2 Chronicles 33:12, 13 And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, And prayed unto him: and he was intreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God.
Manasseh is an example of God’s conditional promise to us: if you seek the Lord, humble yourself, and pray unto Him, then He will hear your prayer and bring you again into the kingdom. Repent, and God will restore. This is one of the more remarkable stories of repentance and forgiveness ever recorded. It is as amazing a miracle as the repentance of the Ninevites of Jonah’s day. It is as remarkable as the repentance of King David. It reminds us of the Prodigal Son. It is notable for Manasseh’s extreme turnaround. He had been perhaps the most evil of the kings of Judah, and after the Lord afflicted him and he repented he restored true worship and got rid of idolatry.
In the same way, the Lord afflicts us as a call to repent and turn to God. He promises to hear our prayers and cries, bring us back to the kingdom of God, and restore again what the “devourer” has taken away. And we can’t say we don’t need it. He did it with Job. We, too, are as evil as Manasseh and as righteous as Job, and we still need repentance and humility every day in order to be restored into the Kingdom. Jesus is in the business of restoration.
The sad outcome of the story, however, is that Manasseh’s son, Amon, returned Judah back again to the evil ways of his father’s former ways. That is why we don’t neglect to pray for our children and grandchildren.