2 Kings Chapter 21
1. OUTLINE OF CONTENTS
a. Manasseh succeeded his father Hezekiah to be king of Judah. He reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. He did evil in the sight of the LORD according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel (vs. 1-2).
b. Manasseh rebuilt the high places which his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he raised up altars for Baal; and made a wooden image as Ahab king of Israel had done; and he worshipped all the host of heaven and served them (vs. 3).
c. He also built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, ‘In Jerusalem I will put My name.’ And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. He also made his sons pass through the fire, practised soothsaying, used witchcraft and consulted spiritists and mediums. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD to provoke Him to anger (vs. 4-6).
d. He even set a carved image of Asherah that he had made, in the house of which the LORD had 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; and I will not make the feet of Israel wander anymore from the land which I gave their fathers-only if they are careful to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that My servant Moses commanded them.”
But they paid no attention, and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than all the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel (vs. 7-9).
e. And the LORD spoke by His servants the prophets, saying, “Because Manasseh the king of Judah has done these abominations (he has acted more wickedly than all the Amorites who were before him, and has also made Judah sin with his idols), therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘Behold, I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab; I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. So, I will forsake the remnant of my inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become victims of plunder to all their enemies, because they have done evil in My sight, and have provoked Me to anger since the day their fathers came out of Egypt even to this day.” (vs. 10-15)
f. Moreover, Manasseh shed much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides his sin by which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the LORD (vs. 16).
g. Manasseh died and rested with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his own house in the garden of Uzza. He was succeeded by his son Amon as king of Judah (vs. 18).
i. Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king of Judah. He reigned two years in Jerusalem. He did evil in the sight of the LORD as his father Manasseh had done. He walked in all the ways that his father had walked; and he served the idols that his father had served and worshipped them (vs. 19-21).
i. He forsook the LORD God of his fathers and did not walk in the way of the LORD (vs. 22).
j. The servants of Amon conspired against him and killed the king in his own house. But the people of the land executed all those who had conspired against King Amon. Then the people of the land made his son Josiah king in his place.
2. COMMENTARY
a. The host of heaven were the gods of the sun, moon and stars. The Babylonians especially revered these deities. But the LORD commanded the Israelites to take heed lest they lift their eyes to heaven, and when they see the sun, moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, they feel driven to worship them and serve them, which the LORD their God has given to all the peoples under the whole heaven as a heritage (Deut. 4:19; ref. Ezek. 8:16).
b. Manasseh set a carved image of Asherah in the house of the LORD. Asherah was a Canaanite goddess of fertility, whose image was an obscene symbol. To set the image of Asherah in the house of the LORD was an act of defiling the temple, and an abomination before the LORD God who is the creator (Ezek. 8:13-14).
In the days of Ezekiel the people committed abomination to worship Tammuz in the house of the LORD (ref. Ezek. 8:24). Tammuz was a Sumerian fertility god similar to the Greek god Adonis.
c. Manasseh made his son pass through the fire in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom (vs. 6; II Chron. 33:6). He practised human sacrifice something the foreigners did in serving Molech and Baal which was great abomination before the LORD (II Kings 23:10)
d. Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel. That was how an evil king could bring destruction and cause the people of God to turn to do evil.
e. The Lord said, “I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab.” The figures in this verse are marvellously powerful. If the people had any realization of the horrors that had befallen Samaria to the north, they would not want to be measured by the same implements that had designed Samaria’s destruction.
f. The LORD said, “I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down.” (vs. 13) It implied that the LORD would bring a judgment so terrible that it would never be forgotten.
g. The LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they would not listen. Therefore He brought upon them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze fetters, and carried him off to Babylon. Now when he was in affliction, he implored the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers and prayed to Him.
He received his entreaty, heard his supplications and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God (II Chron. 33:10-13). Chastisement from the Lord God is meant for us to change our ways, to repent and turn back to Him (Heb.12:7-11).
h. After this, Manasseh built a wall outside the city of David and raised it to a very great height. Then he put military captains to all the fortified cities of Judah. He took away the foreign gods and the idol from 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 he cast them out of the city. He also repaired the altar of the LORD, sacrificed peace offerings and many offerings on it, and commanded Judah to serve the LORD god of Israel. (II Chron. 33:14-16)
True repentance is accompanied by good works of faith and obedience to the commandments of God. It includes the purifying of ourselves and of the environment in which we dwell in, followed by the zeal to serve the Lord God and make offerings to him (Matt. 3:8; I Tim. 1:15).
g. Nevertheless the people still sacrificed in the high places, but only to the LORD their God (II Chron. 33:14). Worshipping the LORD in high places was in their association with paganism and previous practices. The people were yet to be consecrated in their faith to the LORD and so did not sanctify the altars when making sacrifices to Him.
Secularisation of the church defiles the worship of Jesus Christ by the brethren. Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men makes our faith and our worship worldly (Matt. 15:8-9; II Tim.3:5).
3. TEACHINGS
a. Be watchful and vigilant lest we be swept by the trends of the world to be like the sinful earthly race whose deeds are abominable before the Lord God (Heb. 2:1; II Tim. 4:10).
b. Come out of the world and touch nothing unclean so that we may be God’s holy people, not drunk with wine but sober to serve Him acceptably (II Cor. 6:16-18, Eph. 5:18).
c. Repent and turn from our sinful ways to the Lord, bearing fruits worthy of repentance. Lest we be destroyed because of sin and on the last day be condemned to eternal punishment (Ezek. 18:30-32; Rev. 21:8).
d. Leave not as legacy to our children and descendants the wrath of God because we have not conducted ourselves in holiness as believers of Jesus nor raised up our children in the faith and love which are in the Lord Jesus Christ as parents.
Leave as a heritage to them the grace of eternal life because we have taught them the fear of the Lord and the knowledge of salvation from their childhood. Hezekiah did not make good use of his extended years to bring up his son Manasseh in the LORD, and Manasseh also failed to teach his son Amon.
Both Manasseh and Amon walked not in the ways of the LORD when they ascended the throne as kings in Judah, and kindled the anger of the Lord upon the nation (II Tim. 3:15; II Kings 21:3; 18-20).