Manasseh’s Repentance

Manasseh (The rest of the story) by Robert Fultz
March 30, 2015 at 12:40am

David desired once to build God a temple, which God would refuse to allow
Though David could not build this house for the LORD; Still, he wished it to happen, but how?
The LORD said – Thy son that shall come from thy loins, he will build this great house to my name
King Solomon built it; God’s glory then filled it; all heard of its glory and fame.

This temple’s defilement was all that it took to incur divine wrath from above
Manasseh knew better, but it didn’t matter; he had not a thought of God’s love
He caused his own children to pass through the fire; it seems that his zeal knew no langour
Used witches and wizards, and spirits familiar; his great sin provoked God to anger.

He set a carved image he’d built with his own hands inside this great temple back then
With his bad example, this man did great damage; he caused them to err and to sin
The children of Israel did worse than the heathen, which God had destroyed before them
God spoke to Manasseh and all of His people, but they would not hearken to Him.

If you are thinking this is where ends this story, I’m happy to tell you it’s not
For their great rebellion, Assyrian captains, God sent and Manasseh they caught
They bound him with fetters, to Babylon took him, where in his affliction he sought
Forgiveness and mercy… his God surely heard him; he back to his castle was brought.

It gets even better, this man who turned heathen now knew that the LORD he was God
His strange gods and idol, he takes them away now; he’s learned that his God has a rod.
He tore down his altars he’d built in the mountain; it all became garbage to him
Repaired he God’s altar, on which he did offer his offering of peace uncondemned.

There may be a lesson for you and me brother, I’m thinking right now more than one
This man bent on evil, when taken a captive; he saw he was wicked, undone
The proudest and fiercest of men, the most wicked; there’s hope for them all in the LORD
For there’s not a man who ever has lived here… that can’t be forgiven, restored.

3/30/15 Robert Fultz

2 Chronicles 33:11 ¶ Wherefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.
12 And when he was in affliction, he besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers,
13 And prayed unto him: and he was intreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD he was God.
14 Now after this he built a wall without the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entering in at the fish gate, and compassed about Ophel, and raised it up a very great height, and put captains of war in all the fenced cities of Judah.
15 And he took away the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the LORD, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the LORD, and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city.
16 And he repaired the altar of the LORD, and sacrificed thereon peace offerings and thank offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel.
17 Nevertheless the people did sacrifice still in the high places, yet unto the LORD their God only.
18 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer unto his God, and the words of the seers that spake to him in the name of the LORD God of Israel, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel.
19 His prayer also, and how God was intreated of him, and all his sin, and his trespass, and the places wherein he built high places, and set up groves and graven images, before he was humbled: behold, they are written among the sayings of the seers.
20 So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house: and Amon his son reigned in his stead.

What is the Prayer of Manasseh?
Prayer of Manasseh

The Prayer of Manasseh is a part of the Apocrypha. It is a short work, containing just 15 verses. It purports to be a prayer by King Manasseh of Judah (697-642 B.C.), but it was pseudonymously written as early as the second century or just before the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Second Chronicles 33:19 says that Manasseh prayed but does not record the prayer itself referring the reader to what was “written in the records of the seers.”

King Manasseh, the thirteenth king of Judah, was one of the most wicked and idolatrous kings in biblical history (2 Kings 21:1-18). He was captured by the Assyrians and imprisoned in Babylon. There, he prayed for mercy and repented of his sin of idolatry (2 Chronicles 33:1-19).

The Prayer of Manasseh is considered by Jews, Catholics and Protestants as apocryphal, i.e., non-canonical and of doubtful authenticity. However, the fourth-century Vulgate included it at the end of the book of 2 Chronicles. It later became part of the Matthew Bible and the Geneva Bible of 1599. It is also found in the Apocrypha of the King James Bible.

The prayer departs from Christian teaching in that it says men such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did not need to repent because they “did not sin” (verse 8). This runs counter to the clear teaching of Scripture that all have sinned (Romans 3:10-12; Romans 3:21-26). The righteousness of Abraham was a product of his faith in God and was not anything inherent in him (Romans 4:3; Philippians 3:8-9).

In summary, God has told us that Manasseh prayed a much-needed prayer of repentance, but He has not told us the content of that prayer.