Preached Sunday, December 5, 2010

from

2 Chronicles 14-16

Theme: The story of King Asa teaches us, in all situations of life, to make the Lord our first trust.

(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)

This morning, in our study of the lives of the kings of Judah, we come to the story of King Asa—the first in the list of the “good” kings of Judah.

There were kings of Judah who were bad but who had occasional moments of goodness. And then, there were kings who were good but had occasional moments of badness. Asa was a good king that had occasional moments of badness—and I suppose that, for that reason, we poor, fallible redeemed sinners who seek to be faithful followers of Jesus Christ can relate very well to him.

As is true of each the kings of Judah—both the good ones and the bad ones—there’s an important spiritual lesson being exemplified for us. Asa was a good king who, in the midst of a very great trial, made it his first priority to turn to God and rely on Him for His help. He made God his main trust; and God honored that trust and richly blessed him and his people as a result. In that sense, Asa’s life is a good example for us of making the Lord our main trust in the challenges of life. But there were also challenges in which he didn’t make God his main trust—challenges in which, instead of turning to God first, he placed his main trust in some-thing or some-one of this world; and as a result, he suffered great loss. And in that sense, Asa’s error serves as a good warning of keeping God as our main trust in every challenge of life.

Turn with me then, if you would, to 2 Chronicles 14; and let’s take a look at Asa’s life—and at the lessons about Himself that God provides to us from it.

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Asa was the son of King Abijah. Abijah only ruled for three years; but after the death of his father, Asa began a long reign of forty-one years. And the first thing that the Bible tells us about the character of his reign is found in 2 Chronicles 14:2: “Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God.” What a contrast this is to the way the Bible characterizes the reign of his father Abijah!—”And he [that is, King Abijah] walked in the sins of his father [that is, King Rehoboam], which he had done before him; his heart was not loyal to the LORD his God, as was the heart of his father David” (1 Kings 15:3). I can’t help but think that Asa’s reign was a great relief to the people of Judah! Finally, after twenty years of the unreliable, unfaithful reigns of Rehoboam and Abijah, God had given them a king who was loyal to Him.

You can see the proof of Asa’s loyalty to the Lord right away. First, we’re told that “he removed the altars of the foreign gods and the high places, and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images” (v. 3). These were all things which his father Abijah had permitted and encouraged near the end of his short reign—means by which ungodly people within Judah had been worshiping false gods in rebellion against the God of Israel. The people had clearly been acting-out in accordance to their false worship as well; because 1 Kings 15:12 tells us that Asa “banished the perverted persons from the land, and removed all the idols that his father had made.” Asa took decisive action to put an end to those wicked idolatries and immoral practices in his kingdom.

His loyalty to the Lord was further shown in that he not only removed things that needed to go, but strengthened things that needed to remain. God had given the land a time of rest from the enemies of Judah; and so, we’re told that during that time of rest, “he built fortified cities in Judah”, and told the people, “Let us build these cities and make walls around them, and towers, gates, and bars, while the land is yet before us, because we have sought the LORD our God; we have sought Him, and He has given us rest on every side” (14:7). So the people, under Asa’s rule, built and prospered. He also built-up the military defense of his people; amassing an army from the tribe of Judah of 300,000 fully armed soldiers, as well as 280,000 from the tribe of Benjamin—”all these were mighty men of valor”(v. 8).

This was a good foundation from which to rule! What exciting times these must have been for the people of Judah!

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Now; whenever our faith in the Lord becomes firmly established and begins to grow, the Lord allows us to experience times in which that faith is tested, and proven, and further established in our lives. And the mention of Asa’s growing army brings us to his first great time of testing—a time which appears to have come around the fifteenth year of his reign. In verse nine, we read;

Then Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million men and three hundred chariots, and he came to Mareshah (v. 9).

Ethiopia was a mighty and fearsome nation at this time. Apparently in association with a people group called “the Lubim” (see 16:8; also 12:3), and perhaps also with the people of Philistia, the Ethiopians came up from Africa, along the northern coast of Sinai, and into Philistia to come and attack the people of Judah. And they came with a staggering force of one-million soldiers and three-hundred chariots!

And here’s were Asa proves that the Lord God was his first trust. He went out against Zerah, and set his own army of scarcely more than half of Zerah’s force into battle array. But then, he cried out to the Lord and offered this remarkable prayer of faith:

“LORD, it is nothing for You to help, whether with many or with those who have no power; help us, O LORD our God, for we rest on You, and in Your name we go against this multitude. O LORD, You are our God; do not let man prevail against You!” (v. 11).

Let’s not hurry past that prayer. Think of the things King Asa affirmed in it. First, he affirmed that God is not limited to human resources. Asa—in his own power—was limited. He couldn’t stand up against an aggressive army of a million soldiers and three hundred chariots with his 580,000 soldiers with spears and shields. But as he said, “LORD, it is nothing for You to help, whether with many or with those who have no power . . .” Human resources—or even an utter lack of them—do not affect the Lord in the least!

Second, he affirmed this unlimited God as his main trust. You’ll notice that he didn’t say, “Well; I’m just going to send my army home and trust God.” Instead, we’re told that he set his troops in battle array—ready to fight. He trusted in them and made use of them. But he made it clear that it wasn’t in the power of his troops that he had placed his main trust. He prayed and said, “[F]or we rest on You, and in Your name we go against this multitude.”

Finally, because he believed in the unlimited power of God to defeat even a million-man army, and because he made this unlimited God his main trust, he made it his main concern to seek the honor of God in this battle. He said, “O LORD, You are our God; do not let man prevail against You!” Because he had made God his main trust, he had—as it were—put God’s name on the line; and he trusted that God would now step forward and bring honor to Himself in this battle.

And look at what happened after Asa prayed this wonderful prayer:

So the LORD struck the Ethiopians before Asa and Judah, and the Ethiopians fled. And Asa and the people who were with him pursued them to Gerar. So the Ethiopians were overthrown, and they could not recover, for they were broken before the LORD and His army. And they carried away very much spoil. Then they defeated all the cities around Gerar, for the fear of the LORD came upon them; and they plundered all the cities, for there was exceedingly much spoil in them. They also attacked the livestock enclosures, and carried off sheep and camels in abundance, and returned to Jerusalem (vv. 12-15).

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What a great victory of faith! But let’s pause for a moment and think about you and me.

As followers of Jesus Christ, we gladly profess Him as our Savior. But when it comes down to actual experience in the challenges of everyday life, do we go the next step, and affirm a faith in Him that was like the one that Asa affirmed? Are we in the habit of making Him our main trust?—not just for our salvation from sin, but also for every other need in life?

Many professing Christians will argue that they have placed their faith in Jesus as their “Savior”. They will say that, when it comes to salvation from their sins, they rely on the sacrifice Jesus made for them on the cross as their “main trust”; and will say that they trust in nothing else. But when it comes to the regular challenges and deep trials that come into their lives after they’ve been saved from their sins, their trust in Him seems to take second place to the things of this world. It’s not that the other things they may trust in are wrong in and of themselves. But they’re wrong to put in the first place of trust—the place that only Jesus should occupy.

I believe that Asa’s remarkable prayer teaches us that we must make Jesus our main trust for our salvation from sin, and then keep Him as our main trust in every challenge of life from then on until the day we meet Him in glory. Like Asa—in every test and trial—we need to say, “Dear Lord Jesus; I am limited in my resources and power. But it’s nothing for You to help me—whether with much human resource or through no human power at all. Nothing limits You. There is no problem You cannot solve; no obstacle You cannot overcome; and no need You cannot meet. Nothing is too hard for You. And now, in this particular trial, I turn to You as my first resource. I may have some power and some resources to use; but I make them all dependent upon You, and make You my main trust. And now, Lord Jesus; do not let this particular challenge or trial prevail against You! Rise up and bring glory to Yourself in my time of need!”

I believe, dear brothers and sisters, that when we make Jesus Christ our main trust in that way, He honors our faith in Him. Look at what happened next for Asa. I believe that as he was returning home from this great victory, God wanted to affirm his affirmation of faith in Him! The Bible tells us that “the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded.” This prophet went out to meet Asa and the troops with this message from God:

“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. For a long time Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without law; but when in their trouble they turned to the LORD God of Israel, and sought Him, He was found by them. And in those times there was no peace to the one who went out, nor to the one who came in, but great turmoil was on all the inhabitants of the lands. So nation was destroyed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every adversity. But you, be strong and do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded!” (15:2-7).

I believe that the Spirit of God was making reference to the times of the judges—way back before the rule of the kings. It was a time in which “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25)—and in which “what was right” in their own eyes was invariably wicked in the eyes of God! It was a time in which the people of God didn’t “seek” Him. They didn’t give Him first place in their trust, nor concerned themselves with the honor of His name. And as a result, they suffered that monotonous cycle of rejecting Him, falling into trouble, crying out to Him in distress, seeing Him deliver them, and then rejecting Him once again.

And I believe that the Spirit of God was saying to Asa and his people it was time for those days to come to an end! “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. . . . But you, be strong and do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded!”

Clearly, this word from God had come as a great encouragement to Asa. It inspired him to even greater faithfulness; and moved him to extend his reforms even further. We’re told that he “took courage” (15:8), and removed even more of the abominable idols from the lands of Judah and Benjamin. Apparently, “the altar of the LORD that was before the vestibule of the LORD” had suffered neglect before that time; but we’re told that He “restored” it (v. 8). Many of the godly people from Judah and Benjamin—and even some from the regions of the northern kingdom—came over to him “in great numbers” when they saw that “the LORD his God was with him” (v. 9). They all gathered together to make a great offering to the Lord from the spoils they had brought home in battle (vv. 10-11); and they entered into a great covenant together “to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all their heat and with all their soul . . .” (v. 12).

I think one of the most remarkable demonstrations of Asa’s heightened devotion to the Lord is found in verse 16. We’re told, “Also, he removed Maachah, the mother [or more accurately, the grandmother] of Asa the king, from being queen mother, because she had made an obscene image of Asherah; and Asa cut down her obscene image, then crushed and burned it by the Brook Kidron.” He would be devoted to the Lord from then on—and he wouldn’t even let the idolatry of his own grandmother stand in the way!

What a wonderful thing it was that we’re told, in verse 19, “And there was no war until the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Asa”.

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But it’s then that we come to the second great test of Asa’s faith in the Lord. As so often happens, the Lord will not let us rest upon the victories of yesterday for the strength of our faith today. He tests a faith in Himself that He has put into us, to keep it strong and to establish it even further. And this next test came a short time later through the king of the northern kingdom of Israel.

The Bible tells us that in “the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa [which many scholars argue refers to the thirty-sixth year of the reign of the kings of Judah, of which Asa was the current king], Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah and built Ramah [that is, a fortification city], that he might let none go out or come in to Asa king of Judah” (16:1).

Now; this was a serious threat from the king of the north. But it wasn’t as serious as the threat of the million-man army that came up against Asa from Ethiopia. Asa had already seen what God could do when he had made God his main trust in the past. But the tragedy in this case is that Asa did not keep God as his main trust in this new trial. Instead, he used the things of God in order to place his trust in the help of man. The Bible tells us;

Then Asa brought silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the LORD and of the king’s house, and sent to Ben-Hadad king of Syria, who dwelt in Damascus, saying, “Let there be a treaty between you and me, as there was between my father and your father. See, I have sent you silver and gold; come, break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me” (v. 3).

In other words, Asa didn’t cry out to God as his “main trust” as he had done before. Instead, he raided the treasuries of the house of God, and used them to buy-off the king of Syria so that he’d stop supporting the king of Israel!

And the sad thing for Asa and his people is that it ‘seemed’ to work. We’re told;

So Ben-Hadad heeded King Asa, and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel. They attacked Ijon, Dan, Abel Maim, and all the storage cities of Naphtali. Now it happened, when Baasha heard it, that he stopped building Ramah and ceased his work. Then King Asa took all Judah, and they carried away the stones and timber of Ramah, which Baasha had used for building; and with them he built Geba and Mizpah (vv. 4-6).

But even though it ‘seems’ to work whenever we turn to the things of man instead of to God first, there’s always a great loss we suffer in the exchange. In Asa’s case, the loss was great. The Bible tells us that another prophet of God named Hanani was sent to Asa with these words of rebuke:

“Because you have relied on the king of Syria, and have not relied on the LORD your God, therefore the army of the king of Syria has escaped from your hand. Were the Ethiopians and the Lubim not a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet, because you relied on the LORD, He delivered them into your hand. For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. In this you have done foolishly; therefore from now on you shall have wars” (vv. 7-9).

If Asa had turned to God as he had done so before—affirming that nothing is too hard for the Lord, affirming that God would be the One he would trust in first before he trusted in anything else, and trusting God to honor His own name—then Asa would never have turned to the enemies of the people of God for help, and would never have misused the things of God in order to do so! And what’s more, he wouldn’t have suffered the loss of the even greater things God wanted to give to him and his people through trusting Him in this trial—things such as the conquest of the Syrians, and the extension of several more years of peace for his people.

Dear brothers and sisters; when we say “no” to making God our first trust in our times of trials, we rob God of His glory, trust in that which will not help us, and forfeit the great things that God wants to do in and through us! Whenever we’re tempted to turn to other things than God as our first trust, we should learn to say, “No thanks! I can’t afford to to make anything but Him my main trust in life!”

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Sadly, the tragedy didn’t end there. When Asa ceased making God his main trust, his heart became hardened. The Bible tells us that after Hanani issued this rebuke from the Lord, “Asa was angry with the seer, and put him in prison, for he was enraged at him because of this. And Asa oppressed some of the people at that time” (v. 10). Apparently Asa—like us—didn’t like it when someone pointed out misplaced trust.

What’s more, we’re told; “And in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet, and his malady was severe; yet in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but the physicians” (v. 12). It wasn’t that it was wrong for him to make use of physicians—any more than it was wrong for him to make use of his army. But what was wrong was that he sought the physicians first, and made them his ‘main trust’.

Now; I take it as a good sign that the Bible tells us Asa only oppressed “some of the people”, and only “at that time”; because the Bible’s record of him was that he was a good king that the people honored greatly at his time of death. These lapses of faith were not characteristic of his life over all.

But these lapses do serve as a warning to us. Like Asa, we ought to make the Lord Jesus our main trust in a time of great trial. Our great Savior will always prove Himself faithful when we do. But unlike Asa, we must learn to keep the Lord as our main trust from then on; and in every trial—big or small. “For,” as the Bible tells us, “the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him” (16:9).

The Lord Jesus Himself reminded us of this in these words:

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples” (John 15:1-8).

May we continually “abide” in Jesus; and thus make Him—and keep Him—our main trust for everything in life.