His prayer and how God received his plea, as well as all his sin and unfaithfulness, and the sites where he built high places and set up Asherah poles and idols before he humbled himself, they are indeed written in the Records of the Seers. Sermons
I. A LURID LIGHT UPON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SIN. Manasseh's career brings into prominence certain truths upon the subject of human depravity which in these days of so-called culture and refinement are prone to be pushed aside, ignored, and forgotten. 1. That sin, wickedness, a disposition to go astray from the paths of virtue, is an inborn characteristic of the human soul in its fallen condition; is a native product springing up out of the soil of man's interior being, and does not simply come upon him from without as the result of his environment, as the combined effect of the circumstances by which he is surrounded and of the examples by which he is directed. This is what theologians are accustomed to call the doctrine of original sin - a doctrine which Scripture with perfect clearness announces (Psalm 51:5), which experience everywhere attests (1 Kings 8:46; Ecclesiastes 7:20), which modern science with its law of heredity strikingly confirms, and which lends peculiar emphasis to the teaching of Christ as to the new birth (John 3:7). 2. That this inborn principle of sin frequently reveals itself at unexpected times and under totally unlooked-for conditions. Concerning Manasseh one would have felt disposed to reason that if ever a child had the chance of being good, or at least of keeping down the evil that was in him, that child was the son of Hezekiah. Yet scarcely had he come to the throne at the early age of twelve than the wickedness of his nature began to break forth in almost full-blown violence. It is a warning to parents not to slacken in their diligence or abate in their efforts to promote the godly education of their children, since the season for impressing them with right views of truth and instilling into them right principles of action is at the longest extremely short, and if neglected may lead to irreparable disaster in after-life; while it is a much-needed reminder that not even pious parents can infallibly secure the conversion of their children, and that after all these have the determination of their future characters and destinies largely in their own hands. 3. That the development of evil in human hearts and lives is often rapid and always downward. At least it was so with this infatuated prince, who began by exhibiting a singular precocity in sin, and ended not until he had all but exhausted the catalogue of crime. If he proceeded no further in his downward career than sacred story represents, the reason likely was that his ingenuity could devise nothing more atrocious. Indeed, one cannot help discovering in him a prototype of Shakespeare's Aaron, who says- "Tut! I have done a thousand dreadful things II. VALUABLE COUNSEL AS TO THE MORAL AND SPIRITUAL USES OF ADVERSITY. 1. It is always intended as a means of religious and moral improvement, whether it be laid on saint or sinner. The Lord doth not afflict men willingly, but for their profit, that they might be partakers of his holiness (Lamentations 3:33; Hebrews 12:10). In the case of saints it has this for its primary end (Hebrews 12:11); but even in the case of sinners this end is not neglected or overlooked. Calamity may fall on them directly as punishment; yet it always aims at their arrestment, reformation, and conversion. 2. It frequently succeeds when every other means of improvement fails. In the case of Manasseh nothing appeared potent enough to arrest him on his mad career - not the memory of his good father or of his pious mother, not the infinite folly of the idolatries he was keeping up, not the shame in which his immoralities involved him before the people, not the blood of his innocent victims, not the mourning and lamentation of his bereaved subjects, not the feelings of his own parental bosom, not the reproofs of Jehovah's prophets, not the terrors of his own conscience, Nor until God put a hook into his nose and led him off to captivity in Babylon did he pause and begin to reflect on his wickedness. And the same function is performed by affliction yet. God frequently employs it to pull up those whom he perceives rushing headlong to perdition, when other and milder methods have been used in vain. III. A SPLENDID ILLUSTRATION OF THE FREENESS AND THE POWER OF DIVINE GRACE, 1. The steps of Manasseh's recovery. (1) Penitence. He was awakened to a sense of his by-past ungodly career, and filled with sincere and heartfelt contrition on its account. (2) Prayer. He was moved to cry for mercy from that God against whom he had offended. (3) Pardon. The Lord was entreated of him, and he was forgiven. He was restored to his kingdom. 2. The ground of Manasseh's recovery. (1) Certainly not good works in the sense of meritorious actions, because penitence and prayer are both good in the sense of being commanded duties. (2) Solely the grace or loving-kindness of God, which besides was magnified in pardoning so great a transgressor. IV. NECESSARY INSTRUCTION AS TO THE ONLY SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE OF CONVERSION AND SALVATION. 1. Illumination. "Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God." This was true all the same, whether Manasseh knew it or not, and all the while Manasseh was doing his best by the worship of idols to show that he believed the opposite. That which convinced him of his error was his experience of the Divine clemency. Whereas his service of idols had not been able to prevent his deportation to Babylon, no sooner had he transferred his allegiance to Jehovah than his captivity was ended. This sufficed to draw the veil from Manasseh's eyes. So men never really come to know God till they have been made partakers of his mercy in Christ. That which renders nugatory and worthless much of present-day objection to God and Christ, the Bible and the gospel, is that it commonly proceeds from them that know neither the one nor the other. 2. Reformation. Manasseh's conversion was authenticated by change of behaviour as well as change of mind. He took away the foreign gods out of the house of the Lord, and removed from both the temple and the city all the altars he had built for their worship. He repaired also the altar of the Lord, and commanded his subjects to serve the Lord God of Israel only. So in all cases of true conversion there must be the putting away of every known sin, the consecration of every individual power, and the performance of every known duty. - W.
And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God. I. MANSSSEH'S CAREER IN CRIME.II. HIS RETURN TO AND ACCEPTANCE OF GOD. III. THE GRACIOUS RESULTS OF HIS PENITENCE. Improvement. 1. The lamentable wickedness and duplicity of the human heart. 2. The freeness, fulness, and efficacy of Divine grace. 3. The consequences of salvation are reformation and obedience. (T.B. Baker.) Homilist. Manasseh is an eminent instance of the power, richness, and freeness of the Divine mercy. Observe —I. THE SINS WHICH HE COMMITTED. 1. Their contributory cause. His early freedom from restraint, his coming to supreme power when only twelve years of age. 2. Their special nature. The catalogue is appalling. 3. Their aggravated nature. (1) (2) (3) (4) II. THE REPENTANCE WHICH HE EXERCISED. 1. Its cause. (1) (2) 2. Its nature. (1) (2) (3) (4) III. THE MERCIES WHICH MANASSEH RECEIVED. 1. Temporal nature. 2. Spiritual He was brought to the spiritual knowledge of the God of his salvation. "Then Manasseh knew that the Lord He was God." This knowledge led him to fear, trust, love, and obey. This obedience was accompanied by the deepest self-renunciation and abasement to the end of his life. Lessons. 1. To those who are insensible of their sinfulness. 2. To those who are ready to sink into despair under the weight of their sinfulness. 3. To those who are disposed to presume on the mercy of God. Manasseh's son Amon was quickly cut off in the midst of his sins (vers. 21-28). He seems to be a beacon set up close by the side of his penitent and accepted father, to warn all persons against presuming on the mercy manifested to Manasseh. (Homilist.) Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons. I. HIS CHARACTER AS A SINNER.1. He was a notorious sinner. 2. He was not a hopeless sinner. II. HIS CONDUCT AS A PENITENT. 1. The period of his repentance is specified. "When he was in affliction." 2. The nature of his repentance is described. (1) (2) III. HIS SALVATION AS A BELIEVER. 1. He obtained the pardoning mercy of God. 2. He received a saving knowledge of God (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.) II. THE MERCY OF GOD IN SO BRINGING AND RECEIVING HIM. III. THE REMAINING AND LASTING PORTION OF THE EVIL OF SIN, EVEN AFTER THE INDIVIDUAL IS PARDONED. In the Second Book of Kings it is repeatedly declared that Judah was destroyed on account of the sons of Manasseh. 1. A man looks back with sorrow and contrite concern upon the follies and sins of his youth; but what of his companions in guilt? Some, perhaps, whom he seduced into sin, and many whom he encouraged and confirmed in sin. 2. Some writers have employed their pens in the odious cause of immorality and irreligion. Such persons have lamented their errors; but the publication has done its work; the poison has been circulated, and the corruption is incurable. (J. Slade, M. A.) II. THAT SIN IS FREQUENTLY THE CAUSE OF SEVERE AFFLICTION. III. THAT AFFLICTION, WHEN SANCTIFIED, EXALTS TO PRAYER, AND PROMOTES HUMILIATION. IV. THAT PRAYER AND HUMILIATION ARE ALWAYS ATTENDED WITH DISTINGUISHED BLESSINGS, AND PRODUCE VALUABLE EFFECTS. V. FROM THE WHOLE. 1. The patience of God. 2. The sovereignty of God. 3. The wisdom of God in adapting means to the conversion of men. 4. The mercy of God in saving the chief of sinners. (S. Kidd.) I. WITH HIS EARLY ADVANTAGES. John Newton states somewhere, "When I was in the deepest misery, and when I was committing the most atrocious sin, I always seemed to feel the hand of my sainted mother pressing my head." II. WITH THE AFFLICTIONS BY WHICH IT WAS PRODUCED. III. WITH THE EFFECTS WHICH IT UNFOLDED. IV. WITH THE SOVEREIGNTY OF DIVINE GRACE. (A. E. Farrar.) 1. It was in direct contrast to the good reign of. his father. 2. His sin involved many in guilt. He "made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err." 3. He was not moved by the sight of the same wickedness in those whom he despised (2 Kings 21:9). 4. His sin was not checked by God's punishment of others. The heathen had been driven out from the land because of their wickedness. Judah occupied their place and adopted their vice. II. THE LIFE OF MANASSEH UNDER GOD'S CHASTISEMENT. We learn from recently discovered Assyrian inscriptions what is meant by "among the thorns." The word thus translated means a hook, which was put through the under lips of captives. The depths of Manasseh's degradation may be imagined. Yet it was sent in mercy to turn him to God. III. HIS REPENTANCE AND RESTORATION. IV. HIS RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE WORSHIP OF GOD. Lessons. 1. Never to be ashamed of repentance. 2. We see the meaning of God's chastisements. 3. The power of a single man when he has turned from sin to God. 4. The necessity of solitary communion with God. 5. The patient love of God. (Monday Club Sermons.) 1. Affliction. 2. Solitary reflection. 3. Prayer. II. Consider next HOW THE GRACE OF GOD OPERATED IN MANASSEH. 1. He humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. 2. He was made to know that the Lord was God. 3. He brought forth fruits meet for repentance. III. THE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH MADE HIS CONVERSION PECULIARLY STRIKING. 1. It was the conversion of an atrocious sinner. 2. Of an aged sinner. 3. It took place at a distance from the ordinary means of grace. (H. Belfrage, D.D.) I. ABOUNDING INIQUITY marked Manasseh's course. 1. He was the son of Hezekiah the servant of the Lord. We place this foremost as an aggravation of his sin, that in spite of a father's example he cast off the fear of the Lord and sinned with a high hand against his God. That father, indeed, was early taken from him, for Manasseh was but twelve years old when he began to reign; still, the memory of Hezekiah's piety could not have been utterly forgotten. Too marked had been the interposition of Jehovah in that father's deliverance from Assyria and in his recovery from sickness for the report to have passed away. But Manasseh heeded not these things; "he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord to provoke Him to anger." 2. Manasseh added to his disregard of a godly parent this iniquity also, that he led his children unto sin," he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom."... Some godless parents have shown a happy inconsistency, in that whilst pursuing themselves that path "whose end is destruction," they have desired for their offspring that they should seek the Lord. The force of example, indeed, meeting as it does with "the evil that is bound up in the heart of a child," will in such cases often prove too powerful to be withstood. But Manasseh took no such course, but dedicated his children as well as himself to the service of the false gods. Alas, the reproducing power of evil! Thou that art a citizen of the world, intent on gain or pleasure, can it be expected but that thy children should walk after thee in the same destructive road? 3. Manasseh bade defiance to Jehovah in His own sanctuary. Not only did he build again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed, but "he set a carved image," the idol which he had made, "in the house of God." It was not enough that he himself should bow down to idols, and that his children should also do them homage, but with yet more prsumptuous sin he declared himself, in the face of all Israel, an idolater, and desecrated to this base end the very temple, of which the Lord had said, "My Name shall be there." It is the very character of Jehovah that He is "a jealous God," "His glory will He not give to another." 4. But further, Manasseh "shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another." The faithful who warned him were doubtless the ones especially sacrificed to his vengeance, and it is supposed that Isaiah suffered death under this fearful persecutor of the Church of God. For the wickedness of Manasseh could not plead this even in palliation that he was unrebuked: "The Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they would not hearken." What depth of malignity is there in the unchanged soul! what pollutions! what ingratitude! what rebellion! Were it not for the restraining grace of God, what a scene of bloodshed and of all enormity would this earth be! II. MORE ABOUNDING STILL THE GRACE OF GOD. 1. In chastisement the first faint streak of mercy manifested itself. The voice of plenty had spoken to him in vain, the voice of warning had been treated with neglect, but now the voice of correction speaks in tones not to be gainsaid. The alarm of war is heard in that guilty court. 2. His deep penitence bore witness to the workings of grace. He humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers That word "greatly" speaks much as recorded by the Spirit of truth. As with the gospel itself, so with the chastenings of the Lord, they are either "a savour of life unto life, or of death unto death." 3. The voice of prayer went up from that prison-house, "He besought the Lord... and prayed unto Him." Tears, many it may be, fell before one prayer was uttered. 4. Abounding grace, shone forth, too, in the answer granted to prayer. "God was intreated of him." He heard his cry, and hope sprung up in his downcast soul. 5. The workings of God's grace were further evidenced by the fruits of faith in life according to godliness. Manasseh restored to his kingdom, has now but one object in view, the glory of God, and that object he consistently pursued. The idol is east out from the temple, and the altars of the false gods out of the city, and the people are commanded "to serve the Lord God of Israel." He turned not aside from his purpose to bring back to Jehovah those whom formerly he had led away to sin; and this godly course he pursued unto the end.Lessons. 1. The first is, that there is a fulness of grace in God as our reconciled Father in Christ Jesus beyond the power of heart to conceive, or of tongue to utter. 2. But this history also reminds us of the dreadful nature of sin. Deep are its furrows, lasting its effects. Manasseh is pardoned, but,could he repair the evil he had done? (F. Storr, M.A.) I. AS A SINNER. 1. He sinned against light, against a pious education and early training. It is a notorious fact that when men do go wrong after a good training they are the worst men in the world. The murder of John Williams at Erromanga was brought about by the evil doings of a trader who had gone to the island, and who was also the son of a missionary. He had become reckless in his habits, and treated the islanders with such barbarity and cruelty that they revenged his conduct upon the next white man who put his foot upon their shore. 2. He was a very bold sinner. 3. He had the power of leading others to a very large extent astray. II. AS AN UNBELIEVER. He did not believe that Jehovah was God alone. 1. The unlimited power that Manasseh possessed had a great tendency to make him a disbeliever. 2. His pride was another cause. 3. Another cause was his love for sin. III. AS A CONVERT. He believed in God — 1. Because God had answered his prayer. 2. Because He had forgiven his sin. ( C. H. Spurgeon.) (W. H. Bennett, M.A.) I. LET US EXAMINE THE CASE BEFORE US. 1. Manasseh was the son of a good father. 2. He undid all his father's actions. 3. He served false gods. 4. He desecrated the Lord's courts. There are some to-day who do this; for they make even their attendance at the house of God to be an occasion for evil. 5. He dedicated his children to the devil. Nobody here will dedicate his children to the devil, surely; yet many do. Have I not seen a father dedicate his boy to the devil, as he has encouraged him to drink? And do not many in this great city, dedicate their children to the devil by allowing them to go into all kinds of licentiousness, until they become the victims of vice? 6. He fraternised with the devil, by seeking after all kinds of supernatural witcheries and wizardries. 7. He led others astray. 8. He persecuted the people of God. It is said, — we do not know whether it was so or not, — but it is highly probable, that he caused Isaiah to be cut asunder with a wooden saw. 9. In short, Manasseh was a compound of every sort of wickedness. 10. Notwithstanding all this Manasseh was pardoned. How it came about? (1) (2) (3) II. LET US CONSIDER WHY THERE SHOULD BE OTHERS LIKE MANASSEH. Judging from many probabilities, that God will save other great sinners as He saved Manasseh. 1. Because He speaks to such great sinners and commands them to repent (Isaiah 1:16-18). Because of the great promises God has given to great sinners. 3. Because of the nature of God. 4. From what I know of the value of the blood of Jesus. ( C. H. Spurgeon.) (W. H. Bennett, M.A.) 8276 humility Manasseh How Shall one Make Use of Christ as the Life, when Wrestling with an Angry God Because of Sin? Josiah, a Pattern for the Ignorant. Covenanting According to the Purposes of God. The Worst Things Work for Good to the Godly The Girdle of the City. Nehemiah 3 The Power of Assyria at Its Zenith; Esarhaddon and Assur-Bani-Pal Beginning at Jerusalem The Jerusalem Sinner Saved; Chronicles |
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