September 23, 2021
Bad to the Core
But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) (Ephesians 2:4-5 NLT)
My beloved child no matter what you are going through right now if you ask God to help you, He will. Even if you are bound in chains of destruction that you caused to come upon yourself cry out to Him – He will come through for you if you ask Him to help you! (Jeremiah 33:3) However, Manasseh led Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem off the beaten path into practices of evil exceeding even the wickedness of the pagan nations that God had earlier destroyed. When God spoke to Manasseh and his people about this, they ignored him. Manasseh had been king of Judah for fifty-five years. He was the most-wicked King they had ever known. During his reign he built altars to Baal, Asheroth worshipped the stars, sacrificed his children to pagan gods, dabbled in fortune-telling, sorcery, mediums, necromancers, made carved idols and placed them in the temple of God and filled Israel with blood from one end to the other. (2 Chronicles 33:10-13 Message) Isaiah the prophet fled from his pursuers and took refuge in a tree and Manasseh ordered the tree sawed in half, and the prophet’s blood spurted out! (Hebrews 11:37) He was evil and wicked to the core.
When you find yourself in a mess – even a mess you created if you will cry out to God, He will have mercy on you. (Psalms 86:5) God directed the leaders of the troops of the king of Assyria to come after Manasseh, and they put a hook in his nose, shackles on his feet and took him to Babylon. (Isaiah 58:9 NLT) Now that he was in trouble he went to his knees and humbled himself before Almighty God asking for help in total repentance before the God of his ancestors! As he prayed, God was touched, and He listened and brought him back to Jerusalem as king. (2 Chronicles 33:13) That convinced Manasseh that God was in control. He was in power then, and He is in control now. God had mercy on the meanest king recorded in the Bible when Manasseh humbled himself in repentance. Wherever you find yourself at this moment even if you are locked up behind physical or invisible bars it’s not too late – if you will call upon the name of the Lord, He will hear you and answer you! (Psalms 91:15) If you repent of your sins and ask Him to help you, He will have mercy on you! It is not because you deserve it – it is because He is a good, merciful Father!
