King Asa: Seek.
2 Chronicles 15:1-9
In the early days of the Kingdom of Israel there were three relatively successful kings, being King Saul, King David and King Solomon. Solomon was succeeded by his son King Rehoboam who was a hard and dictatorial king. It was under his reign that the kingdom of Israel was split in two; Judah in the South and Israel in the North. The capital city of Jerusalem became part of Judah. You will have likely seen the maps of these nations on power points before as I've used the illustration of the split nation previously.
Because of King Rehoboam’s actions his advisor Jeroboam became the king of Israel; so two kings Rehoboam king of Judah and Jeroboam king of Israel.
The thing about Rehoboam was that once he got established as king, once he became strong as king; “he and all Israel with him abandoned the law of the Lord.”(2 Chronicles 12:1) He swept down to capture the fortified cities including Jerusalem. He them looted the Temple. There was continual warfare between Rehoboam and Jeroboam.
Rehoboam was 59 years old when he died and his son Abijah then became king of Israel, he fought with Jeroboam and took more of the kingdom of Israel. When the reign of Abijah finished, his son Asa became king.
Today and next week I want to focus on King Asa.
2 Chronicles chapter 14 starts with the words “Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God.” I think as far as a eulogy goes that would not be a bad one. “Andrew did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord God.” I think I could die happy with that ringing in my ears.
It continues that “[King Asa] removed the foreign alters and the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers and obey his laws and commands.” It should be remembered that back in the day kings were all powerful. If you were commanded you did as the king commanded.
If you look at the last part of chapter 14 of 2nd Chronicles, you will see that there was a great battle where the Cushites were out to give the Kingdom of Judah a good hiding and because Asa had honoured God the kingdom of Judah won the battle.
Now there might be a little bit of a theme happening here, ‘honouring God results in an outcome that could have been a lot worse.’ Hold onto that thought.
So post the scrap “the Spirit of God, [aka The Holy Spirit] came upon this man by the name of Azariah the son of Oded.” (2 Chronicles 15:1) and this is what happened. Let’s read from 2nd Chronicles 15 verse 1 down to verse 9.
The first thing I want to say about this reading is that it is from a period of history roughly 2800 years ago, Asa ruled from 913 – 873 BC. The way things were back then carry a few similarities to the present age and we can learn a few things from the way Asa responded to God, and that the people responded to Asa.
In the reading we see that the prophet Azariah gave King Asa a few clues about how to respond to God. For the way he treated God would have an impact on the way God would treat him. The thing to remember is that God is always the same he is Holy, he is loving, gracious – in saying that I mean that he shows grace even when we don’t deserve and God is merciful. We don’t receive what we deserve for our wrong doing. God has made a way clear for us to himself through Jesus.
1) But as people we distance ourselves at times from God, because we don’t seek after God. What Azariah told King Asa was “If you seek him [him being God] he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.” I think that that is fairly clear cut. “if” is a pretty powerful word in this situation.
It’s one of those situations where the word if has all the power. A little like ‘if’ I hadn't speed, I wouldn't have got a speeding ticket. ‘If’ I had lit the fire we would have been warm. ‘If’ I had paid to get into the game they would have let me into the stadium.
So ‘if’ we seek God he will be found by us. But ‘if’ we don’t, he won’t. Do you ever go through those times where God seems to be hanging out on the other side of the Universe in some distant galaxy and it’s all going to custard around you? Those times when stupid things are happening because you are engaging in them, you are feeling like rubbish because God seems so distant. The answer here, is to seek him.
“But I did seek God for a couple of hours and he didn’t show.” This is not some two minute wonder…seeking God takes a bit more than our English word for seek indicates.
The Hebrew word for seek, is dāra´, in the instance that we are looking at. Dāra´ is one of a few different Hebrew words for seek.
In English we have only one word for seek, our nearest equivalent is pursue. In Hebrew its meaning has more depth than our word does. This Hebrew word for ‘seek’ does not mean to make a bit of an attempt, what some ladies would describe as “having a blue look, not a pink look”, I’m picking they are talking about male domestic blindness.
What this word for seek means is to enquire and consult, to ponder, to let one’s self be enquired of, to allow a search be made, to demand an accounting. To investigate and to reveal yourself in relation to God.
This is as much about seeking God as it is about seeking out our own attitude to God and how we are on the inside, in our spirit. That inner place where we are honest with ourselves. Are we honest with ourselves?
So this seeking God is an interesting thing; it is seeking, searching, consulting, demanding an account of God, but with his part comes our part in seeking after God. We are to take a look at ourselves and see why he may be distant, why he may seem a million miles away. As we do this as we dāra´, as we really seek, we are to give ourselves the once over, “why is it that I am distant form God. Is there something or things that are holding me back from the closeness that the saints had in their relationship with Jesus after his going to Glory through the Holy Spirit? Why is it that I struggle in myself and with sin? What is it that I must reveal, to myself, of myself to be close to God that maybe there’s something I would rather not admit, something I prefer to hide from even myself, that he may be found dwelling with me? What refuse am I dragging around that is making it so that I can’t get close to the Holiness of God?
This seeking has no time limit on it, this is a life time activity, not now that I've found God it’s all trickety boo and it’s always going to be. Seeking after God is a life time activity because if we forsake him things can slip up at an extremely rapid pace.
2) It’s interesting that after the prophet had told King Asa to seek after God that we get this sentence in verse 4, “But in their distress they turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, and sought him, and he was found by them.
This is not rocket scientist stuff; in some regards it’s harder! King Asa’s grandfather had neglected to seek after God and his kingdom was torn in two. In the long line of kings of Israel and Judah, quite a number learnt the hard way that if they neglected their relationship with God, they stumbled.
In life when we place something in the place of God and allow it control, we stumble. It might be a thought, an action, a possession, a position of responsibility, a job, a craving, an addition, a person, a different plan than what God has for you. But like Judah, when God is truly sought, God is found by us. Remember that this is deep stuff, like those who have done the twelve steps will know, it is a process.
It’s interesting that the two steps of the twelve step programme that most struggle with are these two, Step 4 “Made a fearless moral inventory of ourselves”, and Step 7 “Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.” These are both part of that Hebrew word dāra´. If we are seeking God and truly want him to be found by us and in us this is what we are required to do. Otherwise we might as well just remain lost, and miserable. Are we willing to play our part in truly seeking God? Do you truly seek after God?
Seeking God is not truly seeking if you are not willing to have all of what finding God consists of.
3) There’s a third point to this message and it’s this. At the time of King Asa, we read that it was not safe to travel about, for everyone was in great turmoil, the nations were at war, the cities were giving one another a hiding. It says here that this was because God was troubling them with every kind of distress. The gist of this from the Hebrew is that they were thrown into confusion because they weren’t seeking God.
But the message to King Asa and the Judeans was, “But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.” What work? This message that the prophet brought was about seeking after God. Work, I don’t want to work to seek after God. I want this to be a simple easy road that is all straight paths with no hills or valleys. I don’t want my journey with God to be work.
What is it that Jesus said about work Matthew 11:29 “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
The Rabbis yoke, Jesus yoke was his teaching, the implication was one that in taking on Jesus teaching work was involved, and effort to remain in that teaching, and effort to be honest with yourself and God. When we take on that yoke, that learning from Jesus, rest is found for our souls, our whole being, again, “But as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded.”
Turmoil, it appears, turmoil occurs when we are seeking after our own and not God understanding. Plans may change, life may change, but in finding God there is an inner peace.
Seeking after God requires effort , dāra´ seeking requires real effort it is an ongoing search of scripture for truth, time alone with God where you can hear his voice, seeking after the leading of the Holy Spirit, so that you are no longer conforming to the ways of the world but the ways of God’s kingdom.
4) Asa did this, he took courage and God was found in him and in the people of Judah. Verses 8 and 9 point to something of interest. Asa removed the detestable things that were holding the people back from engaging with God. He repaired the temple and put God first. He didn't do all this on his own. The people of Judah engaged in this work with him.
Then something of a miracle occurred; others came into Asa’s kingdom, people from Israel went over to Judah. Why because there was cheap travel packages, because there was better food and accommodation in Judah?
No, the reason that they went over is because they “saw that the Lord [Asa’s] God was with [King Asa and the people of Judah] .”
This leaves us with a challenge, why is it that we struggle, why as a corps, a church, as a denomination do we struggle. Could it be that we are not seeking God is a dāra´ kind of way. Could it be that we tend towards complacency in our seeking, not willing to be challenged and changed to the point that it is obvious that God is seen to be with us? Do we have the courage to seek out those answers to look deeply into ourselves as we seek God, this passage of scripture tells us to “take courage and God will be found in us.”
Are you willing are you ready to seek, to live by the will of God, to take courage so that he can be found in you? Then others will see and want to be a part of this part of the body of Christ.
If you seek him he will be found by you. Are you courageous enough for that to occur?
