Can God Save Me?
Some people question whether God is willing to forgive them; they think that they have sinned so much that they are too far gone to be saved. Let's look a king of Judah named Manasseh.
Warning: Ancient people tended to be extremely violent; the kings of Judah were no exception. These passages describe some disturbing behaviors.
This study involves a fair amount of reading from the Old Testament. I provide links to the appropriate passages, please click each one to open the Bible Gateway site for the passage in a new tab and then close the tab when you are done. Or, you can read along in your own Bible.
Manasseh's Father, Hezekiah
To really appreciate Manasseh, let's look at his father, Hezekiah.
Hezekiah's father, Ahaz, was not a godly man. He promoted idolatry and even sacrificed one of his sons—not Hezekiah!—in a furnace to one of the gods. Somehow, Hezekiah turned to God and became one of the greatest kings of Judah.
Hezekiah's later years did not go smoothly. The Assyrians devastated Judah and threatened to destroy Jerusalem. Fortunately for Hezekiah and the Jews, God devasted the Assyrian army, killing 185,000 soldiers, and Jerusalem was saved—see 2 Kings 19:35–37.Manasseh was born around the time God delivered Jerusalem, and he saw only the damage left by the Assyrians and not the miraculous victory. He learned the wrong lesson from this.
Manasseh, Part I
Note that this link breaks chapter 21 into two passages; please scroll down to read everything.
Manasseh not only turned his back on God and went after idols, he even defiled the Temple with them and sacrificed his sons—plural!—in a furnace to them.
At this point, we can agree that Manasseh was a bad person. But, along with leading the Jews away from God to idols, he murdered the innocent, so that he "shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem with it from one end to another." Manasseh was dedicated to doing evil.
Few people have the power and opportunity to sin like Manasseh.
Manasseh, Part II
2 Kings has nothing good to say about Manasseh, but his story wasn't done. More than 100 years later, Ezra the priest also wrote about the kings of Judah. Here's what Ezra had to say.
Ezra used 2 Kings, and all this sounds familiar. However, Ezra had more to tell.When the Assyrian king brought Manasseh to Babylon, he was sure he was about to die. He had rejected God for decades, but, in his distress, he turned to him. In spite of everything Manasseh had done, God listened to him and saved him from the Assyrian king. Manasseh returned to Jerusalem and attempted to undo all the wrong he had done.
Manasseh's Grandson, Josiah
Manasseh's son, Amon, turned to idols, but he only reigned two years. Amon's son, Josiah, became king when he was eight. Probably because of Manasseh's influence, Josiah turned to God and, when he was old enough, also led massive reforms. 2 Kings 23:25 says about him,
25Before him there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength according to all the law of Moses, and no one like him arose after him. - CSB
Conclusion
Many of us feel guilt and shame about what we have done, and we may even question whether God is willing to forgive us. Manasseh's example offers a clear answer: "Yes!"