There was a man named Manasseh, who became king when he was only 12 years old and reigned for 55 years. He was not the type of ruler to be admired, for the Bible says he was known for the evil things he did. He was all about participating in pagan practices such as building shrines, making altars for images of Baal, bowing and worshiping them, sacrificing his own sons to pagan gods, and enjoying sorcery, divination, and witchcraft. On top of all that, he placed pagan altars INSIDE the temple of the Lord!
The Lord spoke to Manasseh and tried to get his attention, but Manasseh ignored God. As a result, God sent the Assyrian armies, who captured the king and took him away in chains to another country. Manasseh was deeply distressed at this point and the Bible says he “sought the Lord his God and sincerely humbled himself before the God of his ancestors. And when he prayed, the Lord listened to him and was moved by his request. So the Lord brought Manasseh back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh finally realized that the Lord alone is God!” 2 Chronicles 33:12-13 (NLT)
At first glance, we might think King Manasseh is nothing like us, but in fact he is JUST like us. He built shrines and made altars to worship Baal, and bowed down in worship to the pagan God. What God are we bowing down to? What God do we make a shrine to? Is it the God of pleasure? Could it be the God of material things, such as our cars, our homes, or our name brand clothing? Do we make our time the God of our life? Is our family the thing we put before God?
Manasseh sacrificed his own sons by fire to pagan Gods. We would never do that! But, do we sacrifice our children in this day and time? I believe we do just that. We get caught up in the things of this world; we make those things our idols and by doing that – we sacrifice our children because we are not teaching them that God – Yahweh – the Holy One, must come first. We follow sorcery, witchcraft and divination – place our hope in other things and leave God out of it. It could even be said that we bring our idols into the sanctuary on Sunday, and miss the real reason we are there – to bow down and worship our Lord.
The great thing about the story of bad king Manasseh is that when he “sincerely humbled” himself before God, things began to change. God listened to him and was “moved by his request”. We also have that option – to humble ourselves before God – to come clean and say we are sorry for putting other things before Him. God will then restore us and things will be different. Manasseh was different after coming clean with God. He turned in another direction; removing the foreign gods and idols from the temple, tearing down altars, restoring the altar of the Lord, and best of all – he encouraged other people to worship God.
It is never too late to ask God to forgive you; He is ALWAYS standing ready to listen to you and mend the relationship. Why not come clean with Him today?
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