2 Kings 21:1-26
Manasseh Reigns in Judah (2 Chronicles 33:1–20)
1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. 2 And 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 destroyed; he raised up altars for Baal, and made a wooden image, as Ahab king of Israel had done; 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 I will put My name.” 5 And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. 6 Also he made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft, and consulted spiritists and mediums. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger. 7 He even set a carved image of Asherah that he had made, in the house of which the LORD 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 make the feet of Israel wander anymore from the land which I gave their fathers—only if they are careful to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that My servant Moses commanded them.” 9 But they paid no attention, and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel.
10 And the LORD spoke by His servants the prophets, saying, 11 “Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations (he has acted more wickedly than all the Amorites who were before him, and has also made Judah sin with his idols), 12 therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘Behold, I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle. 13 And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab; I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. 14 So I will forsake the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become victims of plunder to all their enemies, 15 because they have done evil in My sight, and have provoked Me to anger since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.’”
16 Moreover Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides his sin by which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the LORD.
17 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh—all that he did, and the sin that he committed—are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 18 So Manasseh rested with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza. Then his son Amon reigned in his place.
Amon’s Reign and Death (2 Chronicles 33:21–25)
19 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. 20 And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, as his father Manasseh had done. 21 So he walked in all the ways that his father had walked; and he served the idols that his father had served, and worshiped them. 22 He forsook the LORD God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the LORD.
23 Then the servants of Amon conspired against him, and killed the king in his own house. 24 But the people of the land executed all those who had conspired against King Amon. Then the people of the land made his son Josiah king in his place.
25 Now the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 26 And he was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza. Then Josiah his son reigned in his place.
These two kings of Judah continued the downward spiral from doing good to evil in God’s eyes as those of the northern kingdom of the other tribes of Israel based in Samaria had been doing. King Manasseh reigned longer than Amon after him, reigning fifty-five years in Jerusalem versus two short years, yet they both caused the people to sin as they followed their leaders, worshipping and serving all the host of heaven instead of their LORD and Creator, Yahweh who was constantly forgiving their sins and delivering them from their adversaries. They went so far away from the living God to run after dumb idols of man’s invented objects of worship made of wood and stone, pursuing soothsaying, witchcraft, and they even consulted spiritists and mediums as some today do as if God approved of divided and misdirected worship in astrology, tarot, fortune telling, and seances. These are an abomination to God just as much now as in the past as we read here how evil and off these are to our Lord. This leader Manasseh desecrated the place of worship by erecting an idol in the temple, much as some erect idols of misplaced worship in the temples of their bodies (1 Corinthians 3:16-17, 2 Corinthians 6:16) even now. They provoked the LORD with this idol worship and immorality that followed in their pagan rituals as the king led the people astray from true worship and killed many innocents to seduce the people into more evil than even the pagan nations around them! Amon was no better, but God removed him from his position of evil influence after just two years. He still perpetuated the evil acts of his predecessor by turning his back on God, and because of this he caused the people to continue in their rebellion against the LORD until his own servants killed him in his home. Even these were killed for killing the evil king as they put his son Josiah in his place as king. This ongoing legacy of evil of Judah following after Israel to the north, living contrary to the word and will of their LORD God, had a lasting effect on the nation of people called out of bondage to sin in Egypt into a promised land meant to drive out the pagan idolatry and immorality to serve and worship God alone as the first commandment demands even now to we who are called out of sin into Christ to be holy (1 Peter 1:15-16) as He is. Not only are our individual bodies temples of His Holy Spirit, but we are corporately (1 Peter 2:4) being built into the place of worship as the church as priests (1 Peter 2:9) to serve Him and lead one another into righteous worship and living (Romans 12:1-2, 1 Corinthians 1:10) together in the kingdom of God in Christ, doing good in his sight. May we then learn from these examples of unfaithfulness and divided worship to instead determine to continue to focus our loyalty of love in heart and body and soul (Mark 12:33) on serving our Lord alone and not the world (1 John 2:15-16, 17) around us. Evil company corrupts good living habits (1 Corinthians 15:33-34), especially from leaders such as pastors, elders, and teachers of the gospel. We who lead must therefore be more diligent to set the example in our own hearts and lives by our words of true doctrine and lovingly consistent obedience of sole worship of our Lord in spirit and truth, keeping untainted (2 Corinthians 7:1, 1 John 3:3, 1 Timothy 1:5, 6:14) by the pull of the world and conformity to its deceptive evil reasoning and practices. May we turn from evil to true worship and not the other way around as Judah did after Israel. We who do the will of God abide forever in the kingdom that has no end. Amen.
