Asa

When Kings Trust The LORD

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And there came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian with an host of a thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots; and came unto Mareshah. Then Asa went out against him, and they set the battle in array in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah.  And Asa cried unto the LORD his God, and said, “LORD, it is nothing with Thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O LORD our God; for we rest on Thee, and in Thy name we go against this multitude. O LORD, Thou art our God; let not man prevail against Thee.”  So the LORD smote the Ethiopians before Asa, and before Judah; and the Ethiopians fled. And Asa and the people that were with him pursued them unto Gerar: and the Ethiopians were overthrown, that they could not recover themselves; for they were destroyed before the LORD, and before His host; and they carried away very much spoil….
2 Chronicles 14:9-13

Asa was now the king of Judah and Benjamin. He is the grandson of Rehoboam who is the son of Solomon.  Solomon was not faithful to the LORD, yet He loved him, and had mercy on him.

Asa was one that the Lord says that he did right in the eyes of the LORD, and we see it in the verses above, in his prayer tho Him. The prayer comes seeing the massive army from Ethiopia with a million man army. According to verse 8 of this chapter, King Asa has only an army of five hundred eighty thousand (580,000). The enemies numbers are almost twice the number, but King Asa prays to the LORD. The LORD hears Asa’s prayer, and He wins the victory.

Would it not be wonderful to have kings, presidents, prime ministers, and all leaders trust in the LORD God Almighty. If they would trust in the Lord through hearing His word, commitment, and faithfulness to God, then there would probably be less war mongering. Trusting in only the One true God who is the Creator of all that is – heaven and earth, and all that is therein.

The One true God sent His only begotten Son into this world to redeem all who would come to Him, by God’s grace through faith. If you do not come through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, you do not come at all. The crucifixion of Christ Jesus is the only sacrifice for sin. If you know the Son, you know the Father; if you know the Father, you know the Son.

It would be wonderful too if you would call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, turning from sin to Jesus, and putting your full confidence and faith in Him. Do that right now.

Letter from a Prophet

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And there came a writing to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, “Thus saith the LORD God of David thy father, Because thou hast not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat thy father, nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah, but hast walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and hast made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to go a whoring, like to the whoredoms of the house of Ahab, and also hast slain thy brethren of thy father’s house, which were better than thyself:  Behold, with a great plague will the LORD smite thy people, and thy children, and thy wives, and all thy goods: and thou shalt have great sickness by disease of thy bowels, until thy bowels fall out by reason of the sickness day by day.      2 Chronicles 21:12-15

Asa was a king of Judah who did right in the eyes of the LORD, but his life ended as being a selfish tyrant. His son Jehoshaphat also had done right in the eyes of the LORD though he aligned himself with Ahab, the evil king of the northern kingdom of Israel. Then along comes Jehoram, and he does wickedness in the eyes of the LORD.

The letter is from Elijah who is the prophet who warned Ahab of his wicked ways, challenged the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, and ended their lives with their heads being removed.

Why would Elijah send a letter to the king of Judah? Probably because he had a word from the LORD for Jehoram to know his plight and the tragedy coming on his family and himself.  Jehoram was going to die a horrible death because of his sin and the evil of his heart.

Death is the result of sin. Sin came into the world by the first man, Adam. Because Adam sinned, every one who has been born into this world is a sinner there is no escaping sin. There is, however, One who was born of woman who never sinned. His name is Jesus the Christ, Son of the Living God.

Jesus, being sinless, without any guilt, shame or remorse died on the cross becoming sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21), being buried, and rising again from the grave alive forever more. Sin, death, Hell and the grave are defeated, and hold no power over those who come to God through Jesus Christ. In Jesus we have everlasting, that is eternal life.

Help Us, O LORD Our God

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And Asa cried unto the LORD his God, and said, “LORD, it is nothing with Thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O LORD our God; for we rest on Thee, and in Thy name we go against this multitude. O LORD, Thou art our God; let not man prevail against Thee.”
So the LORD smote the Ethiopians before Asa, and before Judah; and the Ethiopians fled.     2 Chronicles 14:11-12

Asa was one of the godly kings of Judah. Judah, the southern kingdom was being attacked by Ethiopians whose army counted over one million. They were greatly out numbered, yet Asa led his troops to the battle.

Many would have sought opportunity for surrender, but not king Asa. Instead, he surrendered to the King of kings, and prayed to Him for help, and the enemy was defeated – “So the LORD smote the Ethiopians…”

What can the child of God face when we are walking with the LORD God through His Son Jesus Christ? Who can defeat us when we are serving Him faithfully? The answer to the first question is Anything the enemy puts in our path. The answer to the second is No one can defeat us because we are children of the King of kings.

Fear comes with failure to obey and do the commands of the LORD. Fear is the result of a lack of trusting faith. Faith will face fear head on.

Is the enemy in your heart and your mind? Is he causing you to be afraid, even crippling you to the point of unbelief, causing you to fall and fail? The enemy is strong. The King of all kings is mightier; as a matter of fact He is the Almighty.

Call on the name of the One who died on the cross for your sins, and He was buried, and He rose again. He forever lives, and makes intercession for us daily, even moment by moment (Romans 8:26-27, 34; Hebrews 4:16; 7:25). He is coming again. Are you ready?

Always Trust, Rely on the LORD

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“And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the LORD thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand. Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet, because thou didst rely on the LORD, He delivered them into thine hand. For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars. Then Asa was wroth with the seer, and put him in a prison house; for he was in a rage with him because of this thing. And Asa oppressed some of the people the same time.” 2 Chronicles 16:7-10 (KJV)

It has previously been written that Asa did right in the eyes of the LORD (14:2). He also trusted the LORD in a battle against a massive enemy from Ethiopia (14:9-15).

It shows the man, the king of Judah, who did right in the eyes of the LORD, also was a weak, fickle, man and king; when we see him dependent upon an enemy [Syria] against his brethren of the northern kingdom (16:1-6).

We can see in these verses that the word of God is sure, it will stand; and even though kings and presidents do not like it; GOD is correct, and His word will come to pass.

The One we are to rely on is the LORD our God, through His Son Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins, was buried, and rose again. You or I cannot depend or rely on anything or anyone else but Him.

Day 23 – Of Kings and Prophets

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In the reading today we begin the reading of a king of Judah by the name of Asa (1 Kings 15), and it is said of him, “Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, as did David his father” (15:11).  We are also told previous to Asa of Abijam whose “heart was not perfect with the LORD his God as the heart of David his father” (v. 3).

Asa is Abijam’s son, and Asa walks with God.

In reading 1 Kings 15 – 22 we continue to see this phrase of the kings of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, “And he did evil in the sight of the LORD…” or something similar.  We are told of two kings at least for Judah who were walking with God like David, who is the standard, for the walk of kings.

If kings are to do their kingdoms well; it would do them good to walk with God.  Those who do not walk with God will lead their people to destruction.  I would dare say the economic and moral collapse of a nation is due to the lack of godly, spiritual leadership in that nation.  Including the United States of America.

Thank God for prophets of God who will stand for the truth, no matter what.  In chapter 17 we are introduced to Elijah, often called the “prophet of fire”.  When we are introduced to Elijah we have him saying to one of the most wicked kings to ever live – Ahab –

“And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, ‘As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.”  1 Kings 17:1 (KJV)

Wicked kings need a prophet of God who will get in their face and call their sin and rebellion against God what it is.  Elijah did just that, and God proves that Elijah is His prophet by answering Elijah’s prayers, sending drought, with no morning or evening dew, or rain.  We learn later that this drought lasted for 3.5 years.

One thing we need to realize is that when this prophet pronounced this drought upon the Northern kingdom, it was a drought that affected the evil as well as the righteous, even Elijah.  That is why we see Elijah being sustained by God through ravens providing meat and bread a the “brook Cherith”  (17:5).

Elijah was a man of fire and faith.  He believes God; acts for the glory of God; and challenges the false prophets of the wicked queen Jezebel on Mount Carmel.  He does something unheard of.  The prophets of Baal had been known to put fine under their altars and deceive people into thinking that Baal was actually lighting the fires on their altars; but Elijah says, “Put no fire under” (18:23), and he himself “put no fire under” the altar, but both he and the prophets of Baal would be totally dependent upon the one who would answer by fire.  Elijah upon the GOD of creation and glory.  The false prophets upon the foolish hopes of false teachings.

Could it be that the reason there is no one challenging the prophets of finance, health, technology, science, is because we have not any who are really confident in the power of God as Elijah was?  Why not?  Do we not have the power of Jesus Christ.  I am only saying that our financial problems are related to spiritual bankruptcy, our health decay is spiritually related; the only reason for our technological growth is given us by creative thinking that was originally given to man by God; and true knowledge [science] comes from God.  The rest is bunk and leads to spiritual decay and death.

When Christian churches across our land are lighting the fires of the altar with entertainment rather than preaching the word of God; it is of little wonder why we are so spiritually bankrupt.  Those who are dependent upon drawing a crowd; and not preaching the word of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ are similar to the prophets of Baal who put fire under the altars.

The answer to the sins and all ills in the world is Jesus Christ.

-Tim A. Blankenship