1. Humility. "He humbled himself greatly before the Lord God of his fathers" (verse 12). This grace, beautiful in all who come before God (Job 25:5, Job 25:6; Ecclesiastes 5:2), is absolutely indispensable to a penitent (Job 40:4; Isaiah 6:5; Romans 7:18), and is the certain highway to spiritual promotion (Proverbs 15:33; Isaiah 66:2; Luke 18:13, Luke 18:14).
2. Prayer. "He besought the Lord his God" (verse 12); "he prayed unto him" (verse 13)—no doubt with the language and feeling of
III. ITS CONSEQUENT FRUITS.
1. Acceptance. Jehovah "was entreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom" (verse 13). So God still listens to the cries of sincere penitents when they call upon him for forgiveness and salvation, for emancipation from the condemnation of the Law and the enslaving yoke of sin (Job 33:27, Job 33:28; Isaiah Iv. 6, 7; Isaiah 57:15; Jeremiah 3:12-14; Luke 18:14; James 4:8). That Manasseh should have been restored to his throne and kingdom harmonized well with the mild character of Esarhaddon, who appears from the monuments to have accorded similar treatment to a son of Meredach-Baladan, and to an Aramaean chief of the Gambalu, both of whom on submitting to his authority were forgiven and reinstated in their former positions. Like clemency was extended by Assur-bani-pal to the King of Arvad's Vakinlu's sons, who, on kissing the great king's feet after their father's death, were favourably received—Azibahal the eldest being appointed to the kingdom of Arvad, and the others presented with clothing of linen and bracelets of gold ('Records,' etc; 1:69). Tammaritu King of Elam likewise experienced the great king's favour on making humble submission and acknowledgment of his offence.
2. Illumination. "Then Manasseh knew that Jehovah he was God" (verse 13).
3. Reformation. "He took away the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the Lord (verse 7), and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the Lord,… and cast them out of the city" (verse 15). Compare the earlier reformations of Joash (2 Chronicles 23:17), and Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 31:1), and the later of Josiah (2 Chronicles 34:3, 2 Chronicles 34:4). So in every case of true conversion there must be a putting away of known sin (Isaiah 1:16; Isaiah 55:7; Matthew 3:8).
4. Separation. The people continued to sacrifice on the high places, though only unto the Lord their God (verse 17). On their part it was a compromise. Willing to advance half-way on the path of reformation, they would not make a clean severance between themselves and idolatry. Manasseh did not so.
5. Consecration. "He repaired the altar of the Lord, and sacrificed thereon peace offerings and thank offerings" (verse 16). So far as he himself was concerned, he was done with the high places; and his regal authority, backed up by his personal example, he faithfully employed to induce his subjects to have done with them also.
LESSONS.
1. The benefits and design of affliction.
2. The value and use of prayer.
3. The graciousness of God towards penitents.
4. The marvellous illumination that comes with the new life.
5. The certainty that holiness will flow from a personal experience of mercy.
6. The intermixture of imperfection with the best services of saints.—W.
2 Chronicles 33:18-20
Lessons from the life of Manasseh.
I. A LURID LIGHT UPON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SIN. Manasseh's career brings into prominence certain truths upon the subject of human depravity which in these days of so-called culture and refinement are prone to be pushed aside, ignored, and forgotten.
1. That sin, wickedness, a disposition to go astray from the paths of virtue, is an inborn characteristic of the human soul in its fallen condition; is a native product springing up out of the soil of man's interior being, and does not simply come upon him from without as the result of his environment, as the combined effect of the circumstances by which he is surrounded and of the examples by which he is directed. This is what theologians are accustomed to call the doctrine of original sin—a doctrine which Scripture with perfect clearness announces (Psalms 51:5), which experience everywhere attests (1 Kings 8:46; Ecclesiastes 7:20), which modern science with its law of heredity strikingly confirms, and which lends peculiar emphasis to the teaching of Christ as to the new birth (John 3:7).
2. That this inborn principle of sin frequently reveals itself at unexpected times and under totally unlooked-for conditions. Concerning Manasseh one would have felt disposed to reason that if ever a child had the chance of being good, or at least of keeping down the evil that was in him, that child was the son of Hezekiah. Yet scarcely had he come to the throne at the early age of twelve than the wickedness of his nature began to break forth in almost full-blown violence. It is a warning to parents not to slacken in their diligence or abate in their efforts to promote the godly education of their children, since the season for impressing them with right views of truth and instilling into them right principles of action is at the longest extremely short, and if neglected may lead to irreparable disaster in after-life; while it is a much-needed reminder that not even pious parents can infallibly secure the conversion of their children, and that after all these have the determination of their future characters and destinies largely in their own hands.
3. That the development of evil in human hearts and lives is often rapid and always downward. At least it was so with this infatuated prince, who began by exhibiting a singular precocity in sin, and ended not until he had all but exhausted the catalogue of crime. If he proceeded no further in his downward career than sacred story represents, the reason likely was that his ingenuity could devise nothing more atrocious. Indeed, one cannot help discovering in him a prototype of Shakespeare's Aaron, who says-
"Tut! I have done a thousand dreadful things
As willingly as one would kill a fly!
And nothing grieves me heartily indeed,
But that I cannot do ten thousand more."
('Titus Andronicus,' act 5. sc. 1.)
II. VALUABLE COUNSEL AS TO THE MORAL AND SPIRITUAL USES OF ADVERSITY.
1. It is always intended as a means of religious and moral improvement, whether it be laid on saint or sinner. The Lord doth not afflict men willingly, but for their profit, that they might be partakers of his holiness (Lamentations 3:33; Hebrews 12:10). In the case of saints it has this for its primary end (Hebrews 12:11); but even in the case of sinners this end is not neglected or overlooked. Calamity may fall on them directly as punishment; yet it always aims at their arrestment, reformation, and conversion.
2. It frequently succeeds when every other means of improvement fails. In the case of Manasseh nothing appeared potent enough to arrest him on his mad career—not the memory of his good father or of his pious mother, not the infinite folly of the idolatries he was keeping up, not the shame in which his immoralities involved him before the people, not the blood of his innocent victims, not the mourning and lamentation of his bereaved subjects, not the feelings of his own parental bosom, not the reproofs of Jehovah's prophets, not the terrors of his own conscience, Nor until God put a hook into his nose and led him off to captivity in Babylon did he pause and begin to reflect on his wickedness. And the same function is performed by affliction yet. God frequently employs it to pull up those whom he perceives rushing headlong to perdition, when other and milder methods have been used in vain.
III. A SPLENDID ILLUSTRATION OF THE FREENESS AND THE POWER OF DIVINE GRACE,
1. The steps of Manasseh's recovery.
2. The ground of Manasseh's recovery.
IV. NECESSARY INSTRUCTION AS TO THE ONLY SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE OF CONVERSION AND SALVATION.
1. Illumination. "Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God." This was true all the same, whether Manasseh knew it or not, and all the while Manasseh was doing his best by the worship of idols to show that he believed the opposite. That which convinced him of his error was his experience of the Divine clemency. Whereas his service of idols had not been able to prevent his deportation to Babylon, no sooner had he transferred his allegiance to Jehovah than his captivity was ended. This sufficed to draw the veil from Manasseh's eyes. So men never really come to know God till they have been made partakers of his mercy in Christ. That which renders nugatory and worthless much of present-day objection to God and Christ, the Bible and the gospel, is that it commonly proceeds from them that know neither the one nor the other.
2. Reformation. Manasseh's conversion was authenticated by change of behaviour as well as change of mind. He took away the foreign gods out of the house of the Lord, and removed from both the temple and the city all the altars he had built for their worship. He repaired also the altar of the Lord, and commanded his subjects to serve the Lord God of Israel only. So in all cases of true conversion there must be the putting away of every known sin, the consecration of every individual power, and the performance of every known duty.—W.
2 Chronicles 33:21-25
Manasseh and Amen-father and son: a parallel and a contrast.
I. MANASSEH AND AMON RESEMBLED EACH OTHER. Both were:
1. Men. No higher dignity attainable on earth than that of manhood; higher than any purely temporal or social distinction is that of having been made in the Divine image.
2. Kings. Though often desecrated and abused, the position of a sovereign is one of great honour and responsibility. As vicegerents of Jehovah, the theocratic potentates of Israel and Judah stood upon the highest possible pinnacle of kingly renown.
3. Idolaters. Amen did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, as did Manasseh his father (verse 22). "Like father, like son," is the common experience—the exceptions only proving the rule.
4. Sufferers. Manasseh taken captive by Esarhaddon or Assur-bani-pal; Amen conspired against and killed by his own servants.
II. MANASSEH AND AMON DIFFERED FROM EACH OTHER. They contrasted in:
1. Names. Manasseh was so called (probably, at least) after an Israelitish tribe (see homiletics on verses 1-20); Amen was named after an Egyptian god. The first was most likely traceable to Hezekiah's piety; the second due to Manasseh's impiety.
2. Reigns. Manasseh ruled Judah for fifty-five years; Amen for two. God determines to nations and individuals, to kings and subjects, the bounds of their habitations and the length of their days (Acts 17:26).
3. Careers. Manasseh repented, turned to Jehovah, and lived; Amon died as he had lived, an insensate idolater and hardened transgressor.
4. Ends. Manasseh died a natural, Amon a violent death.
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