A Change of Heart

2 Chronicles 33:10-13: "The LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention. So the LORD brought against them the army commanders of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh prisoner, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon. In his distress he sought the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. And when he prayed to him, the LORD was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea; so he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD is God."





Despite being the son of a king who trusted in the LORD and was obedient to Him (2 Kings 18:5), Manasseh "did evil in the eyes of the LORD" (2 Kings 21:2). Manasseh followed the popular trend of worshipping the pagan fertility gods of the Canaanites, and he built altars to these false deities all over his kingdom. Manasseh was quite brazen in his defiance to the Lord and he placed pagan altars in the temple that previously had been dedicated to exclusive worship of the One True God. He also began to practice "sorcery and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists" (2 Kings 21:6). When God's prophets attempted to confront his immoral leadership, the king would have none of it. Tradition holds that Manasseh was responsible for the execution of Isaiah, the one who recorded the prophetic book found in the Old Testament.



Manasseh's debauchery reached the highest heights when his pagan worship included sacrificing his own children in an altar fire to the god Molech. All of this behavior provoked the LORD to anger; the LORD responded by calling the true prophets to proclaim that the king of Judah had "done more evil than the (pagan) Amorites who preceded him and had led Judah into sin with his idols" (2 Kings 21:11). Whereas the king should have been the Godly leader who directed his people to follow the One True God exclusively, he succumbed to the popular trend of syncretism. Manasseh should have been directing his people to resist the practice of idolatry; instead, he assimilated the pagan gods into the corporate worship of the Judeans. And with this rebellion came all sorts of licentious, wicked behavior against the LORD.





The LORD attempted to speak to the king and his people, but they would not listen. They were enjoying their "new freedom" and did not want to hear that they ultimately were accountable to God for their actions. The LORD responded by sending the Assyrians to invade the Judean territory; in the invasion, the Assyrians took Manasseh captive and shipped him back to Babylon. It was a rather disgraceful experience for the king. When we was captured, the Assyrians placed a hook in his nose and bound him with bronze shackles to parade him around like a brute beast. The king lost his elevated position in his kingdom; now, he was a humiliated prisoner in a foreign land.





As he lay imprisoned against his will in Babylon, Manasseh came to his spiritual senses, namely that his demise was ultimately the result of his rebellion against the LORD. In his humility, Manasseh cried out to the LORD to regain His favor. God was moved by the spirit of contrition of Manasseh, and He brought deliverance to the king. Through God's intervention, Manasseh was released by his captives and sent back to reign again over the people of Judea.





When Manasseh returned, he sought to correct all the wrongs he had committed. He got rid of the pagan altars and images that were the objects of worship for his people. He restored the altar to the One True God and offered sacrifices to Him alone. Manasseh's deplorable circumstances in captivity brought a change of heart. Years of imprisonment gave him opportunity to reflect upon how he had gotten to such a miserable place in life; still, Manasseh knew that God was a merciful Lord, who abounds in mercy (Psalm 86:15). The king recognized that deliverance would come if he simply would surrender his will to the Sovereign Lord.

We would do well to reflect upon the life of Manasseh as a teaching tool about life. No one who chooses to rebel against the One True Lord will be blessed. God is a God of constancy (James 1:17), and He will not let the rebellious go unpunished. Still, God is ready to receive the penitent heart back into fellowship with Him. No matter what we have done . . . no matter where we may find ourselves, we can know that God is a Lord of healing and restoration. Still, His blessing necessitates our response of allegiance and obedience. We must cast aside all of the "idols" that we worship above Him; we must also renounce any sinful behavior that is inconsistent with His declared will as found in Scripture. We all can have a change of heart . . . I guess the question is, "Are we willing?"