II Kings 21:7
“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 forever:”
– English KJV
“וישׂם את פסל האשׁרה אשׁר עשׂה בבית אשׁר אמר יהוה אל דוד ואל שׁלמה בנו בבית הזה ובירושׁלם אשׁר בחרתי מכל שׁבטי ישׂראל אשׂים את שׁמי לעולם׃”
– Hebrew Text
“śîym 'êth pesel 'ăshêrâh 'ăsher ‛âśâh bayith 'ăsher 'âmar yehôvâh 'el dâvid 'el shelômôh bên bayith zeh yerûshâlaim 'ăsher bâchar kôl shêbeṭ yiśrâ'êl śûm 'êth shêm ădâh”
– Hebrew Pronunciation
This verse speaks of Manasseh, one of the kings of Judah. Manasseh’s father (King Hezekiah) was a very godly king who destroyed pagan idols and worshiped the true God. Manasseh, however, proved to be the opposite.
Manasseh was the thirteenth king of Judah, the southern Jewish nation. He was only twelve years old when he became king. At this young age he was not yet ready to become king, however, this does not excuse the terrible things that he had done. His grandson, Josiah, was younger when he began his reign and he was a very good king.
Manasseh fell victim to seducers and eventually placed a pagan idol inside the temple of God.
The graven image he placed within the temple is a pagan idol of Asherah. Asherah was a pagan goddess of fertility and she was worshipped through ritual prostitution.
What Manasseh did was terrible and it is easy to miss the extent of what happened here. This was supposed to be the temple of the one true God, the God of creation, the God who holds the universe in the palm of His hand. Now this temple is being desecrated and turned into a idolatrous brothel, dedicated to Asherah. The temple of God becomes a house of ill repute…
There are many lessons we can learn from this piece of history:
1) Sometimes people are not ready for the position.
The Bible warns us to be careful when we anoint someone as a leader. A leadership position is an important position and one that requires great responsibility to be done well. When people are not ready for the position they often mess it up. It is important to assess that a person is ready for leadership, especially within the church.
2) Age is not always an indicator of how ready a person is.
As we see in 2 Chronicles 34, Manasseh’s grandson, Josiah was 8 when he became king and he was a very good king, restoring true worship in Judah. Age is not an indication of readiness. There are elderly Christians that make very bad decisions and would be terrible leaders, yet there are young Christians who make excellent leaders. It is not age, but rather maturity that indicates whether a person is ready to lead or not.
3) If we allow sin in our lives it will separate us from God.
The temple had rules and regulations, it had a purpose and was dedicated to the one true God. Then Manasseh brought in an idol. He allowed evil to reside in the temple of God. From merely housing a pagan idol, the temple changed and became a brothel dedicated to Asherah.
As we know, a man-made structure cannot hold the presence of God, therefore Jesus made us the new temple of God. We have to be careful, for the same thing that happened to the man-made temple can happen to us. If we allow sin to reside in us we will change. It may start slowly but will eventually consume us if we do not repent thereof. If we leave it long enough our entire dedication will change. Instead of being dedicated to Christ, we will become a dedicated slave to our sin.
Sometimes the idol can be a big sin, other times it can be a “small” sin (in the eyes of men) or even a mere distraction. These idols are often in the form of addictions.
There are very sinful addictions (pornography, drinking etc) that can radically change a person’s character.
There are also smaller things, such as smoking. You may not be heading towards hell just because you smoke, but it serves as a distraction, directing you away from God and by smoking you may not get to be where God wants you to be.
I am not trying to pick on smokers, but I am using it as an example. Ask yourself the following questions:
1- In the last 6 hours, how many times did you smoke and how much did you enjoy it? (You can edit the time and addiction within the question to fit the situation)
2- In the last 6 hours, how many times did you pray and spend time with the Lord and how much did you enjoy it?
Quantity and Quality are both important and if the addiction outweighs the time spent with God then you have a serious problem.
3- Can you go 1 day without smoking any cigarette?
4- Can you go 1 day without praying and spending time with God?
If you can put God aside longer than you can the addiction, then you have a serious problem.
We must strive to eradicate sin and addictions completely so that God really becomes number one in our lives. We are allowed to be addicted to only one thing, and that is God. (and no, chocolates are out too)
4) The best part is that even though we struggle with addictions and sin in our lives, God will forgive if we repent.
In 2 Chronicles 33:10-17 we read that Manasseh eventually repented and was restored to his position as king. God gives the same promise to us. Even though we struggle with sin and addictions, God is will forgive us if we repent by humbling ourselves before Him and repenting. This repentance must be visible through our actions that follow. Manasseh removed the idols from the temple and the people worshipped God again. We must remove the sin and addictions from our lives entirely and instead of serving the addiction, we must serve Christ as King.
Let’s move to the last part of the verse:
God told David and Solomon that He will put His name in Jerusalem forever.
To put a name onto something is claiming ownership thereof. Jerusalem belongs to God and God will be with Jerusalem. Even when all these evil things happened God never forgot about the people. He was with them even if they were not with Him.
Once we give our lives to Jesus we become His property. He writes His name on our hearts and He becomes our King. Now we may abandon Him, but He will never abandon us. God is always ready to welcome us back when we realize the error of our ways (and obviously truly repent thereof).
Now we get to the really interesting part….
When God said that He will put His name in Jerusalem, He meant it not only figuratively, but literally.
In the Hebrew alphabet we get 22 symbols (and also variations of them). Each of these symbols carry not only a sound when placed in a word, but a whole meaning when placed on its own.
Take note of the symbol “Shin” (or Schin/Sin):
This is the Hebrew symbol for God’s name. Theologians that have studied this symbol point out that, even if the Jewish people did not realize it, this symbol, for some reason contains three arms, yet all are connected, which symbolizes the Trinity.
The first thing we are going to look at is the Hebrew spelling of Jerusalem:
ובירושׁלם
The Hebrew “shin” is found in the middle of the Hebrew “Jerusalem”. God literally put His name in Jerusalem…
However, many people say that this was done by man and not by God, so let us go a little bit further.
Jerusalem is built over a few hills and valleys. The three main valleys on which Jerusalem is built (Valley of Jehoshaphat, Tyropoeon valley and the valley of Hinnom) forms something very interesting, as seen in the picture below:
The above picture shows the three valleys as well as point out a strange dip in the landscape (behind Mount Moriah). The name of God is literally inscribed on the landscape underneath Jerusalem…
It is a powerful thing when the Lord inscribes His name in our hearts. Afterwards our landscape (character) is changed forever, that is why we do not have “maybe-conversions”. If a person does not know whether they are saved, it indicates that they are not. When you are saved, you know that God touched you!
