Simply Scripture

[totallylovedbygod]

Welcome to Simply Scripture

What a great joy it is to share with you again. We are in the Old Testament book of 2 Chronicles to study this king who started out bad but like the prodigal son.. came to himself and had a repentant heart. Let us see what we can learn from him. So grab your bible and let's start.. oh go on then.. if you must.. if you are anything like me.. you will also want to grab yourself a cup of tea/coffee or glass of coke and also a little something to eat.. mine is a big muffin with cream before you ask


Repentance To Restoration

Reading 2 Chronicles Ch 33:1-20

We are going to share a few thoughts on Manasseh, one of the Kings of Judah. He has many things to teach us, and in this short chapter is a close-up of what not to do and how to put it right, God's way

Upright upbringing

One of the first things to say is that he had a good upbringing, his father was a godly man, but this does not give him any righteousness, he had to make his own peace with God, not rely on his father's right standing before God .

Are you reliant on your parents faith for salvation?. You have to come to God yourself.. admit you are a sinner and cry out forgiveness

Please look back to chapter 32:24-26, although Hezekiah was a good king, he made mistakes. I wonder if Manasseh saw this and thought, well if my father can do it, maybe I can, we all have to be careful because what we say and do can lead others into sin.

Undoing verses 3-9


Manasseh did several things that caused his Undoing:

His view of what was wrong and evil was not God's view

He looked around at what other nations were doing, so like you and me today, do we look around and take notice of what the world does.

He had no reverence or fear of God

He had no respect for the house of God

He had no respect for the spoken word of God

He had no respect, even for his own family, they were just a tool for him to get his evil way

He had no respect for the story of God's blessing throughout the ages, he thought that was something of no importance

Note that Manasseh's personal sin, took the children of Israel far away from the God that they should be serving. What started out as one man's sin, now corrupted a whole nation.

Utterance verse 10

This is a key verse. How often throughout the Old Testament does God speak to his people. We in the church today like to say how alike we are to the children of Israel, that they are a picture of us. Well from what I read in the Old Testament they were a stiff necked, ungrateful and disobedient people who would not hearken unto the voice of God, that to me seems more like the modern church today.. unwilling and disobedient to God. Have you hearkened unto the voice of God yet?

Usurped verse 11


To finally bring Manasseh and us to our senses, God has to do this, he has to take us away and literally place us in a bad situation to get OUR attention. Note that only after Manasseh had been placed in this situation did he cry out unto God.

Understanding verses 12-13

Please note at what happened, just like the prodigal son, he came to himself.. came to his senses

He looked at his situation, it says in his distress

He looked to God- he sought the Favor of the Lord, His God

He looked at himself- he was humbled by his situation, every ounce of pride came out as he realized that he stood before God and realized who God was.

Another thing to realize is that he forgot completely who he was, in God's sight, although he was born a king, he did not see himself as one, he truly humbled himself and so found favor.

Untie Him verse 13

The liberating power Of God, came upon Manasseh, he was blessed by God and was returned to his kingdom. This is the same with us, when we come to God in repentance. Fellowship with him is restored and all the wounds that we have are healed. When we come to the Lord, GOD is like the father in the story of the prodigal son; making us kings and priests again and placing a royal robe round our shoulders.

You may say.. well God will never have me back and even if he did.. then he wouldn't trust me again.. well I went as far away from the Lord as you can possibly go and yet God restored me and gave me back 7 times as much as I had before.. believe me.. when God forgives.. he forgets and the slate is wiped completely clean.. because of the shed blood of Jesus and true and honest repentance on our part

Unto Him

Verses 14-20

Repentance to God brings forth fruit, now our lives are in the service of the king, and so we seek to:
To bring blessing in to the lives of others, to help them and protect them

To get rid of all things that are not pleasing to the Lord, do we (I), do this

To turn people to worship God alone, to bring to God worthy worship

To tell people of what had happened to Him, and how the God who had restored him, could restore them.

The compassion and Love of the Lord are what speaks to me in verse 13, it is truly a verse that shows the very heart of God towards us, if a parent would receive a prodigal like the father in Luke 15, how much more, will our heavenly father welcome us back when we come back to Him in repentance


Believer if you need to repent, then do it, because God will completely restore, if you are honest with yourself and HIM

Amen

God bless you


Keith

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[Shann]

This was the first time I've done one of your Bible Studies. thank you for taking the time to express your thoughts and interpretations to me. I opened my Bible and had a wonderful session with God. I haven't been able to get to my Bible study on a regular basis. This refreshed me and was what I needed. Praise God.
Shann