Untitled Sermon (22)

2 Chronicles 33

2 Chronicles 33:1-20

Last time we finished the life of Hezekiah, the best king Judah ever had. But I did forget to tell you that he died. According to 2 Chronicles 32:33 he was buried in the upper tombs of the sons of David. I assume that was a place of honor. As the Lord had promised him there was peace in Judah while he was alive. But when he died his son Manasseh took the throne of Judah at the age of 12.

Since Hezekiah was the best king Judah ever had what kind of king would you think his son is going to be? I’m a preacher and one of my sons is a preacher and his oldest son says he wants to be a missionary. With that being the case wouldn’t you think that since Hezekiah was a good king that his son would be a good king? Let me tell you about King of Manasseh. 2 Chronicles 33 tells us this: This is 2 Chronicles 33:1-9 1Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. 2But 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. 3For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; he raised up altars for the Baals, and made wooden images; and he worshiped all the £host of heaven and served them. 4He also built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem shall My name be forever.” 5And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. 6Also he caused his sons to pass through the fire in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom; he practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft and sorcery, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. 7He even set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God, of which God 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; 8and I will not again remove the foot of Israel from the land which I have appointed for your fathers—only if they are careful to do all that I have commanded them, according to the whole law and the statutes and the ordinances by the hand of Moses.” 9So 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. Everything Manasseh’s father had done he undid. Everything his father had avoided he did even so much as to sacrifice his own children as burnt offerings in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom or Harmageddon. In verse 7-9 we see that God had promised not to take His people out of His land as long as they were careful or purposefully kept His commands but Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than the people God removed from the land under Joshua. Remember all those people either left Canaan, were made slaves or were killed because they were so bad and now God says that His own people under the leadership of Manasseh were worse. So the best king Judah ever had left a son who decided to lead his people to be the worse people God ever had.

So what can we learn from this? Your behavior, your commitment to God and obeying Him is your responsibility. Just because Manasseh was the son of a very good king who was guilty of pride yet repented doesn’t mean that he is going to be obedient to God. Geoff, my son, cannot claim to be a preacher just because I am a preacher; he has to be obedient himself. You cannot claim to be a follower of Christ because your grandmother or grandfather or parents took you to church and served God faithfully. You are responsible for your own life. And we need to note that even though Manasseh seduced the people of Judah to do more evil than the people that God destroyed it was still their responsibility to be obedient to God and not follow the king who was filled with disobedience. You are the responsible party as it relates to obedience to God.

So what happened to Manasseh? It tells us in verses 10 and 11 that God used the Assyrians to take Manasseh by hooks in fetters of bronze (handcuffs of bronze) off to Babylon. He is now a prisoner of the people God had defeated for his father. I’m not going to tell you that you are going to be carried off into captivity in a foreign land but you will be captive to your sin and rebellion either way.

There Manasseh is in Babylon. Now let’s read verses 12-13 to see what happened next: 12Now when he was in affliction, he implored the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, 13and prayed to Him; and He received his entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God. It looks like he did learn something from his father after all. When he realized that his sin was the cause of his captivity he repented and God restored him back to Jerusalem and his throne. What do we learn from this? Not only is it your responsibility to keep yourself obedient to God but when you are not you are responsible for repentance and God will do whatever it takes to bring His people to repentance. It took Manasseh a trip to Babylon in chains, I would suggest to you that you not wait that long.

There is one more thing we need to look at in the life of Manasseh. After he got back to Jerusalem he rebuilt much of the city, strengthened the military and did some public works to make the city of God better. But more important is what he did spiritually. Verses 15-17 15He 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. 16He also repaired the altar of the Lord, sacrificed peace offerings and thank offerings on it, and commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel. 17Nevertheless the people still sacrificed on the high places, but only to the Lord their God. I had already told you that he repented so why did I want to read this part to you as well? He not only called out to God for deliverance but he went about correcting what he had done wrong including leading the people of Judah back to obeying and worshiping God and he did it by worshiping God as an example. When there is true repentance there is a change in your life that is seen, it is observable in such a way that it leads others to changed lives.

So this is what we have learned: It is your and my responsibility to guard ourselves and remain obedient to God. We can’t blame anyone else if we are not and we cannot expect them to keep us obedient. When you are not obedient it is your responsibility to repent. No one can repent for you. When you repent your life will show a change. If I say something mean to Raechel and realize what I did and told her I was sorry then five minutes later did the same thing again; did I repent? The only evidence of repentance is a change in behavior. When your life shows a change it will lead other towards repentance as well; but it is still their responsibility. Let’s pray.