Victory And Cleansing Under Asa

by Martin Archibald, Glasgow | Category: Great Spiritual Revivals | Apr 1981

"That which was good and right"

Some fifty years before Asa received the kingdom, king Solomon prayed in the court of the newly glorified Temple that the Lord would hear "the stranger, that is not of Thy people Israel, when he shall come out of a far country for Thy name's sake... and pray toward this house". Visitors and immigrants would be drawn by the report of Jehovah's great name and mighty hand and stretched out arm, how nation after nation was subdued before Israel, and how David and his captains established possession of the land. Surely Solomon, with the wise and understanding heart of his prime, also saw that victory had been granted so that the iniquities of the Amorite might give place to a way of life that God could bless. The first verses of Numbers 25 and the warnings of Leviticus 18 show how any respect for the Canaanites' religion and festivals led on to the basest of selfish pleasures and even the cruellest human sacrifice (Lev. 18:21,2 Kings 3:27). Yet by the reign of Solomon's son, favoured Judah, with God's centre in their capital, had returned to idol-worship. They "built them high places, and pillars, and Asherim, on every high hill and under every green tree; and there were also sodomites in the land: they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD drave out" (1 Kin. 14:23,24). There was also no peace for Judah under Rehoboam (14:25-30). The three year reign of Abijah followed, and though he and his army are commended in 2 Chronicles 13 for their reliance upon the Lord when ambushed by Israel, yet "he walked in all the sins of his father". His son Asa received the throne only because God had promised it to David's line. All the more striking is the Chronicler's first comment on Asa's rule:

"In his days the land was quiet ten years"

What brought such security? It did not come because Abijah had captured border cities from Israel - including Bethel with the golden calf. Nor was peace established by leaving the people undisturbed in the ways they had chosen. We are told that Asa "had no war in those years; because the LORD had given him rest". Surely rest was granted because Asa first chose to do what was good and right, and then took vigorous action. He organized the destruction of altar, image, hill-shrine and Asherah-pole, and sent out the royal command to seek the Lord and do the law. Even after such rigorous intervention in highly sensitive matters, "the kingdom was quiet before him". We are reminded of James' instruction for saints involved in "wars" and "fightings": "Be subject therefore unto God; but resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you".

Rest and Prosperity

So the king and the nation built and prospered. That is to say, the years of rest were filled with constructive activity. Walled cities were built to ensure lasting security in which to recover the divine pattern of national life, with its remarkable provision for the poor, the debtor, the manslayer, the settler and the distinct achievement of each tribe. Now, securing possession of the national inheritance is described in Hebrews 4. Though the task had been begun under Joshua's leadership, the Spirit urged in Psalm 95 that it be continued, "saying in David, after so long a time.

Today if ye shall hear his voice, Harden not your hearts".

The writer to the Hebrews then argues that in our era also "There remaineth therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God" and, he says, to enter into that rest demands diligence. Here is our lesson from Asa's building projects. The walls and towers, gates and bars are for us, we suggest, the ability of each saint to witness to the truths of God's kingdom by word and by deed. To hold fast the glorying of our hope entails being separated from unbelievers to the service of God. Then we will be able both to live as partakers of the divine nature should, and to appeal to others, that they may also taste that the Lord is gracious. Revival is the recovery of this power, and Peter describes how it can be achieved. In opening his second letter he starts with a fresh appreciation of the promises of God, and how we have been cleansed from our old sins. He calls for "all diligence" that we may be "not idle nor unfruitful unto the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ". We note also that spiritual life includes patience and knowledge (2 Pet. 1:4-8). There is something of this in the instruction in Psalm 46, "Be still, and know that I am God". Let us pray that in our time we shall have many like Asa who will direct and encourage our building,

Victory and Covenant

Then came a host of the sons of Ham to Mareshah, which was one of the cities assigned to the tribe of Judah, and means 'Possession'. Asa had increased his army to 180,000 more than his father mustered against Jeroboam. But again the enemy had an army twice as large, and chariots besides. Again, however, the men of Judah cried to the Lord; and the king led their prayer. "So the LORD smote the Ethiopians before Asa, and before Judah; and the Ethiopians fled". Then it is we read of the Spirit of God coming upon the prophet: after conflict, encouragement and warning was sent. We may ask ourselves if, when we think our service has been successful, we remember to turn to the Lord for His assessment, and wait upon Him to know what should follow victory.

So Asa took courage "and put away the abominations..." We might expect such things in the cities which he had taken from the hill-country of Ephraim. But the task had also to be done in "all the land of Judah and Benjamin". Probably only ten years, or fifteen at most, after the first great cleansing, But long enough for the journeys to Jerusalem to become irksome, for the teaching priest to find competition from the local shrines. Long enough for self-advancement to fill the heart, and covetousness, which is idolatry, to take control.

Azariah had addressed all Judah and Benjamin as well as the king: "your work" reminds us that cleansing was not the responsibility only of the king's officers, the priests and the Levites. The record of the great gathering at Jerusalem that entered into covenant to seek the Lord repeats the word "they" in verse after verse, for "all Judah rejoiced at the oath". As Deborah and Barak sang,

"For that the leaders took the lead in Israel, For that the people offered themselves willingly, Bless ye the LORD" (Judge. 5:1,2)

"But the high places were not taken away out of Israel"

In spite of the removal of the high places at the beginning of the reign, and the purging of "the abominations" after Azariah's prophecy, the final summary still has to be that the high places were not taken away out of Israel. 1 Kin. 15:14 shows that in 2 Chron. 15:17 "Israel" does refer to the Southern kingdom. At the end of the reigns of Jehoshophat, Joash, Amaziah, and Uzziah, it again has to be recorded that the shrines on the high places were still reverenced. Why were they so stubborn a problem? Doubtless to us also the tops of the numerous lower hills of Judah, in country or suburb, would have seemed ideal settings for worship. They were free from interruption, set apart by a little effort taken in going there, suggesting ascent from earth to heaven, and attractive to every other race that had occupied the land. For a deeper experience, one could climb even the high mountains (Deut. 12:2). Why not sanctify them to the service of Jehovah? There would be many that still had foundations of old shrines that could be built again to make the privacy complete. So man might reason if left to himself.

But praise the God of heaven and earth for the richness and rightness of His design. For the twelve tribes whom He had delivered from Egypt there was to be one centre for service. The purpose is set out for us to consider:

"that thou mayest learn to fear the LORD thy God always". From the chosen place the priests and Levites who had completed their courses of duty returned to their homes, dispersed by divine appointment among the tribes' inheritances (1 Chron. 6:54, f.). Their teaching of the law would be informed by the glories of the Temple service, and their experience of men of every walk of life coming in repentance or in thanksgiving. How could any withdrawal to the high places and the rituals that gathered round them compare with the pilgrimage that, passing through the valley, made it a place of springs, or the throng going to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise?

Covenant with Syria

From the time of Judah's covenant to seek the Lord till the thirty-fifth year of Asa's reign there was no more war. Then the old ambition in the north arose again, and Baasha built Ramah in order to control the border-traffic. Asa's response in his closing years makes sad reading, each detail spelling out the failure of faith in a man whose heart was accounted "perfect all his days". The first action described in both 1 Kin. 15 and 2 Chron. 16 was to bring out silver and gold out of the treasures of the house of the Lord and of the king's house. Why dedicate treasures to the Lord (2 Chron. 15:18) if in the end they were to be used to buy help from an enemy of Israel, instead of waiting on the Lord? There is no mention of the covenant of Asa's fifteenth year, through which Judah was granted abiding rest. Instead, a covenant with the king of Syria is proposed, and the idea supported by talk of a former league between the kings' fathers that we do not read of elsewhere. And was there no security in the fortified cities built in the first ten years of quiet? The policy brought apparent success, but divine rebuke and the promise of coming wars. The king then imprisoned the prophet, and oppressed some of the people, for as his fear of the Lord declined, so did wisdom in government. And at the last, when he became severely diseased in his feet, Asa "sought not unto the LORD, but to the physicians".

Building for Eternity

Seeing the disappointment of those final years, we may ask which of Asa's works had lasting effect. We leave with God the assessment of what, in Asa's life and in ours abides for eternity. But certain legacies of the 41-yearlong reign can be plainly traced in Old Testament history. When the finest of Judah had been taken into captivity, Ishmael, an officer of the seed royal, conspired against the governor appointed by Nebuchadnezzar, and then slew seventy men from Israel who were on their way to Jerusalem with offerings. He filled a pit in Mizpah with the slain; and the pit was "that which Asa the king had made for fear of Baasha" (Jer. 41:9).

But that reminder of failure is outweighed by the effect of Asa's godly example, through thirty-five years, that inspired his son Jehoshophat to lead Judah again in seeking the Lord.

Martin Archibald, Glasgow | Apr 1981
Great Spiritual Revivals