Welcome and thank you for taking a bible break to test your knowledge of God's word.
This week's question:

Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he became king of Judah, "He did right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done. He removed the high places and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel burned incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan (a piece of bronze)." (2 Kings 18:3-5). Then he became mortally ill and was told by God to set his house in order because he was going to die. He turned his face to the wall and prayed,

"Remember now, O Lord, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight." (2 kings 20:3) The Lord then answered him through Isaiah the prophet, "Return and say to Hezekiah the leader of My people, 'Thus says the Lord, God of your father David, "I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord. I will add fifteen years to your life, and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake and for My servant David's sake"'" (2 Kings 20:5-6). But Hezekiah's response to the advanced years given him, "But Hezekiah gave no return for the benefit he received, because his heart was proud; therefore wrath came upon him and on Judah and Jerusalem. However, Hezekiah humbled the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the Lord did not come on them in the days of Hezekiah." (2 Chronicles 32:25-26). When men came from Babylon, his pride came through as he showed them all his treasures so that the Lord told him, "'Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and all that your fathers have laid up in store to this day will be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left.' says the Lord. 'Some of your sons who shall issue from you, whom you will beget, will be taken away; they will become officials in the palace of the king of Babylon.'" (2 Kings 20:17-18) He did indeed father a child during those fifteen years.

That brings us to our question, "Which king was known for shedding innocent blood?" Hezekiah's son was only twelve years old when he became king, "He did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations which the Lord dispossessed before the sons of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshipped all the host of heaven and served them. He built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, 'In Jerusalem I will put My name.' He built the altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. He made his sons pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and used divination, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord provoking Him to anger." (2 Kings 21:2-6). He even set a carved image of Asherah in the temple and seduced the people to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had Israel destroy when they first settled the land of Canaan (2 Kings 21:9-10).

So then, for the answer to our question we turn and read, "Now the Lord spoke through His servants the prophets, saying, 'Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations, having done wickedly more than all the Amorites did who were before him, and also made Judah sin with his idols; therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 'Behold, I am bringing such a calamity on Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle. I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. I will abandon the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hands of their enemies, and they will become as plunder and spoil to all their enemies; because they have done evil in My sight, and have been provoking Me to anger since the day their fathers came from Egypt, even to this day.' Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; besides his sin with which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the Lord." (2 Kings 21:10-16). So there we have the answer to our question, as it is Manasseh, the son of a good king, Hezekiah, who shed innocent blood of the people of Judah!

Let us remember that just because the father is good, does not necessarily mean the son will be good, nor does an evil father necessarily conclude that he will have an evil son, neither will we inherit the sins of our ancestors, "The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son's iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself." "When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity and dies because of it, for his iniquity which he has committed he will die. Again, when a wicked man turns away from his wickedness which he has committed, and practices justice and righteousness, he will save his life. Because he considered and turned away from all his transgressions, which he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die. But the house of Israel says, 'The way of the Lord is not right.' Are My ways not right, O house of Israel? Is it not your ways that are not right?" (Ezekiel 18:20 & 26-29). Are you listening to what He says, or following the ways of man. Let us listen with open ears for life eternal!