And once again last week we ended with Hosea chapter 12 in verse number 1 about the allegiances that Israel had with Egypt and with Assyria and them going behind the backs of Assyria to Egypt and then ultimately being taken away or going into judgment under Assyria. And then verse 12 that they were chasing after nothing. feeding on the wind, and they were doing it continually. And by the way, I'll give you a little bit of a note, I'll give you the ending. The end of verse number 6, which we'll be covering at the end, shows the exact opposite of what the solution would be to chasing after the wind, continually or daily. The answer would be to continually wait on the Lord. So they were doing the opposite of what they needed to be doing. Instead of trusting in God, they trusted on everything else but the Lord. So we pick it up in verse number 2 this morning. It says the Lord hath, and I'll read through verse number 6. The Lord hath also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways. According to his doings will he recompense him. He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God. Yea, he had power over the angel and prevailed. He wept and made supplication unto him. He found Him in Bethel, and there He spake with us. Even the Lord God of hosts, the Lord is His memorial. Therefore, turn thou to thy God, keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually. And Lord, we just pray that you would just add your blessing to your words this morning, Father, that we may understand more and more your nature and your will to do it all. And we do pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So we saw these different characters that have entered into the narrative. Today, we entered Jacob into the narrative of what was going on with Israel slash Ephraim. And he now uses, or God uses now, the example of Jacob. Remember, Jacob was named what? He was the deceiver. He was the heel grabber. Jacob was a very powerful man and he had success even through his trickery, he prevailed. But yet God is going to show him something about himself where he would turn unto the Lord instead. And that's what we see in Bethel, what happened with him. The people would be facing, because of their disobedience, like Jacob or Israel had, the people would be facing judgment. Now I think of today, can Christians come unto judgment today? They can come unto judgment, not the wrath of God, but they come unto chastisement by the Lord. That's why we enter enter Jacob today. As Jacob, the promises of God were perpetual through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So the punishment that was upon Jacob could only be temporal and not permanent. That's how it is today as well. As Christians, we face the goodness. We also face the severity of God. But yet, through it all, we remain saved. And this is what happens with, ultimately, the nation of Israel, ultimately through the coming of the Messiah. Let's look at it a little bit closer. Verse number 2, the Lord hath also a controversy with Judah. Remember back in chapter 11 verse 12, it says, Ephraim compassed me about with lies in the house of Israel with deceit, but Judah yet ruleth with God and is faithful with the saints. Judas, he ruleth with God, or actually he tramps about in the same power that Jacob had. Jacob was a self-ruled, self-made person who needed the chastisement of God. This is what happened with Judah as well. They ruled with God in this comma, if you move it or get rid of it, we find that God is the one that is faithful with the saints, with the holy ones, the ones that were called out and the tribe of Judah was called out from all the above because why? It was because the Messiah would come through the tribe of Judah If you look at the history of Judah, in the book of Genesis, I was showing something to Heidi, and the other day talking with her, in Genesis chapter 38, we won't go there, it's kind of an aside, we see that Judah had an issue. He had three sons. The first two sons, one was wicked, so God killed him. That's basically what the word says. The second one, because it was the law for ancient Jews that if the husband were to die, the next in line would come and have the life of the older. And they would have children. Well, the second son of Judah, what did he do? He went and he just, he wasted his, he refused to have children with Judah's daughter-in-law. So there was a third son called Shelah, and Judah took things into his own hands, just like his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather did, and Judah, withheld Shelah from going with his daughter-in-law. So what happened, there was nobody left to pass along Judah's inheritance to. So the son-in-law Tamar, is her name, the daughter-in-law rather, Tamar, went and she did something drastic. She went and pretended she was a prostitute. and she went and she disguised herself and Judah who was a man who was a like many men he had passion and everything his wife had died and in a moment of weakness he entered Tamar and he went in and laid with Tamar if you remember the story at all He paid her, but she asked for something in return. She asked for his signet ring. So he gave her that. Then the story got back about this prostitute now being pregnant, and she was going to have twins. And Judah's response is, she needs to be burned. What a response that was. So the servant's bride said, she has this. to have, and she says, this is the signet ring of whoever it was that lay with me. And Judah immediately recognized that it was hers, or his rather, and he was under the condemnation of God. So this ties in with Jacob as well, and also his father and grandfather, Isaac and Abraham. went and Taylor was pregnant with twins. Now, there were two, obviously two twins. The older one was about to be born, and the handmaiden went and put a red string around his wrist when he was coming out, and the second child, Ferris, guess what he did? He went and he pulled the other child back and burst out. So he was named Ferris, one who breaks through So it was the second born, just like his father's family, not the first born. The first one to come out was the older brother, whose name is escaping me right now, but the second brother, Ferris, who would be officially second, because the maid had put the string on the first one. So it would be the second one once again, just like his father and grandfather. the older would serve the younger, and Phares would be the father of Boaz. And we know Boaz redeemed Ruth, so we see this whole string of Gentile women in the line of Christ. But that's an aside, we'll look at that more in detail in another time. So, we see this whole line of things that people took in their own hands. Jacob was a master at doing that. Master working with his mother to deceive his father in tricking Esau and his father, Jacob, Isaac rather. I have to think three times when I get Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their wives mixed up. So he was known for his trickery and his deceit. And now Hosea, or I should say God, goes through a couple of those details. The Lord also has a controversy with Judah. So we see that Judah, even though he was a sinner, the physical Judah was a sinner, did nasty things, and a lot more other things, yet the promise of God would be through Judah that the Messiah would come through him. So that's why Judah is added in here and, look at the rest of verse 2, and will punish Jacob according to his ways. Now this word for punish here is more like chastising them. He would not, because who was the promise to? The promise was through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That seed would have to come through Jacob, through Judah, and right down. So it's not a permanent punishment. But He is there. According to His doings, will He recompense him? He'll pay him back. Hosea goes into the things that Jacob did, but in his life, Jacob was paid back by his father-in-law, or future father-in-law, Laban, who withheld his wife from him for 14 years. He was judged for that, or not judged for that, he had to undergo that, and he patiently waited for his true wife. He meant for that. So look at what he did. He took his brother by the heel in the womb and by his strength he had power with God. Let's go to the story here in Genesis 25 where this happens. Genesis chapter 25, I think we all know the story. Verse number Let's go to verse number 19. It says, And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel, the Syrian, of Paddan-Aram, the sister to Laban, the Syrian. And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren, and the Lord was entreated of him. And Rebekah, his wife, conceived. And the children struggled together within her, and she said, if it be so, why am I thus? And she went to inquire of the Lord." Now this part coming up here, keep your finger on it, we'll go back to it for a second. And the Lord said unto her, two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels. And the one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger." What was Jacob back in Hosea, he said, because of his strength. Right? Now hold on to that for a second. And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. And the first came out red, all over like a hairy garment. And they called his name Esau. And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel, and his name was called Jacob. And Isaac was three score years old when she bare them. And the boys grew, and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field, and Jacob was a plain man dwelling in tents. And Isaac loved Esau because he did eat of his medicine, but Rebekah loved Jacob. Controversy. Always go with what the white says, right? Pay attention to the subtleties in this narrative here. And Jacob sought cottage, and Esau came from the field, and he was faint. And Esau said, Jacob, feed me, I pray thee, with the same red cottage, for I am faint. Therefore was his name called Edom. And Jacob said, sell me this day my birthright. He was up front. Sell me your birthright, Esau. And Esau said, behold, I am at the point to die, and what profit shall this birthright do to me? I'm old anyways, what do I need it for? It's only a birthright. It's only the entire history of humankind, only the history of the world. What do I need with a stupid birthright? Think of that. And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die, and what profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day. And he swore to him, and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils, and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. And let me say this today, Esau still despises his birthright and is an enemy of God to this day. Further on here, Esau does make up with Jacob. You know, Jacob has a meeting with him and Esau doesn't tell him, so that's a good thing that happened then. But still, all those people who were deemed or who thought they were superior to their second born, who were the promised children, they all today remain enemies of God, and surround Judah and Israel today as their enemies. Let's go to a couple verses. Chapter 27. Another story we all know quite well as well. He had his birthright and now his blessing he gives up. And it came to pass, verse number 1, And it came to pass that when Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son and said unto him, My son. And he said unto him, Behold, here am I. And he said, Behold, now I am old, and know not the day of my death. Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver, and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison. and make me savory meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat, that my soul may bless thee before I die." And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son, and Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it. And Rebekah spake unto Jacob her son, saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother, saying, Bring me venison, and make me savory meat, that I may eat, and bless thee before the Lord before my death. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee. Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats, and I will make them a savory meat for thy father, such as he loveth. And thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death.' And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. My father, peradventure, will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver, and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing. And his mother said unto him, upon me be thy curse, my son. Only obey my voice, and go fetch me them. So his mother saying, it's not going to be upon you. I'll take the blame for it. I'll take the blame for doing this. Now when I said hold your finger in a place, let's look back to Genesis 25 verse 23. Look at God telling Her telling Rebekah in verse 23, now think of this now. And the Lord said unto her, two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels, and the one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger. There's the key. God spoke to Rebekah and told this is what was going to happen and her husband Isaac was then disobedient to the word of God and still wanted to bless and give the birthright to Esau. What happened here was Rebecca had listened to the voice of God, she was going between Isaac and the Lord. See, what happened, we don't know how this would have taken place if it would have, but God had said that the younger will serve the older. Jacob would serve that. So as any good meaning woman would do, she thought, oh no, My husband is going against the will of God. We need to do something. She had to step into action and make sure her husband was straightened out. Now, we also see that Jacob was a deceiver. He even said that his father would call him that. And they went and they committed sin by doing what Rebecca believed to be the will of God. How it would have worked out had this historical narrative not taken place? Can we say what would have happened if Rebecca didn't jump into action? Well, we don't know. The Bible doesn't tell us what would have happened. It told us what did happen. And in spite of the sin all around, God would make sure that the second Jacob would rule over Esau. Amen? See how that works out? Even because of the promises, the Abrahamic covenant, even when Isaac tried to mess things up, and Rebekah trying to unmask Isaac's mess up. All of them sinned, but yet the Lord prevailed and His will was done. That's called God's providence and God's sovereignty. That's a picture of all of the nation of Israel, the promised people, the chosen people who continually went against Him, but yet The covenant blessings weren't based on their actions, it was based on the promises of God. How do we tie that in today? We tie that in, you are saved by grace through faith. Nothing else. No other thing can do except for the shed blood of Jesus Christ. That's the only thing. You have believed that message, that you're saved by faith. Guess what? You are grafted in to the seed of Abraham. You belong to Jesus. Here's where I like to sing a cappella here. Now I belong to Jesus. Jesus belongs to me. Not for the, I don't remember the words, not for all the sin that I've done. I think that's how it goes. I never said I could sing, so. Not for the years of time alone, but for eternity. Abraham, Isaac's and Jacob's destiny was sealed. The Messiah would come through them. Even as I pointed out Judah, even in all of his sin, Phares, the second born, would be used in the line of the Messiah. Look at Rahab the harlot being the grandmother of David. All these sinful people, all in the line of the Messiah, all to point out that salvation is from God. So they blew it! So what was the answer? Well, to the Christian that blows it, how many people have ever blown it? Has anybody ever sinned in here? Come on, all hands raise! Everybody, there's not a person on this earth that can claim to never have sinned. But when your sin is severe, you have what's called the chastisement of the Lord. The judgments against Judah were His chastisement for it. We read through the end of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, we see the downfall of that nation, but yet, through it all, God remained faithful. I was reading this morning about King Manasseh. King Manasseh, the longest reigning king of Judah. See, Manasseh was the first king of Judah when there was no Israel. And what did Manasseh do? He was the most wicked king that Judah had ever had. Let's look at him for a second. I wasn't going to go here. Let's go to 2 Chronicles chapter 33. Well, let's go to 2 Kings 21 first. There's two accounts. 2 Kings 21, and Manasseh was not the last of the kings of Judah. The last king by the way was Zedekiah, who actually He was Nebuchadnezzar's uncle and they renamed him Zedekiah. It was kind of an inside job, make him look like a Jew and make him come in this submission to Babylon. But yet, Zedekiah rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar and God's providence. He was taken out and then Nebuchadnezzar was able to take them into captivity. Jerusalem was basically leveled at that time. God said, I am going to wipe Jerusalem like a plate. Reminds me of my dog when she licks the plate. Licks it clean. Wipe it like a plate. There's going to be nothing left. Then we have the 70 years of captivity, and then it was rebuilt, and we have Esther and Zechariah and all the post-captivity prophets and books of the rebuilding of Jerusalem, of the Temple. And then it would get sacked in 70 AD and still not be torn totally down, but yet there will be a new Jerusalem one day. Rest assured, God has promised it. What did they say, 2 Kings 20, 21? 2 Kings 21, and I remind you that the previous chapters before Manasseh dealt with Hezekiah, who was one of the greatest kings of Judah, who brought reforms, who had torn the idols down and brought back the temple sacrifices back, and they say The nut doesn't fall too far away from the tree, but in this case, the nut fell totally away from the tree here with Manasseh. 2 Kings 21. It says Manasseh was 12 years old. There's a problem right there. Imagine a 12-year-old being a king. There were other ones. Josiah was a good king that would come after him, and he was only 9 at the time. Because of course, he took over the kingship after the king before their parent died. So Manasseh was 12 years old when he began to reign and reigned 55 years in Jerusalem. Think of that, 55 years from the time he was 12 until he was 77 years old. He was the king, the longest reigning king of Judah or Israel for that matter. 55 years from the age of 12, and his mother's name was Hepzibah, and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. See, that's basically all you need to know if you go through Chronicles and Kings. You see, such and such did that which was right, such and such did that which was evil. And if we had an election, we would see Judah on one side, Israel on the other side. Judah had only a handful of unrighteous kings who did evil, while Israel, slash Ephraim, it was the opposite. They only had a handful of good kings. So Judah was chosen above Judah. God was faithful to Judah for longer. because they hadn't committed the idolatry that Israel had committed. Did I insert a pregnant pause here and say yet? So Manasseh, and he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord after the abominations of the heathen. Notice he didn't go after Hezekiah, his holy father, he followed after the heathen. whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel." So he had seen Manasseh, when he was a young boy, had seen God taking Israel into captivity, or being wiped out by the Assyrians. He had seen it. What an example that I was for you. My dad, he stood above the world. He followed God. He trusted God. Man, I want to be like my dad. But instead, he was like the heathen around him. Verse number 3, for he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he reared up altars for Baal." Alright, here's where, and I don't know if we'll even get to it, but here's where chapter 5 of Hosea comes into play. Israel had taken, I gotta try not to get ahead of myself too much, Jacob's sin, his deception, would turn into righteousness by God, because he would go back to Bethel, he would wrestle, we haven't gotten to that part, but we will, he would wrestle with the angel, and he would prevail against the angel, and just like Jacob said to his brother, sell me your birthright, he said to the angel, which is pre-incarnate Christ, bless me! And the angel said, here's how I'm going to bless you. You're going to have a memorial to thy name. Basically, that angel said, I am. I am God. And at Bethel, Jacob put up a pillar unto the Lord and Israel would go back to Bethel later, and instead of worshiping the true God, they worship Baal there. So here, I get ahead of myself here, here Manasseh is doing the same thing with Judah. Taking the places which belong to God, and worship to idols instead. He reared up altars, surveilled, and made a grove, as did Ahab, king of Israel, and worshipped all the hosts of heaven, and served them. He would have had Gene Dixon, or one of those people, as a counselor, a spiritual advisor. What are the stars telling me today? He went all out. Manasseh made Ahab look like a king. Manasseh was so wicked. And He built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord said, in Jerusalem will I put My name. And His name is still in Jerusalem. Jerusalem still stands today. But yet, it would be torn down then. God's name will be in Jerusalem. Jesus will sit on the throne of David once again in Jerusalem. Look at verse 6, and he made his son pass through the fire. You ever hear of Anthony Robbins? He's a motivational speaker. One of his attributes is that he can walk on fire. Look how powerful I am. I can walk on fire. I saw a couple weeks ago somebody at one of his courses ended up getting burned severely by walking through the fire. But they use that as a power. Look at how much power I have. Not only did they walk through the fire many times, and they also sacrificed children unto Moloch and Baal and all these gods. Think of the unborn children today being sacrificed unto the God of this age today will food for thought. And He made His Son pass through the fire and observe times. He did the tea leaves, the times. He did everything else except for trusting in the Lord. He used enchantments. He dealt with familiar spirits and wizards. He wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord to provoke Him to anger. And he set a graven image of the grove that he made in the house of which the Lord said to David and to Solomon his son, in this house and in Jerusalem which I have chosen out of all tribes of Israel will I put my name forever. Neither will I make the feet of Israel move any more out of the land which I gave their fathers, only if they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them." Verse 9, but they always have to put that there. If they would only trust me. But they hearken not. And Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel. What power Manasseh had to lure these people. Call him Slick Manasseh. Tricky Manasseh. And the Lord spake by His servants, the prophets, saying, Because Manasseh, king of Judah, hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all the Amorites did which were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols, Therefore, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle. and I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab." Let me stop right there. The book of Amos talks about a plumb line being put in Jerusalem. Here, God is saying, I'm going to extend that line, I'm going to not only destroy Samaria, I'm going to move that line, I'm going to destroy Jerusalem as well. but ultimately God would come to the rescue and save Jerusalem. What verse was I in? 13. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. What a picture that is of how God would thoroughly purge Jerusalem. And I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies, because they have done that which was evil in my sight and have provoked me to anger since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even unto this day. So here, God is saying, it's not just Manasseh, but continually, since it was Me that rescued them out of Egypt, they continually provoke Me. We see that's the testimony of the Old Testament. provocation, rejection of God's will, but yet, He still, He dealt with them, dealt with their sin, but His promises would still stand true. Let's continue here. Moreover, just when you think it can't get any worse, Moreover, Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, beside his sin, wherewith he made Judah to sin, and doing that which was evil in the sight of the Lord. Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all that he did, and his sin that he sinned, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the King of Judah? And Manasseh slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzzah. And Amon his son reigned in his stead." And if we were to go further, Amon just carried on after his father, but then Amon's son Josiah would be the last of the righteous kings. He would reign and rule. He did that which was right and the sight of God. But however, Manasseh, I always call him Manobah, Man Obama, did so much damage to that nation during his 55 years in power that they had gone over the edge. Josiah couldn't do anymore because it was so far gone. culture was gone. They had been decimated and taken over by the Babylonians. They said even Zedekiah King was a Babylonian. He was a puppet king of Nebuchadnezzar, would take over. Let's go over to 2 Chronicles 33 for a second. 2 Chronicles 33, and this is the telling of Manasseh. I think I'll just read the end of it. The first part of it pretty much sums up what we just read. Let's go to 2 Chronicles 33 verses 1-9. Yeah, let's read it. Why not? Let's read 1-9. It's a repetition, but it's good. Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem, but did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, like unto the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down, and he reared up altars for Balaam, and made groves, and worshipped all the hosts of heaven, and served them. after he built altars in the house of the Lord, whereof the Lord had said, In Jerusalem shall my name be forever. And he built altars for all the hosts of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. 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 used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards. He wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. And he set a carved image, 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. Neither will I any more remove the foot of Israel from out of the land of which I have appointed for your fathers, so that 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. So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and to do worse to the heathen whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel. Now I'll slow down and go to verse 10. And the Lord spake to Manasseh and to his people, but they would not hearken. Wherefore, the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon." See, this is what Chronicles doesn't tell you. Chronicles goes into more detail because it's a viewpoint from the priests, where Kings is a viewpoint politically. We see the application here coming up. And when he was in affliction, He besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers." See? Manasseh, the most wicked person in Judah, he was an affliction. He besought the Lord his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed unto him, and he was entreated of him. and heard his supplication and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom, then Manasseh knew that the Lord, He was God. Manasseh, a life of sin, a life of destruction, a life where he was even bound in fetters and greatly wounded, taken into captivity, but yet God met him in his affliction. See, it's not too late. We think it's too late for people around us. Oh, that person will never get saved. That person is so wicked. There's no hope. Let's continue with Manasseh. I gotta repeat the end of 13. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord, he was God. He remembered. the first 11 plus years of his life with his father, Hezekiah. He remembered the goodness and mercy of the Lord. He remembered the testimony of God's Word, of God's Law. And look at what he did. He repented and showed meat, fruit, meat for repentance. Now after this, he built a wall without the city of David on the west side of Gihon in the valley, even to the entering into the fish gate, encompassed about Orpho, and he raised it up a very great height and put captains of war in all the fenced cities of Judah. So he built a wall around Jerusalem to protect it from the enemies around him. And he took away the strange gods and the idol out of the house of the Lord and the altars that he built in the mount of the house of the Lord in Jerusalem and cast them out of the city, threw them over the wall, got rid of them outside of the camp. And He repaired the altar of the Lord and sacrificed thereon peace offerings and thank offerings and commanded Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel." So Manasseh repented. Manasseh got right with God, or I should say, correct me here, God made it right with Manasseh. God showed His mercy. This is going to be a way we'll launch off into next week in Hosea, where we just left off. God showed His mercy to Manasseh. Let's finish through verse 20. Nevertheless, the people did sacrifice still in the high places, yet unto the Lord their God only. See, the people hadn't had a heart change. The people hadn't been converted like Manasseh. They still worshiped their high places. They said, only we're not going to worship Jehovah. We'll worship our own gods. So they didn't have a change. All of Manasseh's evil, though personally he repented and made right on many of the things, yet the people, they had grown up under that idolatry. They would continue in idolatry. As I said, his son Amon would take over, and he would be evil, and Josiah would come in and try to reform the kingdom, but yet, it was too late. God would have to. God would have to take the whole nation, just like they did with Manasseh, He would have to take them into affliction. They would have to go into affliction and there realize and know the God of their fathers. That's what Jesus is waiting on. We're privileged to know Him. We're privileged to know Him because He suffered, bled, and died for us. But yet there is this promise and hope. Remember, Jesus who was from Judah. All those twelve tribes of Israel will be brought back together again. That's what chapters 13 and 14 of Hosea deal with as well. The bringing them back. Jerusalem was judged a few times but never completely destroyed. Because God's name will still be in Jerusalem. Now the rest, verse 18. Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh and his prayer unto his God, and the words of the seers that spake to him in the name of the Lord God of Israel, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel. His prayer also, and how God was entreated of him, and all his sin and his trespass, and the places wherein he built high places. and set up groves and graven images before he was humbled. Behold, they are written among the sayings of the seers. So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house, and Amon, his son, reigned in his stead." You think you've got sin that needs to be dealt with? Look at Manasseh. Look at Manasseh. He looked like he was too far gone to ever have any redemption. And yet, as Christians, again, no show of hands, but all of us fall into sin. Because that's our nature. Don't give me the, I'm a good person thing. I'm an evil person. Don't look at me or anybody else as being good. I'm a wicked, deceitful person. And except the grace of God, we would go on deceiving people and being self-aggrandizing and looking to just further ourselves. But, it was then, in perfect time, God sent His Son in the form of a man. to suffer, bleed, and die on a cross for our sin. Again, if we're saved, we're saved. But yet, the book of Hebrews tells us to lay aside all the weights, all of the sin, all of the burdens. You think you've fallen short of the grace of God? Lay that aside. It's been forgiven. and look to Christ. Christ alone fulfilled everything. If we realize that one thing, we could do without all of the trials and tribulations that are found. But yet, this Old Testament was written so that we would remember. We would remember their great sin. and also our great sin. But the other thing that we remember is God's great deliverance of us. A greater than Moses, a greater than Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob has come right from their loins came Jesus the Christ, the Messiah. who seeks and saves all who are lost. Count me in. I want to just trust the Lord for what He's done. Proverbs chapter 3, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him. Manasseh did it, he acknowledged Him. And He will direct thy paths. Amen? Look for the Lord. If you don't, He's looking for you anyway, so... Amen? Christ shows us His salvation is sufficient. His sanctification is sufficient. And may we just continue, again I didn't get to the end of today's message, but it ends with the quote, waiting on the Lord. Waiting on the Lord isn't just, what are you doing Lord? Waiting on the Lord, the term for wait in the Hebrew means to be bound together. That's not what we do. We're bound together with the Lord. Why? Because He has done it. Not us. We would never decide to bind with the Lord, but He gave His Son to do that. Just like a twine or a rope. When we realize that, We realize we have an inescapable salvation. God's got us. He's in control, and He will have His will done regardless. So it's much easier to follow Him. I said, Rebecca, we don't know what would have happened, but we know God made that promise. What would have happened if they just believed? Amen? That's all we have to do. Just like God told Israel, just believe. Believe and wait. Trust in Him. Amen.