Asa Lesson 3 Series

“In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa became king over Judah. And he reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem. His grandmother's name was Maachah the granddaughter of Absalom. Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as did his father David. And he banished the perverted persons from the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made. Also he removed Maachah his grandmother from being queen mother, because she had made an obscene image of Asherah. And Asa cut down her obscene image and burned it by the brook Kidron” (I Kings 15:9-13).

A. MAACHAH: AN UNGODLY GRANDMOTHER

1. Fighter. Her name Maachah means “fighting” or “oppression.”

2. Rebellious. Maachah was rebellious like her grandfather Absalom. “His (Abijam) mother’s name was Maachah, the daughter of Absalom (Absalom)” (I Kings 15:2).

a. Absalom murdered his brother Amnon. “Absalom had commanded . . . when I say strike Amnon, then kill him” (II Sam. 13:28).

b. Absalom pretended to be loyal to his father David. “So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel” (II Sam. 15:6).

c. Absalom tried to kill his father David. “Make haste to depart from the city of David lest he overtake us suddenly . . . and strike the city with the edge of the sword” (II Sam. 15:14).

3. Grandmother Maachah influenced her husband Rehoboam to compromise.

a. “Rehoboam loved Maachah the daughter of Absalom more than all his wives and his concubines . . . and Rehoboam made Abijah the son of Maachah as chief to be leader over his brethren, for he intended to make him King” (II Chron. 11:20-22).

b. Rehoboam’s sin split the kingdom.

c. Rehoboam’s continuing sin corrupted the kingdom. “And he (Rehoboam) did evil because he did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord” (II Chron. 12:14).

4. Grandmother Maachah gave her son an evil name. The son of Maachah was Abijah (II Chron. 12:16 ff) whose name means, “The Lord is my Father,” but the boy also was given the name Abijam, which means “My father is Yam” a Canaanite God of the sea.

5. Maachah supported sexual sodomy. “And Asa took away all the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the (filthy) idols that his father (Abijam) had made” (I Kings 15:12).

6. Maachah worshipped false gods. “Asa removed all the idols that his father and mother had made” (I Kings 15:12-13, ELT).

7. Maachah secretly had a sexual goddess-idol. She had made an obscene image to Asherah. “And Asa cut down her obscene idol and burned it by the brook Kidron” (I Kings 15:13).

a. Idols usually represent a spirit-demon.

b. Maachah was utterly evil.

B. ASA, A GODLY GRANDSON

1. Asa reacted to the sins of his father. “Abijam walked in all the sins of his father which he had done before him (evil example), and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, or the heart of David” (I Kings 15:3-4). The principle: extreme abuses lead to reformation.

2. God sovereignly prepared Asa to carry on the godly rule of David. “Nevertheless for David’s sake did the Lord his God give him a lamp in Jerusalem to set up his son (Asa) after him, and to establish Jerusalem” (I Kings 15:4).

3. Asa began with reforms (II Chronicles 14:2-7).

a. Repented of outward idolatry. “He (Asa) removed the altars of the foreign gods and the high places, and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images” (II Chron. 14:3).

b. Commanded the people to serve the Lord. “He (Asa commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers and to do the law and the commandment” (II Chron. 14:4).

c. Asa armed and fortified the nation. “He (Asa) built fortified cities in Judah, for the land had rest; he had no war in those years” (II Chron. 14:6). “And Asa had an army of three hundred thousand from Judah . . . and from Benjamin two hundred and eighty thousand men” (II Chron. 14:8).

d. Asa relied on the Lord to defend the nation. When attacked, “Asa cried out to the Lord his God, and said, ‘Lord, it is nothing for You to help, whether with many or with those who have no power; help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on You, and in Your name we go against this multitude. O Lord, You are our God; do not let man prevail against You!” (II Chron. 14:11).

4. Asa led the nation in revival (II Chronicles 15:1-19).

a. Had the people taught the scriptures. “For a longtime Israel has been without the true God, without teaching priest, without law’ (II Chron. 15:3).

b. Reinstituted blood sacrifice. “Restored the altar of the Lord that was before the vestibule of the Lord” (II Chron. 15:8).