2 Chronicles 16:1-14

4. THE REIGN OF ASA (14-16)

TEXT

2 Chronicles 14:1. So Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David; and Asa his son reigned in his stead. In his days the land was quiet ten years. 2. And Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of Jehovah his God: 3. for he took away the foreign altars, and the high places, and brake down the pillars, and hewed down the Asherim, 4. and commanded Judah to seek Jehovah, the God of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandment. 5. Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the sun-images: and the kingdom was quiet before him. 6. And he built fortified cities in Judah; for the land was quiet, and he had no war in those years, because Jehovah had given him rest. 7, For he said unto Judah, Let us build these cities, and make about them walls, and towers, gates, and bars; the land is yet before us, because we have sought Jehovah our God; we have sought him, and he hath given us rest on every side, So they built and prospered. 8. And Asa had an army that bare bucklers and spears, out of Judah three hundred thousand; and out of Benjamin, that bare shields and drew bows, two hundred and fourscore thousand: all these were mighty men of valor.

9. And there came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian with an army of a thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots; and he came unto Mareshah. 10. Then Asa went out to meet him, and they set the battle in array in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah. 11. And Asa cried unto Jehovah his God, and said, Jehovah, there is none besides thee to help, between the mighty and him that hath no strength: help us, O Jehovah our God; for we rely on thee, and in thy name are we come against this multitude. O Jehovah, thou art our God; let not man prevail against thee. 12. So Jehovah smote the Ethiopians before Asa, and before Judah; and the Ethiopians fled. 13. And Asa and the people that were with him pursued them unto Gerar: and there fell of the Ethiopians so many that they could not recover themselves; for they were destroyed before Jehovah, and before his host; and they carried away very much booty. 14. And they smote all the cities round about Gerar; for the fear of Jehovah came upon them: and they despoiled all the cities; for there was much spoil in them. 15. They smote also the tents of cattle, and carried away sheep in abundance, and camels, and returned to Jerusalem.

2 Chronicles 15:1. And the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded: 2. and he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: Jehovah is with you, while ye are with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you. 3. Now for a long season Israel was without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law: 4. but when in their distress they turned unto Jehovah, the God of Israel, and sought him, he was found of them. 5. And in those times there was no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in; but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the lands. 6. And they were broken in pieces, nation against nation, and city against city; for God did vex them with all adversity. 7. But be ye strong, and let not your hands be slack; for your work shall be rewarded.

And when Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and put away the abominations out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from the hill-country of Ephraim; and he renewed the altar of Jehovah, that was before the porch of Jehovah. 9. And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and them that sojourned with them out of Ephraim and Manasseh, and out of Simeon: for they fell to him out of Israel in abundance, when they saw Jehovah his God was with him. 10. So they gathered themselves together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa. 11. And they sacrificed unto Jehovah in that day, of the spoil which they had brought, seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep. 12. And they entered into the covenant to seek Jehovah, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul; 13. and that whosoever would not seek Jehovah, the God of Israel, should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. 14. And they sware unto Jehovah with a loud voice, and with shouting and with trumpets, and with cornets. 15. And all Judah rejoiced at the oath; for they had sworn with all their heart, and sought him with their whole desire; and he was found of them: and Jehovah gave them rest round about.
16. And also Maacah, the mother of Asa the king, he removed from being queen, because she had made an abominable image for an Asherah and Asa cut down her image, and made dust of it, and burnt it at the brook Kidron. 17. But the high places were not taken away out of Israel: nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect all his days. 18. And he brought into the house of God the things that his father had dedicated, and that he himself had dedicated, silver, and gold, and vessels. 19. And there was no more war unto the five and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa.

2 Chronicles 16:1. In the six and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah, and built Ramah, that he might not suffer any one to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah. 2. Then Asa brought out silver and gold out of the treasures of the house of Jehovah and of the king's house, and sent to Ben-hadad king of Syria, that dwelt at Damascus, saying, 3. There is a league between me and thee, as there was between my father and thy father: behold, I have sent thee silver and gold; go break thy league with Baasha king of Israel, that he may depart from me. 4. And Ben-hadad hearkened unto king Asa, and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel; and they smote Ijon, and Dan, and Abel-maim, and all the store-cities of Naphtali. 5. And it came to pass, when Baasha heard thereof, that he left off building Ramah, and let his work cease. 6. Then Asa the king took all Judah; and they carried away the stones of Ramah, and the timber thereof, wherewith Baasha had builded; and he built therewith Geba and Mizpah.

7. And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and hast not relied on Jehovah thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thy hand. 8. Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubim a huge host, with chariots and horsemen exceeding many? yet, because thou didst rely on Jehovah, he delivered them into thy hand. 9. For the eyes of Jehovah run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly; for from henceforth thou shalt have wars. 10. Then Asa was wroth with the seer, and put him in the prison-house; for he was in a rage with him because of this thing. And Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time.
11. And, behold, the acts of Asa, first and last, lo, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. 12. And in the thirty and ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet; his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not to Jehovah, but to the physicians. 13. And Asa slept with his fathers, and died in the one and fortieth year of his reign. 14. And they buried him in his own sepulchres, which he had hewn out for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odors and divers kinds of spices prepared by the perfumers-' art: and they made a very great burning for him.

PARAPHRASE

2 Chronicles 14:1. King Abijah was buried in Jerusalem. Then his son Asa became the new king of Judah, and there was peace in the land for the first ten years of his reign, 2. for Asa was careful to obey the Lord his God. 3. He demolished the heathen altars on the hills, and broke down the obelisks, and chopped down the shameful Asherim-idols, 4. and demanded that the entire nation obey the commandments of the Lord God of their ancestors. 5. Also, he removed the sun-images from the hills, and the incense altars from every one of Judah's cities. That is why God gave his kingdom peace. 6. This made it possible for him to build walled cities throughout Judah. 7. Now is the time to do it, while the Lord is blessing us with peace because of our obedience to him, he told his people. Let us build and fortify cities now, with walls, towers, gates, and bars, So they went ahead with these projects very successfully. 8. King Asa's Judean army was 300,000 strong, equipped with light shields and spears. His army of Benjaminites numbered 280,000, armed with large shields and bows. Both armies were composed of well-trained, brave men.

9, 10. But now he was attacked by an army of 1,000,000 troops from Ethiopia with 300 chariots, under the leadership of General Zerah. They advanced to the city of Mareshah, in the valley of Zephathah, and king Asa sent his troops to meet them there. 11. O Lord, he cried out to God, no one else can help us! Here we are, powerless against this mighty army. Oh, help us, Lord our God! For we trust in you alone to rescue us, and in your name we attack this vast horde. Don-'t let mere men defeat you! 12. Then the Lord defeated the Ethiopians, and Asa and the army of Judah triumphed as the Ethiopians fled. 13. They chased them as far as Gerar, and the entire Ethiopian army was wiped out so that not one man remained; for the Lord and his army destroyed them all. Then the army of Judah carried off vast quantities of plunder. 14. While they were at Gerar they attacked all the cities in that area, and terror from the Lord came upon the residents. As a result additional vast quantities of plunder were collected from these cities too. 15. They not only plundered the cities, but destroyed the cattle tents and captured great herds of sheep and camels before finally returning to Jerusalem.

2 Chronicles 15:1. Then the spirit of God came upon Azariah (son of Oded), 2. and he went out to meet King Asa as he was returning from the battle. Listen to me, Asa! Listen, armies of Judah and Benjamin! he shouted. The Lord will stay with you as long as you stay with him! Whenever you look for him, you will find him. But if you forsake him, he will forsake you. 3. For a long time now, over in Israel, the people haven-'t worshiped the true God, and have not had a true priest to teach them. They have lived without God's laws. 4. But whenever they have turned again to the Lord God of Israel in their distress, and searched for him, he has helped them. 5. In their times of rebellion against God there was no peace. Problems troubled the nation on every hand. Crime was on the increase everywhere. 6. There were external wars, and internal fighting of city against city, for God was plaguing them with all sorts of trouble. 7. But you men of Judah, keep up the good work and don-'t get discouraged, for you will be rewarded.

8. When King Asa heard this message from God, he took courage and destroyed all the idols in the land of Judah and Benjamin, and in the cities he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim, and he rebuilt the altar of the Lord in front of the Temple. 9. Then he summoned all the people of Judah and Benjamin, and the immigrants from Israel (for many had come from the territories of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, in Israel, when they saw that the Lord God was with King Asa). 10. They all came to Jerusalem in June of the fifteenth year of King Asa's reign, 11. and sacrificed to the Lord seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheepit was part of the plunder they had captured in the battle. 12. Then they entered into a contract to worship only the Lord God of their fathers, 13. and agreed that anyone who refused to do this must diewhether old or young, man or woman. 14. They shouted out their oath of loyalty to God with trumpets blaring and horns sounding. 15. All were happy for this covenant with God, for they had entered into it with all their hearts and wills, and wanted him above everything else, and they found him! and he gave them peace throughout the nation.
16. King Asa even removed his mother Maacah from being the queen mother because she made an Asherah-idol; he cut down the idol and crushed and burned it at Kidron Brook. 17. Over in Israel the idol-temples were not removed. But here in Judah and Benjamin the heart of King Asa was perfect before God throughout his lifetime. 18. He brought back into the Temple the silver and gold bowls which he and his father had dedicated to the Lord. 19. So there was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of King Asa's reign.

2 Chronicles 16:1. In the thirty-sixth year of King Asa's reign. King Baasha of Israel declared war on him and built the fortress of Ramah in order to control the road to Judah. 2. Asa's response was to take the silver and gold from the Temple and from the palace, and to send it to King Ben-hadad of Syria, at Damascus, with this message: 3. Let us renew the mutual security pact that there was between your father and my father. See, here is silver and gold to induce you to break your alliance with King Baasha of Israel, so that he will leave me alone. 4. Ben-hadad agreed to King Asa's request and mobilized his armies to attack Israel. They destroyed the cities of Ijon, Dan, Abel-maim and all of the supply centers in Naphtali. 5. As soon as King Baasha of Israel heard what was happening, he discontinued building Ramah and gave up his plan to attack Judah. 6. Then King Asa and the people of Judah went out to Ramah and carried away the building stones and timbers and used them to build Geba and Mizpah instead.

7. About that time the prophet Hanani came to King Asa and told him, Because you have put your trust in the king of Syria instead of in the Lord your God, the army of the king of Syria has escaped from you. 8. Don-'t you remember what happened to the Ethiopians and Libyans and their vast army, with all of their chariots and cavalrymen? But you relied then on the Lord, and he delivered them all into your hand. 9. For the eyes of the Lord search back and forth across the whole earth, looking for people whose hearts are perfect toward him, so that he can show his great power in helping them. What a fool you have been; From now on you shall have wars. 10. Asa was so angry with the prophet for saying this that he threw him into jail. And Asa oppressed all the people at that time.
11. The rest of the biography of Asa is written in The Annals of the Kings of Israel and Judah. 12. In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became seriously diseased in his feet but he didn-'t go to the Lord with the problem, but to the doctors. 13, 14. So he died in the forty-first year of his reign, and was buried in his own vault that he had hewn out for himself in Jerusalem. He was laid on a bed perfumed with sweet spices and ointments, and his people made a very great burning of incense for him at his funeral.

COMMENTARY

Asa, the son Abijah, succeeded his father on the throne in Judah. The military activity of Abijah in the civil strife with Jeroboam and the northern kingdom brought a brief period (ten years) of comparative peace to Judah. Certain alliances between the southern kingdom and Syria had been established (1 Kings 15:19). It is possible that Asa became king when he was quite young. He reigned for forty one years. 2 Chronicles 14:1-8 describe the first ten years of Asa's reign. He launched a religious reformation. Jehovah's will was the primary consideration. Strange gods had been carried into Judah along with all of the related idolatrous ritual. There was but one genuine altar for religious sacrifices. It was located in the Temple. The foreign altars, by Asa's command, were to be destroyed. The high places were sometimes established on a natural elevation. On occasion devotees of a god would expend much labor to prepare a place suitable for the worship of the idol. The term pillar may mean an obelisk, a four sided post tapering as it rises and terminating in a pyramid. A pillar may simply refer to an image designed for worship. The Asherim were fashioned like poles or posts and sometimes were set up as groves of trees. The word is the plural for Asherah which was the female counterpart for Baal. Any reference to the Asherim immediately involved the Baalistic fertility cult. The sun images were made in the form of a pyramid and were often located in very prominent positions in the temples of Baal. They probably combined expressions of worship both of Baal and of the sun. In the days of Ahaz, king of Judah, shrines dedicated to sun worship were built in Jerusalem. These were equipped with priests, priestesses, horses and chariots (2 Kings 21:3-6). Asa indicated his intentions to be a worthy successor of David by clearing out all of the idolatrous establishments. When the land was well saturated with the furniture of paganism and when the people had so widely adopted heathen worship, a complete reformation was impossible, Asa commanded Judah to seek Jehovah. He was urgent about the matter. Jehovah rewarded Asa's good faith. The land was quiet; Jehovah had given him rest. The king busied himself with fortifying the villages in Judah. He encouraged his people as he said, the land is yet before us. The tribe of Judah provided an army of three hundred thousand men trained to carry spears and shields. The tribe of Benjamin equipped two hundred eighty thousand archers. The raising of this large army indicated that the peaceful days would soon be past.

Asa was soon called upon to do battle with the Ethiopians.[58] This attack probably came about 900 B.C. Zerah was a Cushite who had a great army of about one million foot soldiers supported by three hundred chariots. He brought this army into the country of Judah to Mareshah which lay about twelve miles northwest of Hebron. This is the same Mareshah of which Micah spoke (Micah 1:15). Asa's military forces were ill-equipped to engage this great host out of Ethiopia. Asa demonstrated his true metal when he cried unto Jehovah his God. The king admitted Judah's helplessness apart from Jehovah. He confidently believed that Judah's God could scatter the enemy and he appealed for Jehovah to prove once more that no enemy of Jehovah could prevail as he contested Jehovah's righteous reign. The historian sets the record in proper perspective when he writes, so Jehovah smote the Ethiopians.

[58] Cook, F. C., The Bible Commentary, I Samuel-Esther, p. 390

Gerar lay some twenty miles south west of Mareshah. With the Ethiopians in full retreat, Asa's army took full advantage of the situation. The enemy was broken before Jehovah. Asa's army was able to recapture much that the enemy had taken and the people of the southern kingdom returned loaded with the spoils of battle. The villages around Gerar were on the south west border of the Judah country. Asa took advantage of this military exercise as he spoiled these border villages and took with him cattle, sheep, and camels, The victory march back to Jerusalem must have been one of the truly happy occasions of Asa's reign.

LESSON EIGHTEEN 15-17

ASA, THE REFORMER; HANANI, MAN OF GOD.
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JEHOSHAPHAT

4. THE REIGN OF ASA-Continued (14-16)

INTRODUCTION

King Asa worked a religious reformation among his people. Asa's alliance with Syria brought the prophet's rebuke. Jehoshaphat provided good leadership for Judah.

TEXT

(Scripture text in Lesson Seventeen)

PARAPHRASE

(Scripture text in Lesson Seventeen)

COMMENTARY

Azariah, son of Oded, appears on the scene to bring the word of Jehovah to Asa. There are twenty eight different persons in the Old Testament named Azariah. The name Azariah means Jehovah is keeper. The prophet addressed his words specifically to Judah and Benjamin. The northern kingdom is called Israel in 2 Chronicles 14:3. Asa's only hope was to trust Jehovah. He must go with God. He must seek the Lord. The alternative carried with it some terrible consequences. If Jehovah's people are unfaithful, He will forsake them. Those Hebrews who had been a part of the northern kingdom had suffered anguish that could not be described. God had abandoned them. There was no priest to plead their cause. They did not even have the advantage of hearing the reading of the Law. There were some Israelites who in their extremity had turned to God in deep repentance. Azariah reminded Asa that Jehovah had heard their cry. The majority of the people in the northern kingdom had been carried into captivity and there they lost their identity. Azariah told Asa that these awful sorrows could be avoided if king and people would seek Jehovah. He charged the king to be courageous and promised that Asa's good work would be rewarded.

Azariah's ministry moved Asa to destroy all of the idols he could find in his kingdom. 2 Chronicles 14:8 speaks of the prophecy of Oded. Oded is mentioned here only because he was Azariah's father. The king repaired the altar of burnt offering and set it where it was supposed to be in the court of priests just in front of the Temple. The good work that Asa accomplished was advertised throughout the kingdom. From scattered places in the land of Palestine the people came to Jerusalem. Seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep were offered to Jehovah on the altar. The third month corresponds nearly with our month of May.

Jehovah's word through Azariah produced good results. As the king provided good leadership, the people were encouraged to do God's will. Once again the covenant (as in Genesis 12:1-3) was renewed. This commitment to the Lord was complete as Moses had demanded in his day (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). Asa was so certain that his reformation was what the Lord desired that he dared to pronounce the death penalty on anyone who would not cooperate. An idolatrous city, a false prophet, or a person who worshipped idols were to be destroyed or put to death according to the Law (Deuteronomy 13). In this matter there was to be no respect of persons. 2 Chronicles 14:14 and 2 Chronicles 14:15 describe what happens when God's Spirit moves His people. Azariah had come clothed in the Spirit. He shared the Spirit with Asa. The king by his strong leadership and his fear of Jehovah shared the Spirit with all of the people. They pledged themselves to the Lord. They praised Him with song and musical instruments. Peace reigned in their hearts and in their land.

If a king deprived a queen mother of her authority in the kingdom, he had to have a very good reason for his action. From Bathsheba's time the queen mother had exercised considerable power in Jerusalem. Maacah, queen mother had set up an Asherah (a pole or an obelisk) which she used in her worship of Baal. Asa dared to ruin her place of worship and to remove her from the government of Judah. Making dust out of an image reminds us of the golden calf at Sinai. The Kidron valley had already been desecrated by heathen worship, so it was a proper place to burn this idol. Asa did what he could to work a complete reformation. He was not able to remove all idolatry because so much of it remained in the hearts of the people. He did what he could to re-establish the Temple and make it the true center of worship for Jehovah's people. He could not live long enough nor could he exercise sufficient authority to completely cleanse the people and the land. His heart was perfect all his days. This does not mean that he made no mistakes or that he did not sin. He conscientiously tried to do God's will.

Baasha was used by Jehovah to bring the dynasty of Jeroboam to an end. Nadab, Jeroboam's son, had sinned like his father. One day Nadab was in the village of Gibbethon about twenty miles north west of Jerusalem. Baasha killed Nadab and began to reign as Israel's king (1 Kings 15:25-28). Late in the reign of Asa, Baasha fortified the southern boundary of his kingdom at Ramah (about eight miles north of Jerusalem). Baasha did not want his people to have any contact with the southern kingdom. Asa was alarmed at Baasha's military action and he made a counter move in buying protection from Benhadad and the Syrians. Such alliances were contrary to Jehovah's purpose; however, Asa's move was very effective in causing Baasha to discontinue his fortifying the southern border of Israel. Once more the Temple was robbed of its treasures in order to pay the Syrians. Ben-hadad was in an agreement with Baasha. He did not hesitate to break this pact. The Syrians attacked the northern border of Baasha's kingdom at Ijon, Dan, and Abel-maim. These places were located in Naphtali not far from Mount Hermon. When Baasha learned about these border attacks, he withdrew from Ramah. Asa took advantage of the situation and used stones and timbers out of Ramah to fortify Geba and Mizpah on the north border of the southern kingdom. Geba was about ten miles north of Jerusalem in the territory of Benjamin. Mizpah was about three miles north west of Geba.

Hanani appeared at this time to rebuke Asa for trusting in Syria rather than in Jehovah. A seer was one who by Jehovah's endowment had more knowledge and understanding than ordinary persons. Samuel was called a seer when Saul was hunting his father's lost asses (1 Samuel 9:9). Hanani implied that the Syrians should have been defeated in battle instead of being paid money as allies. Asa was reminded of the great victory over the Ethiopians (2 Chronicles 14:9) which Jehovah granted because Asa and Judah trusted God. The prophet declared that nothing happens among men which is hidden from Jehovah's eyes. Wherever He finds one whose heart is perfect, He provides whatever may be needed. The man with the perfect heart relies on the Lord and thinks His thoughts after Him. Asa was charged with foolishness and was informed that he would be involved in war for the remainder of his reign. Like other prophets who had spoken unpopular messages, Hanani was mistreated by Asa. He was thrown into a house of stocks, a place of torture. Asa was so upset by the words of the seer that he turned his wrath upon some of the citizens of his kingdom. In these matters Asa showed himself to be unworthy of the high office which he filled.

Historians were a part of Asa's cabinet and they kept careful records of his reign. So Asa's life was recorded in the book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. The king's last years were most difficult. He was involved in war and all of the attendant political problems. He also suffered from diseased feet. He could have been afflicted with gout.[59] In these extreme circumstances he failed to call on God. He forgot his manner of life when he was a great reformer. Asa turned only to physicians for healing and forgot to turn to Jehovah in prayer. He began his reign very well. He concluded his life in misery and shame. After a reign of forty one years he died. He was granted all of the honors of a kingly burial and his remains were placed in a grave which he had prepared for himself. The great burning had to do with spices and incense burned at the time of the king's death.

[59] Clarke, Adam, A Commentary and Critical Notes, Vol. II, p. 663