Israel, Evil Kings, and Divine Providence

Lessons from the life of King Manasseh:

The stories of the Kings of Israel make for fascinating and instructive reading. We learn about good kings and bad kings; those who reigned many years and those who reigned just a few; and we see how God interacted with ancient Israel and dealt with the various kings. For a brief overview of all these kings, see this piece: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2017/04/25/getting-grasp-old-testament-kings-prophets/

Here I want to look at just one king, Manasseh, who reigned in Judah (the southern Kingdom). He was the son of King Hezekiah, and he reigned the longest of any king – 55 years. His story is told in 2 Kings 21:1-18 and 2 Chronicles 33:1-20. Both accounts declare that “he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord”. Both say quite similar things about his great wickedness. 2 Kings 21:3-9 puts it this way:

For he rebuilt the high places that 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 the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem will I put my name.” And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. And he burned his son as an offering and used fortune-telling and omens and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. And the carved image of Asherah that he had made he set in the house of which the Lord 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. And I will not cause the feet of Israel to wander anymore out of the land that I gave to 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 to do more evil than the nations had done whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel.

But the two accounts then differ quite radically. In Kings, we read about how God sent his prophets to denounce him, and they warned about how Yahweh will judge Jerusalem and the people big time. But the Chronicles’ version speaks of how he was dragged away to Babylon, and how he then repented, and was able to return to Jerusalem. After that he did get rid of the foreign gods and idols.

That is quite some additional information than what we find in Kings. So just what are we to make of Manasseh? The short answer is this: he is a tragic figure in the Old Testament, and even his change of heart was not enough to undo all the damage he had done. Sin has consequences, in other words.

A few commentators can help me tease out his story. As to the great evil he was involved in, Philip Graham Ryken says this about how he was even worse than King Ahab:

Bringing these lunar gods and astral goddesses into the temple was especially evil. By conducting false worship in the very house of God, Manasseh and his ungodly followers were shoving their sins right in God’s face. This was a sin of such egregious blasphemy that it could only call down righteous and terrible judgement. Idolatry and blasphemy are two of the sins God hates the most. God is holy. His name is holy. His house is a holy place for holy worship. Thus, the sins that Manasseh was committing at the temple in Jerusalem were unholy in every way.

 

So were the sins that Manasseh committed outside the temple, for “he burned his son as an offering and used fortune telling and omens and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger” (2 Kings 21:6). Child sacrifice had been an occasional, egregious sin in Judah, as a carryover from the wicked practises of the Canaanites (see Deut. 18:9-12). The same was true of witchcraft, which had been a temptation for Saul when he was king before David (see 1 Sam. 28:3-25). Manasseh multiplied these evils. If it was sinful, Manasseh did it – everything from divination to child sacrifice. Iain Proven thus describes him as both “indulging in and adding to all that has been most reprehensible in the religion of Israel.” Similarly, Dale Ralph Davis concludes that Manasseh wiped out Hezekiah’s reforms, exponentially increased wickedness, and exhausted the patience of God.

 

Manasseh’s degrading sins were part of his desperate quest to control his kingdom by appeasing the gods….

And Dale Ralph Davis speaks to this issue of control:

Now step back from this pile of paganism and note the common virus that infects it all. It’s all about control. In fertility worship I use my practice of sex to manipulate or encourage the heavenly powers to act in the same way and grant fertility. In astral worship I seek out omens that are indicators of future events; likewise in spiritism I want the secret knowledge that will enlighten me on how to act or react in view of what is coming. By sacrificing my child I show how dead earnest I am, what an extreme price I am willing to pay, and so should be able to ‘purchase’ the favor I desire. Paganism is the way I manage my life over against the various ‘powers’ that may determine it. Paganism is light years away from biblical religion with its sovereign God who walks before and beside me in both green pastures and dark valleys all the way to my final residence.

And even though Manasseh seems to have repented to some extent, there were still the consequences left for such odious sins. As Andrew Hill comments:

Repentance does not necessarily suspend the consequences of personal or corporate sin. The kingdom of Judah was destroyed and the Hebrews were exiled in Babylonia despite Josiah’s national revival (36:15-19). As Heschel has warned, God’s forgiveness must not be mistaken for indulgence or complacency… Nor are we to be seduced by the preaching of “cheap grace” decried by Bonhoeffer. Lest we tame God and fashion him after our own image, it is important to remember he is loving and faithful, but he is also terrible and dangerous. We would do well to recall Lucy’s conversation with Mr. and Mrs. Beaver about the great lion Aslan of Narnia fame:

 

“Then he isn’t safe?” said Lucy.

“Safe?” said Mrs. Beaver. “Who said anything about safe? Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King.”

 

Indeed, the God of the Bible is holy and just; but he is also “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made” (Ps. 145:8-9). The glorious message of the Bible, unique among all the holy books of the world’s religions, is that God’s anger, though provoked by human sin, may be revoked by human repentance. Happily, assuredly God returns to those who return to him (Zech. 1:3; Mal. 3:7).

And then there is the question of why God seems to wait so long to do something when such obvious evil is going on, seemingly unchecked. What was just mentioned above about God’s grace and mercy is of course part of the answer here. But still…

I often think of the twelve long years the German people, and especially the Jews, had to endure the reign of Hitler and the Nazis. And worse yet – at least in terms of longevity – there was the evil rule of godless communism in Russia. It lasted from the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 all the way to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. That is 72 full years!

David Lamb speaks to this matter and is worth quoting at length:

Manasseh was the longest-reigning king of Israel or Judah, and he was also arguably the most evil. Deuteronomy speaks of the rewards of faithful obedience to YHWH, specifically that righteous rulers will be blessed with long lives (Deut 17:19-20). Why was an evil ruler like Manasseh allowed to reign for over half a century?

 

The problem of the persistence of evil arises throughout Scripture. Jeremiah poses a question, “Why does the way of the wicked prosper?” (Jer 12:1). The psalmist addresses the topic in a confession: “For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked” (Ps 73:3). Another psalm seems to respond to the confession of Psalm 73 with an admonition: “Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong” (Ps 37:1). Job complains about God doing nothing to stop evil: “The groans of the dying rise from the city, and the souls of the wounded cry out for help. But God charges no one with wrongdoing” (Job 24:12). The authors of Scripture were deeply disturbed by the problem of evil.

 

Moving to modern times, we often encounter leaders like Manasseh in the world of politics, business, and even religion who are corrupt, violent, or oppressive, and for some reason they escape punishment or condemnation as they continue to thrive in their roles and responsibilities for decades.

 

Why do evil leaders survive so long? Ultimately, we don’t know. The text of Kings merely observes Manasseh’s wickedness and his long reign but offers no direct answer to the question of why evil persists. However, we can make three points from this passage that might help us understand the problem better.

 

First, God sees evil. The evil performed by Manasseh and Amon was done in the eyes of YHWH (2 Kgs 21:2, 6, 15, 20). We may be tempted to assume that, since God doesn’t act in a manner we expect, he is not aware of the evil going on, but the text makes it clear he knows what is happening. He sees it, and the book of Kings records it. As we remind ourselves that God, despite how it may appear, is aware of evil, we will be able to rest assured that he will do what needs to be done to bring about justice.

 

Second, God judges evil. Even though Manasseh was allowed to continue to rule, judgment was coming upon the city of Jerusalem and the nation of Judah (vv. 11-15). The two psalms quoted above both address the ultimate fate of the wicked: “for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away” (Ps 37:2); and “till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny. Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin” (Ps 73:17-18). Even when the text doesn’t record the details of the judgment, we can be confident that the judge of the world will do what is just (see Gen 18:25). We can pray for justice to be meted out upon the wicked, but we often still have to wait for the timing of God.

 

Third, there is more to the story. It is humbling to realize that we don’t always know the full story. In Kings, Manasseh is completely wicked, but as we turn to Chronicles (see discussion above in Listen to the Story), we see that this wicked ruler repented, prayed, and instigated religious reforms. Manasseh’s longevity is not nearly as problematic in the light of the book of Chronicles. As we wonder why evil leaders continue to prosper, it is good to remember that there may be more to the story than what we know. Ultimately, we know Manasseh’s story continued—beyond Kings and Chronicles and into the New Testament—as his descendant, Jesus (Matt 1:10), provided the ultimate solution to the problem of evil by living, dying, and rising for all of us who are evil.

Those are helpful points to bear in mind. We have plenty of evil rulers doing great harm today all around the globe. But like Manasseh, God is fully, aware of them, and their days are numbered as well. And in the meantime we can pray that they are improved or removed.

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