Thankful For The Opportunity To Come Home

2 Chronicles 33:1-2 (NASB) 

¹  Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. 

²  He did evil in the sight of the LORD according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD dispossessed before the sons of Israel.

1.     Getting Your Fill Of Sin

2 Chronicles 33:3-9 (NASB) 

³  For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; he also erected altars for the Baals and made Asherim, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. 

⁴  He built altars in the house of the LORD of which the LORD had said, "My name shall be in Jerusalem forever." 

⁵  For he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. 

⁶  He made his sons pass through the fire in the valley of Ben-hinnom; and he practiced witchcraft, used divination, practiced sorcery and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger. 

⁷  Then he put the carved image of 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 from all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever; 

⁸  and I will not again remove the foot of Israel from the land which I have appointed for your fathers, if only they will observe to do all that I have commanded them according to all the law, the statutes and the ordinances given through Moses." 

⁹  Thus Manasseh misled Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the sons of Israel.

2 Kings 21:16 (NASB) 

¹⁶  Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; besides his sin with which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the LORD.

2.     Getting Unwanted Consequences In Life

2 Chronicles 33:10-11 (NASB) 

¹⁰  The LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention. 

¹¹  Therefore the LORD brought the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria against them, and they captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze chains and took him to Babylon.

2 Kings 21:10-15 (NASB) 

¹⁰  Now the LORD spoke through His servants the prophets, saying, 

¹¹  "Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, having done wickedly more than all the Amorites did who were before him, and has also made Judah sin with his idols; 

¹²  therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'Behold, I am bringing such calamity on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle. 

¹³  'I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. 

¹⁴  'I will abandon the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they will become as plunder and spoil to all their enemies; 

¹⁵  because they have done evil in My sight, and have been provoking Me to anger since the day their fathers came from Egypt, even to this day.'"

3.     Getting Right With God

2 Chronicles 33:12-13 (NASB) 

¹²  When he was in distress, he entreated the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. 

¹³  When he prayed to Him, He was moved by his entreaty and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.

2 Chronicles 33:14-17 (NASB) 

¹⁴  Now after this he built the outer wall of the city of David on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entrance of the Fish Gate; and he encircled the Ophel with it and made it very high. Then he put army commanders in all the fortified cities of Judah. 

¹⁵  He also removed the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the LORD, as well as all the altars which he had built on the mountain of the house of the LORD and in Jerusalem, and he threw them outside the city. 

¹⁶  He set up the altar of the LORD and sacrificed peace offerings and thank offerings on it; and he ordered Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel. 

¹⁷  Nevertheless the people still sacrificed in the high places, although only to the LORD their God.