King Asa, Rely. Series

1) Long story short, how often do we do this we get worried or in some cases proud, and we forget about God, or sometimes we may not forget about God but we ask him to stand aside while we do it on our own. I wonder if this is what King Asa was up to, “It’s okay God just move out of the way while I sought this battle, this relationship, this addiction, debt, worry out for myself”. We had the example back in Chapter 14 of God going before Asa and Judah and winning the war with the Cushites. But no. King Asa sorts this one out for himself and gets a message via a God message bloke by the name of Hanani, that he, King Asa should have relied on God. What does Hanani say to the King? “Yet when you relied on the Lord, he delivered them [the Cushites and Libyans] into your hand” Why? “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war.” (vs 9)

So King Asa says, “Whoops I've blown it I need to sort my act out! Like blue billy goats he does! He chucks the message from God bloke in prison. Outstanding result and response to God I don’t think. Not only had that he also brutally oppressed some of the people. I don’t suppose we ever bite the hand or criticise a person who wants to help correct a damaging behaviour or attitude that we have?

So what King Asa should have been doing here was relying on God for God wanted to help King Asa. It comes back to that, “if you seek after him he will be found by you, but if you forsake him he will forsake you.” (Ch 15 vs 2b)

2) The interesting thing here is that if you look at the kings prior to and after Asa some of their track records were a bit like this. They would get it right, they would nail the whole seeking God in a dāra´, kind of way thing, they would rely on God and God would be there strengthening them. God would help them reign, ensuring that all went well for the nation; some of them built great histories with God. Then self-reliance, or pride, or fear would kick in, they would do it their way. Their time as king would end, which is a bit unfortunate really because this usually occurred at the same time that their lives ended. You will notice that with King Asa he got a disease in his feet and it is said, “Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the Lord, but only from the physicians.” King Asa died, they buried him and light a huge bonfire in his honour. Yeap; a huge celebration for King Asa, but what more could he have achieved if he had relied on God?

[Please note that if you are ill, you should still go to the doctor. I don’t want any one coming to me saying that they've gone off their meds because they are going to rely only on God. Doctors are trained medical professionals. Without them many of us would be in serious trouble.]

Maybe Asa and the rest of these Kings should have rote learned Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.”