A Good Start, A Bad Ending

2 Chronicles 14–16: Asa’s Good Start and Early Faithfulness

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now here's a message.

From Pastor Chris Roseberg. A reading from 2nd Chronicles chapters 14, 15, and 16. Abijah slept with his fathers and they buried him in the city of David. And Asa his son reigned in his place. In his days the land had rest for ten years.

Then Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. He took away the foreign altars and the high places and broke down the pillars and cut down the Asherim and commanded Judah to seek Yahweh the God of their fathers and to keep the law and the commandment.

He also took out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the incense altars and the kingdom had rest under him. He built fortified cities in Judah for the land had rest. He had no war in those years for the Lord gave him peace.

And 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 peace on every side.

So they built and they prospered. And Asa had an army of 300 ,000 from Judah armed with large shields and spears and 280 ,000 men from Benjamin that carried shields and drew bows. All these were mighty men of valor.

Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million men and 300 chariots and came as far as Mereshah. And Asa went out to meet him and they drew up their lines of battle in the valley of Zephathah at Mereshah.

And Asa cried to Yahweh his God, O Yahweh there is none like you to help between the mighty and the weak. Help us O Yahweh our God for we rely on you. And in your name we have come against this multitude.

O Yahweh you are our God let not man prevail against you. So Yahweh defeated 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 the Ethiopians fell until none remained alive and they were broken before Yahweh and his army.

The men of Judah carried away very much spoil and they attacked all the cities around Gerar for fear of the Lord was upon them. They plundered all the cities for there was much plunder in them and they struck down the tents of those who had livestock and carried away sheep in abundance and camels.

Then they returned to Jerusalem. The Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded and he went out to meet Asa and said to him hear me Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. Yahweh is with you while you are with him.

If you seek him he will be found by you but if you forsake him he will forsake you. For a long time Israel was without true God and without a teaching priest and without law but when their distress but in their distress they turned to Yahweh the God of Israel and sought him.

He was found by them. In those times there was no peace to him who went out or to him who came in for great disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of the lands. They were broken in pieces. Nation was crushed by nation and city by city for God troubled them with every sort of distress but you take courage do not let your hands be weak for your work shall be rewarded.

Asa’s Reform, Covenant Renewal, and the Warning of Legalism

As soon as Asa heard these words the prophecy of Azariah the son of Oded he took courage and put away the detestable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities that he had taken in the hill country of Ephraim and he repaired the altar of Yahweh that was in front of the vestibule of the house of Yahweh and he gathered all Judah and Benjamin and those from Ephraim and Manasseh and Simeon who were residing with them for great numbers had deserted to him from Israel when they saw that Yahweh his God was with him.

They were gathered at Jerusalem in the third month of the 15th year of the reign of Asa. They sacrificed to Yahweh on that day from the spoil that they had brought 700 oxen 7 ,000 sheep and they entered into a covenant to seek Yahweh the God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul but that but that whoever would not seek Yahweh the God of Israel should be put to death whether young or old man or woman they swore an oath to Yahweh with a loud voice and was shouting with trumpets and with horns and all of Judah rejoiced over the oath for they had sworn with all their heart and had sought him with their whole desire and he was found by them and Yahweh gave them rest all around.

Even Ma 'acha his mother King Asa removed from being Queen Mother because she had a detestable image for Asherah. Asa cut down her image crushed it and burned it at the Brook Kidron but the high places were not taken out of Israel nevertheless the heart of Asa was holy true all of his days and he brought into the house of God the sacred gift of his father and his own sacred gifts silver and gold and vessels and there was no more war until the 35th year of the reign of Asa.

In the 36th year of the reign of Asa Baasha the king of Israel went up against Judah and built Rama that he might permit no one to go out or to come in to king Asa king of Judah. Then Asa took silver and gold from the treasures of the house of Yahweh and the king's house and sent them to Ben Hadad the king of Syria who lived in Damascus saying there is a covenant between me and you and there is between my father and your father behold I am sending to you silver and gold go break your covenant with Baasha the king of Israel that he may withdraw from me and Ben Hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel and they conquered Eshan, Dan, Abomaim and the store cities of Naphtali and when Baasha heard of it he stopped building Rama and let his work cease.

Then King Asa took all of Judah and they carried away the stones of Rama and its timber with which Baasha had been building and with them he built Geba and Mizpah. At the time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him because you relied on the king of Syria and did not rely on Yahweh your God the army of the king of Syria has escaped.

You were not the Ethiopians and the Libyans a huge army with very much chariots and horsemen yet because you relied on Yahweh he gave them into your hand. For the eyes of Yahweh run to and fro throughout the whole earth to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.

You have done foolishly in this for from now on you will have wars. Then Asa was angry with the seer and put him in the stocks in prison for he was in a rage with him because of this and Asa inflicted cruelties upon some of the people at the same time.

The acts of Asa from the first to the last are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. In the 39th year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet and his disease became severe. Yet even in his disease he did not seek Yahweh but sought help from physicians and Asa slept with his father's dying.

In the 41st year of his reign they buried him in the tomb that he had cut for himself in the city of David. They laid him on a beer that had been filled with various kinds of spices prepared by the perfumers art and they made a very great fire in his honor.

Christ, Not Asa, Is Our Peace and Our Enduring Hope

Oh Lord have mercy on us in the name of Jesus. Good start bad ending. Right. Let this be a warning to us all that each and every one of us are capable even in our in our aging years of wandering from faithfulness to God.

You'll note that Asa really started well but in chapter 15 there are the seeds of his undoing and I'll explain why. In fact this was a tough nut of a text. One of my favorite Old Testament scholars kind of puts it this way.

When it comes to the Old Testament he his suggestion is turn it keep turning it turn it again turn it again. There's a lot of deep meaning in here. You have to kind of dig it out and sometimes if you can't really see it at first if you just keep at it you'll still get it.

So think of it this way all right. We learn that God gave King Asa something unique in his day and that was peace all right back in his day that was that was a very uncommon thing. And of course where Israel was situated they were between Syria and Egypt and they were constantly getting as mr. Miyagi would say getting squish right.

They were just in the middle of the whole mess and and of course God had torn Israel apart torn it into two pieces in Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom. And the Northern Kingdom was always kind of well harassing the Southern Kingdom.

There was always little tensions and frictions between them. And then when they were getting along it didn't take too long before they weren't getting along anymore. It's kind of like sisters and brothers.

You know they just sometimes they get along and they they love each other and then next thing you know they can't stand each other and they had it's just it's just awful right. But let's see if we can figure out what went wrong with Asa.

Why did he all of a sudden go from seeking Yahweh to not seeking him. It's kind of an interesting interesting idea. So here's how the text unfolds. Asa began to reign after his father Abijah died and for ten full years the land had rest and Asa was a very busy King.

Very early on he did what was right in the eyes of Yahweh his God. He took away the foreign altars the high places broke down the pillars cut down the Asherim and commanded Judah to seek Yahweh the God of their fathers and to keep the Torah and the commandments.

And he also took out of the cities of Judah the high places the incense altars. The kingdom had rest under him. I mean he built fortified cities in Judah and the land had rest. He had no war. And during the time when he had no war did he sit on his laurels and do nothing playing candy crush on his iPhone all day.

No. Okay he was busy building up and fortifying the cities. Because you'll note this that a good time to prepare for bad times is during the good times right. That's kind of how it goes if things are going well for you right now stockpile start to work things out get ready build a nest egg.

Because you don't know when the day of calamity will come. That's exactly what he did. And so we learn here. He had an army personally in Judah of 300 ,000 soldiers and of Benjamin which was still part of the southern kingdom 280 ,000 so between the two tribes not quite 600 ,000 men.

But that's a pretty sizable amount of people. Right. But then well the day comes when things go bad. All of a sudden Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million men. And how in antiquity you would feed a million man army on an expedition is beyond me.

I mean this had to take some doing. He only had 300 chariots but I mean with a million men he could have come at Israel with rakes and you know and would have done. Okay. At least you would seem right.

They came as far as Marashah and Asa went out to meet him which was his duty as king. They drew up their lines of battle in the valley of Zephathah at Marashah and Asa cried to Yahweh his God. And this is a great prayer.

Oh Yahweh there is none like you to help between the mighty and the weak. Help us. Oh Lord our God. Notice. He doesn't decree doesn't declare. He doesn't command and control. He he pleads. He asked God.

Humble supplication humble prayer. It's a good one. And so he prays. And he says you are Yahweh our God. Let not man prevail against us. And verse 12 says very definitively Yahweh defeated the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah who won the battle.

It wasn't Asa it was Yahweh. Yahweh can take a million man army and whittle them down to nothing. In fact he can cause them to be terrified and their knees to knock him for them to flee the battlefield for no particularly good reason except for the he's the one who brought fear upon them.

You don't want to fight against Yahweh. So Asa and the people who were with him pursued the Ethiopians as far as Gerar and the Ethiopians fell until none remained alive. That was a terrible cataclysmic end for an expedition.

They were broken before Yahweh and his army. The men of Judah carried away very much spoil and they attacked all the cities around Gerar for the fear of Yahweh was upon them. They plundered all the cities.

There was much plunder in them. They struck down the tents of those who had livestock and carried away the sheep in abundance and camels. And then they returned to Jerusalem. And then yes Luke Skywalker and the Ewoks were all celebrating.

It was a big deal. Right. Okay. In fact they were planning a Christmas special after this. It was just amazing. Okay I got the response I was looking for. That's all that matter. Yep. Yep. Anyway. So chapter 15 then recounts what happens in the immediate aftermath of Yahweh defeating the Ethiopians.

And so first person to show up is a prophet of God by the name of Azariah the son of Oded. And he went out to meet Asa and said to him now hear me Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. Yahweh is with you while you are with him.

If you seek him he will be found by you. But if you forsake him he will forsake you. For a long time Israel was out without the true God and without teaching priests and without law. But when in their distress they turned to Yahweh the God of Israel and sought him he was found by them.

In those times there was no peace to him who went out or to him who came in for great disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of the lands. They were broken in pieces. Nations were crushed by nation city by city for God troubled them with every sort of distress.

But you take courage do not let your hands be weak for your work shall be rewarded. And this is a true prophecy that was given by Azariah and words of encouragement from Yahweh prompting them to what to continue to trust in God to hear his words and recognize that even if God seems like he's not around here seek him you will find him.

He desires to be found by you. So take heart trust his words and do as he has said. Now as soon as Asa heard the words of the prophecy of Azariah the son of Oded he took courage. And he goes on a reform binge.

A good one right. Getting rid of all of the things that are contrary to the Ten Commandments especially that first commandment. He put away the detestable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities that he had taken in the hill country of Ephraim repaired the altar of Yahweh that was in front of the vestibule of the house of the Yahweh.

We also learned from first kings that he got rid of all of the male cult prostitutes praise God. Right. So he's really doing exactly what he should be doing. He gathered all of Judah and Benjamin and those from Ephraim Manasseh and Simeon who were residing with them for great numbers had deserted to him from Israel when they saw that Yahweh was with him.

A little bit of a note here think of it this way. There was a little bit of an exodus taking place in the northern kingdom. The northern kingdom is marked by rank idolatry. Rank idolatry. And what has happened is is that the faithful up in the northern kingdom when they see that Yahweh is with King Asa they decide to leave their inheritance in the north and come down and live in the southern kingdom.

A little bit of an exodus. Think of it similar to what's happening with Californians leaving California and going to Texas although it's not for godly reasons. It has more to do with the fact that they elected a bunch of people who taxed them to death and so they're hoping that Texas will be a little more merciful tax-wise as long as they don't elect the same kind of official should be okay.

Right. But the idea here is is that there's a there's a exodus a flood of people leaving the northern kingdom which is going to strengthen Asa's hand and weaken the northern kingdom. But here's where things are going to begin to get a little sketchy all right.

Here's what happened next. All of them were gathered at Jerusalem in the third month of the 15th year of the reign of Asa. They sacrificed to Yahweh on that day from the spoil that they had brought 700 oxen 7 ,000 sheep.

So this is still in the aftermath of the war with the Ethiopians and they entered into a covenant to seek Yahweh the God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul. But whoever would not seek Yahweh the God of Israel should be put to death whether young or old man or woman.

Now on the surface this might seem good but it's not. Let me explain. This is not merely a renewal of the Mosaic Covenant. This is adding to the Mosaic Covenant. And you'll note throughout the scriptures when we see prophets arise and they call sinners to repentance those who have been faithless those who have committed the sin of idolatry or other sins God always calls them to repentance and assures them of his forgiveness.

But this covenant that they cut this covenants different and basically says you must seek Yahweh with all your heart all your soul or I kill you. You're dead. Who's going to enforce this. What's going to be the the standard for evidence.

Is this really the kind of covenant that God has made with Israel. No in fact a good way to think of it is this. This is a covenant that is all law and no gospel. And a covenant that is all law without any gospel in it.

How long do you think they're going to be committed to keeping that thing. You know I always like to talk about my time as a Nazarene. Don't dance drink smoke chew. Right. And you can always tell the Nazarenes in the liquor store because they never look up.

They always make sure not to make eye contact. Right. But the thing is is that you'll note that that kind of approach when it comes to God leads to rank hypocrisy. It legitimately does where they've set a standard that not even God has kept.

Because the purpose of the law is to show us our sin. That's its primary purpose. It also shows us what a good work is but to sit here and say well you are going well. Thank you Azariah for your prophecy.

So we're gonna make it a new. We're starting a new covenant. We're making a new pact with God. If you don't see God with all your heart you're dead. Doesn't matter who you are if you're young or old or whatever.

Yeesh right. And here's the thing you do this. And it's just a matter of time before you are caught by your own standard. And that's the problem. And I would note that people wither away their faith isn't built by such legalistic standards.

Their faith is oftentimes hurt and impaired by it. You'll note that if there's a funny thing that happens when you have a generation that goes hard into legalism a form of pietism that is not exactly the piety of scripture.

And they rigidly demand that people obey that standard. The generation that grows up underneath that they swing hard to the left. And then and what do they end up doing. They basically end up abandoning God altogether and making things far far worse.

But both errors are wrong. Legalism pietism not piety. Legalism pietism is one extreme. And on the other side you have liberal licentiousness. Both of them are errors. And that requires us to consider the scripture teaches us to hold law and gospel intention.

You cannot break this tension. And this is where Asa is going to go off the rails. Now you'll know right out of the chute after they make this covenant. Asa even goes after one of the most privileged women in all of Judah his own mother the Queen Mother.

He deposed her took her out of her job. Why. Because she made a detestable image for Asherah. Asa cut down her image crushed it burned it at the Brook Kidron and but the high places were not taken out of Israel.

That's the northern kingdom. He had no say about that. Nevertheless the heart of Asa was holy true all of his days. But the thing is you can see he's drifting. He brought into the house of God the sacred gifts of his father his own sacred gifts silver and gold and vessels.

He gives gifts gives tithes and offerings to the temple. Good thing. But there's something gonna go wrong here. And then there was no more war until the 35th year of the reign of Asa. And this is where peace then disappears.

And you can see what's happened. So all of that covenant was done in the 15th year of his reign. We fast forward to the 35th year of his reign. 20 years later and in the 36th year of the reign of Asa Baasha the king of Israel went up against Judah and built Rama.

Basically think of it this way. This is an early attempt at Trump's wall and the whole goal here is to keep people from leaving the northern kingdom and coming down to the southern kingdom to keep them bottled in and use Rama strategically as a fortress city that he can then harass and maybe even launch an attack against the southern kingdom so that he might permit no one to go out or to come to Asa the king of Judah.

Then Asa took silver and gold and watch the word from from the treasures of the house of Yahweh and the king's house. He took it from where he went into the into the temple's bank account and decided he was going to empty it.

Isn't that stealing. And isn't that stealing from you know God that's kind of the point. What what what about this covenant that you made back in the 15th year of your reign. Anybody who doesn't seek Yahweh with all of his heart shall be put to death.

Doesn't matter if they're young or old. Right. Well I would say that stealing from God is mmm is the opposite of while seeking the Lord. Right. We're just gonna take from God. Okay. So he took all the silver and gold took it and sent it to the king of Syria.

His name is Ben Haddad. And he said there's a covenant between me and you as there was between my father and your father. Behold I'm sending to you silver and gold. You go break your covenant with Bashar the king of Israel so that he may withdraw from me.

Then Ben Haddad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel and they conquered Ishan Dan Abba Mayim and the store cities of Naphtali. And when Bashar heard of it he stopped building Rama and let his work cease.

Then King Asa took all Judah and they carried away the stones of Rama and its timber with which Bashar had been building and with them he built Geba and Mizpah. And there's Asa going. Yes job well done.

We've achieved our objectives. But there's a problem here and that's a big problem. Remember that covenant that you made that you needed to seek the Lord with all your heart. So God sends a prophet a seer by the name of Hanani and he came to Asa the king of Judah and said to him because you relied on the king of Syria and did not rely on Yahweh your God the army of the king of Syria has escaped you.

We're not the Ethiopians and the Libyans a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen. Yet because you relied on Yahweh he gave them into your hand. For the eyes of Yahweh run to and fro throughout the whole earth to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.

You have done foolishly in this. For from now on you will have wars. Whoops. Now remember when David was confronted with his sin and the whole Bathsheba Uriah the Hittite thing murder adultery. It's a still makes the headlines.

If you think about it when he was confronted by Nathan the prophet what did. What did David say. I have sinned against Yahweh. That's all he said. That would have been the right thing for him to do. But here's the thing hypocrites can't.

Hypocrites can't ever admit that they've done anything wrong. It's like dealing with a theological Karen. Okay it's a bad bad space to be in. And so hypocrites they never do anything wrong. They deflect they project they punish.

It's just a mess. And so what did Asa do when he was confronted by God's prophet Hanani. It says Asa was angry with the seer and put him in stocks in prison for he was in a rage with him because of this which means Hanani is now being persecuted for speaking the truth.

So note Asa didn't repent. Instead he put Hanani in prison and put him in put him in the stocks which means his hands and his feet were probably fettered because you'll note ancient prisons were not exactly the greatest of places right.

I'm sure he wasn't playing basketball and lifting weights at the lunch hour out in the out in the playground. Okay something very different. So and Asa then also inflicted cruelties upon some of the people at the same time.

And what's the problem here again he has taken the Word of God and turned it all the way up to 11 on the law but doesn't understand how mercy and forgiveness repentance and God even forgiving of sins rather than confessing he's now punishing the one who spoke the truth to him.

And then we learned that God well not only took peace away from Judah at this time but very shortly after this Asa gets sick. And his sickness is kind of a poetic justice if you think about it. The acts of Asa from the first to the last they're written in the book of the kings of Judah and that so in the 39th year of his reign just a few years later Asa was diseased in his feet and his feet became and his disease became severe.

One has to wonder is this an undiagnosed form of what diabetes maybe that we're dealing with here losing his feet. And if you think about it it kind of makes sense. He put Hanani in prison in the stocks fettered his hands and his feet.

Well guess whose feet now are gonna be punished as well. You see God when he punishes he's very meticulous about how he does it now. Important note here the scriptures say very consistently that Asa always had faith in God.

That is not the problem here. Asa here is now being disciplined by God because he's theologically and morally in the wrong. And as a result of it he's being stubborn and pig-headed just like hypocrites are prone to do.

And so God is allowing him to suffer in the hopes that he would repent that he would see his wrong and that he would ask God to forgive and maybe even ask Hanani to forgive him for doing what he did. It says this though terrible words.

Yet even in his disease he did not seek Yahweh but he sought the help from physicians. Now we have to tear this one apart a little bit here in the ancient world physicians didn't exist like the way we know them.

Okay so you go to all true. You make an appointment with the doctor. Right. You go in and they run tests and things like this and then they they do an MRI a CAT scan they do blood work all this kind of stuff.

And then they come back and say here's what's here's what's wrong with you. Physicians back in Asa's day were a little bit more in the camp of like soothsayers and that there was witchcraft and thing you know things like this involved and this is not a good thing.

So it's important to note here that this is not telling us that we are sinning if we go to the doctor. And you'll note as Christians when we run into the inevitable bodily breakdown what do we do. We pray.

Right. We pray for a lot of people here every single Sunday we pray but in praying that we then not seek the help of doctors and professionals. Of course we don't. We do. We go and we see our doctor. And if the doctor says here's what's wrong with you.

And prescribe something and medical treatment and it works. What do we say. Thank you Lord for healing me. How did he heal you through his doctor. Through your doctors. Right. But here's the thing Asa didn't seek Yahweh at all when faced with his own mortality he didn't even cry out to God at all.

What is that. I would say that's a bad and foolish and faithless thing to do because God allows and God brings in inflicts things on people for the hope that they would seek him and repent. So Asa slept with his father's dying in the 41st year of his reign.

The Warning of Asa’s End and the Call to End Well

And what we learn from this number one piece is one of those things that comes from God. But also war conflict difficulties pain and suffering these are all brought on by God for our good in whatever it is that he sends these things.

And then we also need to recognize this. And that is that Asa's story truly is a warning to us a warning to us that each and every one of us are capable of falling. Each and every one of us even if we had a good start in our lives we can end.

Well we cannot rest on the laurels of our faith from yesterday. But we must continue to believe Christ is the one who endures to the end will be saved but endures in what legalism no endures in penitent faith in our God.

Who is the one who has brought us peace. We were to think about it this way the one who ended up having to die for Asa's foolishness for Asa's like ridiculous stubborn refusal to recognize his own sin.

That had to be his great great great great grandson Jesus who bore his sins on the tree. And you'll note that unlike Asa Jesus never pillaged and plundered the temple of God or stole its money. In fact he was quite zealous because there were people who had turned the temple of God into a money-changing venture and Jesus made a whip of cords and drove them out.

Get out of here right. And also Jesus he humbly humbly continued to seek the father even in the face of his own death. And he cried out Lord God my father if it's possible let this cup pass from me but again not my will but your will be done.

Where Asa ended poorly. Christ never ever faltered. And this is good news for us because each and every one of us we do have seasons in our lives when we do falter. Lent is a time for us to again consider the different ways in which we have fallen short.

And maybe one of the ways that we have fallen short is taking the gospel for granted and somehow putting our faith on a well autopilot by letting the law just can continue to be the thing that we focus on rather than both law and gospel.

But Christ is the one who has bled and died for us and he has promised us because he is the prince of peace that we now are reconciled to God the warfare is ended and that because of what he has done and we and we now trusting in him because he's given us the gift of faith we have nothing to fear from God even if there be war or difficulty or prison in our lifetime or whatever it is that faces us.