When I was five years old, I entered a school race. I know it was some time around Easter because after the races, our class took part in an Easter egg hunt. The school gardener must have taken a sickie, because I have the distinct memory of long grass, weeds, and overgrown bushes all over the grounds.
The tiny chocolate Easter eggs and lollies were bundled in white paper bags, and twisted around the top to keep the precious contents from spilling out. It wasn’t much of challenge to hunt them down. In the grass, the bags looked like big white ‘I surrender’ flags out there in the open field. They were nice consolation prizes for those who didn’t win a ribbon for the top three places.
My five-year-old legs were amazing. They did me proud as I chewed up the track to the finish. There was no one ahead of me; I was guaranteed to win.
But as I approached the last 3 metres, indecision stopped me in my Dunlop volleys. At the end of the track was a white ticker tape suspended over the finish line. I had never seen a finish line like that before, so I hesitated. It looked like a boundary line that I wasn’t meant to cross over.
I stopped short of the line while the child who was coming up behind me took first place, breaking the ticker tape, and breaking my excellent opportunity for coming first place.
I started well, but didn’t finish well.
The life and times of a King from the South
2 Chronicles 14-16, 1 Kings 15:8-24
King Asa’s reign begins with astonishing success. He ushers in a series of religious reform, actively removing false worship by striking down the altars dedicated to false gods, and demolishing their wooden images and cultic idols.
Afterwards, he challenges the hearts of his people in the southern kingdom to seek the LORD and observe the law and His commands.
The broad sweep of his actions do not go unnoticed. God rewards King Asa with rest from the warring nations that surround Judah for the span of a decade.
What Asa accomplishes in Peacetime
While other men might languish during peacetime through idle pursuits, King Asa remains vigilant in finding ways to promote the safety and wellbeing of his people. He broadens the reach of his kingdom by expanding the cities, ensuring they are fortified with walls, towers, gates and bars. And Judah flourishes under his command.
He is both proactive and pragmatic. But would peace last in the region forever? With the security of his people in mind, he pours resources into the military.
He trains 300,000 warriors from the tribe of Judah with the spear, and 200,000 men from the tribe of Benjamin with bow and arrow. Still, what is this force in comparison to a million soldiers? Ethiopia encroaches upon their territory, outnumbering King Asa’s militia 2 to 1. The odds are not in King Asa’s favour.
Yet, King Asa will not cower nor retreat. He knows to turn to one greater than all the might of all the armies of the earth. His prayer is recorded in 2 Chronicles 14:11. It is not lengthy, but it is enough to move the heart and hand of God.
Asa’s prayer to the Lord
And Asa cried unto the LORD his God, and said, LORD, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O LORD our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude. O LORD, thou art our God; let not man prevail against thee.
Thus, God supernaturally empowers King Asa’s warriors. He is on their side. The mighty Ethiopian army flees. Asa’s men chase the Ethopians to the city of Gerar where they are overthrown and destroyed.
Their conquest branches out to the cities surrounding Gerar, and Asa’s army returns to Jerusalem with the spoils of war—an abundance of sheep and camels to bolster their nation’s economic prosperity.
A King sensitive to the words of the prophet—the mouthpiece of God
Now, the prophet Azariah reminds King Asa of God’s faithfulness to him, so long as he continues to seek after God. Listen to God’s incentive:
Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak: for your work shall be rewarded. 2 Chronicles 15:7
The assurance of God’s word further motivates King Asa to restore the altar of the LORD, and extend the purge of idolatry.
Northern Tribesman take notice
False worship and idolatry runs rampant in the Northern kingdom. Each king is well acquainted with wickedness. Not a single ruler set on the throne seeks after God.
Despite this spiritual darkness, some of the northern tribesman recognize the true path, and they journey south to worship the LORD.
And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin and the strangers with them out of Ephraim and Manasseh, and out of Simeon: for they fell to him out of Israel in abundance, when they saw that the LORD his God was with him. 2 Chron 15:9
And they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul. 2 Chron 15:12
Dealing with dysfunctional family
Having witnessed the splendor and might of God on a national scale, the time for allowing God to work on a domestic level is at hand. Heeding the prophet Azariah’s words, King Asa receives supernatural courage to confront a complex situation within his own family.
King Asa’s own grandmother, Maachah, is an idolater and an ardent follower of the female Canaanite goddess, Asherah. Naturally, King Asa pursues a course to contain his grandmother’s wicked influence.
Her pagan worship must end despite blood ties and any familial loyalty.
He cuts down her obscene image of the goddess, and sets the broken pieces alight for total obliteration. Lastly, he deposes the Queen Mother from her royal position.
King Asa’s turning point
It is another glorious 25 years that King Asa enjoy’s God’s favour with extended peace in his region. Yet, the situation turns awry when King Asa forgets his promise to God—a heart wholly dedicated to Him.
In the 36th year of his reign, trouble brews in the North. King Baasha of Israel constructs Ramah to block the trade route to King Asa’s territory in the south. This will likely ruin Judah’s economy, and signals an impending invasion from the Northern kingdom.
Does King Asa fall on his knees to seek the Lord’s counsel? Strangely not.
We are shocked to find that he takes matters into his own hands by commandeering the gold and silver that belongs in the Lord’s temple. With this, he bribes the king of Syria to sever the peace treaty he has with the king of Israel, and for the Syrian army to protect King Asa’s territory.
His bribes and political scheming prove successful, and King Asa removes the blockade that King Baasha had built on the border between Judah and Israel.
God’s judgement
King Asa’s dependence on his own scheme rather than trusting in God’s ways leads to his eventual demise.
For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore form henceforth thou shalt have wars. 2 Chron 16:9
Incensed by this message from the Lord, King Asa throws the messenger, Hanani the prophet, into prison. His irrational behaviour does not stop there. The citizens he once loved become victims of his anger, and he oppresses them.
In the last two years of his life, King Asa is struck by a debilitating foot disease. This deterioration parallels the dwindling relationship between King Asa and the Lord. Asa refuses to seek God’s help for healing. After forty-one years of rule, King Asa dies.
How is the story of your life progressing?
Join me for part 2 of this topic.
Bibliography
Author Unspecified . 2022, ‘Who was King Asa in the Bible?’, Gotquestions. Retrieved 11 May 2022 from
https://www.gotquestions.org/King-Asa.html
Bolinger, H. 2020, ‘3 Things Christians Can Learn from King Asa’s Mistakes’, Crosswalk. Retrieved 11 May 2022 from
https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/bible-study/things-christians-can-learn-from-asa-mistakes.html
Demuth, M. 2022, ‘Wholehearted Devotion: Hard lessons from King Asa’, Bible.org. Retrieved 11 May 2022 from
https://bible.org/article/wholehearted-devotion-hard-lessons-king-asa
Henry, M. 1961, Commentary on the Whole Bible, Zondervan, Michigan.
Pfeiffer C,F. 1990, The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, Moody Publishers, Illinois.
The Quest Study Bible, 1994, Zondervan Publishing House, Michigan.
Walton, J. 2000, The IVP Bible Background Commentary Old Testament, IVP Academic, Illinois.
