2 Chronicles 33:1 - Meaning and Application

Here we have the story of Manasseh’s great wickedness. It is almost word for word the same as the account in (2 Kings 21:1-9), and it gives a sad picture. This is not a pleasant subject, so there is little joy in dwelling on it again.

This foolish young king, in spite of the good example and careful teaching his father gave him, gave himself over to every kind of evil. He copied the disgusting practices of the heathen nations (2 Chronicles 33:2), ruined the true worship already established, and undid his father’s great reform work (2 Chronicles 33:3). He polluted God’s house with his idolatry (2 Chronicles 33:4, 2 Chronicles 33:5), sacrificed his children to Molech, and followed the devil’s false messages as his guides and counselors (2 Chronicles 33:6).

He did all this in contempt of God’s choice of Zion as his resting place forever, and of Israel as his covenant people, meaning the people bound to God by promise (2 Chronicles 33:8). He turned to other gods, defiled God’s chosen temple, and corrupted God’s chosen people. He led them astray and made them do worse than the heathen nations (2 Chronicles 33:9). When the unclean spirit returns, he brings seven other spirits more wicked than himself.

What made Manasseh’s sin even worse was that God spoke to him and his people through the prophets, but they would not listen (2 Chronicles 33:10). We should admire God’s grace in speaking to them at all, and we should also be shocked by their stubborn refusal. Either their wickedness did not drive away God’s goodness, since he still waited to show mercy, or his goodness did not turn them from their wickedness, since they still hated to change.

From this we should learn three things. First, it is nothing new, though it is very sad, for children of godly parents to turn away from the good way of God in which they were raised. Parents can give their children many good things, but they cannot give them grace, meaning God’s saving help and power. Second, corruptions in worship are like diseases in the church, and the church is very prone to fall back into them even after they seem to be cured. Third, the god of this world has strangely blinded people’s minds and has great power over those he holds captive. Otherwise, he could not turn them away from God, their best friend, to trust in their sworn enemy.