Day 364: 2 Chronicles 31-33 | Read The Bible In A Year | Bible Study Commentary by Dr. Manny Arango

We're a couple days away from the end of our reading plan, which means you're about to be a part of the 6% of Christians that have actually read the entire Bible cover to cover. So stay tuned until the very end of this episode to hear about something special that we have planned just for you. Bible nerds, let's dive in to today's episode. [MUSIC PLAYING] Hey, I'm Lee. Welcome to day 364. That is crazy to say. Tomorrow, we get to say day 365, which is wild. Today, we are in Second Chronicles chapters 31, 32, and 33. 31, 32, 33. And we are getting down to the wire on Second Chronicles. Today, we get to look at a father and son duo. We get to finish talking about Hezekiah. Obviously, Hezekiah is going to make it on the Mount Rushmore, right? Josiah, Hezekiah, David, Solomon, these are like the best kings that Chronicles is platforming. These are the guys who are going to cleanse the temple, reinstitute festivals. They are going to consecrate the temple. Obviously, David is going to prepare everything for the temple. Solomon is going to actually do the building of the temple. But it is Hezekiah and Josiah who are kings just like David. They are pro-temple. And we already know Ezra really only cares about one thing. He cares about the festivals, the Levites, the temple, all of the things that are centered around Jerusalem

and the Davidic dynasty. And so Hezekiah, we've already started talking about him yesterday. We're going to continue to talk about him today. If you have not done the reading, this is where I'm going to give you a gentle nudge to stop watching this video, turn off the audio, and do the reading, all right? Really, really, really, really like just captivating reading. And the father son duo that we're looking at today is Hezekiah and Manasseh. Yesterday, we were looking at a father son duo, right? And it was Ahaz that was the dad and Hezekiah that was the son. Today, Hezekiah is now the dad and Manasseh is the son. So Hezekiah, one of the best kings in Israel's history. And by Israel, I mean Judah, the southern kingdom of Judah. And Manasseh is going to be one of the worst kings in Judah's history, but they are kind of a mirrored image of each other. Although Hezekiah is an incredible king, it like sparks reform and revival all throughout the nation of Israel, aka Judah, He is going to make a massive mistake towards the end of his life. We've actually seen this theme a couple of times before. We saw this theme with, I believe it was Yuziah and we saw this theme with Amaziah, right? Where they were incredible, like doing well. And then for whatever reason, it's just like they just couldn't finish well.

We're going to see the same exact issue with Hezekiah. He's going to have this amazing victory, but then he's going to get full of pride and he's not going to be able to finish well. Manasseh on the other side of the spectrum is evil. I mean, wicked. According to Kings, he's the worst king. I would probably say that according to Chronicles, he's the second worst king. He's the bottom of the barrel, but he is going to repent, which I'll still thunder right now for the Thomas truth. My Thomas truth for the day is this. If Manasseh can be forgiven and saved, anyone can be. So anyone who says that there's no grace in the Old Testament, I don't know if you're reading the book, the same book I'm reading because Manasseh is wicked and we'll get into some details on that later. So I want to dive into some context clues, okay? 'Cause there's a ton of geopolitical activity that's actually really, really, really, really important. So there's four Assyrian kings that are going to be really important that will dictate a lot of what's going to happen in world history. And definitely they're going to influence what's happening in Israel because the Assyrian empire is huge and Israel, like Judah is a relatively small nation. Like just to be honest, Israel was never an empire, right?

So the context here is definitely what's going on in the Assyrian empire. So we're going to talk about Sinaccarib, Essaharden, and Ashurbanipal. I actually remember those names from history class, like in school. Maybe you do, maybe you don't, but what's going on geopolitically with the Assyrian empire is going to have massive ramifications on how kings and Judah are gonna respond to what's happening in the greater Assyrian empire. All right, so let's kind of just talk about big picture context. It says this in Second Chronicles, chapter 32, verse one, "After these things and these acts of faithfulness, Sinaccarib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah and encamped against the fortified cities, thinking to win them for himself." So the chronicles seems to directly connect the faithfulness of Hezekiah in his religious reforms and his service to the temple with the invasion of Sinaccarib, all right? Which is true because Hezekiah is, his reforms are breaking or breaching his vassal suzer in agreement with Assyria. That's just the truth, okay? And Sinaccarib is not trying to play games. So let's give this timeline, okay? Hezekiah was a vassal of Assyria

during the reign of Sargon, all right? Sargon, the king who had destroyed Israel and taken the 10 tribes into exile, all right? So the northern kingdom of Israel goes in exile before the southern kingdom of Judah, okay? Sargon is a dude who's responsible for that. So Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, takes the southern kingdom of Judah into exile, but it's Sargon, the Assyrian king, who takes the northern, the 10 northern tribes of Israel into captivity in Assyria, okay? Which meant that the rest of the world was terrified of him, okay? Everyone is terrified of Sargon. He is a proven warrior king. Hezekiah had no love for the Assyrians and although he was a vassal of Sargon, he wanted to be free. This is why he does all that he can't to reform Judah's religion, okay? Even though this would be dangerously close to betraying Judah's sovereignty treaty with Israel. Sorry, with Assyria, I misspoke. Judah's sovereignty treaty with Assyria. He did have a chance to join an earlier rebellion against Assyria, but did not, and he was reluctant to openly rebel until he was ready to do so. He was prepared for a war. He knew would come, which is why we read in chapter 32,

verse two to six that he fortifies Jerusalem and make sure their water supply is secure. You can still walk through the tunnel they made in his reign to bring water from a spring outside the city into its walls. I've actually walked through Hezekiah's water tunnels when I went on a trip to Israel, okay? Chronicles makes it sound like he was building as Sennacherib invaded, but the likelihood was that most of the work was done a couple of years before. He knew, okay? Now, here's what's gonna happen. Sargon dies in 705 BC, and his son Sennacherib becomes king, okay? As Sennacherib was a new untested king, a bunch of vassals took the opportunity to rebel before he could establish his rule, including Tyre, which is the leading city of Phoenicia. It seems that Hezekiah joined this rebellion against Assyria, which led to Sennacherib's campaign in the region a few years later in 701 BC. It took a few years to put down other rebellions and establish his rule, all right? So it was when Sennacherib was besieging Lakeish that he sent messengers to Jerusalem, as mentioned, in chapter 32, verses nine to 19, all right? And what is Hezekiah going to do? Hezekiah literally like withstands an entire siege, an entire invasion. Sennacherib marches his army around Jerusalem,

and what does Hezekiah do? He puts his faith in Yahweh, okay? Let's actually read it, chapter 32, chapter 32, verse 22. So the Lord saved Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib, king of Assyria, and from the hand of all others. He took care of them on every side. Many brought offerings to Jerusalem for the Lord and valuable gifts for Hezekiah, king of Judah. For from then on, He was highly regarded by all the nations, okay? So Hezekiah gets his reputation for, And now he's full of pride, but Hezekiah, this is verse 25 of the same chapter, chapter 32. But Hezekiah's heart was proud and he did not respond to the kindness shown him. Therefore the Lord's wrath was on him and on Judah and Jerusalem. Then Hezekiah repented of the proud of his heart as did the people of Jerusalem. Therefore the Lord's wrath did not come on them during the days of Hezekiah. So we're starting to kick the can just down the road a little bit. But Hezekiah had very great wealth and honor and he made treasuries for silver and gold and for his precious stones, spices, shields and all kinds of valuables. He also made buildings to store the harvest of grain,

new wine. I mean, you kind of like get a sense of just the pride that's going on. Now kings is gonna do a good job of kind of telling us a little bit more of like what is it that Hezekiah did? All right? And I wanna bring light to that because chronicles isn't gonna go into a bunch of detail. And you may remember this from when we were in studying the book of kings, okay? It says this, second chronicles chapter 32 verse 31. And so in the matter of the envoys of the princes of Babylon who had been sent to Him to inquire about the sign that had been done in the land, God left Him to Himself, in order to test Him into know all that was in His heart. Now, this is again, this issue with Hezekiah becoming proud. This is then emphasized even more when his riches and achievements are listed and it ends just with that little summary. Now, that thing, the envoys of the princes of Babylon, like remember, we know that Babylon is gonna take over the Assyrian Empire. This is a way bigger deal in kings. So if you wanna kind of go back to the king's episodes, you totally can because chronicles

is not gonna make a big deal of this. But the reality is that Hezekiah is politicking here. He's gonna try to get in good with the Babylonians 'cause he thinks that maybe the partners of the Babylonians, the Babylonians can overthrow the Assyrians, okay? And here's what it says in Second Chronicles chapter 32, verse 24 and 25. In those days, Hezekiah became sick. He was at the point of death and he prayed to Yahweh and he answered him and gave him a sign. But Hezekiah did not make a return according to the benefit done to Him. For his heart was proud. Therefore wrath came upon Him and Judah in Jerusalem. So we see this amazing king started so well, but for whatever reason, he just, his heart got sick with pride. And we see that pride create a couple of different fruits, that same route of pride, but this is unfortunate. And unlike kings or Isaiah, chronicles is not going to detail, but what happened with these envoys and the consequences, but the story makes it clear, it is a result of his pride, okay? So chronicles is just gonna focus on the characteristic. It's pride. Kings and Isaiah is gonna go into pretty good detail. So if you need context, you can go ahead,

read the correlating passages in kings or Isaiah. And that can be a timeless truth in and of itself. Salvation should never make us proud. Like we're saved by grace. We're saved not by any good works of our own. We're saved and it is a complete work of grace. If you're a Christian, you shouldn't be proud at all. Like the reality is that Christians have admitted that we're sinners in need of a gracious and loving God to rescue us from that which we cannot rescue ourselves, our own sin, selfishness, and stupidity. Okay, now don't skip, don't skip, hey, if you are in the homestretch of reading your Bible, first of all, I'm so proud of you. Second, you probably know this, but you're my kind of people. I thoroughly enjoy hanging out with Bible nerds. So I've got exciting news for you and it's called the 6% Club. For anyone that has finished their entire Bible in a calendar year, we have exclusive content, newsletters, giveaways, live events. Oh yeah, live events, baby, and more all throughout the year. You can find out about all of that. If you go to the Bible department.com/club to officially join the 6% Club. Why don't we call the 6% Club? 'Cause only 6% of Christians have actually read their entire Bible cover to cover. And every year, Bible nerds like you

finish our Bible reading plan and we get asked, what's next? Well, we've got an answer the description to get access. We'll see you in the club. Let's go. This is going to give rise to Manasseh. He has a kind of has a son. We're getting now in a chapter 33. His name is Manasseh. As mentioned in the context clues, Manasseh was a good vassal of Assyria completely unlike his father. Okay? So he's down with Assyria. He has a kaya, not so much. Okay? So now Sennacherib's reign is over. And we're going to go back into our context clues. Okay? Because I want to help us to figure out how to link what's happening in Israel, which with what's happening in the greater geopolitical world. Okay? So when NASA comes to power, he realizes that has a kaya got like really, really like dangerously close to crossing the line and pissing off the Assyrians. So when Manasseh is going to go out of his way to be a good vassal of Assyria, he undoes all the religious reforms of has a kaya so that there would be no appearance of him not following the Assyrian religion. Okay? This led to more and more idolatry in Judah, which led to more oppression and bloodshed. Okay? The very thing that he's trying to avoid is the thing that he's bringing upon himself with idolatry. He's trying to cover all his bases, but you know, allegiance to Yahweh has always been innately exclusionary. Like, you got to make Yahweh exclusively your God in your only God. Okay? It doesn't work when you make him a part of a pantheon of gods. Okay? We're going to deal with his repentance because Manasseh is going to repent, which is wild. I also just want to like describe Manasseh to you so that you understand why he's so evil. And I'm mixing all the nerdy nuggets with the context clues today. Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king and he reigned Jerusalem for 55 years. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. Here we go. Your ears should perk up because because of these detestable practices, the people got vomited out of the land. So what is Ezra setting us up for exile? He's like, hey, if you're going to act like the people that you displaced, then you're going to get displaced. Okay? If you're going to follow in the same behaviors that got the last people group kicked out of the land, then maybe you should be kicked out of the land. That's what the text is hinting at. He rebuilt the high place that

his father had the guy had demolished. He also erected altars to the bales and made ashram poles. He bowed down to the starry hosts and worshiped them. He built altars in the temple of the Lord into the Lord had said, my name remain in Jerusalem forever. And so he does not shoot the temple well. Okay. Verse six, he sacrificed his children and the fire in the valley of Ben him. So child sacrifice, man. This is just this is bad man. Practiced divination in witchcraft, sought omens, consulted mediums and spear tists. He did much evil in the eyes of the Lord are rousing his anger. He took the image. He had made and put it in God's temple like this is just this is bad man. And even this guy is going to repent. So here's what happens geopolitically in the Assyrian world. And now I'm going back and forth between nerdy nuggets and context clues, nerdy nuggets and context clues. But sennacher was succeeded by Esar harden. Okay. And Esar harden has two sons. Asher, banner, Paul and shamas, shum, you can when Esar harden died, his will stated that Asher, banner, Paul would be the king of Assyria, but that his other son would be made the king of Babylon. Okay. Technically Babylon was still a vassal of Assyria. So asher, banner, Paul was ultimately in charge, but shamash shum, ukin was to rule Babylon as he saw fit. Okay. So kind of autonomous situation there. This situation was bound to cause tension and it ultimately ended in a civil war with both brothers fighting for the top job. So the Assyrian empire is in in brawled in a civil dispute in a civil war. This put all the other vast of the empire in a tight spot because the rebellious province was ruled by the son of the last king. So the vassals basically had to pick a side and you're trying to pick like what side you think is going to win and what side you think is going to be a better ruler to you. picking what you see in King Manasseh threw Judah's support behind Shamash, Shun Ukin. And here's the unfortunate reality. Unfortunately for Manasseh, Ashabana Paul won. And so that is why Manasseh was imprisoned in Babylon. So when it says his nose was put in a hook, he's imprisoned because he supported the rebel in a civil war.

In prison in Babylon where Ashabana Paul was putting down the last of the rebellion. And once he gets imprisoned, honestly, it changes everything. And the same way that Hezekiah was an amazing king, and then it's like he gets full of pride. The exact opposite happens with Manasseh. He's a wicked evil king, sacrificing his own children. And then all of a sudden humility takes root in this man's heart, okay? This is how 2nd Chronicles chapter 33, verse nine describes Manasseh, says this, "Manasseh led Judah in the inhabitants of Jerusalem, astray, to do more evil than the nations whom Yahweh destroyed before the people of Israel, okay? But it says this in 2nd Chronicles chapter 33, verses 12 to 13. And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of Yahweh, his God, and humbled himself. So where his dad had lived righteous, but then got full of pride, Manasseh lived wicked, but then humility hit his heart, humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him and God was moved by his entreat and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that Yahweh was God. This incredible story, missing from the king's account,

is here in Chronicles. Tells us why the exile did not happen right here in this moment. Manasseh repented, the most evil king of all, got on his knees and surrendered to his true king, Yahweh, his true suzerain. And even more remarkably, Yahweh listened, forgave Manasseh and restored him to power. This has to be the most surprising curveball, the most shocking, just the most offensive, perhaps even offensive. Like imagine if you got to heaven and Hitler was there, okay? Like Manasseh is evil, but he humbles himself and he repents. This wicked king repented and Yahweh forgave him. This is truly mind-blowing, okay? This moment was later captured in a Jewish poem, which is in the Apocrypha. And it's called the Prayer of Manasseh, where an unknown Jewish poet tried to imagine what words must have been said by Manasseh to move the heart of Yahweh. And I'll read you some excerpts, but before I read you those excerpts, I'm just gonna give you my timeless truth for the day. And I'll say it just the way I wrote it down to my notebook. If Manasseh can be forgiven and saved, anyone can be. No one is too far gone, absolutely nobody. There's enough grace and mercy for anybody if there's enough grace and mercy from Manasseh. The worst, the most evil king in all of Judas history

sacrificed his own children, you know, witchcraft, divination likes, like this is just a wicked man, hummels himself and repents. And if Manasseh can be restored, so can you. No one's too far. And maybe you know someone who you're praying for right now, that they would know the Lord, they're not too far. Never count anybody out. No one would have thought that Manasseh would have surrendered his life to the Lord, to Yahweh. No one would have thought that he would have made a 180. No one would have thought that Paul, AKA Saul, in the New Testament would have made him 180. I can tell you people right now who I know personally, who I wouldn't have thought they would make a 180, but God can do anything. God works on the hearts of people. God causes humility to stir up in the hearts of people. So whether you need grace, whether there's somebody in your life who you know needs grace, we believe in the gospel of grace. And that's not just true for Manasseh. That's true for you. That's true for me. I think it's timelessly true. Last thing I'll say, these are just excerpts from the Apocrypha. I know some people are real spooky about the Apocrypha. I'm not, it's just literature. For the sins I have committed,

or more in number than the San of the Sea, my transgressions are multiplied, oh Lord, they're multiplied. I'm not worthy to look up to see the height of heaven because of the multitude of my iniquities. I'm weighed down with many an iron fetter. "and I have no relief, for I have provoked your wrath "and have done what is evil in your sight, "setting up abominations and multiplying offenses. "And now I've been the knee of my heart, "amploring you for your kindness. "I've sinned, oh Lord, I've sinned, "and I acknowledge my transgressions. "I earnestly implore you, forgive me, oh Lord, forgive me. "Do not destroy me with my transgressions. "Do not be angry with me forever, "or store up evil for me. "Do not condemn me to the depths of the earth, "for you, oh Lord, are the God of those who repent, "and in me you will manifest your goodness, "for unworthy as I am, you will save me "according to your great mercy. "And I will praise you continually all the days of my life, "for all the hosts of heaven sing your praises, "and yours is the glory forever, amen." - That's from the prayer of Manasseh, which can be found in the Apocrypha. And when Manasseh returns to Jerusalem, he spends what years he had left, trying to undo the pain and suffering that he had caused, taking away pagan gods and restoring the altar

and the temple. And also in those years of repentance, his grandson was born, and his grandson is gonna be employed by the name of Josiah. And Josiah is gonna bring incredible reform to Israel. And had he not repented and been brought back, he wouldn't have gotten another son of David named Josiah, who is gonna begin to be a source of hope. And so I'm excited to get into Josiah in his story tomorrow. Hey, day 365, oh, we got our last day on the Bible department podcast tomorrow. I'm super, super excited. We're gonna be diving in the second Chronicles chapters, 34, 35, and 36 last episode. Wow, I can't believe it. We did it, Joe. Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow. I love you guys. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible department podcast. Hey, we're almost there. I bet you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We're towards the end of the year, and I'm so proud of you. If this episode and this year of reading through the Bible was helpful, how about you invite a friend to join you on the journey next year? To learn more about the show, head to thebibledepartment.com,

and to learn more about the 6% Club, make sure you go to thebibledepartment.com/club. We'll see you right back here tomorrow.