Are you Hezekiah or Manasseh?

Every few years I read through the entire Old Testament (the rest of the time I read the New Testament as well as the Psalms). I always find something new or something to interpret in a new way.

This time I found Kings and Chronicles to be especially interesting and pertinent. The stories about the kings of Israel and Judah have a common theme: do what is right in the eyes of the Lord and things are good. Don’t, and nasty things happen.

David walked in the way of the Lord – with the exception of having Uriah killed and taking his wife Bathsheba. Even so, their son Solomon obeyed God and was the one who built the great temple in Jerusalem. (Proving again that God can bring good from evil.) Solomon’s son Rehoboam wasn’t so obedient and lost to Shishak, king of Egypt. 

“Thus says the Lord, ‘You abandoned me, so I have abandoned you to the hand of Shishak.’”

2 Chronicles 12:5

Hezekiah was another king who was faithful to God and tried to clean up the messes from his father Ahaz and others before him. 

Hezekiah “did what was good and right and faithful before the Lord his God. And every work that he undertook in the service of the house of God and in accordance with the law and the commandments, seeking his God, he did with all his heart, and prospered.”

2 Chronicles 31: 20-21

But then came his son Manasseh who “did what was evil in the sight of the Lord” by rebuilding the high places, erecting altars to Baal, practicing human sacrifice, and practicing “soothsaying and augury and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and wizards.” Although the Lord warned Manasseh and the people, they ignored Him. So, “the Lord brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh with hooks and bound him with fetters of bronze and brought him to Babylon.” (2 Chronicles 33: 11).

Are we seeing a theme here? What is the Lord telling us about the perils of ignoring His commandments in this age? Will we be Hezekiah and prosper or be Manasseh and be dragged off to Babylon?

The Lord doesn’t force Himself on anyone but is always there to accept our repentance. He doesn’t really ever abandon us; we are the ones who turn our backs on Him, and walk off straight into Hell.

Note: All Bible references in this blog are from the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition unless otherwise noted.