But They Did Not Listen

Hezekiah lived out his fifteen year extension of life and had a son three years into his final years. Manasseh was twelve when he became king and he did evil in the sight of the LORD, as King Ahaz his grandfather had done and as King Solomon had done. He went after the abominations of the nations which God had driven out of the land of Canaan, and he multiplied those heinous sins.

Manasseh rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah had torn down. He used the wealth of his father to bring evil back to Judah. He built altars to Baal, be built an Asherah pole for sexual immorality, then he built altars and worshiped the host of heaven. He worshiped the sun, the moon, and the stars. This fascination with the heavenly bodies likely stemmed from the stories he heard about God moving heaven and earth as a sign for his father. So he went further and deified those created objects.

He filled the Temple of God, which the LORD had said, ‘In Jerusalem I will put My Name,’ with altars to other gods. His altars to the sun, moon, planets, and stars filled the two courts of the Temple. He set the Asherah in the House of the LORD, which God had told David and Solomon, ‘In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put My Name forever.’ He made his sons pass through the fire to Molech,, practiced witchcraft like Solomon had, dealt with mediums and spiritists like King Saul and King Ahaz had done. He did much to provoke God to anger.

He ignored the warnings of Moses and Joshua. He disdained the Word of the LORD concerning the blessings and curses agreed to in the Law. He did not listen to the Word of God which said, ‘I will not make the feet of Israel wander anymore from the land which I have their fathers, if only they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the Law that My servant Moses commanded them.’ 

Manasseh did not listen. The people of Judah did not listen to God. Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the sons of Israel. They forgot what God did to Samaria and how He exiled them from their good land. Judah did worse than Israel had done, provoking God to anger with their sins. 

Just because one generation served the LORD does not mean the next generation will. Every person has to decide for themselves what kind of person they will be and how they will respond to God. So many who have godly parents and grandparents reject the faith of their fathers to go enjoy the pleasures of sin, and then they reap the negative consequences of those actions. It is best to fear the LORD and walk in His ways, to avoid sin and therefore avoid the results of bad decisions.