2 Chronicles 15 (NIV)✞: Asa’s Reform
Passage
In this passage we continue on from the previous one, still looking at King Asa of Judah. The author(s) continue to portray Asa as a good, Godly king.
This chapter starts with a message from an otherwise unknown prophet named Azariah, who brings Asa (and his people) a word of encouragement:
1 The Spirit of God came on Azariah son of Oded. 2 He went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. 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. 3 For a long time Israel was without the true God, without a priest to teach and without the law. 4 But in their distress they turned to the LORD, the God of Israel, and sought him, and he was found by them. 5 In those days it was not safe to travel about, for all the inhabitants of the lands were in great turmoil. 6 One nation was being crushed by another and one city by another, because God was troubling them with every kind of distress. 7 But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.”
I was at a momentary loss when I read verses 3–4; when was Israel without God? And then the ESV Study Bible reminded me: Oh yeah, the time of the Judges! I’ve been in Samuel/Kings/Chronicles for so long that I forgot what came before it…
Regardless, Azariah’s words encourage Asa, as they were meant to, so he removes all of the idols from the nation and repairs the altar of the LORD. (Which implies that the altar had been in need of repair; Asa was a good king, but that doesn’t mean every aspect of worship of God was being taken care of properly.)
Asa also brings all of the people of Judah together to offer sacrifices. In fact, it’s not just people from Judah but also some folks from the northern kingdom of Israel, who have seen that God is with Judah and have come down in large numbers to join God’s people. In addition to the sacrifices they enter into a covenant to seek God with all their hearts and souls – which, in a sense, shouldn’t be necessary, they’re already supposed to be doing that, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing to occasionally rededicate yourself to things you know you should be doing! In fact, verse 15 includes an interesting note on this:
All Judah rejoiced about the oath because they had sworn it wholeheartedly. They sought God eagerly, and he was found by them. So the LORD gave them rest on every side.
2 Chronicles 15:15 (NIV)✞, emphasis added
I love that language! They sought God, and He was found; it’s the second time this chapter has phrased it that way. Though… everything still wasn’t perfect:
16 King Asa also deposed his grandmother Maakah from her position as queen mother, because she had made a repulsive image for the worship of Asherah. Asa cut it down, broke it up and burned it in the Kidron Valley. 17 Although he did not remove the high places from Israel, Asa’s heart was fully committed to the LORD all his life.
The author(s) are going out of their way to point out that Ass is a good king, and in the last passage he removed the high places, but apparently there are still a bunch left! (Verse 17✞ says he didn’t remove the high places “from Israel,” but I assume this is an instance of the book of Chronicles sometimes referring to Judah as Israel – not holding Asa to account for removing the high places from a different nation.)
The chapter ends with a comment that that God gave Judah rest from war until later in Asa’s reign. We’ll read about war in the next chapter.
Thoughts
I don’t know if it was the authors’ intent, but it’s… well, it’s humbling to read Chapter 15 right after Chapter 141. I went on and on in the last passage about the fact that Asa had removed the high places from Judah, and about how difficult it was to root that sin out – but even after all of that, Asa still has to then remove idols from the land – and the high places aren’t even completely gone! Why is that humbling? I may not be an ancient Israelite, but this shows how much the human heart would prefer to worship anything other than God when left to its own devices – how lost we’d be if Jesus hadn’t paid the way for a true relationship with God, and the Holy Spirit hadn’t come to start working on our hearts.
But I’ll point out the flip side of this, too: yes, the people of Judah were so sinful that even a good king like Asa had trouble rooting out all of the sinful worship, but they were also so much more righteous than the people of Israel that large numbers of northerners moved back down to Judah to worship God. The Christian life should be like that: we’re so far from the standards of righteousness set by God, and yet, when the world looks at us they should see people who are more righteous than others. Whether they actually do see that… well, we’ve got work to do.
Footnotes
- Which, we should assume, is how most people read the book; one chapter after the next… ↩
No comments:
Post a Comment