In the 20th year of the reign of Jeroboam, king of Israel, Asa became king of Judah, and he reigned in Jerusalem for 41 years. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father David had done. (1 Kings 15:9–11, 2 Chron 14:2).
- He drove the male prostitute shrines out of the land (1 Kings 15:12a).
- He removed the foreign incense altars and high places in all the cities of Judah, broke the holy stones and cut down the Asherah poles
(2 Chron 14:3, 5). - He commanded Judah to seek the Lord and to obey his laws and commandments (2 Chron 14:4).
- He built up the fortified cities of Judah because the land was at peace.
They built and prospered. (2 Chron 14:6–7).
Zerah the Cushite came out against them with a million men and 300 chariots.
Asa went out to meet him. He called to the Lord for help. He trusted on the Lord.
The Lord struck them and they fled. Asa and his army pursued them, they fell until none lived. (2 Chron 14:8–15).
(2 Chron 15:1–7).
(Proverb 3:5–6). In this case it brought victory, prosperity, peace, and health as long as he did it. God doesn't give a warning, unless there is a need for it.
- He removed the detestable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin
and from the cities which he had taken (1 Kings 15:12b, 2 Chron 15:8b). - He repaired the Lord's altar (2 Chron 15:8c).
- He gathered all Judah and Benjamin and those from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who lived with them, for a great number had deserted to him from Israel when they saw that the Lord was with him. They sacrificed to the Lord and made a covenant to seek the Lord with all their heart and with all their soul. (2 Chron 15:9–12, 14–15).
- He deposed his grandmother Maakah from her position as queen mother, because she had made an obnoxious image for the worship of Asherah
(1 Kings 15:13, 2 Chron 15:16). - He brought into the temple silver, gold, and the objects that he and his father had consecrated (1 Kings 15:15, 2 Chron 15:18).
There was no more war until the 35th year of Asa's reign. In the 36th year of his reign, Baasha, king of Israel, went up against Judah and fortified Ramah, so that no one was allowed to go out or come in. Then Asa took silver and gold from the treasures of the temple and from his own palace and sent them to Ben-Hadad, king of Aram, who reigned in Damascus. Asa asked him for a treaty between them, saying that the silver and gold were a gift to him. Asa wanted him to break his treaty with Baasha. Ben-Hadad agreed and sent the commanders of his forces against the cities of Israel and captured several of those cities. When Baasha heard this, he withdrew his forces from Judah. (1 Kings 15:16–22, 2 Chron 15:19–16:6).
Ramah was a border town between Judah and Israel. Baasha wanted to prohibit gods and services from crossing the border. All Asa had to do was ask God what to do.
But instead he made a peace treaty with Ben-Hadad, the king of Aram.
Asa didn't turn to God but acted in his own strength.
The good thing was that it worked. The bad thing was that he hadn't been faithful to God. He probably got a lot of credit for his cleverness, but he hadn't trusted God.
Asa had been blessed by God for a long time and that made him sure of himself and his own strength, more than trusting God. When we are blessed, we may think that it's because we are doing everything right. But we can be blessed by God even though we make mistakes because of God's grace and mercy, see King Solomon.
The great temptations come in life the older we get and the more experiences we have because it can make us trust our experiences and act on them instead of praying and waiting for God's answer.
We create our own solutions without involving God.
At that time Hanani, a "seer" or prophet, came to Asa and told him that because he had trusted in the king of Aram and not in the Lord, the king's army had escaped him. Zerah the Cushite had a huge army with many chariots and horsemen. Because Asa then trusted in the Lord, God gave them into his hand.
The eyes of the Lord run to and from over the whole Earth, to give strong support to those whose hearts are blameless toward him. Asa had done foolishly in this, for from now on he would have war. (2 Chron 16:7–9).
Asa became angry with the prophet and did the following:
- He put the prophet in stocks in prison, because he was furious with him because of this (2 Chron 16:10a).
- Asa inflicted cruelties upon some of the people at the same time
(2 Chron 16:10b). - In the 39th year of his reign, Asa became ill in his feet, and his illness became severe. But even in his illness he didn't seek the Lord, but only sought help from doctors. (2 Chron 16:12, 1 Kings 15:23b).
It's not wrong to visit a doctor. The problem was that he just did that. He refused to come to the Lord. Asa became not only proud, but also bitter because the Lord rebuked him. He should have humbled himself and and sought the Lord, see
3) Blessed are the meek in The Sermon on the Mount.
God can and does use doctors to get his will done. He doesn't have to use them, but many times he chose to work his will through them. God can choose to work his will through doctors and medicine. He isn't limited by anything. However, we shouldn't put all our hope in man, which is something God doesn't want us to do. He also wants us to seek his help.
Asa locked up the prophet but couldn't luck up the truth. The peace that Asa had and the prosperity it brought would disappear because of this. It wasn't easy for the prophet to rebuke an old king who had lived so long with the final authority, but he did. Such an old king might become unteachable because of pride.
Asa died in the 41th year of his reign. His son Jehoshaphat succeeded him as king.
(1 Kings 15:24, 2 Chron 16:13–14).
See also Kings of Judah and Israel.
