Biblical History Part 5

 
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Lucifermas

Copied  from the Sermon notes of Pastor Don Elmore

December  4, 2016

Scripture Reading:  Jeremiah 10:1-2   “Hear the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel.Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the sign of heaven: for the heathen are dismayed at them.”

I got underwhelmed on Monday (November 21st) when they began to play Christmas music at my workplace, songs like Jingle Bells, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Silent Night, Noel, White Christmas, etc. Repeatedly they play this Christmas serenade every day, every hour, every minute without ceasing. It will drive me very close to the point of insanity.

This will happen because they will play this mostly secular Christmas music until the second week of January. I thought in my mind that, for sure, there was no way that Christmas was a Christian holiday—it had to be misnamed. Why would the world get so excited about it each year if it was truly a Christian holyday?

Lucifermas should be its correct name, not Christmas. But that couldn’t be correct either, as he never died and never was resurrected. That is the real meaning of a Mass—the death. They are eating the body and drinking the blood obtained from the death of their god.

The hallways at my workplace have Christmas trees placed strategically throughout the building. Why do they put up evergreen trees? The evergreen tree was an ancient symbol of life during winter. Many early Christians were hostile to such practices. The second-century theologian Tertullian condemned those so-called Christians who celebrated the winter festivals or decorated their houses with laurel boughs in honor of the Roman emperor.

Christians have an important decision to make. Either you go along with this pagan-commercialized Roman Catholic holiday, or you forget any such religious celebration and go about a normal day of work or relaxation on December 25th. The Puritans fined any of their settlers who did not work on this day, unless it was the weekly Sabbath day. “Sola Scriptura” was the cry of the Reformers. It should be the cry of all modern-day Christians.

Christmas is the glorification of the Mass of Christ. That is what the Romanists mean by Christ’s mass or Christmas. It is the main mass of all their special masses. It is when the priest says the words that change the wafer into the actual body of Jesus Christ and the wine into the actual blood of the Savior. The congregants of this false church eat and drink the blood of their god. This is forbidden in the Law of the God of Israel!

It is like the pizzagate scandal that has broken out over the past couple of weeks. The child sex trafficking that is rampant in Hollywood, California; Washington D. C., and elsewhere in the United States and in the civilized world. This one was revealed by the WikiLeaks emails that exposed the government, especially the federal government, including the Clinton Foundation, with child sex-trafficking.

What Donald Trump said about Hillary at the Catholic charity dinner just a couple of months ago was revealing. He referred to the popular unbiblical saying “It takes a village to raise a child” by saying that “In Haiti, Hillary has taken a lot of villages,”--reference to the missing 10,000-15,000 children in Haiti that have been put in the pedophile trafficking circles.

WikiLeaks emails exposed many of John Podesta’s emails. John is a non-elected official who is an important person in both president Obama’s and Hillary’s presidential campaigns. He basically helped run them. He served in both of their national campaigns as their manager. He also acted as Chief of Staff for ex-president Bill Clinton.

The code words that were used in his emails make no sense if one reads them in the regular way. In the known homosexual organizations, these words are commonly used and understood. Basically, they are:

Pizza = little girl

Cheese = girl under 4 years old

Hotdog = little boy

Pasta = boy under 4 years old

Ping-Pong = perverted sex

Ice Cream = male prostitute

Sauce = orgy

This scandal is the biggest one in United States history, whether we believe it or not. Whether most Americans ever find out about this scandal, it is occurring right before their very eyes. This is the result of the occult, freemasonry, satanic jewish influence that has produce this bizarre, wild, and very hard to believe lifestyle with all its religious sacrifices and practices.

It even involves ex-president Bill Clinton’s flying over 26 times on and with billionaire Jeffrey Epstein’s jet named “Lolita Express.” Epstein, who spent 13 months in prison and home detention for solicitation and procurement of minors for prostitution, has allegedly had a team of traffickers who procured girls as young as 12 to service his friends on “Orgy Island,” an estate on Epstein’s 72-acre island, called Little St. James, in the U. S. Virgin Islands. Hillary and Huma Abedine also are known to have gone on at least 6 visits to this island.

The locations in the Pizzagate scandal in Washington, D. C. are:

  1. Besta Pizza—with the pedophile symbol for little boys on their logo. It was changed just last week. It is owned by Andrew Kline, a high federal government officer.

  2. Comet Ping-Pong owned by James Alefantis. He is the homosexual lover of another high government official.

  3. Terasol Bistro and Artisan Gallery which has a pedophile symbol on their logo: a small hand inside a larger hand.

  4. Beyond Borders—Charity focused on Haiti funded by the Clinton Foundation.

Besta Pizza—with the pedophile symbol for little boys on their logo. It is owned by Andrew Kline, a high federal government officer.

This is a massive sex-trafficking ring, that involves both President Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and a host of many others, especially many elites in the Democratic Party. This is a major scandal that involves the most powerful and most influential people.

Miley Cyrus, former child star now grown up into a very goofy satanic leader, is obsessed with Pizza.It even involves the Department of Justice. It involves a host of movie, television and singing idols. We must wait and see what happens but Miley Cyrus, former child star now grown up into a very goofy, satanic leader, is obsessed with Pizza. She even dresses in bazaar pizza outfits, has a pizza comforter on her bed, and has Instagramed all kinds of pictures of her and pizza. Pray that our Father will send the men to reveal this scandal and convict each participant. To the right is one such picture of her and pizza which you can see in her Instagram’s.

One of the initial disturbing finds in this collaborative investigation was the “art performance” of “Spirit Cooking,” that has been enjoyed by the Podesta brothers, Alefantis, and even the Clintons. “Spirit Cooking” is the performance of the witch, Marina Abramovic, and is “inspired” by occult sacrament ritual stemming from Aleister Crowley’s doctrine which has been loosely categorized as “sex magick,”. This sacramental aspect is the consideration of human bodily fluids being charged with a specified metaphysical energy. Abramovic is close to entertainers like Lady GaGa, Jay-Z, Beyonce.

It just goes on and on. Many of the top celebrities, such as movie stars, television artists, political big-wigs, athletes, CEO’s, etc. are involved in this anti-god movement. What should we expect when they reject the God of the Bible? Perversions are just getting more and more obscene. True Israelites are joining the other races of the earth in serving the god(s) of the heathen.

Is Barry Soetoro gay? Is he married to Michael Obama, a transgendered person? Are their children not theirs, but are Martin Nesbitt and Anita Blanchard the real parents of Sasha and Malia? Have you ever seen a picture of a pregnant Michael (Michelle) Obama?

America is in the midst of a major sin problem. If we ever knew the whole story it would put many of us Israelites immediately on our knees and cry out to our God for help!

One wonders if it has ever occurred before. Well, it has. Where do you think that it has occurred previously? One place was in the ancient kingdom of Judah --the ancient kingdom of Judah! God’s covenant people acted like this before? How could that happen? Weren’t they the people who were once the citizens of a nation that was ruled by God. And even after they demanded to have a king like the other nations, why would they sink to such a low level of behavior? But they did.

Our study this week is found in 2 Kings 21 and 2 Chronicles 33:1-20. We will study the verses in the latter reference.  

2 Chronicles 33:1-2

1)Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem;

2)  But he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, like unto the abominations of the nations, whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.”

Who was Manasseh’s father? Was he a good or an evil king? Would it surprise you if he were one of the best kings who ever reigned in Judah? It was Hezekiah. And it was the LORD who saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, by destroying completely in one night the most powerful army in the world. Hezekiah was a good friend of Isaiah the prophet, whom he asked for help on several occasions. Hezekiah instituted several reforms in Israel and was a good king. In fact, he was one of Judah’s best kings.

During Hezekiah’s time, the House of Israel had been taken captive first by the Syrians, then later the Assyrians. The Assyrians also took captive most of the House of Judah. They captured 22 fortified cities in the territory of the House of Judah. All that remained was the capital city of Jerusalem. The Assyrians surrounded the city, boycotting it, letting nothing or no one enter or leave. They were waiting for the people to eventually starve to death or waiting for them to make their dash past their army in their effort to stay alive. Judah had very little chance of survival. The Kingdom of God was about to be destroyed.

The House of Israel existed no more as a nation. It had been already taken into captivity. Most of the House of Judah was in captivity too. Only Jerusalem was left. But Hezekiah asked Isaiah for help. And they prayed together about this helpless situation that they were in.

The only thing that could save them happened: God intervened and demonstrated his mercy upon Judah (Hosea 1). After hearing their prayers, the LORD sent one of His angels, who cut off the mighty men of valor and the leaders and captain in the camp of the king of Assyria.

There was confusion in the camp, and in the one night 185,000 Assyrian soldiers lay on the ground dead. The House of Judah was saved. And the army of Judah didn’t kill any of the Assyrian’s troops. The God of Israel had saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, and from the hand of all others and guided them on every side (2 Chronicles 32:22). Wouldn’t that be great if it happened again?

Shortly after this miraculous victory, Hezekiah dies and his son, Manasseh takes over the throne. So, what happened to this son of Hezekiah? The Bible doesn’t give us the details. It just tells us that he came to the throne at the age of 12. Bible scholars believe that he shared a ten-year co-regency with his godly father, King Hezekiah, so he would have been 22 when his father died. Just a few years after Judah was spared from complete annihilation, the kingdom had completely forgotten what their God had accomplished and began serving other foreign gods.

Despite his father’s godly example, Manasseh quickly turned the kingdom from a spiritual high to a spiritual low described as being more evil than the pagan nations had been committing when Israel had dispossessed them from the land. Manasseh was one of the worst kings in Judah’s history, maybe the very worst. He committed sins that were worse than many of the mongrel nations that God had put out of the land for their sins.

How forgetful could the covenant people of God be? God had just performed a mighty miracle on their behalf and then in less than a few years they are serving another god or gods! But there were few Bibles available back then. They had to be handwritten as there were no printing presses or computers to type them out. In fact, the Bible says that at one time they even lost the few Bibles that they had.

And, of course, they only had part of the Old Testament. Now the Old Testament wasn’t completed and the New Testament was several centuries from even happening. They had to hear it hear it from the priest who read it to them.

Whatever the reason, Judah had forgotten the God who had intervened and saved their kingdom. The son of Hezekiah, the king, was either influenced by the wrong people or did not believe what his father had taught, or both. He immediately began the worship of false gods, even Baal worship.

2 Chronicles 33:3-9

3) “For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father, had broken down, and he reared up altars for Baalim, and made idols and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served them.

4) And he 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) And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom; also, he observed times, and used enchantments, and practiced sorcery, and dealt with a medium, and with wizards; he wrought much evil in the sight of the LORD to provoke him to anger.

7) And he set a carved imager, 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 before all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name forever;

8) Neither will I any more remove the foot of Israel from out of the land which I have appointed for your fathers if only they will take heed 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 made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than the nations, whom the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel.

What a turnaround from the father, Hezekiah, to his son, Manasseh. Manasseh in contradiction to the good example and good education his father gave him, completely abandoned all that he was taught and established a lifestyle that was counter to the ways of God.  Manasseh:

  • Abandoned himself to all impiety

  • Practiced the abominations of the heathen

  • Ruined the established reforms that his father had worked so hard on creating

  • Profaned the house of God with his idolatry

  • Dedicated to the death his children to Moloch

  • Made the devil’s lying oracles his guides and counsellors

  • He gave no regard to the choice God had made of Sion to be his rest forever and Israel to be his covenant people

  • Embraced other gods

  • Debauched his chosen people

  • Made them to do worse than the heathen

What made this even more terrible was the fact that God spoke to Manasseh and his people by His prophets, but they would not listen to them. One would have to wonder how the whole kingdom would follow the son of the righteous king into such a dark, satanic life style. Killing their own sons by burning them in the fire of Molech, participating in drugs and magic, dealing with wizards, repeating enchantments, putting up false altars in the House of God, etc. became common doings in the life of most of the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the surrounding area.

We may admire the grace of God in speaking to them, amidst their obstinancy in turning a deaf ear to him. God constantly sends the warning to His people “to learn not the way of the heathen.” Their culture is not my culture. We are to stay away from it. Is he sending anyone to us telling us the same thing, now?

Now from this, let us learn:

  1. That it is no new thing, but a very sad thing, for the children of godly parents to turn aside from the good ways of God in which they have been trained. Parents may give many good things to their children, but they cannot give them God’s mercy.

  2. Corruptions in worship are such diseases of the church as it is very apt to relapse into sin again even when they seem to be cured. Beware when you have success, for a great challenge is about to become part of your life.

  3. The god of this world has strangely blinded men’s minds, and has a wonderful power over those that are led captive by him; else he could not draw them from God, their best friend, to depend upon their sworn enemy. Protestants who swear that they hate the Catholic Mass, love to participate annually in gift buying and singing the songs that are related to the Christ’s Mass.

Manasseh combines into one person the most flagrantly offensive sins we can imagine. He sets up the kingdom of Judah in a manner such that they followed the ways of the heathen:

  • He established Baal worship in the temple in Jerusalem

  • He practiced witchcraft, sorcery, and spiritualism

  • He participated in human sacrifice, offering his own sons in the fire to Molech

  • He slaughtered many innocent people, besides his own sons, including many prophets. Many scholars also believe that Manasseh was guilty of the murder of the prophet Isaiah by putting him between two boards like a sandwich and sawing him into from head to toe

  • He caused the city of Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah to do more evil than the nations whom God had destroyed before Israel. He was also the most wicked king in the history of Judah

God was so angry with this most wicked sinner of his time. What should the LORD God of Israel do?

  1. Kill him

  2. Put him in anguish

  3. Torture him

  4. Give him an incurable disease

  5. Have him captured and put into prison, or

  6. Leave him alone?

God knew that He would have to do something drastic to get the king’s attention. So, he put it into the heart of the Assyrian king to put a hook in Manasseh’s nose, bind him with bronze shackles, and drag him to Babylon where he would put him in prison! And that is exactly what the king of Assyria did. So, Manasseh is taken to Babylon where he sits idlily by, locked up, with no kingdom to rule.

2 Chronicles 33:10-13

10) “And the LORD spoke to Manasseh, and his people, but they would not hearken.

11) Wherefore, the LORD brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh in chains, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.

12) And when he was in affliction, he besought the LORD, his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.

13) And prayed unto Him; and he was entreated by Him, and heard his supplications, and brought him again in Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD, he was God.”

What happened to the most wicked of all of Judah’s kings when he was taken in captivity by the king of Assyria and placed in a prison in Babylon? Did the king of Judah plan to eliminate his life of turmoil and make an escape from the prison where he was held? Did he feel that he didn’t deserve to be there because he was innocent and not guilty? No, he didn’t do either of these two options.

Manasseh had to experience great suffering and calamity before he would seek after the God of his fathers. How much suffering he could have saved himself from experiencing if only he would have sought Him earlier! But, he did humble himself now while he was in prison. Manasseh humbled himself greatly before the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

The commander of the Assyrians had defeated Manasseh in battle, overtook him in flight, and carried him into captivity to Babylonia. While the king of Judah lay in affliction he had time for calm reflection, and his prison thoughts happily took a right direction.

He saw, with bitter regret, the evils of his reign, and whatever was the means of opening his eyes:

  • Whether he read the sin of apostasy as the justification for his punishment, or

  • He traced the debased condition of the heathen in the great northern empire, or

  • He believed that his prison sentence was right and correct,

His views were entirely altered. He humbled himself at the retrospect, and he besought the LORD to release him from prison, that he might enjoy an opportunity of repairing, as far as possible, the ills that he had previously done.

His prayer was heard, even though it had a few mistakes in it. God looks at the heart, and, after a duress of nearly two years, his heart was changed. He was restored to his kingdom and throne at Jerusalem as an Assyrian vassal, such as his grandfather Ahaz, and his father Hezekiah, in the beginning of his reign, had been.

In thus restoring Manasseh, the king of Assyria was actuated only by the political motive of having a tributary and defendant province between his own proper kingdom and Egypt, his hereditary enemy. But God, who has in his hands the hearts of all men, overruled the king of Assyria for higher purposes and sent back Manasseh as a new man to govern Judah, which was still to enjoy a season of respite.

Manasseh’s prayer (found in the Apocrypha) portrays God not only as a God of justice but as a God of mercy and forgiveness who can pardon sins and restore a life of a person and of a nation. The prayer is not given in our Bibles, but is only referred to as having been given. Here is his prayer as found in the Apocrypha.

Apocrypha: The Prayer of king Manasseh; Manasseh, Chapter 1

O Lord, Almighty God of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of their righteous seed; who hast made heaven and earth, with all the ornament thereof; who hast bound the sea by the word of thy commandment; who hast shut up the deep, and sealed it by thy terrible and glorious name; whom all men fear, and tremble before thy power; for the majesty of thy glory cannot be borne, and thine angry threatening toward sinners is importable: but thy merciful promise is unmeasurable and unsearchable; for thou art the most high Lord, of great compassion, longsuffering, very merciful, and repentest of the evils of men.

Thou, O Lord, according to thy great goodness hast promised repentance and forgiveness to them that have sinned against thee: and of thine infinite mercies hast appointed repentance unto sinners, that they may be saved. Thou therefore, O Lord, that art the God of the just, hast not appointed repentance to the just, as to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, which have not sinned against thee; but thou hast appointed repentance unto me that am a sinner: for I have sinned above the number of the sands of the sea.

My transgressions, O Lord, are multiplied: my transgressions are multiplied, and I am not worthy to behold and see the height of heaven for the multitude of mine iniquities. I am bowed down with many iron bands, that I cannot lift up mine head, neither have any release: for I have provoked thy wrath, and done evil before thee: I did not thy will, neither kept I thy commandments: I have set up abominations, and have multiplied offences.

Now therefore I bow the knee of mine heart, beseeching thee of grace. I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned, and I acknowledge mine iniquities: wherefore, I humbly beseech thee, forgive me, O Lord, forgive me, and destroy me not with mine iniquities. Be not angry with me forever, by reserving evil for me; neither condemn me to the lower parts of the earth. For thou art the God, even the God of them that repent; and in me thou wilt shew all thy goodness: for thou wilt save me, that am unworthy, according to thy great mercy.

Therefore, I will praise thee forever all the days of my life: for all the powers of the heavens do praise thee, and thine is the glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

Manasseh had been totally destructive of all that his father had done. For example:

  • Hezekiah had repaired the altar of God; Manasseh ordered its destruction—he desecrated the temple of God.

  • Hezekiah led the people to worship the one and only true God, the LORD God of Israel; Manasseh led the people astray to worship false gods. He even sacrificed his own sons in the fire of Hinnom. He led all the people of Judah astray from God. He practiced sorcery, witchcraft, and all the other wrong ways that are practiced without much thought today.

But after serving two years in prison, Manasseh had changed. There were four things that the Bible says that king Manasseh did to seek the LORD God of his fathers:

  1. Besought God to deliver him from his afflictions

  2. Humbled himself greatly before God

  3. Prayed until God heard him

  4. Made supplications to his God to bring him again to Jerusalem and his remnant kingdom

When God had delivered him from his personal affliction and captivity and had returned him back to his own kingdom, he was a changed man. Manasseh had repented. Manasseh returned to his throne and ruled similarly as his father had ruled.

This is what needs to happen in our nation, especially in our day. What Manasseh did, our last several presidents and their wives did, and senators and representative have too. Sorcery, murder, abortion, worshipped false gods, said enchantments, channeled the dead, practiced sexual perversions, erected idols, dealt with mediums and wizards, and so on, were common practices among them and their people. Would some great affliction cause them to change their opinion and repent? We need to have a humbled, repentive president who desires to do what our God commanded us to do.

  1. One of the first things that a true Christian president would do is to get rid of the usurious Federal Reserve Bank and all the alphabet organizations that go along with that satanic evil. It has made slaves of practically everyone in this nation.

  2. The second thing, would be to eliminate the holidays of the Roman Catholic Church, such as Christ’s Mass and Easter.

  3. The third thing would be to cease the tolerance of all false religions and doctrines. No false temples, shrines and synagogues would be allowed to be built and the ones standing in our nation would be destroyed.

What an uproar that would cause in our nation today in just doing these three things. And there is a lot more to do.

Lily had to work Thanksgiving night at the Mall from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm. I took her to work and then both Randa and I picked her up. We decided to go in, because I didn’t remember the food court because it has been so long since I have been there. I couldn’t find a place to park anywhere near the entrance. I parked across the street at the movie theater. There were more people at the Mall than I have ever seen before. It was crowded.

It would take another miracle, a major miracle. Just like the one that happened in ancient Judah in the days of king Manasseh to get today’s people, who think they are serving Jesus Christ, to eliminate the holiday of Christmas from their lives. A complete change over from serving the gods of the heathen nations to serving the God of Israel.

2 Chronicles 33:14-17

14) “Now after this he built an outer wall for the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entrance of the fish gate, and compassed about Ophel, and raise it up a very great height and put captains of war in all the fortified cities of Judah.

15) And he took away the foreign gods, and the idol out of 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 cast them out of the city.

16) And he repaired the altar of the LORD, and sacrificed on it peace offerings and thank offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel.

17) Nevertheless, the people did sacrifice still in the high places, yet unto the LORD, their God, only.

Manasseh made 10 reforms when he returned from his captivity and humiliation. Manasseh built up his city and his kingdom. He:

  1. Built a high wall outside the city of David on the west side of Gibon and in the valley to the entering in of the fish gate, and compassed about Ophel.

  2. Put captains of war in all the fortified cities.

  3. Eliminated all the strange gods.

  4. Took away the idol that he had made from the temple.

  5. Took away all the altars he had built in the mount of the temple, and in Jerusalem.

  6. Cast the altars out of the city.

  7. Repaired the altar of the LORD.

  8. Sacrificed on the altar of the LORD in the temple.

  9. Commanded the people of his kingdom to serve the LORD God of Israel.

  10. Permitted his people to use high places for making sacrifices to the LORD.

Hezekiah would have been proud of his son. Manasseh who started out his reign destroying everything that Hezekiah, his father, had reformed, now was attempting to do the same thing that his father had done. From being the worst of all of Judah’s kings, Manasseh became one of the best. But it happened at the end of the longest reign in Judah’s history: 55 years.

2 Chronicles 33:18-20

18)Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer unto his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the LORD God of Israel, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel.

19) His prayer also, and how God was entreated by him, and all his sin, and his trespass, and the sites on which he built high places, and set up idols and carved images, before he was humbled; behold, they are written among the saying of the seers.

20) So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house: and Amon, his son, reigned in his stead.”

Manasseh was a changed king. He was a descendant of David and he had repented. But most of the inhabitants of Jerusalem had not. So, it is not surprising that the reforms that Manasseh tried to make were superficial. It is so sad that neither the authority nor example of Manasseh could, then or now, after the long prevalence of the grossest corruptions of heathenism, reestablish order throughout his kingdom in exact conformity to the Law of God.

When Manasseh died, his son, Amon, came to the throne. He reverted to the way of life his father had once lived and later repented of while he was in an Assyrian prison. His son trespassed more and more until he far outstripped his father in the number and variety of idols and images he introduced. He even placed an idol in place of the ark in the holy place in the temple.

Things got so bad in the days of Amon, that a conspiracy gathered against the king and slew him. Then Amon’s own people seized his murderers and, having put them to death, raised the son of the murdered monarch to the throne. Things just got worse and worse. Today’s world just isn’t much different, except for the advanced technology.

The question that we must address is who is the God that we serve? We believe that it is the same covenant God who Judah served for just a short period. The Bible is showing us to not forget Him, as He will not forget us. Wouldn’t it be great if one of our national leaders would have a real experience of repentance just like Manasseh did, and lead our nation back to our God?

Blessed be the LORD God of Israel.

To be continued.