Reframe: Manasseh King of Judah

Manasseh King of Judah

After the death of king Hezekiah, his twelve-year-old son, Manasseh, was crowned king over Judah and began his reign. He had a lengthy rule of fifty-five years in Jerusalem, the glorious city. His mother, Hephzibah, was very close to him.

Compared to what Hezekiah did for Judah and how he walked before God, Manasseh was horrible. He multiplied in evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the abominations of the nations. In specific, he did like the nations that the Lord cast out of the land of Israel before giving them the land.

Manasseh rebuilt the high places and local shrines that his father, Hezekiah, had torn down and destroyed. He built altars for the god Baal, and he made groves like king Ahab had done in Israel (Samaria). Manasseh also worshipped all the host of heaven. He was a devoted star and moon worshipper.

Sons Passed Through Fire

Manasseh king of Judah also built altars to pagan gods in the house of the Sovereign Lord of Israel. This is the same Sovereign Lord that said, In Jerusalem, I will place my name. Manasseh did not stop there, he also built altars for all the stars of heaven.

He did this in the two large places of the temple of the Lord. The king of Judah wasn’t finished; he also engaged in ritualistic pagan activities. He made his sons pass through the fire, sacrificing them. The king observed times, used enchantments, and administered familiar spirits and wizardry in Judah.

He kept false divinations by the twittering of birds and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to be filled with evil spirits speaking in their wombs. He introduced a great deal of wickedness to Jerusalem and Judah. Manasseh set an idol of wood in the house of the Lord.

In the name of spiritual and religious freedom…

This is the same house the Lord spoke to king David and Solomon said, I will set my name forever here. The Lord said this Because I have chosen them out of all the tribes of Israel. The Lord said He would neither make the feet of Israel move any more out of the land that He gave to their ancestors.

They only have to observe and do according to what the Lord has commanded them, the law that His steward Moses commanded them. What Manasseh was doing was an attempt to bring spiritual and religious freedoms to the land. It was a major reform or deform.

The children of Israel and Judah would not listen and in addition, Manasseh seduced and deceived them into more evils. They followed their own minds to do evil even more than the nations round about them. They surpassed the Amorites. Because of this, this is what the Lord God of Israel says, “See, I am bringing such evil to Jerusalem and Judah that whoever hears what is coming, both of their ears will tingle!”

Like this since the days in Egypt…

They will not believe what they hear. “I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria along with the burden of the house of Ahab. The Lord will wipe Jerusalem down like a man wipes down a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down,” says the Sovereign Lord. “I will forsake and forget the remnant of my inheritance and allow them to be discomfited by their enemies.

They will become a prey and a spoil to all their combatants,” says the Lord God of Israel. This is what the Lord says, “They have done evil in my presence, provoking me to anger; and have done so since the day their ancestors came out of Egypt, to this day, they have not stopped.”

More than this, Manasseh, the king over Judah shed much innocent blood. He killed so many innocent people it was to the point he filled Jerusalem from one end to the other with blood spill. The blood he shed isn’t the fullness of his sins that he encouraged Judah to do before the Lord.

Amon, Like Father like Son

The rest of the acts Manasseh did during his reign, including other things he did, the sins he sinned; they are written in the chronicles of the kings of Judah for public reading. Manasseh died and was buried with his fathers.

He was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza, and not with the kings of Judah. His son Amon ruled in his place. His son Amon was twenty-two years of age when he took over the throne of Judah. He only ruled a short two years in Jerusalem.

He also was close to his mother, Meshullemeth, who was the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. Amon did as his father Manasseh, he did evil in the sight of the Lord. He behaved just like his father, serving idols and worshipping them.

Josiah take the throne…

He abandoned the Lord God of his ancestors and walked not after the Sovereign Lord of Israel. This caused a few servants to rebel against him. Two servants of Amon conspired to kill him and they did, killing the king of Judah in his own house.

The men were caught and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law; they were both killed, mercilessly. The people of the land then made Josiah, his son, king in his place. The details of the acts of Amon that he did are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.

He was buried in his burial chamber in the garden of Uzza, alongside his father Manasseh. Josiah his son, took over the throne of Judah.

Selah (article based on 2 Kings chapter 21)

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