2 Chronicles 15: 1 – 19
War and Peace
15 Now the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded. 2 And he went out to meet Asa, and said to him: “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. The LORD is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. 3 For a long time Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without law; 4 but when in their trouble they turned to the LORD God of Israel, and sought Him, He was found by them. 5 And in those times, there was no peace to the one who went out, nor to the one who came in, but great turmoil was on all the inhabitants of the lands. 6 So nation was destroyed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every adversity. 7 But you, be strong and do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded!” 8 And when Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and removed the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities which he had taken in the mountains of Ephraim; and he restored the altar of the LORD that was before the vestibule of the LORD. 9 Then he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those who dwelt with them from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, for they came over to him in great numbers from Israel when they saw that the LORD his God was with him. 10 So they gathered together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa. 11 And they offered to the LORD at that time seven hundred bulls and seven thousand sheep from the spoil they had brought. 12 Then they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul; 13 and whoever would not seek the LORD God of Israel was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. 14 Then they took an oath before the LORD with a loud voice, with shouting and trumpets and rams’ horns. 15 And all Judah rejoiced at the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and sought Him with all their soul; and He was found by them, and the LORD gave them rest all around. 16 Also he removed Maachah, the mother of Asa the king, from being queen mother, because she had made an obscene image of Asherah; and Asa cut down her obscene image, then crushed and burned it by the Brook Kidron. 17 But the high places were not removed from Israel. Nevertheless, the heart of Asa was loyal all his days. 18 He also brought into the house of God the things that his father had dedicated and that he himself had dedicated: silver and gold and utensils. 19 And there was no war until the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Asa.
We read in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 24 an interesting conversation between our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and His disciples. They wanted to ask Him a few questions which relate to our time. Here is what was discussed; “3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” 4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, [pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.”
Our Great Master and King Lord Jesus informed us that our world will continue to experience many wars.
Since the end of the Second World War in 1945 there have been some 250 major wars in which over 50 million people have been killed, tens of millions made homeless, and countless millions injured and bereaved.
In the history of warfare, the twentieth century stands out as the bloodiest and most brutal - three times more people have been killed in wars in the last ninety years than in all the previous five hundred
No part of the world has escaped the scourge of war. There is nowhere that modern weapons or armies cannot reach. Anywhere in the world you can find people who will use guns to get their own way. From under the ocean a missile can fly out beyond the atmosphere and come down to destroy a city on the other side of the world; while a tiny butterfly-like object (an anti-personnel mine) can blow up the child who picks it up thinking it's a toy.
The destructive power of weapons has grown enormously during the twentieth century. Unfortunately, people's ability to resolve conflict has not made the same strides.
Expenditure on defense has also grown steadily. But despite this massive increase most people don't feel much more secure. Wars have not brought peace. The desire to invent ever more effective weapons to defend or deter has absorbed an ever-growing amount of money; but it's done nothing to prevent war. What has happened is that weapons are indeed more expensive and more destructive; but resources for the things that people really need have been reduced. In some parts of the world military expenditure has itself become the source of conflict: scarce resources are used to buy weapons and maintain the armed forces while much of the population lives in appalling poverty.
The nature of warfare has also changed. From the set-piece battles of the earlier centuries, the blood and mud of the trenches in the First World War, and the fast-moving mechanized battlefields of World War Two, to the high-tech 'surgical' computer-guided action in Iraq and Kuwait, war as seen through our television screens appears to have become a well-ordered, almost bloodless, affair. Nothing could be further from the truth.
During the twentieth century the proportion of civilian casualties has risen steadily. In World War Two two-thirds of those killed were civilians; by the beginning of the 1990s civilian deaths approached a horrifying 90 per cent.
Behind many of today's armed conflicts lies a long history of wars which ended, maybe, with winners and losers, but rarely with solutions to the problems which caused war in the first place.
Wars don't happen by accident. To wage war, you need weapons, many of which take a lot of time, money and people to produce. Weapons make people feel more important and powerful (and more dangerous). Many political and military leaders therefore feel they must have the most powerful weapons possible.
Furthermore, the military are often dissatisfied with what weapons they have. They want something 'better', and certainly better than the weapons the 'other side' has. To get money from government to upgrade their weapon resources, military representatives may exaggerate the 'strength' of a potential 'enemy'. Without a threat, after all, there is no real justification for having big, expensive weapons; so sometimes a 'threat' will be imagined or invented.
This competitive upward spiral, as one side tries to outdo the other in ever more destructive weapons, is called 'the arms race'. The armed forces, politicians, industry and workers become entwined in what an American President called 'the military industrial complex'. Armed forces get the fighting equipment they want; politicians gain prestige; companies and shareholders make a lot of money; and there are jobs for hundreds of thousands of people.
Wars don't happen by accident. As well as weapons, wars need people who are prepared to use them: to kill, and to be killed. Certainly, there are people who don't need persuading. But more often people fight because it's what they're paid to do: they work for the armed services or as mercenaries. Certainly, there are people who, however reluctantly, choose to go to war because they believe it's the right thing to do. But more often people are forced - 'conscripted' - into the armed services by their government and have no choice in the matter.
In fact, organized war is not a natural activity. One commentator described it as 'a highly planned and co-operative form of theft and murder, which began over ten thousand years ago when those who learned to grow wheat and save the surplus were robbed by nomads of the things they could not provide themselves.' Men began to use spears to kill people as well as animals: the arms race was already under way. Ten thousand years ago people may not have known what else to do; today we don't have that excuse.
Since the beginning of history people have got angry, had disagreements and punch-ups, and even killed each other. This we have in common with a few other animal species. But it's very different from war.
War is an activity that needs preparation, organization, planning and calculation, like farming, or education, or building. It has little to do with aggressive moods or eruptions of anger. There is no baring of teeth in the chemical weapons laboratory. Designing a nuclear bomb that can kill millions of people is a long-term project, requiring skill, imagination, quiet concentration, and a lot of taxpayers' money. The hundreds of thousands of people employed in armaments factories don't go to work in the morning red with fury and ready to slay 'the enemy'. Most of them are loving parents who take care of their children, seldom considering that the weapons they help to make might one day kill some other parent's children somewhere else.
So, what about peace then?
Rest in peace is carved on tens of thousands of gravestones up and down the country. People ask to be left in peace and insurance salesmen guarantee us peace of mind. The police attempt to keep the peace; there are peacekeeping forces dotted about the world in blue helmets, surrounded by the horrors of war. People on demonstrations demand peace now and peace with justice; some are accused of disturbing the peace. Some search for inner peace while others insists on peace with honor. The Americans have named a nuclear weapon the Peacekeeper, and the US air force proudly boasts that Peace is our profession. 'Give peace a chance' goes the song widely adopted by the peace movement; but it's probably not sung during a peace process which is rarely a peaceful activity. Yet, even though everyone appears to want peace, it is still in short supply. (It has been calculated that between 3600 BC and today there have been only 292 years of peace; that there have been over 14,500 major wars in which close to 4 billion people have perished. The war dead thus come close to equaling the total population of the world today.)
America Has Been At War 93% of the Time – 222 Out of 239 Years. Since the United States was founded in 1776, she has been at war during 214 out of her 235 calendar years of existence. In other words, there were only 21 calendar years in which the U.S. did not wage any wars.
To put this in perspective:
* Pick any year since 1776 and there is about a 91% chance that America was involved in some war during that calendar year.
* No U.S. president truly qualifies as a peacetime president. Instead, all U.S. presidents can technically be considered “war presidents.”
* The U.S. has never gone a decade without war.
* The only time the U.S. went five years without war (1935-40) was during the isolationist period of the Great Depression.
It would be wrong to believe that the past was peaceful. One reason why some people might have this impression is that many of the past conflicts feature less prominently in our memories, they are simply forgotten.
There is a company by the name of Brecke. They deal with military information. They have recorded 3708 conflicts in the world since records were kept.
We are going to focus today on our Holy, Merciful, and Gracious God Who gave many years of peace to the Israelites because they had a king who tried his best to obey and encourage his people to love the Lord God Yahweh.
15 Now the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded.
God spoke through prophets. It may be indicating a new sense of the activity of God’s Holy Spirit and is possibly an indication of the immediacy of God’s interest in Asa because of his reforming zeal. God was wanting to act through Asa and throughout Asa’s reign. The idea of the Spirit of God (YHWH) coming on men was an always an indication that God was beginning to act.
2 And he went out to meet Asa, and said to him: “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. The LORD is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.
The prophet’s words are spoken not only to Asa but also to the people of Judah and Benjamin. Behind this might be the implication that God was not at this stage behind the northern tribes. He calls on them to listen to him and recognize that YHWH is with them while they are with Him if they seek Him. This was in contrast with an Israel that had forsaken YHWH.
The words are a guarantee of YHWH’s faithfulness to those who remain faithful to Him, and a confirmation that He will respond to their needs. On the other hand, if they forsake Him they should recognize that He would forsake them. Thus, God’s requirement was that they trust and obey Him, with a warning of the consequences of not doing so.
3 For a long time Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without law;
The situation is now illustrated by looking back at Israel’s past. It is a general statement and does not deny that there were those in the minority who did remain faithful to YHWH. For long periods, apart from in places where there were faithful Judges, Israel as a whole had struggled on without the true God (they had looked to foreign gods and idols), and without a teaching priest (one of the purposes of priests was to teach), and without the Torah (God’s instruction in the Law). This was not because there was no Torah. It was because it lay unheeded. Note the threefold pillar on which Israel should have been built: true faith in YHWH as revealed in the Torah; the truth as proclaimed by faithful priests; and the Torah which would direct them towards the true understanding of God and His ways and be the basis of the teaching of the faithful priests. It is paralleled today in the idea of the building up of a true knowledge of God from His word, of listening to ministers who are faithful to the word of God, and of looking to the word of God itself.
This situation had arisen, not because God had failed to give His people all that they needed, but because they had wandered from Him and had failed to listen to His words. They had neglected how God would speak to them. The Torah remained within the Central Sanctuary, but they had grown slack in their appreciation of Yahweh.
4 but when in their trouble they turned to the LORD God of Israel, and sought Him, He was found by them.
This statement is well illustrated by the Books of Judges and 1 Samuel. Whenever the people in their distress turned to YHWH and sought Him He was found of them. In the mouth of Azariah it was indicating a general principle that must now be followed by Asa and his people. They too must look to YHWH, as their fathers had failed to do, and therefore He would be found of them, and they would continue to enjoy prosperity and peace. This was the general theme of the Old Testament, especially illustrated in Leviticus 26, and it had been illustrated in the earliest part of Asa’s reign. It was to be the basis on which Asa continued to rule.
5 And in those times, there was no peace to the one who went out, nor to the one who came in, but great turmoil was on all the inhabitants of the lands.
Azariah reminds them of what the consequences had been for Israel when they had neglected the true knowledge of God and had ignored His Torah. The whole land had been troubled. Life had been dangerous. Safe travel had been almost impossible. Local violence was rife. Indeed, all the inhabitants of the lands of Judah and Israel had experienced great tribulations, often ruled over by tribute demanding kings, or subjected to constant invasion. It had mainly been a time of darkness, occasionally illuminated by a short period of light.
6 So nation was destroyed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every adversity.
All this terrible heartache happened because they had forsaken YHWH, He had forsaken them. Nation had fought with nation, tribe with tribe, and city against city, in continuing civil war. This black picture is probably based on a careful selection of incidents in the Book of Judges, and is not to be applied too literally, for it was often countered by the faithful Judges. But there can be no doubt that whole period was a time of turmoil for many, and that during it most of Israel suffered greatly.
7 But you, be strong and do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded!”
But now however, Asa and his people are now to take heart. They are to look to YHWH and be strong, not allowing themselves to be slack in doing what YHWH requires, and then their work resulting from trust and obedience will be rewarded. It was a call be strong and to put things right in the land.
Asa took to heart the words of Azariah, and of Azariah’s father Oded, and set about the task of purifying Judah and Benjamin with a renewed zeal. He had already carried out certain reforms (14.3-5) but these were now intensified. Indeed, the task of uprooting idolatry from the land would be a continual one for the old nature religions would continually re-exert themselves among the many who lacked true spirituality. The whole land was full of pagan sanctuaries, many of which were sacred sites on mountain tops, and although efforts were made to root them out, the memory of them (and the sites) remained, so that naturalistic religion continually re-exerted itself. They were not difficult to rebuild, and they appealed to the instincts of the people who did not like the severity of the claims of YHWH and preferred what catered to their baser instincts.
8 And when Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and removed the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities which he had taken in the mountains of Ephraim; and he restored the altar of the LORD that was before the vestibule of the LORD.
Asa’s also renewed the altar of YHWH and called on the people to truly worship YHWH
We have here a reminder that true spiritual revival always begins by putting away ‘idols’ that have crept into our lives, and renewing emphasis on the means of reconciliation to God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by which we commence a new continuing dedication and relationship with God.
9 Then he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those who dwelt with them from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, for they came over to him in great numbers from Israel when they saw that the LORD his God was with him.
The words of Azariah, fortified by the earlier prophecies of his father Oded, aroused Asa to action as he considered the victory that he had gained over the massive forces of the Ethiopians. Because of all of these factors he gathered together his people for the Feast of Sevens (Weeks), one of the three major feasts of their religious year, for the purpose of worshipping YHWH and renewing covenant with Him.
It is now that we learn of the way in which the population of Judah and Benjamin had been further greatly increased because of the migration into the country during the reign of Asa of Israelites from Ephraim, Manasseh and Simeon whose territories bordered on Judah and Benjamin. These were no doubt Israelites who were faithful to YHWH in the face of Jeroboam’s activities in setting up the golden calves and wanted to be able to worship Yahweh at Jerusalem. They were encouraged in this move by the way that Asa had successfully taken over Israelite territory and had also defeated the massive invading forces. This had convinced them that YHWH was with him, so that they would do well to throw in their lot with him. It would add impetus to the reforming zeal of Asa.
10 So they gathered together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa.
So, all the people of Judah and Benjamin, together with the absorbed immigrants described, gathered themselves together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa. The first month would be the month Nisan, when the Feast of Passover was held.
‘The fifteenth year of the reign of Asa.’ If we see his reign as commencing in around 911 BC, this would be around 896 BC, and this would tie in with there having been ‘ten years of quiet’ prior to the invasion by Zerah.
11 And they offered to the LORD at that time seven hundred bulls and seven thousand sheep from the spoil they had brought.
Gathering at the Feast of Sevens (Weeks) in Jerusalem Asa’s victorious warriors offered sacrifices through the priests in gratitude for the spoil that they had accumulated because of their victory. They offered ‘seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep’.
12 Then they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul;
Their worship offerings were accompanied by the commitment without which ritual worship is meaningless. They determined among themselves, and confirmed it with a sacred covenant agreement, that they would seek YHWH the God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul. They were committing themselves to the One Who had been faithful to and had delivered their fathers. Their commitment was based on YHWH’s past goodness.
13 and whoever would not seek the LORD God of Israel was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman.
And they equally determined that they would exclude from among their number any who would not seek YHWH their God, ‘the God of Israel’. Such people were to be put to death whether they were aristocrats or common people, whether they were male or female. These would not be people who excluded themselves for intellectual reason, but rather some who were determined to pursue the old nature religions in the worship of Baal and Asherah, Molech and such like and rejected YHWH. Their refusal to partake in the great covenant which the people of Judah had made would be treasonable.
We must remember that those who had gathered had gathered to a great Feast of YHWH. Gathering at such a Feast was an indication of commitment to YHWH. Thus, to deliberately refuse to seek YHWH at such a gathering would itself be treason. It would be a deliberate putting of idols before YHWH and a rejection of YHWH and would be invalidating the covenant that all together had made. The people would see the only way of dealing with such a situation as requiring the death of the guilty parties. At sacred occasions such as these there had to be full, wholehearted commitment. One voice of dissent would be making the unanimous covenant invalid, and therefore as a heinous offence. Better were it had such people stayed away.
14 Then they took an oath before the LORD with a loud voice, with shouting and trumpets and rams’ horns.
The enthusiasm of their covenant making is brought out here. All Judah rejoiced at the oath that they had made, and swore to YHWH with a loud voice, the declaration of the whole people that they were committed to the covenant. This was accompanied by the shouts of joy of an exhilarated people, the blowing of trumpets proclaiming the event, and the playing of cornets. Such symbols were supportive of their oath, proclaiming the making of it both to YHWH and to all within range.
15 And all Judah rejoiced at the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and sought Him with all their soul; and He was found by them, and the LORD gave them rest all around.
Note the threefold emphasis;
1. they ‘entered into the covenant’ (verse 12)
2. they swore to YHWH with a loud voice’ (verse 14)
3. ‘all Judah rejoiced at the oath’ (here in verse 15).
Threeness indicated completeness. This is thus emphasizing the completeness of their dedication. They had sworn with all their hearts (inner beings), and they sought Him with their whole desire. It was wholehearted commitment. And that He was found of them was revealed by the fact that they had rest round about. They enjoyed a God-given period of peace.
16 Also he removed Maachah, the mother of Asa the king, from being queen mother, because she had made an obscene image of Asherah; and Asa cut down her obscene image, then crushed and burned it by the Brook Kidron.
Having earlier stated the general fact that that Asa had ‘put away the abominations (symbols and practice of idolatry) out of all the land’ (verse 8), we now learn how these things had even affected the royal court. Because of her idolatry Asa removed Maacah from her high position as ‘queen mother’. In Judah being ‘mother of the king’ was a high office and held in high honor.
Maacah’s chief crime was the erection of an idolatrous image of Asherah, the consort of Baal, clearly for Asherah worship. This would have been either in the form of a wooden pole or of a wooden image and would have been erected at a ‘high place’, either an artificial high place built in Jerusalem, or an ancient sacred site in the mountains round Jerusalem. She would not have been alone in her worship. Others would have been led astray with her, in some cases beguiled by her high office. Asa arranged for her image to be cut down, hewed into small pieces, and burned at the Brook Kidron, probably as a public spectacle.
17 But the high places were not removed from Israel. Nevertheless, the heart of Asa was loyal all his days.
At first sight this statement would appear to contradict but the explanation is that it is a general statement indicating that in spite of all the reforms and efforts of good kings high places still remained in the land. ‘Israel’ was not cleared of high places. The policy failed, despite the king’s good intentions, primarily because of its impossibility. High places were so numerous, and in some cases so remote, and could so easily be restored, that a total purge was impossible. High places will crop up again and again. That this is the way in which we are to see it is confirmed by the final statement that the heart of Asa was perfect all his days. In other words, he did what he could to remove them. He may have failed in other things, but he did not fail in this. The problem lay in the vastness of the task.
18 He also brought into the house of God the things that his father had dedicated and that he himself had dedicated: silver and gold and utensils.
There may here be a further indication of Abijah’s lackluster attitude towards YHWH. The suggestion seems to be that while he had nominally dedicated to YHWH the spoils of war he had not brought them into the house of God. This was now remedied by Asa, who not only brought into the house of God what he himself had dedicated, but also what his father had dedicated. It included silver, gold and vessels. It is a reminder to us that it is not enough to sing ‘I surrender all’. It must also be put into practice.
19 And there was no war until the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Asa.
Because of Asa’s faithfulness and trust in YHWH Judah was kept free from major wars and incursions up to the thirty fifth year of his reign. The whole land enjoyed a period of relative peace. Border raids there may have been, and especially unrest on the northern border with Israel, which was in fact considerably north of Judah, but there was nothing really to disturb the peace.
