Lord.
The Lord heard Manasseh in prison. “And when he prayed to him, the Lord was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea” (2 Chron. 33:13a). God is always ready to move toward those who move toward Him. He is the gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love.
That’s why we should be encouraged. Whatever we’ve done, wherever we’ve been, however much we’ve failed, “Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon” (Is. 55:7). We should not let our past failures keep us from hope. The door is always open. God is ready to receive us.
Now, Manasseh had let the altar of the Lord deteriorate, but the altar of the Lord always pointed to the fact that whatever Israel or an Isrealite had done, there was atonement and forgiveness. That altar pointed forward to the cross. As often as we see our failures, we need to see the cross of Christ. It always beckons us to return, to confess our sins, and to find forgiveness and healing. Come unto me, whoever you are, wherever you are, Jesus says.
But this message should not only encourage us concerning ourselves. It should also encourage us as we think about other people. We all have those people who are Manassehs in our lives, people who knew the Lord and his ways but walked away from it. People who have gone in the totally wrong direction and need to return to the Lord. Let us not give up on them, and let us not give up praying for them.
After this, God “brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is God” (2 Chron. 33:13b). God brought a great restoration in the life of Manasseh.
The restoration not only brought him back physically. It brought him back to where he needed to be in his heart. He started doing the right things. He began to do his duty as king. “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” (2 Chron. 33:16). He led the people in the right way.
And that’s what we can do, too. If we’ve been doing the wrong things, we don’t need to stay there. We can turn around. We need to turn the Lord and, then, by His grace, start doing the right things. That’s repentance.
What have you left undone that God is calling you to return to? Don’t let the past failures burden you. God is a God who restores. Go to Him and find a God who is gracious and compassionate. Then, go in his power to do what God has called you to do. The Lord is with you when you are with Him. Let all who seek the Lord be encouraged, for all those who seek will find Him. That’s the glorious lesson we can learn from King Manasseh. Amen.