Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
We’ve all had the experience of attending the funeral of someone who made a great turnaround in their life going from a rebellious broken life to a beautiful life of a person rescued and restored. Perhaps, sadly you’ve also seen the opposite extreme of a person who began so well, finishing their life so badly.
Come with me again today back to Jerusalem and let’s watch the funeral of a great man who was King in Jerusalem 41 years!! His name was King Asa, great-grandson of King Solomon.
Over the past few days we’ve looked closely at some wonderful things King Asa did to lead the ‘southern kingdom’ of Judah back to God as recorded in 2 Chronicles 15. For 35 years great things were happening as God poured out His great blessing on Jerusalem and the people following King Asa’s lead. There was peace and prosperity and a spiritual revival in Jerusalem! It was a great time to be alive there.
But then something happened which changed everything. 2 Chronicles 16 tells us that in the 36th year of Asa’s reign, King Baasha of Israel began fortifying cities along the border of their two kingdoms and Baasha made it illegal for anyone to emigrate from his “northern kingdom” Israel to the “southern kingdom” Judah. He did so because a significant number of Israelites were leaving Israel, crossing the border to live in the ‘southern kingdom’ of Judah, drawn by the obvious practical evidence of God’s blessing on Judah. (2 Chron. 15:9)
Evidently something had happened in King Asa’s heart and rather than going to meet with King Baasha or seeking counsel from God, Asa did the unthinkable! He obviously believed Bassha would soon lead his army against Asa, so he took much of his royal treasury, even including many of the golden artifacts from the Temple of God, and sent them to Damascus, Syria, seeking to entice the King of that kingdom, known as Aram, to break their alliance with Baasha and actually attack some of the cities in Israel! Sadly there are some world leaders for whom money or arms can lead them to break treaties and attack those who had been their allies!
We must remember that God is always watching, especially all things happening with His people Israel, so the record tells us God raised up a ‘man of God’ to bring a strong warning to King Asa. It’s important we look closely at this warning my friends, for it is very pertinent to what we see happening in Israel in our day!
The record says: “At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah with this message from God: ‘Because you relied on the king of Aram 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 to and fro throughout the whole earth looking to strengthen those whose hearts are fully devoted to HIM. You have done a foolish thing, Asa, and from now on you will be at war!” (2 Chronicles 16:7-9)
Oh my friends look closely at what happened here! Remember, only a few years before, King Asa and his army had found themselves under attack by a huge and well fortified army coming up from the nation of Cush, south of Egypt, who were looking to conquer Jerusalem. (2 Chron. 14:9-13) It had been an unprovoked attack, similar to what is happening in Israel today as Hezbollah in the north continue to threaten an invasion of Israel.
You’ll recall King Asa cried out to God and God responded and powerfully defeated the Cushites. Upon his return to Jerusalem, Asa was met by a prophet of God named Azariah who had a strong message of encouragement from God, assuring King Asa that as long as he relied on God for his help, he would be successful, but if he turned away from God he would experience failure.
Now, 25 years later, Asa is met by another prophet of God but this time God’s message is terrifying because Asa had in fact turned away from God, and through building a military alliance with a long time foe of Israel, rather than depending on God for defense, Asa and Jerusalem are now vulnerable! Have you experienced this same reality in your life my friends? It sadly happens everyday around our world.
This was a ‘defining moment’ for all Asa’s officials and the people watched closely to see how Asa would respond to God’s rebuke and admonishment. Sadly the record says: “Asa was angry with the prophet…he was so enraged that he put Hanani in prison! At the same time Asa brutally oppressed some of the people.” (2 Chron. 16:10)
What do you hear in this report my friends? I hear the hard and prideful heart of a leader who has forgotten how God has blessed him in the past. I hear an arrogant leader reluctant to receive correction and warning from God.
The result of those two things is a leader who once had God’s hand of blessing upon him, now rejecting God and experiencing God removing His hand of blessing and protection from Asa! I also hear a people, who have been faithful to their king, now experiencing the dreadful result of a spiritually rebellious king!
Three years passed and evidently there was no softening of Asa’s hard heart, so God’s discipline moved to judgment and an unexplainable and incurable disease fell upon king Asa! The record says: “Though his disease was severe, even in his illness Asa did not seek help from the LORD, but only from physicians. Two years later Asa died!” (2 Chron. 16:12,13)
From what we know, Asa died from his incurable, terminal, God sent disease; an angry, hard hearted, resentful, prideful man, so very different from the wonderful leader he had been for so long. How does this happen to a person, my friends? It’s refusal to do what wise old King Solomon had written: “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of your life.” (Prov. 4:23)
Asa didn’t, just as Solomon didn’t in his old age. Both men began so well, experienced such great blessing of God with peace and prosperity for their nation, but as their hearts drifted away from God their hearts became hard, rejecting any efforts from God to draw them back to God. Both kings died in shame and while their people honored them with funeral and royal burial, there were no tears for in their prideful leadership failure, they had brought shame and pain upon their people.
Once again history calls us to take careful consideration of our lives, our legacies and the leaders we know locally, nationally and even globally. Who are those inviting God’s blessing by their humility and pursuit of God and who are those inviting God’s judgment through their pride and their rejection of God?
30 years ago thousands of men were filling stadiums in the Promise Keepers movement. This song I’ve chosen for today called us to step into each new day as a man who would NOT make the fatal mistakes of Solomon and Asa. Listen carefully to the words, my friends, is this your daily intention, living that powerful promise and warning from God, 2 Chronicles 16:9?
Today’s Scripture: 2 Chronicles 16.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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