The Infallible Dogma

“1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. 2 But he did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel. 3 For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; he raised up altars for the Baals, and made wooden images; and he worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. 4 He also built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “In Jerusalem shall My name be forever.” 5 And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. 6 Also he caused his sons to pass through the fire in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom; he practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft and sorcery, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger. 7 He even set a carved image, 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 out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever; 8 and I will not again remove the foot of Israel from the land which I have appointed for your fathers—only if they are careful to do all that I have commanded them, according to the whole law and the statutes and the ordinances by the hand of Moses.” 9 So Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel.
10 And the LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they would not listen. 11 Therefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze fetters, and carried him off to Babylon. 12 Now when he was in affliction, he implored the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, 13 and prayed to Him; and He received his entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.”
~ 2nd Chronicles 33:1-13
*history lesson*
Manasseh reigned from 696 to 642 B.C., the longes reign of any king in Judah. He reigned for 55 years. he was 12 when he came king, and reigned for 55 years. Can you imagine becoming the most important person, a king, of a nation at age 12? He did have a long run, not to say it was a righteous run, but a loing one none-the-less. Manasseh died at the young age of 67. Now, there is no number to how many years he reigned in tyranny against God, but we could assume that it was a long time. Now, let’s go through Manasseh’s life.

First, he rebuilt the high places. The high places were torn down by Hezekiah (Manessah’s father). You would think this would be good. He swings… but he misses. Manasseh restored the high places only to pervert it. He set up idols, and altars of Baals, and everyone worshipped them. Manasseh took the extra step, he set up altars in the house of the Lord. The house of the Lord was to have His name only (duh), Manasseh took something holy, and perverted it. He made it a house of Baal. In verse 6 we get a list of some of the evil thing Manasseh did, “he caused his sons to pass through the fire in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom”. More simply, he sacrificed his sons to Baal. He sacrificed his sons?! That would never cross our minds, at least I hope not. Of course, Manasseh isn’t the first king to do this. Carry on down to verse 9, Manasseh seduced Judah and all the people in Jerusalem. Jerusalem, the city of God, His blessed city, doing more evil and wickedness than the nations that the Lord destroyed because of thier wickedness. Jerusalem sure did have worship issues. So, God tried to speak to Manasseh and his people. No luck, they turned a deaf ear. Well, needless to say, God was fed up with them. He sent the Assyrians to capture them. When Manasseh was captured they tide him up with bronze fetters, which were chains. They also used hooks, back then, they used nose hooks, they went inside the nostrils and out the other side, pulling the nose up. Manasseh was in a lot of pain I presume. So, we find in verse 12 Manasseh repents and humbles himself before God, and he recieves Him. And God sent him back to Jerusalem, His kingdom. “Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God”.

*Application lesson*
So, what do we get out of all this? We get 2 thing out of this story. The faithfulness and the mercy of God.
A lot of people fail to realize the importance of Manasseh, and the other king’s of Jerusalem before and after Manasseh. They were the line of David. How is this important? Jesus in the line of David. If God would have let Manasseh die in the hands of the Assyrians the lineage of David would have been destroyed. The line of David would not have existed any more, and everything would have been severed And the covenant God made would have been broken. But God in his faithfulness keeps the line going.

Second, on mercy. When I read this passage I kept thinking, “man, Manasseh is lucky I am not God, cause if I was, he’d be a goner for sure”. Then I thought, “Thank goodness I am not God!”. We often think we are more merciful than God, we are not even close! We forgive someone for making fun of us, how sweet. We forgive someone for hitting us, that’s nice. God forgave someone who worshipped Baal in His temple, He forgave someone who sacrificed his sons to Baal. We would not even think of doing that, it wouldn’t even dare to cross our minds! God took this pagan for a king, and turned him into a God fearing king. Can we say we have done something at this magnitude? Most certainly not, because we can’t do it. We are nowhere near as merciful as God.

This brings me to a third point this is both faithfulness and mercy. Sometimes we have this mentality of “how can God forgive me?”. Read the story of Manasseh, it’ll cheer you up in a jiffy. This is the beauty of God, there is nothing we can say or do, that can seperate us from God. God is so faithful and so merciful, he forgives us.
This reminds me of a story I heard. A father came home late from work, and he finds a note on the counter, written by his little boy, it says, “Dear daddy, I did something terrible today. Will you forgive me?”. So, the father went up stairs into his son’s room. His little boy is alseep, so he kneels by the bed, places his hand on his son and says “son, I forgive you”, and goes off to bed. You might confused. How can he forgive his son when he doesn’t even know what his son did. It’s the whole beauty, there is nothing his son can do that will not earn his father’s forgiveness. God will forgive you, not matter what you have done. Because He is a faithful, and merciful God. Amen!