At the church where I serve we have been looking at the
lives of kings who were placed in a position of leadership over the Jewish
people. This week, I would like to
pick up where we left off last week. As a result of King Rehoboam rejecting the
wisdom of those who were further down the road from him, a series of events
that occurred in the span of a single week in 930 B.C. forever changed the
Jewish nation.
The Jewish
nation became a divided nation. The ten
northern tribes of the Jewish people rebelled and rejected King Rehoboam’s rule
and departed back to northern Israel to set up their own kingdom, which was
known as the Northern Kingdom of Israel and was led by a man named Jeroboam,
who we met last week. Only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained loyal to
King Rehoboam and became known as the Southern Kingdom of Judea. Under King
Jeroboam, who built two golden calves as objects of worship in an attempt to
keep the people from returning back to Jerusalem and the southern kingdom, the
northern kingdom of Israel quickly turned from following the Lord to instead
worship false gods.
And the southern kingdom of
Judah, under King Rehoboam, did not do any better. Under King Rehoboam’s
seventeen year reign, the southern kingdom also turned from following the Lord
to worship the very false gods that had led the Lord to give the Jewish people
the Promised Land in the first place. As a result of their rejection of the
Lord, the Southern Kingdom was attacked by the nation of Egypt, who entered
into Jerusalem and robbed the city of Jerusalem and the Temple of much of its
gold, silver, and material wealth.
Upon his death in 913 B.C.,
King Rehoboam was succeeded by his son Abijah, who only ruled for a period of
two years. During his short reign, King Abijah fought and achieved a major
military victory over the Northern Kingdom of Israel that would eventually end
the rule of King Jeroboam. However, in 911 B.C., King Abijah would suddenly die.
And it is upon the death of King Abijah that we jump
back into a section of a letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of
the Bible, called the book of 2 Chronicles.
Now the books of 1st and 2nd
Chronicles are a
record of the history of the Jewish people from Adam to the Babylonian
captivity and the Persian Emperor Cyrus’ decree to allow the Jewish people to
return to the Jewish nation in 538 B.C. The books of Chronicles were written
around 450 B.C. by a man named Ezra, who was a scribe and priest who led a
group of Jewish people back to Israel in 458 B.C. With all that in mind let’s
look together at this historical account of the Jewish people,
beginning in 2 Chronicles 14:1:
So Abijah
slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David, and his son
Asa became king in his place. The land was undisturbed for ten years during his
days. Asa did good and right in the sight of the LORD his God, for he removed
the foreign altars and high places, tore down the sacred pillars, cut down the Asherim, and 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 undisturbed under him. He built fortified cities in
Judah, since the land was undisturbed, and there was no one at war with him
during those years, because the LORD had given him rest. For he said to Judah,
"Let us build these cities and surround them with walls and towers, gates and bars. The land is still
ours because we have sought the LORD our God; we have sought Him, and He has
given us rest on every side." So they built and prospered. Now Asa had an
army of 300,000 from Judah, bearing large shields and spears, and 280,000 from
Benjamin, bearing shields and wielding bows; all of them were valiant warriors.
Ezra brings us into this account of the history of the
Jewish people by introducing us to the man who would take the place of King
Abijah after his death. King Abijah’s son Asa became king over the Southern
Kingdom of the Jewish people in 911 B.C. After introducing us to the new king,
Ezra provides us a summary of the first ten years of King Asa’s reign. When Ezra states that King Asa did good and
right in the sight of the Lord his God, he is revealing for us the reality that
King Asa lived his life and led the Jewish people in a way that pleased the
Lord.
We learn exactly what King Asa did that reflected a life
that pleased the Lord beginning in verse 3. King Asa removed the various altars
and elevated shrines where the worship of gods other than the one true God were
held. King Asa removed the images and idols that portrayed these false gods and
turned the Jewish people to seek the Lord and follow the message and teachings
of the Lord that were recorded in the Law, which is the first five books that
are recorded for us in our Bibles today.
In addition to the religious and spiritual reforms that
he initiated, King Asa also oversaw the construction and fortification of
cities within the southern kingdom that served to protect the kingdom from
attack. And as a result of King Asa’s religious and spiritual reforms that
turned the hearts of the Southern Kingdom back to the Lord, the Southern
Kingdom experienced a time of peace and prosperity. The Southern Kingdom was
undisturbed from attack and experienced a time of peace which enabled the
kingdom to reinforce their military defenses and rebuild their army after the
defeats they had experienced under King Asa’a grandfather, King Rehoboam.
As the nation placed their confident trust in the Lord
and sought to follow the message and teachings of the Lord, the Lord provided
the southern kingdom peace and prosperity. However, after ten years of peace
and prosperity, the Southern Kingdom experienced a threat of immense
proportions, a threat that Ezra records for us in 2 Chronicles 14:9:
Now Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them
with an army of a million men and 300 chariots, and he came to Mareshah. So Asa
went out to meet him, and they drew up in battle formation in the valley of
Zephathah at Mareshah.
After ten
years of peace and prosperity, in 899 B.C., the Kingdom of Egypt, ruled by a
Pharaoh named Osorkon I and led by an Ethiopian General named Zerah, mounted an
invasion of the Southern Kingdom of Judea. Ezra tells us that the Kingdom of
Egypt’s army, numbering over a million men, invaded the Southern Kingdom and
advanced all the way to the city of Mareshah, which was located only 25 miles
southwest of the city of Jerusalem.
Now a
natural objection that could arise here is “so Dave, are you telling me that
you actually believe that they had an army that numbered over a million men?
How can that be the case? This is just a fictitious story.” At this time in
history, the Kingdom of Egypt included the regions of what are now the nations
of Egypt, Libya, the Sudan, and Ethiopia. As we discovered in verse 8, King Asa
had an army that totaled 580,000 men, which was consistent with the numbers of
the census that occurred earlier in the Jewish nation’s history.
Ezra tells
us that King Asa and his army marched out to meet the invading army of the
kingdom of Egypt that was twice its size just outside the town of Mareshah. Now
I want us to take a minute and imagine ourselves as king Asa. Place yourself in
his shoes. You have experienced ten years of peace and prosperity, which have
enabled you to reinforce your
military defenses and rebuild your army.
Yet, in spite of all that you have done, you are now
faced with an invading army that outnumbers you 2-1. You are king Asa; what
would you do? How would you respond? We see King Asa’a response in verse 11:
Then Asa called to the LORD his God and said,
"LORD, there is no one besides You to help in the battle between the powerful and those who have no
strength; so help us, O LORD our God, for we trust in You, and in Your name
have come against this multitude. O LORD, You are our God; let not man prevail
against You."
In
other words, King Asa cried to the Lord in desperation: “Lord there is no one
besides You that I can rely on and place my trust in. I have done all that I
can do to lead Your people. Only You are able to overcome these odds that are
against us. Lord I am placing my trust in You to do only what You can do as I
lead Your people out to defend against this attacking army. Lord, do not let
this army prevail against You and Your people”.
You
see, in the midst of seemingly overwhelming circumstances, King Asa called out
to God in utter dependence. King Asa responded to his circumstances by running
to the Lord whom he had sought to trust and follow and whom he had called the people
of the Southern Kingdom to trust and follow.
Tomorrow,
we will see how the Lord responded to King Asa’s cry for help…
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