Generational Leadership Can Slip Into Darkness Quickly - 2 Kings 21-25

2 Kings 21:1-2 (ESV Strong's)

Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel.

Generational Leadership Can Slip Into Darkness Quickly. 

In the above passage we are reading the beginning of Manasseh’s leadership.  As stated, he reigns fifty-five years, starting at the age of twelve.   So, he reigned until he was 67.    He do so as a corrupt king.   Why?   His father was Hezekiah.   Hezekiah was a great king ... right up to the end.  That is the problem.  Hezekiah served himself at the end of his reign.   His pride and desire for legacy took over.   He was looking at his retirement not follow through until the end.  Note what it says about Hezekiah in the end of the previous chapter:

2 Kings 20:16-19 (ESV Strong's)

Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord: Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?”

Hezekiah only worried about “peace and security” in “his” day.  He did not think of raising up a son that would follow in his footsteps as a good king.   This might be the biggest tragedy of parenting.   It only took one generation to see Judah lead into corrupt living.    It will be two generations latter that Manasseh’s grandson brings them back to God: Josiah.   In chapter 23 we read about Josiah turning around the corrupt leadership of his grandfather, Manasseh, and reforming Judah.   Each generation has a responsibility to teach the next.  Here we see the cycle.