King Hezekiah became deathly ill and the Prophet Isaiah came to see him. Isaiah told the King to "put his house in order for he would soon die." So Hezekiah wept and prayed to the LORD, and the LORD had compassion on Hezekiah. The LORD sent Isaiah back to tell him that He would add fifteen years to his life. Isaiah told them to make a poultice of figs, apply it to the boil, and he would recover. So Hezekiah got better.

A wonderful story of compassion, but the LORD sees the end from the beginning. What followed Hezekiah's recovery would cost Judah dearly. For during this fifteen year period, he had a son named Manasseh, who became the thirteenth king of Judah at twelve years old.

Manasseh ruled for fifty-five years as the most evil King Judah had ever known. He was the most wicked of all the Judean kings and murdered so many, probably to stay in power.

(2 Kings 21:16 NKJV) Moreover Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides his sin by which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the LORD.

In addition to murder, Manasseh has probably the longest string of sins attributed to one man in the Bible. He undid most of the good works his father Hezekiah had spent his life on:

(2 Kings 21:1-3 NKJV) Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzibah. And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; he raised up altars for Baal, and made a wooden image, as Ahab king of Israel had done; and he worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.

(2 Kings 21:4-7 NKJV) He also built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “In Jerusalem I will put My name.” And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. Also he made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft, and consulted spiritists and mediums. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger. He even set a carved image of Asherah that he had made, in the house of which the LORD had said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever;"

Setting up a carved idol of Asherah in Solomon's temple was especially grievous. Asherah was the Canaanite goddess of fertility and was worshipped through ritual prostitution. So Manasseh turned the temple of the LORD into a brothel.

Also, "Made his son pass through the fire" means that Manasseh burned his son as a sacrifice to the pagan god molech.

Under the godly king Hezekiah, Judah had been a shining light. The LORD gave them incredible miracles and deliverance. When the Assyrian army surrounded Jerusalem, an Angel of the LORD put to death 185,000 of them in one night (2 Kings 19:35).

Yet, the evil seed Manasseh reversed all the good that had been done in the land and led the people into darkness. The prophets Nahum, Habakkuk, and Isaiah all prophesied about this. It is believed that Manasseh had the Prophet Isaiah sawn in half (Hebrews 11:37).

(2 Kings 21:10-13 NKJV) And the LORD spoke by His servants the prophets, saying, “Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations (he has acted more wickedly than all the Amorites who were before him, and has also made Judah sin with his idols), therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘Behold, I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab; I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down."

When Judah became even more wicked than the Amorites, which was a remarkable feat, the LORD gave them the same judgment. The same measuring line was used. They would be removed from the land. As one turns a dish upside down, emptying out its inhabitants, and wiping it clean. That is what happened.

(2 Chronicles 33:10-11 NASB) The LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention. 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.

Prosperity was leading Manasseh to hell, but adversity led him to the LORD. God sent him to a dungeon to "reconsider his ways" and repent, like Jonah in the belly of a fish.

Like the prodigal son, Manasseh came to his senses. When all the power and pomp was stripped away, he could suddenly see things clearly. Manasseh humbled himself, which reminds us that his primary sin was pride. When that was out of the way, he could see clearly and he repented. Pride blinds you; for all you can see, is you...

(2 Chronicles 33:12-13 NASB) When he was in distress, he entreated the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. 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.

Amazingly, the LORD brought Manasseh back home to Jerusalem. Wait... What??? How the heck... After 55 YEARS of pure evil... He had the Prophet Isaiah cut in half!

Manasseh went home to his kingdom and began a spiritual cleanup:

(2 Chronicles 33:15-16 NASB) 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. 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.

God's door does not close until you are in the ground. Manasseh spent fifty-five years burning down everything God had built. He sacrificed his own son to a pagan god. He sawed a prophet in half. He turned the Lord's temple into a brothel. If there was ever a man who had used up all his chances, it was him. And yet, when the hooks went through his jaw and the bronze chains went on, and the Assyrians marched him off to a Babylonian dungeon — God was still there. Still listening. The moment Manasseh set his pride aside and got low enough to mean it, God moved.

That is the God we serve. Not a God who keeps a running tally of sins until you hit some limit. He responds to a humble heart. It does not matter how long you have been running, or what you have done while you were gone. Manasseh is proof of that. So is David. So is Paul, who held the coats while they stoned Stephen and then spent years hunting Christians down before the Lord knocked him off his horse. If God could reach any of them, He can reach the people we have already written off. Maybe it is someone you know. Maybe it is you.

So after a life full of sin, Manasseh died in peace and slept with his fathers.

Prayer

Prayer: Heavenly Father, sometimes I have written people off as too far gone. Forgive me for putting limits on what You can do. You reached Manasseh in a Babylonian dungeon, and You can reach anyone, anywhere. If there is someone in my life I have given up on, help me see them through Your eyes. And if I am the one who has been running, let me be done running today. You are still there, and You are still listening. I humble myself before You. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen!