Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Chronicles 15-18.

I think that we do not give King Asa as much attention as we should.  His story contains some great lessons for us.  Most of his reign provides us with an example we should follow, while the last few years of it provide us with a warning.  Starting at the beginning of his reign, Asa destroyed the altars and places of worship for idols and led the people to faithfully worship God.  He committed himself to serving God his entire life.  His dedication to God led Israelites from the Northern Kingdom to relocate to Judah.  After relying on God to defeat a vast invading army, he held a great festival to praise and worship God.  The people of Judah enthusiastically followed Asa’s lead and took an oath to serve God.  As I read over what I just wrote, I realized that I have failed to communicate the joy which the passage conveys that the people felt over their dedication to the Lord.  And that is perhaps the most important part of what Asa did, he led the people of Judah to serve and worship God with joy.

Unfortunately, late in his life King Asa became more “pragmatic”.  When King Baasha of Israel began fortifying the border to isolate Judah (probably at least in part in response to his own people moving to Judah), instead of turning to God for aid, Asa bribed the king of Aram to go to war against Israel.  When confronted about this by a prophet, rather than accept his criticism, Asa had the prophet imprisoned.  The passage also tells us that at the same time Asa began oppressing some of the people.  While the passage does not outright say so, I suspect that the people who oppressed were those who were critical of his actions.  Then when he was afflicted with some sort of disorder in his feet, King Asa sought only the aid of doctors, he did not seek help from God.  I find this very sad, as his life ended without the joy in serving God which filled so much of it.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.