2 Chron 33/34 – Study

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: 2 Chron 33:1-20

1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for fifty-five years. 2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. 3 He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had demolished; he also erected altars to the Baals and made Asherah poles. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshipped them. 4 He built altars in the temple of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, ‘My Name will remain in Jerusalem for ever.’ 5 In both courts of the temple of the Lord, he built altars to all the starry hosts. 6 He sacrificed his children in the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, practised divination and witchcraft, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger.

7 He took the image he had made and put it in God’s temple, of which God had said to David and to his son Solomon, ‘In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my Name for ever. 8 I will not again make the feet of the Israelites leave the land I assigned to your ancestors, if only they will be careful to do everything that I commanded them concerning all the laws, decrees and regulations given through Moses.’ 9 But Manasseh led Judah and the people of Jerusalem astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.

10 The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention. 11 So the Lord brought against them the army commanders of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh prisoner, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon. 12 In his distress he sought the favour of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his ancestors. 13 And when he prayed to him, the Lord was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea; so he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is God.

14 Afterwards he rebuilt the outer wall of the City of David, west of the Gihon spring in the valley, as far as the entrance of the Fish Gate and encircling the hill of Ophel; he also made it much higher. He stationed military commanders in all the fortified cities in Judah.

15 He got rid of the foreign gods and removed the image from the temple of the Lord, as well as all the altars he had built on the temple hill and in Jerusalem; and he threw them out of the city. 16 Then he restored the altar of the Lord and sacrificed fellowship offerings and thank-offerings on it, and told Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel. 17 The people, however, continued to sacrifice at the high places, but only to the Lord their God.

18 The other events of Manasseh’s reign, including his prayer to his God and the words the seers spoke to him in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, are written in the annals of the kings of Israel.[k] 19 His prayer and how God was moved by his entreaty, as well as all his sins and unfaithfulness, and the sites where he built high places and set up Asherah poles and idols before he humbled himself – all these are written in the records of the seers. 20 Manasseh rested with his ancestors and was buried in his palace. And Amon his son succeeded him as king.

A. Find Out:

1. List the things Manasseh did wrong. v.1-9
2. How did this conflict with God’s word? v.4,7,8
3. How did the Lord deal with him? v.10,11
4. How did he respond? v.12
5. How did the Lord respond? v.13
6. What did Manasseh go on to do? v.15,16

B. Think:

1. How would you describe the sin of Manasseh?
2. How would describe God’s way of dealing with him?
3. What does the outcome show?

C. Comment:

      The story of Manasseh is incredible. It is first of all the story of a pagan, idol-worshipper who defies the Lord in the most terrible of ways, not only building pagan altars all over the country, but also in the very Temple itself! Here is a man who defies God. Incredible!

       Second, it is also a story of the grace of God. The truth, of course, is that God knows how men will react and so deals with them accordingly. So in the case of Manasseh, He does not kill him, but disciplines him by letting him be taken captive as a slave to Babylon .

     Third, it is the story of a man willing to humble himself before the Lord. Unlike previous kings, this one responds well to God’s discipline and cries out to Him.

     Fourth, it is the story of incredible resurrection. As good as dead, as a slave in the far-off Babylon , he is actually restored to Jerusalem and to kingship. That is amazing. We’re not told how it happened; just that God did do it – and Manasseh knew it was Him!

     Fifth, it is the story of a man who responded with thankfulness, a man who used his position to cleanse the city of all signs of idol worship. This is an amazing story of grace, of a man as far from God as you can get, yet who was disciplined and who came back into a right relationship with the Lord.

D. Application:

1. While you’re still alive, it’s never too late to repent.
2. God’s grace is always there to restore where that is possible.

Passage: 2 Chron 33:21 – 34:13

21 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for two years. 22 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, as his father Manasseh had done. Amon worshipped and offered sacrifices to all the idols Manasseh had made. 23 But unlike his father Manasseh, he did not humble himself before the Lord; Amon increased his guilt.

24 Amon’s officials conspired against him and assassinated him in his palace. 25 Then the people of the land killed all who had plotted against King Amon, and they made Josiah his son king in his place.

34:1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for thirty-one years. 2 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left.

3 In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David. In his twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah poles and idols. 4 Under his direction the altars of the Baals were torn down; he cut to pieces the incense altars that were above them, and smashed the Asherah poles and the idols. These he broke to pieces and scattered over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. 5 He burned the bones of the priests on their altars, and so he purged Judah and Jerusalem. 6 In the towns of Manasseh, Ephraim and Simeon, as far as Naphtali, and in the ruins around them, 7 he tore down the altars and the Asherah poles and crushed the idols to powder and cut to pieces all the incense altars throughout Israel. Then he went back to Jerusalem.

8 In the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, to purify the land and the temple, he sent Shaphan son of Azaliah and Maaseiah the ruler of the city, with Joah son of Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the temple of the Lord his God.

9 They went to Hilkiah the high priest and gave him the money that had been brought into the temple of God, which the Levites who were the gatekeepers had collected from the people of Manasseh, Ephraim and the entire remnant of Israel and from all the people of Judah and Benjamin and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 10 Then they entrusted it to the men appointed to supervise the work on the Lord’s temple. These men paid the workers who repaired and restored the temple. 11 They also gave money to the carpenters and builders to purchase dressed stone, and timber for joists and beams for the buildings that the kings of Judah had allowed to fall into ruin.

12 The workers laboured faithfully. Over them to direct them were Jahath and Obadiah, Levites descended from Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, descended from Kohath. The Levites – all who were skilled in playing musical instruments – 13 had charge of the labourers and supervised all the workers from job to job. Some of the Levites were secretaries, scribes and gatekeepers.

A. Find Out:

1. What did Amon do? v.21-23
2. What happened to him? v.24-25
3. How was Josiah described? v.2
4. What did he first do? v.3-7
5. What project did he then set under way? v.8-13

B. Think:

1. How was Amon similar to and different from his father?
2. What was the first phase of Josiah’s ‘clean-up’?
3. What was the second phase of it?

C. Comment:

     Amon gets only a short record of his reign. He was foolish and reverted to the idol worship that the land had known previously, but unlike his father, the Lord obviously knew he would not repent and allowed his officials to rise against him and kill him.

     His son Josiah is then made king. He is only eight years old. By the time he is sixteen something is stirring in him and he seeks the Lord. Four years later, by the time he is twenty, he starts to clean up the land and all the signs of idol worship are removed from around the land. Another six years pass, and he is now twenty six, and he realises that the temple needs repairing.

     In Josiah we see three stages of restoration taking place. The first stage is SEEKING the Lord, the second stage is REMOVING THE IDOLS, and the third state is REPAIRING THE TEMPLE. These latter two stages could be described as removing all false religion and then establishing the foundation for true religion. The Temple was supposed to be the meeting place with God and so once the false has been removed, it is only wise to re-establish the proper channel of communication with the Lord.

     There is more to come but we’ll see that in the next study. It takes ten years but the Lord is patient and His man is slowly moving in the right direction. The Lord can cope with our slow progress as long as it is in the right direction.

D. Application:

1. Put away wrong (Eph 4:22 ,23, Col 3:5)
2. Put on what is right and good (Eph 4:24 , Col 3:12 ,14)