WWUTT 649 The Righteous King Who Didn't Finish Well?

Though Asa was indeed regarded as a righteous king, there's a funny thing that happens at the end of his life that would make us doubt whether or not he was truly righteous.

It's a lesson to us to finish well when we understand the text. You're listening to When We Understand the

Text, an online Bible ministry so that we may know all the riches freely given to us by God.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We continue with our study of the book of 2

Chronicles today in chapters 16 and 17. Now where we are in the story is during the reign of King Asa, who was the first righteous king in Judah since the kingdom split.

But he's been contrasted with his father, Abijah, who was not a righteous king.

When Abijah faced an army that was twice the size of his own, he didn't appeal to the

Lord to be with him. Rather, he appealed to his own strength. He said, hey, I'm a descendant of the line of David.

There's nothing that you can do to defeat me. We're going to defeat you. And truly, the Lord was with Abijah in that victory.

But Abijah didn't give God any of the credit. He claimed the credit for himself. Whereas Asa, who was a righteous king, when he faced an army that was twice the size of his own and even larger than the one that his father

Abijah came up against when Judah and Israel did battle with each other, Asa was facing the

Ethiopians. And when he came up against that massive army, he called out to the Lord and said,

Lord, please be with us. It is not by our strength that we're going to win this victory. It's going to be by your might.

And the Lord was indeed with Asa and the people of Judah. And they were victorious.

So in Second Chronicles 15, where we read last week, Asa instituted many reforms in Judah of the idols that his father worshipped.

Asa tore them down. He removed his mother, Mayaka, from being queen because she had made a detestable image for Asherah.

And Asa cut down that image, crushed it and burned it at the Brick Kidron. He reinstituted right temple worship.

Unfortunately, Asa did not tear down the high places, as it says in verse 17, though God may have been worshipped at those high places during the reign of King Asa.

It was still against the instruction of God because God said he was to be worshipped only in one place, and that was in the temple.

So Asa brought many thorough reforms to Judah, but they were not complete. There were still some problems and he left some things unchecked.

And that's actually going to play into what we're going to read about today when we get to chapter 16. Asa's life takes a little bit of a turn, regarded as a righteous king in chapters 14 and 15.

But things look a little bit different toward the end of the life of King Asa. In 2

Chronicles 16, in the 36th year of the reign of Asa, Beasha the king of Israel went up against Judah and built

Ramah that he might permit no one to go out or come in to Asa, the king of Judah.

Then Asa took silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the Lord and the king's house and sent them to Ben -Hadad, king of Syria, who lived in Damascus, saying,

There is a covenant between me and you as there was between my father and your father.

Behold, I am sending to you silver and gold. Go break your covenant with Beasha, the king of Israel, that he may withdraw from me.

Now if you'll remember these treasuries, these storehouses that Asa is drawing from here to make a deal with Ben -Hadad, the king of Syria, Asa had replenished those storehouses.

This was after Shishak, the king of Egypt, came in and took all of the gold that was in those repositories.

And then when Asa was successful against the Ethiopian army, he took all of their plunder and then replenished the storehouse, the treasury.

So here he is taking something that rightfully belongs to the Lord and is making a deal with the enemy instead of trusting in God, as he did in chapters 14 and 15.

Asa is now trusting in the might of Syria to end this conflict that he has with Beasha.

Now Asa thinks that he's doing something wise. He thinks he's being shrewd here.

But the fact is that he has turned from God and instead making a deal with the enemy.

Verse 4, Ben -Hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel.

And they conquered Eijon, Dan, Ebel Maim, and all the store cities of Naphtali.

And when Beasha heard of it, he stopped building Ramah and let his work cease.

Then King Asa took all Judah and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber with which

Beasha had been building, and with them he built Geba and Mizpah.

At that 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 the

Lord your God, the army of the king of Syria has escaped you. Were not the

Ethiopians and the Libyans a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen?

Yet because you relied on the Lord, he gave them into your hand. For the eyes of the

Lord 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. So this is quite a change in the life of King Asa, where previously we saw him as a righteous man.

And Asa becomes the first king in the entire Old Testament to persecute a prophet of God.

We haven't seen that happen yet until King Asa. So was Asa still regarded as a righteous king?

There is an answer to that question, and I'll come back to that here in just a moment. Verse 11, 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 the Lord, but sought help from physicians.

So just as God did not seek help from the Lord to thwart Baasha in his effort to try to cut off Judah, so even in his sickness and his illness, which he was afflicted with because he himself afflicted a prophet of God, yet Asa did not turn and repent and call upon the

Lord to relieve his anguish. Verse 13, Asa slept with his fathers, 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.

So this is the end of the life of Asa, doesn't really end so great. Asa started really good, he continued very strong, but then he couldn't finish well.

And we see a very poor conclusion to the life of King Asa. And as I presented to you a moment ago, was

Asa therefore still righteous? Well we have all reason to believe that he was still a righteous king.

Second Chronicles regards Asa as a righteous king. In fact, the first righteous king of Judah, as I said before, since the kingdom split.

And we read about it in chapter 15, verse 17, where it says, nevertheless, the heart of Asa was wholly true all of his days.

Now that's a very curious statement. It was wholly true all of his days. And yet we see things like this going on in chapter 16.

So what could that possibly mean? Well, it does not mean that Asa turned from the Lord, his

God. He did some terrible things toward the end of his life, persecuting a prophet of God and even persecuting other people.

But his heart did not turn away from God. He became a grumpy, bitter man who struggled to finish well at the end of his life.

But his heart did not go after false gods. He loved the Lord, his God, with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength.

However, as we read in 2 Chronicles 15, 17, the high places were not taken out of Israel.

Asa instituted many reforms. He instructed Judah to worship the Lord God and him only.

And Asa's heart was only after the Lord God and not after any false gods. But there was still an aspect of Asa's heart that was not fully obedient to the commands of God regarding how he was to be worshipped.

God said that he was to be worshipped at the temple in Jerusalem only.

The high places were not to remain. They were to be torn down. The high places were originally built by pagans.

And that was where they worshipped their multiple false gods. But Israel worshipped only one

God. So therefore, there was to be only one place of worship. And though Asa allowed the worship of God at the high places, that was still disobedient because God had established what right worship was supposed to look like.

And that was supposed to happen in Jerusalem and not at any of the high places. So because there was a little bit of Asa's heart that neglected an aspect of the commands of God, so we see that reflected at the end of Asa's life in the sense that he just kind of turned into a cranky, unkind man and even a little bit oppressive.

The Lord afflicted him with a sickness and even in his sickness, he still did not call upon the

Lord. He was trying to seek help from the physicians instead of calling on the Lord God. But I don't think we should neglect that statement given to us in 2

Chronicles 15, 15 verse 17, that the heart of Asa was wholly true all of his days, meaning that it was true to God and no other

God. He had no other God before him, but the Lord God. So Asa was still regarded as a righteous king, even though he did some pretty bad things at the end of his life, some very sinful things.

Remember that the righteousness that we have received does not come from us. It has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

It is the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

That's Romans chapter three, verses 21 and 22. The righteousness of God has been given to us through Jesus Christ, our

Lord. Asa had a righteousness that was given to him by God, even though he neglected to give credit to the

Lord and call upon the Lord toward the end of his life. Yet God was still merciful to him.

Oswald Chambers preached about Asa from this very passage. Second Chronicles 15, 17, and what it was that he preached was written down in the book my utmost for his highest.

Here is what Chambers said. Asa was incomplete in his external obedience.

He was right in the main, but not entirely right. Beware of the thing of which you say, oh, that does not matter much.

The fact that it does not matter much to you may mean that it matters a very great deal to God.

Nothing is a light matter with a child of God. You say,

I know that I am right with God, but still the high places remain. There is something over which you have not obeyed.

Are you protesting that your heart is right with God, and yet there is something in your life about which he has caused you to doubt?

Whenever there is doubt, quit immediately, no matter what it is. Nothing is a mere detail.

Are there some things in connection with your bodily life, your intellectual life upon which you are not concentrating at all?

You are all right in the main, but you are slipshod. There is a relapse on the line of concentration.

You no more need a holiday from spiritual concentration than your heart needs a holiday from beating.

You cannot have a moral holiday and remain moral, nor can you have a spiritual holiday and remain spiritual.

God wants you to be entirely his, and this means that you have to watch to keep yourself fit.

It takes a tremendous amount of time. Some of us expect to clear the numberless ascensions in about two minutes.

In other words, what Chambers is saying there is any one of us think, hey, I can tear down the high places anytime

I want, and I can do it immediately. But Chambers is saying if you desire to live a life of righteousness, you have to do it now fully, completely.

And it takes time for the Lord God to work in your heart that process of sanctification to purify you and grow you in holiness.

That is a process that is not progressing as long as you leave the high places in your life.

So tear down all those high places, everything in your life that you wish to keep, to remain, to have there so that, you know,

I can still kind of do this thing in the world, my old ways, and God's just going to forgive me for it, right?

Well, that's cheap grace, and you very much run the risk of being not in the grace of God at all.

So tear down the high places and love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, even though we have the grace and the mercy of God displayed in the life of Asa to regard him as someone who was still a righteous king, even though he was rather evil toward the end of his life.

That is something for you to learn from, not a permission for you to live as Asa did toward the end of his life and still think, well,

God is merciful. He's gracious. He's going to forgive me anyway. Do not repeat

Asa's mistake. That's what we're supposed to learn. All right, chapter 17 now,

Jehoshaphat, the son of Asa, reigned in his place and strengthened himself against Israel.

He placed forces in all the fortified cities of Judah and set garrisons in the land of Judah and in the cities of Ephraim that Asa, his father, had captured.

The Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the earlier ways of his father,

David. He did not seek the Baals, but sought the God of his father and walked in his commandments and not according to the practices of Israel.

Therefore, the Lord established the kingdom in his hand, and all Judah brought tribute to Jehoshaphat, and he had great riches and honor.

His heart was courageous in the ways of the Lord, and furthermore, he took the high places and the

Asherim out of Judah. So here you have Jehoshaphat doing the very thing that Asa did not do, and Jehoshaphat more thoroughly reformed

Judah than Asa did. In the third year of his reign, as it says in verse 7, he sent his officials, and we have lists of officials mentioned there, and with them the

Levites, the list of Levites, and they taught in Judah, having the book of the law of the

Lord with them. They went about through all the cities of Judah and taught among the people, and the fear of the

Lord fell upon the kingdoms of the lands that were around Judah, and they made no war against Jehoshaphat.

Remember, it was said that because Asa had rebelled against God, and he would not call upon God, instead he relied upon the strength and the might of Syria rather than the strength and the might of God, it was said to Asa that he would experience war for the rest of his life.

But with Jehoshaphat, who sought the Lord with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength, and remained faithful to God, we have no war against Jehoshaphat and Judah.

God showing mercy and faithfulness to Judah in that way. Verse 11.

Some of the Philistines brought Jehoshaphat presents and silver for tribute, and the

Arabians also brought him 7 ,700 rams and 7 ,700 goats, and Jehoshaphat grew steadily greater.

He built in Judah fortresses and store cities, and he had large supplies in the cities of Judah.

He had soldiers, mighty men of valor, in Jerusalem. This was the muster of them by father's houses, of Judah the commanders of thousands,

Adna the commander with 300 ,000 mighty men of valor, and next to him,

Jehoanan the commander with 280 ,000, and next to him, Amasiah the son of Zichri, a volunteer for the service of the

Lord with 200 ,000 mighty men of valor. Of Benjamin, Eliadah, a mighty man of valor with 200 ,000 men armed with bow and shield, and next to him,

Jehoshabad with 180 ,000 armed for war. These were in the service of the king, besides those whom the king had placed in the fortified cities throughout all of Judah.

So we see the Lord's faithfulness to Jehoshaphat and Judah along with him. That all of the treasuries were restored, were replenished.

Remember, Asa had taken silver from the treasury to try to buy off the king of Syria to go against the king of Israel.

But here, Jehoshaphat, who is faithful to God, has that storehouse replenished and is also given many mighty men.

And so we'll read more about Jehoshaphat, his partnership with Ahab, and some more of the reforms that Jehoshaphat brought about.

Let's conclude with prayer. Our Lord God, we thank you for your faithfulness to us, even though there are so many times that we are not faithful.

And I pray that you would forgive us our sins. Indeed, that we would be cut to the heart over these sins, that you would search us in the secret places and expose the sins we don't even know that we're doing, so that we might repent before you in a right way, and you would make us pure, make us whole again, give us hearts that seek after the

Lord Christ with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, so we would be shaped more and more into the image of your son.

Let there be no high places in our lives, lofty places that we have built up ourselves and think that we need, think that we get some sort of satisfaction from that instead of worshipping

God the way that you have said you are to be worshipped, that we are to commit our whole bodies to you as a spiritual act of worship, as it says in Romans 12, 1.

Convict our hearts and minds to these things. Let there be no secret sins, for we know that all is laid bare and exposed before you anyway.

Make us holy, God, and help us to pursue holiness and godliness all our days so that we may finish well.

And we pray and ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. When we understand the text.