The Twenty Verse Life

By Jerry D. Ousley

            In 2 Chronicles 33, the first twenty verses summarize the life of King Manasseh.  As I read those twenty verses I was moved very deeply because of the wickedness of this king, and how God got his attention.  Here is his story:

            In verses 1-9 we are told of his original deeds.  He was the son of King Hezekiah, a very good King.  Hezekiah did much to move Judah and the remnant of Israel back to God.  But Manasseh wasn’t so good.  That alone made me to wonder why he hadn’t followed in his father’s footsteps.  What happened that he didn’t serve God as his dad had done?  Perhaps Dad was too strict on him and he vowed that when he was free from his father, he would never serve the God of Heaven.  Maybe something happened that caused him to be rebellious.  We aren’t told.  All we really know is that his father had died and when he was only twelve years old, the kingdom was dumped into his lap.

            Now, of course, there is no twelve-year-old boy on the face of the Earth capable of running a kingdom.  But you would think that his mother and his father’s advisors, along with the priests in charge of the temple, would have guided him into the paths his father had chosen.  We aren’t told what happened.  What we are told is that he rebelled against God.  Verse 2 tells us, “But 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.”  And verse 9 says, “So Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel.”  This was not a good thing, not a good thing at all!

            Here are some of the things he did:

• He rebuilt the high places which his father, Hezekiah, had torn down.  The high places were used to provide sacrifice away from the temple.  They were not to even sacrifice to the LORD away from the temple, but in most instances, they used these places to sacrifice to false gods.
• He raised up altars for the Baals – false gods of the people Israel was supposed to remove from the land.
• He made wooden images and worshipped all the host of heaven – again, false gods of the stars, sun and moon.
• He built altars to these false gods – get this – in the very temple that had been dedicated to God by Solomon! What audacity!
• In the court of the priests and also the great court for the people, he placed altars to all the host of these false gods.
• In pagan worship, he caused his sons to pass through the fire in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom – In other words, he sacrificed his own children, burning them on altars, in worship of these false deities.
• He practiced the occult, used witchcraft and sorcery, and sought advice from mediums and spiritists. These practices had been specifically condemned by God (See Deuteronomy 13:1-6 and 18:9-14).
• He set up an image of the false goddess, Asherah – her worship included sexual practices, both female and male prostitution, as acts of worship (see 2 Kings 23:4).

To say the least, God got fed up with Manasseh very quickly.  Verses 10-13 tell us what God did.  First, He spoke to Manasseh and his people.  Now think about that.; we aren’t told if it was by an audible voice, or just in the heart.  It really doesn’t matter because both Manasseh and his people ignored the words of God.  What?  How could it get more tragic?  But it did.  We are told that the Assyrians took Manasseh, binding him with hooks and chains, and carried him off to Babylon. Apparently, he was tortured and kept in prison because verse 12 tells us that he was in affliction.  Sadly, it took that to get his attention. He prayed to God and by His great mercy, God allowed him to be taken back to Jerusalem – Get this – once again as king.  Finally in verse 13 we are told “Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.”  But think about what it took to get him to come to that realization!

Verses 14-20 tell us what he did when he was restored as king.  His acts included tearing down the images and idols he had made of all those false gods.  He also repaired the altar of the LORD, and he commanded the people to serve the LORD.  His end turned out to be much better.

But it made me to begin to wonder about our own “twenty verses.”  How will our own lives be summarized?  Perhaps it will take more than twenty verses.  God forbid, for some of us it might take less.

We look at Manasseh and wonder how he could have been so wicked.  Raised by a father who turned whole-heartedly to God, how could he have done all he did?  We may never know that until we get to Heaven ourselves.  But then, what about our own lives?  Whether we’ve been raised in a Christian home or not, how will we be remembered?

As we contemplate that, I can tell you this for certain – We all have the opportunity to end our lives like Manasseh did.  Whether we are serving God now, or not, we can turn to God.  We can realize our sin, and we can repent and come back to Him.  Jesus told the story of the Prodigal Son.  You can read the story Jesus told in Luke 15:11-24.  The younger son of his father demanded his portion of his inheritance, ran off and wasted it all in riotous living.  When it was all gone, he found himself alone.  His so-called friends had abandoned him.  With his money spent he found himself eating the husks that he fed to the hogs.  But then he realized that his father’s hired servants lived better than he was.  The idea hit him.  “I will go to my father and ask to be taken in as a hired servant.”  But when he returned, his father saw him coming when he was still a good way off.  His father had compassion on him, fell on his neck and kissed him.  He welcomed his son home, put a ring on his finger and clothes on his back and prepared the fatted calf in celebration of his sons return.

We are all prodigal sons.  We all have sinned against God.  None of us, regardless what kind of front we may put on, have done any differently.  Like the Prodigal Son, and like Manasseh, we are guilty of sin.  But we can return to our Father.  We can come back to Him.  He will welcome us.  Won’t you do it now?  Your decision will decide how you complete your own “twenty-verses.”

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.?  Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.