This week we
are looking at the life of a king who led the Southern Kingdom of the Jewish
people named King Asa. Yesterday, we discovered that 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. After ten years of peace and prosperity, which
have enabled King Asa to reinforce the
military defenses and rebuild the army of the Jewish people, King Asa faced an
invading army that outnumbers him 2-1.
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. Today, we see Ezra record for us how the Lord
responded to King Asa’s cry for help in 2 Chronicles 14:12:
So the LORD routed the Ethiopians before Asa
and before Judah, and the Ethiopians fled. Asa and the people who were with him pursued them as far as
Gerar; and so many Ethiopians fell that they could not recover, for they were
shattered before the LORD and before His army. And they carried away very much
plunder. They destroyed all the cities around Gerar, for the dread of the LORD
had fallen on them; and they despoiled all the cities, for there was much plunder
in them. They also struck down those who owned livestock, and they carried away
large numbers of sheep and camels. Then they returned to Jerusalem.
The
Lord responded to King Asa’s cry for help by leading the army of the Southern
Kingdom to rout the invading army from the Kingdom of Egypt. As the terror of
the Lord encompassed the army of the kingdom of Egypt, they responded by
fleeing south, only to be followed and further defeated by the armies of the
Southern Kingdom, who drove the invading army out of all of the cities that
they had previously captured.
As
a matter of fact, this defeat was so devastating to the Kingdom of Egypt that
there would not be another military engagement between the Jewish people and an
Egyptian army for 290 years. And as King Asa returned to Jerusalem in triumph,
the King was met by a messenger from the Lord with a message from the Lord. A
message the Ezra records for us in 2 Chronicles 15:1:
Now the
Spirit of God came on Azariah the son of Oded, and he went out to meet Asa and
said to him, "Listen to me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: the LORD is
with you when you are with Him. And if you seek Him, He will let you find Him;
but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. "For many days Israel was
without the true God and without a teaching priest and without law. "But
in their distress they turned to the LORD God of Israel, and they sought Him,
and He let them find Him. "In those times there was no peace to him who
went out or to him who came in, for many disturbances afflicted all the
inhabitants of the lands. "Nation was crushed by nation, and city by city,
for God troubled them with every kind of distress. "But you, be strong and
do not lose courage, for there is reward for your work."
In other
words, the Lord basically said to King Asa through the prophet Azariah
"King Asa, just make sure you remember that the Lord's presence and
activity in your life is directly related to the extent that you trust and rely
on Him. The Lord is with you when you seek Him and place your confident trust
in Him. But if you leave and abandon the Lord, He will leave and abandon you.
King Asa, make sure that you learn from the mistakes of your predecessors. Make
sure that you remember that when your father and grandfather failed to rely and
trust on Me, but instead left Me to worship other gods, I withdrew My presence
and activity from their life. Make sure that you remember that I judged their
selfishness and rebellion by bringing chaos and difficulty into their lives and
the lives of the nation. Then when they responded to the chaos and difficulty
that came into their lives by returning to the place where they sought Me and
relied upon Me, I returned to them. But King Asa, regardless of what you father
and grandfather did, make sure that you remain strong and do not let your guard
down when it comes to trusting and relying on Me in every circumstance."
We see how King Asa responded to this message from the Lord in verse 8:
Now when Asa heard these words and the
prophecy which Azariah the son of Oded the prophet spoke, he took courage and
removed the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from
the cities which he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim. He then
restored the altar of the LORD which was in front of the porch of the LORD.
King Asa responded to the Lord's message by continuing to
remove the images and
idols that portrayed false gods to instead follow the message and teachings of
the Lord. In addition, King Asa turned the Jewish people to seek the Lord and repaired the great
bronze altar in the Temple, which had fallen into damage and disrepair over the
years.
After repairing the altar, King Asa called the Jewish
people who had gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Weeks, or
Pentecost, to reaffirm the covenant promise with God that their ancestors had
first made during the time of Moses. We see how the Southern Kingdom responded
to King Asa's confident trust in the Lord and his leadership just a few verses
later in 2
Chronicles 15:15:
All Judah
rejoiced concerning the oath, for they had sworn with their whole heart and had
sought Him earnestly, and He let them find Him. So the LORD gave them rest on
every side.
The Jewish people of the
Southern Kingdom responded to King Asa's leadership and his confident trust in
the Lord by reaffirming their covenant commitment to follow the Lord. From the
core of their beings, the Jewish people sought to follow the Lord. And, just as
the prophet Azariah had promised, the Lord's presence was evident in
the lives of the Jewish people, which led the Jewish people to rejoice over
their willingness to trust and follow the Lord. And, just as the prophet Azariah had
promised, the Lord responded to the Jewish people's desire to seek and trust
Him by giving them peace and prosperity.
Now if King Asa’s story had ended there, King Asa’s
story would have been the perfect story. However, King Asa’s story did not end
there. Instead, King Asa’s story took a turn for the worse. A turn that we will
look at Friday...
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