Shackles and chains and a hook for my nose,
Wherever I’m pulled that’s where I goes.
It’s the same old story again and again,
God, He does bless and we forget about Him.
So He puts on us famine, puts on us drought,
From the high watchtower we hear a great shout.
“There comes a great army a million men strong,”
It looks like we’d tire of hearing that song.
But it’s the same old cycle, will it never end?
When skies turn blue we’ll fall back into sin.
These rules and these regs they’re so hard to keep,
I think I even break them in my dreams while I sleep.
We sacrifice bulls, we sacrifice goats,
All kind of sheep, but it doesn’t give hope.
Manasseh was King of Dave’s royal line,
He was bad as bad gets in his own time.
The list of his sins would reach the sky,
As the Day of God’s judgment drew ever nigh.
He is the king who would dare put him in chains?
But God is the One who puts all men to shame.
An army came down and carried him off,
It could happen to you so dare not you scoff.
In his great distress he sought the favor of God,
He cried out to heaven, “Please remove this great rod.”
And our God of great mercy and eternal grace,
Returned old Man to his throne, back at his place.
Cycle of blessing, cycle of sin,
We now have a priest who’s brought it to end.
For Jesus did die for the sin of mankind,
No more under law but under grace in our time.
For love is our rule and how we do live,
As we have received, is how we do give.
With hooks in their noses, wearing shackles and chains,
Are those who reject Christ and in their sin do remain.
Tertius
The King of Assyria, who took Manasseh prisoner,
put a hook in his nose bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon.
2 Chronicles 33:11
A note about “Shackles and Chains”: I wrote this for a lesson on the Old Testament cycle of blessing, sin, punishment and repentance. Through Jesus we are done with all that … unless we persist on being hard-headed.