Bad to the Bone
Posted by Dion Todd March 12th, 2016 10,758 Views 0 Comments
Yahweh spoke to Manasseh, and to his people; but they didn't listen. Therefore Yahweh brought on them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh in chains, bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon. When he was in distress, he begged Yahweh his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him; and he was entreated by him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that Yahweh was God. 2 Chronicles 33:10 WEB
Manasseh was the most wicked king that Judah had ever known. During his fifty-five year reign, he built altars to baal, asheroth, worshipped the stars, sacrificed his own children as pagan gods, dealt in fortune-telling, sorcery, mediums, necromancers, made carved idols and placed them in God's temple, and filled Israel with innocent blood from one end to the other.
Manasseh was truly 'bad to the bone' and had no equal nor boundaries in his evil plots. 'They were sawn apart' in Hebrews 11:37 is a reference to Manasseh having the prophet Isaiah sawn in half. Manasseh refused to listen to the Lord and led the people of Judah away from Him. Finally God gave him and Judah over to the king of Assyria, who put him in chains and took him captive to Babylon.
After all the evil that Manasseh had done, and after sawing the Lord's prophet in half, when he got into a jam and called out to God, Manasseh was spared and brought back to his kingdom. God had mercy on the meanest king recorded in the Bible when he humbled himself and asked. It's never too late.
No matter what your past is today, if you humbly ask God to help you, He will. Even if you find yourself bound in well-deserved chains, He will still set you free. It is not because you deserve it, it is because He is thoroughly good. God will never give up on you. In fact, He will use your past as your testimony and use you to lead others out of their own darkness.
Prayer: Father, I thank You for Your mercy. You are good. Teach me Your ways and help me walk with You today. Speak to me and through me, in the name of Jesus Christ I pray.