Days 182&183: 2 Kings 21, 2 Chronicles 33, Nahum 1-3

Manasseh, king of Judah, is a bad dude. He was one of the most evil kings in a series of evil kings. 2 Kings tells us that "Manasseh shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end" (21:16) and that "he sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced divination, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the LORD, arousing his anger." (21:6) In fact he led the people of Israel into so much evil that they were worse than the people the Israelites drove out in the first place...

Manasseh led them astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites. (2 Kings 21:9)

However, Manasseh becomes another illustration of the truth that no one...absolutely NO ONE is ever so evil that they are beyond redemption. Look at what happens...

The LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention. 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. In his distress he sought the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his ancestors. 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. (2 Chronicles 33:10-13)

Even as he is being led to his certain humiliation and death for all his evil the Lord is "moved" by Manasseh's entreaty.

He is also moved by ours.

No one is so far from God that he/she cannot be brought near...
                             ...and as long as there is breath it's never too late.