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Speaker 1: You're listening to the chapter a Day Audio Bible. I'm
Speaker 1: John Stangi, and today we're in Second King's Chapter twenty one,
Speaker 1: and we'll be reading from the message. Manassa was twelve
Speaker 1: years old when he became king. He ruled for fifty
Speaker 1: five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hefseiba. In
Speaker 1: God's judgment, he was a bad king, an evil king.
Speaker 1: He reintroduced all the moral rot and spiritual corruption that
Speaker 1: had been scoured from the country when God dispossessed the
Speaker 1: pagan nations. In favor of the children of Israel. He
Speaker 1: rebuilt all the sex and religion shrines that his father
Speaker 1: Hezekiah had torn down, and he built altars and phallic
Speaker 1: images for the sex god Bail and sex goddess Ashira,
Speaker 1: exactly what a has king of Israel had done. He
Speaker 1: worshiped the cosmic powers, taking orders from the constellations. He
Speaker 1: even built these altars in the Temple of God, the
Speaker 1: very Jerusalem Temple dedicated exclusively by God's decree. In Jerusalem,
Speaker 1: I place my name to God's name, and he built
Speaker 1: shrines to the cosmic powers and placed them in both
Speaker 1: courtyards of the Temple of God. He burned his own
Speaker 1: son in a sacrificial offering. He practiced black magic and
Speaker 1: fortune telling. He held seances and consulted spirits from the underworld.
Speaker 1: Much evil in God's judgment, a career in evil, and
Speaker 1: God was angry. As a last straw, he placed the
Speaker 1: carved image of the sex goddess Ashira in the Temple
Speaker 1: of God. Of flags and provocative violation of God's well
Speaker 1: known statement to both David and Solomon. In this temple
Speaker 1: and in this city, Jerusalem, my choice out of all
Speaker 1: the tribes of Israel, I place my name exclusively and forever.
Speaker 1: Never again will I let my people Israel wander off
Speaker 1: from this land I gave to their ancestors. But here's
Speaker 1: the condition. They must keep everything I've commanded in the
Speaker 1: instructions my servant Moses passed on to them. But the
Speaker 1: people didn't listen. Manassa led them off the beaten path
Speaker 1: into practices of evil, even exceeding the evil of the
Speaker 1: pagan nations that God had earlier destroyed. God thoroughly fed
Speaker 1: up sent word through his servants the prophets, because manassa
Speaker 1: king of Judah, has committed these outrageous sins, eclipsing the
Speaker 1: sin performance of the Amorites before him, setting no records
Speaker 1: in evil, using foul idols to debase Judah into a
Speaker 1: nation of sinners. This is my judgment, God's verdict. I,
Speaker 1: the God of Israel, will visit catastrophe on Jerusalem and Judah,
Speaker 1: a doom so terrible that when people hear of it,
Speaker 1: they'll shake their heads in disbelief, saying I can't believe it.
Speaker 1: I'll visit the fate of Samaria on Jerusalem, a rerun
Speaker 1: of Ahab's doom. I'll wipe out Jerusalem as you would
Speaker 1: wipe out a dish, wiping it out and turning it
Speaker 1: over to dry. I'll get rid of what's left of
Speaker 1: my inheritance, dumping them on their enemies. If their enemies
Speaker 1: can salvage anything from them, they're welcome to it. They've
Speaker 1: been nothing but troubled to me from the day their
Speaker 1: ancestors left Egypt until now. They pushed me to my limit.
Speaker 1: I won't put up with their evil any longer. The
Speaker 1: final word on Manasso was that he was an indiscriminate murderer.
Speaker 1: He drenched Jerusalem with the innocent blood of his victims.
Speaker 1: That's on top of all the sins in which he
Speaker 1: involved his people. As far as God was concerned, he
Speaker 1: turned them into a nation of sinners. The rest of
Speaker 1: the life and times of Manassa, everything he did in
Speaker 1: his sorry record of sin is written in the chronicles
Speaker 1: of the Kings of Judah. Manassa died and joined his ancestors.
Speaker 1: He was buried in the palace garden, the garden of Uza.
Speaker 1: His son, Ammon became the next king. Ammon was twenty
Speaker 1: two years old when he became king. He was king
Speaker 1: for two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Mischulimeth,
Speaker 1: the daughter of Harah's. She was from Jatpa. In God's opinion,
Speaker 1: he lived in evil life, just like his father Manassa.
Speaker 1: He followed in the footsteps of his father, serving and
Speaker 1: worshiping the same vowel gods his father had served. He
Speaker 1: totally deserted the God of his ancestors, and he did
Speaker 1: not live God's way. Amin's servants revolted and assassinated him,
Speaker 1: killing the king right in his own palace. But the
Speaker 1: people in their turn, killed the conspirators against King Amin,
Speaker 1: and then crowned Josiah, Ammon's son as king. The rest
Speaker 1: of the life and times of Amin is written in
Speaker 1: the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. They buried Amin
Speaker 1: in his burial plot in the garden of Uza. His
Speaker 1: son Josiah became the next king. Let's pray, Lord, we
Speaker 1: thank you for your word, and we thank you for
Speaker 1: the privilege of being able to look at it today.
Speaker 1: And we pray Lord that as we look at this
Speaker 1: chapter of scripture, that you would speak to our conscience,
Speaker 1: that you would help us to be people who obey you,
Speaker 1: that we would be people who are sensitive to your leading,
Speaker 1: that the God of this world, the things of temptation,
Speaker 1: the things that can present themselves as idols in our lives,
Speaker 1: would not be the things that our hearts bow to.
Speaker 1: We pray Lord, that we would bow in worship to
Speaker 1: your son, Jesus Christ, who is our Savior, who is
Speaker 1: our Lord, who is our God, who is our King,
Speaker 1: who is the Messiah, who is promised, and who fulfilled
Speaker 1: the teaching of your word and all righteousness. Lord, We
Speaker 1: know that that's not something we could have fulfilled. So
Speaker 1: Christ fulfilled it for us. We see in these kings
Speaker 1: that they broke your word. We see that the people
Speaker 1: broke your word. And if it came down to us
Speaker 1: to try and fulfill the things that you communicated through Moses,
Speaker 1: we couldn't do it. So your son, Jesus Christ, who
Speaker 1: is himself God, one with the Father, one with the Spirit,
Speaker 1: three persons, one God, our Lord, Jesus Christ, came to
Speaker 1: this earth and fulfilled all righteousness for us. And now
Speaker 1: through faith in your Son, we know, Lord that our
Speaker 1: sin is forgiven, and we live forever, and we rejoice
Speaker 1: in the presence of Christ in our lives and the
Speaker 1: righteousness of Christ that's been granted to us. So we
Speaker 1: thank you Lord for these realities, and we pray Lord
Speaker 1: that throughout the course of this day that we would
Speaker 1: walk by faith in You. We love you, Lord, and
Speaker 1: we thank you for all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.