Click below to download the Cornerstone Connections leader’s guide and student lesson. This week’s resources also include two lesson plans and a discussion starter video which offer different ways of looking at the topic. Each lesson plan includes opening activities, scripture passages, discussion questions, and real-life applications.
2 Kings 21: 1- 26
2 Chronicles 33: 1 -25
Chapter 32, Royalty and Ruin (Prophets and Kings)
The stories of the lives of Manasseh, Amon, and Josiah give examples of extreme contrast in loyalty and faithfulness to God. However, they also reveal the varied ways in which God works to save us in seemingly impossible situations.
2 Chronicles 33:1-25
Matthew 20:1-16
As a result of this lesson, we want the students to learn that no life is wasted. No matter what we’ve done, we can return to God. The ultimate goal, however, is that we start that journey early in our lives in order to better help others find their own relationship with Jesus.
OPENING ACTIVITY: HOPELESS
Play a simple trivia game using two teams. Ahead of the time, give one team the answers to all questions except for the last one, and give the other team the answer to the final question. Assign varying points for each question. But save the final question that favors the losing side for last, with just enough points to make it possible for that team to win. The point of the game is for the students to feel that it was not fair in the end.
Below is a sample of questions. You can use these or make your own. Create questions that will be appropriate to achieving the goal of unfairness with your group of students if these questions don’t really work for your context.
We have been looking at a lot of kings this quarter. Most of them were pretty bad at following God. The Bible is not a book about heroes and winners. Today we are going to look at a couple more of the stories from Scripture, and these stories might seem about as unfair as the game we just played. But perhaps at the end of this lesson we might learn that God’s definition of “fair” is different from ours.
BIBLE STUDY GUIDE
NOTE: You may choose to share some personal or other stories of unfairness.
When I think of unfairness there is a story in the Bible that always comes to mind. It’s found in Matthew 20:1-16. It’s actually a record of Jesus telling a story/parable.
Let’s look at the beginning of that story in Matthew 20:1-5.
For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. 5 Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise.
A denarius was a day’s wage for an average laborer. It was considered a fair amount.
Now let’s read Matthew 20:10-16.
10 But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius. 11 And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner, 12 saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.’ 13 But he answered one of them and said, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. 15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’ 16 So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.”
Now that we’ve seen God’s picture of “fair,” let’s look back at the book of 2 Chronicles. Do you think God is consistent? Jesus told a parable, but let’s look at what happened in this real person’s life. His name is Manasseh. Now you have bad, then you have next level bad. He started his reign at the age of 12. Right from the beginning we learn that this son of “good” king Hezekiah was a real mess. Verses one through nine of this chapter list all of the bad stuff. He set up idol altars in the temple of God, but beyond that he started sacrificing his own children and doing all sorts of witchcraft. Even worse, the people of Israel are following his bad example and bad leadership.
God sent prophets with warnings. A lot of them trying to warn Manasseh and get him to change, but finally the Assyrians came and “captured him with hooks and dragged him away.” I can’t imagine what that would have been like. But it was in Babylon that Manasseh finally turned to God.
Read 2 Chronicles 33:13.
… and prayed to Him; and He received his entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.
But there is a cost to sin. God was able to save Manasseh, but look at some of the consequences of his evil. After listing all of the things that Manasseh did right after following God, the writers leave us with these two sad statements:
Read 2 Chronicles 33:17.
17 Nevertheless the people still sacrificed on the high places, but only to the Lord their God.
Read 2 Chronicles 33:21-24.
21 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. 22 But he did evil in the sight of the Lord, as his father Manasseh had done; for Amon sacrificed to all the carved images which his father Manasseh had made, and served them. 23 And he did not humble himself before the Lord, as his father Manasseh had humbled himself; but Amon trespassed more and more.
24 Then his servants conspired against him, and killed him in his own house.
Even though God will always forgive, it doesn’t mean that our sinful actions don’t have consequences and that they don’t have long lasting effects.
It is hard not to land on a negative note with the story of Manasseh. But this story is an important reminder that our choices matter because all of us are connected to the people and world around us. God made us that way, and it’s supposed to be a good thing.
NOTE: Don’t forget to use this story as an opportunity to let students know that while God never wants us to stray, He will always extend forgiveness. There is always hope—both of the stories in today’s lesson show the incredible grace of our God.
This week have a discussion with a pastor or civic leader about how you can get more involved in social justice issues in your community. Discuss the following questions.
Talk with your family.
Based on your discussion with leaders and with your family, make a plan with your friends to share God’s grace in a tangible way.
Read 2 Chronicles 33:1-34:33.
For a Relational Bible Study (RBS) you’ll want to get into the Scripture passage and encourage the youth to imagine participating in the story while it’s happening. Then you will be able to better apply it to your own situation today.
You will need to ask God for the Holy Spirit to be present as your small group discusses the questions (no more than 3-6 people in a group is recommended). Start with the opening question. It is a personal question and the answer is unique for each individual. There is no right answer and nobody is an expert here, so don’t be surprised when you hear different responses. You are depending on the Holy Spirit to be present and to speak through your group. Say what God prompts you to say, and listen to what others share.
Take turns reading the chapter out loud. Follow that with giving the students some time to individually mark their responses to the questions (a PDF version of the handout is available as a download). This gives each person a starting point for responding when you start to share as a group. Next, begin the discussion by asking the students to share what they marked and why on each question as you work your way through. Feel free to take more time on some questions than others as discussion warrants.
Encourage each person in the group to apply what is discussed to their personal lives and to share with the group what they believe God wants them to do. Then ask them to pray that God will help each of them to follow through in doing so. Remind them to expect that God will show them ways to live out the message of this passage in the coming week, and that they are free to ask others in the group to help hold them accountable.
Be sure everyone takes time for personal applications before you end your Sabbath School time together.
Has anyone ever told you, “You’re just like your father” or “You’re just like your mother”? When young children hear that, they may consider the comparison a compliment. But most teens prefer to be their own person—not just like one of their parents or guardians. The question that scholars have debated for centuries is, which influences you more—heredity or environment? If it’s hereditary, your biological parents have passed on certain traits and predetermined who you will be. If it’s environment, then the people you spend time with made you the way you are, right? And then there’s the old saying, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” meaning that you might not be exactly like your family, but there are quite a few things you share in common.
When it comes to the stories of the various kings of Judah found in 2 Chronicles (and their parallel in 2 Kings), sometimes a king is pretty much like his father, and sometimes it seems to be just the opposite. Last week we read about Hezekiah, who was a good king. This week we consider the next three generations of kings. Will it be “like father, like son”?
Read 2 Chronicles 33:1-34:33.
33 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. 2 But he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. 3 For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; he raised up altars for the Baals, and made wooden images; and he worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. 4 He also built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem shall My name be forever.” 5 And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. 6 Also he caused his sons to pass through the fire in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom; he practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft and sorcery, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. 7 He even set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever; 8 and I will not again remove the foot of Israel from the land which I have appointed for your fathers—only if they are careful to do all that I have commanded them, according to the whole law and the statutes and the ordinances by the hand of Moses.” 9 So Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel.
Manasseh Restored After Repentance
10 And the Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they would not listen. 11 Therefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze fetters, and carried him off to Babylon. 12 Now when he was in affliction, he implored the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, 13 and prayed to Him; and He received his entreaty, heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.
14 After this he built a wall outside the City of David on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, as far as the entrance of the Fish Gate; and it enclosed Ophel, and he raised it to a very great height. Then he put military captains in all the fortified cities of Judah. 15 He took away the foreign gods and the idol from the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he had built in the mount of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem; and he cast them out of the city. 16 He also repaired the altar of the Lord, sacrificed peace offerings and thank offerings on it, and commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel. 17 Nevertheless the people still sacrificed on the high places, but only to the Lord their God.
Death of Manasseh
18 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the Lord God of Israel, indeed they are written in the book of the kings of Israel. 19 Also his prayer and how God received his entreaty, and all his sin and trespass, and the sites where he built high places and set up wooden images and carved images, before he was humbled, indeed they are written among the sayings of Hozai. 20 So Manasseh rested with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house. Then his son Amon reigned in his place.
Amon’s Reign and Death
21 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. 22 But he did evil in the sight of the Lord, as his father Manasseh had done; for Amon sacrificed to all the carved images which his father Manasseh had made, and served them. 23 And he did not humble himself before the Lord, as his father Manasseh had humbled himself; but Amon trespassed more and more.
24 Then his servants conspired against him, and killed him in his own house. 25 But the people of the land executed all those who had conspired against King Amon. Then the people of the land made his son Josiah king in his place.
Josiah Reigns in Judah
34 Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. 2 And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.
3 For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images. 4 They broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and the incense altars which were above them he cut down; and the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images he broke in pieces, and made dust of them and scattered it on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. 5 He also burned the bones of the priests on their altars, and cleansed Judah and Jerusalem. 6 And so he did in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, and Simeon, as far as Naphtali and all around, with axes. 7 When he had broken down the altars and the wooden images, had beaten the carved images into powder, and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.
Hilkiah Finds the Book of the Law
8 In the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the temple, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God. 9 When they came to Hilkiah the high priest, they delivered the money that was brought into the house of God, which the Levites who kept the doors had gathered from the hand of Manasseh and Ephraim, from all the remnant of Israel, from all Judah and Benjamin, and which they had brought back to Jerusalem. 10 Then they put it in the hand of the foremen who had the oversight of the house of the Lord; and they gave it to the workmen who worked in the house of the Lord, to repair and restore the house. 11 They gave it to the craftsmen and builders to buy hewn stone and timber for beams, and to floor the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed. 12 And the men did the work faithfully. Their overseers were Jahath and Obadiah the Levites, of the sons of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to supervise. Others of the Levites, all of whom were skillful with instruments of music, 13 were over the burden bearers and were overseers of all who did work in any kind of service. And some of the Levites were scribes, officers, and gatekeepers.
14 Now when they brought out the money that was brought into the house of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the Lord given by Moses. 15 Then Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan. 16 So Shaphan carried the book to the king, bringing the king word, saying, “All that was committed to your servants they are doing. 17 And they have gathered the money that was found in the house of the Lord, and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers and the workmen.” 18 Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king.
19 Thus it happened, when the king heard the words of the Law, that he tore his clothes. 20 Then the king commanded Hilkiah, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Abdon the son of Micah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king, saying, 21 “Go, inquire of the Lord for me, and for those who are left in Israel and Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found; for great is the wrath of the Lord that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord, to do according to all that is written in this book.”
22 So Hilkiah and those the king had appointed went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe. (She dwelt in Jerusalem in the Second Quarter.) And they spoke to her to that effect.
23 Then she answered them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Tell the man who sent you to Me, 24 “Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will bring calamity on this place and on its inhabitants, all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah, 25 because they have forsaken Me and burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands. Therefore My wrath will be poured out on this place, and not be quenched.’ ” ’ 26 But as for the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, in this manner you shall speak to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: “Concerning the words which you have heard—27 because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against its inhabitants, and you humbled yourself before Me, and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you,” says the Lord. 28 “Surely I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace; and your eyes shall not see all the calamity which I will bring on this place and its inhabitants.” ’ ” So they brought back word to the king.
Josiah Restores True Worship
29 Then the king sent and gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. 30 The king went up to the house of the Lord, with all the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem—the priests and the Levites, and all the people, great and small. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant which had been found in the house of the Lord. 31 Then the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the Lord, to follow the Lord, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book. 32 And he made all who were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin take a stand. So the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers. 33 Thus Josiah removed all the abominations from all the country that belonged to the children of Israel, and made all who were present in Israel diligently serve the Lord their God. All his days they did not depart from following the Lord God of their fathers.
Like Father, (Not) Like Son
You and your parents: In what ways are you similar? Different?
Your parents and their parents: In what ways are they similar? Different?
1. What was King Manasseh’s worst evil?
2. Why didn’t God severely punish Manasseh and the people of Judah?
3. Why did God restore Manasseh to be king of Judah again?
4. How would you summarize King Amon’s reign?
5. What was Josiah’s greatest good?
6. What caused the renewal of the covenant between God and His people?
7. True or False: “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
8. What do you need to deconstruct in your life?
9. What do you need to construct in your life?
Over a period of three generations, you can’t get a wider range of character than what we saw with Kings Manasseh, Ahaz, and Josiah. We end with the positive example of King Josiah whose reforms cleansed Yahweh’s sanctuary where pagan altars and shrines had been constructed—unbelievable! Imagine the scene when the priest announced, “I just found the scroll of the law.” That would be like your pastor saying, “Who would have guessed we’d find a Bible at church?!” That’s how bad things had become. And yes, under King Josiah’s leadership and actions, the people renewed the covenant with God. When people say, “I don’t think things could get any worse,” direct them to the passage we studied this week. And rejoice that in spite of such dire conditions, the people still returned to God.
In what ways are you like your parents or adults who have influence in your life? And according to whom? You may wish to be similar to them in some ways, and different from them in others. Some people purposely do the opposite of the adults in their lives for no other reason than to establish their own identity by being different. Some choose to purposely “check out” from God because their parents are really into God. That’s a rather weak reason for such a high-impact decision. But there are also some young people who choose God even though their family did not.
Here are some positive ways to apply this lesson to your life this week. Put one or two of them into practice, or let them spawn other ideas the Holy Spirit is planting in your head and heart right now.
Compare the top qualities Jesus wants you to have in your life with the top qualities your parents or mentors want you to have. How do you know what’s top for Jesus?
Are you more like Jesus or more like your parent or mentor? What’s the difference?
It’s not likely that you have set up a shrine to a pagan god and that you burn incense or pray to that object. But look around your room to get an overview of what’s important to you.
By Steve Case and Hubert Cisneros
A Place to Belong outlines the essentials for creating a great youth group. It features six chapters ready-made for youth leadership conventions or training in the local church. If you’re a youth director, here’s a resource you can use to train youth leaders in your conference. If you’re a youth leader in a church, you can use this yourself. And if you’re a young person, you can be a youth leader right now. Use this resource and put it into practice.
#Playbook Youth & Young Adult Leadership Convention
You are invited to join the North American Division Youth Ministries Department for networking and leadership training from September 3-5, 2020 in Albuquerque, New Mexico! This event is open to all local church, conference, and union youth and young adult ministry leaders. It will feature a wide variety of seminars plus training for youth Sabbath School, Master Guide leadership, and much more.
