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by Charlie Wolcott

Hezekiah was a godly king who tore down high places and destroyed idols including good things such as the Bronze Serpent. He got sick halfway into his reign, and God granted him 15 more years of his life. There is an indication that he was childless at this point with no heir. God said he would heal him and give him an heir. That child was born a couple of years later, Manasseh. When Hezekiah died, Manasseh was just 12 years old, and he reigned for 55 years. He had the longest reign of any king of Israel or Judah, and he was the worst of them.

Manasseh followed all the idols that the pagans had around them – Baal, Asherah, Molech/Chemosh, not to mention practicing sorcery and divination and seeking mediums, a list that not even Ahab did. And as bad as all that was, he did something even more evil than all that: he put these idols and altars directly in the Temple itself. And catch this statement in 2 Chronicles 33:9: Manasseh led Judah to do even more evil than the pagan nations whom the Lord had already destroyed through the Assyrian empire. Ezekiel gave some fierce words for this in Ezekiel 23 and compared Israel and Judah to two harlots. For as bad of a rap as Israel has, Judah out-sinned Israel. If the trio of Jehoram, Ahaziah, and Athaliah were bad, Ahaz seemed to seek to top them and Manasseh went even further.

Isaiah was nearing the end of his ministry, and he rebuked Manasseh for his idolatry. Tradition holds that Manasseh had Isaiah sawn in half. Manasseh wanted nothing to do with the prophets of God. Ezekiel 22 gives a devastating lashing against the prophets and priests of that time: conspiring against God and using their position and the people’s innate trust in that position to rip them off for selfish gain. No one stood in the gap; no one stepped up to put a stop to it. Hezekiah tried. Isaiah tried. But the people didn’t listen to Hezekiah or Isaiah, and Manasseh had Isaiah removed.

God had enough and had Assyria take Manasseh captive along with formally proclaiming the upcoming captivity to Babylon. Keep in mind that when Assyria took captives, they marched them in their chains, naked, and pulled along with a hook in their nose. This was only one of the many ways Assyria showed their brutal cruelty. In captivity, Manasseh was humbled. The teachings and preaching of his father Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah would have come to mind, and he remembered and sought the Lord. He returned to Jerusalem and began tearing down all the idols. He did not tear down the high places, but the people used them to worship the true God. Manasseh committed the most atrocious sins of all the kings, but he was humbled, and in that humility, he returned to serve the Lord until he died.

We don’t know when during Manasseh’s 55-year reign his arrest and repentance took place, but this sets up the backstory to his son Amon who was born 33 years into his reign. Amon lasted only two years because he followed the footsteps of his father into idolatry, only he did not repent of his sins. He was assassinated as a result. His officials had no interest in seeing another Manasseh who would turn Assyria against Judah again, so they killed him and installed Josiah in his stead, a boy of only 8 years old.

Let’s do the math. Amon was 24 when he was assassinated and Josiah was 8 at that time. So Amon was 16 when he fathered Josiah and 15 when he slept with Josiah’s mother. It’s not as crazy a situation as with Ahaz who fathered Hezekiah when he was 11, but still very young.

Manasseh and Amon show the reverse cases of Joash and Hezekiah. Joash started well and ended bad. Hezekiah started well and ended well. Manasseh started bad and ended well. Amon started bad and ended bad. Manasseh had all the markings, precedents, and foundations laid for a good backing. Because Manasseh was just 12 years old when he became king, it is possible that Hezekiah’s death triggered anger and resentment in him. He was old enough to have an attachment to Hezekiah, so it’s not implausible for him to blame God for it and go to all the idols to spit in God’s face. But that is speculation.

Amon likely lived through Manasseh’s repentance, but it may depend upon when that took place. I suspect the repentance was towards the end of his life, but I cannot prove that. I suspect Amon spent a good part of his youth engaged in idolatrous actions alongside his father. He clearly didn’t learn from his father about repentance and departing from the idols. He liked the idols and wanted to keep them. Instead of repenting from his sin, he multiplied it. In a way, God was merciful in allowing Amon to be assassinated, and the people in turn executed his killers. It wasn’t right to kill him, but God may have allowed it to give Amon’s little boy a chance to follow God and give him the opportunity to lead the nation in a last-minute revival while also fulfilling prophecy. That will be for next week.

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