Useful Bible Studies > 2 Kings Commentary > chapter 21
Like all the kings of Judah, Manasseh came from the family of David, who had ruled about 300 years earlier. From the time when Manasseh became king, Judah would continue to exist as a separate nation for about 100 years. Hezekiah, Manasseh’s father, was probably Judah’s best king; Manasseh was its worst king. God decided that he would not allow Judah to continue to exist as a separate nation because of Manasseh’s evil acts.
For the last 29 years, Hezekiah had carefully taught and encouraged the people to serve only the true God. It astonishes us to realise how quickly the people turned to false and evil religions. Manasseh was born about 17 years after the death of his grandfather, Ahaz. However, Manasseh persuaded Judah’s people to follow the same wrong religions that Ahaz had followed. These religions were not merely wrong – many of them were also very wicked. These were religions that encouraged people to carry out acts of murder and cruelty of every kind (21:6; 21:16). The only difference in matters of religion between Ahaz and Manasseh was that Ahaz respected the true God; he sometimes chose to inquire of God (16:15). It seems that Manasseh only wanted to serve false gods.
Manasseh was just 12 years old when he became king. As a boy, he therefore learned from his father about the true God. Until the time of his father’s death, he had no opportunity to join in any other religion. We do not know how Manasseh learned about these wrong religions. However he clearly chose not to obey God or his (God’s) law soon after his father’s death. After that decision, it was an easy matter to choose other religions that pleased him more. In addition, some of Hezekiah’s officials seemed not to be pleased with Hezekiah’s attitudes (Isaiah 22:15-19). They may have told Manasseh that Hezekiah’s religion was too strict. So, Manasseh may have thought that it would make him popular to allow people to follow all kinds of religions. In this way, Manasseh turned completely against the true God.
Next part: Manasseh's evil religions (2 Kings 21:3-6)
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