'So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and
to do worse than the heathen, whom the Lord had destroyed before the
children of Israel. 10. And the Lord spake to Manasseh, and to his
people: but they would not hearken. 11. Wherefore the Lord brought
upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took
Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him
to Babylon. 12. And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord
his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers,
13. And prayed unto him: and he was intreated of him, and heard his
supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom.
Then Manasseh knew that the Lord He was God. 14. Now after this he
built a wall without the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in
the valley, even to the entering in at the fish gate, and compassed
about Ophel, and raised it up a very great height, and put captains of
war in all the fenced cities of Judah. 15. And he took away the
strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the Lord, and all the
altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the Lord, and in
Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city. 16. And he repaired the
altar of the Lord, and sacrificed thereon peace offerings and thank
offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel.'--2
CHRON. xxxiii. 9-16.
The story of Manasseh's sin and repentance may stand as a typical
example. Its historical authenticity is denied on the ground that it
appears only in this Book of Chronicles. I must leave others to
discuss that matter; my purpose is to bring out the teaching contained
in the story.
The first point in it is the stern indictment against Manasseh and his
people. The experience which has saddened many a humbler home was
repeated in the royal house, where a Hezekiah was followed by a
Manasseh, who scorned all that his father had worshipped, and
worshipped all that his father had loathed. Happily the father's eyes
were closed long before the idolatrous bias of his son could have
disclosed itself. Succeeding to the throne at twelve years of age, he
could not have begun his evil ways at once, and probably would have
been preserved from them if his father had lived long enough to mould
his character. A child of twelve, flung on to a throne, was likely to
catch the infection of any sin that was in the atmosphere. The
narrative specifies two points in which, as he matured in years, and
was confirmed in his course of conduct, he went wrong: first, in his
idolatry; and second, in his contempt of remonstrances and warnings.
As to the former, the preceding context gives a terrible picture. He
was smitten with a very delirium of idolatry, and wallowed in any and
every sort of false worship. No matter what strange god was presented,
there were hospitality, an altar, and an offering for him. Baal,
Moloch, 'the host of heaven,' wizards, enchanters, anybody who
pretended to have any sort of black art, all were welcome, and the
more the better. No doubt, this eager acceptance of a miscellaneous
multitude of deities was partly reaction from the monotheism of the
former reign, but also it was the natural result of being surrounded
by the worshippers of these various gods; and it was an unconscious
confession of the insufficiency of each and all of them to fill the
void in the heart, and satisfy the needs of the spirit. There are
'gods many, and lords many,' because they are insufficient; 'the Lord
our God is one Lord,' because He, in His single Self, is more than all
these, and is enough for any and every man.
We may note, too, that at the beginning of the chapter Manasseh is
said to have done '_like_ unto the abominations of the heathen,'
while in verse 9 he is said to have done 'evil _more_ than did
the nations.' When a worshipper of Jehovah does _like_ the
heathen, he does _worse_ than they. An apostate Christian is more
guilty than one who has never 'tasted the good word of God,' and is
likely to push his sins to a more flagrant wickedness. 'The corruption
of the best is the worst.' We cannot do what the world does without
being more deeply guilty than they.
The narrative lays stress on the fact that the king's inclination to
idolatry was agreeable to the people. The kings, who fought against
it, had to resist the popular current, but at the least encouragement
from those in high places the nation was ready to slide back. Rulers
who wish to lower the standard of morality or religion have an easy
task; but the people who follow their lead are not free from guilt,
though they can plead that they only followed. The second count in the
indictment is the refusal of king and people to listen to God's
remonstrances. 2 Kings, chap, xxi., gives the prophets' warnings at
greater length. 'They would not hearken'--can anything madder and
sadder be said of any of us than that? Is it not the very sin of sins,
and the climax of suicidal folly, that God should call and men stop
their ears? And yet how many of us pay no more regard to His voice, in
His providences, in our own consciences, in history, in Scripture,
and, most penetrating and beseeching of all, in Christ, than to idle
wind whistling through an archway! Our own evil deeds stop our ears,
and the stopped ears make further evil deeds more easy.
The second step in this typical story is merciful chastisement, meant
to secure a hearing for God's voice. 2 Kings tells the threat, but not
the fulfilment; Chronicles tells the fulfilment, but not the threat.
We note how emphatically God's hand is recognised behind the political
complications which brought the Assyrians to Jerusalem, and how
particularly it is stated that the invasion was not headed by
Esarhaddon, but by his generals. The place of Manasseh's captivity
also is specified, not as Nineveh, as might have been expected, but as
Babylon. These details, especially the last, look like genuine
history. It is history which carries a lesson. Here is one conspicuous
instance of the divine method, which is working to-day as it did then.
God's hand is behind the secondary causes of events. Our sorrows and
'misfortunes' are sent to us by Him, not hurled at us by human hands
only, or occurring by the working of impersonal laws. They are meant
to make us bethink ourselves, and drop evil things from our hands and
hearts. It is best to be guided by His eye, and not need 'bit and
bridle'; but if we make ourselves stubborn as 'the mule, which has no
understanding,' it is second best that we should taste the whip, that
it may bring us to run in harness on the road which He wills. If we
habitually looked at calamities as His loving chastisement, intended
to draw us to Himself, we should not have to stand perplexed so often
at what we call the mysteries of His providence.
The next step in the story is the yielding of the sinful heart when
smitten. The worst affliction is an affliction wasted, which does us
no good. And God has often to lament, 'In vain have I smitten your
children; they received no correction.' Sorrow has in itself no power
to effect the purpose for which it is sent; but all depends on how we
take it. It sometimes makes us hard, bitter, obstinate in clinging to
evil. A heart that has been disciplined by it, and still is
undisciplined, is like iron hammered on an anvil, and made the more
close-grained thereby. But this king took his chastisement wisely. An
accepted sorrow is an angel in disguise, and nothing which drives us
to God is a calamity. Manasseh praying was freer in his chains than
ever he had been in his prosperity. Manasseh humbling himself greatly
before God was higher than when, in the pride of his heart, he shut
God out from it.
Affliction should clear our sight, that we may see ourselves as we
are; and, if we do, there will be an end of high looks, and we shall
'take the lowest room.' Thus humbled, we shall pray as the
self-confident and outwardly prosperous cannot do. Sorrow has done its
best on us when, like some strong hand on our shoulders, it has
brought us to our knees. No affliction has yielded its full blessing
to us unless it has thus set us by Manasseh's side.
The next step in the story is the loving answer to the humbled heart,
and the restoration to the kingdom. 'He was entreated of him.' No
doubt, political circumstances brought about Manasseh's reinstatement,
as they had brought about his captivity, but it was God that 'brought
him again to his kingdom.' We may not receive again lost good things,
but we may be quite sure that God never fails to hear the cry of the
humble, and that, if there is one voice that more surely reaches His
ear and moves His heart than another, it is the voice of His chastened
children, who cry to Him out of the depths, and there have learned
their own sin and sore need. He will be entreated of them, and,
whether He gives back lost good or not, He will give Himself, in whom
all good is comprehended. Manasseh's experience may be repeated in us.
And the best part of it was, not that he received back his kingdom,
but that 'then Manasseh knew that the Lord He was God.' The name had
been but a name to him, but now it had become a reality. Our
traditional, second-hand belief in God is superficial and largely
unreal till it is deepened and vivified by experience. If we have
cried to Him, and been lightened, then we have a ground of conviction
that cannot be shaken. Formerly we could at most say, 'I believe in
God,' or, 'I think there is a God,' but now we can say, 'I know,' and
no criticism nor contradiction can shake that. Such knowledge is not
the knowledge won by the understanding alone, but it is acquaintance
with a living Person, like the knowledge which loving souls have of
each other; and he who has that knowledge as the issue of his own
experience may smile at doubts and questionings, and say with the
Apostle of Love, 'We know that we are of God, ... and we know that the
Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may
know Him that is true.' Then, if we have that knowledge, we shall
listen to the same Apostle's commandment, 'Keep yourselves from
idols,' even as the issue of Manasseh's knowledge of God was that 'he
took away the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the
Lord.'