Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Bullies have been a problem since the earliest days of neighborhoods and childhood playgrounds, and perhaps as you think back to your young years the word ‘bully’ brings up painful memories of some kid bigger than you picking on you. Sadly bullying has been an adult activity and with adults the damage inflicted is often fatal! Bullying comes in all forms, but with the advance of the internet, cell phones and particularly smart phones, cyber bullying is perhaps the newest form of this age old terrorism.
I use that word intentionally, for that’s what bullying is…terrorism intended to strike terror in the heart and mind of a person, a family, a community, perhaps even a nation. In 2024 our world is full of bullies! Hamas is a bully, Hezbollah is a bully, Houthi rebels firing rockets at cargo ships are bullies, campus violence agitators are bullies and the list goes on and on.
The people of Israel have been bullied almost from the beginning of their existence and history shows they are perhaps the most frequently and viciously bullied of all people groups, anywhere in the world. Perhaps the first such bully was Ishmael, older brother to Isaac, who along with his mother Hagar made life so painful in Abraham’s homestead, they needed to leave. (Gen. 23:1-21)
Come with me again to Jerusalem, about 900bc. Asa is the King over the ‘southern kingdom’ Judah and the Jews of Jerusalem and surrounding region have lived 10 years of wonderful peace in these early years of King Asa. (2 Chronicles 14:1-7) But to their south, in the land of “Cush” was a violent people, a bully people, and they were heading north, devastating anything in their path. I don’t know what their ultimate objective was but the little kingdom of Judah was, at least in the minds of these bullies, a nice little trophy to be added to their terrorism achievements.
History teaches us that peacetime is an important time to prepare for the future, not a time to be lazy. Evidently King Asa had received good counsel for while the region was at peace and enjoying prosperity, Asa was also preparing a military, for Asa knew the middle east region was a very volatile place, just like today. 2 Chronicles 14:8 reports: “Asa had an army of 300,000 men from Judah, equipped with large shields and spears, and 280,000 men from Benjamin with small shields and bows. All these were brave fighting men.” Now let’s remember that Judah and Benjamin were the two tribes of Israelites who made up the “southern kingdom” with its capital the great and historic city of Jerusalem.
Of course the ‘pride & joy’ of Jerusalem was the great Temple of God, built by King Solomon, Asa’s great-grandfather more than 60 years before, and people came from all over the world just to look at this magnificent building.
Asa, it seems, was a wise young king, and word came to him, after 10 wonderful years of peace, that a bully was marching up from the south, evidently with their sights on Jerusalem! The record says: “Zerah the Cushite marched out against them with an army of thousands upon thousands and three hundred chariots…King Asa went out to meet him, and they took up battle positions in the Valley of Zephathah.” (2 Chron. 14:9,10) Oh my, doesn’t that sound like the front page news of the region of Israel almost daily over the past several years?!
Rather than King Asa staying back in Jerusalem and sending his soldiers, evidently King Asa went with them, to see for himself what this bully Zerah the Cushite had as intentions. Having seen with his own eyes, and received the scouting reports I assume King Asa had serious strategy meetings with his military leaders. They were outnumbered and outgunned.
And King Asa made a very strategic leadership decision. I believe surrounded by a large company of his key military men, King Asa called out to God in practical, truthful prayer!
The record says: “Then King Asa called to the LORD his God and said, ‘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) This was a historic moment! During his 10 year reign thus far, Asa and these men had not experienced any war. (2 Chron.14:6)
This was a defensive stand, for this bully from Cush had come up against them and Asa’s men were standing to defend their families, their land, their homes, and of course Jerusalem and the Temple of the God of Israel. Asa wasn’t looking for a fight, but he and his men would NOT be terrorized and they were confident God would help them. I assume when King Asa finished his prayer he dismissed his military leaders back to their troops to spread the word. There was no complicated military strategy.
They were to wait for God to act! My friends as I watch the news each day coming from Israel, in May 2024, and I consider Hezbollah to the north and Hamas in the Gaza, it seems in many ways like Israel is again under attack by bullies, as in 2 Chronicles 14 all over again! I wonder… who is praying today in the Knesset with Israel’s leaders? Who is calling upon God for help in Israel today?
The war record reports this is what occurred in response to King Asa’s prayer: “The LORD struck down the Cushites before Asa and Judah. The Cushites fled and Asa and his army pursued them as far as Gerar. Such a great number of Cuhsites fell that day, they could not recover, they were crushed before the LORD and His forces!…” (2 Chron. 14:12,13)
As I look at my ancient maps of Israel, guess where Gerar is? Very near the modern city of Gaza in the Gaza strip area! We have no further details, but it appears Israelite casualties were few, and perhaps God did some miraculous things like large hailstones or a sand storm to pummel the Cushite bullies that day!
Evidently the details are not as important as the fact that God Himself intervened on behalf of a praying King and his people of Israel! Now friends, we need to ask ourselves an important question: Is Biblical history simply stories of times long ago OR does God want us to learn from what HE has done in the past because HE never changes (Mal. 3:6) and His promises are never outdated?
What might happen if today the leaders of Israel in Jerusalem did as King Asa did 2900 years ago in Jerusalem? And if you are being bullied, what might God do for you if you did what King Asa did and prayed?
Here’s a worship song, written almost 500 years ago, to help us consider the power of God available to us when we are terrorized by evil bullies!
Today’s Scripture: 2 Chronicles 14:8-13.
Choose below to read or listen.
 |  |
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
Archived back issues of “Walking with Jesus” and other resources are available by clicking here to open our ‘home page’ (or go to HOME at upper right of this page).
Share with friends. Subscribe below for daily “Walking with Jesus”.