Have you ever pondered the depths of God's mercy, even in the darkest historical chapters? Our latest episode casts light on such profound forgiveness through the story of Manasseh in 2 Kings 21. It's a gripping tale that not only examines the severe consequences of idolatry and sin but also magnifies the relentless compassion of the Lord towards His people. We journey through the tumultuous period of Judah's history, scrutinizing the actions of one of its most notorious kings and uncovering the immutable hope found in divine mercy. As we reconcile the downfall of Israel and its exile, the narrative beckons us to appreciate the boundless grace available to all, even those who stray farthest from the path.
Navigating the intricate dance between justice and mercy, this episode brings a fresh perspective on showing grace in a world quick to judge. The tension between our craving for personal clemency and the hastiness to cast stones at others is laid bare, inviting listeners to reflect on this dichotomy. Through heartfelt prayer and discussion, we express our gratitude for God's leniency and foster a desire to mirror such mercy in our interactions. The episode concludes with an inspiring recount of Elisha's story, a testament to the invisible yet unwavering support we receive from above. Prepare to have your heart uplifted and your eyes opened to the ever-present help and mercy that the Lord generously bestows.
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The More You Dig. The More You Find.
Have you ever pondered the depths of God's mercy, even in the darkest historical chapters? Our latest episode casts light on such profound forgiveness through the story of Manasseh in 2 Kings 21. It's a gripping tale that not only examines the severe consequences of idolatry and sin but also magnifies the relentless compassion of the Lord towards His people. We journey through the tumultuous period of Judah's history, scrutinizing the actions of one of its most notorious kings and uncovering the immutable hope found in divine mercy. As we reconcile the downfall of Israel and its exile, the narrative beckons us to appreciate the boundless grace available to all, even those who stray farthest from the path.
Navigating the intricate dance between justice and mercy, this episode brings a fresh perspective on showing grace in a world quick to judge. The tension between our craving for personal clemency and the hastiness to cast stones at others is laid bare, inviting listeners to reflect on this dichotomy. Through heartfelt prayer and discussion, we express our gratitude for God's leniency and foster a desire to mirror such mercy in our interactions. The episode concludes with an inspiring recount of Elisha's story, a testament to the invisible yet unwavering support we receive from above. Prepare to have your heart uplifted and your eyes opened to the ever-present help and mercy that the Lord generously bestows.
SOAP Bible Study Method- https://www.brandoncannon.com/soap/
Bible reading plan- http://www.experiencerlc.com/the-bible/
Free weekly newsletter- https://www.brandoncannon.com/
Social:
Facebook: https://facebook.com/thebrandoncannon
Instagram: https://instagram.com/brandoncannon
Twitter: https://twitter.com/brandoncannon
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theBrandonCannon
The More You Dig. The More You Find.
Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today. 2 Kings 21,. And today's title is the Lord has so Much Mercy. The Lord has so Much Mercy, and we're going to read this chapter today. We're really getting to the end, not just the end of 2 Kings, but they're finally answering the question that we started off with way back in the beginning of 1 Kings, and we're going to talk about that in just a moment, and it's just amazing to see just how much mercy the Lord has, and I hope it fills you with a sense of joy and peace as well. We're going to get into that in just a moment, as always, but if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel. Make sure you're leaving us comments on the YouTube channel. It really does help to see that engagement. It helps a lot of other people as they engage as well with God's Word. Also, make sure you leave us a 5-star review on the podcast.
Speaker 1:I am seeing so many more people that are joining us from Europe right now. That is really crazy to hear and, to let you know, not everybody sounds like me in the United States this is a Southern accent and I love your accent as well if you're from Europe, especially over toward Scotland, ireland, that is amazing and I almost embarrass myself by trying out your accent, not going to do that. But also, we all gather together at the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook, where we come and we read the different devotions every day and it just blesses my soul. It's such an amazing job they're doing over there and they really teach us that the more we dig, the more we find it. What I love is I will share this podcast, but then when you go read them, they have such a different take on it. It's just wonderful and I love it so very much. So make sure you're enjoying all of this, as we are just creating this community together where we gather around God's Word.
Speaker 1:And, speaking of that, if you have your Bibles, you want to open up with me to 2 Kings 21,. This is one of those where we're really beginning to see the really toward the end of the story. And if you've been with us for a while now, what we said was is there's four books of the Bible that really go together in this section, and then there's another two, so it would be a total of six books four that go together on one side and two that go together on the other side. The four that go together is 1st and 2nd Samuel, which we just got through reading not long ago, and then 1st and 2nd Kings, which we're almost through now. Those kind of can go together because they are answering a question that is this when the nation of Israel was going into captivity, as they've been taken over by their enemies for a long time, god had been telling them how you're going to have to stop what you're doing. If you don't, bad things are coming. And they were like nah, I'm going to keep on doing me. And finally, eventually, they are judged. And, as they are now in captivity, they start asking the question how did we get here? What happened? And it's really that idea of what was it that caused us to be here. Well, that's what 1st and 2nd Samuel and 1st and 2nd Kings is really doing. It's answering the question of how do we get here. And what we are seeing right here at the end of 2nd Kings is finally the culmination of what happens when you consistently and continually not obey what God is saying.
Speaker 1:And what we're going to see in 2nd Kings 21 is we see one of the worst kings in Israel's excuse me, judah's history. Israel has already fallen. Now there's Judah that's left, and this guy's name is Manasseh. Manasseh is one of the worst kings in Judah's history and he is just a product of all that has come before him, of kings that are consistently not doing what God's calling them to do. And what I love about this and as we're going to read this, it's going to be horrible. I mean Manasseh is a dumpster fire. I mean Manny needs to be stopped, and nobody stops him for quite a while. He ends up becoming a king for a real long time. But one of the things I see when I see this is I want you to read with me and see how much mercy that God has that even though Manny is doing all these horrible things, god doesn't strike him dead in this moment. God has so much mercy and I'll go ahead and give you kind of the ending and that is if God has this much mercy on Manny, the king of Judah, how much mercy does he have for all of us? Are you ready? Let's read this together.
Speaker 1:2nd Kings, chapter 21, verse 1, says this Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king and he reigned in Jerusalem 55 years. His mother was Mispah and he did what was evil in the Lord's sight. Following the detestable practices of the pagan nations that the Lord had driven from the land ahead of the Israelites, he built the pagan shrines his father Hezekiah had destroyed. He constructed altars for Baal and set up an asherapole, just as King Ahab of Israel had done. He also bowed before all the powers of the heavens and worshiped them. He built pagan altars in the temple of the Lord and the Lord played well. The place where the Lord had said my name will remain in Jerusalem forever. He built these altars for all the powers of the heavens in both courtyards of the Lord's temple.
Speaker 1:Manasseh also sacrificed his own son in the fire and he practiced sorcery and divination and he consulted with mediums and psychics. He did mutt. He did much that was evil and the Lord's sight arousing his anger. Manasseh even made a carved image of Asheras, or ash ashura, and set it up in the temple, the very place where the Lord had told David, his and his son Solomon. My name will be honored forever in the temple and in Jerusalem, the city I have chosen among all the tribes of Israel, if the Israelites will be careful to obey my commands, all the laws my servant Moses gave them, I will not send them into exile from this land that I gave their ancestors.
Speaker 1:But the people refused to listen and Manasseh led them to do even more evil. And the pagan nations that the Lord had destroyed when the people of Israel entered the land now pause. Did you just notice all the things that Manasseh is doing beforehand? You would have people who they would let worship continue to Yahweh, that the true God you know God in the temple, but then they would also keep you know the different high places and the other pagan altars and stuff like that. Manasseh is so evil that he not only continues all of that, but he adds even more false gods. And then here's what he does. The Bible said that he actually Added this worship to the temple, so he set up these pagans and things in the temple of the Lord, so he had done the worst of the worst of the worst. No one was more evil than Manasseh, even to the point that he sacrificed his own son to these pagan nations.
Speaker 1:And also you excuse me, sorry, and also what you can see as you kind of back up a little bit remember the holy and holy spirit that he inspired these scribes to grapple with the question how did we get here? How did we? How do we find ourselves in this situation? Well, you can see what they're saying is. The reason why we got here is all the way back in the beginning. The Lord said I will set up my name in Jerusalem and in this temple if you will only obey what I have to say. I want you to be free, but if you don't, justice will come. And as you can see, over hundreds of years the Lord showed great mercy, but instead of that mercy leading people to repentance, it caused them to say, well, I guess God doesn't care. So they continued to become more and more evil all along the way.
Speaker 1:Let's continue in verse 10. The Bible says then the Lord said, through His servants, the prophets King Manessa of Judah has done many detestable things. He is even more wicked than the Amorites who lived in this land before Israel. He has caused the people of Judah to sin with his idols. So this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says I will bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah. At the ears of those who hear about it will tingle with horror. I will judge Jerusalem by the same standard I used for Samaria and the same measure I used for the family of Ahab. I will wipe away from the people of Jerusalem. I will wipe away the people of Jerusalem as one wipes a dish and turns it upside down. I will reject even the remnant of my own people who are left and I will hand them over as plunder for their enemies. And they have done great evil in my sight and have angered me ever since their ancestors came out of Egypt. Manasseh also murdered many innocent people, until Jerusalem was filled from one end to the other with innocent blood. This was in addition to the sin that he had caused the people of Judah to commit, leading them to do evil in the Lord's sight. The rest of the events of Manasseh's reign and everything he did, including the sins he committed, are recorded in the Book of the History of the Kings of Judah. When Manasseh died, he was buried in the palace garden, in the garden of Uzah, and then his son, ammon, became the next king.
Speaker 1:Ammon was 22 years old when he became king. He reigned in Jerusalem two years. His mother was Meshulameth and the daughter of Harus from Jiptah. He did what was evil in the Lord's sight. Just as his father Manasseh had done, he followed the example of his father, worshiping the same idols his father had worshiped. He abandoned the Lord and the God of his ancestors and refused to follow the Lord's ways. Then Ammon's own officials conspired against him and assassinated him in his palace. But the people of the land killed all those who had conspired against the king Ammon and they made his son Josiah the next king. The rest of the events in Ammon's reign and what he did are recorded in the Book of the History of the Kings of Judah. He was buried in his tomb in the Garden of Uzah and his son Josiah became the next king.
Speaker 1:Wow, what a terrible situation. And, as you can see, they're headed further and further down toward where God's going to say hey look, I can't let you do this anymore. And you would think that, because they had watched Israel be destroyed, that that would then give them a clue to say okay, I don't want to be like Israel, so I'm going to do something different. They don't. I wonder if, even more, it made them think well, that was Israel, this is us, we're going to do what we want to do, and we're Judah, so we're going to do whatever. Well, what does that have to do with us today?
Speaker 1:What I want us to remember is this God has so much mercy. It is amazing to realize that God is so full of kindness. Think about times in your life when you weren't close to God, when you sinned or you walked in unforgiveness or whatever it was. Notice how God didn't destroy you, god didn't strike you dead, nothing like that, but instead he had mercy on you. And he constantly is drawing us back to himself.
Speaker 1:The Bible says in Romans, chapter five, verse eight. It says that while we were still sinners, christ died for us. And what fills me with a sense of peace and even maybe, a sense of hope, even when I read such terrible things, is Manasseh was king for 55 years and while he was king he did some pretty terrible things and because of that, the blessing of God was not on him, but God showed him extreme mercy and extreme long suffering and extreme grace. Can I tell you, I love that when that happens in my life, but I don't like it when it happens in the lives of others. I don't know, maybe you're not like me, so you just kind of, you know, polish your halo for a moment.
Speaker 1:But when I see people who claim to be Christians yet they're not living the way Jesus did, and I feel like they're bringing disparity, they're bringing bad on the name of Christ, it bothers me, like I don't like it at all, and I wonder sometimes, god, why don't you judge them? Why don't you do this? Why don't you do that? I want them to be judged, when I want myself to receive mercy. It's amazing how we judge others by their actions, but we judge ourselves by our intentions, and what we have to remember is is that God is so very merciful to me and to my neighbor, and so it teaches me two things as we get ready to our time together. And I'm curious, I want to see in the the comments of our YouTube video and on our our social media posts.
Speaker 1:You know what your takeaway was, but to me, this, this tells me two things. Number one is to be at rest, that God is going to have mercy on me. He isn't interested in how many times I fall. He's interested in how many times I get back up again. Now, that doesn't give me a license to sin. It just gives me freedom to get back up again and to realize God is never going to give up on me. But the second thing is, is it causes me to remember that the same mercy that God shows on me he's also going to show toward everyone else. And so to not think that God's not being fair, to not get impatient when God doesn't judge someone right away, but rather go, thank you, jesus, at the same mercy you extend to them is the same mercy that you extend to me as well. And so now when I look at somebody else and I see them just not being judged for all the horrible things they do, I think about that and I go, man, look at the amount of mercy that God has toward them, and if he has that much mercy on them, he's going to have that mercy on me as well.
Speaker 1:Let's pray together, god. Thank you so much for your mercy and your grace. Thank you, god, that you see us and you know us. You walk with us in every way. I pray you open our eyes, lord, to see that one of the million miracles you do in our lives every day is the amount of mercy you show us, and I pray that will cause us, lord, to then extend it toward others, because you've been so good to us and we thank you for that. Today, in Jesus' name, we pray amen, amen.
Speaker 1:Well, god's word says in 2 Kings, chapter 6, elisha and this young man were surrounded by an enemy army, and God Elisha said this. He said do not be afraid. Elisha told him, for there are more on our side than on theirs. And then Elisha prayed oh Lord, open his eyes and let him see. And the Bible said that God opened the eyes of the young man and all around that army was an entire army of the heavenly hosts ready. My prayer for you is that God will open your eyes so you can see that God is with you more than you realize. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for 2 Kings, chapter 22.