The Straw That Broke The Camel’s Back

Also, there are many ungodly people on this earth and we can learn what not to do from their life.

The Bible gives us godly and ungodly men and women to learn from.

Illus: August of 2022 the local news reported that the schools in South Carolina was a large shortage of teachers to teach our children.

But I can assure there is no shortage of ungodly people that we can learn from their wickedness.

Some like Hitler, Mussilini, and Asama Bin Laden, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Cacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Jack the ripper, Pee Week Gaskins and many thousands of more.

Also there are many wicked characters mentioned in the Bible.

The Bible is filled with evil men and women.

This old world has been trampled with wicked people.

But the Bible tells us about many wicked men and women.

But King Manasseh has to be ranked as one of the most wicked man who ever lived on this earth.

• He is certainly considered to be the most wicked king of Judah.

• His grandfather, Ahaz, was a wicked king.

• But his father, King Hezekiah is considered to be the most godly king of Judah.

Manasseh had the choice to learn from a godly father or a ungodly grandfather.

It's hard to imagine that someone as righteous as Hezekiah could have a son as evil as Manasseh.

This wicked monarch reigned longer than any other king in Judah. He reigned for 55 five years.

It makes you wonder sometime why God will allow such an ungodly man to live so long.

It could be for two reasons:

(1) God allows them to live a long life to give them many opportunites to get their life straightened out.

(2) God allows people like Manasseh to live a long life because this earthly life will be the only heaven they will ever have to enjoy

Hezekiah was one of the few kings in David's line, the kings of Judah, called "good." Most of them were evil,

• Hezekiah was responsible for a spiritual revival during his reign that swept the entire nation.

• He did away with the idolatry that his father, Ahaz, had established, and purged the nation of apostasy.

• It was Hezekiah's wise leadership that made him a powerful spiritual force in Judah.

• But 2 Kings 21 begins by telling us that the great King Hezekiah had died.

Manasseh came to the throne when he was only twelve years of age. He co-reigned with his father for ten years.

What a wonderful opportunity he had for his life.

• He had the wonderful example of his father to follow

• He was exposed to the ministry of Isaiah and Micah the prophet.

• He had personally seen the Lord deliver Jerusalem in a very miraculous way, when it was under siege by the Assyrians

Yet note what he did once he had power as king when he took over.

Look at verse 2, we read, “And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, after the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.”

It seems once his father died, he wasted no time turning to evil.

We learn two things from the life of King Manasseh, such as:

(1) King Manasseh is the perfect example of a man throwing his life away to sin

(2) King Manasseh is the perfect example of a wicked man returning back to the God he once knew

Perhaps there are some here today who feel that your sins are so gross, that God could never save you from those sins.

If you are thinking this way, let me assure you God’s grace is sufficient to save the most wicked among us.

Let’s look at the life of King Manasseh. What do we see? We see-

I. HE WAS A CORRUPTED KING

Look at 2 Kings 21:1-7, we read, “Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hephzibah. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, after the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel. For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them. And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD said, In Jerusalem will I put my name. And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards: he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger. And he set a graven image of the grove that he had made in the house, of which the LORD said to David, and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever.”