Your Brother Daniel
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The
Not-so-Unusual Case of King Asa
What lessons can we
learn from Old Testament history? The Apostle Paul claimed that we can learn
much:
· Now these things occurred as examples to keep us
from setting our hearts on evil things as they did… We should not test Christ,
as some of them did— and were killed by snakes.
And do not grumble, as some of them did— and were killed by the
destroying angel. These things happened to them as examples and were written
down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be
careful that you don’t fall! (1 Cor. 10:6-12)
King Asa had been a good
king:
· 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 Chron. 14:2-5)
God blessed Asa through
his obedience. When confronted with the greatly superior Cushite army, which
was invading Judah, he prayed:
· “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.” (2 Chron. 14:11)
The Lord granted Asa an
overwhelming victory but sent the Prophet Azariah to him with a warning:
· “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin.
The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found
by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.” (2 Chron. 15:2)
Asa took the Azariah’s
words to heart and continued to make reforms pleasing to the Lord. However, by
his 36th year as king, it seems that Asa began to trust in his own judgments.
King Baasha of Israel,
with the help of Ben-hadad, king of Syria, were preparing in invade Judah. Asa
decided to handle the threat by bribing Ben-hadad to turn against Baasha, and
it worked! However, God was not pleased and sent the Prophet Hanani to Asa:
· “Because you relied on the king of Aram [Syria]
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 Chron. 16:7-9)
Sadly, Asa did not
repent, but threw the prophet in jail and “inflicted cruelties on some of the
people.” Did success go to his head? Clearly, he was no longer trusting God as
he had!
This account is
troubling on a number of levels, but it is not unusual. King Solomon had
started well. He had prayed for wisdom so that he could reign faithfully as did
his father David:
· I am only a little child and do not know how to
carry out my duties… So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your
people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern
this great people of yours?” (1 Kings 3:7-9)
God was pleased and
granted Solomon surpassing wisdom. However, Solomon later turned from the Lord.
Jehoshaphat had also
been a good king. However, at the end of his life, he too failed to follow God
as he should have. Instead, he partnered with the wicked and was chastened:
· Eliezer son of Dodavahu of Mareshah prophesied
against Jehoshaphat, saying, “Because you have made an alliance with Ahaziah,
the Lord will destroy what you have made.” The ships were wrecked and were not
able to set sail to trade. (2 Chron. 20:37)
What relevance do these
troubling accounts of backsliding have for us believers in Jesus? For years, I
struggled with such accounts. After all, the Apostle Paul promised that God
works all things for the good for His children (Romans 8:28). However, these
accounts seem to indicate that God allowed some of His children to backslide,
even to their destruction.
But could these dismal
accounts pertain to believers in Jesus? It seems that they did. We have the
example of a couple who had lied to the church and were struck dead by the Lord
(Acts 5:1-10).
Perhaps even more
troubling is Paul’s assertion that God had actually removed some who were
destined for heaven:
· For those who eat and drink without discerning
the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. That is why many among you are weak and sick,
and a number of you have fallen asleep [died].
But if we were more discerning with regard to ourselves, we would not
come under such judgment. Nevertheless,
when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that
we will not be finally condemned with the world. (1 Cor. 11:29-32)
Here were heaven-bound
believers but who had backslid so badly that God had taken them out in order to
eventually save them. However, it seemed to me that this teaching could not be reconciled
with the fact that God was working all things together for good. If God had
been working all things for good, it would seem that He would not have allowed
such lethal backsliding.
Later, however, I began
to see that the ultimate good might not be served by God always rescuing us
from our arrogance. Instead, Paul’s words intervened:
· So, if you think you are standing firm, be
careful that you don’t fall! (1 Cor. 10:12)
It is therefore
imperative that this warning remains in our thinking – the same lesson that we
learn from the accounts of Israel’s kings.
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