[XXIX.]
The Fetters of Manasseh.
WE bless the Lord for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but how strange are some of the things which the white-robed saints on high will number amongst these blessings! There may be heard a Nebuchadnezzar praising for the blessing of madness; a pardoned thief for the torments of a cross; and a Manasseh, remembering, in a song of loud thanksgiving, those Babylonish fetters of which the iron entered into his soul!
Manasseh, King of Judah, had perhaps descended into lower depths of depravity than any other sinner of whose conversion we read in the Bible. He might have been thought beyond reach even of the mercy of God, so deep had he sunk in the pit of iniquity. Dr. Kitto thus sums up the list of the transgressions of this most wicked man: "The crimes of all former kings seem light in comparison with those which disgraced his reign. He upheld idolatry with all the influence of the regal power, and with such inconceivable boldness, that the pure and holy ceremonies of the temple were superseded by rites of an idol image, set up in the very sanctuary . . . The practice which was, of all others, the most abhorrent to Jehovah, the king sanctioned by his own atrocious example, for he devoted his own children by fire to strange gods, in the blood-stained valley of Ben Hinnom. Wickedness reigned on high, and, as usual, persecuted righteousness and truth; so that, by a strong but significant hyperbole, we are told that innocent blood flowed in the streets of Jerusalem." It is said that the prophet Isaiah was martyred by the command of Manasseh, and underwent a terrible death, by being sawn asunder!
"God spoke unto Manasseh, and to his people, but they would not hearken." Who could have marvelled, then, if the sentence had gone forth, "Manasseh is joined to idols—let him alone?" "He that, being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy."
But Manasseh, son of Hezekiah, had doubtless been the child of many prayers, and the Spirit of his heavenly Father yearned still over this worse than prodigal son. God sent other messengers, to whom Manasseh could not choose but hearken. The Lord brought on him "the captains of the King of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon." Those chains were as the cords of love, with which mercy would draw the wretched sinner back from the gulf of destruction into which he was plunging.
"When he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers." The prayer attributed to Manasseh, though not contained in the inspired record, nor perhaps written by Manasseh himself, well expresses what must have been the feeling of his broken and contrite heart. "I have sinned above the number of the sands of the sea. My transgressions, O Lord, are multiplied, my transgressions are multiplied, and I am not worthy to behold and see the height of heaven, for the multitude of my iniquities. I am bowed down with many iron bands, that I cannot lift up my head, neither have any release; for I have provoked Thy wrath, and done evil before Thee. I did not Thy will, neither kept I Thy commandments. I have set up abominations, and have multiplied offences. Now, therefore, I bow the knee of my heart, beseeching Thee of grace. I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned, and I acknowledge my iniquities. Wherefore, I humbly beseech Thee, forgive me, O Lord, forgive me, and destroy me not with mine iniquities . . . For Thou art the God, even the God of them that repent; and in me Thou wilt show all Thy goodness, for Thou wilt save me, that am unworthy, according to Thy great mercy."
"The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." The history of Manasseh is a most striking comment upon such a text as this. If "he" was saved, who need despair? If "he" was granted true repentance, what heart so dead in sin that it cannot be quickened by the Spirit of Life!
When God released the prisoner from captivity, and brought him again to Jerusalem to reign on the throne of his fathers, Manasseh proved the sincerity of his contrition by the change in his life. "He took away the strange gods, and the idol out of the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he had built, and cast them out of the city. And he repaired the altar of the Lord, and sacrificed thereon peace-offerings and thank-offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel."