2 Chronicles 33:1-25
Q.1. How did Manasseh respond to his spiritual heritage? How far did he backslide? How did he insult his forefathers’? What made judgment certain? – (2 Chr.33:1-9)
Manasseh was only twelve years old when he began to rule. He grew up while the life of his father was extended by 15 years. He was there when Hezekiah – … gave no return for the benefit he received, because his heart was proud; therefore wrath came on him and on Judah and Jerusalem (2 Chr.32:25). Manasseh led his people to undo all the good that his father had done during the revival (2 Chr.33:1-7). In fact – Manasseh misled Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the sons of Israel (2 Chr.33:9). When the evil of Manasseh surpassed that of those whom God had spewed out of the Promised Land before them, God would have been unrighteous to ignore Judah’s wickedness. Manasseh forfeited the promises of God. He even sacrificed his own children to foreign gods (2 Chr.33:6).Â
Q.2. Why was Manasseh’s fall inevitable? How far down did he have to go before he found the Lord? How did Manasseh’s life end? – (2 Chr.33:10-20)
God, in mercy, sent prophets to call Manasseh to repentance. He refused to listen (2 Chr.33:10, 18), so the Assyrians – … captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze chains and took him to Babylon (2 Chr.33:11). Not until then did Manasseh repent – When he was in distress, he entreated the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers (2 Chr.33:12). In an amazing act of grace – When he prayed to Him, God 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 (2 Chr.33:13). After his personal encounter with God, Manasseh tried to undo the evil that he had inspired – 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 (2 Chr.33:15). Though Manasseh’s life ended in a good place, it was not possible to return the nation to the revival conditions of his father’s earlier reign. His epitaph was mixed – His prayer 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 (2 Chr.33:19). Worse was to come.
Q.3. What was the reign of King Amon of Judah like? How lost was Amon? Did his leadership bring joy to the nation? How did it all end? – (2 Chr.33:21-25)
The reign of Amon only lasted 2 years. He was an idolater. He returned to the gods Manasseh had worshipped – he did not humble himself before the Lord as his father Manasseh had done, but Amon multiplied guilt (2 Chr.33:23). He was assassinated, and his assailants were also all killed (2 Chr.33:24-25).