Bible Study - 2 Chronicles 15:16-19

You may be seated. Please turn to 2nd Chronicles chapter 15. I'll read beginning in verse 16 here. Even Maaka the mother his mother King Asa removed from being queen mother because she had made 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 his days and he brought into the house of God the sacred gifts 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.

Amen. All right. So first of all my apologies. There are a number of Miswritten readings well two different ones and then several that didn't get written in that should have been obvious enough since you were comparing first Kings.

But the good news is that I've been using AI to edit my writing and it finds all these things. It says you probably meant this other reference instead. Yes, I did. Wow. So yeah, that was supposed to be Exodus 32 instead of Exodus 20 and then I'm not even sure What the second Kings 18 one was supposed to be.

I think it was supposed to be the passage earlier in the chapter but Beginning with verse 16 and also Maaka the mother of Asa the king he removed from being Queen. Alright, so Maaka is Queen and that she has authority over various aspects of the kingdom.

Queen doesn't just refer to being the wife of One of the Kings it refers to actually exercising authority. Something up. Sorry. Was that a signal to me? Okay. Okay. So Yeah, she is ace's grandmother. It mentions her being mother.

Remember the various layers of Parents and ancestors aren't Delineated typically in these passages, so she is his grandmother as we saw earlier and Well. Actually, I'm not sure where you'd have to go back to see that but it talks about her when it talks about Rehoboam and then What is the significance of him removing her.

Well, he's taking charge over the spiritual health of the nation he's doing that even by removing his own relatives, so he's willing to. Yeah, he's willing to take this seriously in that way and then how does this relate to the preceding context.

Well It's a continuing example of Asa's reform because we've had some examples of that already. There are a number of things to Note here actually, let me go on to the next next passage. What is Ashera?

What is the image? How's this relate to Asa removing Maaka? She had made an abominable image for Ashera. Okay, this is some pagan God. Usually it's just called unashera right. But Ashera here is being used as the name.

So it shows that when they talk about these Asherim these different poles or trees That are somehow used in worship this goddess related trees. It is actually talking about a god or goddess. And Uh. Yeah.

So that image is probably just some pole of some kind most likely. How does this relate to Asa removing Maaka? Well, the fact that she had set up the image demonstrates. She's a negative influence on the whole country so he removes not only the idolatry that she set up but even her as an agent of this idolatry and Of course the Ashera are gods that were served in the land of Canaan or well the images of this one God in the land of Canaan, so it's significant that She is leading them into the idolatry of the land rather than rather than serving the true God.

16 C and Asa cut down her image and made dust of it and burn it at the brook Kidron. Okay, the significance of making dust. What is the significance of doing this at the brook and how does it relate to the narrative in Exodus?

So that was supposed to be Exodus 32. I'll go ahead and read that Exodus 32 15 through 20. Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand. Tablets that were written on both sides on the front and on the back.

They were written the tablets were the work of God and the writing was the writing of God. Engraved on the tablets when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted. He said to Moses There is a noise of war in the camp.

But he said it is not the sound of shouting for victory, but the sound of a cry of defeat or the sound of a cry of defeat but the sound of singing that I hear. And As soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing Moses anger burned hot.

He threw the tablets out of his hand and broke them at the foot of the mountain. He took the calf that they had made and Burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.

Okay, so Moses seeing the golden calf ground calf threw it into the water and made people drink the water. Very similar scene to what you have here so. Yeah, how does it relate? Well, it seems very clear as we've repeatedly seen the Chronicler add descriptions to the Kings that show that they are very similar to Moses.

Remember Solomon hired someone who is skilled in purple and scarlet, etc. Just like Moses hired Bezalel who's skilled and purple and scarlet and we've had a number of similarities. Here he introduces the idea that it is crushed down to dust what you see in ESV just as being crushed.

Same thing, you know, the statement of dust is just making it dust is the same thing as crushing it. That is yeah showing that he is a leader like Moses and Let's see, is there something particular about Kidron?

The Brooke Kidron will be mentioned two more times in Chronicles both in the context of destroying false worship so later on in 29 16 and then 30 14 both have destruction of idolatry happening at the Brooke Kidron.

Yeah, it's not enough for it just be turned into dust they throw it in the water. So it shows the shows the zeal of the people in doing this. If you're in the members chat, you'll see that I sent out a link.

So that you can more easily do these diffs if you go to svrbc org slash Chronicles. There is a diff of all these different passages in Chronicles and you can see more easily. Here you can turn the Hebrew off.

That's probably not helpful to you. And then it will just compare these passages and so you can see what the Chronicler is doing with this first Kings passage. Right. He's introducing The title of King to Asa because he just said his mother and then it says the mother of Asa the king.

You know emphasizing his royalty. That's something that happens a lot with the Chronicler and then he says He made it he made dust of it instead of just that he burnt it once again very intentional addition to compare him to Moses and there are several other changes.

Some that I've pointed out before that the Chronicler He he lives in the time where the use of the divine name is decreasing. So he uses it some but he often changes it just to God. So if you're using a translation that has Yahweh or Jehovah you'll see that and you compare Kings and Chronicles.

You'll see that a lot of them change to just God. Some of them actually change in the reverse sometimes God will change to Jehovah or Yahweh, but You'll note by the time the New Testament comes around people have stopped using the divine name that seems very providential to that that happened because then everybody just referring to God as the Lord and then Jesus being called the Lord reveals that he is God.

I Believe God purposefully permitted the divine name to go out of use for the purpose of showing that Christ is Christ is God. Okay. Yeah, let's keep going here in Verse 17, but the high places were not taken away out of Israel.

Okay, why does he not take the high places away? Yeah, he doesn't have the the strength or he doesn't quite have the strength as king to do that. How does it this with the former statement that he did?

Take idolatry out of the land. Okay, so there's two options here. Okay, one option is that the high places refer to worship of the true God? So he removes idols to the false God, but not false places of worship to the true God.

Okay, so that's one option. The other option is that this is talking about removing idolatry from all the land of Canaan including the Including the northern kingdom of Israel. One of those changes that the Chronicler makes here is he adds the phrase out of Israel, right and first Kings it just says but the high places were not taken away and Second Chronicles says but the high places were not taken away out of Israel.

So it may be that the comparison that's being made here is between Judah and the northern kingdom rather than we had just false gods versus false places of worship to the true God. And then also another thing that changes here from first Kings to second Chronicles says nevertheless his heart the heart of Asa was perfect with Jehovah all his days and then.

In second Chronicles says nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect all his days. So it. Yeah, it removes that qualification of the proximity of his heart to the Lord and just just declares that he was perfect.

That his heart was perfect and both of those, you know are kind of a vindication of Asa before it's oh. He didn't remove it. Well now it's he didn't remove it out of Israel, right or he. You know his heart was close to Lord his heart was perfect with the Lord.

It's suggesting that maybe it's not hearts not perfect in other ways, but no here's just it is perfect 17 be. Nevertheless, the heart of Asa was perfect all his days. He walks with zeal toward the Lord.

The Chronicler is repeatedly spoken of zeal in terms of wholeness of heart if you look back at verse 12 Says they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord the God of their fathers with their With all their heart and with all their soul and then in verse 15 Says in all Judah rejoiced over the oath for they had sworn with all their heart and had sought him with their whole desire.

All right, so wholeness of heart refers to zeal so how could it be perfect if he didn't take away the high places. Yeah, it seems that those are just out of his control. He just doesn't have the strength the quite the capacity as King to do that since he is Limited to the land.

So it's not a matter of zeal. It's just a matter of strength and Then how can we perfect all his days if he sins in his final years? Well, it's primarily talking about matters of worship not other matters when We see these statements about seeking the Lord.

Also, the Chronicler is providing an a Inspired Interpretation of Asa's life if you consider Hebrews 11 and how it speaks so highly of Abraham etc. But then you look at their lives and you see how much Abraham Isaac and Jacob sinned.

The summary statement about the life does not have to include all those qualifications. And then Verse 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 so these are gifts for the temple and David is probably the one that it's speaking of when it talks about the one who would amassed gifts to bring into the temple.

And then bringing them into the temple means so that they would have full use of there's all these things that were dedicated. But then they're not being used or they're being used for wrong purposes.

He's bringing them into the temple to be completely used. This is also Another change that happens here is the Chronicler basically just says he had dedicated these things. Er, excuse me King said he dedicated these things and then in Chronicles.

It says he himself Dedicated these things it's emphasizing That he had done it first 19 and there was no more war to the 35th year of the reign of Asa. Okay, why is there no war because the Lord blesses Asa with peace.

Significance of this. Yeah that he is a king like Solomon right he has he has peace just like Solomon had peace and then. When you go and you look at first Kings, this is a significant Difference here and first Kings 1516 it says and there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days.

Compare that there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days versus and there was no more war to the 35th year of the reign of Asa, so What's the difference here it could be that this is talking about external war.

In fact, I think that's the most likely that this is just saying that he doesn't because before we had Dealt with all these outside enemies, right the Ethiopians and things like that. And now it's saying okay.

He doesn't have any more war until the 35th year of his reign. It could be talking about that or it could be Just Yeah, considering the war with Baasha to be different for some other reason I don't know but once again, you know the Chronicler wants to highlight the value of the Kings being like David being like Solomon and the need to restore that throne.

So he does not focus on the civil war that happens within Israel but focuses on. Yeah, how how Asa had peace in other ways. Okay. All right any questions about that before we look at the reflection question?

Yes. Yeah, it's all about Judah. There is a Comparison. I'm not sure what you're getting at. I mean, I use the term thrown a lot that the Chronicler doesn't use that term a lot although that is where we get the notion of the White Throne, right.

Solomon had a throne of ivory and Jesus sitting on a white throne. It is supposed to be the the throne of Solomon that's being described there. It's not just a color. What are white thrones made out of they're made out of ivory?

And how did Solomon get ivory right? He goes to exotic places down south in Africa, right? And he's collecting all this gold and ivory and You know gorillas or whatever it is, you know and bringing them up from the at the south of Africa so the the idea of having an ivory throne is a very Exotic thing that others wouldn't have but being white it symbolizes purity and Innocence justice that kind of thing.

All right reflection questions. Are there particular actions of religious reform you can take in your life? Are there particular gifts you should bring to the Lord? And what would you anticipate as a result of these things good questions to ask?

Asa has Been confronted and told that he needs to really dedicate himself to the Lord. He does and God blesses him when he does he blesses him with peace. Yeah, we should Worship God wholeheartedly. Try to remove all false things from our life everything that would make us unclean before the Lord and worship him.

Knowing that there will be blessings to be had in service to him. Any questions, okay. Do you have a book do you have one at home. You think so? Do you want one? Okay, that's that too. All right. The question is are there particular actions of religious reform you can take in your life?

Are there particular gifts you should bring to the Lord? What would you anticipate as a result of these things? Yeah, I think often we don't want to Speak about our relationship with God like that where we do something for him.

He does something for us because that's not really Good way of thinking about it. Yeah at the same time. We should think about our dependence on the Lord for Blessings that we are neat. We are needy creatures.

We're made to need him. We're made to want him and so to act as though we are blessed in the way that God is blessed or we don't need Anything it's not trying to be holier-than-god in some ways, right?

And it's not a it's not appropriate. We should recognize ourselves as people who need him who Yeah want to come before him with great zeal knowing that There is reward in it. Hebrews 11 6 says that Without faith it is impossible Please the Lord because the one who comes to him must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

Remember those terms seek we've seen repeatedly throughout Chronicles as referring to right worship. He is a rewarder of those who seek him and that's part of right faith. That there be an anticipation of blessing.

In fact, if you're seeking the Lord without the anticipation of blessing, you don't even have the right faith in doing it. So it's not it's not a selfish thing to recognize that you're a needy creature and that God is infinite and generous and it's not Wrong to recognize that he particularly rewards those who seek him.

Those are all those are all good things to do. Of course, it would be wrong to think that you merit anything by your good behavior. You know all of it's by the mercy of God. None of our actions are meritorious in any way.

Even those things that are rewarded are not meritorious before him, but Yeah, still we should be seeking him with anticipation of blessing. Yes, so when I was saying he doesn't have strength, that's me interpreting it to refer to the Northern Kingdom.

You know to go and invade the Northern Kingdom and destroy all their high places would be too difficult. And that seems to be what the Chronicler is suggesting if instead it's talking about True worship.

I don't then it seems to earth. Sorry true. False worship of the true God, you know alters that were unauthorized. I don't have a similar experience. Explanation. Although we might call it strength in a very general sense of him exerting himself and him failing to but yes.

Not at this point. Yeah, not at this point. No, it's just but they're larger, you know, the Northern Kingdom is larger. They control a lot of land and territory and. Yeah, they could there's they wouldn't be able to just go in and take everything and especially because God had forbidden them from doing that anyway with Rehoboam.

So There were some times when God blessed their zeal and they were able to take some area of the hill country of Ephraim. But that's that's it. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, so to be blessed is to be content or happy to have everything that you need.

Right. We are blessed as recipients of blessing. God is blessed as a source of blessing who doesn't need things from others right, so we are. If someone wants to have a relationship with God, that's you know selfless where they're saying.

You know, I worship God because it's the right thing to do. I don't need anything from him. You know, I'd worship him in him anyway, right? Those all sound like very holy thoughts. But basically it's someone setting themselves up to be like God where they are blessed as being a source of blessing.

You know, they're gonna give to God of themselves as though they don't need anything from him. Right, but that's how he interacts with us him giving of himself him not needing anything. Yeah, that's like what it means when it says God is love, you know, he is he is love as the source of love.

All right. Let's go ahead and pray Dear Heavenly Father. Thank you for your word. We thank you for this picture of this peace in the kingdom. We pray that we would be a people who seek you and find such peace in Jesus name.

Amen.