Add parallel Print Page Options

Manasseh and Ephraim are family; they have a common language and common culture, and they come from common stock. In every way that matters they are brothers, but they are at war with each other. And they don’t stop there. They turn against Judah, their southern relative. Amazingly, God has chosen them all to be His people, a nation of promise and destiny. How sad that it’s come to this! What is God to do with His children? God will not abandon them, yet neither will God put up with their destructive consumption, their greed and injustices. Indeed, their wrongdoing takes its own course of self-destruction, and God will not stop it. Sometimes God’s judgment consists of Him stepping back and leaving people to their devices—letting their will be done.

10 1-2 How awful it will be for those who mandate wickedness
    and legalize oppression, denying justice to the needy,
Taking away the rights of the poor among My people.
    Such leaders intend to make helpless widows and orphans their prey.
How will you opportunists handle the day of reckoning?
    What will you do when trouble comes from far away?
Will you run away from the disaster you caused?
    Who will help you? Where will you leave all your wealth?
You, too, must cower among the captives
    or fall among the dead.
Still, God’s anger smolders. His hand is raised; there’s more to come.

Read full chapter

Bible Gateway Recommends