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Author
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Topic: thoughts while reading 2 Chronicles 33
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helpforhomeschoolers
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Member # 15
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posted
I enjoyed this Born Again! I appreciate the way you study the scripture.
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And then it dawned on me: Judah had gone along with King Manasseh, and Judah was more than willing to participate with King Manasseh in doing that which was evil in the sight of the LORD.
And therefore this time the LORD allowed the evil King Manasseh to prosper for 55 years, so that the King Manasseh—-now get this—-could teach the people what they desired. They got this time what they wanted. And 55 years of it.
This is an awesome thing to realize. God the scriptures say will give us the desires of our heart. We ought make sure the desires of our heart are the desires of HIS heart. The people wanted a King and they got Saul. God desire was that they not have an earthly king but a heavenly one. An excellent lesson here.
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BORN AGAIN here: what is the host of heaven and in what manner did King Manasseh serve them. Is the host of heaven the stars, or devils, or, what?
Host is a military word. It means army or company of soldiers. In Genesis we see that God created the heavens and the earth and the hosts there of:
Genesis 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. Joshua is called the Captain of the LORD's host.
In Dueteronomy, the people of God are given the command to not make images of things, so that they do not come to worship the created things to include the host of heaven:
Deuteronomy 4:19 And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.
In 2nd kings we learn that they people did just what they were told not to do:
2 Kings 17:16 And they left all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.
I dont know if you will recall, but we were having a conversation once about demons. I was telling you that I thought it perfect that God chose Greek for the NT because the Greek Mind behind many words in the Greek language that are used in the NT are perfect for what is being illustrated. This is I think particularly true of the concepts of the unseen realm. I also shared with you that there is an book that is apocraphial (sp sorry) that says that what we call mythological gods of the Greek and Romans, and even that as far back as the Sumerians and Assyrians were demons. Now, I dont think that I begin to have a full understanding of all this, but it seems to me that when God created the heavens and the earth, he also created the angels or spirit beings that were created (the armies or hosts of heaven) I suspect that each of them had a star or planet that they were given stewardship and authority over. I suspect that when Satan fell and drew with him 1/3 of the angels (hosts of heaven) they fell to earth and became what we today if we believe that there is an unseen realm call demons.
The Bible calls these in Ephesians Powers and Principalities, rulers of the darkness etc..:
Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
When the Israelites built altars to Baal or any of them that they built altars to worship they were building altars to worship these that were the host of heaven.
The calf is a symbol of Moloch... if you notice these gods all had different names whether Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek or Roman, but it is very likely that they were the same entities and if you look at the artifacts from each civilation you can see the similarities.
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BORN AGAIN here: what is a wizard? What is the difference between a wizard and a magician and a familiar spirit and using witchcraft?
A wiard is a see-er; one who has a familiar spirit and sees things a sooth sayer. A magician is one who has an occult knowledge and wathed the stars. If you look at the roots of these words you find that wizard a word that comes from the root "yada" which is knowledge. If you look at the word translated magician it has a word that means to engrave, but it is only used to speak of ones who divine. I dont know but it seems to me that with the wizard, the empahsis in on the idea that he has some knowlege that is imparted by a spirit being... It is used always in conjunction with the term "familiar spirit"
Thats my 2 cents worth.
Posts: 4684 | From: Southern Black Hills of South Dakota | Registered: Jun 2002
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BORN AGAIN
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Sometimes I stop reading the Bible and then sometimes I start reading the Bible again, and this time I began reading in 1 and 2 Chronicles, and recently I really enjoyed 2 Chronicles 33 and 2 Chronicles 34.
Here are some thoughts on those two chapters.
2 Chronicles 33
1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 55 years in Jerusalem.
2 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.
BORN AGAIN here: Prior to Chapter 33, I had been reading in the chapters of 2 Chronicles leading up to Chapter 33 and in those chapters the LORD had rewarded the Judahite kings who did right in the sight of the LORD and the LORD had cut short the Judahite kings who did devil in the sight of the LORD.
So I was SHOCKED to read that Manasseh did evil in the sight of the LORD and ruled for 55 years.
I cried out, "LORD, am I now confused? Are you now giving 55 years to a man who is evil? How can that be?
And then it dawned on me: Judah had gone along with King Manasseh, and Judah was more than willing to participate with King Manasseh in doing that which was evil in the sight of the LORD.
And therefore this time the LORD allowed the evil King Manasseh to prosper for 55 years, so that the King Manasseh—-now get this—-could teach the people what they desired. They got this time what they wanted. And 55 years of it.
And therefore the following happened in 2 Chronicles 33:
3 For he {Manasseh} built again the high places which his father Hezekiah had broken down, and he reared up the altars for Baalim, and he made groves {ashteroth}, and he worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.
BORN AGAIN here: what is the host of heaven and in what manner did King Manasseh serve them. Is the host of heaven the stars, or devils, or, what?
4 Also he built altars in the house of the LORD, whereof the LORD had said, In Jerusalem shall My name be for ever {for olam}.
4 And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD.
BORN AGAIN here: “altars for the host of heaven”, what did that look like. Are they talking gods that they associated with say, Orion, or the Seven Sisters (Pleiades), or what?
5 And he {Manasseh} 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 {dealt} with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
BORN AGAIN here: what is a wizard? What is the difference between a wizard and a magician and a familiar spirit and using witchcraft?
7 And he {King Manasseh, the son of good King Hezekiah} set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen before all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever.”
8 Neither will I anymore 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.
BORN AGAIN here: I don’t understand verse 8, how does that fit here?
9 So 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.
10 And the LORD spoke to Manasseh, and to his people: but they would not listen.
BORN AGAIN here: when I read that “they would not listen”, it reminded me of the world.
11 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.
BORN AGAIN here: At this time, the Assyrians were strong and possessed Babylon, and so the Assyrians took King Manasseh to Babel on the Euphrates, back, as it were, where he came from before the dispersion and before the call of Terah/Abram to leave Ur.
12 Butwhen he {Manasseh} was in affliction, he besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers,
BORN AGAIN here: what form did that “humbling himself greatly” take?
13 And prayed to him {to the LORD God}: and He was intreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD he was God.
BORN AGAIN: that is amazing.
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