ALL ABOUT ASA

My name is Asa and my great-grandfather was sort of a big thing. His name was King Solomon, you might have heard of him. That puts me in the royal line in a succession of kings. But then my grandfather (Rehoboam) screwed things up by turning the people against him – well, that’s another story. But as a result, when it was my turn to be king it was not over all of Israel just what became known as the Southern Kingdom or the Kingdom of Judah. As it turned out, that was as much or more than I could handle anyway, so I was happy, in a way, for the divide.

Looking back, I suppose I inherited at least a little of old Solomon’s famous wisdom. As I started as king I decided that since we were a people and a nation who belonged to the God of our forefathers – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and, even, Joseph then He is the God we should serve. So I scourged the land of foreign idols and removed their places of worship to please Him.  I even commanded all of the people to seek God and obey his commands…’cause I was King, and I can do that kind of thing.

I guess God thought it was a good idea because he gave us peace and rest for several years and allowed me to fortify some cities during the downtime. Things were rolling along pretty well until I heard some rumblings from down south. You see, Kings, (and there were plenty of them in the region) very seldom sit still. They need to flex their muscles; impress their people and do their best to expand their kingdom. Such was the case with a dude named Zerah. He was a Cushite who had built his army up with huge numbers and three hundred chariots and he was knocking on the door of our territory. Naturally, I summoned our troops and went out to meet him (before I knew he had 300 chariots). I realized right then that the odds were stacked against us, so I decided I would be better off calling for help. And so I prayed, “Lord, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us O Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name, we have come against this vast army. O Lord you are God; do not let man prevail against you.”

The result was more than I could ever have imagined! The Lord struck down the Cushites as we charged forth in his name. Cushites died in such huge numbers in the battle that they could not recover and the whole thing was over before we knew it. We pursued our enemies; plundered their villages; collected their livestock and headed back to Jerusalem singing and dancing the whole way. There was a lot to feel good about.

As I was basking in the glow of our victory, Azariah showed up at the palace steps. Now Azariah was a prophet and that meant he was here to deliver a message to me from God.  My responsibility was, in turn, to deliver that message to the people. That day, Azariah was a welcome sight and so, too, was his message. “The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you”.

I gotta tell you I got a little excited about the ramifications of that message. It resonated with me. And, so, still wrapped up in the euphoria of our victory I decided it was time for a kingly proclamation. If the God of our Fathers was, indeed, accessible as the prophet proclaimed then I was going to decree it into law that everyone was required to seek the Lord with their heart and soul. Yes! And if anyone did not seek God they would be put to death. Ok, maybe that one I didn’t think through very much but my heart was in the right place. The people all shouted with a loud voice; sounded their trumpets and took an oath to that end. A new law was in the books.

Years went by with many blessings and a wonderful rest from conflict. It was all a king could ask for. Years turned into decades and I woke up one morning to find myself a different King. That’s not exactly how it happened, of course, but to tell you the truth I hadn’t noticed when I started depending on myself with next to no thought of seeking God. I probably never would have said it this way but I was pretty much acting like I didn’t need God anymore. And if my guess is right, God figured it was time to test the king (yours truly) with his oath – his very own decree.

That scoundrel, Baasha – king of the other half of Israel - decided he was going to flex his muscles and take on his closest neighbor. Me. I don’t know if he was feeling greedy or bored but he saw us as easy pickings for his army and, frankly, I didn’t see it coming. Before I knew it he had fortified Ramah and cut us off from the rest of the world and its trade. It was a brilliant move and I panicked. Already three steps behind, I ordered silver and gold to be taken from our treasuries as a bribe to Ben-Hadad, of all people, the King of Aram to the north. I planned to buy his services and get him to break his treaty with Baasha. In essence, I gave one of my biggest enemies a boost so that he would put pressure on my closest enemy while at the same time making him an even bigger enemy of me and my kingdom. What an idiot I was!  I suppose I could have just chalked it up to a bad maneuver and endured the consequences. But in reality, it was much more than a tactical blunder. I had walked away from my commitment to my God. I had let him slip out of the picture because I had shown no interest in inviting him in, much less seeking him out as my very own law required.

It wasn’t Azariah who showed up at my palace steps this time – it was Hanani. He, too, had a message from God for me. One I was loathe to hear. “Were not the Cushites a mighty army with a whole mess of chariots and horsemen? Yet when you relied on the Lord, he delivered them into your hand”. Ouch! I was being called out big time. But what he said next, cut even deeper. “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him”. That was a vivid word picture I didn’t want to see right then – but it haunted my nights for many weeks to come. The God of my forefathers; of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – my Lord to whom I committed my life and my people was roaming the earth in search of seekers and He wasn’t finding any here in my kingdom. Instead, I was bribing enemies. I was relying on my skills to get out of trouble. I had stopped seeking after God.

These past four years have been nothing but one battle after another as my enemies have tested their might against me and my people. Peace and rest in the land became a commodity seldom experienced. Believe me, I have had plenty of opportunities to seek God as I suspect he planned. And he has been gracious as our kingdom is still intact and I am still on the throne. But I have learned a big lesson and one I aim to pass on every chance I get here at the end of my life.

If the God of the universe, the Creator of all things, the Almighty is seeking the seekers and promises to be found by them; if he wants a relationship with me that includes my undivided commitment – I would be a fool to not make that my priority.