2 Kings 21:1-9--Manasseh Reigns in Judah

2 Kings 21:1-9
English Standard Version

Manasseh Reigns in Judah
21 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah. 2 And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel. 3 For he rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, 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 will I 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 And he burned his son as an offering and used fortune-telling and omens 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 Asherah that he had made he set in the house of which the LORD 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 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.” 9 But they did not listen, and Manasseh led them astray to do more evil than the nations had done whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel.

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Manasseh, Hezekiah's son, was 12 years old when he started to reign in Judah.  He reigned 55 years (quite a long time if you compare his reign to that of other kings where most of the good kings only reigned about 40 years).  However, he was not a good king--he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD by engaging in the practices of the peoples that Israel was supposed to drive out of the Land and the other nations that were around them--idolatry, sexual immorality, and sacrifices to these other gods (probably including child sacrifices).  The LORD's intent was for His people to be holy and not like the other nations around them.  Instead, Manasseh wanted to be like King Ahab and Queen Jezebel and to serve and worship the Baals and Asherah that Israel had been serving.  He even built altars to these false gods and goddesses in Jerusalem, defiling the Temple by building these altars within the Temple Courtyards so that there was no place for the Jews or the Gentiles to come and worship the LORD in His house.  This greatly angered the LORD.

In addition, Manasseh also offered his own son up as a burnt offering, probably to the god called Molech, and used fortune telling and omens and dealt with with medium and necromancers.  For those unfamiliar with the Law, all of these were capital offenses worthy of death.  It seemed that he looked for every opportunity to break the Law and as king, he was encouraging the nation to break the Law of the LORD too, for if the king did it (and especially if it seems he went unpunished) the people thought it was okay--remember that it was the responsibility of each generation not only to teach the future generations the Law with their words, but also to give them an example to follow with their actions.  Where Hezekiah was for the most part obedient, his son Manasseh was rebellious.

The text reminds us that God's covenant with David when He built the Temple was conditional--the LORD's Presence would only remain there as long as they were careful to do everything He had commanded them in the Law (obviously not perfectly), but His Presence could not dwell among their iniquity.  So it will be that the prophet Ezekiel will see the glory of the LORD (His Presence) depart from the Temple but even though that sounds like bad news, it is really good news because His glory will follow His people to Babylon in Exile to show them that He will never leave them or forsake them and that His Presence is not bound to stay within temples created by human hands.  There is still a little bit of time before this happens though and Manasseh will continue to lead the people to be even more evil than the nations around them.  It will reach a point where the LORD will not let the guilty go unpunished, even if they are "His people" (if they were truly "His" though, they would love Him and obey Him, so they have demonstrated with their actions that they are not His people.  This will be an overarching theme of the Prophets when we study them--if the LORD punished the nations for their iniquity (high-handed sins of rebellion) when they did not even have the Law like the Israelites did, how much more would the LORD have to punish Israel who did have the Law if they rebelled even worse than the Gentiles.  How could they escape His wrath? The need for a something greater than the Law becomes obvious as the Law by itself was not sufficient enough to change the hearts of the people, nor was it enough to deal with their iniquity and save them from the curse of sin and death, so the Prophets will also point us forward to a Messiah that will be the perfect Prophet, Priest, and King and who will save His people from their sins, give them new hearts, and give them a new covenant.