The High Speed Apostasy of Manasseh
Introduction: The Gravity of a Falling Son
There are few things more tragic in the story of a nation, or a family, than a righteous father followed by a wicked son. We see it throughout the Scriptures, and we see it all around us. Good King Hezekiah, a man who trusted God so radically that he saw the angel of the Lord strike down 185,000 Assyrians, a man who cleansed the Temple and restored true worship, is followed by this... Manasseh. And Manasseh does not just drift from his father's faith. He does not just neglect it. He takes a sledgehammer to it. He wages a fifty-five-year war against the God of his father with a furious, systematic, and diabolical energy.
This passage is not just a historical curiosity. It is a stark warning about the nature of sin, the responsibility of leadership, and the terrifying speed with which a culture can unravel. We live in an age that wants to believe in progress, in the slow, steady march of mankind toward enlightenment. But the story of Manasseh shows us that apostasy does not happen by inches; it happens by freefall. A nation can plummet from the heights of revival to the depths of depravity in a single generation. All it takes is a leader who hates God and a people who are willing to follow him.
Manasseh's reign is a case study in high-handed, covenant-breaking rebellion. He does not sin out of ignorance. He sins with intentionality. He knows exactly what his father Hezekiah destroyed, and he rebuilds it with a vengeance. He knows where God promised to put His name, and he deliberately defiles that very spot. This is not a stumble; it is a calculated act of treason against the living God. And the terrifying thing is that the people followed him. This reminds us of the principle of federal headship. A leader, whether a king, a pastor, or a father, does not sin in a vacuum. His rebellion infects and corrupts all those under his charge. Manasseh's sin became Judah's sin, and Judah's sin became their ruin.
As we walk through this grim catalog of Manasseh's wickedness, we must not read it with detached superiority, as though we are incapable of such things. We must read it with a sober fear, recognizing that the seeds of every one of these abominations lie dormant in our own hearts. And we must read it with an eye toward the grace of God, which is the only thing that prevents any of us from becoming a Manasseh.
The Text
Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Hephzibah. And he did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to the abominations of the nations whom Yahweh dispossessed before the sons of Israel. Indeed, he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. And he built altars in the house of Yahweh, of which Yahweh had said, “In Jerusalem I will put My name.” Indeed, he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of Yahweh. He even made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying and interpreted omens, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much that was evil in the sight of Yahweh provoking Him to anger. Then he put the graven image of Asherah, which he had made, in the house of which Yahweh 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. And I will not make the foot of Israel wander anymore from the land which I gave their fathers, if only they will be careful to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that My servant Moses commanded them.” But they did not listen, and Manasseh led them astray in order to do more evil than the nations whom Yahweh destroyed before the sons of Israel.
(2 Kings 21:1-9 LSB)
The Profile of a Rebel King (vv. 1-2)
We begin with the basic facts of his reign and the summary judgment of his character.
"Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Hephzibah. And he did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to the abominations of the nations whom Yahweh dispossessed before the sons of Israel." (2 Kings 21:1-2)
He was twelve when he began, and he reigned for fifty-five years, the longest reign of any king in Judah or Israel. This is a hard providence to swallow. Godly kings often had short reigns, while this monster sat on the throne for over half a century, poisoning the nation. This reminds us that God's timetable is not ours. His long-suffering is a terrible thing to trifle with. For fifty-five years, God gave Manasseh and Judah space to repent, and for fifty-five years, they used that space to fill up the measure of their guilt.
The verdict is delivered immediately: "he did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh." But notice the standard of comparison. His evil was "according to the abominations of the nations whom Yahweh dispossessed." This is a crucial point. God had given Israel the land of Canaan as a holy inheritance, and He had commanded them to drive out the pagan inhabitants precisely because their idolatrous practices were a moral and spiritual cancer. God was not playing favorites; He was judging the Canaanites for their wickedness. But now, the chosen people, the covenant nation, were eagerly imitating the very sins that had caused God to vomit the previous inhabitants out of the land. They were becoming Canaanites, and in doing so, they were signing their own eviction notice.
A Systematic Reversal of Reformation (vv. 3-5)
Manasseh's rebellion was not haphazard; it was a deliberate and systematic undoing of his father's righteous reforms.
"Indeed, he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. And he built altars in the house of Yahweh, of which Yahweh had said, 'In Jerusalem I will put My name.' Indeed, he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of Yahweh." (2 Kings 21:3-5)
First, he rebuilt the high places. These were local shrines, often on hilltops, that promoted a syncretistic, decentralized worship that God had forbidden. Hezekiah had torn them down to centralize worship at the Temple in Jerusalem, as the law required. Manasseh rebuilds them, thumbing his nose at both his father and God's law.
Second, he goes full-blown pagan. He erects altars for Baal, the Canaanite storm and fertility god, and makes an Asherah pole, a wooden idol representing the consort of Baal. This was not just generic idolatry; this was the state religion of the wicked northern kingdom under Ahab and Jezebel, the very apostasy that led to their destruction by the Assyrians. Manasseh is importing the sins that had already destroyed his northern brothers.
Third, he adds astral worship, venerating "all the host of heaven." This was the sophisticated, imperial religion of the Assyrians and Babylonians. So Manasseh is not just reverting to old Canaanite sins; he is layering on the fashionable paganism of the global superpowers of his day. He is a multicultural idolater.
But the ultimate act of defiance is where he puts these things. He builds these pagan altars "in the house of Yahweh." He takes the idols of the stars and sets them up "in the two courts of the house of Yahweh." This is the holy place, the one spot on earth where God had chosen to place His name and dwell with His people. Manasseh's act is a deliberate, in-your-face desecration. It is the equivalent of setting up a brothel in the sanctuary. He is not content to worship other gods elsewhere; he must drag them into God's own house and declare that Yahweh is just one deity among many, and not even the chief one in His own home.
The Depths of Depravity (vv. 6-7a)
From desecrating God's house, Manasseh moves to the most depraved forms of pagan ritual, attacking the very image of God in man.
"He even made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying and interpreted omens, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much that was evil in the sight of Yahweh provoking Him to anger. Then he put the graven image of Asherah, which he had made, in the house..." (2 Genesis 21:6-7a)
He made his son "pass through the fire." This is a clinical-sounding phrase for child sacrifice, most likely to the god Molech. To secure blessings or appease a demonic deity, he murdered his own child. This is the absolute nadir of paganism. When a culture begins to kill its own children for convenience or religious fervor, it has reached a terminal stage of corruption. God created the family as the basic building block of society, and child sacrifice is the ultimate inversion of that order. It turns a father, who should be a protector, into a murderer, and a child, who should be a blessing, into a propitiation.
He then dives headlong into the occult. Soothsaying, omens, mediums, spiritists. This is all trafficking with demons, seeking guidance and power from forbidden, unclean sources. The first commandment is to have no other gods before Yahweh. The occult is a direct violation of this, an attempt to bypass God's authority and gain secret knowledge through demonic channels. Manasseh has turned the kingdom of Judah into a spiritualist séance.
The Violated Covenant (vv. 7b-9)
The historian now pauses to remind the reader of the gravity of this desecration by quoting God's own covenant promises regarding the Temple and the land.
"...in the house of which Yahweh 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. And I will not make the foot of Israel wander anymore from the land which I gave their fathers, if only they will be careful to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that My servant Moses commanded them.' But they did not listen, and Manasseh led them astray in order to do more evil than the nations whom Yahweh destroyed before the sons of Israel." (2 Kings 21:7b-9)
God's promise was clear. He would put His name in the Temple forever. He would give them permanent security in the land. But this promise was attached to a condition: "if only they will be careful to do according to all that I have commanded them." The covenant has blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. Security in the land was not an unconditional blank check. It was contingent on faithfulness to the covenant Law.
But they did not listen. Manasseh led them astray. Here again is the principle of federal leadership. The king's apostasy became the people's apostasy. And the result was a wickedness that surpassed even that of the original Canaanites. They had seen God's deliverance, they had the Law of Moses, they had the Temple, they had the prophets, and they had the history of God's judgments on the northern kingdom. They had more light than the Canaanites ever did, and so their sin was far greater. To whom much is given, much is required. Their covenantal privilege amplified their covenantal guilt.
Conclusion: From the Worst of Kings to the Trophy of Grace
This passage is one of the darkest in all the Old Testament. Manasseh's resume of wickedness is breathtaking. He is a blasphemer, an idolater, a desecrater of holy things, a murderer of his own children, and a necromancer. He is, by any biblical standard, the worst king Judah ever had. And because of his sin, God would indeed send Judah into exile (2 Kings 21:10-15).
But this is not the end of Manasseh's story. If you were to stop reading here, you would assume he died under God's wrath and went straight to hell. But the book of 2 Chronicles adds a stunning postscript. After God brought the Assyrian army against him, and they took him away with a hook in his nose to Babylon, we read this: "And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of Yahweh his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. And he prayed to Him, and He was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him back to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that Yahweh was God" (2 Chronicles 33:12-13).
The worst sinner in the Old Testament repented. And God forgave him. God heard his prayer from the pit of a Babylonian prison and restored him. This is the gospel. There is no sin so vile, no rebellion so high-handed, no life so thoroughly wasted in the service of Satan, that it is beyond the reach of the grace of God in Jesus Christ. If God can save Manasseh, He can save anyone. He can save you.
This is a staggering picture of God's sovereign grace. Manasseh's repentance did not avert the temporal judgment on Judah; the die had been cast. But it did secure his eternal salvation. The apostle Paul would later say of himself that he was the chief of sinners, so that in him Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to those who would believe (1 Timothy 1:15-16). Manasseh is the Old Testament's chief of sinners, a trophy of grace held up to show that the blood of the coming Messiah is sufficient to wash away the foulest stains. No matter how far you have fallen, no matter how much you have desecrated the temple of your own body and soul, if you will humble yourself as Manasseh did, and cry out to God, He will be moved by your entreaty. He will hear your plea. And He will bring you into His kingdom, for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ.