Manasseh: The Worst King | Bible Stories Retold

Then an enemy army hauled him off to Babylon in chains. And in a foreign prison, with nothing left, he prayed. Manasseh was 12 years old when he became King of Judah. His father, Hezekiah, had been one of the good ones. He had torn down idols and led the people back to God. Manasseh spent the next years undoing all of it. He rebuilt the altars his father had torn down. He put an idol inside God's own temple. He practiced sorcery and consulted fortune tellers. He led the people into more evil than the nation's God had driven out. The Bible says he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood. God spoke to Manasseh and to his people again and again. They would not listen. So the commanders of the Assyrian army came against him. They captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him in bronze chains, and carried him away to Babylon. The most powerful man in Jerusalem was now a prisoner in a foreign land. And there, in his distress, something broke open. The Bible says he begged the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly. No crown, no army, no one left to impress, just a man in chains, praying. And God listened. He was moved by his prayer and heard his plea. He brought Manasseh back to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is God. He spent the rest of his life trying to repair what he had broken. He took the idol out of the temple. He threw the altars out of the city. He rebuilt the altar of the Lord and told the people to serve God. Not everything got fixed. Some of the damage outlived him, but he never went back.

If God heard a prayer like that, from a man like that, in a cell that far from home, then no prayer is out of range. Maybe you feel like the worst thing you did gets the final word on your life. It doesn't. Manasseh's story didn't end in chains. And yours doesn't have to either. Humble yourself. Pray. The same God is still listening. [Music]