00:00 Why Did PPJ Skip Zephaniah and Zechariah?

01:44 Our Church is Almost 2 Years Old

03:35 Daily Bible Reading: Hezekiah's Siege

09:17 Manasseh's Repentance and Lessons

13:46 Concluding Thoughts and Prayer

14:52 Outro and Podcast Information

Find out more about Compass Bible Church.

Learn more about our Bible Reading Plan.

Questions or Comments? Email us podcast@compassntx.org

Hey everybody.

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Welcome back to another edition

of the Daily Bible Podcast.

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Hi to folks.

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It is Sunday morning, and

we had a question written

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in, because you know what?

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There's two more minor prophets, but

I'm not actually preaching those two

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minor prophets and we're moving on.

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It's, we're doing a message this morning

at First Corinthians chapter 13, and then

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we're jumping into first Peter next week.

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So somebody said, Hey, why?

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Finish out the minor prophets,

I'd love to give you here's my

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doctrinal theological reason why not.

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And really it boils down to this I didn't

necessarily intend to preach all of them.

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I was thinking about, Hey, let's get

a summer series that's gonna be more

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serial, that people can be there for one

and not have to be there for all of them.

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I was always planning when we hit August

to turn the page into the fall and get

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back into kind of a more sustained series.

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That's the way things measured

out and what the way they fit.

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It's not any commentary on whether

or not I like Zef and I or Zechariah.

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I think there's great truths in both

those books and encourage you to

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read them and you will as part of

the daily Bible reading, in fact.

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Zaya is coming up.

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I think just in a few days here

and you'll mind great things

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outta there, but yeah, hopefully

you're not too broken up over it.

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I don't think it's anything that

is monumentally significant,

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but that's the reason why.

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So we're gonna be jumping into

first Peter, starting next week.

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But this morning we're in one Corinthians

chapter 13 talking about what it looks

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like to be a church that God loves.

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So I'm excited to to do that with us.

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And then we will jump into our next

prolonged study, which is gonna be

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the book of one Peter, and that's

gonna be starting next Sunday.

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So it should be great.

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Excited.

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New start, new new Year in a lot of ways.

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We've got the new year in January, but for

at least those of us that have kids still

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at home, it feels like it's a new year.

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As we start the new school year,

everything around us seems to be resetting

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as well, and so we're resetting also.

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And on top of that, we are.

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On the doorstep of year two as a

church August 6th, which is right

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around the corner, only three

days away we'll be celebrating

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our second birthday as a church.

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So that's exciting.

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And yeah, just a lot of fun things.

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In fact, today I believe at

church we've got a back to

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school celebration for our kids.

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So I think after, or no, that's

next week, I believe the 10th.

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The 10th.

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Yeah, August 10th is the back to school.

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So mark your calendar for next Sunday.

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'cause after church next Sunday is gonna

be the Kona Ice truck and we're gonna

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have some celebration just of our kiddos

hitting back into a new school year.

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So make sure that you are there for that.

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So that should be a fun

time of celebration as well.

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So August 10th, celebrating back to

school for our kids men and we'll have

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the Kona Ice Trek back out there again.

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The year is speeding right along.

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It really is.

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It really is.

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In fact, I don't follow it and I

probably should, but there's a Twitter

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account that will, all it does is

every day it gives you a different.

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Graphic of the progression of the year.

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So it's like the loading bar

like you used to get in websites

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and stuff that you would be able

to watch through the website.

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Slowly load.

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It's like that, but it's for the year.

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That's cool.

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And so you get to see how far along

the year is, as the year goes by.

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If you see it every single day, it

doesn't look like it's progressing

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very much, but if you see it, one

month and then you look at it the next

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month, it's oh man, time has passed.

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So there's an app that I used to use

a while back called the Death Clock.

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Yeah.

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Or the, I forget something like that.

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Yeah.

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Where the apps only function

was that every day it would

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send you a notification.

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Remember, you're gonna die.

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Yeah.

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That's all I did.

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Yeah.

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And it was awesome.

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I had it on my phone for a long

while and then I'm like it's not

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hitting the same way that it used to.

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Yeah.

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I'm still pretty good about thinking about

the fact that I'm gonna die, but probably

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don't need the app to remind me every day.

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Yeah.

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I follow a Twitter account

that does the same thing.

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You might die today that,

that's its tweet one a day.

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Yeah.

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I like the certainty of You will die.

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Yeah, it could be today, but you will die.

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Yeah.

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Memento Mori, is that's what it is.

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I believe.

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The Latin.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Hey, let's jump into

our reading for today.

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We've got some familiar

territory, by the way.

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We've got a couple more

questions coming in.

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We're just saving those,

sprinkling them out.

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So if we didn't get to your question

right now, this morning, look for it

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either tomorrow or the next day on Tuesday

as we're recording these in advance.

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But, yeah.

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Second Chronicles chapter 32 and 33.

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So we're flashing back to

Hezekiah and Sinna rib.

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Sinna.

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Rib is as the chapter opens, laying siege

to Judah and Jerusalem and we talk about

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that word, I don't know if we've ever

really defined it, but to lay siege to

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a city was to basically wait them out.

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There were a couple ways that armies

would do it, and it looks like snack ribs

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method was, he was gonna starve them out.

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He was basically gonna surround the

city, cut off any avenue of supply

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or anything else and they were just

gonna wait it out until Jerusalem

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and the inhabitants would surrender.

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And oftentimes that, that

didn't go well, especially for a

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notoriously wicked and evil people

like the Assyrians, they would.

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Decimate entire populations.

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So even as the rap shaka, as

we've read in the past, has said,

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Hey, why don't you surrender to

us things, you're gonna go fine.

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That was just them trying to speed

along their ultimate victory.

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And so that seems what,

what's going on here?

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Other times they would lay what's

called siege ramps, and that would be

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the piling up of dirt and stones to be

able to eventually mount the walls of

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the city and invade the city instead

of waiting them out to begin with.

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But it looks like this time.

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The armies are encamped around

Jerusalem and they are basically

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saying, Hey, we're gonna starve you out.

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We can wait you out.

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And that's why in chapter

32, hezeki does what he does.

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And Hezeki does a lot

of really smart things.

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He redirects the water flow so that his

people are gonna get water and even cuts

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off the water supply from the outside.

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Ass Syrian armies, at least

conveniently, they're not gonna

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be able to get water very easily.

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And Hezekiah ramps up the production of

weapons and shields and everything else.

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But then the best thing that Hezekiah

does is in verses seven through eight, he

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gives them, and it's a Braveheart moment,

he gives them this great rallying speech

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and calls them to trust on the Lord.

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And he says in verse seven, be strong

and courageous and do not be afraid

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or dismayed before the king of Asir

and the whole hoard that's with him.

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For, there are more with us than

with him as an arm of flesh, but

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with us is the Lord our God, to

help us and to fight our battles.

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And so is that, that rallying cry that

Hezekiah gives there to remind his people,

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Hey trust in God and he's gonna need that.

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Because in the rest of chapter 32, the

next I don't know, 10 verses or so Sinna.

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Just comes out in Blasphemes.

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And that's why that's the title there

in the ESV brings God down to blasphemes

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Something, is to take that which is

exalted and to bring it down to, to

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commonplace and even to despise it.

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And that's what Sin Arab does

with Yahweh, he says, is as

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the other nation's god's worst.

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So will the God of Israel

be I can beat anyone that is

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going to come up against me.

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And we know the rest of the story by now.

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We've read it a couple

times in different accounts.

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Hezekiah seeks the Lord.

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The Lord delivers him and spares him.

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The Lord gets the glory for this.

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And then we also find, unfortunately

Hezekiah's pridefulness or

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his proud demeanor towards the

end of his life here as well.

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So chapter 32, a lot

of common ground there.

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Yeah.

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One of the things that's interesting here

is that what Hezekiah says is almost.

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Perfectly identical to what Elijah says

back in two Kings, chapter six, with us

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as an arm of, with him rather, is an arm

of flesh, but with us as the Lord our

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God, to help us and divide our battles.

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Actually verse, I get it here,

verse seven, for there are

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more with us than with him.

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And that's important because God plus

nothing is a majority, no matter what.

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The odds are actually against you.

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Now in this scene with.

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Elijah the scene as the angelic hosts

that are with them, the angelic armies

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that are supporting and supplying their

needs, and ultimately they're the media.

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God is the one who's sending the help.

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So the point here, I think one of the

points among the many is that God is

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always an every time the majority, no

matter what your circumstances are, no

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matter what the enemies are opposing

you whether they're using the fear and

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intimidation tactics that Sinek group

uses, or whether it feels like something

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else, God is always the majority.

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Which is intensely comforting

because that means anything you

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go through, God is aware number

one, and God number two cares.

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He cares about you and he's not gonna let

you go through things that are going to

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ultimately destroy you because God knows

he cares and he's doing what's good for

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you, and also what's good for his glory.

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Now, one of the things that's

interesting about Hezeki, he starts

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really well, he doesn't end well.

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It's sad.

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It's a sad ending actually.

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And I think that should tell us at least

one thing and that thing is simply this.

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Starting strong does not necessarily

guarantee ending strong, even if you have

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a robust testimony, which I think has, AKI

does, has a long lineage of faithfulness.

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And I think what that should do for us

who are older and more mature in our years

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as we've been walking with the Lord is

never to take these victories for granted.

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You're never at a place where you're so

spiritually mature that you are above

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the ability to do something stupid

or to delude yourself into thinking

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that you're better than you are.

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We should always remember that we are

dust and that our ability to make foolish

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decisions and to set ourselves up against

the Lord in his wisdom is always possible.

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Now, ultimately we are grafted

into the vine by God himself.

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We can never lose what

he himself has gained.

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So I'm not talking about our salvation,

but I am talking about our sanctification.

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It is possible, even in mature faith,

faithful believers to do something

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radically stupid such that you tarnish

your entire life in its ministry.

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No.

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Hezekiah still gets a positive

report, but this sad ending is

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a good warning for us to watch

yourself and your doctrine closely.

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Yeah, and that applies corporately too.

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Not just to us as

individuals, but as a church.

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We can have a strong start as a church

and we can be about the right things as a

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church, and yet if we aren't faithful to.

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Continue to be about the right things.

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There are plenty of churches that

started out faithfully that are now

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shells of themselves and celebrating

the things that God hates and have

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lost all of their impact as well.

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Corporately we've gotta be about

the right things, and that's part

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of what we're talking about this

morning in, in the message here out

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of one Corinthians chapter 13 as well.

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The next step is Manas, and we co

I covered Manas yesterday or the

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day before, and Manas is a bad guy.

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He has a resume that's almost as long

as the resume of Josiah has a kind of,

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the good things that they've done it.

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The bad things are Manassas even

to the point of sacrificing his

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children, so forth and so on.

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This guy is an idolater.

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He's wicked, he's evil.

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He defies God, he blasphemes the Lord.

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And yet what's interesting in this

account that we didn't get in the.

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The accountant, second kings is

what we find starting in verse 10.

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And that is man's repentance.

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And so the Lord brings Assyria

again against his people.

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They're still there.

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They're not gone yet.

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They actually capture manassa.

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Manassa is taken captive by

them and that is what leads

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him to this point of humility.

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He humbles himself

greatly before the Lord.

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This is verse 12, and praise to God.

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And God is moved by his ENT treaty,

and here it's his plea and brings him

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again to Jerusalem, into his kingdom.

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And then you'll see that

this is genuine repentance.

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I think because if we

look down in verse 15.

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Says he took away the foreign gods,

the idol from the house of the

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Lord, all the altars that he had

built on the mountain of the house

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of the Lord, and in Jerusalem, and

he threw them outside the city.

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He also restored the altar of

the Lord and offered on its

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sacrifices and peace offerings.

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So it appears that this is a

genuine repentance from him.

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And yet the people are are still

going to ultimately suffer the outcome

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of God's wrath because repentance

does not remove consequences.

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Repentance is called for.

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It's good, it's right, but just

because we repent does not mean that

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God is going to relent completely

of the consequences or the judgment.

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That he's gonna bring

against a certain people.

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And Israel's judgment was sure

at this point with the eventual

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captivity under Babylon and and

Nebuchadnezzar coming through.

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But this is at least a glimpse of Manasses

that we don't get in Second Kings.

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If all you read is Second Kings, you walk

away going, man, Manasses is a loser.

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And he is probably burning in

under God's wrath at this point.

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And yet.

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Second Chronicles holds out at least

some hope that maybe Manasa got a

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right towards the end of his life.

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It's almost the opposite

of Hezekiah here, right?

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I think that's an insightful read and

that's one that I would agree with.

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I think what's interesting

to me is about Manasses turn.

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One of the things that I saw in the

script here, scripture is verse 13 he

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prayed to him, God was moved by his

ENT treaty, heard his plea, brought him

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again to Jerusalem, into his kingdom.

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So God delivers him.

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And notice here, this is the turn for him.

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Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.

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It was not God's judgment that awakened

Manasseh to his relationship to God.

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It was God's kindness, or we might

put it today with our New Testament

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vernacular and say it was God's

grace that led him to repent.

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This sounds similar to Romans two.

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It was God's kindness that is

meant to lead us to repentance.

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I think this is important for us for a

few reasons, but let me just summarize it.

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God's kindness is part of our

message of reconciliation.

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Yes, but can I qualify it a little bit?

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Please do.

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Probably today most people expect that

most people expect a god of kindness.

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A god of love.

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That's probably the most prominent feature

of our Christianity that people would

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know, oh yeah, your god's a God of love.

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God is love.

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They might say in John three 16, God

so loved the world and those are true.

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I think the problem though is that

even though it is God's love and

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his grace, his kindness, that is

what attracts people to himself.

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We can't neglect the fact

that people have to know that

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there is judgment behind that.

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There is a.

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Dark providence to God's

relationship with humanity.

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And that dark providence is his judgment.

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He is not a God of only kindness

and only mercy and only grace.

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He is a God who cares deeply about his

honor, cares deeply about human sin,

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and consequently, he's angry about that.

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So I think it's important that

Manasseh knew that the Lord was God

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because of his grace and kindness.

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But I think it's also important that

there's a background of God is angry at

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sin and you deserve God's just judgment.

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So this is phenomenal.

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I love this.

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But in our context, I think.

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I think both are still necessary.

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Yes, God's love is important and

prominent, but it's also important

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and prominent that God is a God who

hates sin, which they compliment each

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other because it's as we know more

of his hatred for sin and his wrath

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and his justice and his holiness.

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That we appreciate His grace

and his kindness and his

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mercy and his love towards us.

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Absolutely.

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Otherwise, if you're presenting the

gospel to somebody and all you're

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telling them is just how much God loved

them, and God loves them so much and

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he gave Jesus and he loves them, and

he love love, they're gonna sit there

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and say, yeah but why do I need that?

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Yeah why say, I love me too, right?

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Yeah.

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Fantastic.

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That's great.

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I'm glad he loves me.

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Now.

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He can love me while I go do

my own thing over here instead

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of saying, Hey, no you're.

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Jonathan Edwards illustration, you're

the spider dangling from the thread.

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You need his salvation.

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And that's gonna create that

desire to go, I need his kindness.

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I need his love, and I understand it now.

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Let's pray and then we'll be done with

this episode of the Daily Bible Podcast.

332

By the way, there's one more.

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King Amon gets a very

brief treatment here.

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He does what is evil according

to the ways that Manas had

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previously before his turn there.

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Amon does not last long.

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He only.

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Last for two years there in Jerusalem.

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His next step is Jo Josiah.

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But you're gonna have to wait a

couple days for that 'cause we've

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got Nahum coming up tomorrow.

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God, we thank you for your word

and thank you for this time in it.

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We want to be those that finish.

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God, I'm not gonna say we wanna be

like manas 'cause we don't wanna start

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poorly either, but we do want to be

word faithful all the way through.

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We want to be those that appreciate,

like Pastor Rod was just saying

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both your kindness and your

holiness the gravity of sin.

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That we would never forget that,

that we'd never treat you in a

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sense of being overly cavalier with

our assumption that of course God

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loves us because look at who we are.

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I know your love is unmerited.

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Your grace is just that unmerited favor

that's been shown to us, and we wanna

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always be mindful of that and appreciative

of that and to live in response to that.

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And so thank you for these examples,

and help us to learn from them.

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In Jesus name, amen.

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Amen.

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Keep in your bibles.

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Tune in again tomorrow for another

edition of the Daily Bible Podcast.

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See ya.

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Bye.

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Bernard: thanks for listening to another

edition of the Daily Bible Podcast.

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This is a ministry of Compass

Bible Church in north Texas.

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You can find out more information

about our Church at compassntx.org.

364

We would love for you to leave a

review, to rate, or to share this

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podcast on whatever platform you

happen to be listening on, and we will

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catch you again tomorrow for another

edition of the Daily Bible Podcast.

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YEEHAW!