2 Chronicles 33:1-9--Manasseh Reigns in Judah

2 Chronicles 33:1-9
English Standard Version

Manasseh Reigns in Judah
33 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. 2 And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel. 3 For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had broken down, and he erected altars to the Baals, and made Asheroth, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. 4 And he 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 And he burned his sons as an offering in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger. 7 And the carved image of the idol that he had made he set in the house of God, of which God 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 no more remove the foot of Israel from the land that I appointed for your fathers, if only they will be careful to do all that I have commanded them, all the law, the statutes, and the rules given through Moses.” 9 Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel.

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I think it's fair to say that Hezekiah's son rebelled against his father's way of doing things when he came to the throne at the age of twelve.  That seems young to us, but Jewish boys became adults at the age of 13 and did everything adults did at that point like marrying and having children of their own.  Even though Manasseh was an evil king, he was allowed to reign for fifty-five years (until Manasseh was sixty-seven years old).  That's well-advanced in years for that time and a long reign for any of the kings.

I already called him an evil king.  That's because he worshiped all the idols of the nations around him and engaged in all their wicked practices like child sacrifice, fornication, and maybe even bestiality (depending on exactly which gods and goddesses he was worshiping).  He rebuilt all the high places where people went to participate in their pagan rituals and remade the idols of Baal and the Asheroth that his father had torn down.  He also built altars for all these false gods within the courts of the Temple to desecrate the Temple.

I already mentioned child sacrifice as one of the abominations that made the LORD angry with him, but he also brought back the mediums, witches, fortune tellers, sorcerers, necromancers, and false prophets (sometimes called seers) of these false gods, which the LORD had commanded that anyone practicing such detestable things should be put to death.  The things that the LORD hated were the things that Manasseh loved.

The text tells us that under Manasseh's leadership, Manasseh and the people of Judah (identified by its capital city, Jerusalem) did more evil in the sight of God than all their pagan neighbors around them.  that's really saying something.  We can see that making the Temple a place for the worship of these false gods really angered the LORD as the Temple was a place where His Name and covenant were to be remembered by His people and by the people of all nations.  It was a place for the nations to come and hear of His nature and character and commandments, and it was a place for the gospel as they knew it to be proclaimed to the whole world.  That place that was to be the place of evangelism and discipleship has now become a cesspool of spiritual filth where people come to consort with demons and engage in all kinds of detestable practices, not the least of which is probably all kinds of sexual sin.  What a perversion of what the LORD had intended this place to be!