Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Chronicles 11-14.

We often overlook Asa, Rehoboam’s grandson.  The passage tells us that “Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God.”  Most of the time for good kings it will tell us that he what was right in the eyes of the Lord, but here it seems to speak more highly of Asa than that.  The passage even tells us why it gives him this high praise.  He destroyed all idol worship in Judah and the places where people practiced non-sanctioned worship of God.  Some might think that last bit a bad thing, but God commanded in the laws He gave to Israel through Moses that they practice their sacrifices at a central location (with certain very specific exceptions).  I will not claim to know all of the reasons God gave that command, but a few seem obvious to me.  First, by practicing their primary worship at one central location, the Israelites would remain unified, seeing themselves as one people.  Second, and closely related to the first, if they practiced their worship at various places, those who worshiped at different locations might develop different, conflicting, understandings of what God asked of His people.  Finally, if they practiced their worship at different locations, they might begin to see the God worshiped in Jerusalem as being different from the God worshiped in Gibeah, and perhaps view those different gods as being limited by geography.  Asa prevented these things from happening during his reign.  So, when Zerah the Cushite marched against Judah with an overwhelmingly large army, the army of Judah was united in its faith in God.

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