We witnessed before that Hezekiah's house was ordered incorrectly. It was oriented around his present comfort rather than his legacy's future fruitfulness. He took comfort in the prophecy of his earthly belongings and heritage being ransacked after his departure. His concern was not that it would endure, but that he would not have to endure the loss of it.
Not surprisingly, this attitude had an effect on his household. The lives that are raised in a household are shaped by its walls. The order of Hezekiah's household formed his sons and when they grew older they did not depart from the way they were trained to go.
2 Kings 21:1-7
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. For he rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, "In Jerusalem will I put my name." And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. And he burned his son as an offering and used fortune-telling and omens and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger. And the carved image of Asherah that he had made he set 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 the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever."
Manasseh took the hand off from his father and ran further down the field than Hezekiah ever got. His disdain for legacy and progeny is evidenced in his forsaking of his ancestors' faith and his indifference to his descendants' fate. He flung aside the God of his fathers and flung into the fire the sons of his family. He destroyed the altars he inherited and laid on the altar those who stood to inherit from him. He burned the bridges to the past and burned the hope of the future. He lived in the moment and for himself without respect for the past or hope in the future.
But by God's grace, one of his sons survived, yet the seed contained all the defects of the tree from which it fell.
2 Kings 21:19-24
Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, as Manasseh his father had done. He walked in all the way in which his father walked and served the idols that his father served and worshiped them. He abandoned the LORD, the God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the LORD. And the servants of Amon conspired against him and put the king to death in his house. But the people of the land struck down all those who had conspired against King Amon, and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place.
Amon abandoned his forefathers and walked in the ways of his bent fathers. So we see downstream how Hezekiah's mindset manifested. He passed down a reluctance to look ahead and a proclivity to live for the moment and one's own good. Not shockingly, his son and his grandson took that baton and ran with it.
Yet by God's grace, He extends the curse of disobedience only so far in order that His greater promise of blessing may prevail. From this disordered family, God raised up godly Josiah outside the influence of his fathers and refreshed the vision for respecting better ancestors and living for better descendants by grace through faith in God alone in one's present.
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