If anyone doubts the grace, love and mercy of God, there is the story of Manasseh in II Chron. We are told that he did worse, as king, then the nations God told the Israelites to drive out.
1Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years.
2And he did evil in the sight of the LORD by following the abominations of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.
3For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had torn down, and he raised up altars for the Baals and made Asherah poles. And he worshiped and served all the host of heaven.
4Manasseh also built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “My Name will remain in Jerusalem forever.”
5In both courtyards of the house of the LORD, he built altars to all the host of heaven.
6He sacrificed his sons in the fire
a in the Valley of Ben-hinnom. He practiced sorcery, divination, and witchcraft, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did great evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger.
7Manasseh even took the carved image he had made and set it up in the house of God, of which God had said to David and his son Solomon, “In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will establish My Name forever.
8I will never again cause the feet of the Israelites to leave the land that I assigned to your fathers, if only they are careful to do all that I have commanded them through Moses—all the laws, statutes, and judgments.”
9So Manasseh led the people of Judah and Jerusalem astray, so that they did greater evil than the nations that the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites.
AND WHAT HAPPENED?
Manasseh’s Repentance and Restoration
(
2 Kings 21:10–18)
10And the LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they did not listen.
11So the LORD brought against them the military commanders of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon.
12And in his distress, Manasseh sought the favor of the LORD his God and earnestly humbled himself before the God of his fathers
. 13And when he prayed to Him, the LORD received his plea and heard his petition. So He brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD is God.
14After this, Manasseh rebuilt the outer wall of the City of David from west of Gihon in the valley to the entrance of the Fish Gate, and he brought it around the hill of Ophel and heightened it considerably. He also stationed military commanders in all the fortified cities of Judah.
15He removed the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the LORD, along with all the altars he had built on the temple mount
b and in Jerusalem, and he dumped them outside the city.
16Then he restored the altar of the LORD and sacrificed peace offerings and thank offerings on it, and he told Judah to serve the LORD, the God of Israel.
17Nevertheless, the people still sacrificed at the high places, but only to the LORD their God.
18As for the rest of the acts of Manasseh, along with his prayer to his God and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, they are indeed written in the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.
c 19His prayer and how God received his plea, as well as all his sin and unfaithfulness, and the sites where he built high places and set up Asherah poles and idols before he humbled himself, they are indeed written in the Records of the Seers.
d 20And Manasseh rested with his fathers and was buried at his palace. And his son Amon reigned in his place.
II Kings 21:10-18
Imagine that.
