Verse by verse teaching - 2 Kings 21:18 & 2 Chronicles 33:1-12

It's 10.01. We've already lost a minute. Let's turn to 2 Kings. Actually, there are two places I want you to mark in your Bible this morning, so we can go back and forth between them without too much fanfare. The first is the text where we left off last week, and that's 2 Kings chapter 21 and verse 17. And then once you've got that one marked, then find 2 Chronicles chapter 33. Yes, 33. For all who didn't hear, 33. You got it. All right. So it's 2 Kings 21 and then 2 Chronicles 33. And as I told you at the end of last week's lesson, we were about to get into 2 Kings 21 verse 18, where we're going to read about Manasseh's death, and then we move on to the next king. But we're going to pause right here before we let Manasseh die, because we do in fact have some more information about him, and that information is found in 2 Chronicles 33. And if you've been with us very long, you've heard me say several times that the events in 2 Kings and the events in 2 Chronicles are often telling the same story, but just like the Gospels, you'll get more details in one than you may in the other. But that's what we have in this case. And the information that you find in 2 Chronicles 33 is going to change the way you think about Manasseh, I promise you. You may have already read ahead, but it'll change the way you see Manasseh. So let's first read 2 Kings 21 verse 17, and here we go. Glad that you joined us on the Internet if you've just tuned in. "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 kings of Judah?" Now turn to our text for today and for the next few lessons, and that's 2 Chronicles chapter 33. Now I'm going to read the first nine verses of the chapter to show you that it is about the same King Manasseh we've studied in 2 Kings. So I'll read 2 Chronicles 33 verses 1 through 9. "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. Also 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 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, or in this way, Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than the heathen whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel." Alright, so those are, for the most part, those verses tell us the same thing that we learned in 2 Kings 21, and we had a little more detail there that he had his sons pass through the fire and so forth. Now, let's look at verse 10, and this is the part that happens before Manasseh dies, and we wouldn't have gotten this if we would have studied only 2 Kings 21 and just kept moving on. So, verse 10, "And the Lord spake to Manasseh and to his people, but they would not hearken." Now, that is a summary of 2 Kings 21, if you'll flip right back there, and look at verse 12. "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, and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. 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.'" Now, our current text in 2 Chronicles 33, 10 says, "And the Lord spake to Manasseh." After all the evil things Manasseh had done, and after all the evil things he led his people to do, God owed him nothing but justice. That's what he owed him. If Manasseh were to say, "Well, I just want what's coming to me," well, justice was what God owed him. And I promise you Manasseh didn't really want justice. In fact, if a sinner could see what justice looks like, he wouldn't want any part of it. I'm sure glad I didn't get it. Because justice condemns the guilty without any hope of redemption or leniency, probation, parole, none of that. And that's what every sinner deserves is the full weight of justice, the full weight of the law that we've broken. So never tell God that you want him to just give you justice. I'm glad he executed justice on Jesus on my behalf. That's where our justice--because God still had to execute justice. He couldn't just wink and nod and say, "Oh, that's no big deal." No, the law was broken and the price had to be paid. Justice had to be executed. Now here in our text in 2 Chronicles 33, there in verse 10, God is identified as Lord, and it's all caps, all capital letters. And when you see "Lord" in all capital letters, it is from the Hebrew name Jehovah. And Jehovah means the self-existing one. So God has many names by which he is called in the Bible--Elohim, Jehovah, and so forth. Jehovah, Nisan, Jehovah this and Jehovah that name, and they all talk about different attributes that God has. Well, this attribute that comes from the name of Jehovah is that God is self-existing. That means he was never created. So what that does is it flies in the face of a lot of secular theories about how everything got here, doesn't it? Because those who say, "Well, we had a big bang." All right. Well, you don't have to be very religious to ask the question, "Well, who lit the match for the big bang?" If there was a big bang, somebody had to light the match, right? There had to be some kind of matter there. Well, when you realize that God is the self-existing one, that nobody made him, that he always has been, then you will understand more easily that he created all things. He was already here. So he identifies himself here, refers to himself as the self-existing one. So God spoke to Manasseh as the self-existing one, the one who was before Manasseh. The one who was before Manasseh's forefathers even. God existed before man was created in the garden. And none of the false gods that Manasseh worshipped could make that claim. That's the difference. Because none of those false gods created anything. In fact, they were created. So when God speaks to Manasseh as the self-existing one, he is reminding him by his very name, "I'm not like these gods that you created." Remember, we just read a few moments ago about an idol that Manasseh carved. He created that idol. God said, "I'm not like them. I'm Jehovah. I'm the one who is self-existing. Your idols aren't self-existing. You made them. And they're dumb idols. They can't talk. They can't hear. They can't smell. They can't do anything." So Manasseh ought to have listened to the self-existing one, Jehovah, called Lord, here in our text. And look back in verse 10, it says, "And the Lord spake." Or he spoke. That's the past tense of speak. Although speaking includes uttering words like I'm doing right now, it's sometimes translated as the word promise and the word pronounce. So in the case of Manasseh, God promised, or he pronounced, that Manasseh would be delivered into the hands of his enemies as a consequence of disobedience. And the word spake here is used forcefully. He's telling--he's not just uttering these words hoping they come to pass. He's telling them this is what's going to happen. And he did that through the prophets, we know. And it says he spake to Manasseh in your text. Now, although you think about this, God, the creator of all things, of all people, is omnipotent. That means he has all power. He is omniscient. That means he knows everything. When I was a teenager, sometimes I thought I did. My mother would tell me, "Don't be a know-it-all." And I just got all over me because I thought, "Well, Mom, I do know it all." And I didn't really think that, but you know how you were. You were the same way when you were a teenager. You thought you knew more than your parents, and you realized that your parents' brains fully developed when you turned 25. It's amazing, wasn't it? And omnipresent, God is everywhere. There's nowhere that God isn't. And yet, with all of those attributes, God condescended to speak to Manasseh. That's amazing to me. And as we studied, we know he spoke to Manasseh through the prophets. The prophet Isaiah has been the chief prophet we've read about during these times. And he spoke through the prophets, just like he speaks to us today through what the prophets wrote, what the apostles wrote. We don't have a living prophet or a living apostle to give us new revelations from God. Anybody who says they are, that's a fraud, and they've got something else on their agenda, rather than just proclaiming God's Word. And to us, as well as God did to Manasseh, he spake. And when he spake, he proclaimed, he pronounced, he promised what would happen. And when God promises or pronounces, he pronounces truth. He doesn't just say things, pull them out of thin air. He gives truth. And though he speaks to all people through his Word, don't ever forget that he also is speaking to you individually. Don't think, well, God's just speaking to this mass of people, and he doesn't really know I'm in this group. Oh, yes, he speaks to everyone through his Word, but he speaks to you, because the Bible said he spoke to Manasseh. He had a message specifically for Manasseh. And this Word here that we are reading today, that we're studying, this Word is for all the world, but this Word is for me individually, and it's for you individually, just like it was for Manasseh individually. And back in the text it said, "And the Lord spake to Manasseh and to his people." Now this is the converse of what was just said. Although God spoke to Manasseh individually, he also spoke to his people, which is a larger segment of the population than just one man. Sometimes people will say this about the Bible or about a part of the Bible when they want to excuse or explain something away. Maybe they don't like a certain part of it. They don't like that it goes against their lifestyle or what they want to do. And they'll say, "Well, God was speaking to Israel, not us." Hey, when God speaks to Israel, he is speaking to us. He's speaking to every one of us. When he spoke to Manasseh, to Judah, Manasseh's people were included in what God said. They were in the audience. You know, God's Word tells us that he has given his Word to other people for our benefit. Romans 15 verse 4. Romans 15 verse 4. "For whatsoever things were written aforetime," that means back yonder, "were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." So what God wrote through Moses, what he told Israel through Moses thousands of years ago wasn't just written for their learning. It was written for ours too. And so man cannot excuse himself from responsibility for obeying God's Word by saying, "Ha, God didn't write that for me. I wasn't alive back then. This is now." That's foolishness to say that and to believe that. What if Jesus had that attitude when he prayed in John chapter 17? Listen to his prayer to his heavenly Father in John 17. This is verse 6. He said, "I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word." Well, I'm glad he didn't just stop his prayer right there. Because if you go down to verse 9, this is John 17, 9, in that same prayer, he said, "I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine." Now what if he just stopped there? The only ones he prayed for up to this point were the ones God had given him, the ones who had kept his word or obeyed his word. He would have prayed for those who God gave him and those who kept his word, but I'm thankful he kept praying. He prayed not only for those who had already come to faith in him, but also for those who had not yet. This is verses 20 through 21, still John 17, 20 through 21. He said, "Neither pray I for these alone," that is, the ones that God had given him, "but for them also which shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one," that's the ones who've already believed, the ones who are going to believe, "that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." So what he prayed for the Christians then, and for those who would one day become Christians, was the same thing. He prayed for the ones who had believed and the ones that would believe, that we would all be one. There's no difference. When God speaks, he's speaking to everyone who will hear him. So don't ever think, "Well, that was God speaking to them, that's not-- that doesn't apply to me, he's not as interested in me as he was Israel." Yes, he is. And so God spoke to Manasseh and to his people. And then if you look back in verse 10, it says, "But they would not hearken." They would not hear with the attitude of obeying what they heard. That's what "hearken" means. They heard with the ear. John 5, verses 46 through 47. John 5, 46 through 47, Jesus said, "For had you believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote of me. But if you believe not his writings, how shall you believe my words?" Now the unbelieving Jews in Jesus' day heard the words. They read the words. They heard the words they read. The things that Moses wrote. The ones they hung their hat on for their salvation. But they didn't hearken to them. Jesus said if you'd have hearkened to them, in other words, if you'd have believed what you heard, you'd have believed what Moses wrote, then that's different, but you won't believe what he wrote. You're not going to believe what I tell you. And those unbelieving Jews didn't believe either one. They said they believed what Moses wrote, but they didn't really. Because you know what Moses wrote? He wrote the words that Jesus gave him. Those were God's words. Our text says, "They would not hearken." Now let's emphasize that for a moment. They would not hearken. So this was a conscious choice, and it is for you too and me. The words "would" and the word "hearken," the word "would" and the word "hearken" are the same Hebrew word translated. And then you have the Hebrew adverb "not" to show that this was a failure of the Jews to hearken. So when they did not, it's because they would not. It wasn't that they didn't have the capacity to understand God's word. They just didn't want to repent of their sin, their idolatry, and trust in what God's word said. They didn't want to trust in the God who created them. They wanted to trust in the God whom they created. Isn't that the same way it is today? Even if it's not a wooden idol or a gold statue, the God that people created is a God of their own desires, a God of their own making, a God that serves their needs and what they want rather than one who delivers them from their sin and transforms their lives. They didn't want to trust in the God who had delivered them from the hand of their enemies. Isn't that amazing? But now they're in the hands of their enemies. Let's look back in verse 11 in our text. "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." Now if you go back and read 2 Kings 2 verse 14, you'll see that our current verse here--we read that a minute ago-- but our current verse here gives the details of that verse, which says, "Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria." Now you may say, "Wait a minute. I thought Babylon captured or conquered Judah. I thought Assyria was out of the picture by now. Why is Assyria carrying Judah to Babylon?" Remember, when one empire conquers another, the other empires often become servants to the new empire. So the Assyrians were in charge, and well now Babylon's in charge. That doesn't mean the Assyrians have gone away. They've been subjugated, placed under Babylon. Their only other choice is what? Death or imprisonment. So you can either serve your captors, or they can imprison you, or they can just kill you. And many make the choice to go ahead and serve their enemies. So although Babylon was now in power in that part of the world, Assyria served that kingdom, at least temporarily. Otherwise, Assyria would have taken the Jews into Assyria, and it would have said that, I believe. Now back in our text it says, "Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria," and listen to this, "which took Manasseh among the thorns." That is, Assyria took Manasseh among the thorns. Now thorns, that word is sometimes translated as thistles. So whether you hear thorns or thistles, or you'll also hear the word brambles, they're often from the same Hebrew word. So let's learn about what it means that Manasseh was among the thorns, or among the thistles. This is a great spiritual lesson, by the way, to learn about this. Speaking of the Lord's payback for the controversy of Zion, or Israel, listen to what Isaiah the prophet said in Isaiah 34, verses 12 through 13. Isaiah 34, 12 through 13, "They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing. And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles," there's our word for thorns, "nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof, and it shall be a habitation of dragons and a court for owls." So the Hebrew word for thorns in our text is translated as brambles in the Isaiah text. They're the same. And indeed, as Isaiah prophesied, have these thorns and these thistles, these brambles, come up. And that's where Manasseh was taken from. Thorns or brambles are associated with a spiritually barren, empty people, a wicked people. In fact, we go to the book of Job and we get some more insight about the use of this Hebrew word, and here you'll hear it as the word thistles, so listen for that. And it's Job 31, verses 38 through 40. Job 31, verses 38 through 40. "If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain, if I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life, let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley." The words of Job are ended. Now let's think about this for a moment. Why would a king, the king of Judah, hide himself among the thorns? Why not hide himself in the temple? He defiled the temple. There was no refuge for him. Why not hide himself in a pleasant place? Why not hide himself among the wheat? Because spiritually speaking, no wheat grew, only the thorns. And it said they took him from among the thorns. The thorns represent where he was spiritually at this time. The only, and here's your lesson, the only refuge for an unrepentant sinner is in the fruit of his own doings. That's where his refuge is. Job said that if he ate fruit without money, without paying for it, then may God let thistles grow instead of wheat. He said if he had caused the owners of those fruits to lose their lives, then let thistles grow up instead of wheat. The unrepentant sinner has nowhere to hide. And yet Manasseh foolishly hid among the thorns, the thistles, the brambles. All those represented the fruit of his sin. What a pitiful sight that is for a king to hide in the thorns. And just because he hid in the thorns didn't mean he was hidden, did it? The enemy still took him. They took him from among the thorns. Matthew chapter 7 verses 15 through 20. Matthew 7, 15 through 20. Jesus said, "Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. You shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Wherefore, by their fruits ye shall know them." Listen, it's not that Manasseh just picked a bad place to hide. He just started running and all he could find was the thorns. It's not that he picked a bad place to hide, it's that he couldn't have found anywhere else to hide, spiritually speaking, because he cannot bear good fruit. He was an unrepentant unbeliever. And no man could look upon his reign, that 55-year reign, and say what a fruitful king he was. What a wise king he was. By his fruits he was known. And now he cowers in the midst of the fruit he is born, those thorns. And in Hebrews chapter 6 verse 8, Hebrews 6 verse 8, here's the end for such people. "But that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned." And now in our text, what was to be done to Manasseh who was taken from among the thorns? Back in our text, it says at the end of verse 11 about Assyria, "Bound him with fetters." So he was to be bound or imprisoned with fetters. He was to be tied with fetters. Most of the time the word fetters is not even the one that is used to be translated from this Hebrew word. It's the word brass. Now I bet you wouldn't have thought that, would you? Brass. Brass is what these fetters were made of. Brass in the Bible signifies judgment. The brazen altar is where those sacrifices were made. That brazen altar was made of brass. Brazen is just the adjective from the noun brass. Brass could be used as an adjective now. We might say that's a brass such and such, a brass bed. What was to be done with the sin offering in the Old Testament? It was to be killed and its blood was to be poured out there at the brazen altar, the altar of judgment. And it was fitting that Manasseh was imprisoned by brass. That was a judgment. And it said in our text, "And carried him to Babylon." Now Babylon was an evil nation. They had set themselves against God and the people of God. And never would Israel or Judah have gone to Babylon if they had been obedient to the Lord. God would have never let that happen. God would have never delivered them into the hands of their enemies if they'd walked in his statutes and his commandments. But Manasseh was now carried to a place of imprisonment where he no longer had a choice. He had a choice all those years to turn from his wicked ways. He had a choice to obey the prophet Isaiah and the other prophets who warned Israel and Judah. He had a lot of opportunities to choose wisely in his 55 years on the throne, but he chose wickedly. And since he chose wickedly, now he no longer has the power to make choices over his kingdom because he's lost it. So there comes a time when the day of choices is over with, when you're bound and carried away to Babylon, spiritually speaking. Verse 12 in our text now, "And when he was in affliction, he besought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers." Now see, we wouldn't have gotten to see this if we would have just stayed in 2 Kings 21 and not looked at this companion text here to learn about this affliction. It says, "And when he was in affliction," let's look at that for a moment. The Hebrew word for affliction has many other translations, such as the word "enemy," "distress," "vex," "bound up," and so forth. Normally the word "enemy" is used rather than the word "affliction." So we learn something here, don't we? This type of affliction that we're reading about occurs at the hand of our enemies. This vexation, this distress, springs from our adversary because Babylon was an enemy of Judah. And yes, God delivered Manasseh to his enemies, but his enemies were the ones who afflicted Manasseh. And then it says, "When he was in affliction," in our text, "he besought the Lord his God." Now, for 55 years, Manasseh was not in affliction, and he cared nothing about God. Now he's bound in fetters, he's been dispossessed of his throne, he's been carried away to a strange land, and in this condition, in this affliction, he besought the Lord his God. Now, we've heard, if you've been in church very long, you've heard or read the word "beseech." What does it mean? Well, "besought" is just the past tense of the verb "beseech," which we don't use very much. Brother Fulton and I use it in our high society conversations, but we exclude your hearing from that. We don't want you to be tainted by that. The Hebrew word for "beseech"--here's another shocker for you. The Hebrew word for "beseech" is normally translated as the word "sick." Yeah, I didn't know that either. A lot of things I didn't know. That's why I love studying my Bible. I get excited up on that second floor, sitting in that high chair and learning when I'm studying. It's just wonderful. I wish you could be up there with me. It said--it's the word "sick." Now, when a person is sick, he is under bodily affliction. Remember, Manasseh was in affliction here. Let's say this person has the flu. When he has the flu, he usually aches, he has fever, chills, his head hurts, and he would generally do anything to feel better. Can you imagine one who's imprisoned, not to illness, but to his enemies? He's known freedom before. And as a person who is gravely ill would gladly be healed from his condition, a person who is in prison would gladly be set free. He'd love to be set free. In fact, when he beseeches the judge for his freedom, he is as one who is sick, because that's how the word is usually translated. He's as one who's helpless, totally relying upon the one who may set him free. When I was--well, it was 2004. I had knee surgery, and it was pretty serious knee surgery, so I can walk. And here I am. I walk like an old feller, but I still walk. And so my wife and my daughters were very good nurses. I had to stay on my couch and have a circulating pump. And so she went to the store behind us where we used to grocery shop, and she bought some rotisserie chicken and brought it home. And, man, we ate every bit of that, and both of us got food poisoning. And I've had food poisoning before, but this was the worst I'd ever had. I was laying on my bathroom floor with my face on the towel because it felt so good. That's how sick I was, and I really did--I thought I was going to die. Now, I wasn't just whining like guys do. I really did think I was going to die, and I thought, "Well, Lord, I didn't know this was how you were going to take me, but I'm ready right now because I am very sick." I would have done anything. I was ready to go to heaven or get well, one of the two. Either one would have been better than what happened. And she was just as sick. And so I was--but I was helpless, and I was afraid to--I don't mean too gross. I was afraid to throw up. I thought I'd bust my stitches loose if I did that, so it was a terrible feeling. All right, so I probably made you cry. If not, you will later when you think about my poor, helpless condition in those days. Manassa is one who is as helpless as a person who's confined to his sickbed. And in that condition, he besought the Lord his God. Hey, what about those idols of Baal? Those didn't sound too good to him, did they? What about the carvings in the altars and the priests of the false religion that he once held dear? Why not beseech them? But he besought the Lord his God. Now if you stop right there and you go no further, you have to admit that it's merciful of God to even allow Manassa this time of cool reflection upon his present circumstances. It's gracious of God to even allow Manassa the opportunity to beseech the Lord his God, even if his life ended right there. God was merciful to allow Manassa, to bring upon Manassa that change of heart. And here, if you look in our text, there in verse 12--or excuse me, in verse 13-- where it says, "He besought the Lord his God." Now we have the all-caps LORD, which is still Jehovah, but it says "his God." The translation to the name God here is from Elohim, the Hebrew, by which God is also called. And Elohim is the plural form of God, so it refers to the Trinity-- God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It means God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. That is whom--that is the one whom he besought. The self-existing one who was God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit-- that is who Manassa besought. The Father who spoke the world into existence. The Son by whom all things are made. And the Spirit who moved across the face of the waters when God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And to this God, Manassa, it says, humbled himself. That means he was subdued, he was brought low. Where was he before? He was on a throne. And boy, he was a self-exalted one, wasn't he? It says he was brought low, as the original word is sometimes translated. Now let's consider what this means in Manassa's case. In a political sense, as king of Judah, Manassa was not in a humble position. The President of the United States, just by his very office, regardless of who is in the office, is not in a humble position. He's in the most powerful position of any person in the United States, you might argue, at least politically speaking. By the stroke of his pen, there are certain executive orders that he can sign without the consultation of Congress or anyone else. And he has certain powers that he can execute that can, boy, can change all kinds of things. It can restrict freedoms or it can give freedoms. Now there are some restrictions he has and he has to seek Congress for those. But he's not in a humble position and neither was Manassa. He was in authority over all of his kingdom. He wasn't under anyone in his kingdom. And next week we'll continue talking about what that means that he humbled himself. Let's pray. Father, we're so thankful that you would give us your word to study and give us the ability to understand the sense of it and that you guide us by your spirit. And this morning we've greatly profited from that. And, Father, I pray for each one here and each one who's watched us on the Internet and the ones who will visit later and hear the lesson. Lord, that you'd just show us how merciful you are, that you'd remind us that as we learn about this king who was prideful, who served wickedly for all those years, and yet you were gracious and you allowed him to humble himself and to beseech you. And that we'd meditate upon that. And we thank you for your grace and mercy. In Jesus' name, amen.