“If I could relive my life, I would devote my entire ministry to reaching children for God.” —D.L. Moody
Manasseh made a clean sweep of the land. “He took away the foreign gods and the idol from 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 he cast them out of the city. He also repaired the altar of the Lord, sacrificed peace offerings and thank offerings on it, and commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel” (2 Chron 33:15-16). He did leave those pesky “high places” (v 17), although the people only used them to sacrifice to the Lord. But, with a change of administration, it would be far too easy to transfer these sites back to idol worship. And that’s exactly what happened. Manasseh’s personal and national revivals seem to have been too little, too late. His son had the devil’s weeds growing in his heart before his father tried to plant the Lord’s seeds. So we read, “Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. But he did evil in the sight of the Lord, as his father Manasseh had done; for Amon sacrificed to all the carved images which his father Manasseh had made, and served them. And he did not humble himself before the Lord, as his father Manasseh had humbled himself; but Amon trespassed more and more” (vv 21-23). When I think of this story, it brings to mind all the men I meet in prison. They often lived godless lives while they had access to their children. In prison, they’ve turned, like king Manasseh, to the Lord. Now they long for their families to know the Savior as well. Perhaps we could take some time today to pray for the families of these saved prisoners, that the Lord might unite the whole circle in Christ. Sadly, Amon’s fate was sealed: “his servants conspired against him, and killed him in his own house” (v 24).