Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Godly King Asa of Judah (GL34)

     'Appreciating God's Love'
 
A) King Asa removed the Idols
2 Chr 14:2-5  Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God, for he removed the altars of the foreign gods and the high places, and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images. He commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to observe the law and the commandment. He also removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah, and the kingdom was quiet under him.
    Asa was the great grandson of King Solomon who was the wisest and richest king. King Solomon was misled by his many idolaterous wives into many abominable practices which caused God to tear part of Israel from the rule of his descendents.
     His son Rehoboam forgot the Lord and so God allowed the Egyptians to conquer Jerusalem and ransack the temple of God and set up idols in the high places in Judah.
    King Asa was a godly king, who was faithful to the Lord. He followed the Lord and so he removed all those idols and altars set up by the Egyptians.
    He instructed all in Judah to seek the Lord and to keep all the law and commandments of the Lord.
     
God Defeated the Ethiopians
2 Chr 14:9,11-12  Then Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million men and three hundred chariots, and he came to Mareshah...And Asa cried out to the Lord his God, and said, "Lord, it is nothing for You to help, whether with many or with those who have no power; help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on You, and in Your name we go against this multitude. O Lord, You are our God; do not let man prevail against You!"
     During the reign of King Asa, the powerful Ethiopians with 300 chariots and a million of soldiers attacked Judah. King Asa was in despair and completely helpless in defending Judah..
    Immediately King Asa cried to the Lord for help for only God alone could save Judah. At King Asa's humility and faith in Him, God struck the Ethiopians who fled from Judah, who completely destroyed the Ethiopian armies.
2 Chr 14:12-14  So the Lord struck the Ethiopians before Asa and Judah, and the Ethiopians fled. And Asa and the people who were with him pursued them to Gerar. So the Ethiopians were overthrown, and they could not recover, for they were broken before the Lord and His army. And they carried away very much spoil. Then they defeated all the cities around Gerar, for the fear of the Lord came upon them; and they plundered all the cities, for there was exceedingly much spoil in them.

Note  The Egyptians conquered Judah during the reign of the wicked King Rehoboam of Judah and even ransacked the temple of God but God delivered the godly King Asa from the great Ethiopian army.
    Brethren, similarly God will deliver the godly but will fight against the wicked.

B) The Truth of Finding God
2 Chr 15:1-4  Now the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded. And he went out to meet Asa, and said to him: "Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. For a long time Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without law; but when in their trouble they turned to the Lord God of Israel, and sought Him, He was found by them."
    God has given men their free will and He is always been faithful to His words. When the Israelites wanted to be with God He was always with them. If they sought for Him, they would find Him
    But if they forsook Him, He had no choice but to forsake them. In the time of trouble when they turned back to Him, they would find Him.

Truth Set Israelites Free
2 Chr 15:8  And when Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and removed the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities which he had taken in the mountains of Ephraim; and he restored the altar of the Lord that was before the vestibule of the Lord.
    When King Asa heard the words of God from the prophet Azariah, he was filled with faith. Immediately he took down all the idols and images throughout all the land of Judah and Benjamin.
    These newly revived Israelites offered hundreds of bulls and thousands of sheep as sacrifice to God . They also entered into the covenant of seeking the Lord of their fathers with all their hearts and souls and that whoever would not seek the Lord was to be put to death.
2 Chr 15:10-13  So they gathered together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa. And they offered to the Lord at that time seven hundred bulls and seven thousand sheep from the spoil they had brought. Then they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul; and whoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman.

C) Faithlessness of King Asa
2 Chr 16:1-3  In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah and built Ramah, that he might let none go out or come in to Asa king of Judah. Then Asa brought silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the Lord and of the king's house, and sent to Ben-Hadad king of Syria, who dwelt in Damascus, saying, "Let there be a treaty between you and me, as there was between my father and your father. See, I have sent you silver and gold; come, break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me."
    When King Asa was threatened of warfare with King Baasha, he forgot all about how God delivered them from the Ethiopians. He sent gold and silver to the Syrians for help so that the Syrians would not help King Baasha attack Judah.
    God sent prophet Hanani to rebuke King Asa for his faithlessness in Him. Asa had just annulled God's plan for God wanted the Syrians to help King Baasha attack Judah so that He could wiped out the Syrians, who constantly attacked Israel.
2 Chr 16:7-8  And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said to him: "Because you have relied on the king of Syria, and have not relied on the Lord your God, therefore the army of the king of Syria has escaped from your hand. Were the Ethiopians and the Lubim not a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet, because you relied on the Lord, He delivered them into your hand." ...Then Asa was angry with the seer, and put him in prison, for he was enraged at him because of this. And Asa oppressed some of the people at that time.

Faithlessness in God's Healing
2 Chr 16:12  And in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet, and his malady was severe; yet in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but the physicians. So Asa rested with his fathers; he died in the forty-first year of his reign.
    When King Asa was struck with with a severe foot disease, he did not trust the Lord to heal him. Instead he trusted the physicians, so God did not heal him and he died two years later.

Brethren, let's trust God to be our Saviour, Protector, Provider, Comforter and also Healer.