The Wickedness and Repentance of Manasseh

Manasseh was one of the most wicked kings of Judah in Old Testament times.  He was the son of Hezekiah but did not follow after the righteous ways of his father.  He reigned approximately from 697 BC to 642 BC and caused terrible things to happen in Judah.  The writers of 2 Kings described him this way: “And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, after the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel.  For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them…. And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards: he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger…. Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel….  Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; beside his sin wherewith he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of the Lord” (2 Kings 21:1-16).  He is also infamous for sawing the prophet Isaiah in half in an atrocious (non-Biblical) story.  Killing his own son and many others, bringing the worship of idols, doing more wickedness than the pagan nations that had previously occupied—from the 2 Kings account there doesn’t seem to be anything positive to say about Manasseh. 

               Given Manasseh’s terrible wickedness, the description in 2 Chronicles of some kind of repentance on his part is quite surprising.  We read that because of his awful acts, “The Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.”  We then see that because of this difficult affliction, Manasseh “besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, And prayed unto him,” and despite the fact that he seems to have deserved every bit of his punishment, the Lord “was entreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom.”  The account then describes how, at the end of his life, he “took away the strange gods… and he repaired the altar of the Lord, and sacrificed thereon peace offerings and thank offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel” (2 Chronicles 33:11-16).  Could a man that cruel and wicked really have repented and turned to the Lord?  And could the Lord have forgiven him?

               The account in 2 Chronicles says that Manasseh prayed to the Lord, and the contents of that prayer are purported to be contained in the Apocrypha in a small book called Prayer of Manasseh.  Many people are skeptical that it was really from Manasseh, but it’s interesting to read and consider nonetheless.  The prayer states in part, “I have sinned above the number of the sands of the sea. My transgressions, O Lord, are multiplied: my transgressions are multiplied, and I am not worthy to behold and see the height of heaven for the multitude of mine iniquities….    I have set up abominations, and have multiplied offences. Now therefore I bow the knee of mine heart, beseeching thee of grace. I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned, and I acknowledge mine iniquities: wherefore, I humbly beseech thee, forgive me, O Lord, forgive me, and destroy me not with mine iniquities.”  Whether he really said it or not to me it is a beautiful prayer of a sinner, and that he sinned “above the number of the sands of the sea” sounds like the right description for Manasseh.  The most thought-provoking scenario in my mind is this: what if he really did offer this prayer of absolute repentance and did indeed turn back to the Lord in sackcloth and ashes, and what if the Lord really did forgive him of all of his deeds?  Could I do the same to such a person as that, and could I accept that God could be that forgiving?  Or would I feel more like Jonah who at the thought that God could forgive the brutal Assyrians at their repentance was bitter that God is “a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness” (Jonah 4:2)?  I’m not sure I know the answer to those questions, but I do believe having the kind of love to forgive even a Manasseh is what God expects of me.