When Not to Pray
Gen 41:50 And two sons were born to Joseph before the years of famine came, whom Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On bore to him.
Gen 41:51 And Joseph called the name of the first-born Manasseh, saying, For God has made me forget all my toil and all my father’s house.
Gen 41:52 And the name of the second he called Ephraim, saying, For God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.
Gen 48:14 And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it on Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left on Manasseh’s head, crossing his hands. For Manasseh was the first‑born.
Gen 48:17 And Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, and it was evil in his eyes. And he held up his father’s hand to remove it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head.
Gen 48:18 And Joseph said to his father, Not so, my father. For this is the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head.
Gen 48:19 And his father refused and said, I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great, but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he is, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.
Gen 48:20 And he blessed them that day, saying, In you shall Israel bless, saying, God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh. And he put Ephraim before Manasseh.
Since Joseph saw his father’s action as sin, it did become sin as far as Ephraim and Manasseh were concerned. Joseph represented a godly man to the boys. He had sought God all his life and had even married a priest’s daughter. Issac, on the other hand, had gotten his birthright by trickery and wrestled with God’s angel. He represented the “do it your way” attitude of the world. Ephraim likely felt great gratitude for his grandfather and less of a need to listen to God as a result of the blessing. It was this attitude that likely resulted in the nation born of Ephraim to later reject God and His plea for repentance.
Rom 14:14 I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing by itself is common; except to him who esteems anything to be common, it is common.
Rom 14:22 Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Blessed is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves.
Rom 14:23 But, the one doubting, if he eats, he has been condemned, because it is not of faith; and all that is not of faith is sin.
2Ch 30:1 And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of Jehovah at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover to Jehovah, the God of Israel.
2Ch 30:8 And do not be stiffnecked like your fathers. Yield yourselves to Jehovah and enter into His temple which He has sanctified forever. And serve Jehovah your God, so that the fierceness of His wrath may turn away from you.
2Ch 30:9 For if you turn again to Jehovah, your brothers and your sons will have mercies before those who lead them captive, so that they shall come again into this land. For Jehovah your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn His face away from you if you return to Him.
2Ch 30:10 And the runners passed from city to city in the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, even to Zebulun. But they laughed them to scorn, and mocked them.
Jer 1:16 And I will pronounce My judgments against them regarding all their evil, those who have forsaken Me, and burned incense to other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands.
Jer 7:12 But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of My people Israel.
Jer 7:13 And now, because you have done all these works, says Jehovah, and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear; and I called you, but you did not answer;
Jer 7:14 therefore I will do to this house, which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.
Jer 7:15 And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, the whole seed of Ephraim.
Jer 7:16 Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up cry nor prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me; for I will not hear you. These people had totally turned their back on God and had mocked His pleas offering help. They did not choose Him, therefore, He rejected them. Thus, a grandfather’s single act of disobedience to God and Joseph resulted in God’s rejection of a whole nation due to their turning away from God. Joseph was the rightful authority over his sons and should have been obeyed.
Joh 17:6 I have revealed Your name to the men whom You gave to Me out of the world. They were Yours, and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.
Joh 17:7 Now they have known that all things, whatever You have given Me, are from You.
Joh 17:8 For I have given to them the Words which You gave Me, and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from You. And they have believed that You sent Me.
Joh 17:9 I pray for them. I do not pray for the world, but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.
Joh 17:10 And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I am glorified in them.
Joh 17:11 And now I am in the world no longer, but these are in the world, and I come to You, Holy Father. Keep them in Your name, those whom You have given Me, so that they may be one as We are.
Joh 17:20 And I do not pray for these alone, but for those also who shall believe on Me through their word, The world represents those who will never choose God.
Others, whom God knows will turn to Him and confess Him by word before mankind can still be prayed for. Once an adult person makes a commitment choice between God or Satan and actively pursues it, God also accepts or rejects them.
1Jn 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
1Jn 5:15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.
1Jn 5:16 If anyone sees his brother sin a sin not to death, he shall ask, and He shall give him life for those that do not sin to death. There is a sin to death, I do not say that he shall pray for it.
1Jn 5:17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not to death.
1Jn 5:18 We know that everyone who has been born of God does not continue to sin, but the one born of God guards himself, and the evil one does not touch him.
Apparently, the sin unto death relates to mocking the essence of God and rejecting Him by word and constant deed. By so doing, the sacrifice of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit are mocked and there is no turning back.
Heb 3:7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you will hear His voice,
Heb 3:8 do not harden your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness,
Heb 3:9 when your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years.
Heb 3:10 Therefore I was grieved with that generation and said, They always err in their heart, and they have not known My ways.
Heb 3:11 So I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest.”
Heb 3:12 Take heed, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
Heb 3:13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
Every time that a person purposely chooses to ignore God they become less respectful of God. Eventually, they have a total disregard for God and have completely rejected Him. God then gives them their wish to be apart from Him and rejects them.
Heb 6:4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit,
Heb 6:5 and have tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the world to come,
Heb 6:6 and who have fallen away; it is impossible, I say, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify the Son of God afresh to themselves and put Him to an open shame.
2Pe 2:20 For if they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the full knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and are again entangled, they have been overcome by these, their last things are worse than the first.
2Pe 2:21 For it would have been better for them not to have fully known the way of righteousness, than fully knowing it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. Eternal salvation is not guaranteed according to the above. Christ said He would never leave us, but He never said that we could not leave Him.
Mat 12:32 And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this world or in the world to come.
Luk 12:9 But he who denies Me before men shall be denied before the angels of God.
Luk 12:10 And whoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him. But to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven.
Mar 3:28 Truly I say to you, All sins shall be forgiven to the sons of men, and blasphemies with which they shall blaspheme.
Mar 3:29 But he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never shall have forgiveness, but is liable to eternal condemnation.
To mock the Holy Spirit is to speak against the pure love of God who has never done anything but love you and act on your behalf for good between you and God. It is a total mocking of all that God the Father represents.