Rollercoaster

1 Kings 15:9-24

⁹ In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa began to reign over Judah,

¹⁰ and he reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom.

¹¹ And Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as David his father had done.

¹² He put away the male cult prostitutes out of the land and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.

¹³ He also removed Maacah his mother from being queen mother because she had made an abominable image for Asherah. And Asa cut down her image and burned it at the brook Kidron.

¹⁴ But the high places were not taken away. Nevertheless, the heart of Asa was wholly true to the Lord all his days.

¹⁵ And he brought into the house of the Lord the sacred gifts of his father and his own sacred gifts, silver, and gold, and vessels.

¹⁶ And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days.

¹⁷ Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah and built Ramah, that he might permit no one to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah.

¹⁸ Then Asa took all the silver and the gold that were left in the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house and gave them into the hands of his servants. And King Asa sent them to Ben-hadad the son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, who lived in Damascus, saying,

¹⁹ “Let there be a covenant between me and you, as there was between my father and your father. Behold, I am sending to you a present of silver and gold. Go, break your covenant with Baasha king of Israel, that he may withdraw from me.”

²⁰ And Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel and conquered Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-maacah, and all Chinneroth, with all the land of Naphtali.

²¹ And when Baasha heard of it, he stopped building Ramah, and he lived in Tirzah.

²² Then King Asa made a proclamation to all Judah, none was exempt, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber, with which Baasha had been building, and with them King Asa built Geba of Benjamin and Mizpah.

²³ Now the rest of all the acts of Asa, all his might, and all that he did, and the cities that he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? But in his old age he was diseased in his feet.

²⁴ And Asa slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father, and Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his place.

After plunging into the depths of evil idolatry with the reign of Rehoboam and Abijam, the people of Judah are given a reprieve in the kingship of Asa. All in all, Asa doesn’t do too badly. He uses the first 10 years of his long 41 year reign to tear down the idols and restore worship of the True God in Judah. He rids the temple of the male prostitutes and restores some of the temple treasures that had been taken or destroyed. And, he deposes his grandmother, Queen Maachah, who has been instrumental in bringing idol worship to Judah. He’s off to a good start!

Interestingly, the people in Israel (the Northern Kingdom) who were still faithful to God began to move into Judah where true worship was taking place. This is important because if proves that even if the leadership of a country chooses to be unfaithful, that doesn’t mean the people have to go along! There were still faithful in Israel and they saw a great opportunity to live in a place where God was worshiped and took it! This made their king angry and he took fairly violent measures to stop that migration by blockading the city of Ramah. Asa was also politically savvy as he causes an old enemy to attack Israel in the northern end of their country, thus relieving the pressure on Ramah, where Baasha (the king of Israel) had built a fortification to stop his people from moving south. Asa retakes Ramah and Baasha never regains it. Sadly, instead of relying on God to help him achieve this goal, Asa relies on himself and his own power as king. As a result his relationship with God is degraded. His life ends with some terrible disease in his feet (who know what that might have been) and while he probably did not lose his faith, it was weakened by the time of his death.

Self-reliance is a problem. According to my mother, my first word was “self”, apparently accompanied by a foot stomp. Those who know me well will not be surprised by this revelation. There is an old cliché that says, “God helps those who help themselves.” Nothing could be further from the truth. God helps those who rely on Him and count on Him for everything. Asa chose to rely upon another king with a strong army rather than on his God. This was a big error and led him away from God rather than toward Him. In our lives today, it is easy to rely upon ourselves. We have so much and so many choices. But that is a path that leads into a dark place that will not serve us well. Unfortunately, we all know the way of that path well, for each of us has traveled it at one time or another. It is a path best left untried. But, I know I’ll go there again and regret it for sure. The Good News is that God is always ready to take us back when our little plans fail or lead us astray. His goodness constantly reaches for us and seeks to bring us back to Himself. He’s an awesome and loving God.