How was it that Manasseh had such a bad start as king? Yet, he was brought up in the knowledge of God’s truth. We can be sure that Hezekiah did indeed make known the truth about God to his sons, according to Isaiah 38:19, and this included his child Manasseh. But Manasseh also had his responsibility to receive the truth being told to him from his father.

In saying this, parents are not discharged from their very great responsibility to teach children in discipline and under the admonition of the Lord, and to be real examples to them in their own choices and actions. We cannot stress enough the importance of being role models before their eyes. And more importantly, we have a great encouragement from the Word of God: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6). And this we see even in Manasseh.

But here we want to stress the responsibility of the child. Manasseh did not pay attention to what he heard and learned concerning God and His Word. It was a very bad start. Later, as he was walking in his wicked ways, he also did not pay attention to the word of the Lord. The multiple consequences were very serious.

This is an important lesson for us. We must pay attention to the Word of God and walk in it, to “be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving [ourselves]” (Jas. 1:22). The Lord wants us to prosper and bear fruit. But to do that we have to be attentive to what He tells us. “He who abides in Me,” says our Lord Jesus, “and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (Jn. 15:5). Today, let us abide in Him, and He in us!