Untitled Sermon

2 Chronicles 16 NASB95

In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah and fortified Ramah in order to prevent anyone from going out or coming in to Asa king of Judah. Then Asa brought out silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the Lord and the king’s house, and sent them to Ben-hadad king of Aram, who lived in Damascus, saying, “Let there be a treaty between you and me, as between my father and your father. Behold, I have sent you silver and gold; go, break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel so that he will withdraw from me.” So Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel, and they conquered Ijon, Dan, Abel-maim and all the store cities of Naphtali. When Baasha heard of it, he ceased fortifying Ramah and stopped his work. Then King Asa brought all Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber with which Baasha had been building, and with them he fortified Geba and Mizpah. At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him, “Because you have relied on the king of Aram and have not relied on the Lord your God, therefore the army of the king of Aram has escaped out of your hand. “Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubim an immense army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because you relied on the Lord, He delivered them into your hand. “For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. You have acted foolishly in this. Indeed, from now on you will surely have wars.” Then Asa was angry with the seer and put him in prison, for he was enraged at him for this. And Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time. Now, the acts of Asa from first to last, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa became diseased in his feet. His disease was severe, yet even in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but the physicians. So Asa slept with his fathers, having died in the forty-first year of his reign. They buried him in his own tomb which he had cut out for himself in the city of David, and they laid him in the resting place which he had filled with spices of various kinds blended by the perfumers’ art; and they made a very great fire for him.

2 Chronicles 16

King Asa started off honoring God. He trusted God in the face of overwhelming odds in battle and was delivered. He led a spiritual renewal in the land. Fast-forward to the 36th year of his reign, he knows that King Baasha of Israel has a treaty with King Ben-hadad of Aram and that the two armies threaten the kingdom.

He takes all of the gold from the treasury of the royal palace and of the temple in order to bribe Ben-hadad to break his treaty with Israel. It worked and Aram attacked Israel rather than Judah. By all accounts, that was a successful political maneuver.

Yet God saw it as “foolish.” From the words of Hanani the prophet (16:7-10), it seems that God had planned to bring both Israel and Aram against Judah and then deliver both nations to Judah. King Asa undermined those plans.

Furthermore, it appears that King Asa no longer looked to God as the One to save them like he did in 14:11 when they went to battle the Cushite invasion with 1-3 ratio of men. That victory led to peace (no war for 35 years) and spiritual revival in the land. Many from Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon drew close to God and the kingdom under Asa (rather than Israel). What would this victory against Israel and Aram have led to?

This rebuke from Hanani the prophet brought conviction but King Asa didn’t respond with brokenness and repentance. Instead, he became bitter and refused to turn back towards God. It doesn’t appear that he worshipped a false god but that he did everything else in his own power or in the ability of men rather than be reconciled with God and seek God’s mercy.

How many people start off strong in the Lord but then the flame begins to flicker a few decades later? How is it that we can go from relying on God to acting independently of Him?

In this mortal life, not everything is black and white, righteous and sin, right and wrong. We live in the grey areas of life and we minister there. How do we guard ourselves so that we don’t become so self-reliant but remain focused on God’s guidance? Some things are fine in others’ eyes but how does God see it? Is it an act of faithlessness? Can we be like Asa’s son and successor, King Jehoshaphat who stopped before making a decision to go to war (18:4,6). [If only Jehoshaphat followed his guidance from God; Unfortunately, he ignored the prophet and experienced loss]. Do we seek God’s wisdom over the advice of others?