Chapter 21
Manasseh becomes King at the age of 12, and reigns 55 years. He sets about undoing all the good Hezekiah had done. He rebuilds those high places that had finally been destroyed, begins Baal worship, builds an Asherah, and worships "all the host of heaven" - astrology and so on. Perhaps this is God's way of showing that Judah should be destroyed, as was Hezekiah's pride. God knew the people would turn to idols given any choice at all...but that's not right. There was true revival in Hezekiah's early days. Why did it not last? How was Manasseh able to so easily turn the people back to idols?
Manasseh even builds altars to false gods inside the Temple. He burns his own son as an offering. He uses fortune-telling and omens, mediums and necromancers. He looks for guidance from demons in disguise - that's what these things are - instead of seeking God's guidance. This plumbs the depths of fallen man in my opinion. How can any man do such a thing? There is something missing from such a man. He even puts the Asherah he carved into the Temple of God. Judah has become worse than the nations driven out before them. Found this verse that might have some bearing:
5 Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the LORD understand it completely. [Pro 28:5 ESV]
In vs 8, we have this:
8 And I will not cause the feet of Israel to wander anymore out of the land that I gave to their fathers, if only they will be careful to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the Law that my servant Moses commanded them." [2Ki 21:8 ESV]
A succinct restatement of God's conditional covenant with the nation of Israel. But they have rarely complied, and Manasseh has now undone all that Hezekiah did right.
Next, God responds through His prophets, and passes judgement on Israel. The words are heavy with doom, and strike fear into me to even hear them. Here they are, as this chapter quotes them. A bit long, but worth seeing:
10 And the LORD said by his servants the prophets, 11 "Because Manasseh king of Judah has committed these abominations and has done things more evil than all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and has made Judah also to sin with his idols, 12 therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such disaster that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. 13 And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria, and the plumb line of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. 14 And I will forsake the remnant of my heritage and give them into the hand of their enemies, and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies, 15 because they have done what is evil in my sight and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day." [2Ki 21:10-15 ESV]
God declares the same fate for Judah and Jerusalem that Samaria has already suffered. They are going to be over run, destroyed, made "not a nation". So this disaster that is coming is not just about what Manasseh is doing, not just the consequence of Hezekiah's pride, but the culmination of all the evil and provocation of the children of Israel since their departure from Egypt. I cannot find a good number for the year they left Egypt, perhaps it goes too far back. Best number I found was 13th Century BCE. If I have my numbers right, Manasseh became co-regent in just about 600 BCE. So the 7th century BCE. By this probably inaccurate reckoning, about 600 years had passed. Seems too short...but that's all I have for now.
Manasseh, who had turned Israel so far away, who had done so much evil, and shed so much innocent blood, apparently dies a natural death and gets buried in the garden of his house. He experiences nothing that we would call punishment for his crimes while he is alive. The only punishment, even for such affronts to God right in God's own Temple, comes after death. Punishment before death must pale in comparison to what awaits after. Think of punishment in this world as just a drop in the bucket. It doesn't really add to the whole of eternal punishment that comes after.
Manasseh's son Amon reigns in his place. He reigns only two years, and follows in his father's footsteps. He does all the same idolatrous things. His servants murder him in his own house. But the people don't like this apparently and kill the servants, and then Josiah reigns in Amon's place. Amon was only 24 when he died. Josiah must have been pretty young when they made him king. (8 years old, we're told in the next chapter.)