Manasseh grew up during his father, Hezekiah's godly reign, where proper and singular worship was again given to Jehovah God. When Manasseh took over, as we read yesterday, he changed everything and made the people of Judah worse than the gentiles who lived in Canaan before them. Now Manasseh is paying for his sin as the king of Assyria has taken him hostage. Manasseh, who now is in a time of distress and need, finally decides to call on God.
Many times throughout the Old Testament, we see God's desire for His people's worship and fellowship come to a head when He allows things to happen in their lives to bring them back to Him. God is willing to do whatever it takes. There is nothing too bad for us to endure which is not worth the reward of fellowship with Almighty God. Manasseh turned to God and God returned him to his throne.
God still uses this method today. Some would call this learning the hard way. We can choose to read the word of God, listen to godly wisdom and obey the Lord, or we can disobey and let God chasten us and bring us back to Him. Many of us can relate with Manasseh in this regard. Maybe He didn't allow us to be taken hostage by an enemy king, but He may have allowed hardships in order to get our attention.
The one area of failure in this revival in Judah was not taking down the high places. In Deuteronomy 12:1-11, God specifically commanded that there be one location for offering and worship and that the children of Israel do NOT worship in high places as the other nations do. The Israelites attempted to worship God in these high places. This is called worshipping God in a Baal way. Translation; Worshipping God the way the world worships its false gods. We can still fall prey to this today. God is just as interested today in our methodology in the church as He was in the day of the Law. We must not operate our church in a worldly way in order to reach more people. We must do His will entirely, this includes our methods. We are here to glorify Him, and if we succeed, He will build His church.
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