2 chronicles 14: 1 – 15
The Lord fights our battles
14 So Abijah rested with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David. Then Asa his son reigned in his place. In his days the land was quiet for ten years. 2 Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God, 3 for he removed the altars of the foreign gods and the high places and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images. 4 He commanded Judah to seek the LORD God of their fathers, and to observe the law and the commandment. 5 He also removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah, and the kingdom was quiet under him. 6 And he built fortified cities in Judah, for the land had rest; he had no war in those years, because the LORD had given him rest. 7 Therefore he said to Judah, “Let us build these cities and make walls around them, and towers, gates, and bars, while the land is yet before us, because we have sought the LORD our God; we have sought Him, and He has given us rest on every side.” So, they built and prospered. 8 And Asa had an army of three hundred thousand from Judah who carried shields and spears, and from Benjamin two hundred and eighty thousand men who carried shields and drew bows; all these were mighty men of valor. 9 Then Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million men and three hundred chariots, and he came to Mareshah. 10 So Asa went out against him, and they set the troops in battle array in the Valley of Zephathah at Mareshah. 11 And 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!” 12 So the LORD struck the Ethiopians before Asa and Judah, and the Ethiopians fled. 13 And Asa and the people who were with him pursued them to Gerar. So, the Ethiopians were overthrown, and they could not recover, for they were broken before the LORD and His army. And they carried away very much spoil. 14 Then they defeated all the cities around Gerar, for the fear of the LORD came upon them; and they plundered all the cities, for there was exceedingly much spoil in them. 15 They also attacked the livestock enclosures, and carried off sheep and camels in abundance, and returned to Jerusalem.
Today’s scripture reminds me that our Holy Protector God will fight our battles Exodus 14:14 teaches us, “14 The LORD will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”
Deuteronomy 1:30 says, " 30 The LORD your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you, according to all He did for you in Egypt before your eyes,
The truth that God will fight our battles means we do not have to anguish, be anxious, or be discouraged when bad things happen in our lives. When it seems that a situation is hopeless or the matter at hand is too overwhelming, we may be tempted to doubt God. But Christians must remember that no problem is beyond the scope of God’s sovereign care for His children.
. He has promised to take care of us (Philippians 4:19, “19 And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”)
. He makes good plans for us (Jeremiah 29:11, “11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”)
. He love us beyond measure (Romans 8:37–39, “37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”).
In Exodus 14:14 Moses tells the children of Israel, “The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” At that moment, they were standing at the edge of the Red Sea, hemmed in by the sea before them and the Egyptian army behind. The Israelites are in a seemingly impossible situation, but it was a situation brought on by the Lord Himself. It was God who had hardened Pharaoh’s heart to pursue the fleeing slaves (Exodus 14:4, 8).
Why would our Holy God do such a thing? The Bible gives some of the reasons: because God wanted to make it crystal clear to Egypt that He Is LORD so that He got the glory over Pharaoh (Exodus 14:4). And because God wanted to teach Israel that He Is their Deliverer (Exodus 6:6) and their Salvation (Exodus 14:13). They were incapable of escaping the situation on their own—they needed only to wait for God to move on their behalf as Psalm 27:14 informs us, “Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!”. The battle that appeared to be between the Egyptians and the Israelites was in reality between the Egyptians and the Lord (Exodus 14:4).
The lessons for all us believers from the Exodus account can be powerful and life-changing. When we trust God to fight our battles, it enables us to circumvent what often accompanies conflict, i.e., panic, fear, and hopelessness. There are times when we can see absolutely no way around a problem, just like Israel when they were cornered. It’s quite probable not one of the Israelites ever imagined that the massive sea was going to split down the middle, providing their way of escape.
When us Christians believe God’s Word (2 Chronicles 20:17, “17 You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the LORD, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the LORD is with you.”), we learn that no battle is too formidable or monumental for our Great God to handle.
Israel, like many Christians today, had forgotten the previous battles God had fought for them all along the way. The Israelite spies had seen “giants” in the land, just like Christians today see “giant” obstacles, complications, and problems that seem too large to conquer. To let the “giants” steal our faith only leaves defeat and a lack of assurance in the God Who Is in control of every problem, in spite of its size.
God Is in control, but that does not mean Christians get to avoid the battles—in fact, the Bible states the opposite (Romans 5:3–4informs us that “Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope”. For a believer to live a life of endurance, character, and hope, we must put on the full armor of God and trust the Deliverer. Our confidence is in God, who will fight our battles and bring us safely home.
Today we are going to see this truth lived out in the life of king Asa of Judah. He will be outnumbered by an Ethiopian army two to one. Yet we will see that in truth he didn’t need to fight the battle for he had our Majestic and All-Powerful God on his side.
14 So Abijah rested with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David. Then Asa his son reigned in his place. In his days the land was quiet for ten years.
Asa would already have been reigning as regent alongside his father. This was seemingly the practice with the Davidic kings, ensuring a peaceful succession. Now he took over full kingship. He started his reign well. He set about the task of rooting out idolatry in Judah and called his people to a renewed obedience to the Torah (Law) (14.1-7). In Asa’s early reign the prophet Azariah came to him with the word of YHWH, calling on him to seek YHWH with all his heart, and he responded fully. Because of his sincerity and obedience, the land enjoyed a long period of rest, and when a foreign nation did seek to invade Jerusalem, they were overwhelmingly defeated (14.8-15).
Sadly towards the end of his reign, when Israel prevented access to Judah from the north, he made a treaty with the king of Aram (Syria) instead of trusting YHWH, and surrendered to him a huge treasure for his help against Israel. Moreover, when the prophet Hanani rebuked him for it he had him put in prison and became defiant and hard to reason with. As a consequence, he developed a very severe foot disease in both feet. Yet even then instead of responding by seeking YHWH he turned to probably pagan physicians. His early trust in YHWH was seen to be notably diminished. It is a reminder to us all how easily we can leave our first love. Lord please help us never to do this. Please remember we are but flesh and weak.
2 Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God,
Now having taken over the leadership of Judah Asa commenced his reforms. Asa began to act in a way which was good and right in the eyes of YHWH God , and proceeded zealously against Canaanite and foreign religions in the land.
3 for he removed the altars of the foreign gods and the high places and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images.
There were two types of high places. One type consisted of artificially built high places in the cities and towns. Here might be found incense altars for offering incense to the gods, stone pillars representing Baal, and wooden poles or images representing Baal’s consort Asherah. These Asa removed or broke down. The other consisted of ‘natural’ sanctuaries established in sacred places on the higher mountains, in which would also be found the stone pillars which represented Baal, and the Asherah poles or images, which represented Asherah, Baal’s consort. These were much more difficult to finally dispose of. Asa’s men broke down the pillars and hewed down the wooden Asherah images, but even when they had been ‘purged’, the memory of the sites lived on in the local mind, and it was not difficult for determined Baal worshippers to restore the stone pillars and the Asherah images, once they were left to themselves. It was not possible to police ‘every high place’ continually.
4 He commanded Judah to seek the LORD God of their fathers, and to observe the law and the commandment.
Asa’s reforms were not purely negative. He commanded Judah to seek God positively and to obey His Law and His commandment. The call was for a more personal relationship with God as ‘the God of their fathers, The One Who had constantly acted on their behalf, and for a more personal response to the covenant,
5 He also removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah, and the kingdom was quiet under him.
Here the emphasis is on the removal of the artificial high places in the cities of Judah, and of the ‘incense altars.’ The consequence of all this reforming activity was a nation at peace with itself, and not bothered by invaders.
Old traditions died hard and there would always be a tendency for superstitious beliefs to reassert themselves in ancient sanctuaries, especially in the mountains, where their sites would be remembered and could be visited. It is apparent later that Asa failed to maintain vigilance as he grew in disobedience, with the consequence that he did not continue to remove the high places in the land. This may be why in chapter 15.17 it is stated, ‘the high places were not taken away out of Israel’.
6 And he built fortified cities in Judah, for the land had rest; he had no war in those years, because the LORD had given him rest.
A time of peace was a time for building and fortifying cities ready for the time when that peace would be broken. Rehoboam had fortified cities to the south and west. It may be that these built by Asa were additional cities, this time to the north to meet any threat from Israel. This would be on top of refortifying the cities which had suffered though war. A time of peace was a time for building up in preparation for when war did come. It is a reminder that it is not spiritual to be unprepared, although it is constantly emphasized that trust must not be put in fortified cities but in YHWH.
7 Therefore he said to Judah, “Let us build these cities and make walls around them, and towers, gates, and bars, while the land is yet before us, because we have sought the LORD our God; we have sought Him, and He has given us rest on every side.” So, they built and prospered.
Asa explained the reason for his building activity to his people who would be heavily involved in the building. The purpose for it was to make them strong because the land was still in their hands because of God’s goodness. They were a free people, and the reason that they were was because they had sought YHWH as their God. Indeed, because they had sought Him He had given them rest on every side. It is thus being emphasized that to be secure it was important to build strong cities, but it was even more important to seek YHWH.
Inevitably in those days any time of peace and quiet would necessarily be disrupted because they lived in a world in rebellion against God. Thus, there came from the south in the time of Pharaoh Osorkon, no doubt through Egypt with his connivance, a great Ethiopian army led by a commander called Zerah, whose aim was probably plunder and tribute. It appeared that Judah was about to be overrun. But it was at this point that YHWH’s faithfulness to a faithful Asa would be demonstrated. For with a smaller army Asa defeated the invaders and inflicted on them heavy losses, and drove them out of his country, gaining great spoils himself in the follow up activity. What had threatened to be a disaster had become a triumph. Note how the victory is imputed to the fact that Asa called on YHWH. All was due to YHWH God.
8 And Asa had an army of three hundred thousand from Judah who carried shields and spears, and from Benjamin two hundred and eighty thousand men who carried shields and drew bows; all these were mighty men of valor.
In verse 7 details were given of preparations for invasion in time of peace by the building of fortified cites. Now we are informed of the strength in manpower that was at his disposal. Out of Judah he was able to form three hundred thousand, all armed with shields and spears. Out of Benjamin he was able to form two hundred and eighty thousand who were specialists with the bow. All were brave warriors.
9 Then Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million men and three hundred chariots, and he came to Mareshah.
These large forces of Judah would prove to be necessary, for from a huge force descended on Judah consisting of a million soldiers and three hundred chariots. The limitation on the number of chariots may suggest that Zerah, their general, was in fact aware of the limited value of chariots in the hill country. But they would make a strong military impression on observers, especially as there is no indication that Asa had chariots. Here was a force considerably double than Asa’s which was a serious contender and arrived at Mareshah, information no doubt carried to Asa by means of scouts. We must see it as probable that these massive forces arrived with the connivance of Egypt for they would hardly have been allowed through Egypt otherwise. Any attempt to make them local invaders fails on the clear indication of the size of their forces.
Mareshah was a town in the Shephelah of Judah (the lower hill country to the west) and was named with Keilah and Achzib in Joshua 15.44. It occupied a position important enough to require Rehoboam to fortify it for the protection of Jerusalem (11.8).
10 So Asa went out against him, and they set the troops in battle array in the Valley of Zephathah at Mareshah.
It was in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah, that Asa would now meet with the seemingly stronger forces of Zerah to drive them back from Judah’s borders. At first the odds might not appear to be too greatly against Asa, but we must remember that many of his troops were farmers turned soldiers, whilst Zerah’s were probably battle-hardened.
Take note for yourselves of the order of events. Judah first set themselves in battle array, and then they called on YHWH God . It is a reminder that if we want God to act we must be prepared to put ourselves on the front line.
11 And 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!”
But Asa had a secret weapon of which Zerah had no knowledge, the hand of YHWH. And he called on YHWH as the only One Who could help them, in view of their shortage of numbers, in the face of a huge invading force. He pointed out that they were relying on Him as they went out to face the enemy, and that they were going against them in His Name. He prayed to YHWH as ‘his God’, calling on Him not to allow His reputation to be tarnished by the victorious activities of mere men.
As had his father Abijah (13.14), Asa cried to God for His aid, and God heard the cry of His people. Remember this point, when men rely wholly on YHWH He acts on their behalf. In contrast when they fail to look to YHWH they suffer defeat.
12 So the LORD struck the Ethiopians before Asa and Judah, and the Ethiopians fled.
The result of Asa’s prayer was that The Mighty Warrior God YHWH smote the invaders as Asa and Judah went against them, so that they fled before them.
13 And Asa and the people who were with him pursued them to Gerar. So, the Ethiopians were overthrown, and they could not recover, for they were broken before the LORD and His army. And they carried away very much spoil.
Asa and his men pursued the fleeing enemy forces as far as Gerar, a town in the Philistine plain south of Gaza. Gerar was therefore not neutral and may well at this time have been an outpost of Egypt. It is a place known to us through the activities of Abraham and Isaac (Genesis 20 & 26). During the pursuit so many of the enemy forces were slaughtered that there was no way in which they could recover themselves and fight back. They were ‘destroyed before YHWH, and before his host’. They messed with the wrong God. The victory was of YHWH.
14 Then they defeated all the cities around Gerar, for the fear of the LORD came upon them; and they plundered all the cities, for there was exceedingly much spoil in them.
Gerar and its neighboring towns would have been the places where the fleeing enemy forces sought refuge. Now the men of Judah smote those towns and were able to do so because the fear of YHWH had come on the towns and on the fleeing invaders because of their defeat. YHWH had made their hearts melt with fear. Consequently, the men of Judah were able to overrun all the towns around Gerar which at this time contained a great deal of spoil. Because YHWH was with Judah what had appeared to be a great danger to them had turned out to be extremely profitable. It is a reminder that those whose trust is in God will always come out well in the end.
15 They also attacked the livestock enclosures, and carried off sheep and camels in abundance, and returned to Jerusalem.
A huge army would necessarily have had to bring with them sufficient provisions for their army in the form of cattle and sheep, together with camels for transport. In these encampments the men of Judah found great quantities of cattle, sheep, goats and camels which they carried off with them as they returned to Jerusalem. What had appeared to threaten disaster had turned out to be a triumph because YHWH was with them.
