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Like Solomon, King Asa of the southern kingdom of Yehudah (Judah) had a godly beginning to his life, but it’s about your character at the end of your life that matters. That’s where Asa went astray.
Texts: 1st Kings 15:9-32; 2nd Chron. 14:8-15:7; 16:7-14
To refresh your memory a little bit, King Asa is a great-grandson of David and a grandson of Absolom. Absolom worshiped himself, not God and most of Asa’s predecessors did not reign over the land to David’s high standards. We evaluate all the kings of Israel and Judah the same way. We will look at whether they had any weaknesses in terms of gathering up horses, money, and wives as well as his knowledge of God’s law. When one gathers lot of horses, one trusts in the instruments of war as power.
The gathering of money is burdensome taxation on the people.
Gathering up many wives and concubines divides the heart and loyalty of the king.
The Torah says kings were to write down their own copies of the law.
Asa did not have a divided heart, which gives him one up on Abiyam (Abijam), Rehoboam and Solomon, his forefathers.
He knew enough about the law that he knew what the law was and kept it well enough that he threw his grandmother out of her position as queen mother because of her idolatry.
Asa paid mercenaries to take out the Libyan and Ethiopian armies, which had conquered and plundered Egypt. Asa did pray to the Lord to give them victory so at least he understood where real safety and military victory rests. Asa plundered the stuff that the Libyans and Ethiopians left behind.
Asa was a dedicated servant of the Lord, until he got old. Rehoboam did really well in his first three years but then forgot about God.
Asa did very well for over 30 years. But then toward the end, he did something bad and when someone pointed it out, he didn’t take it well and put the seer/prophet in prison. Asa took all his money and all of God’s money and paid off the Syrian king ben-Hadad to take out Baasha king of Israel. He trusted in Syria’s army to take out Baasha king of Israel instead of trusting in God. When he was called out about this moral failure, his first reaction was not repentance but threw the prophet in prison and may have oppressed the prophet’s supporters too.
Asa later developed a severe disease in his feet, yet even in his disease he sought the help of physicians instead of repenting and seeking the Lord.
The book of Kings focuses more on the moral matters of the kings, while Chronicles focuses more on what the kings did, their historical feats.
There is a rule that when a king goes to war, including figuring out who might qualify for exemptions to service because the Torah lists several exemptions to military service. However, Asa drafted all the men to take away the stones of Ramah and its timber with which Baasha had built and then built the towns of Geba of Benjamin and Mizpah with them. This is oppressing the people and a rebellion against Torah.
God did not leave King Asa without opportunities for correction. God attacking Asa’s feet with disease was a correction not a condemnation.
Maacah, Rehoboam’s wife and Asa’s grandmother was a horrid influence on Asa’s life but it appears that there was someone who had a greater influence on Asa’s life that sent his life in a better direction. We see this bore fruit later in his son, Yehoshaphat (Jehoshaphat). Asa’s wife must have been a godly queen.
Asa saw that what his father and grandfather allowed to happen was evil and he did something about it. A sinner is one who dwells in sin, a sinner who walks away in sin, is no longer a sinner. When you recognize something is wrong, repent of it and walk a better way and you won’t be a sinner anymore.
Speaker: Daniel Agee. Summary: Tammy.
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