We are a joke to other nations. They laugh and make fun of us. Lord, how long will this last? Will You be angry forever? How long will Your jealousy burn like a fire? (Verses 4-5)
He was only twenty-two years old when his father, Hezekiah the king, died. Hezekiah loved God. Made it a point to serve Him. Manasseh grew up in a God-fearing home. So what happened when he succeeded his father as king? Where did he go wrong? The litany of his sins against God is really long. He set up an idol to the sex god, Asherah, in the holy Temple, built altars to Baal, sacrificed his son on the fiery altar of Molek, chose fortune tellers and mediums to run his country and he took Israel with him into sin. The young king killed many innocent people, filling Jerusalem from one end to the other with their blood. "Manasseh has become more evil than the nations I cast out before him," declared the Lord God. "I will bring so much trouble on Jerusalem and Judah that all who hear about it will be shocked. I will wipe out Jerusalem as a person wipes a dish and turns it upside down." The Lord was seriously angry. But in their complacency over His seeming lack of interest in their rebellion against their God, the people continued in idolatry. They needed some tough love.
God tried to speak to Manasseh. Tried to chip away at the hardness of his heart. But the king refused to listen. Pushed the Lord's gentle reminders out of the way and led the people into ever more riotous sin. Setting up pagan idols in the Temple of God and worshipping them there. God had every right to be jealous. Manasseh didn't grow up that way. He knew better. Maybe the constraints of being a follower of God were too much for him. Manasseh wanted to taste the world...all of it, apparently. But God...loved Manasseh. How do we know? God brought the army of Assyria to attack Judah. Yep. That's how we know. The army captured, but didn't kill, Manasseh. Two guards held the kings arms behind his back while another forced a huge metal ring through his nose then chained his arms behind him. On the king's feet were placed more chains so that he was thoroughly bound and bloody when the Assyrian army dragged him by the ring in his nose through the streets of Babylon. There he was thrown in prison, humiliated and defeated.
The Bible doesn't say how long Manasseh sat in jail before he remembered "the Lord his God." Hmm. So...all along Yahweh was Manasseh's God? The other stuff was simply fun...or interesting...? Seeing what it's like to have a relationship with a sex god and the god of fire. Wasting years of his young life and killing even his own children in search of the ultimate religious thrill. How long did the young king marinate in his own stupidity before he looked up? Don't know. The point is, Manasseh knew who the real God was. The only God Who could deliver him. Who could take the barbaric ring from his nose and trade it once again for the signet ring of a king. One day he swallowed his pride. On his face in the filthy prison cell, Manasseh begged the God of his father to help him. "Oh, God of my ancestors, the only true God, I was wrong. Help me."
How long until God did anything about it? The Bible doesn't say. But what it does say is, "The Lord heard him and had pity on him." Really? That is the God I love. For all my Manasseh moments. However, it doesn't seem God rushed in right away and cleared up the mess. Gave Manasseh a get-out-of-jail-free card just yet. Because God loved him enough to teach him a lesson. When the kingdom was restored to Manasseh, he wasn't the same profligate son of a gun he'd been. Nope. He ripped down all those idols with a vengeance. Reestablished God as the One True God. And all the people said, "Amen."
God is more concerned sometimes about our individual faith than what people say about us...or Him. So the Assyrians laugh at God and mock Him under their breath as Manasseh is dragged like a pig to slaughter down the Babylonian streets. God knows Who He is. Isn't as worried about what the godless think of Him as He is about what is going on with his boy, Manasseh. So, let the king feel the repercussions of life without the favor of the Most High God. Let the boy call out to Baal or Asherah. Can sex save Manasseh now? Will the empty gods of fire bring him good fortune because Manasseh burned his child alive to please them? He will find out. Because I will wait until He cries out to Me. God there until the perfect time.
It is love that allows our predicaments at times. It is the paradigm of life without His hand that reveals the hand was there. How long will we wait? Until we turn our hearts back to Him. Fester in the messy detritus of our own diseased hearts long enough to hate the stench. To remember, like the prodigal son, that we were once loved magnificently by God, our Father. To want with all our hearts to go home again. To run into the open arms of the One Who should've let us rot there, but Who loved us enough to let us take the consequences of our sins just long enough to get enough. The entire Assyrian army was assembled for an attack because God loved one very sinful, very rebellious, very wayward child of His enough to be tough with his mutiny. May God love us all that way. Because nothing is as important to Him or us as having our hearts and minds knit together with His.
He was only twenty-two years old when his father, Hezekiah the king, died. Hezekiah loved God. Made it a point to serve Him. Manasseh grew up in a God-fearing home. So what happened when he succeeded his father as king? Where did he go wrong? The litany of his sins against God is really long. He set up an idol to the sex god, Asherah, in the holy Temple, built altars to Baal, sacrificed his son on the fiery altar of Molek, chose fortune tellers and mediums to run his country and he took Israel with him into sin. The young king killed many innocent people, filling Jerusalem from one end to the other with their blood. "Manasseh has become more evil than the nations I cast out before him," declared the Lord God. "I will bring so much trouble on Jerusalem and Judah that all who hear about it will be shocked. I will wipe out Jerusalem as a person wipes a dish and turns it upside down." The Lord was seriously angry. But in their complacency over His seeming lack of interest in their rebellion against their God, the people continued in idolatry. They needed some tough love.
God tried to speak to Manasseh. Tried to chip away at the hardness of his heart. But the king refused to listen. Pushed the Lord's gentle reminders out of the way and led the people into ever more riotous sin. Setting up pagan idols in the Temple of God and worshipping them there. God had every right to be jealous. Manasseh didn't grow up that way. He knew better. Maybe the constraints of being a follower of God were too much for him. Manasseh wanted to taste the world...all of it, apparently. But God...loved Manasseh. How do we know? God brought the army of Assyria to attack Judah. Yep. That's how we know. The army captured, but didn't kill, Manasseh. Two guards held the kings arms behind his back while another forced a huge metal ring through his nose then chained his arms behind him. On the king's feet were placed more chains so that he was thoroughly bound and bloody when the Assyrian army dragged him by the ring in his nose through the streets of Babylon. There he was thrown in prison, humiliated and defeated.
The Bible doesn't say how long Manasseh sat in jail before he remembered "the Lord his God." Hmm. So...all along Yahweh was Manasseh's God? The other stuff was simply fun...or interesting...? Seeing what it's like to have a relationship with a sex god and the god of fire. Wasting years of his young life and killing even his own children in search of the ultimate religious thrill. How long did the young king marinate in his own stupidity before he looked up? Don't know. The point is, Manasseh knew who the real God was. The only God Who could deliver him. Who could take the barbaric ring from his nose and trade it once again for the signet ring of a king. One day he swallowed his pride. On his face in the filthy prison cell, Manasseh begged the God of his father to help him. "Oh, God of my ancestors, the only true God, I was wrong. Help me."
How long until God did anything about it? The Bible doesn't say. But what it does say is, "The Lord heard him and had pity on him." Really? That is the God I love. For all my Manasseh moments. However, it doesn't seem God rushed in right away and cleared up the mess. Gave Manasseh a get-out-of-jail-free card just yet. Because God loved him enough to teach him a lesson. When the kingdom was restored to Manasseh, he wasn't the same profligate son of a gun he'd been. Nope. He ripped down all those idols with a vengeance. Reestablished God as the One True God. And all the people said, "Amen."
God is more concerned sometimes about our individual faith than what people say about us...or Him. So the Assyrians laugh at God and mock Him under their breath as Manasseh is dragged like a pig to slaughter down the Babylonian streets. God knows Who He is. Isn't as worried about what the godless think of Him as He is about what is going on with his boy, Manasseh. So, let the king feel the repercussions of life without the favor of the Most High God. Let the boy call out to Baal or Asherah. Can sex save Manasseh now? Will the empty gods of fire bring him good fortune because Manasseh burned his child alive to please them? He will find out. Because I will wait until He cries out to Me. God there until the perfect time.
It is love that allows our predicaments at times. It is the paradigm of life without His hand that reveals the hand was there. How long will we wait? Until we turn our hearts back to Him. Fester in the messy detritus of our own diseased hearts long enough to hate the stench. To remember, like the prodigal son, that we were once loved magnificently by God, our Father. To want with all our hearts to go home again. To run into the open arms of the One Who should've let us rot there, but Who loved us enough to let us take the consequences of our sins just long enough to get enough. The entire Assyrian army was assembled for an attack because God loved one very sinful, very rebellious, very wayward child of His enough to be tough with his mutiny. May God love us all that way. Because nothing is as important to Him or us as having our hearts and minds knit together with His.
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