Manasseh’s Word of Warning

2 Kings 24:3-4

Surely at the commandment of the LORD came this [destruction] upon Judah, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did; and also for the innocent blood that he shed: for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; which the LORD would not pardon.

Manasseh’s Guilt

Manasseh was a king in Judah, the son of Hezekiah, who began his reign at the age of 12 and reigned for 55 years.

That which defined his reign is stated in 21:2. “And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, after the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.”

Manasseh was guilty of leading the people in much idolatry. But 24:4 specifically focuses on the innocent blood with which he filled Jerusalem. 21:6 says, “And he made his son pass through the fire…” He burned his son alive unto Molech. He was guilty of the blood of his own family.

And he was guilty of the blood of the families throughout Judah. 21:16 reads, “Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; beside his sin wherewith he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of the LORD.”

Jerusalem was filled from one end to another in innocent blood. One can’t help but think forward to what Christ himself would bring upon Jerusalem in AD 70, filling her from end to end with guilty blood by the hand of Titus. Christ only ever slaughters the guilty, but Manasseh slaughtered the innocent.

And for that there would be no pardon from God. The LORD would not pardon. And so Judah was destroyed.

He wiped Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down.

A nation, guilty of the blood of the innocents, with no pardon from the only one who can forgive sinners, and so crushed under the vengeance of the LORD.

America’s Guilt

Let the reader be wise, and see the warning to these United States that this story bluntly gives.

Yes, our States are guilty of much idolatry and debauchery. But we are also guilty of much innocent blood. Is not our land filled from end to end with the blood of the innocent? Have we not willingly paid to establish slaughterhouses from Detroit down to Houston, and New York to LA? We are paying for 145 mills of murder in California, 87 in New York, 57 in Florida, 24 in Colorado. We the people have allowed more than 60 million innocents to be slain since 1973. It is safer to walk at night in the streets of infamous “murder capitols” than to be in an American womb.

We are guilty. We are guilty of the sin of Manasseh.

And God refused to pardon Judah. He wanted to bring wrath and so He did.

Join the Ninevites

Will there be pardon for us? Will there be anything but destruction for us?

We don’t deserve it. We have no claim to it. This nation, under God, finds itself in the same position as Nineveh, that debaucherous den of Assyria.

We must heed the warning of doom, look upon our wickedness, and respond as did the Ninevites.

Jonah 3:4 reports that Jonah entered Nineveh, and cried and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”

How did these wicked Ninevites respond to the preached warning? “So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. For the word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, ‘Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything: let them not feed, nor drink water: but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God:

yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from His fierce anger, that we perish not?

Their doom was sure. So, without presuming upon the mercy of God, they repented. And God turned from the calamity that He was about to bring upon them. “He did it not.”

Our destruction is sure, for we have saturated our soil with the blood of innocents. Let us therefore turn from our wicked ways, from the violence that is in our hands. Who can tell if God will turn away His fierce anger, that we perish not?

Be warned. Be humbled. And maybe, just maybe, be spared.