MEDITATIONS FROM CHRONICLES

 

February 13 , 2008

Reading:  2 Chronicles 14:1-6;16:12

 

"In his disease he did not seek the LORD, but the physicians” 2 Chronicles 16:12

 

I approach this thought with mixed emotions. As I read the record of the life of Asa I want to accuse him of inconsistency, but then I look at my own life. The record begins with the words “Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God” 14:2. It then proceeds to record the things he did which made God’s opinion of him so high. Basically he destroyed everything in Judah that had led the people away from Jehovah. In Jerusalem he “removed the altars of the foreign gods and the high places, and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images.” He did not stop with Jerusalem but continued until all the cities of Judah had their altars and images destroyed. He not only destroyed that which opposed God, he established an army of 580,000 mighty men of valor to defend the cities and built walls around them with towers, and gates secured by large metal bolts.

Because Asa sought the Lord, He gave him rest from his enemies. When he was attacked by the Ethiopians who had a much larger contingent of fighting men, he again sought the Lord and cried out to Him. God struck the Ethiopians and they ran back to Ethiopia. Asa proved God and God kept His covenant promise.

However – isn’t it a shame that so often there is a ‘however’ attached to our commitment to God? Five years before he died, Asa made a treaty with Syria. Baasha, King of Israel, ‘came up against Judah and built Ramah, that he might let none go out or come in to Asa king of Judah.’ Instead of doing what he had done throughout his life, Asa turned to Syria for help instead of to the Lord. For the first time he knew defeat,

 

 “Because you have relied on the king of Syria, and have not relied on the LORD your God, therefore the army of the king of Syria has escaped from your hand. Were the Ethiopians and the Lubim not a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet, because you relied on the LORD, He delivered them into your hand. For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. In this you have done foolishly; therefore from now on you shall have wars” 2 Chronicles 16:7-9.

 

The key words here are “because you have relied,” and “have not relied.” His past history would indicate that Asa would once again call on the Lord for help. Yet, unexplainably, he did not. Then, at the end of his life he “became diseased in his feet, and his malady was severe; yet in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but the physicians.” I wonder what made him change? The bible does not say, it just reports the facts.

What makes us inconsistent in our walk with the Lord? Sometimes the joy of the Lord is our strength, and at others joy is way down on the list. We have proved God so many times before, yet this time we seek the help of others. So many of us experience ups and downs, strengths and weaknesses, joy and depression; this is not how the Lord wants us to live.

 

“I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” John 10:10.

 

If any fact should encourage us to be consistent in our walk with the Lord, it is this:

 

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen” Ephesians 3:20-21.