God Moved by Manasseh's Entreaty!

Lord, we look to You. We've got nowhere else to turn. Lord, forgive us.

Lord, forgive me the seasons in my life where I'm so busy in activity and doing so many things, but Lord, we want to grow in learning how to wait upon You by faith. Lord, we want to grow in hearing Your voice. Lord, even hearing from You just to know how to pray as we should.

Lord, we can relate to Romans 8 often. We do not know how to pray as we ought. And we're thankful You've given us Your Spirit that intercedes with us, with groanings that are too deep for words to express.

Lord, we don't want to try to force Your hand in a manipulative way when we pray, but Father, at the same time, we don't want to be told, You have not, because we didn't ask. We weren't persistent. We weren't beating on the door.

And so Lord, that's not a manipulation. That's not something You don't want us to do. You want us to be calling to You day and night that You might hear us.

Lord, I pray You'd answer different prayers that brethren are praying and fasting for this week. Lord, that we would have testimonies even in the near future. Lord, I realize some of these prayers this week will be answered in the years to come.

The faith was given in these days, but the answer comes at a later date. But Lord, I pray You'd give us answered prayers right here, right now, even in these days ahead. Lord, that it would be a testimony, not just to us of Your faithfulness, but Lord, to all the lost, our lost children.

Lord, who hear us praying for different matters and who might have the question enter their mind, well, why hasn't that been answered? Why hasn't that been answered yet? Lord, give them a living testimony that You're the living God. So Lord, I pray You'd even use this sermon right now to stir our faith. I ask this in Jesus' name, Amen.

2 Kings 21. Let's start in verse 1. Manasseh was 12 years old when he began to reign. He reigned 55 years in Jerusalem.

His mother's name was Hephzibah. So Manasseh, if he began to reign at 12 years old, that means his dad died when? When he was 12, right? Well, when Hezekiah, his father, was healed, how many years did the Lord give Hezekiah? Hezekiah sought the Lord and the Lord extended his life. How many years? 15 years.

So after Hezekiah's life was extended, three years into that, he has a son named Manasseh. Verse 2, Manasseh did what was evil in the sight of the Lord according to the despicable practices of the nations, whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. And how did he do these despicable things? He rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah, his father, had destroyed.

So your dad tears all this stuff down, does a reformation, you come back and you rebuild. He erected altars for Baal and made Asherah. And then look who he gets compared to as Ahab.

You do not want to be compared to Ahab. That's one of the worst things possible. It's like being compared to the devil.

As Ahab, king of Israel, had done, and worshiped all the hosts of heaven and he served them. Verse 4, And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, so here's going in the house of the Lord, a place where the Lord says, I'm going to put My name. And he goes in there and he builds altars.

Turns God's house into a shrine for idols. Verse 5, And he built altars for all the hosts of heaven. So not just one little false god.

All the hosts of heaven. In the two courts of the house of the Lord. So Manasseh is, Dad, whatever reformation you did, no, I'm undoing all of this.

I'm undoing all of this. Verse 6, Look how far he goes. And he burned his son as an offering.

So he sacrifices his son to Satan. That's what this guy Manasseh, he sacrifices one of his children. And we'll actually find out it's plural in another place.

He sacrificed multiple of his children to Satan as an offering and used fortune telling and omens and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil on the side of the Lord provoking Him to anger. Verse 7, 2 Kings 21, And the carved image of Asherah that he had made... He's not just taking in these other false gods.

He's making his own. He's making his own. He sat in the house, again, 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 the tribes, I will put My name.

And Manasseh is basically saying, I'm going to put My name there. Right? I made this false god. I made this idol.

I made this statue of Asherah. The Lord says He alone is going to put His name in this place. And he's coming in there and he's saying, nope, I'm going to put myself right here.

Incredible. Verse 8, And the Lord had said, And I will not cause the feet of Israel to wander any more out of the land that I give to their fathers, if only they will be careful 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 did not listen.

Now look at this. And Manasseh led them astray. He's the leader.

He's leading this whole nation astray. To what extent? To do more evil than the nations had done whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel. So Manasseh, what type of leader is he? He's leading the people to out-sin the wicked.

Right? He's taking the first place in leading the entire nation to out-sin the wicked. Just make me think about the topic of sports. You know, people want a scoring title.

They get a certain record and they get a scoring title. Manasseh has a scoring title right here. The kind you don't want to get.

He led his team to out-sin the wicked. Verse 10, And the Lord said by His servants the prophets, Because Manasseh, king of Judah, has committed these abominations and done things more evil than all of the Amorites did who were before him, and has made Judah also to sin with his idols, therefore, as a consequence of that, says the Lord, the God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such disaster that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. Verse 13, I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plumb line of the house of Ahab.

Look at this imagery right here. I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish. Wiping it, turning it upside down.

Isn't that an interesting imagery? I'll tell you, you know what? You might ask your kids to clean a dish and you pick it up later and they've got dirt in the dish. I'll tell you, God cleans a dish. God turns something over and He cleans it out.

It's going to be clean, right? The Lord, when He comes to the judgment, when He wipes one as one wipes a dish, it's not like our kids do it. It's not like a dishwasher that's failing. God's judgments are serious.

Verse 14, And I will forsake the remnant of my heritage and give them into the hand of their enemies. And they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies because they have done what is evil in my sight and have provoked me to anger since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day. Did Manasseh pay attention? The prophets come to him.

Does he pay attention? He does not. Verse 16, Moreover, Manasseh shed very much innocent blood till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another. Besides the sin that he made Judah to sin, so they did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.

Does anyone know historically, who do people say some of the innocent blood Manasseh shed was? Does anyone know historically? You study this historical writings. They say one of the men whom he killed was Isaiah. And in Hebrews 11, it mentions some who by faith were sawn in two.

And so historically, they can't prove this, but historical Jewish tradition says King Manasseh ordered the prophet Isaiah to be sawn in half. Right? That's what you'll find historically. Whether that's true or not, what you have here is he's not paying attention and God is sending prophets to him.

And maybe even, yes, he's sawn in one of them in two. Verse 17, Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh and all that he did and the sin that he committed, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And Manasseh slept with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his house, in the garden of Uzzah, and Ammon his son reigned in his place. Now some of you maybe, you know, remember the first time you're reading your Bible? You get to this chapter and you're reading about this man Manasseh.

And you know what? You get to the end of the chapter, and what have we just seen? We've got a king who brought back evil his father erased. We've got a king who turned the house of God into a shrine for idols. We've got a king who sacrificed his own child to a false god.

We've got a king who planted idols where God's glory alone belonged. By the way, this king should be stoned according to all manner of laws. We've got a king who led his people to out-sin the wicked.

We've got a king who heard clear warnings from the prophets and he paid no attention. We've got a king who filled the city with innocent blood. And we've got a king who ultimately provoked God to flip Jerusalem like a dirty dish and clean it.

I mean, that's pretty severe, right? Is that pretty severe? To me, that's pretty severe. And when I read Manasseh, I'm shocked. This man was wicked.

I mean, he was wicked, wicked, wicked. And you know what? You could finish reading this chapter, and maybe some of you are right now, and you say, boy, it's sure sad to see the most godly man like Hezekiah have his son take such a path. Right? Isn't that sad to see that? This man perished.

He's in hell, right? This guy's in hell, right? Must be in hell. I mean, we just read the chapter. It ends right there.

I mean, this man perished? Did he go to hell? If this is your first time reading through the Bible this year and you read this, that's going to be your conclusion. Is that a right conclusion based on what we just read? Absolutely. Absolutely.

Everything here points to the fact this man died in his sin and is currently under the righteous incognition of God's wrath and eternal torment forever. But I've got really good news this morning, especially if you didn't know what ends up happening to Manasseh. This isn't the end of Manasseh's life.

This isn't the end of the story with Manasseh. Turn to 2 Chronicles 33. Imagine you walk into this art gallery and it's got multiple rooms.

In the first room you're in, there's a painting and it depicts this stormy sea. The waves are towering. There's a tiny boat that's capsized.

The crew is nowhere to be found. And under that painting, it has the phrase, Lost at Sea. Wow, no one survived.

All perished. And then someone comes up to you and you say, no, no, no, go to the next room. Go to the next room.

There's another painting. And in that painting, you find the same sea, the same storm, and now you notice a lifeboat. And you notice a man cleaning to that boat.

You thought everyone perished. But then you look a little later on and you find great encouragement. So that's what we're going to do.

We're going to find history was not finally written right there from what we read in Kings. And brethren, I trust that the same thing is going to be true of different people that you are praying and fasting for this week. It might look really dark.

It might look very gloomy. It might look very hopeless. They might look just like Manasseh.

And that's all you've got. And there's no way. Look at this apostasy.

Look at this rebellion. Look at this fighting God and not paying attention to Him. Look at this willful rejection of the truth and of the light.

There's no hope. And brethren, I hope this will encourage you. What the Lord does with Manasseh, He absolutely can do with the very individuals that we're praying for as a church.

And so I hope this will be a great encouragement to you. 2 Chronicles 33. Verses 1-9 basically share most of the same details.

So let's start in verse 10. The Lord spoke to Manasseh, to his people, but they paid no attention. Therefore, the Lord brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him with chains of bronze, and brought him to Babylon.

And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to Him. Look at this phrase.

And God was moved by his entreaty. You hear that? This wicked man, he cries out to God. And God's moved by that man's prayer.

This man we just read about. All that sin. All that wickedness.

All that rejection of the light. And God, our God, our holy, holy, holy God is moved by that man's prayer. And He heard his plea, and He brought him again to Jerusalem and to His kingdom.

You could have a whole chapter on that. What do you mean He brought him again to Jerusalem? How did that happen? I mean, he's in prison, and now all of a sudden he's back in Jerusalem. Why not give us more? I don't know how that happened.

You know how it happens. How does God kill 185,000 Assyrians? How does Peter escape a prison? I mean, God's ways are so vast. He brought him again to Jerusalem and to His kingdom.

Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God. Okay, is this some superficial type of knowing of God? Verse 14, we find some real repentance in this man's life. Afterward, he built an outer wall for the city of David west of Gihon in the valley, and for the entrance into the fish gate, and carried it around Ophel and raised it to the very great height.

He also put commanders of the army in all fortified cities in Judah. He took away the foreign gods and the idols from the house of the Lord. And all the altars that He built on the mountain of the house of the Lord and in Jerusalem, He threw them outside of the city.

He also restored the altar of the Lord and offered it sacrifices of peace offerings, of thanksgiving. He commanded Judah to serve the Lord, the God of Israel. Wow, what a change in this man's life.

That all the people he led astray, all the people he had a negative, sinful, wicked influence upon in his life, they didn't cry to God. God wasn't moved to help them. They're in the same place.

Look what he says in verse 17. Nevertheless, the people still sacrifice at the high places. It says only to the Lord their God.

But something's being held on to and we find out the next king, Amnon, things aren't that well. And then Josiah comes and Josiah had to destroy a lot. So clearly, stuff is left remaining.

But verse 18, now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, his prayer to his God and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. Behold, they are in the chronicles of the kings of Israel. And his prayer and how God was moved by his entreaty.

And all his sin and his faithlessness and the sites on which he built the high places and set up the Asheron and the images before he humbled himself. Behold, they are written in the chronicles of the seers. So Manasseh slept with his fathers.

They buried him in his house. And Amnon his son reigned in his place. So I know I read a lot of Scripture, but brethren, I want you to see these things for yourself, especially if someone's here and you haven't read these chapters before from the Word of God.

Notice something a little more specific in this account, verse 10. The Lord spoke to Manasseh, and he paid no attention. What passage does that remind you of? There's a passage that talks about God seeking to reprove you and you don't listen.

God seeking to speak to you and you don't listen. It says that in a lot of places, but one of those places is Proverbs 1. This is interesting. Because if I would have read Proverbs 1 before I read about Manasseh, it almost could feel like there's a contradiction here.

Listen to Proverbs 1. You can turn there if you want. Proverbs 1.24, Because I've called, that's the Lord, wisdom, you refuse to listen. I've stretched out My hand.

No one is heeded. Because you've ignored all My counsel, would have none of My reproof. That's Manasseh.

I hope you see that. And what we've read of Manasseh, that's him. God's sending the prophets.

God's sending warnings. He paid no attention. And what's Proverbs 1 say the Lord's going to do when you call? It's obviously not a blanket statement to say every situation, that's how God responds.

I will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when terror strikes you. When terror strikes you like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you, then they will call upon Me and I will not answer.

I mean, Manasseh's got terrors coming upon him as he's taken away into exile. And here Proverbs 1 says, in most cases, God's not going to answer. He's actually going to laugh at the calamity.

He says, you will seek Me diligently, but you will not find Me. And then he gives a reason why. Because you hated knowledge and you did not choose the fear of God.

You would have none of My counsel and you would not turn up My reproof. So I find this amazing. Manasseh calls, even though Proverbs 1 is true of him, and guess what? God was moved by Manasseh's entreaty.

I'm saying that to encourage you, brethren, that part of the point of this, our ability to assess how far gone certain individuals are, how hardened they are, how hopeless they are, God's mercy is so much greater than our ability to figure this out. Who is beyond hope? Why does James keep praying for Matt Haney? Look at what he's done in his life. I'll tell you, brethren, you compare Manasseh and you compare Matt Haney, I'll tell you, Manasseh's a lot more wicked and he's done a lot more harm than Matt.

And if God turned and heard the plea of Manasseh, why can't I have great hope that someone like Matt could turn and God would hear his plea as well and pardon him? So, punishment comes to Manasseh. That's a big factor in this. You know, parents, I mean, one of the things, it's not just parents, but we pray, what's one of the things we pray for people? Lord, do what? Do what? Lord, do whatever it takes.

Are you and I willing to have our child taken captive, led into another nation, humiliated? Are we willing to? Yeah, you know what? I hope we are if it leads to them to be in a distress to where they call upon the only one who can save them. It can be a lot easier to be saved when you don't have plenty and you're suffering in absolute misery. So, punishment comes in verse 11.

Therefore, so notice the connection here, and this is something we should even take as Christians to recognize. The Lord spoke, Manasseh paid no attention, so what's God do? Therefore, the Lord brought upon scourging. Discipline, right? We feel that as Christians, right? There's times the Lord's trying to get a hold of you, Christian, and you're not paying attention.

You don't want to do what the Lord's wanting you to do, and He comes in and He disciplines you as a child. Well, here we've got the Lord lovingly disciplining, or not disciplining, scourging this unbeliever to bring them, like Psalm 107 says, to a place where they're near the gates of death. Because what happens in Psalm 107 when it says they drew near to the gates of death? It then says, then something happened.

They drew near to the gates of death. They were at their wits' end, then what? They cried to the Lord, and He heard them in their distress, and He delivered them from all of their troubles. You see, that's what the Lord does.

The Lord has to do that. It's something we should pray for that to happen. So if you look at what Manasseh went through here, the dish was not wiped clean with a soft cloth.

He got wiped clean with iron chains. It says right here, hooks. Notice that, verse 11.

They captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze. And hooks is plural. We see that word used in Job 41.

Can you draw out Leviathan with a fish hook or press down his tongue with a cord? Can you put a rope in his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook? That's what they were trying to do. They can't do it. That's what they were attempting to do.

They were attempting to get a hook in his jaw, in Leviathan's jaw, and to control him. What do you think happened when that hook went through Manasseh's face? He didn't have armor on his chin or on his ears or whatever part was hooked. In 2 Kings, this is earlier, it says the Lord's message to an Assyrian and he speaks in a way of their own punishment.

He's talking about how the Assyrians punished people. Listen to what he says there. I will put a hook in your nose and a bit in your mouth and I will turn you back from the way you came.

The Lord's using their own punishment. He specifically says a hook in the nose. A hook in the nose.

There's museums that have images and release from this time. One, it shows three prisoners hooked through either their nose or their mouth. And the Assyrian king using ropes to hold the prisoners in place while putting their eyes out with a spear.

And then we read in Amos 4, 2, he'd warned the northern kingdom, the Lord God is sworn by His holiness. Behold, the days are coming upon you when they shall take you away with hooks, even the last of you with fish hooks. So Manasseh had hooks, most likely in his nose and lips or even his ears, and he was dragged like a beast on display and paraded in humiliation before his captors.

Can you imagine the hooks? They're probably biting into the flesh. They're not gently pulling you. Kind of like someone in a fight and the person has earrings on.

You grab the earrings, try to rip the earrings out of their ear or something like that. I'm assuming that's happened in society. Not that I've seen it happen myself.

It's not a gentle thing. The Syrians were fulfilling God's warning in a dramatic, unforgettable way. I mean, what went into Manasseh's mind? Maybe he got hooked around the chin right here.

They cut through right there. And they're yanking you. They got it in the ears.

They're pulling you. Humiliating. It doesn't say his eyes were poked out like others suffered.

What's going through your head? I mean, there you are. The way they planned to catch a Leviathan, they've done that to you. And they're pulling you down this humiliated.

What's going through his mind? What's going through his mind? Perhaps echoes of the temple he desecrated? Perhaps the blood he spilled haunted him? I don't know what went through his mind. I'll tell you, it led him to be in distress. And boy, being in distress, a lost person being in distress is something we pray for.

Right? You want them. It's far better to be in absolute distress and torment of conscience if you're an unbeliever than to just be hunky-dory, everything's a-okay, and there's not a problem in my life. It's far better to not be able to sleep at night than to be able to lay down in bed under the wrath of God with no fear of His judgment.

And so v. 12 tells us he was in distress, meaning a long-continued torture of his conscience. That's one way you could look at it. And this distress led him somewhere.

He entreated the favor of the Lord as God. Notice, who did he seek in his distress? Remember, this guy's got all these other gods. Right? He's made his own little asherah pole and he's put that in the temple and he's put this god over here.

He's got all the gods under the heavens basically. He's worshiping all of them. But you know what? When the going gets tough, who does he call to? The God of his fathers.

Not the carved image of his own hand. I'm telling you, people know the Lord is Lord. You're lost children.

You're lost family members. I mean, when the going gets tough, even the atheists, they end up calling out to the Lord God. They don't call out to Muhammad.

I don't know, is a Catholic going to call out to Mary in the midst of that dire situation? Are they going to recognize no human, no sinful woman is going to be my hope in that great day? He didn't go to Baal. He went to the living God. I think that's the testimony of the power of the conscience of God's power over a man's conscience.

You can't deny the Lord. Romans 1 says, men know it. They see in creation the very power of God.

So the God he paid no attention to, he's now paying attention. Isn't it something the Lord puts some hooks in your face and He takes you away as a prisoner and He strips you of all of your riches and all of your power. And there you are in a total state of humiliation and now you're willing to pay attention to the Lord.

I don't know. Did Manasseh ever, this is one question as I was studying this, did he ever recall how he never would have been born if it wasn't for answered prayer? Manasseh never would have been born if God didn't hear the prayer of his father and give him 15 more years. Remember, he reigned at 12.

His dad had 15 years. If there's no prayer of healing over my dad, I wouldn't have been born. God healed my father.

I don't know. I don't know if that was in his mind. You know what the truth is even if it was? We were just talking the other day about the account where Jesus says even if a man is raised from the dead and he comes and warns you, you still will not believe, right? That shows the hardness of men's hearts.

We need a miracle. It says he humbled himself greatly before the God of his father's. Humbled himself, meaning he owned his sin.

He took God's side against himself. And oh, I wish I could get inside of his mind and see all the thoughts he had and the things he was sensing. I mean, these words, humbled himself, distressed.

I mean, it could be expounded on in a great way. This guy had hours and hours of time to think and wrestle with these things. He humbled himself before God.

And what does the humbled man before God do? He prays to God. He talks to the Lord. And there we've got that astonishing phrase.

I'm telling you, it's an amazing phrase. God was moved by Manasseh's entreaty. See, if that doesn't amaze you, I mean, this wicked man and God was moved.

Amazing. Incredible. Heard his plea and then brought him back again to Jerusalem.

Again, it's like, why leave all that out? And then Manasseh knew the Lord was God. Incredible. And yeah, I take the new to be synonymous with saved.

The same term is used even in places like Jeremiah. They shall all know me. Even in Matthew 7, on that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord.

And it mentions all these works. And he says, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you.

So I take a position, this knowing the Lord and this repentance that followed, this stripping away the idols, that this man was converted. This wasn't some momentary thing. He didn't get back from captivity and go and put another idol in the temple.

He started purging. Right, he bore fruits in keeping with repentance. So let's think for a moment, just this statement, God was moved by his entreaty.

Moved, not stagnant, right? You can feel that, right? I don't know what you guys are praying for this week. Even I was praying, leading to this sermon, just thinking, Lord, there's something I'm praying. If you would answer that before Sunday, as a testimony to your power, that you are God who hears prayer.

And say that doesn't happen. And then you kind of, is God being stagnant? Is He not moving? Brethren, there's so much we don't see. This man's dad is lawn dead at this time when God does this in his life.

Hezekiah didn't see all this taking place. The God of the universe was moved by the cry of Manasseh. Like a firefighter rushing to save someone trapped in a blaze, or a mother running to her child in distress.

God was moved by the prayer of someone who blasphemed His name, who corrupted His temple. Wow. Are you and I moved by the cry of someone who murdered our child? And you hear, that's how our God is.

You crucified the Son of Glory, and yet we cry out and He hears our cry. It's remarkable. The God of mercy, the God of grace.

I mean, this should shock us because of who prayed. A man murdered his own sons. Notice verse 6 right there.

And he burned his sons. That's plural. It's an offering.

A father who murdered his own sons, defiled the temple, rebuilt the idols his father destroyed, worshipped the stars, worshipped the God that he carved. A man who led an entire nation into sin. A man who despised correction and took no correction from the prophets, and even historically is said to have sawn Isaiah in half.

That man, God heard. Do you know anyone in your life who's more wicked than this guy? I can't think of anyone I know right now in my life who I would say they exceed this man in wickedness. And yet, this man, God was moved by his prayer.

See what that tells me? Everyone I'm praying for, it's not a big thing for God to save them. They've not gone too far. And I'd say that for you here today if you're lost, you think my sin is too much, there's no way I can be converted.

I'll tell you, are you more wicked than Manasseh was? I mean, look at his sin. It heaped up to the heavens and he sinned against all manner of light. And God heard him.

Therefore, the conclusion would be you plead to the Lord, you humble yourself, God will hear you too. God was clearly not moved by Manasseh's goodness. He had none.

Or his worthiness. He deserved nothing but wrath. Does this move us? Does it move you to see God merciful? Some people in the world, they hate truths like this, right? The idea that the rapist and the murderer can be forgiven and have their sins cleansed.

The self-righteous people in the world, they hate it. They hate it. Why aren't we going to stone this woman caught in adultery? That's what they deserve.

They deserve death. The self-righteous, they can't enter into the mercy of God. Brethren, I'm thankful.

We can enter into the mercy of God. The grace of God. All this man's past sin, and yet here God is moved by his prayers.

It's remarkable. This should move us. You know what it should move you to do? It should move you straight to this merciful God.

It should move you to this God to ask Him to save those people you think are beyond all hope. It should move you to the Lord to ask Him to show you more of His love and His compassion and mercy. If God listened to one who spilled the prophet's blood, will He not hear those who are bought with the Son's blood? If you've got any doubt, Christian, is God really going to hear me this week? You are bought with the blood of His only Son.

And if God did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? If God hears the prayer of Manasseh, if God was moved by the entreaty of such a wicked blasphemer as this young man, will God not hear you? His elect who cry to Him day and night? He will. He will. I think our problem often is not knowing that God has moved by our entreaties.

It's that we're not moved. We're not moved to pray. We're not moved to believe God.

We're the ones who stay stagnant. Brethren, God is not stagnant. What does it say? The eye of the Lord does what? Goes to and fro throughout the whole earth to look to Him whose way is blameless to Him.

To hear that person. The issue often is us. James 4, draw near to God and He might draw near to you.

What does it say? Draw near to God and He will. God will draw near to you. God will be moved by your cry, O child of God.

Another thing to consider from this, brethren, I think it is right. If you have the faith, pray for hooks to be put in someone's nose. Pray that God would do whatever it takes to save them.

It is far better they get hooks in the nose and they're dragged through the public square than they get cast into the lake of fire where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. And the smoke of the wicked ascend forever and ever in the presence of the Lamb. It's far better they end up in great distress now than eternal distress that has no exits in hell.

Hosea 5, I will return to My place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face. In their distress, they will earnestly seek Me. Who brought distress on Manasseh? God.

How do people end up in great distress? God does it. It's a mercy of God. It's a mercy of God.

It's a judgment of God to not bring distress upon someone's life. Rutherford rightly said on this verse, he said, for the most part, a man does not see himself as guilty in his own eyes until he's like Manasseh, caught in the briars. Just as fire melts the silver portrait of a horse, causing it to lose the features of its head, its feet, its legs, and transforming it into liquid white metal, so too does affliction render a man pliable and ready to take on a new form, whether of a man or something else.

When God applies the rod, the person becomes more malleable, humble, and less attached to their own ways than before. It is also possible that mercies, great deliverances and favors from God soften the heart, preparing it to be worked on by Christ and made receptive to His shapings. So yes, I think we should pray for hooks.

Not if God gives you the faith to pray that. We hear another question. Here's another question from us.

Did anyone pray for Manasseh? Was anyone praying for Manasseh? Yeah. Did Hezekiah pray for Manasseh? Did the people he slaughtered, as they were maybe sawing Isaiah in half, if that actually happened, did he say, forgive him? He knows not what he does. I don't know.

But look at 1 Kings 8. 46. 1 Kings 8. 46. Evan was reading this the other day and pointed it out, and I think it has an application here.

I think you're going to see from what we read rather than this point. Someone in a previous generation might have prayed for you even 200 years ago and it's finding its fulfillment in 2024. That's maybe not what you expect when you pray that it's going to be fulfilled in 200 years.

Yeah, Zach, that made me think about you. The whole family lineage thing. That was one of the points you mentioned.

Knowing who you're related to. What if these righteous people in the past had actually prayed for me and I'm a result of their prayers? So I think this could be a passage that you could argue this from. 1 Kings 8. 46.

This is Solomon and his prayer dedication. If they sin against you, for there is none who does not sin, and you're angry with them, and you give them to an enemy, so they are carried away captive to a land of the enemy far off or near. Yet if they turn their heart in the land to which they have been carried captive, and if they repent and plead with you in the land of their captors, saying, we have sinned and acted perversely and wickedly, if they repent with all their mind, with all their heart, in the land of their enemies who carried them captive, and they pray to you towards their land which you gave to their fathers, the city which you have chosen, and the house that I have built for your name.

Solomon then says, then hear in heaven your dwelling place their prayer and their plea, and maintain their cause, and forgive your people who have sinned against you in all their transgressions that they have committed against you, and grant them compassion in the sight of those who carry them captive that they may have compassion on them. Verse 52, let your eyes be open to the plea of your servant and to the plea of the people of Israel. Give ear to them whenever they call to you.

And brethren, that happened. You fast forward about 200 years. Here you've got Manasseh.

Led captive, and he cries with all his heart. In the very prayer of Solomon, that when they do that, that you will hear, and God heard. God heard Manasseh.

God was moved by Manasseh's plea. And I would add, because God was also moved by Solomon's plea. If Solomon never prayed this in the dedication, would it be different? I don't know.

But the truth is if God's really moved by prayer, which we find He is, then yes, the person who prayed 100 years ago, if they didn't pray what they did, something wouldn't have happened. If we don't believe that, then we're what you would call hyper-Calvinistic. God's just going to do what He's going to do and there's no human means.

Brethren, we don't want to fall into that. And that should make us be moved to pray to the God who's moved by the plea of His people. Just this morning, I was listening to Ian Bounds on Purpose and Prayer last night, and he said something that dealt exactly with this.

So let me read this quote. Prayers are deathless. I thought, what does he mean prayers are deathless? Well, let me explain.

He says, prayers are deathless. The lips that uttered them may be closed in death. The heart that felt them may have ceased to beat, but the prayers live before God.

And God's heart is set on them and prayers outlive the lives of those who uttered them. They outlive a generation. They outlive an age.

They outlive a world. The man is the most immortal who has done the most and the best praying. And I would say, if you're going to test that quote, I'd say, brethren, yes, the very Solomon's prayer and seeing at least one aspect of that being fulfilled in Manasseh 200 years later.

That's just one example. When you and I are praying this week and our prayers are going before the Lord because we have a great high priest whose name is Jesus Christ, who ever lives and pleads and intercedes for us, who for a date, I mean, to him, it's a thousand years. To us.

Who knows what's going to happen to that prayer? When it's going to get answered? How God is processing it? We don't see all of that. So another point here, and I've already kind of mentioned this, but let me state it again. Manasseh's story shows that what might feel like the unpardonable sin often is not.

Is the lost person you're praying for this week someone who grew up with a godly father? Manasseh grew up with a godly father. Is the lost person you're praying for this week someone who murdered two of their own children and sacrificed them to Satan? Manasseh did that. Is the lost person you're praying for this week someone who grew up under the true and living God and ended up making his own gods and worshiping false idols? Manasseh did that.

Is the person you're praying for this week someone who ended up in a leadership position and led an entire nation away into sin? Manasseh did that. I don't know about you, but on all accounts to me, if all I read was the 2 Kings account, totally makes sense this man's in hell. Tell you what doesn't make sense to the human mind is that that man cried and God heard him.

And that's the same thing in that Paul's point. The Lord saved me, the chief of all sinners, to show people His mercy. Manasseh, Paul, guys, we have a merciful God.

We have a God who hears the wickedest of the wicked and the vilest of the vile. It should greatly encourage us. Another thought on this passage, it reminded me of the gospel, not just in the forgiveness, but I actually saw in Manasseh a type of Christ.

And, you know, maybe I'm stretching this, but it hit me as I was thinking about it. I pictured Manasseh there, a wicked man captured by the Assyrians, bound with bronze chains, led with hooks through the city as a public display of his humiliation. I was picturing that.

And you know who came to my mind? The Lord Jesus. Innocent, Son of God, scourged, mocked, crown of thorns, paraded through the streets, carrying His cross, not for any sin of His own. You know what's amazing? As Manasseh was there getting yanked with that chain and that hook in his nose, he couldn't go and think about the Lord Jesus Christ's suffering because Christ had not yet come.

Yet for us, He has, right? The Lord Jesus has already come. There is someone in the midst of our lost loved one's suffering that they've heard of, that they know of as sufferings that they can reflect on, that they can think about. Manasseh knew of no such Savior who would come.

I mean, that would absolutely shock his mind. Imagine telling Manasseh that, yeah, the Messiah's going to come. Well, in a way, he should have known that through prophecies if he understood them.

And that He's going to be crushed and He's going to be mocked. Brethren, Christ suffered and was pulled through those streets and He bore His cross for you and me. It's absolutely incredible.

We've got every reason to come to Christ if you don't know Him. We've got every reason to pray to Christ if you do know Him. Well, I thought I'd share this quote.

It's impacted me this week. It's from Prevailing Prayer by D.L. Moody. Because in all these things, we've got to prevail.

We've got to prevail in prayer. Two Christian ladies whose husbands were unconverted, feeling their husband's great danger, agreed to spend one hour each day in united prayer for their husband's salvation. So one hour a day praying for this one thing.

This continued for seven years. Then they talked. They debated whether they should pray longer because so useless did their prayers appear.

They decided that we will keep praying until we die. Or our husbands die. And if their husbands went to destruction, it would be laden with prayers.

In renewed strength, they prayed three years longer when one of them was awakened in the night by her husband who was in great distress. I'm telling you, distress is a good thing. It's a mercy of God for the unbeliever.

Great distress, for a reason, for their sin, right? I better clarify on that. Distress, if it's not for your sin, then it's not going to do you much good. But great distress for your sin.

As soon as the day dawned, she hastened with joy to tell her praying companion that God was about to answer their prayers. You know what happened? I can't imagine how encouraging this would be to be in this church and hear about this prayer meeting. What was her surprise to meet her friend coming to her on the street with the exact same errand? Thus, 10 years of united, persevering prayer was crowned with the conversion of both of their husbands on the same day.

I tell you, that's God. You know, God, sometimes He answers prayer. He does it in a real dramatic way to stir your faith up.

10 years, and both husbands saved on the same night. Brethren, Elijah, God was moved by his prayers. He prayed for fire, it came down.

Rain. Moses, God was moved by his prayers. He prayed for healing for Miriam.

Moses cried and said, oh God, please heal her, please. That was his prayer. Oh God, please heal her, please.

And God heard him. God was moved. Hezekiah prayed.

He spread it before the Lord. The Lord was moved by his prayers. Add your name to the list.

Put your name in there, not Hezekiah. Put your name. Put what you're praying.

And I'll tell you this, God's moved. God's hearing you, Christian. You might not see that answer for 10 more years, but do not doubt the Lord's hearing of your cry.

Hannah prayed fervently for a child. We've got, that's one of the things we're praying this week. Different women that God would open the womb.

And God heard. It says she was deeply distressed. She prayed to the Lord.

She wept bitterly. She said, I've been pouring out my soul before the Lord. God was moved.

Daniel, the king banned prayer. He got on his knees and he prayed three times a day before his God. God was moved by his prayers.

Jonah prayed from the belly of the fish and God commanded the fish to spit them out. He says, I called in my distress. It's even a Christian.

Oh, we get in distress because of our sin, our rebellion, and we've got to cry out to the Lord. Brethren, it is astounding to me that God would be moved by anyone's prayer. And apart from Christ, there's no way.

Yet even in the old covenant, a wicked man like Manasseh who fulfilled Proverbs 1 in every way possible, and God should have laughed at his calamity. God didn't laugh. God was moved and he forgave that man and he restored him.

I'm telling you, that's the power of our God. A man in total rebellion and God forgives him and restores him to the throne. It's absolutely incredible.

Let's pray. Father, Lord, I've just spoken about Manasseh from Your Word. Lord, this is Your Word.

This is what You gave us. Lord, I've just shared what You've put in Your Word. And now I ask You, Father, a simple prayer.

Lord, give us Manasseh's. Yes, You have. Lord, what You did bringing Jake back, saving him.

Lord, he's just one of those. Maybe You could fit in this thing of Manasseh. Lord, give us more Manasseh's.

Lord, please. I've preached this to Your people, Lord. Show them that You are this God of mercy who is moved by their prayers.

Lord, I'm asking You to do that. And You want us to persevere. Lord, help us to persevere.

Teach us to pray. Lord, that we really would be a praying church all the more in the secret place in this coming year. Lord, that we could say like George Muller and his wife, they prayed three times a day for four months, hours a day for the same thing, and then You've heard them.

Lord, give us that type of perseverance and discipline. And Lord, I pray You would give us Manasseh's again, Father. Lord, I'm praying You give us Matt Haney.

Lord, I'm specifically asking that You'd bring him back, that he'd be in distress, and that he'd cry to You, and he'd see You, the merciful God, be moved for him. Lord, is that a ridiculous request, Father? Lord, I believe it's consistent with Your Word. And so, Lord, in that I have hope.

Be with us now, in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen.