4) Asa - the king who succumbed to unbelief

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(2 Chronicles 14 – 2 Chronicles 16)


The accounts of the kings of Judah and Israel indicate that more of them did evil than did good. However, these conclusions are based on a balance of their deeds across their whole lifetimes. In the cases of the kings we are looking at, they all started well but then failed in a particular test. Similarly, it is most likely that all Christians begin well. Through these studies we are trying to understand the particular pitfalls in which the kings became embroiled in order that we might avoid comparable ones in our own lives. Asa began really well:

And Abijah rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David. Asa his son succeeded him as king, and in his days the country was at peace for ten years.
(2 Chronicles 14:1)

fervour

He had inherited a kingdom which for the past three generations had become entangled with idolatry and the worship of foreign gods:

Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. He removed the foreign altars and the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and to obey his laws and commands. He removed the high places and incense altars in every town in Judah, and the kingdom was at peace under him. (2 Chronicles 14:2-5)

The Asherah poles were basically idols to the worship of sex (definitely an idolatry which abounds in more subtle forms our world now). He engaged in the prophetic ministry of rebuke, appealing to the people to return to the true worship of the Lord.

Significantly, Asa understood that the kingdom must always expect warfare. Christians too should always expect spiritual warfare. Asa did not relax and just enjoy the peace they had at the start of his reign. He prepared well for warfare for when it materialised:

He built up the fortified cities of Judah, since the land was at peace. No one was at war with him during those years, for the Lord gave him rest. (2 Chronicles 14:6)

We must never assume that everything will be peace in our lives. The readiness for warfare should always be present in our hearts and minds. It is foundational in the Lord’s Prayer:

And lead us not into temptation, (or ‘the test’)
but deliver us from the evil one. (Matthew 6:13)

Likewise, peace only comes through successful warfare against a destructive opponent. This readiness is expressed in the components of the ‘full armour of God’, especially the footwear:

and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. (Ephesians 6:15)

We wear our footwear most of the time. But even when removed we know exactly where it is for an emergency. Readiness should be our spiritual watchword.

victory

Sure enough, Asa faced battle and was well prepared:

Zerah the Cushite marched out against them with an army of thousands upon thousands and three hundred chariots, and came as far as Mareshah. Asa went out to meet him, and they took up battle positions in the Valley of Zephathah near Mareshah. Then Asa called to the Lord his God and said, ‘Lord, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. Lord, you are our God; do not let mere mortals prevail against you.’ The Lord struck down the Cushites before Asa and Judah. The Cushites fled, and Asa and his army pursued them as far as Gerar. (2 Chronicles 14:9-13)

But behind every victory is God’s help through grace. That we may find “grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16) is our continual prayer: “Watch and pray”, said Jesus (Luke 12:36).

Furthermore, Asa was open-hearted to the Word of God. It came to him through Azariah the prophet; it comes to us through bible meditation and anointed teachers of God’s word:

When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Azariah son of Oded the prophet, he took courage. He removed the detestable idols from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin and from the towns he had captured in the hills of Ephraim. He repaired the altar of the Lord that was in front of the portico of the Lord’s temple. Then he assembled all Judah and Benjamin and the people from Ephraim, Manasseh and Simeon who had settled among them, for large numbers had come over to him from Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was with him. (2 Chronicles 15:8-9)

It is great to see this mini-revival: it was so effective that people from the kingdom of Israel, which was Judah’s adversary, came over to experience this move of God.

Asa was sufficiently emboldened by God’s presence and work to confront his dominating grandmother:

King Asa also deposed his grandmother Maakah from her position as queen mother, because she had made a repulsive image for the worship of Asherah. Asa cut it down, broke it up and burned it in the Kidron Valley.  (2 Chronicles 15:16)

This is so illustrative of the teaching of Jesus that spiritual warfare may involve us opposing our own family members if they create hostility to the practice of our faith (Luke 14:26 – [see also ‘The Hard Sayings of Jesus]).

unbelief

It was somewhere here in his reign that Asa lost his way. A military threat was made by the king of Israel:

There was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign. 
In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah and fortified Ramah to prevent anyone from leaving or entering the territory of Asa king of Judah. Asa then took the silver and gold out of the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and of his own palace and sent it to Ben-Hadad king of Aram, who was ruling in Damascus. ‘Let there be a treaty between me and you,’ he said, ‘as there was between my father and your father. See, I am sending you silver and gold. Now break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel so that he will withdraw from me.’ (2 Chronicles 15:19 – 2 Chronicles 16:1-3)

The response of Asa, rather than being one of faith in the God who had so blessed him before, was to look for the support of those who did not believe. He treated the resources of his kingdom, with which God had blessed them, as his own. Rather than being a careful steward of the kingdom wealth, he became a careless prodigal who wasted it.

However, God in grace sent someone to him to attempt to recover the faith he had at first:

At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him: ‘Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand. Were not the Cushites and Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen? Yet when you relied on the Lord, he delivered them into your hand. For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war.’ (2 Chronicles 16:7-9)

When we stop walking in faith, then the effectiveness of God’s grace is weakened in us. Things may well go wrong as they did for Asa.

But rather than repent at this rebuke, he responded as a proud man might:

Asa was angry with the seer because of this; he was so enraged that he put him in prison. At the same time Asa brutally oppressed some of the people. (2 Chronicles 16:10)

Here are all the signs of degenerating leadership. He still had the power and authority, but had lost the heart of the servant. As Jesus taught, this is the sign of genuine leadership:

Jesus called them together and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, (Matthew 20:25-26)

Once leaders are deceived by self-importance they will behave like Gentiles. They will control rather than care.

The unbelief into which Asa sank became so severe that even when he became ill he did not look to the Lord:

In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the Lord, but only from the doctors. Then in the forty-first year of his reign Asa died and rested with his ancestors. (2 Chronicles 16:12-13)

There is no indication here that his disease was a specific judgment from God as the writer implies that the Lord would have helped him. It seems to be one of those health afflictions common to us all. The further implication is that he could still have repented of his unbelief and put his trust in God again. If that is true it is a sign of God’s manifest graciousness and love:

Mercy triumphs over judgment (James 2:13)

faithfulness

Unbelief is a snare waiting to entrap every child of God. Faith is what keeps us moving in God’s purposes. Faith is what we need to obey God’s commandments. Faith is an eternal quality which indicates that our hearts are infused with eternity (1 Corinthians 13:13). Faith keeps us afloat in this physical world and in the spiritual world of warfare:

everything that does not come from faith is sin. (Romans 14:23)

I like to illustrate this with the metaphor of a cyclist. Faith gives us the determination to reach the destination. If we stop cycling, we shall fall off; stopping where we are we shall crash. It is almost impossible to cycle backwards without falling off. We must focus on the goal of the Kingdom of God, move forwards towards it and make it our everything. Doubts are human; unbelief is earthly, unspiritual, demonic (see James 3:15). Doubts do not have to develop into unbelief. We must guard our souls to prevent such a negative outcome.

So much is at stake if we neglect to walk according to God’s word and ignore the messages of grace which come to us. Let me conclude with the warnings which Jesus gave:

And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?’ (Luke 18:7-9)

We began well putting our faith in Jesus. We must end well walking in that maturing faith. We are called to faithfulness, keeping our love fervent and refusing to compromise:

Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. (Matthew 24:12-13)

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