Asa’s Mistake
February 20, 2011
“At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him: “Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the LORD your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand. Were not the Cushites and Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen? Yet when you relied on the LORD, he delivered them into your hand. 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.” 2 Chronicles 16:7-9
King Asa was one of the very best kings in Israel’s history. He was a good man. The Bible says that he did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord. The Bible says that King Asa’s heart was fully committed to God all the days of his life. ( 1 Kings 15:14) But King Asa was not perfect. His ‘heart’ was – but his actions sure fell short a number of times. He cleaned up the temple and got rid of the false idols his forefathers had brought into the land. All who would not seek the Lord were put to death. He even kicked his grandmother out of her position as Queen Mother - because she worshipped false gods.
Asa loved God and was very zealous for Him. He is without a doubt one of the good kings of Israel. But He made a few mistakes. I want us to think about some of those mistakes so we may learn from them.
One great mistake,1. he made is that he placed his trust in man instead of God. Listen to how that happened.
“In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah and fortified Ramah to prevent anyone from leaving or entering the territory of Asa king of Judah. Asa then took the silver and gold out of the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and of his own palace and sent it to Ben-Hadad king of Aram, who was ruling in Damascus. “Let there be a treaty between me and you,” he said, “as there was between my father and your father. See, I am sending you silver and gold. Now break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel so he will withdraw from me.”
2 Chronicles 16:1-3
That seems like a pretty reasonable thing to do. You see the enemy coming so you make a treaty with a friendly nation to help you defend yourself. Jesus indicated that was simply a wise thing to do. He said,
“…suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.”
Luke 14:31-32
Jesus indicated we ought to be prepared. We ought to evaluate and think ahead. The problem is that King Asa relied on man and not God. We ought to think ahead, anticipate, evaluate and make plans. That’s okay. That’s a good thing to do. The problem is that Asa trusted his welfare to men and not to God. In other words, he did not have enough faith in God. So this is what happened.
“At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him: “Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the LORD your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand. Were not the Cushites and Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen? Yet when you relied on the LORD, he delivered them into your hand. 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.”
2 Chronicles 16:7-9
There are a number of lessons we are to learn here. First of all, don’t trust in man. Trust in God. Why? God is powerful – certainly. But also, understand, 2. that God longs to come to your rescue. David wrote:
“The LORD looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.” Psalm 14:2
Our Scripture says, “For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” 2 Chronicles 16:9
Do you realize that God is looking, He is searching, He is hoping to find someone whose heart if fully committed to Him so He can help them? God wants to help you with your problems. He longs to come to your rescue and prove Himself strong and more than a match for whatever you face. Our problem is that we don’t allow Him to do that. Asa’s problem was that he went to people for help instead of going to prayer. We do the same thing. We trust in just about any other resource to help us, other than God. If we have financial problems - we max out our credit cards or take out a loan or put ourselves in hawk up to our necks. We spend what should be our tithe because we think we can’t afford to give it – and then wonder why we aren’t being blessed financially. Can God bless a lack of faith? Can God reward a lack of belief in Him? I don’t think so. So here is lesson number two.
2. There are negative consequences to not relying on God. There are consequences to our choices. Now, I want you to notice that Asa had a perfect heart. The problem was not with his heart – it was with His head – it was with his thinking. God had delivered him before. He had a history with God. Maybe he relied too much on his worldly advisors. Maybe he panicked and gave into fear instead of faith. Other kings had made similar alliances. Other kings had done it this way. So he followed the world instead of consulting God. He went to people instead of going to prayer.
Do we ever do that? Probably all the time. I want you to realize that God wants us to go to Him with that problem. If we do – He will come to our rescue. If we don’t - we will reap what we sow. King Asa suffered needlessly because he didn’t go to God. Not only did the country suffer because of his lack of faith but he suffered personally because of it. Listen:
“In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the LORD, but only from the physicians.” 2 Chronicles 16:12
Doesn’t that seem incredible to you? All the days of his life his heart was perfect before God – and yet he was so faithless. May God spare us from a similar fate. I wonder how many of our problems are brought upon us because we do not go to God. I wonder how many blessing we cheat ourselves out of because we rely on our own wisdom or on a secular councilor or on the government or a bank or a credit card. I wonder. Let’s learn from Asa’s mistake. Let’s use godly wisdom and seek Him.
Here’s another lesson. 3. There is power in prayer. The Bible says,
“Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.”
James 5:17-18
Jesus said, “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” John 14:13-14
James, the brother of Jesus said, “Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” James 5:13-16
There is POWER in prayer. The prayer of a righteous person is POWERFUL and effective. If that is true – and the Bible is the Word of God, the Bible is truth, if those Scriptures are true – why is it that we pray so little? Why is it that we think our prayers are ineffective and powerless when the Bible says just the opposite?
I think there are a number of reasons for our lack of prayer. One reason may be that our prayers ARE weak and ineffective because of sin. The Scripture tells us that if there is sin – if there is rebellion in our hearts – then God can’t hear our prayers. It would be like rewarding a rebellious child. So first get rid of all known rebellion in your heart if you want power in your prayers.
A second reason is that the enemy of our soul falsely accuses us and convinces us that we are so unrighteous; so unworthy, so unholy that God would not hear our prayers. The Bible says,
“Righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.”
Romans 3:22
A righteous man is not righteous because of his own righteousness. We are righteous through faith in Jesus. If our faith is in Jesus and if we believe – we meet the qualifications of a righteous person. And if we are a righteous person – we are powerful in prayer.
The enemy is a false accuser (Rev. 12:10). He knows that our hearts are inclined to evil – continually. And he plays on that. He would convince us that we are not worthy to talk to God. But God is our Heavenly Father. He longs for his child to be intimate with Him. We need to approach Him boldly and confidently – knowing this. We also need to come into His presence confessing our faults and sins. If there is no know rebellion in our hearts we can claim the promises of righteousness through Christ. When we do – there is great power in our prayer.
Here is one more lesson we learn from Asa. 4. Don’t blame others for YOUR problems. Asa blamed the messenger for the message. Listen:
“At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him: “Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the LORD your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand. Were not the Cushites and Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen? Yet when you relied on the LORD, he delivered them into your hand. 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.”
Asa was angry with the seer because of this; he was so enraged that he put him in prison. At the same time Asa brutally oppressed some of the people.”
2 Chronicles 16:7-10
Asa somehow thought he was doing the right thing. Maybe being a king went to his head. This is one of the things that he errored in. Do we ever do that? Do we ever blame someone else instead of admitting our faults and doing something about them? Maybe we do. If we are in the end days, as many people think, the Scriptures says of us,
“For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” 2 Timothy 4:3-4
It is natural in a self-worshipping society, that people would reject truth. Truth can be brutally painful. It is natural to want to be around the thing that makes us feel good. It is natural to want to go to the places that tickles us – instead of that place that makes us feel uncomfortable. And what is it that tickles our ears? What is the big lie – the big deception? It is that you can sin and not die. Satan said to Eve, “You won’t die if you disobey God.” And her and Adam’s sin affected the entire human race. And still people are saying we can sin and not die. Jesus paid the penalty for sin – so you can sin and get away with it.
Do you think that may be why most conservative, holiness churches are small? Do you think that may be why the churches who say you can do what ever you want and still go to heaven and be a Christian are so large? Tickling the ears. Saying what people want to hear. Just asking.
Asa’s story has so much to teach us. Let’s review: 1. Don’t trust in man – trust God. 2. God longs to come to our rescue, 3. There is power in prayer, 4. Don’t blame others for you actions.
Asa, the Bible says, had a heart fully committed to the Lord all his life. (1 Kings 15:14) Is your heart fully committed to the Lord? If your heart is fully committed to the Lord it opens the door to God’s blessings. Asa was blessed personally and the country was blessed because of his commitment to God. Commitment doesn’t mean you are perfect. You may still make mistakes. We need to learn and pray for wisdom and do the best we can with what we have. But it starts with commitment. Have you committed yourself, body, mind and spirit to God? If not, this would be a good time to do so.
Dear Jesus,
I have not been fully committed to you. I have done things my own way – even when I knew your will. Please forgive me. From this point on I am committed to walk in total obedience to you. Give me the grace I need to do this.
