Chapter 16
In year 36, Baasha comes to build Ramah, as we saw in 1K15. Asa allies with Ben-Hadad to make Baasha pull back.
We are told here, and not in 1K15 that Hanani the seer comes to Asa, and tells him that he should have relied on God to defeat Baasha, rather than on the King of Syria. The result is that the army of the King of Syria has now escaped Asa. Because of this, Asa will have war for the rest of his reign. Asa is infuriated by this prophecy, imprisons the seer, and "inflicted cruelties upon some of the people". No specifics are given.
This may explain also the disease in Asa's feet at the end of his life. Even when his feet were severely diseased, he sought help from the physicians rather than from God. He was angry with God still about that prophecy, though the sin was his, and he refused to go to God for help.
So despite all the good that Asa did, despite his firm reliance on God early in his reign, somehow, as he got older, he depended upon himself and his own strategies to keep Judah safe. Perhaps be became "fat and happy" and decided that he had less need of God. Or maybe he felt that God would bless his every idea and strategy, even without consultation. This seems a grave error. God requires continual obedience and consultation. You don't get to rest on your laurels with God. None of us do.
In order to get as much of the history of this time as we can, we must read both accounts - Kings and Chronicles - because information is filled in from one to the other. I wonder how much more we'd know if we had those histories written by Nathan and Iddo?
First notes, 8/21/18
This is about King Asa:
And he banished the perverted persons from the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.
I Kings 15:12 NKJV
ASV says he put away the sodomites. NASB says it was the male cult prostitutes. Seems pretty certain we're talking about homosexuals. We're told almost nothing about what good king Asa did but this makes the list.
Abijah sends an army of 400,000 against Jeroboam's 800,000. Judah and Israel at war with each other. The whole nation punished for the sins of Solomon and Jeroboam. He does not tolerate idol worship. Maybe that's why the US is still hanging on. Fewer and fewer worship God, but they don't worship anything else either! God punishes or rewards nations for the actions of their leaders.
God is on Abijah's side, and 500,000 are killed of Israel. Jeroboam never recovers from this defeat. Judah is the strongest for the rest of Jeroboam's reign.
Asa, a good king, the son of Abijah, takes over and for ten years there is peace. Asa has an army of 580,000. Zerah of Ethiopia comes to fight with a full million men. Asa asks for God's help and is victorious and takes much spoil.
This is how it works:
And he went out to meet Asa, and said to him: “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord 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.
II Chronicles 15:2 NKJV
Does it still work like this or is this OT, before we had Jesus to intercede? Pretty sure Jesus won't intercede to help us be bad. So it must still work like this.
This also under Asa when all of Judah turned to God:
"And whoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman."
II Chronicles 15:13 NKJV
There is no example of tolerance here. But I also don't think Jesus ever taught that non-followers should be killed. Is that because the age of the Gentiles is about making the Jews jealous? So we are not required to meet the standard that they were?
When Baasha comes against Jerusalem, Asa seeks help from Ben-Hadad in Syria, rather than from God. God is angry, and from then on, Asa has war.
How are we to know when God expects us to deal with our problems and when we are to just sit in the face of imminent problems and pray for God's deliverance? Before Asa asked for God's help each time, he had fielded an army and put them in battle formation. He'd done what was in his own power and it wasn't enough. But this last time, Asa doesn't do the work. He goes straight to an outside source.
When a prophet tells him what he's done wrong, he doesn't learn from his mistake, but gets mad and throws the prophet in prison. He's decided that he knows best.
Later, when disease strikes his feet, he goes to physicians, not to God, for healing. He is unrepentant to his death.
The horse is prepared for the day of battle, But deliverance is of the Lord .
Proverbs 21:31 NKJV