What was it like in Jeremiah’s day?  To get an idea, let’s go all the way back to the “big schism.”  During the reign of King David and Solomon, Israel flourished as one big happy family.  But after Solomon’s death, there was a fierce family feud, followed by a permanent split.  Israel took ten tribes and made their own nation, known as the Northern Kingdom, with a capital city and religious center in Samaria.  The tribes of Judah and Benjamin joined together under Judah’s name and became the Southern Kingdom, which contained the capital of Jerusalem and the beloved temple.

It’s a shame they couldn’t work it out because their nation was already small.  Divided, Israel was about the size of Vermont, and Judah the size of Rhode Island.  For the next two centuries, they lived like fighting family members, ignoring one another, and then going to war, brother against brother.  But on rare occasions, if the outcome benefited both, they joined and fought as allies.  There was no aggressive, expanding world empire on the scene at this time, so the two teeny states managed to pay the bills and even thrive.  

But all that suddenly changed when a new global bully appeared in the Assyrian Empire.  Their mission was to kick as much butt as possible and expand their base of power.  Israel was the more significant and wealthy of the two and so became the first target.  In 727 BC, the proud people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel surrendered and were forced to relocate to foreign lands far from home.  They became “the ten lost tribes.”

The Southern Kingdom of Judah managed to survive by becoming a vassal state.  They could exist as long as they sent their check made out to Assyria on time, which was a considerable chunk of their budget.  But there was one more bitter pill to swallow.  In the ancient world, you had to show some sign of reverence for the gods of your conquerors.  And so, in the temple of the Lord, King Ahaz built altars to Assyrian celestial deities, and daily sacrifices were offered (2 Kings 16:10).

That brings us to the notorious Manasseh, Judah’s most wicked king.  Manasseh reigned for a long time, 40 years.  Instead of appeasement for survival, he led the nation headlong into paganism.  His father, King Hezekiah, was one of Judah’s shining stars.  He courageously called the people back to God, and tried to shake Judah free from Assyria’s grip.  But he came up short, so Manasseh went in the other direction, undoing everything his father worked for.

He had a vision to make the temple a universal melting pot and expo for the popular gods of the day.  He constructed more altars for the gods of the stars.  Praying to the sun and moon was all the rage in the ancient world.  Manasseh brought Baal into God’s house, along with male and female cult prostitutes, making the temple more like a strip club than a house of worship.  He built an occult coffee shop for mediums and spiritists.  In an attempt to outdo evil Ahab himself, he introduced the practice of child sacrifice and led the way by offering up his son (2 Kings 21:6).  

We should not see this as a wholesale turning of the people from their faith.   It wasn’t like Manasseh passed a law, ordering the people to forsake the Lord, or die.  Instead, it was a blurring of the lines.  In the minds of the people, the distinction between the God of Israel and man made idols became fuzzy.  They saw no problem with incorporating pagan practices into their worship.  In fact, many believed that sacrificing to Baal was the same as sacrificing an offering to God.   Most were not aware they were slowly slipping into apostasy, turning from monotheism to polytheism.  These new changes became their new normal, and the distinctive edges of their beliefs started to dissolve like sugar cubes in a saucer of water.  

You know how the wick of a candle ends, and the flame dies?  God’s patience finally burnt out, and he said in 2 Kings 21:10-12, “…Manasseh king of Judah has committed these detestable sins…Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle.”

Around 645 BC, in the final years of Manasseh’s forty year reign, the prophet Jeremiah was born.  

More to come….