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2
Chronicles Chapter Thirty-three
2 Chronicles 33
Chapter Contents
Manasseh's and repentance. (1-20) Amon's wicked reign in
Judah. (21-25)
Commentary on 2 Chronicles 33:1-20
(Read 2 Chronicles 33:1-20)
We have seen Manasseh's wickedness; here we have his
repentance, and a memorable instance it is of the riches of God's pardoning
mercy, and the power of his renewing grace. Deprived of his liberty, separated
from his evil counsellors and companions, without any prospect but of ending
his days in a wretched prison, Manasseh thought upon what had passed; he began
to cry for mercy and deliverance. He confessed his sins, condemned himself, was
humbled before God, loathing himself as a monster of impiety and wickedness.
Yet he hoped to be pardoned through the abundant mercy of the Lord. Then
Manasseh knew that Jehovah was God, able to deliver. He knew him as a God of
salvation; he learned to fear, trust in, love, and obey him. From this time he
bore a new character, and walked in newness of life. Who can tell what tortures
of conscience, what pangs of grief, what fears of wrath, what agonizing remorse
he endured, when he looked back on his many years of apostacy and rebellion
against God; on his having led thousands into sin and perdition; and on his
blood-guiltiness in the persecution of a number of God's children? And who can
complain that the way of heaven is blocked up, when he sees such a sinner
enter? Say the worst against thyself, here is one as bad who finds the way to
repentance. Deny not to thyself that which God hath not denied to thee; it is
not thy sin, but thy impenitence, that bars heaven against thee.
Commentary on 2 Chronicles 33:21-25
(Read 2 Chronicles 33:21-25)
Amon's father did ill, but he did worse. Whatever
warnings or convictions he had, he never humbled himself. He was soon cut off
in his sins, and made a warning for all men not to abuse the example of God's
patience and mercy to Manasseh, as an encouragement to continue in sin. May God
help us to be honest to ourselves, and to think aright respecting our own
character, before death fixes us in an unchangeable state.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on 2 Chronicles》
2 Chronicles 33
Verse 11
[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.
To Babylon — The king of Babylon is here
called the king of Assyria, because he had added Assyria to his empire, who
having been informed by his ambassadors of the great riches which were in
Hezekiah's treasures at Jerusalem, and being assured of Manasseh's degeneracy
from the piety of his father, and from that God whose power alone made Hezekiah
formidable, he thought this a fit season to invade Manasseh's kingdom. The Jews
say, in the twenty second year of his reign.
Verse 12
[12] And when he was in affliction, he besought the LORD his
God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers,
Besought — It becomes sinners to humble themselves before that
God, whom they have offended. It becomes sufferers to humble themselves before
him that corrects them, and to accept of the punishment of their iniquity.
Verse 17
[17] Nevertheless the people did sacrifice still in the high
places, yet unto the LORD their God only.
Still — Manasseh could not carry the reformation so far as he
had carried the corruption. It is an easy thing to debauch men's manners; but
not so easy to reform them again.
Verse 18
[18] Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer
unto his God, and the words of the seers that spake to him in the name of the
LORD God of Israel, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of
Israel.
Of Israel — Of Judah, often called Israel, he
speaks not of the book of Kings, for these things are not mentioned there, but
of their publick records, whence the most important things were taken by the
prophets, and put into those canonical books.
Verse 19
[19] His prayer also, and how God was intreated of him, and
all his sin, and his trespass, and the places wherein he built high places, and
set up groves and graven images, before he was humbled: behold, they are
written among the sayings of the seers.
Hosai — A writer so called.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on 2 Chronicles》
33 Chapter 33
Verses 1-25
Verse 1
Manasseh was twelve years old.
Manasseh; or, the material and the moral in human life
There are two great mistakes prevalent amongst men, one is an
over-estimation of the secular, the other a depreciation of the spiritual. Man
is one, and all his duties and interests are concurrent and harmonious; the end
of Christianity is to make men happy body and soul, here and hereafter.
I. The elevation
of the secular and the degradation of the spiritual. Here is a man at the
height of secular elevation. He is raised to a throne, called to sway his
sceptre over a people the most enlightened, and in a country the most fertile
and lovely on the face of the earth. In the person of this Manasseh, you have
secular greatness in its highest altitude and most attractive position. But in
connection with this you have spiritual degradation. Penetrate the gaudy
trappings of royalty, look within, and what see you? A low, wretched, infamous
spirit, a spirit debased almost to the lowest point in morals.
1. Look at him socially. How acted he as a son? His father, Hezekiah,
was a man of undoubted piety--a monarch of distinguished worth. His sire was
scarcely cold in his grave, before the son commenced undoing in the kingdom all
that his pious father had for years endeavoured to accomplish. “He built up
again the high place which Hezekiah his father had destroyed,” etc. How
did he act as a parent? Was he anxious for the virtue and happiness of his
children? No, “he caused his children to pass through the fire of the son of
Hinnom.”
2. Look at him religiously--dupe of the most stupid imposture. “He
observed times and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a
familiar spirit, and with wizards.”
3. Look at him politically ruining his country, provoking the
indignation of heaven.” 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.” This elevation of the secular, and the degradation of
the spiritual, so manifest in the life of this monarch, and so manifest, alas,
in all times and lands, is not destitute of many grave and startling
suggestions. First: It shows the moral disorganisation of the human world. This
state of things can never be, according to the original plan of the creation. A
terrible convulsion has happened to the human world; a convulsion that has
thrown every part in disorder. “All the foundations of the earth are out of
course.” The social world is in a moral chaos. The Bible traces the cause, and
propounds the remedy of this terrible disorganisation. Secondly: It shows the
perverting capability of the soul. The greater the amount of worldly good a man
possesses, the stronger is the appeal of the Creator for his gratitude and
devotion. Moreover, the larger the amount of worldly wealth and power, the
greater the facilities as well as the obligations to a life of spiritual
intelligence, holiness, and piety. The perverting capability of the soul within
us, may well fill us with amazement and alarm. Thirdly: It shows the high
probability of a judgment. Under the government of a righteous monarch, will
vice always have its banquets, its purple, and its crown? Will the great Lord
allow His stewards to misappropriate His substance, and never call them to
account?
II. The degradation
of the secular, and the elevation of the spiritual. The judgment of God, which
must ever follow sin, at length overtook the wicked monarch. The Assyrian army,
under the direction of Esarhaddon, invaded the country, and carried all before
it. The miserable monarch quits his palace and his throne, flies in terror of
his life, and conceals himself in a thorn brake. Here he is discovered. He is
bound in chains, transported to Babylon, and there cast into prison. Here is
secular degradation. First: That man’s circumstances are no necessary
hindrances to conversion. If the question were asked, What circumstances are
the most inimical to the cultivation of piety? I should unhesitatingly
answer--Adversity. I am well aware indeed that adversity, as in the case before
us, often succeeds in inducing religious thoughtfulness and penitence when
prosperity has failed. But, notwithstanding this, I cannot regard adversity
itself as the most suited to the cultivation of the religious character.
Sufferings are inimical to that grateful feeling and spiritual effort which
religious culture requires. It is when the system bounds with health, when
Providence smiles on the path, that men are in the best position to discipline
themselves into a godly life. But here we find a man in the most unfavourable
circumstances--away from religions institutions, and friends, and books, an
ironbound exile in a pagan land--beginning to think of his ways, and directing
his feet into the paths of holiness. Such a case as this meets all the excuses
which men offer for their want of religion. It is often said, “Were we in such
and such circumstances, we would be religious.” The rich man says, “Were I in
humble life, more free from the anxieties, cares, responsibilities, and
associations of my position, I would live a godly life; whilst the poor, on the
other hand, says, with far more reason, “Were my spirit not pressed down by the
crushing forces of poverty; had I sufficient of worldly goods to remove me from
all necessary anxiety, I would give my mind to religion, and serve my God.” The
man in the midst of excitement and bustle of commercial life, says, “Were I in
a more retired situation, in some moral region away from the eternal din of
business--away in quiet fields, and under clear skies, amidst the music of
birds and brooks, I would serve my Maker.” The fact, after all, is that
circumstances are no necessary hindrances or helps to a religious life.
Secondly: That heaven’s mercy is greater than man’s iniquities.
III. The concurrent
elevation both of the spiritual and the secular. The Almighty hears his prayer.
He is emancipated from his bondage, brought back to his own country, and
restored to the throne of Israel. There he is now with a true heart, in a noble
position--a real great man occupying a great office. This is a rare scene; and
yet the only scene in accordance with the real constitution of things and the
will of God. It seems to me that if man had remained in innocence, his outward
position would always have been the product and type of his inner soul.
Manasseh’s restoration to the throne, and the work of reformation to which he
sets himself, suggests two subjects for thought. First: The tendency of
godliness to promote man’s secular elevation. The monarch comes back in spirit
to God, and God brings him back to his throne. As the material condition of men
depends upon their moral, improve the latter, and you improve the former. As
the world gets spiritually holier, it will get secularly happier. Secondly: The
tendency of penitence to make restitution. Concerning Manasseh it is thus
written: “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,” etc.
Here is restitution, and an earnest endeavour to undo the mischief which he had
wrought. Thus Zaceheus acted, and thus all true penitents have ever acted and
will ever act. True penitence has a restitutionary instinct. But how little,
alas! of the mischief done can be undone! (Homilist.)
Verse 10-11
And bound him with fetters.
Divine discipline
The proper way for a sinner to be brought to God is for God to
speak to him, and for him to hear. Manasseh would not come that way, so God
fetched him back by a rougher road.
I. The Lord often
allows temporal trials to take men captive.
1. Business disasters.
2. Want of employment.
3. Extraordinary troubles.
4. Bodily affliction.
5. The loss of dear friends.
II. The lord
sometimes allows men to be bound by mental trials; “ bound with fetters.” Such
as--
1. When sin ceases to afford pleasure. The very things that once made
him all aglow with delight do not affect him now, nor cast a single ray of
light on his path.
2. The daily avocation becomes distasteful.
3. There is great inability in prayer.
4. Your old sins come out of their hiding-places.
5. A great want of power to grasp the promises.
6. A fear of death and dread of judgment.
Conclusion: In order to your comfort and peace--
1. Know that the Lord is God.
2. Humble yourself before Him.
3. Begin to pray.
4. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Verse 12
2 Chronicles 33:12; 2 Chronicles 33:18
And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God.
Manasseh’s wickedness and penitence
I. Manssseh’s
career in crime.
II. His return to
and acceptance of God.
III. The gracious
results of his penitence. Improvement.
1. The lamentable wickedness and duplicity of the human heart.
2. The freeness, fulness, and efficacy of Divine grace.
3. The consequences of salvation are reformation and obedience. (T.B.
Baker.)
Manasseh
Manasseh is an eminent instance of the power, richness, and freeness
of the Divine mercy. Observe--
I. The sins which
he committed.
1. Their contributory cause. His early freedom from restraint, his
coming to supreme power when only twelve years of age.
2. Their special nature. The catalogue is appalling.
3. Their aggravated nature.
II. The repentance
which he exercised.
1. Its cause.
2. Its nature.
III. The mercies
which manasseh received.
1. Temporal nature.
2. Spiritual He was brought to the spiritual knowledge of the God of
his salvation. “Then Manasseh knew that the Lord He was God.” This knowledge
led him to fear, trust, love, and obey. This obedience was accompanied by the
deepest self-renunciation and abasement to the end of his life. Lessons.
1. To those who are insensible of their sinfulness.
2. To those who are ready to sink into despair under the weight of
their sinfulness.
3. To those who are disposed to presume on the mercy of God.
Manasseh’s son Amon was quickly cut off in the midst of his sins (verses
21-28). He seems to be a beacon set up close by the side of his penitent and
accepted father, to warn all persons against presuming on the mercy manifested
to Manasseh. (Homilist.)
Manasseh’s repentance
I. His character
as a sinner.
1. He was a notorious sinner.
2. He was not a hopeless sinner.
II. His conduct as
a penitent.
1. The period of his repentance is specified. “When he was in
affliction.”
2. The nature of his repentance is described.
III. His salvation
as a believer.
1. He obtained the pardoning mercy of God.
2. He received a saving knowledge of God (Sketches of Four
Hundred Sermons.)
Manasseh humbled
I. The benefit of
afflictions in bringing the sinner to a true sense of his condition and
converting him to God.
II. The mercy of
God in so bringing and receiving him.
III. The remaining
and lasting portion of the evil of sin, even after the individual is pardoned.
In the Second Book of Kings it is repeatedly declared that Judah was destroyed
on account of the sons of Manasseh.
1. A man looks back with sorrow and contrite concern upon the follies
and sins of his youth; but what of his companions in guilt? Some, perhaps, whom
he seduced into sin, and many whom he encouraged and confirmed in sin.
2. Some writers have employed their pens in the odious cause of
immorality and irreligion. Such persons have lamented their errors; but the
publication has done its work; the poison has been circulated, and the
corruption is incurable. (J. Slade, M. A.)
The conversion of Manasseh
I. That early
advantages may be succeeded by complicated sin.
II. That sin is
frequently the cause of severe affliction.
III. That
affliction, when sanctified, exalts to prayer, and promotes humiliation.
IV. That prayer and
humiliation are always attended with distinguished blessings, and produce
valuable effects.
V. From the whole.
1. The patience of God.
2. The sovereignty of God.
3. The wisdom of God in adapting means to the conversion of men.
4. The mercy of God in saving the chief of sinners. (S.
Kidd.)
The repentance of Manasseh
We will connect the important change which took place in the mind
of Manasseh--
I. With his early
advantages. John Newton states somewhere, “When I was in the deepest misery,
and when I was committing the most atrocious sin, I always seemed to feel the
hand of my sainted mother pressing my head.”
II. With the afflictions
by which it was produced.
III. With the
effects which it unfolded.
IV. With the
sovereignty of Divine Grace. (A. E. Farrar.)
Manasseh brought to repentance
I. His life of
sin.
1. It was in direct contrast to the good reign of his father.
2. His sin involved many in guilt. He “made Judah and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem to err.”
3. He was not moved by the sight of the same wickedness in those whom
he despised (2 Kings 21:9).
4. His sin was not checked by God’s punishment of others. The heathen
had been driven out from the land because of their wickedness. Judah occupied
their place and adopted their vice.
II. The life of
manasseh under God’s chastisement. We learn from recently discovered Assyrian
inscriptions what is meant by “among the thorns.” The word thus translated
means a hook, which was put through the under lips of captives. The depths of
Manasseh’s degradation may be imagined. Yet it was sent in mercy to turn him to
God.
III. His repentance
and restoration.
IV. His
re-establishment of the worship of God. Lessons.
1. Never to be ashamed of repentance.
2. We see the meaning of God’s chastisements.
3. The power of a single man when he has turned from sin to God.
4. The necessity of solitary communion with God.
5. The patient love of God. (Monday Club Sermons.)
The conversion of an aged transgressor
I. Let us attend
to the circumstances which by the grace of God led to the conversion of
Manasseh.
1. Affliction.
2. Solitary reflection.
3. Prayer.
II. Consider next
how the grace of God operated in Manasseh.
1. He humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.
2. He was made to know that the Lord was God.
3. He brought forth fruits meet for repentance.
III. The
circumstances which made his conversion peculiarly striking.
1. It was the conversion of an atrocious sinner.
2. Of an aged sinner.
3. It took place at a distance from the ordinary means of grace.
(H. Belfrage, D.D.)
Manasseh
God contents not Himself to have left on record in His word
declarations and promises of grace as beacons of hope to the sinner. We have
examples also of His acts of grace. Abounding iniquity, and more abounding
grace, are the special features presented to us in this history of Manasseh.
I. Abounding
iniquity marked Manasseh’s course.
1. He was the son of Hezekiah the servant of the Lord. We place this
foremost as an aggravation of his sin, that in spite of a father’s example he
cast off the fear of the Lord and sinned with a high hand against his God. That
father, indeed, was early taken from him, for Manasseh was but twelve years old
when he began to reign; still, the memory of Hezekiah’s piety could not have
been utterly forgotten. Too marked had been the interposition of Jehovah in
that father’s deliverance from Assyria and in his recovery from sickness for
the report to have passed away. But Manasseh heeded not these things; “he
wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord to provoke Him to anger.”
2. Manasseh added to his disregard of a godly parent this iniquity
also, that he led his children unto sin,” he caused his children to pass
through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom.” . . . Some godless
parents have shown a happy inconsistency, in that whilst pursuing themselves
that path “whose end is destruction,” they have desired for their offspring
that they should seek the Lord. The force of example, indeed, meeting as it does with “the evil
that is bound up in the heart of a child,” will in such eases often prove too
powerful to be withstood. But Manasseh took no such course, but dedicated his
children as well as himself to the service of the false gods. Alas, the
reproducing power of evil! Thou that art a citizen of the world, intent on gain
or pleasure, can it be expected but that thy children should walk after thee in
the same destructive road?
3. Manasseh bade defiance to Jehovah in His own sanctuary. Not only
did he build again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed, but
“he set a carved image,” the idol which he had made, “in the house of God.” It
was not enough that he himself should bow down to idols, and that his children
should also do them homage, but with yet more prsumptuous sin he declared
himself, in the face of all Israel, an idolater, and desecrated to this base
end the very temple, of which the Lord had said, “My Name shall be there.” It
is the very character of Jehovah that He is “a jealous God,” “His glory will He
not give to another.”
4. But further, Manasseh “shed innocent blood very much, till he had
filled Jerusalem from one end to another.” The faithful who warned him were
doubtless the ones especially sacrificed to his vengeance, and it is supposed
that Isaiah suffered death under this fearful persecutor of the Church of God.
For the wickedness of Manasseh could not plead this even in palliation that he
was unrebuked: “The Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they would
not hearken.” What depth of malignity is there in the unchanged soul! what
pollutions! what ingratitude! what rebellion! Were it not for the restraining
grace of God, what a scene of bloodshed and of all enormity would this earth
be!
II. More abounding
still the grace of God.
1. In chastisement the first faint streak of mercy manifested itself.
The voice of plenty had spoken to him in vain, the voice of warning had been
treated with neglect, but now the voice of correction speaks in tones not to be
gainsaid. The alarm of war is heard in that guilty court.
2. His deep penitence bore witness to the workings of grace. He
humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers That word “greatly”
speaks much as recorded by the Spirit of truth. As with the gospel itself, so
with the chastenings of the Lord, they are either “a savour of life unto life,
or of death unto death.”
3. The voice of prayer went up from that prison-house, “He besought
the Lord . . . and prayed unto Him.” Tears, many it may be, fell before one
prayer was uttered.
4. Abounding grace, shone forth, too, in the answer granted to
prayer. “God was intreated of him.” He heard his cry, and hope sprung up in his
downcast soul.
5. The workings of God’s grace were further evidenced by the fruits
of faith in life according to godliness. Manasseh restored to his kingdom, has
now but one object in view, the glory of God, and that object he consistently
pursued. The idol is east out from the temple, and the altars of the false gods
out of the city, and the people are commanded “to serve the Lord God of
Israel.” He turned not aside from his purpose to bring back to Jehovah those
whom formerly he had led away to sin; and this godly course he pursued unto the
end.
Lessons.
1. The first is, that there is a fulness of grace in God as our
reconciled Father in Christ Jesus beyond the power of heart to conceive, or of
tongue to utter.
2. But this history also reminds us of the dreadful nature of sin.
Deep are its furrows, lasting its effects. Manasseh is pardoned, but,could he
repair the evil he had done? (F. Storr, M.A.)
Manasseh
We shall consider Manasseh--
I. As a sinner.
1. He sinned against light, against a pious education and early
training. It is a notorious fact that when men do go wrong after a good
training they are the worst men in the world. The murder of John Williams at
Erromanga was brought about by the evil doings of a trader who had gone to the
island, and who was also the son of a missionary. He had become reckless in his
habits, and treated the islanders with such barbarity and cruelty that they
revenged his conduct upon the next white man who put his foot upon their shore.
2. He was a very bold sinner.
3. He had the power of leading others to a very large extent astray.
II. As an
unbeliever. He did not believe that Jehovah was God alone.
1. The unlimited power that Manasseh possessed had a great tendency
to make him a disbeliever.
2. His pride was another cause.
3. Another cause was his love for sin.
III. As a convert.
He believed in God--
1. Because God had answered his prayer.
2. Because He had forgiven his sin. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Manasseh’s repentance
Manasseh is unique alike in extreme wickedness, sincere penitence,
and thorough reformation. The reformation of Julius Caesar or of our own Henry
V, or to take a different class of instance, the conversion of Paul, was
nothing compared to the conversion of Manasseh. It was as though Herod the
Great or Caesar Borgia had been checked midway in a career of cruelty and vice,
and had thenceforward lived pure and holy lives, glorifying God by ministering
to their fellow-men. (W. H. Bennett, M.A.)
He was intreated of him.
Pardon for the greatest guilt
The story of Manasseh is a very valuable one. I feel sure of this,
because you meet with it twice in the Word of God. God would have us again and
again dwell upon such wonders of sovereign grace as Manasseh presents to us.
I. Let us examine
the case before us.
1. Manasseh was the son of a good father.
2. He undid all his father’s actions.
3. He served false gods.
4. He desecrated the Lord’s courts. There are some to-day who do
this; for they make even their attendance at the house of God to be an occasion
for evil.
5. He dedicated his children to the devil. Nobody here will dedicate
his children to the devil, surely; yet many do. Have I not seen a father
dedicate his boy to the devil, as he has encouraged him to drink? And do not
many in this great city, dedicate their children to the devil by allowing them
to go into all kinds of licentiousness, until they become the victims of vice?
6. He fraternised with the devil, by seeking after all kinds of
supernatural witcheries and wizardries.
7. He led others astray.
8. He persecuted the people of God. It is said,--we do not know
whether it was so or not,--but it is highly probable, that he caused Isaiah to
be cut asunder with a wooden saw.
9. In short, Manasseh was a compound of every sort of wickedness.
10. Notwithstanding all this Manasseh was pardoned. How it came
about?
II. Let us consider
why there should be others like Manasseh. Judging from many probabilities, that
God will save other great sinners as He saved Manasseh.
1. Because He speaks to such great sinners and commands them to
repent (Isaiah 1:16-18). Because of the great
promises God has given to great sinners.
3. Because of the nature of God.
4. From what I know of the value of the blood of Jesus. (C.
H. Spurgeon.)
Then Manasseh knew that
the Lord He was God.--
Forgiveness and the knowledge of God
Men first begin to know God when they are forgiven. What did the
prodigal know about his father when he asked for the portion of goods that fell
to him, or while he was wasting his substance in riotous living? Because love
and forgiveness are more strange and unearthly than rebuke and chastisement,
the sinner is humbled by pardon far more than by punishment; and his trembling
submission to the righteous Judge deepens into profounder reverence and awe for
the God who can forgive, who is superior to all vindictiveness, whose infinite
resources enable Him to blot out the guilt, to cancel the penalty, and annul
the consequences of sin. (W. H. Bennett, M.A.)
Verse 18
2 Chronicles 33:12; 2 Chronicles 33:18
And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God.
Manasseh’s wickedness and penitence
I. Manssseh’s
career in crime.
II. His return to
and acceptance of God.
III. The gracious
results of his penitence. Improvement.
1. The lamentable wickedness and duplicity of the human heart.
2. The freeness, fulness, and efficacy of Divine grace.
3. The consequences of salvation are reformation and obedience. (T.B.
Baker.)
Manasseh
Manasseh is an eminent instance of the power, richness, and
freeness of the Divine mercy. Observe--
I. The sins which
he committed.
1. Their contributory cause. His early freedom from restraint, his
coming to supreme power when only twelve years of age.
2. Their special nature. The catalogue is appalling.
3. Their aggravated nature.
II. The repentance
which he exercised.
1. Its cause.
2. Its nature.
III. The mercies
which manasseh received.
1. Temporal nature.
2. Spiritual He was brought to the spiritual knowledge of the God of
his salvation. “Then Manasseh knew that the Lord He was God.” This knowledge led
him to fear, trust, love, and obey. This obedience was accompanied by the
deepest self-renunciation and abasement to the end of his life. Lessons.
1. To those who are insensible of their sinfulness.
2. To those who are ready to sink into despair under the weight of
their sinfulness.
3. To those who are disposed to presume on the mercy of God.
Manasseh’s son Amon was quickly cut off in the midst of his sins (verses
21-28). He seems to be a beacon set up close by the side of his penitent and
accepted father, to warn all persons against presuming on the mercy manifested
to Manasseh. (Homilist.)
Manasseh’s repentance
I. His character
as a sinner.
1. He was a notorious sinner.
2. He was not a hopeless sinner.
II. His conduct as
a penitent.
1. The period of his repentance is specified. “When he was in
affliction.”
2. The nature of his repentance is described.
III. His salvation
as a believer.
1. He obtained the pardoning mercy of God.
2. He received a saving knowledge of God (Sketches of Four
Hundred Sermons.)
Manasseh humbled
I. The benefit of
afflictions in bringing the sinner to a true sense of his condition and
converting him to God.
II. The mercy of
God in so bringing and receiving him.
III. The remaining
and lasting portion of the evil of sin, even after the individual is pardoned.
In the Second Book of Kings it is repeatedly declared that Judah was destroyed
on account of the sons of Manasseh.
1. A man looks back with sorrow and contrite concern upon the follies
and sins of his youth; but what of his companions in guilt? Some, perhaps, whom
he seduced into sin, and many whom he encouraged and confirmed in sin.
2. Some writers have employed their pens in the odious cause of
immorality and irreligion. Such persons have lamented their errors; but the
publication has done its work; the poison has been circulated, and the
corruption is incurable. (J. Slade, M. A.)
The conversion of Manasseh
I. That early
advantages may be succeeded by complicated sin.
II. That sin is
frequently the cause of severe affliction.
III. That
affliction, when sanctified, exalts to prayer, and promotes humiliation.
IV. That prayer and
humiliation are always attended with distinguished blessings, and produce
valuable effects.
V. From the whole.
1. The patience of God.
2. The sovereignty of God.
3. The wisdom of God in adapting means to the conversion of men.
4. The mercy of God in saving the chief of sinners. (S.
Kidd.)
The repentance of Manasseh
We will connect the important change which took place in the mind
of Manasseh--
I. With his early
advantages. John Newton states somewhere, “When I was in the deepest misery,
and when I was committing the most atrocious sin, I always seemed to feel the
hand of my sainted mother pressing my head.”
II. With the
afflictions by which it was produced.
III. With the
effects which it unfolded.
IV. With the
sovereignty of Divine Grace. (A. E. Farrar.)
Manasseh brought to repentance
I. His life of
sin.
1. It was in direct contrast to the good reign of his father.
2. His sin involved many in guilt. He “made Judah and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem to err.”
3. He was not moved by the sight of the same wickedness in those whom
he despised (2 Kings 21:9).
4. His sin was not checked by God’s punishment of others. The heathen
had been driven out from the land because of their wickedness. Judah occupied
their place and adopted their vice.
II. The life of
manasseh under God’s chastisement. We learn from recently discovered Assyrian
inscriptions what is meant by “among the thorns.” The word thus translated
means a hook, which was put through the under lips of captives. The depths of
Manasseh’s degradation may be imagined. Yet it was sent in mercy to turn him to
God.
III. His repentance
and restoration.
IV. His
re-establishment of the worship of God. Lessons.
1. Never to be ashamed of repentance.
2. We see the meaning of God’s chastisements.
3. The power of a single man when he has turned from sin to God.
4. The necessity of solitary communion with God.
5. The patient love of God. (Monday Club Sermons.)
The conversion of an aged transgressor
I. Let us attend
to the circumstances which by the grace of God led to the conversion of
Manasseh.
1. Affliction.
2. Solitary reflection.
3. Prayer.
II. Consider next
how the grace of God operated in Manasseh.
1. He humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.
2. He was made to know that the Lord was God.
3. He brought forth fruits meet for repentance.
III. The
circumstances which made his conversion peculiarly striking.
1. It was the conversion of an atrocious sinner.
2. Of an aged sinner.
3. It took place at a distance from the ordinary means of grace.
(H. Belfrage, D.D.)
Manasseh
God contents not Himself to have left on record in His word
declarations and promises of grace as beacons of hope to the sinner. We have
examples also of His acts of grace. Abounding iniquity, and more abounding
grace, are the special features presented to us in this history of Manasseh.
I. Abounding
iniquity marked Manasseh’s course.
1. He was the son of Hezekiah the servant of the Lord. We place this
foremost as an aggravation of his sin, that in spite of a father’s example he
cast off the fear of the Lord and sinned with a high hand against his God. That
father, indeed, was early taken from him, for Manasseh was but twelve years old
when he began to reign; still, the memory of Hezekiah’s piety could not have
been utterly forgotten. Too marked had been the interposition of Jehovah in
that father’s deliverance from Assyria and in his recovery from sickness for
the report to have passed away. But Manasseh heeded not these things; “he
wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord to provoke Him to anger.”
2. Manasseh added to his disregard of a godly parent this iniquity
also, that he led his children unto sin,” he caused his children to pass
through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom.” . . . Some godless
parents have shown a happy inconsistency, in that whilst pursuing themselves
that path “whose end is destruction,” they have desired for their offspring
that they should seek the Lord. The force of example, indeed, meeting as it does with “the evil
that is bound up in the heart of a child,” will in such eases often prove too
powerful to be withstood. But Manasseh took no such course, but dedicated his
children as well as himself to the service of the false gods. Alas, the
reproducing power of evil! Thou that art a citizen of the world, intent on gain
or pleasure, can it be expected but that thy children should walk after thee in
the same destructive road?
3. Manasseh bade defiance to Jehovah in His own sanctuary. Not only
did he build again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed, but
“he set a carved image,” the idol which he had made, “in the house of God.” It
was not enough that he himself should bow down to idols, and that his children
should also do them homage, but with yet more prsumptuous sin he declared
himself, in the face of all Israel, an idolater, and desecrated to this base
end the very temple, of which the Lord had said, “My Name shall be there.” It
is the very character of Jehovah that He is “a jealous God,” “His glory will He
not give to another.”
4. But further, Manasseh “shed innocent blood very much, till he had
filled Jerusalem from one end to another.” The faithful who warned him were
doubtless the ones especially sacrificed to his vengeance, and it is supposed
that Isaiah suffered death under this fearful persecutor of the Church of God.
For the wickedness of Manasseh could not plead this even in palliation that he
was unrebuked: “The Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they would
not hearken.” What depth of malignity is there in the unchanged soul! what
pollutions! what ingratitude! what rebellion! Were it not for the restraining grace
of God, what a scene of bloodshed and of all enormity would this earth be!
II. More abounding
still the grace of God.
1. In chastisement the first faint streak of mercy manifested itself.
The voice of plenty had spoken to him in vain, the voice of warning had been
treated with neglect, but now the voice of correction speaks in tones not to be
gainsaid. The alarm of war is heard in that guilty court.
2. His deep penitence bore witness to the workings of grace. He
humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers That word “greatly”
speaks much as recorded by the Spirit of truth. As with the gospel itself, so
with the chastenings of the Lord, they are either “a savour of life unto life,
or of death unto death.”
3. The voice of prayer went up from that prison-house, “He besought
the Lord . . . and prayed unto Him.” Tears, many it may be, fell before one
prayer was uttered.
4. Abounding grace, shone forth, too, in the answer granted to
prayer. “God was intreated of him.” He heard his cry, and hope sprung up in his
downcast soul.
5. The workings of God’s grace were further evidenced by the fruits
of faith in life according to godliness. Manasseh restored to his kingdom, has
now but one object in view, the glory of God, and that object he consistently
pursued. The idol is east out from the temple, and the altars of the false gods
out of the city, and the people are commanded “to serve the Lord God of
Israel.” He turned not aside from his purpose to bring back to Jehovah those
whom formerly he had led away to sin; and this godly course he pursued unto the
end.
Lessons.
1. The first is, that there is a fulness of grace in God as our
reconciled Father in Christ Jesus beyond the power of heart to conceive, or of
tongue to utter.
2. But this history also reminds us of the dreadful nature of sin.
Deep are its furrows, lasting its effects. Manasseh is pardoned, but,could he
repair the evil he had done? (F. Storr, M.A.)
Manasseh
We shall consider Manasseh--
I. As a sinner.
1. He sinned against light, against a pious education and early
training. It is a notorious fact that when men do go wrong after a good
training they are the worst men in the world. The murder of John Williams at
Erromanga was brought about by the evil doings of a trader who had gone to the
island, and who was also the son of a missionary. He had become reckless in his
habits, and treated the islanders with such barbarity and cruelty that they
revenged his conduct upon the next white man who put his foot upon their shore.
2. He was a very bold sinner.
3. He had the power of leading others to a very large extent astray.
II. As an
unbeliever. He did not believe that Jehovah was God alone.
1. The unlimited power that Manasseh possessed had a great tendency
to make him a disbeliever.
2. His pride was another cause.
3. Another cause was his love for sin.
III. As a convert.
He believed in God--
1. Because God had answered his prayer.
2. Because He had forgiven his sin. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Manasseh’s repentance
Manasseh is unique alike in extreme wickedness, sincere penitence,
and thorough reformation. The reformation of Julius Caesar or of our own Henry
V, or to take a different class of instance, the conversion of Paul, was
nothing compared to the conversion of Manasseh. It was as though Herod the
Great or Caesar Borgia had been checked midway in a career of cruelty and vice,
and had thenceforward lived pure and holy lives, glorifying God by ministering
to their fellow-men. (W. H. Bennett, M.A.)
He was intreated of him.
Pardon for the greatest guilt
The story of Manasseh is a very valuable one. I feel sure of this,
because you meet with it twice in the Word of God. God would have us again and
again dwell upon such wonders of sovereign grace as Manasseh presents to us.
I. Let us examine
the case before us.
1. Manasseh was the son of a good father.
2. He undid all his father’s actions.
3. He served false gods.
4. He desecrated the Lord’s courts. There are some to-day who do
this; for they make even their attendance at the house of God to be an occasion
for evil.
5. He dedicated his children to the devil. Nobody here will dedicate
his children to the devil, surely; yet many do. Have I not seen a father
dedicate his boy to the devil, as he has encouraged him to drink? And do not
many in this great city, dedicate their children to the devil by allowing them
to go into all kinds of licentiousness, until they become the victims of vice?
6. He fraternised with the devil, by seeking after all kinds of
supernatural witcheries and wizardries.
7. He led others astray.
8. He persecuted the people of God. It is said,--we do not know
whether it was so or not,--but it is highly probable, that he caused Isaiah to
be cut asunder with a wooden saw.
9. In short, Manasseh was a compound of every sort of wickedness.
10. Notwithstanding all this Manasseh was pardoned. How it came
about?
II. Let us consider
why there should be others like Manasseh. Judging from many probabilities, that
God will save other great sinners as He saved Manasseh.
1. Because He speaks to such great sinners and commands them to
repent (Isaiah 1:16-18). Because of the great
promises God has given to great sinners.
3. Because of the nature of God.
4. From what I know of the value of the blood of Jesus. (C.
H. Spurgeon.)
Then Manasseh knew that
the Lord He was God.--
Forgiveness and the knowledge of God
Men first begin to know God when they are forgiven. What did the
prodigal know about his father when he asked for the portion of goods that fell
to him, or while he was wasting his substance in riotous living? Because love
and forgiveness are more strange and unearthly than rebuke and chastisement,
the sinner is humbled by pardon far more than by punishment; and his trembling
submission to the righteous Judge deepens into profounder reverence and awe for
the God who can forgive, who is superior to all vindictiveness, whose infinite
resources enable Him to blot out the guilt, to cancel the penalty, and annul
the consequences of sin. (W. H. Bennett, M.A.)
Verse 23
But Amon transgressed more and more.
Consolidation in the forces of evil
It is wonderful what evil can be done with a profession of
religion. Amen was sacrificing unto all the carved images; he was so religious
as to be irreligious; he reached the point of exaggeration, and that point is
blasphemy. When there is mere ignorance, God in His lovingkindness and tender
mercy often closes His eyes as if He could not see what is being done: but when
it is not ignorance but violence, determination, real obstinacy in the way of
evil, and utter recklessness as to what it may cost--what if God should be
compelled to open His eyes, and look the evil man full in the face, and condemn
him by silent observation? It is wonderful, too, how much evil can be done in a
little time. Nothing is so easy as evil. A man could almost fell a forest
before he could grow one tree. Every blow tells: every bad word becomes a great
blot: there is an infinite contagion in evil; it affects every one, it poisons
quickly, it makes a harvest in the night-time. To do good how much time is
required! How few people will believe that we are doing good! We have to
encounter suspicion, criticism, distrust; men say, “We must wait to see the
end; we cannot believe in the possibility of all this earnestness and
sacrifice”; they ask questions about its possible permanence; even good men are
apt to hinder other good men in endeavouring to do good. But evil has no such
disadvantages to contend with. There is a consolidation in the forces of evil
that is not known among the forces of good. It would seem as if the poet’s
description were right--“Devil with devil damned, firm concord holds.”
It may be that in that energetic expression Milton has stated the reality of
the case. (J. Parker, D.D.)
Verse 25
Josiah his son king in his stead.
Far-reaching heredity
Josiah was the son of Amon--which is equal to saying that the
greatest sinner of his day was the progenitor of one of the finest saints that
ever prayed. If that is not a miracle, what is meant by the term miracle? Read
the account and say if it be not the reading of music:--“And he did that which
was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father”
(2 Chronicles 34:2) “and declined
neither to the right hand, nor to the left.” Then he had more fathers than one.
That is the explanation. You are not the son of the man that went immediately
before you; you are only his son in a very incidental manner. Josiah was the
son of “David his
father”--the larger father, the deeper root, the elect of God; a sun fouled by
many a black spot, but a shining orb notwithstanding. We must enlarge our view
if we would come to right conclusions regarding many mysteries. Amen was but a
link in the chain. The bad man here, or the good man there, taken in his
solitariness, is but a comparatively trivial incident in life’s tragedy.
Heredity is not from one to two; it is from one to the last; from the beginning
to the ending. In every man there lives all the humanity that ever lived. We
are fearfully and wonderfully made--not physically only, but morally,
religiously, temperamentally. All the kings live in the last king or the
reigning monarch. We are one humanity. Solidarity has its lessons as well as
individuality. We know not which of our ancestors comes up in us at this moment
or that--now the tiger, now the eagle; now the praying mother, now the daring
sire; now some mean soul that got into the current by a mystery never to be
explained; now the cunning, watchful, patient deceiver, who can wait for nights
at a time and never complain
of the dark or the cold, and now the hero that never had a fear, the
philanthropist that loved the world, the mother that never looked otherwise
than God Himself would have her look. We can never tell which of our ancestors
is really thinking in us, speaking through us; we cannot tell the accent of the immediate
consciousness;--these are mysteries, and when the judgment comes it will be based upon all
the ground, and not upon incidental points here and there (J. Parker, D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》