Week 22 2 Chronicles 33
I just read the story of Manasseh – the Terrible King Who Ended Up Being Sorry About His Terribleness.
Now I’m reading about Manasseh’s son Amon. Amon was similar to his dad. But also different.
Similarity: Amon did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, just as his father Manasseh had done. He worshipped and sacrificed to all the idols his father had made.
Difference: unlike his father, he did not humble himself before the Lord. Instead, Amon sinned even more (the Kings account adds: he abandoned the Lord…and refused to follow the Lord’s ways).
So Amon had two examples to look at:
A) the early Bad Manasseh years where his dad was about as bad as bad could be.
B) the later Turned-Back-Around Manasseh years where his dad made amends and tried reversing direction.
Amon could choose A) or B) but he went all-in with A). No reasons are given (the Amon story is one of the shortest of the fifteen and all of it is about Amon’s evil-doing).
I have a rough & ready check list for the kings and I look to see how Amon does:
Did he do anything identifiably good? No.
Did he love & obey the Lord? No.
Did he deliberately operate against the Lord? Yes.
Did he promote evil? Yes.
Did he ever mend-the-error-of-his-ways? No.
So this puts Amon right down near the very bottom of the King’s Ranking List.
Note: quotes from 2 Chronicles 33:22 23 2 Kings 21:22 (NLT)