Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Chronicles 14:1
So Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David: and Asa his son reigned in his stead. In his days the land was quiet ten years.
Ch. 2Ch 14:1-5 (cp. 1Ki 15:8-12). The Religious Policy of Asa
1. ten years ] These ten years of rest are naturally to be assigned to the beginning of Asa’s reign; later on there was a rest of twenty years (cp. 2Ch 15:10 with 2Ch 15:19). The number ten here makes a discrepancy with 1 Kin., for Baasha became king of Israel in the third year of Asa (1Ki 15:28; 1Ki 15:33), and “there was war between Asa and Baasha all their days” ( ib. 1Ki 15:32). If, however, we allow some latitude to the language both of 1 Kin. and of Chron., the discrepancy becomes unimportant.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Asa his son reigned – If Rehoboam was (1Ki 12:8 note) not more than 21 years old at his accession, Asa, when he mounted the throne, must have been a mere boy, not more than 10 or 11 years of age.
The land was quiet ten years – The great blow struck by Abijah 2Ch 13:15-19, his alliance with Syria 1Ki 15:19, and the rapid succession of sovereigns in Israel during the earlier part of Asas reign 1Ki 15:25-33, would naturally prevent disturbance on the part of the northern kingdom. The tender age of Asa himself would be a bar to warlike enterprises on the part of Judah.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
2Ch 14:1-4
And Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God.
Asa faithful to his God
We have watched the steady fall of the kingdom of Israel Judah also began in shame and ended in disaster, but its shame was not so unmixed nor its disaster so complete. The reason for this better fate is suggested in our text: the saving influence of good men interposed to hold the people to God and prosperity. Our lesson presents Asa as the righteous leader of his people.
1. Asa reformed the religion of Judah. Like Gideon, he began his rule with a bold attack upon the popular idolatry. The worship of Baal and Ashtoreth had clung to the people ever since they met it when entering Canaan, in spite of Gods warning that for this very sin the inhabitants were cast out before them. In recent years Solomon had patronised it, Rehoboam encouraged and Abijah confirmed it; and under these royal leaders Judah had become fascinated with its worship and debauched with its hideous vice. But the reformers axe went crashing through the groves. He was well named Asa(Physician, Cure), for he healed the hurt of his people. We hear of no resistance to his vigorous measures. The conscience of the nation yet answered to the conscience of the king: the land was quiet before him.
2. Asa advanced the material prosperity of Judah. In the ten years of rest which God gave him he built fenced cities, with walls and towers, gates and bars, to protect them from Israel on the north and Egypt on the south.
3. Passing now to determine the nature and the extent of Asas influence, we find the cause of his success in his piety. He was a sound reformer, an able king, and a successful soldier, because he was faithful to his God. He did that which was right, and commanded the people to serve the Lord. So, too, his best work for his subjects was upon their characters. Asas influence was most important and enduring. He ascended the throne at a crisis in the nations history. Israel was already twenty years along in its fatal transgression, and Judah was hastening after it. His father and grandfather had forsaken the righteousness of David and perpetuated the iniquity of Solomon, rather than his splendour or his wisdom. Had the succeeding reign of forty-one years followed the same course, we must believe that the current toward wickedness would have been set past turning. Had Asa been like Jeroboam, Judah would have gone down like Israel. Through Asas faithfulness the old mans dying blessing has come to pass: Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy fathers children shall bow down before thee, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. For Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him came the chief ruler. The Jewish monarchy fell at last, but the real cause for which Asa struggled shall never perish. He who reads the story of Israel and Judah will mark with wonder the controlling power exercised by the king upon the religious faith of the nation. If it is written of one, He did evil in the sight of the Lord, it is always true that he made Israel to sin. If he worshipped Jehovah, his subjects worshipped with him. The character of the king decided the character of the people. The saving influence of righteous leaders. The power to lead others may come either from external circumstances or from personal qualities.
1. The influence given by external circumstances.
(1) Official rank gives authority. Asa did, as king, what he could never have accomplished as a private citizen. He had direct control over his dependents. A devout centurion will have a devout soldier to wait upon him. The moral influence of those in high stations is wide and strong. Eminence makes example conspicuous.
(2) Wealth brings influence.
(3) Employers have large opportunity for good.
2. Besides the control given by external circumstances, we may notice the influence of personal qualities. Not what the man has, but what the man is, makes him a leader. Jeroboam is an instance in point. Beginning life as a common labourer, he died king of Israel. How continually have gifted, accomplished, and learned men brought saving help to the Church of God throughout her history. There is a subtle, mighty influence which should always be consecrated to holy uses–popularity, power to win the favour of others. Disciplined character has a peculiar mastery over others for good. Its control is quieter and deeper than any we have marked; it is the atmosphere of a soul refined to its highest uses. All high beauty has a moral element in it. Gross and obscure natures, however decorated, seem impure shambles; but character gives splendour to youth, and awe to wrinkled skin and grey hairs. God has been at great pains to fit souls for this service. (Monday Club Sermon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XIV
Asa succeeds his father Abijah, reigns piously, and has peace
for ten years, 1.
He makes a great reformation in Judah, and builds cities of
defense, 2-7.
His military strength, 8.
He is attacked by Zerah the Ethiopian, with an immense army;
Asa cries to the Lord, attacks the Ethiopians, and gives them
a total overthrow, 9-12.
He takes several of their cities, their cattle, &c., and
returns to Jerusalem, laden with spoils, 13-15.
NOTES ON CHAP. XIV
Verse 1. The land was quiet ten years.] Calmet thinks these years should be counted from the fifth to the fifteenth of Asa’s reign.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
i.e. There was no open war, either by Baasha or others; only there were secret grudges and private hostilities between his and Baashas subjects, 1Ki 15:16.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. In his days the land was quietten yearsThis long interval of peace was the continued effectof the great battle of Zemaraim (compare 1Ki15:11-14).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
So Abijah slept with his fathers, 1Ki 15:8
and Asa his son reigned in his stead; in his days the land was quiet ten years; the Targum is, the land of Israel; but much better the Septuagint, the land of Judah; these ten years, in which it had rest from war, were the first three years of Asa’s reign, and the first seven of Baasha’s, according to Jarchi, and which seems right; after which there was war between them all their days, see 1Ki 15:32.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
2Ch 14:1-3 Asa’s efforts for the abolition of idolatry and the establishment of the kingdom. – 2Ch 14:1-4. The good and right in God’s eyes which Asa did is further defined in 2Ch 14:2-4. He abolished all the objects of the idolatrous worship. The “altars of the strangers” are altars consecrated to foreign gods; from them the , high places, are distinguished-these latter being illegal places of sacrifice connected with the worship of Jahve (see on 1Ki 15:14). The are the statues or monumental columns consecrated to Baal, and the wooden idols, tree-trunks, or trees, which were consecrated to Astarte (see on 1Ki 14:23 and Deu 16:21). Asa at the same time commanded the people to worship Jahve, the God of the fathers, and to follow the law.
2Ch 14:4-6 He removed from all the cities of Judah the altars of the high places, and the , sun-pillars, pillars or statues consecrated to Baal as sun-god, which were erected near or upon the altars of Baal (2Ch 34:4; see on Lev 26:30). In consequence of this the kingdom had rest , before him, i.e., under his oversight (cf. Num 8:22). This ten-years’ quiet (2Ch 14:1) which God granted him, Asa employed in building fortresses in Judah (2Ch 14:5). “We will build these cities, and surround them with walls and towers, gates and bolts.” It is not said what the cities were, but they were at any rate others than Geba and Mizpah, which he caused to be built after the war with Baasha (2Ch 16:6). “The land is still before us,” i.e., open, free from enemies, so that we may freely move about, and build therein according to our pleasure. For the phraseology, cf. Gen 13:9. The repetition of , 2Ch 14:6, is impassioned speech. “They built and had success;” they built with effect, without meeting with any hindrances.
2Ch 14:7 Asa had also a well-equipped, well-armed army. The men of Judah were armed with a large shield and lance (cf. 1Ch 12:24), the Benjamites with a small shield and bow (cf. 1Ch 8:40). The numbers are great; of Judah 300,000, of Benjamin 280,000 men. Since in these numbers the whole population capable of bearing arms is included, 300,000 men does not appear too large for Judah, but 280,000 is a very large number for Benjamin, and is founded probably on an overestimate.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Asa King of Judah. | B. C. 955. |
1 So Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David: and Asa his son reigned in his stead. In his days the land was quiet ten years. 2 And Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God: 3 For he took away the altars of the strange gods, and the high places, and brake down the images, and cut down the groves: 4 And commanded Judah to seek the LORD God of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandment. 5 Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the images: and the kingdom was quiet before him. 6 And he built fenced cities in Judah: for the land had rest, and he had no war in those years; because the LORD had given him rest. 7 Therefore he said unto Judah, Let us build these cities, and make about them walls, 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 hath given us rest on every side. So they built and prospered. 8 And Asa had an army of men that bare targets and spears, out of Judah three hundred thousand; and out of Benjamin, that bare shields and drew bows, two hundred and fourscore thousand: all these were mighty men of valour.
Here is, I. Asa’s general character (v. 2): He did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. 1. He aimed at pleasing God, studied to approve himself to him. Happy are those that walk by this rule, to do that which is right, not in their own eyes, or in the eye of the world, but in the eyes of God. 2. He saw God’s eye always upon him, and that helped much to keep him to what was good and right. 3. God graciously accepted him in what he did, and approved his conduct as good and right.
II. A blessed work of reformation which he set on foot immediately upon his accession to the crown. 1. He removed and abolished idolatry. Since Solomon admitted idolatry, in the latter end of his reign, nothing had been done to suppress it, and so, we presume, it had got ground. Strange gods were worshipped and had their altars, images, and groves; and the temple service, though kept up by the priests (ch. xiii. 10), was neglected by many of the people. Asa, as soon as he had power in his hands, made it his business to destroy all those idolatrous altars and images (2Ch 14:3; 2Ch 14:5), they being a great provocation to a jealous God and a great temptation to a careless unthinking people. He hoped by destroying the idols to reform the idolaters, which he aimed at, rather than to ruin them. 2. He revived and established the pure worship of God; and, since the priests did their part in attending God’s altars, he obliged the people to do theirs (v. 4): He commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers, and not the gods of the heathen, and to do the law and the commandments, that is, to observe all divine institutions, which many had utterly neglected. In doing this, the land was quiet before him, v. 5. Though they were much in love with their idols, and very loth to leave them, yet the convictions of their consciences sided with the commands of Asa, and they could not, for shame, refuse to comply with them. Note, Those that have power in their hands, and will use it vigorously for the suppression of profaneness and the reformation of manners, will not meet with so much difficulty and opposition therein as perhaps they feared. Vice is a sneaking thing, and virtue has reason enough on its side to make all iniquity stop her mouth, Ps. cvii. 42.
III. The tranquillity of his kingdom, after constant alarms of war during the last two reigns: In his days the land was quiet ten years (v. 1), no war with the kingdom of Israel, who did not recover the blow given them in the last reign for a great while. Abijah’s victory, which was owing, under God, to his courage and bravery, laid a foundation for Asa’s peace, which was the reward of his piety and reformation. Though Abijah had little religion himself, he was instrumental to prepare the way for one that had much. If Abijah had not done what he did to quiet the land, Asa could not have done what he did to reform it; for inter arma silent leges—amidst the din of arms the voice of law is unheard.
IV. The prudent improvement he made of that tranquillity: The land had rest, for the Lord had given him rest. Note, If God give quietness, who then can make trouble? Job xxxiv. 29. Those have rest indeed to whom God gives rest, peace indeed to whom Christ gives peace, not as the world giveth, John xiv. 27. Now, 1. Asa takes notice of the rest they had as the gift of God (He hath given us rest on every side. Note, God must be acknowledged with thankfulness in the rest we are blessed with, of body and mind, family and country), and as the reward of the reformation begun: Because we have sought the Lord our God, he has given us rest. Note, As the frowns and rebukes of Providence should be observed for a check to us in an evil way, so the smiles of Providence should be taken notice of for our encouragement in that which is good. See Hag 2:18; Hag 2:19; Mal 3:10. We find by experience that it is good to seek the Lord; it gives us rest. While we pursue the world we meet with nothing but vexation. 2. He consults with his people, by their representatives, how to make a good use of the present gleams of peace they enjoyed, and concludes with them, (1.) That they must not be idle, but busy. Times of rest from war should be employed in work, for we must always find ourselves something to do. In the years when he had no war he said, “Let us build; still let us be doing.” When the churches had rest they were built up, Acts ix. 31. When the sword is sheathed take up the trowel. (2.) That they must not be secure, but prepare for wars. In times of peace we must be getting ready for trouble, expect it and lay up in store for it. [1.] He fortified his principle cities with walls, towers, gates, and bars, v. 7. “This let us do,” says he, “while the land is yet before us,” that is, “while we have opportunity and advantage for it and have nothing to hinder us.” He speaks as if he expected that, some way or other, trouble would arise, when it would be too late to fortify, and when they would wish they had done it. So they built and prospered. [2.] He had a good army ready to bring into the field (v. 8), not a standing army, but the militia or trained-bands of the country. Judah and Benjamin were mustered severally; and Benjamin (which not long ago was called little Benjamin, Ps. lxviii. 27) had almost as many soldiers as Judah, came as near as 28 to 30, so strangely had that tribe increased of late. The blessing of God can make a little one to become a thousand. It should seem, these two tribes were differently armed, both offensively and defensively. The men of Judah guarded themselves with targets, the men of Benjamin with shields, the former of which were much larger than the latter, 1Ki 10:16; 1Ki 10:17. The men of Judah fought with spears when they closed in with the enemy; the men of Benjamin drew bows, to reach the enemy at a distance. Both did good service, and neither could say to the other, I have no need of thee. Different gifts and employments are for the common good.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
See note on 1Ki 15:7
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
THE SECOND BOOK OF CHRONICLES
IN discussing the First Book of Chronicles we called attention to the fact that according to Usshers chronology, the two Books, not reckoning the table of genealogy, covered a space of 468 years of history; the First Book only 41 of these, and this second, 427. As to the authorship of these Books, Ezra is commonly accepted.
The analysis of any book is largely the presentation of a personal view. One man divides this Second Book of Chronicles into two portions: The Reign of Solomon, chapters 1 to 9, and The Kings of Judah, chapters 10 to 36.
Scofield in his reference Bible, says of this Book: It falls into eighteen divisions, by reigns, from Solomon to the captivities; records the division of the kingdom of David under Jeroboam and Rehoboam, and is marked by an ever growing apostasy, broken temporarily by reformations under Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Hezekiah, and Josiah.
It is our purpose to follow neither of these divisions, however natural they may be, but to discuss the volume under three heads: Solomon and the Temple; Rehoboam and the Division, and the History of Judah.
SOLOMON AND THE TEMPLE
The Book opens with a declaration concerning the new king, And Solomon the son of David was strengthened in his kingdom, and the Lord his God was with him, and magnified him exceedingly (2Ch 1:1).
The history that follows gives occasion to say several things concerning this marvelous man of immortal reputation:
First, Solomons kingship enjoyed an auspicious beginning. The man who ascends the throne under the favor of the Lord necessarily begins a reign of promise. If, as in Solomons case, he sensibly recognizes his responsibility and seeks wisdom from the only sufficient source, he adds greater certainty to his success. When, in addition to this, his objectives are high and God-honoring, the glory of his kingdom advances accordingly. Certainly, Solomons preparation to build the temple was not only a noble objective, but one in line with his kingly fathers purpose and prayers, and the great Heavenly Fathers will for him.
The interesting history here of gathering materials and appointing men for this marvelous construction is made more interesting still by the kings personal supervision and spiritual interest. It takes some courage to conduct war, and we believe it takes almost more courage and even a clearer sense of God, to build sanctuaries, make their appointments according to the Divine pleasure, and call the people to worship within the spacious rooms of the same. Yet, when you have read but five chapters of this Book, you find such a work complete, and are not in the least amazed or even surprised to read, The glory of the Lord had filled the house of God (2Ch 5:14).
It is doubtful whether any company of men have done more for the establishment of spirituality in the earth and for the strengthening of the souls of their fellows, than have those who brought sanctuaries into existence and led congregations of people to a genuine worship of the most high God.
The on-going of this Book reveals Solomons conscious dependence. When the altar was erected he stood by it with outstretched hands (2Ch 6:12). That is the attitude of prayer and possibly of adoration. When his lips parted to speak, he says,
O Lord God of Israel, there is no God tike Thee in the heaven, nor in the earth; which keepest covenant, and shewest mercy unto Thy servants that walk before Thee with all their hearts:
Thou which hast kept with Thy servant David my father that which Thou hast promised him; and spakest with Thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with Thine hand, as it is this day.
Now therefore, O Lord God of Israel, keep with Thy servant David my father that which Thou hast promised him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in My sight to sit upon the throne of Israel; yet so that thy children take heed to their way to walk in My Law, as Thou hast walked before Me (2Ch 6:14-16).
Now then, O Lord God of Israel, let Thy Word be verified, which Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant David (2Ch 6:17).
Then follows an appeal that Gods eyes should be open upon their house day and night; that His ears should hearken to the prayers made in that place, and if sin were committed, that forgiveness should be granted, and if the people fail before the face of the enemy because of sin that they also should be pardoned; that if heaven be shut up on the same ground, upon repentance the dearth should end.
Then he concludes in a more personal petition to Him:
Then what prayer or what supplication soever shall be made of any man, or of all Thy people Israel, when every one shall know his own sore and his own grief, and shall spread forth his hands in this house:
Then hear Thou from Heaven Thy dwelling place, and forgive (2Ch 6:29-30).
These are only samples of the long petition that followed the dedicatory sermon. They wind up with a sentence like this: O Lord God, turn not away the face of Thine anointed: remember the mercies of David Thy servant (2Ch 6:42). It is a model prayer; it is the petition of a sincere soul; it is the cry of one who knows that the mercy and love of God are the only grounds of hope.
The further text records Solomons fame and death. That fame was based upon Solomons wisdom, accentuated doubtless by the magnificence of the temple, but made more honorable still in the extent of his organization, the luxury of his court and the wealth of his treasury.
Evidently, among the rulers of the earth, the queen of Sheba held conspicuous place, and when the fame of Solomon reached her, she came to prove him with her questions, and impress him with her own riches and glory. The difficult questions were satisfactorily answered, the temple was adequately shown, the table of the king groaned with its good meats, the apparel of the servants was profoundly impressive, and the queen said to the king,
It was a true report which I heard in mine own land of thine acts, and of thy wisdom:
Howbeit I believed not their words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the one half of the greatness of thy wisdom was not told me: for thou exceedest the fame that I heard.
Happy are thy men, and happy are these thy servants, winch stand continually before thee, and hear thy wisdom.
Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee to set thee on his throne, to be king for the Lord thy God (2Ch 9:5-8).
The compliment to the king is followed with a statement of Solomons annual income, the magnificence of his throne, the rich appointments of the palace, the extensive commercial importance of his kingdom, and the willing tributes of the earths lesser lords.
Then, as if the task of telling all was too great, we have this record,
Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are they not written in the book of Nathan the Prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer against Jeroboam the son of Nebat?
And Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years.
And Solomon slept with his fathers, and he was buried in the city of David his father: and Rehoboam his son reigned in his stead (2Ch 9:29-31).
It is a surprising end, and yet strangely true to human history. How many men spend all their days in preparing to live, and when the preparation seems almost complete, proceed to die? The last enemy is no respecter of persons. His bow is drawn against the great as well as the humble, the rich as well as the poor, the wise as well as the ignorant. Death respects neither thrones nor kings; he holds the key to the palace room, and even to the throne room. Kings may command their humbler fellows, and even counsel their equals; but where death calls, they also obey.
REHOBOAM AND THE DIVISION
The emptying of a throne is forever fraught with perils. The eternal and pertinent question is this, Who shall come after the king? The tenth chapter answered that concerning the throne of Israel. The answer was an ill omen! Rehoboams tyrannical spirit split the kingdom. When Jeroboam and all Israel came to him, saying, Thy father made our yoke grievous: now therefore ease thou somewhat the grievous servitude of thy father, and his heavy yoke that he put upon us, and we will serve thee (2Ch 10:4), they delicately referred to the increased taxation to which the luxurious court and the personal orgies of Solomon had given rise. They thought, as people commonly do, that the new rule would prove the peoples friend. Their hope was in vain.
The old men, former counselors of Solomon, advised kindness and compassion; but the young bloods, spoiled by their fellowship with royalty, counseled increased oppression; and under their influence he said,
My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add thereto: my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions (2Ch 10:14).
It was enough. The war was on; and that war has never ended until this day, for Israel and Judah are not yet one. A man who divides brethren and sets them to battle, little understands the infinite reach of his mischief. The father of Modernism in America, when he fell asleep at a comparatively early age, little dreamed that he had set influences to work that would divide every denomination on the continent, destroy the fellowship of men who loved one another as twins are commonly supposed to love, wreck schools and churches by the thousand, and start a war that may easily exceed the famous Hundred Year War of history.
Israel and Judahblood brothersbecame the bitterest of enemies. For some reason Second Chronicles pays little attention to Israel, but proceeds to trace Judahs history to the year of Cyrus, king of Persia, or through a period of almost a half millennium. The family feud occasionally projects itself into the record, but for the most part, Israel is forgotten, and the doings of Judah are recorded in detail.
The explanation of this is found in the circumstance that Jeroboam rejected the worship of Jehovah (2Ch 11:14-15). When God is once put away, when Gods priest is disposed of, and His minister is heard no more, then degeneracy compels a declining record.
Unitarianism three quarters of a century ago denied the Lord. Its history has amounted to little; and if it were recorded, it would simply prove, as the Jeroboam movement, a breeding place of apostasy; and yet this record regards not one apostasy only, but two.
The man of many favors may forget God.
When Rehoboam had established the kingdom, and had strengthened himself, he forsook the Law of the Lord, and all Israel with him (2Ch 12:1).
What a sad commentary on the uncertainty and unstability of human nature! The explanation of Rehoboams failure has fitted thousands, yea millions of cases. He did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord (2Ch 12:14). Of all disappointments, none exceed thisto begin well and end badly; to give promise and create disappointment; to be the subject of Divine favor, and become the slave of Gods adversary.
THE HISTORY OF JUDAH
Chapters 11 to 36 contain the roster of kings. The fortunes of the country answer accurately and inevitably to the characters of their rulers. On the whole, the history is a down-grade. In that respect, it runs true to form. The doctrine of evolution may find an illustration in national life if it goes from the simple to the complex, but in so far as it contends for improvement, history fails to illustrate it. Degeneracy of nations has more often taken place than has social and moral progress.
The foundations of Judah were laid under David; the kingdoms glory appeared under Solomon. From that moment until this, one word expresses Judahs coursedecline.
Africa was once an advanced nation, now a heathen one; Italy once ruled the world, now she holds an inconspicuous place; Greece once represented the climax of physical and mental accomplishment, now she boasts neither. The reasons for decline are varied, but in Judah they were one the God who had made her great was too often forgotten, too willingly offended. When the nations neglect the source of their strength, weakness naturally ensues. Judahs strength was in the Lord, and when her kings forgot Him, despised His Word, entered into unholy alliances that were followed by the people, her fame declined, and her land fainted.
The mixed social condition manifested her sinfulness. We have a phrase, Like people, like priest. We can paraphrase that, Like princes, like people. The study of these kings results in no compliment to human nature. Some of them were utterly evil; most of them were a mixture of the good and bad; two or three of them were sound. Among the utterly evil ones, Jehoram, Ahaziah, Athaliah, Manasseh, Amon and Jehoiakin held first place. The ones that represent a mixture of good and bad were Jeroboam, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Amaziah, Uzziah, Jehoiakim; while the truly good consisted of Jotham, Hezekiah and Josiah. In all probability the reign of each of these good kings was profoundly affected and made spiritually fruitful by the ministry of Isaiah, the greatest preacher among Old Testament Prophets. It is perhaps a fact of history that no rulers have ever proven faithful to God without the stimulating and salutary influence of the Gospel ministry.
The judgments and mercies of Second Chronicles alike vindicate Jehovah. In this record wickedness does not go unpunished; and yet it is a marvelous revelation of Divine mercy.
There is never the least sign of penitence on the part of the ruler and the people without an immediate and generous response from Jehovah.
When Jehoshaphat declined in his loyalty and effected a sinful coalition with Ahab, judgment fell; but instantly upon his repentance, mercy was shown. Judgment is always and everywhere Gods strange work, the work in which He takes no pleasure. As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Eze 33:11).
Mercy is His nature, His essential character, for to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy (Pro 28:13).
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
CRITICAL NOTES.] Asa succeeds, suppresses idols, and defends his kingdom (2Ch. 14:1-8; cf. 1Ki. 15:8-12; 1Ki. 15:14-15). Gains victory over Zerah and spoils Ethiopians.
2Ch. 14:1-5.Asa destroys idol. Reigned, mounted the throne very young. Quiet, continued effect of the great battle of Zemaraim (cf. 1Ki. 15:11-14). Good (ch. 2Ch. 31:20). Strange, gods of foreign origin. Idolatry of Judah now detailed for first time. High places first mentioned (Num. 23:3). Images, statues in stone of Baal. Groves, trunks or stocks of trees, dedicated to Ashtoreth, the Venus of Phnicians. 2Ch. 14:5. Images, sun-images of Baal, different from images in 2Ch. 14:3 (cf. 2Ch. 34:4; Lev. 26:30).
2Ch. 14:6-8.Asas military defences. Built, fortresses dismantled when Shishak made successful invasion. Juda had been a dependency upon Egypt (ch. 2Ch. 12:8), and dared not to erect fresh fortifications. Now Egypt weak, Asa grew bold, strengthened himself against his southern and northern neighbours. Among cities restored, probably most of those fortified by Rehoboam (ch. 2Ch. 11:6-10) [Speak. Com.]. 2Ch. 14:7. Land, i.e., unoccupied by the foe; free and open to go where we please. 2Ch. 14:8. Targets, Judah heavy armed; Benjamin, a warlike tribe, light armed, using sling and bow (Jdg. 20:16; 1Ch. 8:40). The number embraced all capable of carrying arms and liable to service.
2Ch. 14:8-15.Asa defeats the Ethiopians or Cushites. So called by Greeks, because their faces were burned or blackened by sun. Zerah, supposed to be Osorken (Usarken) II., third King of Egypt after Shishak, second king of twenty-second dynasty. Object of invasion to chastise Asa and bring Judah under yoke again. 2Ch. 14:9. Mar., one of cities fortified by Rehoboam (ch. 2Ch. 11:8), in line of march from Egypt. 2Ch. 14:10. Went out, lit. before him, sensible of inferiority but confident in God. Nothing with thee, it is alike to thee to help the powerful or the weak, thou canst as easily, i.e., help the weak as the strong [Speak. Com.]. There is none beside thee to help between the mighty and the powerless, i.e., no other than thou can help in an unequal conflict; meaning, of course, give help to the weaker side [Keil]. 2Ch. 14:12. Smote, gave strength to smite. 2Ch. 14:13. Destroyed, broken before his camp. Enemy unable to rally, pursued to Gerar, south, twenty miles at least from scene of battle. Cities of Philistines spoiled, because they likely accompanied Zerah in his expedition. 2Ch. 14:15. Tents, nomadic tribes in neighbourhood of Gerar conquered, and camels and sheep taken as prey. Besor flows through this region, hence fertility and food for man and beast. All terrified at Asas victory and unable to resist.
HOMILETICS
ASA THE REFORMER.2Ch. 14:1-5
Asa as a constitutional monarch acted like David, endeavoured to abolish the traces and polluting customs of idolatry. Pursued his purpose with earnestness and impartiality.
I. The reforms which he introduced. Regarding God himself, he took advantage of his authority and tranquillity, tried to undo the evil left by his father (1Ki. 15:3), and by his grandfather (1Ki. 14:22).
1. He destroyed idolatry. Altars and high places pulled down; broke images of Baal; destroyed public objects and relics of idolatry in Jerusalem and other cities. When God lets loose upon the world a thinker, let men beware, says one. When God raises up a true Reformer, he will secure attention and accomplish a great work.
2. He revived religious worship. Useless to put down evil without setting up good. Outward reformation defective, A revived religion.
(1.) By personal example. He did that which was good and right, &c.
(2.) By the use of his authority. He commanded Judah, &c. (2Ch. 14:4). Religion requires no human edicts and decrees to support it. But those in authority may recommend it.
II. The spirit in which he carried out the reforms.
1. A spirit of self-consecration. Self first. He did not engage in work to which he had not devoted himself. Many work for God who are not consecrated unto God. Reform self before you reform others.
2. A spirit of zeal. He began early, executed boldly and spared no dignity. The kings mother deposed from her position, her idol destroyed, and its ashes thrown into the brook Kidron (1Ki. 15:13). See, I have set thee over (appointed thee to the oversight of) the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, &c. (Jer. 1:10).
III. The rule by which he was guided in the reforms. Asa did good and right in the eyes of the Lord. Not what was expedient, pleasing to himself, or to his courtiers. He sought to please God. God discerns conduct; dishonoured by the zeal of some; susceptibility to be influenced by him should be cultivated. Act ever under the Great Taskmasters eye. Thou God seest me. Thus Asa the reformer an example to us in purpose, spirit, and conductin pulling down Popery, Ritualism, and idolatry, in setting forth true religion by personal life and public teaching.
ASA THE PRUDENT.2Ch. 14:6-8
In time of peace he strengthened his kingdom with fortifications and armies.
I. Prudent in tracing peace to the right source. The Lord had given him rest. Not gained by his valour and success over Abijah. No foes at hand, progress undisputed because God protected. When he giveth quietness, who then can make trouble in the land? When God bestows comfort and peace in the home and in the heart, who can take away? But when he hideth the face (condemns), who then can behold him (enjoy his power or remove the sentence of death)? Whether it be done against (towards) a nation, or against a man only? (Job. 34:29).
II. Prudent in making the best use of peace. Like a wise king he observed the land before him free and needing improvements.
1. Mindful of danger, he prepared for defensive war. To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace, said Washington.
2. Conscious of weakness, he raised an army. Not perhaps a standing army, but militia, trained-bands of the country. Judah mustered a share. Benjamin, formerly little Benjamin (Psa. 68:27), had greatly increased. The little one by Gods blessing had become a thousand. These tribes, armed offensively and defensively, were ready for action.
3. Depending upon his people, he enlisted their efforts. Therefore he said, Let us build (2Ch. 14:7). Many rulers raise an army, levy taxes, and govern without consent of the people. This arbitrary conduct will create tumult and endanger the throne (Chas. 1.). Self-willed monarchs have destroyed kingdoms and ruined themselves. For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war; and in multitude of councillors there is safety.
But wars a game which, were their subjects wise,
Kings would not play at [Cowper].
ASA THE CONQUEROR.2Ch. 14:9-15
Zerah the Ethiopian mistook quietness for languor, and made the vulgar mistake of supposing that silence was indifference. He did not know that repose is the very highest expression of power [Dr. Parker]. An expedition prepared, a million soldiers gathered to subjugate Asa and bring Juda under Egyptian yoke. Asa shrank not from war, met and conquered the foe.
I. The source to which, he looked for help. Asa cried unto the Lord his God.
1. To Gods strength. He knew God in peace and looked to him in warbelieved in Gods power to help with few or many, to weak or strong. Man, mortal man, could not prevail against him. God omnipotent, works how he likes, and depends not upon numbers. For there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few.
2. To Gods strength gained by prayer. Help ever ready, only available by seeking. Prayer before battle short, earnest, and intense. Notice ground of confidence, Thou art our God, well tried and ever sufficient; active reliance, We rest on thee. Thus can we only overcome in temptations and spiritual conflicts.
II. The spirit in which he entered the fight. Not cowardly and fearful. God gives not the spirit of fear, but of courage. Be thou strong and courageous. The war not aggressive, but sacred; for Gods glory, not his own, In thy name. Jehovah-Nissi, the Lord my banner, the standard or ensign around which we must rally to indicate our party, define our cause, and march to victory. He is the captain of our salvation, fights our battles, and wins our victories. He bids us to fight, not his will that we should be timorous and weak, In the name of our God we will set up our banner.
III. The victory by which it was distinguished. The Lord smote the Egyptians before Asa. The foe driven like straw before the wind; pursued and overcome. Cities smitten, cattle taken, and booty enormous. The defeat of Zerah is one of the most remarkable events in the history of the Jews. On no other occasion did they meet in the field or overcome the forces of either of the two great monarchies between which they were placed. Under Asa they appear to have gained a complete and most glorious victory, over the entire force of Egypt, or of Ethiopia wielding the power of Egypt [Speak. Com.].
WARFARE AND PRAYER.2Ch. 14:9-12
Notice in the prayer
I. A devout acknowledgment of the Divine government. From God alone he received the kingdom, and by him alone could he defend it. He was supreme, and could help against a great multitude. He breaketh down kingdoms and citiesSodom, Babylon, Petra, and Pompeiiand they cannot be built again; He builds up and none can pull downGods agency is traced over man and nations, in nature and religion.
II. The obedient method in which he conducted the war. The spirit of dependence upon God; the spirit of hope and prayer. The spirit of Moses, Samuel, and David. In prayer he may expect courage and help, such reinforcements the gift of the knees.
Hast thou not learned what thou art often told,
A truth still sacred, and believed of old,
That no success attends on spears and swords
Unblest, and that the battle is the Lords? [Cowper].
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
2Ch. 14:2. Right.
1. Right is good (acceptable) to God, when the heart is put into it. Its Right is good to man, helpful to temporal and spiritual interests. But right implies rule, law of rectitude. The rule followed, constantly obeyed, to be acceptable. Gods law must be path of duty and this path pursued firmly, without pause or retrograde step.
2Ch. 14:6. Given him rest.
1. God the sovereign dispenser of quietness or comfort to individuals. Gives peace to awakened sinners in Christ. Peace and rest the fruit of faith in him.
2. God the sovereign dispenser of quietness and comfort to nations and churches. To nations (1Ch. 22:9-18). To churches (Act. 4:31). He makes peace in our borders (Psa. 147:7-14); causes wars to cease to the ends of the earth (Psa. 46:9). 2Ch. 14:7. Rest. It did his heart good to think how piously they had purchased their present peace; and therefore he repeateth it (Zec. 8:19) [Trapp].
2Ch. 14:9-11. The Holy War. Undertaken for a sacred purposewith confidence of divine help, to maintain the honour and service of God. The parties most unequally matched. The Lord Jehovah and mortal, feeble man. How can man prevail against his Maker! The folly of opposing God. The war-cry most stimulating. Assurance in Gods name gives comfort in trouble, triumph in conflict. It is strength impregnable and sufficient for greatest dangers. Only under this one ensign, lifted above all other banners of the sacramental host, bearing this one name, can we ascribe the words: In hoc vinces.
2Ch. 14:13. Before his host. Before his camp; the army of Asa, the camp of Jehovah, who resided in it, defended it, and led it to victory. Earlier expositors fancied that the reference was to a heavenly, a host of angels, according to Gen. 32:2 seq. [Keil].
2Ch. 14:14. Fear of the Lord. Its effect upon men now renders them fearful and helpless, what hereafter! Who can stand before him? Resist not, but humbly submit and be saved.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 14
2Ch. 14:2-6. High places. No sooner is a temple built for God, but the Devil builds a chapel hard by [Geo. Herbert]. Man is a born idol-worshipper, sight-worshipper, so sensuous, imaginative is he; and also partakes much of the nature of an ape [Carlyle].
Tis to make idols, and to find them clay
[Mrs. Hemans].
2Ch. 14:6-8. Built. Prudence is an ability of judging what is best in the choice both of the end and of the means [Groves]. No evil can surprise us if we watch, no evil can hurt us if we pray [Bp. Hall].
2Ch. 14:9. This is the largest collected army of which we hear in Scripture; but it does not exceed the known numbers of Oriental armies in ancient times. Darius Codomannus brought into the field at Arbela a force one million and forty thousand. Xerxes crossed into Greece with certainly above a million of combatants. Artaxerxes Mnemon collected one million two hundred and sixty thousand men, to meet the attack of the younger Cyrus [Speak. Com.].
2Ch. 14:12-15. Fled. The results which follow are most striking. The southern power cannot rally from the blow, but rapidly declines, and for above three centuries makes no further effort in this direction. Assyria grows in strength, continually pushes her arms further, and finally under Sargon and Sennacherib, penetrates to Egypt itself. All fear of Egypt as an aggressive power ceases; and the Israelites learn instead to lean upon the Pharaohs for support (2Ki. 17:4; 2Ki. 18:21; Isa. 30:2-4). Friendly ties alone connect the two countries; and it is not till B.C. 609 that an Egyptian force again enters Palestine with a hostile intention [Ibid.]
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
4. THE REIGN OF ASA (1416)
TEXT
2Ch. 14:1. So Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David; and Asa his son reigned in his stead. In his days the land was quiet ten years. 2. And Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of Jehovah his God: 3. for he took away the foreign altars, and the high places, and brake down the pillars, and hewed down the Asherim, 4. and commanded Judah to seek Jehovah, the God of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandment. 5. Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the sun-images: and the kingdom was quiet before him. 6. And he built fortified cities in Judah; for the land was quiet, and he had no war in those years, because Jehovah had given him rest. 7, For he said unto Judah, Let us build these cities, and make about them walls, and towers, gates, and bars; the land is yet before us, because we have sought Jehovah our God; we have sought him, and he hath given us rest on every side, So they built and prospered. 8. And Asa had an army that bare bucklers and spears, out of Judah three hundred thousand; and out of Benjamin, that bare shields and drew bows, two hundred and fourscore thousand: all these were mighty men of valor.
9. And there came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian with an army of a thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots; and he came unto Mareshah. 10. Then Asa went out to meet him, and they set the battle in array in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah. 11. And Asa cried unto Jehovah his God, and said, Jehovah, there is none besides thee to help, between the mighty and him that hath no strength: help us, O Jehovah our God; for we rely on thee, and in thy name are we come against this multitude. O Jehovah, thou art our God; let not man prevail against thee. 12. So Jehovah smote the Ethiopians before Asa, and before Judah; and the Ethiopians fled. 13. And Asa and the people that were with him pursued them unto Gerar: and there fell of the Ethiopians so many that they could not recover themselves; for they were destroyed before Jehovah, and before his host; and they carried away very much booty. 14. And they smote all the cities round about Gerar; for the fear of Jehovah came upon them: and they despoiled all the cities; for there was much spoil in them. 15. They smote also the tents of cattle, and carried away sheep in abundance, and camels, and returned to Jerusalem.
2Ch. 15:1. And the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded: 2. and he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: Jehovah is with you, while ye are with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you. 3. Now for a long season Israel was without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law: 4. but when in their distress they turned unto Jehovah, the God of Israel, and sought him, he was found of them. 5. And in those times there was no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in; but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the lands. 6. And they were broken in pieces, nation against nation, and city against city; for God did vex them with all adversity. 7. But be ye strong, and let not your hands be slack; for your work shall be rewarded.
And when Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and put away the abominations out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from the hill-country of Ephraim; and he renewed the altar of Jehovah, that was before the porch of Jehovah. 9. And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and them that sojourned with them out of Ephraim and Manasseh, and out of Simeon: for they fell to him out of Israel in abundance, when they saw Jehovah his God was with him. 10. So they gathered themselves together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa. 11. And they sacrificed unto Jehovah in that day, of the spoil which they had brought, seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep. 12. And they entered into the covenant to seek Jehovah, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul; 13. and that whosoever would not seek Jehovah, the God of Israel, should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. 14. And they sware unto Jehovah with a loud voice, and with shouting and with trumpets, and with cornets. 15. And all Judah rejoiced at the oath; for they had sworn with all their heart, and sought him with their whole desire; and he was found of them: and Jehovah gave them rest round about.
16. And also Maacah, the mother of Asa the king, he removed from being queen, because she had made an abominable image for an Asherah and Asa cut down her image, and made dust of it, and burnt it at the brook Kidron. 17. But the high places were not taken away out of Israel: nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect all his days. 18. And he brought into the house of God the things that his father had dedicated, and that he himself had dedicated, silver, and gold, and vessels. 19. And there was no more war unto the five and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa.
2Ch. 16:1. In the six and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah, and built Ramah, that he might not suffer any one to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah. 2. Then Asa brought out silver and gold out of the treasures of the house of Jehovah and of the kings house, and sent to Ben-hadad king of Syria, that dwelt at Damascus, saying, 3. There is a league between me and thee, as there was between my father and thy father: behold, I have sent thee silver and gold; go break thy league with Baasha king of Israel, that he may depart from me. 4. And Ben-hadad hearkened unto king Asa, and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel; and they smote Ijon, and Dan, and Abel-maim, and all the store-cities of Naphtali. 5. And it came to pass, when Baasha heard thereof, that he left off building Ramah, and let his work cease. 6. Then Asa the king took all Judah; and they carried away the stones of Ramah, and the timber thereof, wherewith Baasha had builded; and he built therewith Geba and Mizpah.
7. And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and hast not relied on Jehovah thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thy hand. 8. Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubim a huge host, with chariots and horsemen exceeding many? yet, because thou didst rely on Jehovah, he delivered them into thy hand. 9. For the eyes of Jehovah run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly; for from henceforth thou shalt have wars. 10. Then Asa was wroth with the seer, and put him in the prison-house; for he was in a rage with him because of this thing. And Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time.
11. And, behold, the acts of Asa, first and last, lo, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. 12. And in the thirty and ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet; his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not to Jehovah, but to the physicians. 13. And Asa slept with his fathers, and died in the one and fortieth year of his reign. 14. And they buried him in his own sepulchres, which he had hewn out for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odors and divers kinds of spices prepared by the perfumers art: and they made a very great burning for him.
PARAPHRASE
2Ch. 14:1. King Abijah was buried in Jerusalem. Then his son Asa became the new king of Judah, and there was peace in the land for the first ten years of his reign, 2. for Asa was careful to obey the Lord his God. 3. He demolished the heathen altars on the hills, and broke down the obelisks, and chopped down the shameful Asherim-idols, 4. and demanded that the entire nation obey the commandments of the Lord God of their ancestors. 5. Also, he removed the sun-images from the hills, and the incense altars from every one of Judahs cities. That is why God gave his kingdom peace. 6. This made it possible for him to build walled cities throughout Judah. 7. Now is the time to do it, while the Lord is blessing us with peace because of our obedience to him, he told his people. Let us build and fortify cities now, with walls, towers, gates, and bars, So they went ahead with these projects very successfully. 8. King Asas Judean army was 300,000 strong, equipped with light shields and spears. His army of Benjaminites numbered 280,000, armed with large shields and bows. Both armies were composed of well-trained, brave men.
9, 10. But now he was attacked by an army of 1,000,000 troops from Ethiopia with 300 chariots, under the leadership of General Zerah. They advanced to the city of Mareshah, in the valley of Zephathah, and king Asa sent his troops to meet them there. 11. O Lord, he cried out to God, no one else can help us! Here we are, powerless against this mighty army. Oh, help us, Lord our God! For we trust in you alone to rescue us, and in your name we attack this vast horde. Dont let mere men defeat you! 12. Then the Lord defeated the Ethiopians, and Asa and the army of Judah triumphed as the Ethiopians fled. 13. They chased them as far as Gerar, and the entire Ethiopian army was wiped out so that not one man remained; for the Lord and his army destroyed them all. Then the army of Judah carried off vast quantities of plunder. 14. While they were at Gerar they attacked all the cities in that area, and terror from the Lord came upon the residents. As a result additional vast quantities of plunder were collected from these cities too. 15. They not only plundered the cities, but destroyed the cattle tents and captured great herds of sheep and camels before finally returning to Jerusalem.
2Ch. 15:1. Then the spirit of God came upon Azariah (son of Oded), 2. and he went out to meet King Asa as he was returning from the battle. Listen to me, Asa! Listen, armies of Judah and Benjamin! he shouted. The Lord will stay with you as long as you stay with him! Whenever you look for him, you will find him. But if you forsake him, he will forsake you. 3. For a long time now, over in Israel, the people havent worshiped the true God, and have not had a true priest to teach them. They have lived without Gods laws. 4. But whenever they have turned again to the Lord God of Israel in their distress, and searched for him, he has helped them. 5. In their times of rebellion against God there was no peace. Problems troubled the nation on every hand. Crime was on the increase everywhere. 6. There were external wars, and internal fighting of city against city, for God was plaguing them with all sorts of trouble. 7. But you men of Judah, keep up the good work and dont get discouraged, for you will be rewarded.
8. When King Asa heard this message from God, he took courage and destroyed all the idols in the land of Judah and Benjamin, and in the cities he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim, and he rebuilt the altar of the Lord in front of the Temple. 9. Then he summoned all the people of Judah and Benjamin, and the immigrants from Israel (for many had come from the territories of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, in Israel, when they saw that the Lord God was with King Asa). 10. They all came to Jerusalem in June of the fifteenth year of King Asas reign, 11. and sacrificed to the Lord seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheepit was part of the plunder they had captured in the battle. 12. Then they entered into a contract to worship only the Lord God of their fathers, 13. and agreed that anyone who refused to do this must diewhether old or young, man or woman. 14. They shouted out their oath of loyalty to God with trumpets blaring and horns sounding. 15. All were happy for this covenant with God, for they had entered into it with all their hearts and wills, and wanted him above everything else, and they found him! and he gave them peace throughout the nation.
16. King Asa even removed his mother Maacah from being the queen mother because she made an Asherah-idol; he cut down the idol and crushed and burned it at Kidron Brook. 17. Over in Israel the idol-temples were not removed. But here in Judah and Benjamin the heart of King Asa was perfect before God throughout his lifetime. 18. He brought back into the Temple the silver and gold bowls which he and his father had dedicated to the Lord. 19. So there was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of King Asas reign.
2Ch. 16:1. In the thirty-sixth year of King Asas reign. King Baasha of Israel declared war on him and built the fortress of Ramah in order to control the road to Judah. 2. Asas response was to take the silver and gold from the Temple and from the palace, and to send it to King Ben-hadad of Syria, at Damascus, with this message: 3. Let us renew the mutual security pact that there was between your father and my father. See, here is silver and gold to induce you to break your alliance with King Baasha of Israel, so that he will leave me alone. 4. Ben-hadad agreed to King Asas request and mobilized his armies to attack Israel. They destroyed the cities of Ijon, Dan, Abel-maim and all of the supply centers in Naphtali. 5. As soon as King Baasha of Israel heard what was happening, he discontinued building Ramah and gave up his plan to attack Judah. 6. Then King Asa and the people of Judah went out to Ramah and carried away the building stones and timbers and used them to build Geba and Mizpah instead.
7. About that time the prophet Hanani came to King Asa and told him, Because you have put your trust in the king of Syria instead of in the Lord your God, the army of the king of Syria has escaped from you. 8. Dont you remember what happened to the Ethiopians and Libyans and their vast army, with all of their chariots and cavalrymen? But you relied then on the Lord, and he delivered them all into your hand. 9. For the eyes of the Lord search back and forth across the whole earth, looking for people whose hearts are perfect toward him, so that he can show his great power in helping them. What a fool you have been; From now on you shall have wars. 10. Asa was so angry with the prophet for saying this that he threw him into jail. And Asa oppressed all the people at that time.
11. The rest of the biography of Asa is written in The Annals of the Kings of Israel and Judah. 12. In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became seriously diseased in his feet but he didnt go to the Lord with the problem, but to the doctors. 13, 14. So he died in the forty-first year of his reign, and was buried in his own vault that he had hewn out for himself in Jerusalem. He was laid on a bed perfumed with sweet spices and ointments, and his people made a very great burning of incense for him at his funeral.
COMMENTARY
Asa, the son Abijah, succeeded his father on the throne in Judah. The military activity of Abijah in the civil strife with Jeroboam and the northern kingdom brought a brief period (ten years) of comparative peace to Judah. Certain alliances between the southern kingdom and Syria had been established (1Ki. 15:19). It is possible that Asa became king when he was quite young. He reigned for forty one years. 2Ch. 14:1-8 describe the first ten years of Asas reign. He launched a religious reformation. Jehovahs will was the primary consideration. Strange gods had been carried into Judah along with all of the related idolatrous ritual. There was but one genuine altar for religious sacrifices. It was located in the Temple. The foreign altars, by Asas command, were to be destroyed. The high places were sometimes established on a natural elevation. On occasion devotees of a god would expend much labor to prepare a place suitable for the worship of the idol. The term pillar may mean an obelisk, a four sided post tapering as it rises and terminating in a pyramid. A pillar may simply refer to an image designed for worship. The Asherim were fashioned like poles or posts and sometimes were set up as groves of trees. The word is the plural for Asherah which was the female counterpart for Baal. Any reference to the Asherim immediately involved the Baalistic fertility cult. The sun images were made in the form of a pyramid and were often located in very prominent positions in the temples of Baal. They probably combined expressions of worship both of Baal and of the sun. In the days of Ahaz, king of Judah, shrines dedicated to sun worship were built in Jerusalem. These were equipped with priests, priestesses, horses and chariots (2Ki. 21:3-6). Asa indicated his intentions to be a worthy successor of David by clearing out all of the idolatrous establishments. When the land was well saturated with the furniture of paganism and when the people had so widely adopted heathen worship, a complete reformation was impossible, Asa commanded Judah to seek Jehovah. He was urgent about the matter. Jehovah rewarded Asas good faith. The land was quiet; Jehovah had given him rest. The king busied himself with fortifying the villages in Judah. He encouraged his people as he said, the land is yet before us. The tribe of Judah provided an army of three hundred thousand men trained to carry spears and shields. The tribe of Benjamin equipped two hundred eighty thousand archers. The raising of this large army indicated that the peaceful days would soon be past.
Asa was soon called upon to do battle with the Ethiopians.[58] This attack probably came about 900 B.C. Zerah was a Cushite who had a great army of about one million foot soldiers supported by three hundred chariots. He brought this army into the country of Judah to Mareshah which lay about twelve miles northwest of Hebron. This is the same Mareshah of which Micah spoke (Mic. 1:15). Asas military forces were ill-equipped to engage this great host out of Ethiopia. Asa demonstrated his true metal when he cried unto Jehovah his God. The king admitted Judahs helplessness apart from Jehovah. He confidently believed that Judahs God could scatter the enemy and he appealed for Jehovah to prove once more that no enemy of Jehovah could prevail as he contested Jehovahs righteous reign. The historian sets the record in proper perspective when he writes, so Jehovah smote the Ethiopians.
[58] Cook, F. C., The Bible Commentary, I Samuel-Esther, p. 390
Gerar lay some twenty miles south west of Mareshah. With the Ethiopians in full retreat, Asas army took full advantage of the situation. The enemy was broken before Jehovah. Asas army was able to recapture much that the enemy had taken and the people of the southern kingdom returned loaded with the spoils of battle. The villages around Gerar were on the south west border of the Judah country. Asa took advantage of this military exercise as he spoiled these border villages and took with him cattle, sheep, and camels, The victory march back to Jerusalem must have been one of the truly happy occasions of Asas reign.
LESSON EIGHTEEN 15-17
ASA, THE REFORMER; HANANI, MAN OF GOD.
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JEHOSHAPHAT
4. THE REIGN OF ASA-Continued (1416)
INTRODUCTION
King Asa worked a religious reformation among his people. Asas alliance with Syria brought the prophets rebuke. Jehoshaphat provided good leadership for Judah.
TEXT
(Scripture text in Lesson Seventeen)
PARAPHRASE
(Scripture text in Lesson Seventeen)
COMMENTARY
Azariah, son of Oded, appears on the scene to bring the word of Jehovah to Asa. There are twenty eight different persons in the Old Testament named Azariah. The name Azariah means Jehovah is keeper. The prophet addressed his words specifically to Judah and Benjamin. The northern kingdom is called Israel in 2Ch. 14:3. Asas only hope was to trust Jehovah. He must go with God. He must seek the Lord. The alternative carried with it some terrible consequences. If Jehovahs people are unfaithful, He will forsake them. Those Hebrews who had been a part of the northern kingdom had suffered anguish that could not be described. God had abandoned them. There was no priest to plead their cause. They did not even have the advantage of hearing the reading of the Law. There were some Israelites who in their extremity had turned to God in deep repentance. Azariah reminded Asa that Jehovah had heard their cry. The majority of the people in the northern kingdom had been carried into captivity and there they lost their identity. Azariah told Asa that these awful sorrows could be avoided if king and people would seek Jehovah. He charged the king to be courageous and promised that Asas good work would be rewarded.
Azariahs ministry moved Asa to destroy all of the idols he could find in his kingdom. 2Ch. 14:8 speaks of the prophecy of Oded. Oded is mentioned here only because he was Azariahs father. The king repaired the altar of burnt offering and set it where it was supposed to be in the court of priests just in front of the Temple. The good work that Asa accomplished was advertised throughout the kingdom. From scattered places in the land of Palestine the people came to Jerusalem. Seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep were offered to Jehovah on the altar. The third month corresponds nearly with our month of May.
Jehovahs word through Azariah produced good results. As the king provided good leadership, the people were encouraged to do Gods will. Once again the covenant (as in Gen. 12:1-3) was renewed. This commitment to the Lord was complete as Moses had demanded in his day (Deu. 6:4-5). Asa was so certain that his reformation was what the Lord desired that he dared to pronounce the death penalty on anyone who would not cooperate. An idolatrous city, a false prophet, or a person who worshipped idols were to be destroyed or put to death according to the Law (Deuteronomy 13). In this matter there was to be no respect of persons. 2Ch. 14:14 and 2Ch. 14:15 describe what happens when Gods Spirit moves His people. Azariah had come clothed in the Spirit. He shared the Spirit with Asa. The king by his strong leadership and his fear of Jehovah shared the Spirit with all of the people. They pledged themselves to the Lord. They praised Him with song and musical instruments. Peace reigned in their hearts and in their land.
If a king deprived a queen mother of her authority in the kingdom, he had to have a very good reason for his action. From Bathshebas time the queen mother had exercised considerable power in Jerusalem. Maacah, queen mother had set up an Asherah (a pole or an obelisk) which she used in her worship of Baal. Asa dared to ruin her place of worship and to remove her from the government of Judah. Making dust out of an image reminds us of the golden calf at Sinai. The Kidron valley had already been desecrated by heathen worship, so it was a proper place to burn this idol. Asa did what he could to work a complete reformation. He was not able to remove all idolatry because so much of it remained in the hearts of the people. He did what he could to re-establish the Temple and make it the true center of worship for Jehovahs people. He could not live long enough nor could he exercise sufficient authority to completely cleanse the people and the land. His heart was perfect all his days. This does not mean that he made no mistakes or that he did not sin. He conscientiously tried to do Gods will.
Baasha was used by Jehovah to bring the dynasty of Jeroboam to an end. Nadab, Jeroboams son, had sinned like his father. One day Nadab was in the village of Gibbethon about twenty miles north west of Jerusalem. Baasha killed Nadab and began to reign as Israels king (1Ki. 15:25-28). Late in the reign of Asa, Baasha fortified the southern boundary of his kingdom at Ramah (about eight miles north of Jerusalem). Baasha did not want his people to have any contact with the southern kingdom. Asa was alarmed at Baashas military action and he made a counter move in buying protection from Benhadad and the Syrians. Such alliances were contrary to Jehovahs purpose; however, Asas move was very effective in causing Baasha to discontinue his fortifying the southern border of Israel. Once more the Temple was robbed of its treasures in order to pay the Syrians. Ben-hadad was in an agreement with Baasha. He did not hesitate to break this pact. The Syrians attacked the northern border of Baashas kingdom at Ijon, Dan, and Abel-maim. These places were located in Naphtali not far from Mount Hermon. When Baasha learned about these border attacks, he withdrew from Ramah. Asa took advantage of the situation and used stones and timbers out of Ramah to fortify Geba and Mizpah on the north border of the southern kingdom. Geba was about ten miles north of Jerusalem in the territory of Benjamin. Mizpah was about three miles north west of Geba.
Hanani appeared at this time to rebuke Asa for trusting in Syria rather than in Jehovah. A seer was one who by Jehovahs endowment had more knowledge and understanding than ordinary persons. Samuel was called a seer when Saul was hunting his fathers lost asses (1Sa. 9:9). Hanani implied that the Syrians should have been defeated in battle instead of being paid money as allies. Asa was reminded of the great victory over the Ethiopians (2Ch. 14:9) which Jehovah granted because Asa and Judah trusted God. The prophet declared that nothing happens among men which is hidden from Jehovahs eyes. Wherever He finds one whose heart is perfect, He provides whatever may be needed. The man with the perfect heart relies on the Lord and thinks His thoughts after Him. Asa was charged with foolishness and was informed that he would be involved in war for the remainder of his reign. Like other prophets who had spoken unpopular messages, Hanani was mistreated by Asa. He was thrown into a house of stocks, a place of torture. Asa was so upset by the words of the seer that he turned his wrath upon some of the citizens of his kingdom. In these matters Asa showed himself to be unworthy of the high office which he filled.
Historians were a part of Asas cabinet and they kept careful records of his reign. So Asas life was recorded in the book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. The kings last years were most difficult. He was involved in war and all of the attendant political problems. He also suffered from diseased feet. He could have been afflicted with gout.[59] In these extreme circumstances he failed to call on God. He forgot his manner of life when he was a great reformer. Asa turned only to physicians for healing and forgot to turn to Jehovah in prayer. He began his reign very well. He concluded his life in misery and shame. After a reign of forty one years he died. He was granted all of the honors of a kingly burial and his remains were placed in a grave which he had prepared for himself. The great burning had to do with spices and incense burned at the time of the kings death.
[59] Clarke, Adam, A Commentary and Critical Notes, Vol. II, p. 663
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XIV.
(1) So Abijah slept . . . in his stead.Verbatim as 1Ki. 15:8 (Abijam).
In his days the land was quiet ten years.Mentioned here as a result of Abijahs great victory. The land was quiet, or had rest (Jdg. 3:11; Jdg. 5:31). The phrase is explained in 2Ch. 14:6, He had no war in those years.
During this period of repose Asa strengthened the defences of his country (2Ch. 14:5, comp. 2Ch. 15:19).
The name Asa may perhaps mean healer; (comp. the Syriac s physician, and 2Ch. 16:12); or spices (Syriac s; comp. 2Ch. 16:14).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. In his days the land was quiet ten years This was probably the result, largely, of Abijah’s great victory over Jeroboam.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Ch 14:1-2 Comments The Reward of Righteousness is Peace – The Lord brings peace to a kingdom when a righteous king rules (Pro 16:7).
Pro 16:7, “When a man’s ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Asa’s Piety and Military Prowess
v. 1. So Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David; and Asa, his son, reigned in his stead. In his days the land was quiet ten years, v. 2. And Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord, his God, v. 3. for he took away the altars of the strange gods, v. 4. and commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to do the Law and the commandment, v. 5. Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the images, v. 6. And he built fenced cities in Judah, v. 7. Therefore he said unto Judah, Let us build these cities, v. 8. And Asa had an army of men that bare targets and spears,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
This chapter commences Asa’s long reign of forty-one years. Asa was son of Abijah and grandson of Maachah (2Ch 15:16; 1Ki 15:13). The reign was remarkable for the devotion of Asa to the true God, and for the signal successes given to him in consequence, but it did not reach its end without a mournful defection on Asa’s part from trust in God (2Ch 16:2-4, 2Ch 16:12), which entailed its reward (2Ch 16:9), and which has left tarnished for all ages a fame that would otherwise have been fairest among all the kings of Judah. The disjointed and grudging parallel to the forty-eight verses of this and the following two chapters respecting Asa, in Chronicles, is comprised within the sixteen verses only of 1Ki 15:8-24.
2Ch 14:1
Buried in the city of David (see our note, 2Ch 12:16). Asa his son. If, according to the suggestion of our note, 2Ch 10:8 and 2Ch 12:13, the alleged forty-one years of the age of Rehoboam be made twenty-one, it will follow that Asa could not now be more than a boy of some twelve years of age. It is against that suggestion that there is no sign of this, by word or deed, in what is here said of the beginning of Asa’s reign; the signs are to the contrary, especially taking into the question the indications given us respecting the tendencies, if not contradicted, of the queen-mother Maachah (2Ch 15:16; 1Ki 15:13), and it is not supposable that a boy of twelve years of age could contradict them. This point must be held still moot. In his days quiet ten years. No doubt one cause of this was the defeat that Jeroboam and Israel had sustained at the hands of Abijah (2Ch 13:18-20). It appears also, from 1Ki 15:19, that after that defeat a league was instituted between Abijah and the then King of Syria: “There is a league between me and thee, and between my father and thy father.“ And these things, with Israel’s new kings, and perhaps Asa’s extreme youth, would have favoured the repose of the land.
2Ch 14:2
That which was good and right. Our Authorized Version does not omit to mark the first three words with italic type, the simple and emphatic original being, the good and the straight.
2Ch 14:3
The altars of the strange (gods); Hebrew, the altars of the stranger, meaning, of course, “the altars of the gods of the stranger.” This expression, “strange gods,” is found in the Authorized Version about thirteen times for the Hebrew , or , and would be most correctly rendered, “The gods [or, ‘god’] of the stranger,” i.e. of the foreigner, as it is rendered in the solitary instance of Deu 31:16. The high places. Comp. Deu 31:5 and 2Ch 15:17, which says, “But the high places were not taken away out of Israel;” and 1Ki 15:14, which says, “But the high places were not removed,” without limiting this non-removal to “of Israel.” On the question of this apparent inconsistency and surface-contradiction, see our Introduction, 7, pp. 16.1 and 17.2. Further, it may here be well distinctly to note how little is even the apparent discrepancy or contradiction alleged in this subject, throwing in the analogous passages in Jehoshaphat’s history (2Ch 17:6; 2Ch 20:33), in case these may reflect any light on the question. Firstly, we will remove out of our way the parallel in 1Ki 15:14, with the observation that it is evident from its immediate context that it corresponds with the last statement of our Chronicles (2Ch 15:17), savouring of a retrospective summarizing of the compiler, not with the first statements (2Ch 14:3, 2Ch 14:5), which set forth Asa’s prospective purpose of heart, his resolution, and, no doubt, his edicts. Secondly, we may notice that there is a plain-enough distinction made by the writer in 1Ki 15:3 and 1Ki 15:5 respectivelythe one saying that Asa “took away the high places,” without any further limitation; the other saying within two verses, “Also out of all the cities of Judah” (note by the way here the suggestive stress laid upon “the cities,“ possibly as more easily coped with than country districts) “he took away the high places.” The only legitimate inference (taking into account both the words used, and the fact that the last written are found close upon the former, with the significant conjunction “also”) must be that some different information was intended in the two places. 1Ki 15:3 finds Asa as much master of “Judah” as 1Ki 15:5. Therefore the natural interpretation of 1Ki 15:3 must be that Asa at once abolished “the high places” nearest home, nearest Jerusalem, most within his own personal reach; then “also” that he did and ordered the same to be done in “all the cities of Judah,” and it was done at the time, if only for the time. Thirdly, include the statement of 2Ch 15:17, if we do not insist (as we might insist very fairly when pressed on a point of alleged inconsistency or contradiction) on the fact that now the high places “of Israel” arc distinctly designated, and that therein those outlying parts of Asa’s more or less acknowledged sway outside of Judah and his thoroughest control are designedly described, let us instead take the help of an exactly analogous (and analogously alleged) discrepancy (2Ch 17:7 compared with 2Ch 20:33), and we find there that the very key with which to unlock the difficulty is provided to our hand. Jehoshaphat (2Ch 17:6) “took away the high places;” “the people” (2Ch 20:33) did not faithfully and with a constant heart follow suit, but had failed to prepare, i.e. to turn “their hearts unto the God of their fathers.” How well the juxtaposition of these very words would tell, nay, do tell, with the emphatic words of 1Ki 15:14! “Nevertheless Asa‘s heart was perfect with the Lord all his days;” and with our 2Ch 15:17, “Nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect all his days.” In both these passages the antithesis is patent between Asa’s heart and the people‘s hearts, between Asa’s “all his days” and the people’s uncertainty and apostasy. The fidelity of Bible history and its non-cunningly, non-fabulously devised tenor are gratefully corroborated by the inquisition made into such a supposed “discrepancy,”” inconsistency,” “contradiction.” Notice once more the confirming indication, so far as it goes, of the one verb that commands the next verse, as there noted upon. Brake down the images; Hebrew, . It occurs in the Authorized Version thirty-two times, and is rendered “pillar” or “pillars” twelve times; “image” or “images” nineteen times; and “garrisons” once. It appears simply to have slipped from the signification of pillar into the rendering of the word “image,” by aid of the intermediate word “statue.” It is used of the pillar or statue of Baal in 2Ki 3:2; 2Ki 10:26, 2Ki 10:27, with his name expressed; and in 2Ch 18:4; 2Ch 23:14, without that name expressed. Cut down the groves; Hebrew, . The verb here used implies the “cutting,” “cutting down,” “pruning” of trees. It is undoubtedly applied also to other cutting and cutting down, as of the “breaking” of a red (Zec 11:10), of an arm (1Sa 2:31), of horns (Jer 48:25), of bars or bolts (Isa 45:2). It occurs in all twenty-three times. It is here employed to describe the destroying of what according to the Authorized Version arc called “groves”a word which with little doubt misleads for the rendering of our . Before this same word we have also another Hebrew verb for “cutting,” of very frequent occurrence in its simple and metaphorically derived uses included, viz. . The first uses of this verb with the above word are found in Jdg 6:25, Jdg 6:26, Jdg 6:30. That word means literally “fortune,” but in its ultimate derivation “straightness,” and hence supposed to designate, in Phoenician and Aramaean idolatry, Astarte or the planet Venus, who is constantly associated in such idolatry with Baal (Jdg 3:7). But see for the first occurrence of the word, Exo 34:13, where there is no express mention of Baal, but where the idolatries of the Amorite, Canaanite, Hittite, Hivite, Perizzite, and Jebusite are being spoken of. When we take into consideration the probable ultimate derivation of the word, the fact of the verbs that speak of “cutting” being uniformly applied to what it represents, the “burning” to which this was condemned (Jdg 6:26) when cut down, and a series of statements that represent it as “set up under every green tree” (1Ki 14:23; 2Ki 17:10; see also 1Ki 15:13; 2Ki 21:7; 2Ki 23:6; 2Ch 15:16), it not only becomes perfectly certain that “grove” and “groves” cannot rightly render the word, but directs us with the light of those passages that speak of it coupled with Baal as an object of worship, and that speak of prophet and priest called by its name (Jdg 3:7 (compared with Jdg 2:13; Jdg 10:6; 1Sa 7:4); 1Ki 18:19; 2Ki 21:3; 2Ki 23:4), to the strong conviction that it should be at once written with a capital letter, and rendered as a proper name; that it may possibly be a synonym with Ashtoreth, 1.q. Astarte, or a representation in wooden pillar, stock or trunk fashion, of some supposed aspect of her passion or dominion, very likely in the voluptuous or sensual direction. Conder, in ‘Handbook to the Bible,’ p. 187, 2nd edit; speaks of “Baal-peor (Num 25:3) as identified by St. Jerome with the classical Priapus;” and adds “the Asherah (rendered ‘grove’ in our version) was also apparently a similar emblem” (2Ki 23:7). The analogy of the sacred tree of the Assyrians sculptured on the monuments of Nineveh, which was probably a straight trunk or stock garlanded at certain times with ribbons and flowers, has been opportunely pointed to.
2Ch 14:4
And commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers. What an indication lies couched in this word “commanded” (confirmatory of the spirit of what is said above, in our previous verse-note) of the moral efforts of Asa, and that the efforts on which he may have largely relied for “taking away the high places” were moral efforts, rather than those of physical force.
2Ch 14:5
The images; Hebrew, . The images spoken of here are, of coarse, not the same with those (noted upon already) of 2Ch 14:3. The present khammanim are mentioned seven times beside, viz. Le 26:30; 2Ch 34:4, 2Ch 34:7; Isa 17:8; Isa 27:9; Eze 6:4, Eze 6:6. Gesenius says Khamman is an epithet of Baal as bearing rule over the sun (, “heat,” or “the sun”), in the oft-found compound expression, ; he thinks the plural (), invariably found in the Old Testament, is short for . He does not agree with the translation of Haenaker, “sun-image” by aid of the word understood, images said to have been of a pyramid form, and placed in the most sacred positions of Baal-temples. This, however, is the rendering adopted by not a few modern commentators (so 2Ch 34:4). Gesenius would render “the Sun-Bard,” or “the Sun-Lord,” i.e. statues of the sun, representing a deity to whom (see ‘ Phoen. Inseript.’) votive stones,were inscribed. In his ‘Thesaurus’ Gesenius instances the Phoenician inscriptions, as showing that our chemmanim denoted statues of both Baal, the sun-god, and Astarte, the moon-goddess.
2Ch 14:6
He built fenced cities in Judah. Though it is not said so here, it is very probable that Asa did again the work of Rehoboam (2Ch 11:5-12) which Shishak had done so much to undo (2Ch 12:4, 2Ch 12:5, 2Ch 12:8).
2Ch 14:7
We have sought him, and he hath given us rest. In three successive verses the blessings of peace and quiet, and no war and rest, are recorded (Isa 26:1; Zec 2:5).
2Ch 14:8
The “ten years’ quiet” (2Ch 14:1) begins to see its end. Targets (2Ch 9:15); spears (2Ch 11:12); for both, see 1Ch 12:24. Out of Benjamin shields and bows. The minuter coincidences of the history are very observable and very interesting; for see 1Ch 8:40; 1Ch 12:2; and much earlier, Gen 49:27; Jdg 20:16, Jdg 20:17.
2Ch 14:9-15
The remaining seven verses of this chapter are occupied with the account of the invasion of Zerah the Ethiopian, and the successful defence and reprisals of Asa.
2Ch 14:9
Zerah the Ethiopian; Hebrew, , the “Ethiopian,” Greek and Septuagint rendering for “Cushite.” In its vaguest dimensions Ethiopia, or Cush, designated Africa south of Egypt, but more concisely it meant the lands we now call Nubia, Sennaar, Kordefan, and part of Abyssinia. And these, roughly speaking, were bounded north, south, east, and west respectively by Egypt and Syene, Abyssinia, Red Sea, and Libyan Desert. When, however, Ethiopia proper is spoken of, the name probably designates the kingdom of Meroe (Seba, Gen 10:7; 1Ch 1:9); and the Assyrian inscriptions make the Cushite name of the deified Nimrod one with Meroe), which was so closely associated at different times with Egypt, that sometimes an Egypt king swayed it (as e.g. some eighteen hundred years before Shishak, Sesostris fourth king of the twelfth dynasty), and sometimes vice versa (as e.g. the three Ethiopian kings of the twenty-fifth dynastyShabak (Sabakhou), Sethos (Sebechos), and Tarkos (Tirhakah), whose reigning dates as between Ethiopia and Egypt are not yet certified). The name thus confined covers an irregular circular bulk of country between “the modern Khartoum, where the Astapus joins the true Nile, and the influx of the Astaboras, into their united stream.” From the language of Diodorus (1:23), harmonized conjecturally with Strabo (18:821), the region may be counted as 375 miles in circumference and 125 miles in the diameter of the erratic circle, its extreme south point being variously stated, distant from Syene, 873 miles (Pliny, 6.29. 33); or, according to Mannert’s book (‘Geogr. d. Alt.,’ 10.183), 600 miles by the assertion of Artemidorns, or 625 by that of Eratosthenes. Thence the “Cushite” extended probably to the Euphrates and the Tigris, and through Arabia, Babylonia, and Persia. Some, however, think that the Cushite now intended was the Ethiopian of Arabia, who had settlement near Gerar (Dr. Jamieson, in ‘Comm.’) as a nomadic horde. Dr. Jamieson quotes Bruce’s ‘Travels’ to support this view, which seems a most improbable, not to say impossible, one nevertheless. The question as to the people intended will perhaps best be found in the solution of the question for whom the name of their king stands (see following note). Zerah. Hebrew as above. It is noteworthy that the four previous occurrences of this nameGen 36:13 and 1Ch 1:37, son of Reuel, grandson of Esau; Gen 38:30 and 1Ch 2:6, son of Judah and Tumor; 1Ch 4:24, son of Simeon; 1Ch 5:6, 1Ch 5:26, Hebrew text, son of Iddo, a Gershonite Leviteshow it as the name of an Israelite, or descendant of Shem. Our present Zerah is a Cushite, or descendant of Ham. The Septuagint forms of the name are , or , or (Alexandrian) . Although Professor Dr. Murphy says that “it is plain that Zerah was a sovereign of Kush, who in the reign of Takeloth, about B.C. 944, invaded Egypt and penetrated into Asia,” the balance of probability, both from the names themselves and the synchronisms of history, corroborated by the composition of Zerah’s army (Cushim and Lubim, 2Ch 16:8) and some other tributary considerations, is that our Zerah was Usarken II; the fourth king of the twenty-second dynasty (or possibly Usarken I; the second king of the dynasty). The invasion of the text was probably in Asa’s fourteenth year, his reign thus far being dated B.C. 953-940. The alleged army of this Zerah was an Egyptian army, largely made of mercenaries (compare the description of Shishak’s army, 1Ch 12:3). The present defeat of Zerah would go far to explain the known decline of the Egyptian power at just this date, i.e. some twenty-five to thirty years after Shishak. At the same time, it must be admitted that it is not possible to identify with certainty Zerah with either Usarken. Whether he is an unknown Arabian Cushite, or an unknown African Cushite of Ethiopia-above-Egypt, or one of the Usarkens, has yet to be pronounced. Mareshah (see our note, 2Ch 11:8). It lay the “second mile” (Eusebius and Jerome) south of Eleutheropolis and between Hebron (1 Maccabees 5:36; 2 Maccabees 12:35) and Ashdod (Josephus, ‘Ant.,’ 12.8. 6). The mention of the valley of Zephathah in the following verse will half identify its exact position. It is probable that Dr. Robinson (‘Bibl. Res.,’ 2.67) and Toblev in his interesting , Dritto Wand.’, have reliably fixed the site one Roman mile south-west of the modern Beit-Jibrin. Mareshah is again mentioned in 2Ch 20:37 and Mic 1:15, as quoted already, in references interesting to be consulted. A thousand thousand. Whether this number be correct or not, it may be noted that it is the largest alleged number of an army given in the Old Testament.
2Ch 14:10
The valley of Zephathah at Mareshah. “At” some translate “belonging to,” some more suitably to the exact connection “near.” The Hebrew here for” valley” is . It can scarcely designate necessarily a “ravine.” It is a valley in the sense of being a low, fiat region, in which springs of water “broke out.” From Num 21:20, the first occasion of its occurrence, to Zec 14:5 it is found fifty-six times, and is always rendered (Authorized Version) “valley;” it is the word used in the celebrated passages, “Though I walk through the valley” etc. (Psa 23:4); and “Every valley shall be exalted” (Isa 40:4). The Septuagint, however, do not render it uniformly; but though they render it generally , they also have , and in some cases the simple word , as e.g. () , (2Ch 28:3; 2Ch 33:6), which, nevertheless, elsewhere they describe as (Jos 15:8). The full explanation may probably be that the word is used for the valley that narrowed up to a ravine-like pass, or gorge, or that opened out into one of the wide wadies of the country; but see Stanley’s ‘Sinai and Palestine,’ Appendix, pp. 482, 483, new edit; 1866. It is supposed that Zephathah is not mentioned elsewhere, but see the Zephath of Jdg 1:17; and comp. Num 21:3 : 1Sa 30:30, which Keil and Bertheau think conclusively to be not the same.
2Ch 14:11
Nothing with thee; Hebrew, . In the passage of very similar tenor (1Sa 14:6) the exact rendering is more easily fixed, “It is nothing to the Lord,” i.e. it makes no difference to the Lord, “to save by many or by few.” Probably the correcter rendering of our present Hebrew text would be, “It makes no difference with thee to help those whose strength is great or whose strength is nothing (between the much even to the none of strength).” Keil and Bertheau would translate “There is none beside thee.” For another instance of the preposition followed by , see Gen 1:6; and comp. 2Ch 1:13. The prayer must be counted a model prayer to an omnipotent Deliverer. It consists of opening invocation and the instancing of what postulates the crowning Divine attribute as the broad foundation for argument; of invocation repeated, warmed to closer clinging by the appropriating “oar;” attended by the defining, though very universal petition, Help us; and followed by the argument of the unbending fidelity of trusting dependence, For we rest on thee, and in thy Name we go against this multitude; and, lastly, of invocation renewed or still determinedly sustained, pressed home by the clenching challenge of relationship and its correlative responsibility and presumable holy pride. The antithesis marked in these two last clauses will not escape noticeone made all the bolder, with the marginal reading of “mortal mall” for the emphatic (a poetical, universal kind of) word here employed () for man.
2Ch 14:12
So the Lord smote the Ethiopians. As little as the real work was of the army of Asa, so little is said of even the mere human method by which this great victory was obtained for Asa and Judah. Again and yet again, in the following two verses, the glory is given to “the Lord.”
2Ch 14:13
And the Ethiopians before his host. It is evident that these words, with the clauses they include, should be placed in brackets, and so leave “they,” the subject of the verb “carried” in the last clause, to refer to its proper noun-subject, Asa and the people. Gerar. This place is mentioned as defining a full distant spot as the limit of the pursuit of the flying army. While it was nearly four hours south of Gaza, on the road to Egypt, it is calculated that it was more than twenty miles distant from Mareshah.
2Ch 14:14
The fear of the Lord came upon them; i.e. on the cities round about Gerar. This and the following verse illustrate in particular the very graphic character which attaches to the entire stretch of the description of the scene, introduced so suddenly in 2Ch 14:9 and closing with 2Ch 14:15. Much spoil. The Hebrew word here used for “spoil” () is found only in Chronicles, Ezra, Esther, Nehemiah, Daniel, and once in Ezekiel (Eze 29:19).
2Ch 14:15
The tents of cattle. This word “tents” (, construct state) is used just 325 times, and this is the only time it is spoken of as the place of cattle; there are, however, four passages looking the same way (Gen 13:5; Jdg 6:5; 2Ki 7:7; Jer 49:29). It is the word used for the tabernacle of the wilderness many times, and many times for the place of abode that has highest associations (Psa 15:1; Psa 118:15), and of the usual abodes of people (2Ch 10:16). The use of the word here, though unique, will occasion no surprise, considering the camping of the vast invading army. Camels in abundance. The mention of this spoil reminds us both where we are, on desert border (1Sa 27:7-10; 1Sa 30:16, 1Sa 30:17), and what was the personality or nationality within some latitude of choice of the invaders. Returned to Jerusalem. The expression awakens inevitably, though inaptly, a reminiscence of Scripture language in strangest contrastthe climax in a description also, but of a victory infinitely vaster and grander and for ever (Luk 24:52; Act 1:12). This return of “Asa and the people that were with him” to Jerusalem dated the commencement of a period of comparative internal peace and reform for the kingdom of Judah, that lasted twenty-one years, and yet more of exemption from Egyptian attack, that lasted about three hundred and thirty years. It was a doubtful benefit, but Judah and Egypt came to be found in alliance against Assyria (2Ki 17:3-6; 2Ki 18:20, 2Ki 18:21, 2Ki 18:24; Isa 30:2; Hos 7:11). The ‘Speaker’s Commentary’ points out the interesting fact that this was one of the only two occasions known of the Jews meeting in open field either Egypt or Assyria (the other occasion being the unfortunate one of Josiah against Necho, 2Ch 35:1-27 :30), and adds, “Shishak, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander, and Ptolemy I; were either unopposed or only opposed from behind wails.”
HOMILETICS
2Ch 14:1-15
The quiet often years.
The former half of this chapter may be said to turn upon the welcome subject of the “quiet” (spoken of twice), the “no war” (spoken of once), and the “rest” (spoken of three times), which were now for ten years the portion of Judah. The tender youth and the pious promise of King Asa combined, no doubt, in the providence of God, with external circumstances, to secure that interval of quiet and repose from war from which many blessings were able to flow. We may notice generally, from such induction of illustrations as are yielded by the far less complex instances of those wars that belong to early history and to the histories of Scripture, some of the essential and intrinsic advantages and blessings of being, in this most impressive sense, “quiet.”
I. THE FREE, LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF THE AFFECTIONS OF HUMAN NATURE. What more dreadful subversion could be known to human nature than that love should be called and should become hate, and to labour to destroy human life should take the place of labour and zeal to save and to serve it! A nation that is at peace, and undisturbed by apprehension of war, is, by the very fact, delivered from being the victim of passions and of the sure operation of principles which must be only one degree less destructive to the unconscious subjects than to their designed and deliberately marked objects. War shakes not merely to its foundations this or that fabric of human society, but to its centre the fabric called human nature itself, which is compacted of affections, and, invisible though they may be, bound of no other bonds so real. Nothing, therefore, can justify it but that kind of necessity which declares, and can demonstrate what it declares, that that disaster of “shaking” confronts, and is within measurable distance of, the one alternative of shattering, and may therefore be counted the lesser evil or risk. The mutual hate and ill will of nations is a monster form of the sin of individual hate, and it is the violating on a gigantic scale of the second great commandment. It is true that there are some reliefs to this indictment, in respect of those composing the actual armies that confront one another, and of throe who may be called the mere machinery of war; but there is little relief, indeed, to it, in regard to all who may be called principals. But in the “quiet” of a nation, its proper human affections find their opportunity and feel their way with some uniformity and some regularity of growth; not swept across, on the one hand, by the destructive tornado of animosity, prejudice, hate, and by all the hurricane of evil-doing; nor, on the other hand, goaded into partial, frenzied action by the anguished imagination, or the sickening sight of the unspeakable horrors of the actual battle-fieldits mangled limbs, its cries and groans, and, for months afterwards, its bleeding hearts and wasted homes, and that whole crew of consequential vices and indirect calamities which overspread equally the land of conquered and conqueror!
II. THE THOUGHT OF A PEOPLE NOT SUBJECT TO THE UNHEALTHY STRAIN OF ONE USURPING INTEREST, ONE IMPERIOUS, TYRANNOUS, CONSTANT, EXCITING THEME, BUT FREE TO ASCERTAIN, TO FOLLOW, TO DEVELOP, THE LEADING AND THE INSTINCTS OF ITS PROPER GENIUS, WHATEVER THAT MAY BE. The loss is, of course, simply incalculable which has resulted from this one source of perversion, so varied in its operation. No eye, even with all the aid of historic retrospect, can track its disturbing, distracting, desolating tyranny. The interaction of the exceedingly diverse genius of different peoples must be equally significant with the same phenomenon as between different individuals (as e.g. even within the range of one family), and is amazingly tributary to the general and, let us say, universal well-being, when permitted, as it never yet has been, free play. For what areas of lands, bounded and unbounded in dimension, and through what stretches of the ages, has it substituted the ravaging headlong course of the turbid mountain-torrent for the flow of some beneficent river, with the generous, fertilizing streams, and the everywhere meandering rills, and the unnumbered perennial springs!
III. OUTER WORKS OF WIDE AND ENDURING INFLUENCE, AND MONUMENTS OF REAL AND ENDURING HONOR, AMONG THE PEOPLE. With what a mourning heart we look back upon many, nay, the most part, of the greatest monuments of antiquity, and are often tempted to do so with cynical look and cynical speech! How many of them perpetuate the names and memory of those who were the scourges of their kind, the pestilences of human society, barriers to the health, wealth, and real well-being of the world, from whom they wrung unwilling and undeserved honour, which time has reversed and revenged! By unfortunate irony of events, the useful works of our text even were largely those of the surer preparation for war; but we may perhaps lay more grateful stress on the thought that they are described rather as preparations against war, and defensive in character. Modern history and, in especial, the history, in God’s mercy, through some few longer stretches of time, of Great Britainthat antitype in so many most real senses of Judaea of oldhave clone enough just to exemplify sufficiently the fact that, in “quiet,” the useful works of art, the pursuit of the most beneficent sciences, the material well-being of a people, find the occasion to rise and to spread more equably. Material well-being may not at first seem to be of the highest moment, but (the expression being rightly understood) it certainly is of very high moment. The world was not meant to be a scene of beggary, nor the mere triumph of moral and spiritual force, with constant strain and effort over material exigence. So far as at any time and any where it is such a scene, it yields no honour to religion, no testimony to its power, no furtherance of its imperial claims.
IV. FAVOURABLE OPPORTUNITY FOR THE FAIREST OF GROWTHSTHAT OF RELIGION, AND OF A HEALTHY STATE OF RELIGIOUS FEELING AND LIFE. The “quiet” and “rest” so repeatedly spoken of are instanced partly, indeed, as the reward of practical religion, but partly also (hero as very emphatically elsewhere) as the opportunity of setting the house of God, its worship, and its priests and officers in order, and of breaking down and breaking away from the evil practices and habits of idolatry. It can scarcely be doubted that the scourge of war was used, has often been used,
(1) as the just judgment on irreligion;
(2) as a strong corrective and loud call to remember God and righteousness; and
(3) as, generally speaking, such an awakener of the minds of men from that dormant, sluggish state that grows with hardening tendency on easy and undisturbed lives, that deep convictions of a religious character have been known to seed themselves under the unlikeliest of circumstances. There are abundant analogies to this in the individual life, which would quite prepare us for corresponding phenomena in the collective life of a nation. Nevertheless, the blessed reality has been of rare-enough occurrence. We cannot say that the holy dove lights often on such lands, in the midst of scenes where foes make fiends and where fiends triumph. War is too great a curse, and, where the blame may be the least, too directly the mark of the cloven foot. Golden harvest-fields of illimitable stretch do not bless the eye across rock-rent and gaping lands, of the scenery of which savagery is the first, the chief, the last characteristic. The still aspect of the rich, ever-ripening, abounding fruits of the retired, fertile, unstricken country, figure, not unaptly, the “no war,” the “quiet,” the “rest” of that land and nation, where the good leaven of God, by truth and practice, is blessedly leavening the whole lump.
2Ch 14:9-15
The human trust and prayer that herald Divine victory.
Though God gives nothing forthat vanishing pointour merit, yet he constantly of old gave, now constantly gives, in connection with our own right-doings and fight-praying, in order that his freest gifts may establish a healthy reaction on our experience and on our practical conduct. In the prayer, the appeal, the trust, the simple, practical account of Ass, according to the narrative contained within the compass of the above verses, we have vividly portrayed
I. THE SOVEREIGN MASTER OF AND OVER ALL DIFFICULTIES. What comfort we forfeit, what source of courage we fling away, when we permit to lie as though the mere commonplace of faith, the truth that God is the Equal of all our confronting difficulties, let them be what they mayequal to them at all times, in all places, under all circumstances and conditions! How much is written in the canon of confidence, the charter of our “liberty of speech” at the throne of the heavenly grace (1Jn 5:14, 1Jn 5:15), where we read, “If we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us: and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him”! As much as is thus written, so much do we lose, when we fail to live in the strength thereof. Asa did now live so.
II. THE EXAMPLE OF AN UNCONDITIONED, UNLIMITED, AND UNINTERFERING COMMITTING OF THE ENTIRE CONTROL OF A PRESSING CASE OF HUMAN DIFFICULTY INTO GOD‘S HAND, WHILE MAN REMAINS SIMPLY OBEDIENT TO THE DUTY OF ACTIVE WORK. Sometimes we are called upon to stand by and stand still, and see, as it were, at one view, whether more or less sustained in its duration, “the salvation of the Lord;” but more frequently, as in the example of the present narrative, we are reminded of the advisableness and duty of putting our own hand and all our own strength into the work, which still depends supremely on the “saving strength” of God and his Anointed.
III. ONE EARNEST ENTREATY THAT HE WILL BE GRACIOUSLY PLEASED TO ASSUME THE SOVEREIGN MASTERY OF THE DIFFICULTY‘ OF THE SITUATION, AND TAKE THE CONTROL OFFERED TO HIM, IN LOVING FAITH AND TRUST. God waits for this on the part of his creaturesour heavenly Father on the part of his children. He loves to be asked, and desires that we should seek and knock. And it is, indeed, a most inspiring thought, as well as a thought warranted of inspiration, that our prayer, faith, trust, avail so often as the very signal of Divine action.
IV. THE COMPLETENESS OF THE TRIUMPH, WHICH THENCE RESULTS, OBSERVABLE. A faith that can scarcely be described as anything better than a lame faith; a trust that is suspicious and doubtful all the while; a prayer that has no earnestness nor force of anticipation inherent in it, are poor preparation for conflict, and no augury of decisive and trenchant triumph. They, at all events, in so sense deserve, as certainly they cannot merit nor earn, the shout of victory when the day’s sun is ready to go down. Such a shout follows on decision of mind, glowing love, and trust of heart, and a tone in prayer, divinely warranted, that might itself be mistaken for a summons.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
2Ch 14:1, 2Ch 14:5 (latter part), 6, 7
Rest on every side.
It is significant enough that the Chronicler considered it a noteworthy fact that “in his days the land was quiet ten years.” It indicates very forcibly that the chronic condition of the country in those times was one of unsettlement and strife. We should think it strange, indeed, if the historian of our country thought it worth while to record that for ten years the sovereign “had no war” (2Ch 14:6). But it is painful to think that for very many centuries, in many lands, if not in all, war was regarded as the normal condition; an attitude of armed hostility toward the neighbouring nation was considered the necessary and natural relation. History then was not the account of discovery, of invention, of achievement, of advance; it was the story of international or civil war. This was the rule which, we may thank God, is now the exception, and which, we devoutly hope, will soon be obsolete. But for ten years the land “was quiet;” it had “rest on every side.” We may glance at
I. THE NATIONAL ASPECT OF THE SUBJECT. A nation has “rest on every side” when it
(1) is at peace will all surrounding powers; and
(2) is enjoying internal tranquillity, its various subjects living in concord, one class with another.
To obtain and to preserve such a desirable condition, there need to be
(1) a “foreign policy” that is not aggressive in aim or provocative in address; and
(2) an internal administration that is based on justice, that promotes wholesome and fruitful labour, that encourages and rewards merit and ability, that observes a strict impartiality amidst all differences of custom and belief. Then there is likely to be “rest on every side,” more especially if the citizens of the land are serving the Lord according to their conscientious convictions, and are continually seeking his blessing and asking for “peace in their time” (2Ch 14:6). But let us rather consider
II. THE INDIVIDUAL ASPECT OF IT. HOW shall we have “rest on every side”?
1. Not by securing outward and temporal success. A man may clasp the goal of honour, or of wealth, or of affection, and may think himself possessor of complete and lasting rest, and he may awake any morning to find that all his pleasant conditions are disturbed, and that the prize of peace is snatched ruthlessly from his brow. The heavens may be cloudless and the sun be shining in its full light and warmth to-day; but to-morrow those heavens may be draped in gloom, and the rain may be pelting pitilessly upon us. Not that way lies “rest on every side.”
2. Nor by going down into the grave. The “rest of the grave” is only a false poetical metaphor. That is not rest which excludes all present consciousness and provides no refreshment and invigoration for the future. The darkness of death which the despairing suicide seeks and finds is not rest at all; it is entirely undeserving of the name; the word is a complete misnomer as thus applied. It is not rest on any side; it is defeat; it is loss; iris destruction.
3. It is found in holy, filial service; in the happy, honourable, rightful service of a Divine Redeemer. There is
(1) peace with Godthe rest that looks upward;
(2) peace in our own heartrest within, all our spiritual faculties consenting to the conditionthe reason, the conscience, the will, the affections;
(3) rest in relation to those that are withouta prevailing spirit of good will and of love toward all men”rest on every side.”C.
2Ch 14:2, 2Ch 14:3, 2Ch 14:5
Destructive godliness.
Human energy and capacity show themselves in two forms -in the destructive and in the constructive. Though action of the latter kind is the more honourable and admirable of the two, yet that of the former is also useful and needful in its time. Moses did a very good work for the people of Israel when he ground to powder the golden calf; and Hezekiah, when he broke in pieces the brazen serpent and called it “a bit of brass;” and the Christians of Ephesus did a wise as well as a worthily sacrificial thing when they burnt the “books” out of which they had been making large profits for their pocket (Act 20:19). Destructive godliness sometimes indicates a devotedness, and sometimes renders a service which deserves to take high rank amongst the excellences and even the nobilities of human worth. We look at
I. THE DESTRUCTIVE PIETY SHOWN BY THE KING. He removed the high places set apart for idolatrous worship, also the altars of false gods; he “cut down the groves” where moral and devotional abominations were likely to be committed; he “took away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made” (1Ki 15:12). And that which was, perhaps, more than all this, as evidencing a sincerity and thoroughness of heart toward God, and justifying the language used by the Chronicler (2Ch 14:2) concerning him, he destroyed the idol of Maachah, and even removed that idolatrous queen from the official dignity she had been enjoying. Asa, therefore, struck a very decisive and damaging blow at the idolatry of his time; he powerfully and effectually discouraged iniquity and immorality in three ways:
1. He showed his own personal and royal hatred of them.
2. He rebuked and punished the perpetrators of them.
3. He took away the means of indulging in them.
By these measures he strove well and wrought successfully for the truth of God and for the purity of his people.
II. OUR OWN ACTION IN THE SAME DIRECTION, In what ways shall we serve God by a destructive piety?
1. By promoting wise legislative measures. There arc evils which it is needless to name from which large numbers of people need to be protected. To be tempted by them is to be overcome, is to be slain by them; they are active sources of evil and of suffering, of ruin and of death; they ought to be suppressed; and one part of a Christian man’s duty is to join his fellow-citizens in cutting down or “removing those high places” of the land.
2. By excluding evil things and evil persons from the home. There are men and there is literature concerning whom and concerning which we can only say that they arc sources of defilement; and if we have not power, like an Oriental monarch, to forbid them the land, we can forbid them the home; we can see that, in respect of those who are in our charge and for whose well-being we are responsible, that these men and these books are well beyond reach.
3. ,By putting down evil language. This we may do, in many quarters, by firmly discountenancing and fearlessly condemning it; the voice of righteous reprobation will soon silence the profane and lascivious tongue.
4. By expelling from our own life that which imperils our moral or spiritual integrity. Every man must know, or should know, what habits (in eating or drinking, in recreation, etc.) are fascinating, absorbing, dangerous to himself; must know in what direction it is perilous to set out, lest he should go too far. There let him determinately bar the way; that threatening habit let him exclude rigorously from his life (see Mat 5:29, Mat 5:30).C.
2Ch 14:2, 2Ch 14:4, 2Ch 14:6, 2Ch 14:7
Constructive godliness.
It is better to construct than to destroy (see preceding homily), and though Asa did well in demolishing the strange altars and expelling the sodomites from the land, he did even better in
(1) encouraging all Judah to seek God in worship and to obey his Law, and in
(2) fortifying his territory against the enemy while the land was in his full possession (while the land was “yet before” them). The patriotism and the piety that expended themselves in spiritual and in material edification were of the best. We shall find their analogue among ourselves in
I. BUILDING UP OURSELVES on our holy faith (Jud 1:20). A man’s first duty is that which he owes to his own spirit; for God has given him that, above all things, to have in charge and to present pure and perfect before him at the last. We are, therefore, most sacredly bound to build up ourselves in faith, in love, in purity, in truthfulness, in moral and spiritual integrity, in mercy and magnanimity. And this we shall do
(1) by the study of our Lord Jesus Christ (of his life and character);
(2) by the worship of him and fellowship with him, both in the home and in the sanctuary;
(3) by an earnest and prayerful endeavour to do and bear his will, and to follow his example until we attain to his likeness.
II. EDIFYING THOSE WHOM WE CAN INFLUENCE; bringing to bear upon the inmates of our home, upon those whom we employ (or by whom we are employed), upon our nearer neighbours, upon our fellow-townsmen, upon our fellow-worshippers and fellow-workers in the kingdom of God, all the strengthening, stimulating, elevating influence we can possibly command.
III. CARING FOR CONSULTING THE WELFARE OF OUR COUNTRY. Asa built those “fenced cities in Judah” that he might make timely provision against the enemy and thus keep him off, or repel him if he attacked. What are the enemies of our native land? These are not to be found (chiefly) in invading hosts; there is but little to be feared from them. We find our national enemies in intemperance, in impurity, in dishonesty and fraud, in unconscientious and unfaithful labour, and, therefore, in poor and unsound production, in political charlatanism and pretence, in ecclesiastical bitterness. We want to call into the field forces that will expel these evils from the land. Where shall we find them?
1. In Christ-like men; in men imbued with the spirit, possessed of the principles, living the life, of Jesus Christ.
2. In Christian institutions; in earnest, working Churches; in Sunday schools; in temperance societies; in guilds for the inculcation of all that is pure and wholesome; in philanthropic associations of many kinds.
3. In Christian literature. Not only that which is distinctively religions, but that also which is sound in tone and spirit, which imparts and infuses a true idea of human character and human life.
Our patriotic work must be found in building up these; building up these men in our homes and circles by the influence of our Christian character; sustaining these institutions by generous gifts of time and strength and money; countenancing and supporting this wholesome, edifying literature. So shall we also “build and prosper.”C.
2Ch 14:8-15
The secret and the spirit of true defence.
We may learn from this narrative of unprovoked attack and triumphant defence
I. THAT OUR UPMOST PREPARATION WILL NOT SECURE US FROM ATTACK. Asa endeavoured to make his little kingdom impregnable to assault by
(1) fortifying the outposts, and
(2) training and equipping a large army (2Ch 14:7, 2Ch 14:8).
Nevertheless, the Ethiopians came up against him with an army far stronger than his. The military and naval preparations of one country usually incite to greater preparations in another, and instead of war becoming impossible because each nation is invulnerable, it becomes probable because the combative spirit has been developed; one nation considers itself challenged by another, and because a large number of professional men are eager to exert their power and improve their position. But not only does “history repeat itself” thus; we have here an illustration of a wider truththat whatever efforts we may make to guard ourselves against the inroad of evils, we shall surely fail. Sickness of some kind will attack us; disappointment and disillusion will find their way to our heart; sorrow will surprise us; loss and separation will befall us; death will knock at our door. There are no fortifications we can construct, there are no forces we can raise, Be we never so vigilant and alert, which will keep all enemies from the gate. Spite of fenced cities and many thousands of Jewish spears and Benjamite bows, the Ethiopian army comes up against Jerusalem.
II. THAT IN THE PATH OF MORAL AND SPIRITUAL RECTITUDE WE ARE IN THE WAY OF SAFETY. Asa had no need to be alarmed. Had he wickedly departed from the Lord he might well have been in the greatest consternation, for then the severe warnings of sacred Scripture would have been as a knell in his ears; but as it was, his fidelity to Jehovah was an assurance of safety. He was God’s servant; he was in a position to “cry unto the Lord his God” (2Ch 14:11); to say, “O Lord our God;” to claim that the Ethiopian’s triumph would be a prevailing against the Lord himself: “Let not man prevail against thee.” The king could hide in the cleft of the rock; he could fall back on almighty power; he was safe Before a blow was struck. He did the right thing on the occasion.
(1) He brought his army into the field, well equipped and well arrayed (2Ch 14:10); and then
(2) he made his earnest, Believing appeal to the Lord his God. This is the path of safety, the place of wisdom. Let us, in days of peace and plenty, in the time of joy and honour, seek and serve the Lord our God, and then, when the darkness falls, when the enemy appears, when such power is needed as goes far beyond our small resources, we can turn with a holy confidence and with Christian calmness tot he sucoour of the faithful and the mighty Friend. We shall indeed do as Asa did; we shall summon all our own powers and wisdom to confront the danger, to meet the difficulty; but, like the King of Judah, we shall feel that our true hope is in the living God, and we shall hide in him, our Refuge and our Strength. “In his Name” we shall “go against this multitude.”
III. THAT AS THOSE WHO FIGHT FOR GOD WE HAVE A POWERFUL PLEA. As those who are enlisted and engaged in the great campaign against moral evil in this world, we have a strong plea to urge when we draw nigh to God in prayer and seek his conquering power.
1. God is our God; the God of our choice and of his own faithful Word.
2. God is able to give us the victory even against the greatest odds: “It is nothing with thee to help” (2Ch 14:11). “If thou wilt, thou canst.” “All things are possible” with him,
3. We do all that we do in his Name, for the extension of his kingdom.
“The work is thine, not mine, O Lord,
It is thy race we run.”
“Let not man prevail against thee.“
IV. THAT, GOD WITH US, ANXIOUS FEAR WILL CHANGE TO JOYOUS VICTORY. “The Lord smote the Ethiopians and Asa and the people pursued them,” etc. (2Ch 14:12-15). The king and the people of Judah went out of Jerusalem with the most grave concern in their hearts; they re-entered the royal city with their souls full of joy and their arms full of spoil. Their courage and, more especially, their fidelity were crowned with a true and a great success. So in due time will ours also. It is true that our fight with wrong and woe is not (like this one of Asa’s) a short sharp battle; it is a long campaign; it is a campaign in which fortune wavers, or seems to waver, from side to side; in which many good soldiers of Christ are seen to fall. But there can be no doubt about the issue. The Lord is on our side. Victorious Love is our great Captain, and the time will come when we too shall “return to Jerusalem,” with songs of joy and triumph on our lips.C.
HOMILIES BY T. WHITELAW
2Ch 14:1-8
Quiet in the land.
I. A GREAT BLESSING.
1. Its character. No war (2Ch 14:6). Few, reflecting on the untold calamities of war, the expenditure of blood and treasure, the sorrow and desolation sent into many homes, the interruption of the arts of peace, the bad passions kindled by it in the breasts even of the victors, will doubt that peace is one of the foremost blessings a nation can enjoy. This was the condition of Judah during the first ten years of Asa’s reign. Compare Shakespeare’s description of “peace after a civil war” (‘King Henry IV.,’ Part I. act 1. sc. 1).
2. Its source. Jehovah (2Ch 14:7). “Every good and every perfect gift is from above” (Jas 1:17)true of national peace (Jos 21:44; 1Ch 22:18) no less than of other things (Psa 29:11; Isa 45:7; Jer 14:13; Hag 2:9). As no king or people can stir up war until God permits, so can none extinguish its flames without his help. But “when he giveth quietness, who can make trouble?” (Job 34:29). Hence national peace should be prayed for (Jer 29:7; 1Ti 2:1, 1Ti 2:2).
3. Its medium. Righteousness. The peace of Asa’s opening years was due, not to Abijah’s successful campaigns (2Ch 13:15), though successful campaigns are of God’s giving (Psa 144:1, Psa 144:2, Psa 144:10); or to his own skilful diplomacy, since skilful diplomacy is not always from above (2Sa 16:20, etc.); or to his fenced cities, which would have been poor fortifications had they not been defended by Jehovah’s battalions (Psa 127:1); but to his and his people’s following after that righteousness which is a nation’s best defence (Pro 14:34) and a sovereign’s surest security (Pro 16:12). Asa and his people sought the Lord their God, and he gave them “rest on every side.” The annals of Israel show that peace ever went hand-in-hand with piety, and war with disobedience (Psa 81:11-16; Isaiah 68:18, 19). Always when the people chose new gods there was war in the gates (Jdg 5:8). When they forsook God, he forsook them, with the result that “there was no peace to him that went out or to him that came in” (2Ch 15:5). So, in modem times, the military spirit exists in Christian men and nations in proportion as they depart from the religion of Jesus. If at any time “Christianity, socially regarded, does almost nothing to control the state of expectant war and the jealousies of nations,” that is not because Christianity is a “failure,” and “criminally complacent to these (and other)evils,” or “because the religion of heaven and supernatural visions” is “powerless to control this earth and its natural realities”, but because its professed disciples do not honestly obey its precepts (Joh 13:34; Rom 13:8; Gal 5:13; Eph 5:2) and carry out its principles (Mat 7:12; Rom 13:10; Jas 2:8). The reign of Christianity in any nation would put an end to civil feuds and wars of aggression. With the extinction of these, wars of defence would cease.
II. A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY.
1. For the furtherance of true religion. Besides setting an example of personal religionthe most effective way in which kings can promote national religionAsa laboured with promptitude, decision, and assiduity in the work of abolishing the prevalent idolatry.
(1) He demolished the “strange altars,” i.e. altars to foreign divinities which had been erected by his predecessors, Solomon and Rehoboam, and left standing by his father Abijah.
(2) He removed the “high places” dedicated to idolatrous worship, though he allowed those which had been consecrated to Jehovah to remain (2Ch 15:17; 1Ki 15:14).
(3) He brake down the “pillars,” obelisks or monumental columns dedicated to Baal. (2Ki 3:2; 2Ki 10:26), resembling that erected by Jacob at Bethel (Gen 35:14), and perhaps also those set up by Moses at Sinai (Exo 24:4) in honour of Jehovah.
(4) The Asherim, wooden idols or tree trunks, consecrated to Astarte (see Keil on 1Ki 14:23), he hewed down.
(5) From all the cities of Judah he removed the high places and the sun-images, i.e. pillars or statues consecrated to Baal as the sun-god, and erected near or upon the altars of Baal (2Ch 34:4). So Christian kings and statesmen should labour at the destruction of all false forms of religion within their domains; not, however, by forcible suppression, which, though permitted and even demanded of Ass, is not allowed to sovereigns or, indeed, to any under the gospel, but by fostering in all legitimate ways what they believe to be the absolute and only true religion.
2. For promulgating useful laws. When nations are distracted by internecine feuds within themselves or between each other, it is hopeless to expect the work of good legislation to proceed. Hence the value of a “long peace” to any country, permitting, as it does, the cultivation of the peaceful arts, the development of trade and commerce, the spread of learning and culture, the growth of domestic institutions, and the promotion of measures for the welfare of the state. Asa, in the ten years of rest, “commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to do the Law and the commandment” (2Ch 14:4); and though under the New Testament dispensation it is not required of kings to command their subjects to worship and obey Godthat being an obligation already laid on men by the gospeland far less to punish them should they disobey, it is, nevertheless, allowed kings to follow in Asa’s footsteps so far as to utilize the years of rest their countries may enjoy in legislating for the comfort and happiness of their subjects.
3. For securing the safety of the realm. Asa did so by
(1) erecting military fortresses, “fenced cities” in the land of Judah, surrounding them with walls and towers, and securing them with gates and bolts; and
(2) by collecting around him a well-equipped armyfrom Judah 300,000 targeteers and spearmen, with heavy shields and lances (1Ch 12:24); and from Benjamin 280,000, bearing light shields and furnished with bows (1Ch 8:40). So should Christian states employ times of peace in constructing such bulwarks as their lands require, whether in the shape of garrison cities, regiments of soldiers, or fleets of war-vessels, since self-preservation is an instinct of nature as much for nations as for individuals, and is not forbidden to either by the gospel, while to be prepared for war is sometimes an effective means of securing peace (Luk 11:21).
LESSON. The duty of individuals and nations to shun war and follow peace.W.
2Ch 14:9-15
An alarming invasion.
I. THE INVADER AND HIS ARMY. (2Ch 14:9.)
1. The invader. Zerah, the Ethiopian (or Cushite), commonly identified with Osorkhon (Usarkon) I. king of Egypt, the second sovereign of the twenty-second or Bubastio dynasty (Rossellini, Wilkinson, Champollion, Lepsius, Rawlinson, Ebers); but, inasmuch as no Ethiopian appears among the monumental kings of this dynasty, a claim to be regarded as the Zerah of Scripture has been advanced in behalf of Azerch-amen, an Ethiopian conqueror of Egypt (Schrader, Brugseh), who, in the reign of Osorkhon, overran the entire dominion of the Pharaohs, and, though unable at that time to retain his hold, nevertheless paved the way for the subsequent conquest of the country by Pianchi, of the twenty-fifth or Ethiopian dynasty. If, however, the former identification be provisionally accepted, Zerah’s designation as “the Cushite” may be explained by supposing that his mother was an Ethiopian (Rawlinson), or that he bore the title “king’s son of Cush” as crown prince of Egypt and viceroy of the south or Ethiopia (Ebers).
2. His army1,000,000 men900,000 infantry, with 100,000 cavalry (Josephus, ‘Ant.,’ 8.12. 1), and 300 chariots. This immense host of Ethiopians and Libyans (2Ch 16:8), only 100,000 fewer than all the fighting men of Israel, and. more than twice as many as the warriors of Judah in the time of David (1Ch 21:5), so far outnumbers the army of Shishak (2Ch 12:3), that it has been set down to popular exaggeration in making a rough estimate (Keil), or to legendary embellishment (Ebers), suggested by the vast armies of the Persians, with which the Chronicler was familiar (Ewald). The largest army o! invasion of which history speaks was probably that of Xerxes, which, when numbered on the Doriscan plain, amounted to nearly two millions and a half of fighting men, military and naval. Recent calculations show that “the total strength of the German army on a war footing is now rather over three millions and a half of men’.
3. His camp. At Mareshah, or Marissa, one of Rehoboam’s garrison cities, between Hebron and Ashded (2Ch 11:8, which see).
II. THE MONARCH AND THE PEOPLE OF JUDAH. (2Ch 14:10,2Ch 14:11.)
1. A display of splendid courage. “Asa went out against him.” On either hypothesis as to Zerah’s person, it was an exhibition of noble daring on the part of the King of Judah to confront him, much more to stand up against a million of highly disciplined troops, with only little more than half that number of spearmen and archers (2Ch 14:8). As an instance of heroic fortitude, it was worthy to be placed alongside of the most brilliant feats of valour recorded in either sacred or profane history, as e.g. the pursuit of the victorious kings by Abraham (Gen 14:14-16), the discomfiture of the Midianitee by Gideon with 300 men (Jdg 7:21), the invasion of the Philistines’ garrison at Miehmash by Jonathan and his armour-bearer (1Sa 14:13-16), the combat of David with Goliath (1Sa 17:49, 1Sa 17:50), the defeat of the Persians under Darius at Marathon by Miltiades, with a small body of Athenians and Plataeans, and under Xerxes at Thermopylae, by Leonidas and 300 Spartans, the victory of Bruce with 80,000 Scotch over Edward II. with 100,000 English, of the Black Prince over an army seven times as large as his own at Poictiers, of Clive with 3000 men over 50,000 led by the Nabob of Moorshedabad at Plassey (A.D.). 1757).
2. An example of commendable prudence. Asa selected, as the spot on which to join issue with the enemy, the valley of Zephathah, near Mareshah, probably because there the advantage to be derived from superior numbers would less operate. He also disposed his troops in such a fashion as to enable them most efficiently to resist the onset of the foe. In so doing, he only discovered his sagacity and sense both as a general and a man. He knew that, while it was hopeless to expect victory without God’s help, it was folly to cry for Divine assistance while neglecting to put his battalions in order. So in ordinary matters and in matters of religion. Prayer cannot supersede the use of common means.
3. A pattern of lofty faith. Having marshalled his forced, Asa prayedprayed upon the battle-field, as Moses did on the Red Sea shore when pursued by the Philistines (Exo 14:10), as Jehoshaphat did when invaded by the Ammonites and Moabites (2Ch 20:18), as Cromwell and his Ironsides, Gustavus Adolphus and his Swedes, Colonel Gardiner and his Scotch dragoons, and other God-fearing generals with their regiments have been accustomed to do before entering into engagements with their enemies. Asa’s prayer was remarkable for two things.
(1) For the brevity and directness of its petitions. Necessitated in his case by the situation, these qualities are excellent in all petitioners (Mat 6:7). Asa asked the help of Jehovah against his foes, as David before him had often done (Psa 59:4; Psa 71:12; Psa 35:2), and as Christians may still do (Heb 4:16), especially against such foes as are spiritual and threaten the destruction of their souls.
(2) For the excellence and strength of its arguments. invites those who address him in prayer to fill their mouths with arguments (Job 23:4), to bring forth their strong reasons (Isa 41:21), and to plead with him (Isa 43:26). Asa urged:
(a) Jehovah’s covenant relation to him and his people. Jehovah was God and their (2Ch 14:11)a good argument for a Christian suppliant.
(b) The multitude of the foe arranged against them. David derived a plea from the number of his adversaries (Psa 25:19, Psa 56:2), and so may David’s brethren (Eph 6:18). Compare the English king’s prayer at Agincourt, “O God, of battles,” etc. (‘Henry V.,’ act 4. sc. 1).
(c) The fact that the war was Jehovah s even more than theirs (2Ch 20:15). They were going out against Zerah in his Name, as in his Name David had advanced to meet Goliath (1Sa 17:45). In this Name all Christian warfare should be carried on (Psa 20:5; Act 4:30; Act 16:18; Col 3:17); when it is, a claim is thereby established upon God to uphold the honour of his Name (Psa 71:9; Joh 12:28).
(d) The circumstance that he alone was able to assist them in the tremendous crisis that had come upon them. “There is none beside thee to help, between the mighty and him that hath no strength” (Revised Version); or, “There is no difference with thee to help, whether the mighty or him that hath no strength” (margin); or, “It is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power” (Authorized Version). Whichever reading be adoptedthough the first is the bestthe sentiment was that Jehovah alone could assist in so unequal a combat, and that he could do so if he would, since it was not necessary for him to be “on the side of the strongest battalions” (Napoleon). He could win battles, as Jonathan long before observed, whether by many or by few. (1Sa 14:6). Much more is God the only Refuge to which the Christian can turn on carrying on the unequal contest to which he is called against the principalities and powers of darkness; and to his power nothing is impossible.
(e) The dishonour Jehovah himself would sustain through their defeat. The invasion of Zerah was practically a campaign against Jehovah. To suffer them to be overthrown would be (seemingly at least) permitting himself to be overcome by a weak mortal. Happily, God condescends to allow this in matters of grace, as in the case of Jacob (Gen 32:29; Hos 12:4), but not in ordinary affairs when the interest of his kingdom would be thereby injured (Rom 8:28; Eph 1:11). Asa’s argument was good. Compare the boldness of Moses in pleading with God in behalf of Israel (Num 14:16).
(3) The fact that they were deliberately trusting in God. “Help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on thee.” God has pledged himself never to disappoint those who trust in him (Psa 34:22; Psa 37:40; Isa 45:17).
III. JEHOVAH AND THE COMBATANTS. (2Ch 14:12-15.)
1. The Ethiopians were routed.
(1) They were defeated on the field of battle. Jehovah “smote” them before Asa and Judah (2Ch 14:12).
(2) They were put to flight by the archers and spearmen that opposed them. The Ethiopians “fled.”
(3) They were pursued as far as Gerar, a chief city of the Philistines, now identified as the Khirbet-el-Gerar, in the Wady Jorf-el-Gerar, three leagues south-east of Gaza (Rowland).
(4) They were massacred by the victorious monarch and his exulting warriors. They were “destroyed before the Lord and before his host,” for the understanding of which there is no need to call in the help of a battalion of angels, as in Gen 32:2. Asa’s army was Jehovah’s host, because Jehovah was with it and in it; and the blood of Asa’s enemies was poured out before Jehovah, because the battle had been undertaken in his Name and the victory achieved through his power.
(5) They were so completely crushed that they could not recover themselves. They disappeared from Palestine, and ceased from troubling Judah. Such will be the end of the enemies of the Church of God (1Sa 2:9; 2Th 1:9).
2. The men of Judah were victorious.
(1) The monarch’s prayer was answered. So did God hear the prayer of Moses when he cried for help against the Egyptians (Exo 14:15), and that of the Israelites when they appealed for assistance against their foes (Jdg 10:11), and that of the Reubenites when they entreated succour against the Hagarites (1Ch 5:20), and that of Hezekiah when he appealed to the Lord God of Israel against Sennacherib (1Ki 19:15, etc.). So God hears the prayer of the Church’s King (Joh 11:41, Joh 11:42), and of the soldiers of the cross (Psa 65:2; Eph 3:20; 1Jn 4:6).
(2) The soldiers’ courage was rewarded. They inflicted a decisive blow upon the enemy; they smote all the cities round about Gerar, these having probably espoused the cause of the enemy; they carried away much spoil, not only of ammunitions of war and provisions which had been laid up in those cities, but also of cattle and sheep and camels, which they had found in abundance, and which, in all likelihood, had belonged to the enemy. So did Christ, the Captain of salvation, achieve a brilliant triumph over the principalities and powers of darkness, despoiling them of victory, and making a show of them openly (Col 2:15); and so will Christ’s followers be made more than conquerors over the same foes (Rom 8:1-39 :87), and carry off from the fields of conflict where they meet their enemies much spiritual treasure (Rom 8:28).
Lessons.
1. The sinfulness of wars of aggression, and the lawfulness of wars of defence.
2. The duty of combining working with praying, as well as praying with working.
3. The impossibility of achieving victory either without or against God, or of suffering defeat with God upon one’s side.W.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
b. Abijah.Ch. 13
2Ch 13:1 In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, Abijah became king over Judah. 2He reigned three years in Jerusalem; and his mothers name was Michaiah,1 daughter of Uriel of Gibeah.
3And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. And Abijah began the war with an army of valiant warriors, four hundred thousand chosen men: and Jeroboam prepared war against him with eight hundred thousand chosen 4men, valiant in might. And Abijah arose on Mount Zemaraim, which is in 5Mount Ephraim, and said, Hear me, Jeroboam and all Israel. Do you not know that the Lord God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David 6for ever, to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt? And Jeroboam son of Nebat, servant of Solomon son of David, arose and rebelled against his 7master. And vain men, of no account, gathered unto him, and withstood Rehoboam son of Solomon; and Rehoboam was young and weak of heart, and held not out against them. 8And now ye are saying that ye will hold out against the kingdom of the Lord in the hand of the sons of David; and ye are a great multitude, and with you are golden calves, which Jeroboam made you for gods. 9Have ye not cast out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and made you priests like the nations of the lands? whosoever cometh to fill his hand with a young steer and seven rams is a 10priest to them that are no gods. And we, the Lord is our God, and we have not forsaken Him; and the priests that minister to the Lord are the sons of Aaron, and the Levites in their business. 11And they burn unto the Lord burnt-offerings every morning and every evening, and incense of spices, and laying of bread on the pure table, and the candlestick of gold and its lamps to burn every evening: for we keep the charge of the Lord our God; but ye 12have forsaken Him. And behold, with us, at our head, are God and His priests, and the clanging trumpets to sound against you: sons of Israel, fight not against the Lord God of your fathers; for ye shall not prosper.
13And Jeroboam led round an ambush to come behind them; and they were 14before Judah, and the ambush was behind them. And Judah turned, and behold they had the battle before and behind; and they cried unto the Lord, 15and the priests sounded with the trumpets. And the men of Judah shouted; and when the men of Judah shouted, God smote Jeroboam and all Israel 16before Abijah and Judah. And the sons of Israel fled before Judah; and God gave them into their hand. 17And Abijah and his people smote them with a great slaughter; and there fell slain of Israel five hundred thousand chosen 18men. And the sons of Israel were humbled at that time; and the sons of Judah prevailed, because they trusted in the Lord God of their fathers. 19And Abijah pursued after Jeroboam, and took cities from him: Bethel and her daughters, and Jeshanah2 and her daughters, and Ephron3 and her 20daughters. And Jeroboam had no more strength in the days of Abijah; and 21the Lord smote him, and he died. And Abijah strengthened himself, and took to him fourteen wives, and begat twenty and two sons and sixteen daughters. 22And the rest of the acts of Abijah, and his ways, and his words, 23are written in the commentary of the prophet Iddo. And Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David; and Asa his son reigned in his stead. In his days the land was quiet ten years.
c. Asa. The Prophets Azariah Son of Oded and Hanani.Ch. 1416
. Asas Theocratic Zeal and Care for the Defence of the Kingdom: 2Ch 14:1-7
2Ch 14:1.And Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord 2his God. And he took away the altars of the strange gods, and the high 3places, and brake the pillars, and cut down the Asherim. And commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to do the law and the 4commandment. And he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the sun-statues: and the kingdom was quiet before him.
5And he built fenced cities in Judah; for the land had rest, and there was 6no war with him in those days; for the Lord gave him rest. And he said to Judah, Let us build these cities, and make about them walls and towers, gates and bars, and the land is yet before us; because we have sought the Lord our God, and He hath given us rest around: and they built and prospered. 7And Asa had an army, bearing shield and spear, out of Judah three hundred thousand, and out of Benjamin, bearing shield and drawing bow, two hundred and eighty thousand: all these were men of valour.
. Asas Victory over Zerah the Ethiopian: 2Ch 14:8-14
8And Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with a host of a thousand 9thousand, and three hundred chariots; and he came to Mareshah. And Asa went out against him, and they joined battle in the valley of Zephathah at 10Mareshah. And Asa cried unto the Lord his God, and said, Lord, no one is nigh Thee to help with the mighty or with no might; help us, O Lord our God, for we rely on Thee, and in Thy name we go against this multitude: 11O Lord, Thou art our God; no man may hold out against Thee. And the Lord smote the Ethiopians before Asa, and before Judah; and the Ethiopians 12fled. And Asa, and the people that were with him, pursued them unto Gerar: and the Ethiopians fell, so that there was no recovery; for they were broken before the Lord, and before His host; and they carried off very great 13spoil. And they smote all the cities round Gerar; for the terror of the Lord 14was upon them. And they smote also the tents of cattle, and took sheep in abundance, and camels, and returned to Jerusalem.
. The Prophetic Warning of Azariah Son of Oded: 2Ch 15:1-7
2Ch 15:1-2.And the Spirit of God came upon Azariah son of Oded. And he went forth before Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; the Lord is with you, while ye are with Him; and if ye seek Him, He will be found of you; and if ye forsake Him, He will forsake you. 3And many days will be to Israel without the true God, and without a teaching 4priest, and without a law. And he shall return in his trouble unto the Lord God of Israel, and seek Him, and He shall be found of him. 5And in those times is no peace for him that goeth out or cometh in, but great vexations 6on all the inhabitants of the lands. And nation shall be smitten4 by 7nation, and city by city; for God hath vexed them with all trouble. But be ye brave, and let not your hands be slack; for there is a reward for your labour.
. Asas Reform of Worship, and Renewal of Covenant with the Lord: 2Ch 15:8-19
8And when Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded5 the prophet, he took courage, and put away the abominations out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from Mount Ephraim, and renewed the altar of the Lord, that was before the porch of the Lord. 9And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and the strangers with them, out of Ephraim and Manasseh, and out of Simeon; for they fell to him out of Israel in abundance, when they saw that the Lord his God was with him. 10And they gathered at Jerusalem, in the third month of the fifteenth year of 11the reign of Asa. And they sacrificed to the Lord in that day, of the spoil they had brought, seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep. 12And they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their 13heart, and with all their soul. And whosoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to death, small or great, man or woman. 14And they sware unto the Lord with a loud voice, and with clangour, and with trumpets and cornets. 15And all Judah was glad at the oath; for they had sworn with all their heart, and sought Him with their whole desire, and He was found of 16them: and the Lord gave them rest round about. And also Maachah, the mother of Asa the king, he removed from being queen, because she had made an idol for Asherah: and Asa cut down her idol, and crushed it, and burnt it in the brook Kidron. 17But the high places were not taken away out of Israel; but the heart of Asa was perfect all his days. 18And he brought the things which his father and himself had consecrated into the house of God, silver and gold, and vessels. 19And there was no more war unto the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Asa.
. The War with Baasha of Israel: 2Ch 16:1-6
2Ch 16:1.In the thirty-sixth year6 of the reign of Asa, Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah, and built Ramah, to let no one come out or go in to 2Asa king of Judah. And Asa brought out silver and gold out of the treasures of the house of the Lord, and of the kings house, and sent to Benhadad king 3of Syria, that dwelt at Damascus,7 saying: A league is between me and thee, and between my father and thy father: behold, I have sent thee silver and gold; go, break thy league with Baasha king of Israel, that he may depart from me. 4And Benhadad hearkened unto King Asa, and sent the captains of his army against the cities of Israel; and they smote Ijon, and Dan, and Abelmaim, 5and all the stores of the cities of Naphtali. And when Baasha heard 6it, he left off building of Ramah, and let his work cease. And Asa the king took all Judah, and carried away the stones of Ramah, and its timber, with which Baasha had built, and built therewith Geba and Mizpah.
. Hananis Prophetic Warning: Asas Transgression and End: 2Ch 16:7-14
7And at that time came Hanani the seer to Asa king of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and hast not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped from thy hand. 8Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubites a huge host, in chariots and horsemen very many? and when thou didst rely on the Lord, He gave them into thy hand. 9For the eyes of the Lord run throughout all the earth, to prove Himself strong for those whose heart relies wholly on Him: thou 10hast done foolishly in this; for henceforth thou shalt have wars. And Asa was displeased with the seer, and put him in the prison; for he was in a rage with him because of this. And Asa oppressed some of the people at that time.
11And, behold, the acts of Asa, first and last, behold, they are written in 12the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. And Asa, in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, was diseased in his feet, until his disease was very great: and in his disease also he sought not the Lord, but to the physicians. 13And Asa slept with his fathers; and he died in the forty-first year of his reign. 14And they buried him in his own tomb, which he had dug for himself in the city of David; and they laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odours of divers kinds, compounded by art; and they made a very great burning for him.
EXEGETICAL
The histories of both reigns, that of Abijah and that of Asa, are presented here in a very extended form, when compared with the parallel accounts in 1Ki 15:1-24; and in particular, there are several discourses of a prophetic nature in the history of Abijah, one addressed by this king himself on Mount Zemaraim to Jeroboam and the army of Israel (ch 13:412), and in that of Asa, the warnings of the seers Azariah son of Oded and Hanani (2Ch 15:2-7; 2Ch 16:7-10), by the insertion of which the Chronist has considerably enlarged his account. But with respect to the history of war and worship, his representation is a far richer gain from the ancient sources than that preserved in 1 Kings 15.
I. Abijah: 2 Chronicles 13; comp. 1Ki 15:1-8.In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam. This date of the beginning of Abijahs reign is also given in 1 Kings, and also the three years duration of his reign (he is, moreover, always called ; see on 2Ch 11:22).And his mothers name was Michaiah, daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. As Abijahs mother is called Maachah, not merely 2Ch 11:20 ff., but also 1Ki 15:2, the present name must be regarded as a mistake for the original . Her father, Uriel of Gibeah, is to be regarded as the husband of Tamer the daughter of Absalom, and herself, therefore, as the grand-daughter of the latter; see on 2Ch 11:20. From the Maachah, further mentioned 2Ch 15:16 (and 1Ki 15:13), the mother of Asa, whom he removed from the dignity of a gebirah (mistress, Sultana Walide, queen-mother) for her idolatry, she is scarcely to be considered different; rather is her designation there as mother to be supposed = grandmother, and her continued regency under her grandson Asa is to be explained simply from the brief duration of Abijahs reign, and the probable minority of Asa at his death (comp. Athaliahs attempt to reign instead of her grandson Joash, 2 Chronicles 22). Against the assumption by Thenius and Bertheau of the diversity of the two Maachahs (of whom the mother of Abijah was the daughter of Absalom, but the mother of Asa in reality the one who is here falsely called a daughter of Uriel of Gibeah), see Keil, p. 261, Rem.
2Ch 13:3 ff. Abijahs War with Jeroboam.And Abijah began the war with 400,000 chosen men. Neither this number nor the double number of the warriors of Jeroboam should be taken strictly, as is abundantly clear from the substantial agreement of both numbers with the results of Joabs enumeration under David (800,000 men-at-arms of Israel and 500,000 of Judah; comp. 1 Chronicles 21). Less probable is the assumption of an error in transcription, resting on a change of the numeral letters, as the cause of these almost incredibly high numbers (Kennicott, Dissert. Gen. 27; J. Pye-Smith, The Scripture Testimony to the Messiah, 6th edit. vol. 1. p. 29); for to explain the fact in this way, we must assume several such mistakes or corruptions in similar circumstances, which would be very strange. Comp. also on 2 Chronicles 17, and Evangelical and Ethical Reflections, No. 3.
2Ch 13:4. And Abijah arose on Mount Zemaraim, obviously a steep cliff or summit lying between the contending armies, from which the king addressed the foe in like manner as Jotham once addressed the Shechemites from Mount Gerizim, Jdg 9:7. That every single warrior of the host of Israel, numbering several hundred thousands, could have heard his words is not said, and need not be assumed. The situation of Mount Zemarami is no longer to be ascertained. It was probably in the neighbourhood of Bethel, near which is a town, Jos 18:22, named (Zemaraim), the ruins of which may have been found in el Sumra, between Jerusalem and Jericho, near the valley of the Jordan. At all events, the locality should be sought east of Bethel (Robinson, Phys. Geogr. of the Holy Land, p. 38), and this el Sumra may lie too far in a south-easterly direction.
2Ch 13:5. Do you not know, literally, Is it not to you, concerns it not you, to know? comp., for example, 1Ch 13:4.That the Lord gave to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt, by an irrevocable covenant; comp. Lev 2:13; Num 18:19. belongs to the whole sentence, as accusative of restriction (therefore: in the manner of a covenant of salt).
2Ch 13:7. And vain men, of no account, gathered unto him, properly, sons of worthlessness, children of Belial, a phrase occurring not elsewhere in Chronicles, but again in 1Ki 21:10; 1Ki 21:13. On , loose, fickle men, comp. Jdg 9:4; Jdg 11:3.And withstood Rehoboam, showed themselves strong against him ( ); comp. the ( ) resistance afterwards shown on the part of Rehoboam to this opposition.Rehoboam was young and weak of heart, faint-hearted, unstable. The term , young, used of Rehoboam when already king, appears not specially to favour the former statement (2Ch 12:13) that he was then forty-one years old, and to require the change of this age into twenty-one years. Moreover, Abijah relates in this his speech the events in the revolt of the ten tribes from Rehoboam in a very inexact way (Rehoboam did not show himself weak of heart on that occasion, but rather hard and daring of heart, etc.); for he clearly wishes to justify his father as far as possible, and roll all the blame of the revolt of the ten tribes on Jeroboam and his worthless followers (Keil).
2Ch 13:8. The kingdom of the Lord in the hand of the sons of David, the theocratic kingdom founded by David, and hereditary in his house (comp. 1Ch 29:23 and the like).
2Ch 13:9. Have ye not made you priests like the nations of the lands, not divinely called, but only humanly chosen, priests, like those of heathendom; comp. 1Ki 12:31.Whosoever cometh to fill his hand, that is, institute and consecrate himself priest of the new worship; comp. Exo 28:41; Exo 29:9; Exo 32:29; see 1Ki 13:33. The following words: with a young steer (literally, with a steer the son of the herd, and seven rams, belong not so much to fill as to cometh ( , as Psa 40:8). As according to Exodus 29 the offerings to be made on the consecration of a priest consisted of a young steer as a sin-offering, a ram as a burnt-offering, and a ram of consecration, and this presented on seven days in succession (thus in all seven steers and fourteen rams), the offering appears here to be imperfectly stated, not on account of an inaccurate report, but because Abijah might know that in fact there had been a considerable deviation from the strict requirements of the law, in order the more speedily to obtain a new priesthood. Indeed, it was a priesthood of non-gods or ungods (comp. Deu 32:21) which was so founded.
2Ch 13:10. And the Levites in their business (in the business, ), performing their office in the legal way; comp. 1Ch 23:28 ff.
2Ch 13:11. Burn unto the Lord burntofferings, fumigate, turn into smoke, , which is then zeugmatically connected with the laying of the shew-bread and the lighting of the lamps, which are also parts of the priestly office. On these various priestly functions, that are then combined as a keeping of the charge of the Lord (Lev 8:35), comp. Exo 29:38 ff; Exo 25:30 ff; Exo 27:20 ff.; Lev 24:7 ff.
2Ch 13:12. The clanging trumpets to sound are made prominent, because God had expressly designated them in the law as the pledges on account of which He would remember and help His people in war, Num 10:9.
2Ch 13:13 ff. Judahs Victory over the Superior Force of Israel.To come behind them; comp. Jos 8:2; Jdg 20:29 ff.
2Ch 13:15. And the men of Judah shouted. Keil rightly says: In and the loud cry of the warriors and the clanging of the priests with the trumpets are combined, and is to be referred neither alone to the war-cry of the combatants assailing the enemy, nor, with Berth. (and Kamph.), to the blowing of the clanging trumpets; comp. also Jdg 7:19 ff. (Gideon in the conflict with the Midianites).
2Ch 13:17. Smote them with a great slaughter; for the phrase, see Num 11:33; Jos 10:30. For the number 500,000, which appears inconceivably great as the number of those who fell in the one field at Zemaraim, comp. Evangelical and Ethical Reflections, No. 3.
2Ch 13:18. The sons of Israel were humbled (comp. in 2Ch 12:6 f.), or weakened by their enormous loss (comp. Jdg 3:30; Jdg 8:28; 1Sa 7:13).
2Ch 13:19. Bethel and her daughters, her daughter towns; comp. Neh 11:25. Besides this border city of south Israel, well known from Gen 12:8; Gen 28:19; Gen 35:15, Jos 7:12, etc. (the present Beitin), are named the otherwise unknown Jeshanah (or Jesyna; comp. Crit. Note), and an Ephron, as cities taken by Abijah from the conquered. The last has scarcely anything but the name common with Mount Ephron on the south border of Benjamin (Jos 15:9), but should probably be identified with Ophrah near Bethel (Jdg 6:11), or the town Ephraim situated there, mentioned Josh. 11:54 (comp. Josephus, B. J. iv. 9. 9), especially if we are to read , with the Masorah; see Crit. Note.
2Ch 13:20. And Jeroboam had no more strength; , as 2Ch 20:37; 1Ch 29:14.And the Lord smote him, and he died, not snatched him away by a sudden death (of which nothing is known from 1 Kings), but smote him, visited him with misfortune (comp. in 2Ch 13:15 and 2Ch 21:18) till his death, referring probably to that which is related in 1Ki 14:1-18.
2Ch 13:21 ff. Family History of Abijah; his End.And Abijah strengthened himself (, as 2Ch 12:13), and took to him fourteen wives. Comp. the Evangelical and Ethical Reflections in the previous section, No. 3. Abijah must have had most of these fourteen wives before he ascended the throne, or at least before his war with Jeroboam. That he took them after the war follows only apparently from the position in the narrative, which has no chronologic import.
2Ch 13:22. Are written in the commentary of the prophet Iddo. Comp. on this source of our author, Introd. 5, II. p. 17.
2 Chronicles 13:23. And Asa . . . in his days the land was quiet ten years, in consequence of the great victory of his father over Jeroboam, and the weakening of the northern kingdom thereby occasioned; comp. 2Ch 14:4-5; 2Ch 15:19.
II. Asa: 1. His Theocratic Zeal and Care for the Defence of the Kingdom: 2Ch 14:1-7; comp. 1Ki 15:9-12; 1Ki 15:14-15.And Asa did that which was good and right; comp. 2Ch 31:20.
2Ch 14:2. Took away the altars of the strange gods, consecrated to strange gods, of the idolatrous foreign countries; comp. Gen 35:2; Gen 35:4. That only these, and not also high places, or illegal places of sacrifice consecrated to Jehovah, were removed by him, is clear from 2Ch 15:17.And brake the pillars, the memorial stones erected to Baal (); comp. Exo 34:13; Jdg 3:7; 2Ki 3:2. Likewise the Asherim, wooden posts and holy frees consecrated to Astarte; comp. 1Ki 14:23, and Bhr on the passage.On 2Ch 14:3, comp. 2Ch 15:12.
2Ch 14:4. And he took away . . . the high places and the sun-statues; , the statues before the altars of Baal, consecrated to him as the sun-god; comp. 2Ch 34:4; Lev 26:30; Movers, Die Phnizier, i. 343 ff.And the kingdom was quiet before him, that is, under him, under his eye (); comp. Num 8:22; Psa 72:5; Pro 4:3.
2Ch 14:5. Built fenced cities in Judah . . . in those days, during this quiet of ten years. Comp. Rehoboams fortifications, 2Ch 11:5 ff.
2Ch 14:6. Let us build these cities. What cities? It is not said; but certainly Geba and Mizpah, which were built after the war with Baasha (2Ch 16:6). Asa assigns as the motive for these buildings: the land is yet before us, free, open to us, unoccupied by the foe; comp. Gen 13:9.And they built and prospered. Vulg. very free, yet in substance correct; nullumque in exstruendo impedimentum fuit.
2Ch 14:7. Bearing shield and spear. The great or long shield () is here meant, in opposition to the short or round shield () then mentioned; the same difference as in 2Ch 9:15-16. That the Jews had exclusively only long shields and spears, and the Benjamites only short shields and bows, as armour, need not be assumed; the representation is only relative, summary, and not to be pressed, as also the numbers (300,000 of the Jews and 280,000 of the Benjamites) are obviously only round. They are, moreover, so far as the whole population fit to bear arms is concerned, by no means incredible. With respect to the comparatively high number of 280,000 Benjamites, we are to consider not only their lighter armour (which might be borne by younger and weaker men), but also that Benjamin was an eminently warlike tribe, a ravening wolf according to Jacobs prophetic word, Gen 49:27, that must have taken the field with all possible force. Comp. also on 1Ch 7:6-11, and the Evangelical and Ethical Reflections, No. 3.
2. Asas Victory over Zerah the Ethiopian: 2Ch 14:8-14, a section wanting in Kings.And Zerah the Ethiopian came out against him. This Zerah (Sept. ; Vulg. Zara) counts with most recent expositors, on account of the similarity of name, as the same with the Egyptian King Osorchon I., successor of Shishak-Sesonchis, and so the second king of the twenty-second or Bubastite Dynasty (comp. Unger, Manetho, p. 233; Thenius on 1Ki 15:23); whereas Hitzig rather identifies him with the Sabakos of Herodotus (Gesch. des V. Isr. p. 165 f.; comp. Herod, II. 137 ff., 152), but Brugsch takes him for an Ethiopian, not Egyptian, ruler, who, under the reign of Takeloth I. (about 944 b.c.), invaded the southwest of Asia and Egypt as a conqueror. The last assumption certainly agrees best, as well with the Biblical chronology as with the designation of Zerah as a Kushite.With a host of 1,000,000. On this number, as scarcely to be pressed, but rather depending on a rough and ideal estimate, see the Evangelical and Ethical Reflections, No. 3.And he came to Mareshah, mentioned in 2Ch 11:9, between Hebron and Ashdod.
2Ch 14:9. And Asa went out against him, literally, before him; comp. 15:2; 1Ch 19:14; 1Ch 14:8.In the valley of Zephathah, scarcely = Tell es Safieh (Robinson, Pal. ii. 625), but a place nearer Mareshah, perhaps that described by Robinson, II. 613.
2Ch 14:10. Lord, no one is nigh Thee to help, no one is able like Thee (literally, with Thee; comp. 2Ch 20:6; Psa 73:25) to help.With the mighty, or with no might, between the mighty and the impotent ( with following, as Gen 1:13, etc.); the help of God is conceived as imparted either to the mighty or the weak, and therefore as between both. Some conceive the passage otherwise; Vulg., Ramb., S. Schmidt, etc.: Domine, non est apud te ulla distantia utrum in paucis auxilieris an in pluribus; Berth., Keil, etc.: No other than Thou can help in an unequal combat, that is, help the weaker part; Kamph. (writing conjecturally for ): It is impossible that anything could prevail ( , as 2Ch 13:20, etc.), whether the mighty or the weak. Substantially correct, though inexact, Luther: It is no difference with Thee to help among many, or where there is no power.In Thy name we go against this multitude, trusting to Thy help.No man may hold out against Thee. For the omission of with , comp. 2Ch 20:37 (1Ch 29:14; 2 Chron. 13:25). On the sentence, comp. (partly at least) Psa 9:20 a.
2Ch 14:12. And Asa . . . pursued them unto Gerar, the old Philistine city, now Khirbet el Gerar, three and a half hours south-east of Gaza.And the Ethiopians fell, so that there was no recovery, not so that there was none left living (Berth., Kamph., etc), but so that they could not rally, ut eis vivificatio, i. e. copias restaurandi ratio non esset (J. H. Mich., Keil, etc.). stands for of the older style, in the sense of so that not (comp. Ew. 315, c). , preservation of life, revival, as Gen 45:5; Ezr 9:8-9.For they were broken (, as Eze 30:8) before the Lord, and before His host; Asas army is here so called as the instrument of the divine justice against the haughty foe. To think of a host of angels that had contended invisibly on the side of the Jews (Starke and other older writers, with allusion to Gen 32:2 f.) is without any warrant, as the term , especially in the singular, stands for a single earthly army.
2Ch 14:13. And they smote all the cities around Gerar, probably because, like the Philistines generally, they had made common cause with the Cushites, and joined them against the Jews.For the terror of the Lord, a terror occasioned by the Lord, and therefore the more powerful; comp. 17:10, 20:29; 1Sa 11:7.
2Ch 14:14. And they smote also the tents of cattle, the herds of the nomad tribes in the neighbourhood of Gerar (in the northern regions of the wilderness of Shur and Paran, the old country of the Amalekites).
3. Prophetic Warning of Azariah Son of Oded to Asa returning Home: 2Ch 15:1-7 (likewise peculiar to Chronicles).Upon Azariah son of Oded. The names of both father and son occur only here: the identification of Oded with Iddo (2Ch 9:29; 2Ch 12:15) is an idle fancy of some ancients.
2Ch 15:2. Before Asa, to meet him; comp. on 2Ch 14:9.The Lord is with you, while you are with Him. Comp. Jam 4:8; and with respect to the following sentence, 1Ch 28:9; 2Ch 12:5; 2Ch 24:20; Jer 29:13.
2Ch 15:3. And many days will be to Israel without the true God. The Sept. and Vulg., Luther, Clericus, and most moderns rightly refer these words to the future, and thus conceive them to be a prediction of that which was to happen with respect to the relation of Gods people to the Lord,a prediction of like import with Hos 3:4-5. For this view speaks, on the one hand, the generality of the term Israel, which appears to be used here in the same ideal sense as in 2Ch 11:3; 2Ch 12:1, and, on the other hand, the absence of any more precise date in , by which that which is said is characterized as a general truth holding for all times; but the reference to any definite earlier time, with which, besides, the closing monition in 2Ch 15:7 would ill agree, is absolutely excluded. Neither the time of the judges, with its illegal conditions and its closing reformation by Samuel, is described by the prophet (against Vitr. and Ramb.), nor the last decennium of the southern kingdom before the reforms of Asa (as the Syr., Arab., Raschi, Berth., think), nor, finally, the circumstances of the northern kingdom since Jeroboam (Targ., Tremell., Grotius, etc.). The last opinion is certainly the most arbitrary of all; for what occasion had the prophet to greet the king of the southern kingdom, returning as a conqueror after deliverance from a great danger, with a reflection on the errors and calamities of the northern kingdom? But if we refer the words as a prophecy to the future, no unsuitable limitation must be introduced (as, for example, to the Babylonish exile, of which Kimchi, Mariana, S. Schmidt, have thought). It is the whole future of the people of God, of which the prophet asserts the law: If ye turn away from God, He will turn away from you. Comp. besides, Evangelical and Ethical Reflections, No. 1. On the true God, properly, God of truth, , comp. Jer 10:10 and Isa 65:16 ( ). , properly, to not a god of truth; , not essentially different from , 1Ch 22:4, 2Ch 20:35, is distinguished from only as is distinguished from : the latter expresses the being in a state, the former the falling into it (Keil).Without a teaching priest, without priests to perform the function of teaching (Lev 10:10; Deu 33:10); the special reference to the high priest (Vitr. and others) has no ground in the context. To the defect in teaching priests corresponds the defect in a law; for where there is no , there is no !
2Ch 15:5 f. The prophetic address returns after a passing brief promise of salvation (2Ch 15:4 b) to the description of the lamentable effects of the future apostasy from God.N peace for him that goeth out or cometh in, thus no free, peaceful intercourse; on going out and in, comp. 2Ch 16:1; Zec 8:10; Jos 6:1; on the following great vexations (), Deu 28:20; Amo 3:9. All the inhabitants of the lands are all the inhabitants of the provinces of Israel (or Judah); see 2Ch 34:33. The view of the speaker here scarcely extends over the whole inhabited globe (Kamph.), although in the following verse he transcends the boundaries of Judah, and depicts its attraction into the confusion and conflict of the neighbouring nations.And nation shall be smitten by nation. Kamphausens rendering: they are pushed nation on nation, is too farfetched, and by no means required by the meaning of . The Jews had a striking fulfilment of this gloomy foreboding of a bellum omnium contra omnes in the times of Nebuchadnezzar; a second in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, with respect to which Christ also makes use of similar prophetic expressions, Luk 21:10; Luk 21:26, and the parallels.For God hath vexed them with all trouble; comp. Jdg 4:15; Zec 14:13.
2Ch 15:7. But be ye brave, and let not pour hands be slack; comp. Zep 3:16; Neh 6:9; and the hands becoming slack as a figure of sinking courage, 2Sa 4:1; Isa 35:3; Heb 12:11. On the closing promise of reward, comp. Jer 31:16; 1Co 3:8; 1Co 15:58.
4. Asas Reform of Worship and Renewal of Covenant with the Lord: 2Ch 15:8-19.And when Asa heard . . . this prophecy of Oded the prophet. The Hebrew text has not , but . This circumstance points to a corruption of the passage, as well as the absence of before , which was to be expected according to 2Ch 15:1. As the readings of the Sept. and Vulg. (see Crit. Note) may be only later attempts at emendation, and as the assumption of a double name of Azariah, according to which he was at times called by the name of his father (Starke and other ancients), is certainly as questionable as the transposition of the corresponding names in 2Ch 15:1 into Oded son of Azariah (Mov.), it appears most advisable to remove the words ) from the text as an old gloss (Berth.), or (with Keil) to assume the omission of several words after (say ).He took courage (), according to Azariahs exhortation: be ye brave, .Put away the abominations, properly, make to pass over (, as 1Ki 15:12) the abominations, the idols; comp. 2Ki 23:13; 2Ki 23:24; Eze 30:7-8; Dan 9:27.Which he had taken from Mount Ephraim, , as 2Ch 13:19; 2Ch 17:2. According to the former of these passages, it appears that these were the cities that Abijah, Asas father, had taken. In fact this assumption is necessary, because no war of Asa with the northern kingdom had taken place at this time. A co-operation of Asa as lieutenant or joint-commander with his father in that war seems a questionable assumption, on account of his then very great youth (perhaps his minority; comp. on 2Ch 13:1).And renewed the altar of the Lord, that was before the porch of the Lord, the altar of burnt-offering, that might have been in need of repair sixty years after its erection by Solomon (2Ch 8:12). Yet , renovare (comp. 2Ch 24:4), might possibly also be taken in the sense of consecrate again, after the previous defilement by idolatry (Vulg.: dedicavit; Berth., Kamph., etc.).
2Ch 15:9 ff. The Great Festival on the Renewal of the Theocratic Covenant.And the strangers with them, out of Ephraim. That by these strangers are meant not merely the theocratically – disposed immigrants into Judah under Rehoboam (11:16), but also a newer addition to them that had come under Asa himself, is expressly asserted in the following words (comp. 30:11, 18). The mention of Simeon with Ephraim and Manasseh, and therefore as a district belonging to the northern kingdom, is scarcely to be explained by a migration of many Simeonites to North Palestine (Berth., Kamph.), but rather by th fact that the tribe of Simeon, though in a geographical situation it belonged to the kingdom of Judah, yet in the point of idolatry had made common cause with the northern kingdom by the erection of that impure worship of Jehovah at Beersheba, of which Amo 4:4; Amo 5:5; Amo 8:14 speaks along with Bethel and Gilgal (correctly Keil, Net., etc.).
2Ch 15:10. In the third month of the fifteenth, year of the reign of Asa, in the spring of the year 940 b.c.; comp. Hitzig, Gesch. p. 197.
2Ch 15:11. And they sacrificed . . . of the spoil they had brought, in the war with the Ethiopians and their allies; for this war, though it broke out in the eleventh year of Asa (2 Chronicles 13:23; 14:8), might have extended even to the present date, and therefore lasted for four years; the statement in 2Ch 14:8-14 admits of this very well.
2Ch 15:12. They entered into a covenant, a new covenant of peace with God; comp. , Jer 34:10; Neh 10:30.
2Ch 15:13. And whosoever . . . should be put to death, according to the strict letter of the law, Deu 17:2-6; comp. 2Ch 13:10; 2Ch 13:17. Observe the present trace of a far higher age of the book of Deuteronomy than the time of Josiah, where modern criticism places its origin. Comp. Schrder, Deuteron. Einl. pp. 25, 32; Kleinert, Das Deuteron. und der Deutoronomiker, 1872, especially p. 136 ff.
2Ch 15:14. And they sware unto the Lord with a loud voice. On the musical instruments accompanying this act of the solemn renewal of the covenant, comp. 23:13; Neh 12:27 ff.
2Ch 15:16-18. Comp. Bhr on the almost literally coinciding parallel 1Ki 15:13-15.And also Maachah, the mother of Asa the king, he removed. In 1 Kings stands simply , his mother, because there Maachah had been mentioned just before (2Ch 15:10). For the rest, comp. on 2Ch 13:1.And Asa cut down her idol, and crushed it, and burnt it. The crushing (comp. Exo 32:20; 2Ki 23:15) is mentioned only by the Chronist; in 1 Kings is wanting.
2Ch 15:17. Out of Israel is wanting in 1 Kings. It naturally means the southern kingdom as the legitimate and normal people of Israel; comp. 2Ch 15:3.But the heart of Asa was perfect, entirely devoted to the Lord. The expressly added 1 Kings is here omitted, because the , as predicate to , is plain enough of itself (comp. 2Ch 16:9; 2Ch 19:9); that is, Asas exclusive interest in the worship of Jehovah at Jerusalem, not in that (still tolerated) worship on the high places, is distinctly enough expressed.
2Ch 15:19, introducing the following account of the war.And there was no more war unto the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Asa. The contradiction to 1Ki 15:16 : And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days, is in so far only apparent, as there denotes only a state of hostility, here a formal war actually carried on in open field. It is not so easy to explain the difficulty involved in the date: unto the thirty-fifth year of Asas reign; see on 16:1.
5. Asas War with Baasha: 2Ch 16:1-6; comp. 1Ki 15:17-23.In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa. As, according to 1Ki 16:8; 1Ki 16:10, Baasha died in the twenty-sixth year of Asas reign, and his successor Elah was killed before two years more had elapsed, and therefore in the twenty-seventh or twenty-eighth year of this king, the misplacing of the war between Asa and Baasha in the thirty-sixth year of the latter involves an error, and a very old one, already noted by the Sept., and provided with an attempt at emendation (see Crit. Note). A mistake of the pen, that, as 2Ch 10:19 shows, existed perhaps in the sources of the Chronist, is probably the ground of this error; and 36 appears to have been miswritten for 16 (and in accordance with this, in 2Ch 15:19, 35 for 15). From the similarity of the numeral (30) to (1o) in the old Hebrew character, this change was very possible; and the circumstance that Asas reform of worship, 2Ch 15:10, took place in the third month of his fifteenth year, agrees on the whole very well with this determination of time; there results an interval of a year or a year and a half between the reform and the new war. The solution preferred by most of the old expositors, that the thirty-sixth year of the kingdom of Asa, that is, the thirty-sixth year from the founding of the kingdom of Judah by Rehoboam, which coincides with the sixteenth year of the reign of Asa, is meant (des Vignoles, Ramb., Starke, Mich., and Hengstenberg, Gesch. des Reiches Gottes, iii. 169), is not consistent with the word , which in this connection always signifies reign, sovereignty. The attempts made by Movers (Chron. p. 255 ff.) and Thenius (on 1 Kings 15) to explain this surprising mistake are too artificial, and arbitrary (see, on the contrary side, Berth. p. 325). On the following particulars, coinciding almost word for word with 1Ki 15:17 ff, comp. Bhrs exposition.
2Ch 16:2. And sent to Benhadad. Instead of the form , presented here and generally in the Old Testament, the Assyrian monuments constantly exhibit this name in the form Binhidri (Schrader, Die Keilinschriften, p. 101 f.), thus agreeing with, the of the Sept. ( = ).
2Ch 16:4. And they smote Abel-maim = Abel-beth-maachah of the parallel text in 1 Kings, as is clear from 2Sa 20:14.And all the stores of the cities of Naphtali. For this 1 Kings has: And all Cinneroth, with all the land of Naphtali. That the one of the two readings has arisen from the other by misunderstanding or miswriting seems certain; perhaps the in 1 Kings is corrupted from (Gesen.-Dietrich im Lex.), though our might possibly also be an explanation of the , 1 Kings 15, whereby the Chronist might have characterized the high fertility of the district of Cinneroth (or Cinnereth, Jos 19:35) by the symbolic expression: stores (corn-magazines) of the cities of Naphtali (so Keil).
2Ch 16:5. And let his work cease. Instead of this, 1Ki 15:21 : and dwelt in Tirzah. In our , scarcely anything else is t be seen but an attempt at interpretation, where the words had become illegible (Berth., Kamph.); for after the words: he left off building of Ramah, a second repetition of the thought, that Baasha gave up his undertaking against Judah, was obviously superfluous (against Keil).
2Ch 16:6. And built therewith Geba and Mizpah, the former (Geba of Benjamin in 1 Kings) half an hour north-east, the latter an hour south-west, of Jerusalem. The historical character of this notice is confirmed by Jer 41:9, where a pit made by Asa in Mizpah is mentioned.
6. Hananis Prophetic Warning: Asas Transgression and End: 2Ch 16:7-14.And at that time came Hanani. This prophet () is otherwise unknown, though he appears to be identical with the father of the prophet Jehu ben Hanani, who about this time announced to Baasha the downfall of his house (1Ki 16:1); comp. 19:2. That this Hanani was the author of the prophetic sentence () quoted by Hos 7:12, whereby Israel is warned against a league with foreign powers, or more definitely, that the present oracle of Hanani, without naming its author, is quoted in this passage of Hosea, is the quite untenable conjecture of some moderns, for example, Frst (Gesch. der bibl. Lit. ii. 206, 293).Therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped from thy hand, the occasion has escaped thee of smiting both at once, Baasha of Israel and his presumptive ally the Syrian king. Comp. the rebuke by Elisha of Joash of Israel, for smiting only three times with the arrows instead of five or six times (2Ki 13:15 ff.).
2Ch 16:8. Confirmatory reference to the victory of Asa over Zerah (14:8 ff.). For the Lubites, comp. on 13:3f.
2Ch 16:9. For the eyes of the Lord, etc., literally, for Jehovah, His eyes. On to prove himself strong for any one, that is, help him mightily, comp. 1Ch 11:10. On running about, , comp. Jer 5:1; Zec 4:10. Before the relative is omitted; comp. 1Ch 15:12.For henceforth thou shall have wars, entanglements in unhappy worldly transactions, in the dangerous mazes of the policy of the great powers; a prediction of misfortune that was abundantly fulfilled, if not in Asa himself, yet in his successors until the exile.
2Ch 16:10. Put him in the prison, properly, house of the stocks; turning round, is the well-known instrument of torture for locking round the culprit, in which Jeremiah also and Paul were forced to languish (Jer 20:2; Jer 29:26; Act 16:24). Comp. the equivalent , Job 13:27; Job 33:11.And Asa oppressed some of the people at that time, from anger at the deserved censure of the prophet (on the suitableness and importance of this address, see the Evangelical and Ethical Reflections). , properly, shatter, in Pi.: oppress, misuse, as Job 20:19.
2Ch 16:11-14. Asas End. On 2Ch 16:11, comp. Introd. 5, II.
2Ch 16:12. And Asa . . . was diseased in his feet, probably with gout; the following also: his disease was very great (literally, till it reached a great height, ), Points to severe suffering of this kind.And in his disease also he sought not the Lord, but to the physicians., first with the accusative of the object , as is usual elsewhere, then with , by which preposition is elsewhere designated, inquiring or seeking help from God or from idols (1Ch 10:14; 1Sa 28:7; 2Ki 1:2 ff.); thus here expressing a superstitious trust in the physicians, and accordingly not opposed to the right of making use of medical aid, especially in cases of sickness; so far from this, that inversely the not seeking of the Lord may be regarded as a not seeking of his priests who were in Israel, analogous to the Egyptian priests, the legitimate physicians (as is done by K. Ad. Menzel in his posthumous work, Religion und Stadtsidee, 1872, p. 29).
2Ch 16:14. Asas solemn burial is related by the Chronist with surprising detail, probably on account of the heathenish pomp and luxury which it displayed, reminding us of the manner of the Egyptian Pharaohs.And they buried him in his own tomb, literally, in his own sepulchres; comp. 2Ki 22:20; Job 21:32. This preparation of a burial-place or mausoleum, different from the common tombs of the kings, reminds us of the customs of the Egyptian kings, or at all events (comp. our Remark on Job 3:14) indicates a haughty inclination to self-apotheosis incompatible with a genuine theocratic disposition; comp. Isa 22:16 ff.Laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odours of divers kinds. On , kinds, comp. Ps. 165:13, Dan 3:5; the term may well serve to describe more precisely the foregoing , spices (Son 4:10 ff.).Compounded by art, properly, compounded by compounding of work, by the work of the artificer; comp. Exo 30:25; Exo 30:35, and 1Ch 9:30. is in this connection ; the assumption that the latter word is omitted is unnecessary.And they made a very great burning for him, namely, of the sweet-smelling substances of the kind mentioned. Such burnings of incense were always made at the burial of the kings of Judah, as appears from Jer 34:5. But what the Chronist notices as culpable is the exaggerated splendour and lavish excess with which the custom was observed in the burial of Asa, as if it were the burial of a Pharaoh of Egypt (comp. Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, etc., ii. 385 f.; Uhlemann, Egypt. Alterthumsk. ii. 325). Against the assumption of some, as Michaelis (De combustione et humatione mortuorum apud Hebros, in his Syntagma dissertatt. i. 225 sqq.), that the body of the king was burned among the spices, see Geier, De luctu Hebror. c. vi, who rightly maintains that such cases as the burning of Saul and his sons were exceptions to the general custom of Hebrew antiquity.
Evangelical and Ethical Reflections and Apologetic Remarks on 2 Chronicles 13-16
1. To much that is original, and in a theological sense important, in the comparatively full account given by our author of the reigns of Abijah and Asa, belong especially the three speeches which it contains, of which the old parallel text presents neither a brief rsum nor even a passing trace. All three are in a high degree characteristic, and point to a primitive tradition, true in all essentials to word and deed as their source. The address of Abijah to the Ephraimites from Mount Zemaraim is strictly an oratio pro domo, a defence of a royal representative of the house of David maintaining the good cause of his theocratic inheritance. With no little skill, and with much diplomatic art as well as downright popular rhetoric, all is put forward that can be said for the legitimate kingdom and worship, and against the usurpation of Jeroboam. There is reference, on the one hand, to the unchangeableness of the covenant with Jehovah (13:5), to the divine origin of the Davidic dynasty (as a kingdom of the Lord in the hand of the sons of David, 2Ch 16:8), to the beauty and established order of the service of God in the central sanctuary at Jerusalem, and to the hereditary legal chartered dignity of the theocratic priesthood (2Ch 16:10-12); and, on the other hand, to the unworthy aims of the revolution party led by Jeroboam (the men of Belial who took advantage of the tender youth, inexperience, and weakness of Rehoboam, 2Ch 16:7), to the folly of the worship of the golden calves, the illegal and heathenish character of its priesthood, the hopelessness of a contest with Jehovah, the God of their fathers (2Ch 16:8-9; 2Ch 16:12), in the tone now of fine irony, now of bitter scorn, and now of threatening earnest. The whole, inclusive of the partisan, one-sided, and somewhat distorted reference to the procedure in the separation of the kingdom (2Ch 16:7), appears a masterpiece of political eloquence, the present form of which (taken, no doubt, from the Midrasch of the prophet Iddo quoted in 2 Chronicles 16:22) may be ideally conceived; but the chief context and process of thought can scarcely be a pure invention. No less original and characteristic are the two prophetic speeches inserted in the history of Asas reign. The speech of Azariah son of Oded (2Ch 15:2-7) unfolds at the moment a gloomy picture of the future godlessness of the people forsaking their God more and more, and of the troubles and judgments arising from their unfaithfulness, where the tone of jubilant gladness for the great victory secured, and the announcement of optimistic expectations, would have seemed most natural. Instead of a panegyristic flatterer courting princely favour, a deeply-earnest prophet of woe greets the king returning in triumph, who has certainly words of acknowledgment for that which has been performed by the conquerors, but clothes his praise in the form of an exhibition of necessary connection between devotion to God and the gracious reward of such devotion, and dwells with visible predilection on the times of apostasy, with its tragic consequences, that were coming notwithstanding all the admonitions of the prophets. The speech appears badly enough to suit the festive moment that forms its occasion; but it testifies to the unusually deep glance into the inmost heart of the people which the speaker filled with the terrible earnest of the coming destiny has long taken. And as such testimony, it fails not also of its effect, but rather proves, as the consequent energy of the king in purifying the form of worship shows, a true comfort and strengthening for good (, confortatio; comp. , Sept. , 2Ch 16:8), an impulse at least effectual for a time to return to the path of theocratic truth and righteousness, a model (Hos 3:4-5 f., 9:3, 4, where there seems to be an allusion to it) and primitive form held in esteem by later prophets of genuine prediction, the fundamental thought of which, as it recurs (mutatis mutandis) in the woe-foreboding addresses of an Isaiah to Hezekiah (Isaiah 39; 2 Kings 20), and a Huldah to Josiah (2Ch 34:22 ff.), stands forth not essentially different in the pictures of the future presented in the New Testament (Mat 24:5 ff.; 2Th 2:3 ff.; 1Jn 2:18 ff.; Luk 18:8, etc.). In severs rebuke of a temporary departure of the king from the path of theological strictness and conscientiousness marked out for him by the prophetic word of Azariah, proceeds the second of the two prophetic speakers, Hanani (2Ch 16:7-9). With a sharp lecture he treats the king, looking for nothing but praise for his victory over Baasha. That he made not Jehovah but the Syrian heathens his stay, he pronounces not only imprudent but directly foolish (2Ch 16:9). His sagacity, not unexercised in political matters, lets him know immediately, under the influence of the illuminating Spirit of God, that the calling in the help of the Syrian power must draw to it the dependence, not merely of the conquered Israelites, but also of the Jews. Wherefore he not only blames the misled princes weakness of faith and fear of man, and emphatically lays before him, that the eyes of the Lord are only strong for those who serve Him with entire devotion, but hurls upon, him a hard , stulte egisti (unduly softened by the Sept. into a weak ). He suffers for this boldness the same punishment which Jeremiah brought upon himself, when he, a no less zealous preacher of the truth that man should not make flesh his arm than Hanani, had spoken hard words against the obstinacy and folly of his contemporaries (Jer 20:2; comp. Jer 17:5; Jer 19:15).Here again is nothing that is not in the highest degree original and powerful, breathing the stern prophetic spirit of Samuel and Nathan. Both speeches may show in their present form the elaborating hand of the Chronist, but in matter they appear with incontestable evidence as documents taken from the prophetic historical sources of the writer, of a time bordering upon and cognate with the spirit of Elijah and Elisha.
2. In a religious and moral respect, the two kings described in our section appear again somewhat better than Rehoboam, who trod in the paths of the degenerate Solomon. In particular, Asa receives due praise for his theocratic zeal, as he busied himself as a reformer of the worship of God, that had been in several ways disfigured by superstition. The Deuteronomic law, which threatens every partaker in such idolatry with death, he not only binds upon the people by an oath (Deu 15:13-14 f.), but puts in practice the judicial rigour of this statute even against his own mother (grandmother), as he removes her from her dignity as queen-mother on account of her worship of Astarte, and so makes judgment begin at the royal house itself (Deu 16:16). Inasmuch as he certainly does not set aside (Deu 16:17) the worship on the high places, he does not rise to the height of theocratic rigour and purity which was attained in the subsequent reforms of Hezekiah and Josiah. The later time and the end of his reign also were tarnished by bursts of passion and acts of violence towards pious men of God, as the prophet Hanani; and a severe and painful disease is not able to bring him back to the early well-known simplicity of his devotion to Jehovah (2Ch 16:12; comp. 15:17). He seeks not the Lord, but betakes himself to the physicians; the impure juggling method, mingled no doubt with superstition and idolatry, pursued by the medicine men or goet of his time, gave him more confidence than the helping hand of the God of truth, with whose witnesses he had also quarrelled. So it fared otherwise with him than with the pious Hezekiah, who without medical aid, by the miraculous help of God obtained through the prophet, was delivered from a dangerous sickness, and had fifteen years added to his life (2 Kings 20; 2Ch 32:24). The word of the wise Sirach was verified in him: He that sinneth before his Maker shall fall into the hand of the physician (Sir 38:15). Like the woman having the issue of blood, he must become , Mar 5:26. In setting forth the impotence of these human helpers exclusively sought by him (comp. Sir 10:11 : 8), there is no absolute condemnation of medical art or science, but merely a gentle hint of the state of his heart, enslaved to worldly and idolatrous lusts, God-estranged and unbelieving, on account of which might justly be addressed to him the question of the prophet Jeremiah: Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why, then, is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered? Jer 8:22; or also that question of Elijah: Is it not because there is not a God in Israel that ye go to inquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron? 2Ki 1:3. Comp. also, with respect to Asas religious and moral character, the weighty remark of Bengel (Beitrge zum Schriftverstndniss, p. 17f.): Asa was righteous (15:17), and yet he behaved so badly at the last (16:10, 12). How can this be? Answer.He has not turned to idols all his life long; he has constantly held the Lord to be the right, true, and only God. But it was, as it were, an atheismus practicus, that he withdrew his confidence from Him. He thought, Shall I have been pious so long, and yet now receive a reprimand? If he had only received it like David: I have sinned, etc., all would have been right, etc.
3. In an apologetic respect, we have to observe, in conjunction with the remarks made under No. 1, that weighty credentials of an internal kind support the two great wars as the Chronist relates them here, in completion of the very imperfect account in the books of Kings of these episodes in the history of the reigns of Abijah and Asa. That Abijahs conflict with Jeroboam, after the total dissolution of the army of the latter, led to the annexation of the three towns Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron to the southern kingdom (2Ch 13:19), is a notice so definite and concrete, that no scepticism of de Wette and Gramberg, with its assertion of the feigned character of the narrative in question, can be accepted, as, on the other hand, the attempt of Ewald, while admitting a kernel of historical fact, to stamp at least the speech of Abijah on Mount Zemaraim as a free composition of the Chronist, is wrecked on the highly original contents of this speech (see No. 1, and comp. Keil, Commentar, p. 264 f., Remarks). The passage 1Ki 15:15 also, where the things dedicated by Abijah are mentioned, which his son Asa afterwards brought into the house of the Lord along with his own dedicated gifts, affords an indirect proof that both rulers had gained great victories and taken much spoil from their foes (comp. 2Ch 14:12-13 f.), by which must be meant the victory of the former over Jeroboam, and that of the latter over Zerah (comp. Thenius on this passage, and Berth. on Chron. p. 324). The credibility of the account of this last great battle derives support also from what is related at its close of the conquest and spoliation of the cities around Gerar, and the cattle tents of the nomad tribes dwelling south of Palestine, a detail, again, that gives the lie altogether to the suspicion of pure notion.Only the very high numbers in the account of the slaughter should be regarded as falling beyond the range of the historically exact. They are perhaps not to be understood according to the nominal value of the numbers given, but only an expression conceived in figures of the contemporaries of these wars, which imports that the two kings (first Abijah and Jeroboam, then Asa and Zerah) had summoned to the field the whole military strength of their kingdoms (Keil, p. 265). In the war of Abijah with Jeroboam, this is favoured by the approximative accordance of the numbers 800,000 and 400,000 with results of the census by David, as well as the round ideal sum of 500,000 as the number of those who fell on the side of Israel, a number that perhaps only indicates that Jeroboam had lost more than half his force. In the war with the Ethiopian king, the corresponding assumption is favoured by the round number 1,000,000, as well as by the circumstance that exact accounts, resting on actual numbering, and not on a mere estimate, of the strength of the enemy, were not at the command of the observers and reporters on the Jewish side (comp. above on the passages in question). The necessity of a merely ideal and approximate conception of these numbers is evident, if we compare the statements, resting on actual numbering, of the strength of the men-at-arms in the several tribes in the genealogical summaries (1 Chronicles 5-7). The smallest of the numbers there named (for example, 44,760, 87,000, 22,034, 20,200, 17,200, 26,000) are round. It is the same with the numbers referring to the warriors from the several tribes at the elevation of David to the throne in 1 Chronicles 12; comp. the remarks on this in p. 120 f.
Footnotes:
[1]On the probable error of the pen here ( for ), see Exeg. Expl.
[2]For the Sept. has (but Josephus, Antiq. viii. 11.3: ).
[3]For the Kethib , supported by the Sept. and Vulg., the Keri is .
[4]For some mss. read ; but the pual is required by the context.
[5]Sept. cod. Vat.: () ; on the contrary, c. Al., ed Ald., etc.: Vulg.: Oded prophet. Perhaps the words should be cancelled as an old gloss. See the Exeg. Expl.
[6]So all the mss. and versions but the Sept., which has , by a mistake of for , or on the ground of some peculiar chronological reckoning.
[7]Properly, Darmascus; see 1Ch 18:5-6, and the Crit. Note thereon. For the , given by the Sept. for , comp. the Exeg. Expl.
[8] I, we believe, in the notorious corruption of the text (see Fritzcshes Libb. apocr. V. T. p. 409), with Hirzig (Der proph. Daniel, p. 142), should be read here instead of .
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
The succession of the history is carried on in this chapter in the relation of the reign of Asa, the son of Abijah. His character and piety, and an account of his victories.
2Ch 14:1
The history of a pious king amidst the relation of impious princes, is to the historian precious and refreshing, as some sweet spot of herbage and of water to the traveller amidst a barren and dry wilderness.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Asa: Life and Lessons
2Ch 14:22Ch 152Ch 15
ASA was a good king of Judah; he “did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God.” Not only “good and right” because these might be variable terms. There are persons who set themselves to the presumptuous and impious task of settling for themselves, what is “right” and what is “good.” In the case of Asa, he did not invent a righteousness, nor did he invent a goodness which he could adapt to his own tempers, ambitions, and conveniences: he was right and good and “did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God.” Whilst the land had peace, Asa set to work and built walls and towers and fences, and did all that he could for the good of his country. Zerah, an Ethiopian warrior, did not understand silence. He mistook quietness for languor; he made the vulgar mistake of supposing that quietness was indifference. He did not know that repose is the very highest expression of power. So he brought against Asa, king of Judah, no fewer than a million soldiers “a thousand thousand” to us a large number, to the Orientals quite a common array. What was to be done? Asa did not shrink from war, though he never courted it. He must meet the foe in battle. Before doing so he must pray:
“And Asa cried unto the Lord his God, and said, Lord, it is nothing with thee to help [rather, “it is alike to thee to help the powerful or the weak” thou canst as easily, i.e., help the weak as the strong] whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O Lord our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go [comp. 1Sa 17:45 ] against this multitude. O Lord, thou art our God; let not man [or, mortal man] prevail against thee” ( 2Ch 14:11 ).
Having risen from their knees, they launched themselves against the Ethiopians, and were mighty as men who answer straw with steel. They fought in God’s name and for God’s cause, and the thousand thousand of the Ethiopians were as nothing before the precise and terrific stroke of men who had studied war in the school of God.
Asa, then, began upon a good foundation; he established himself upon a great principle. That is what all young people especially should take to heart right seriously. To such we say: do not make an accident of your lives a thing without centre, purpose, certitude, or holiness. Regard it as a trust from God. Be right in your great foundation lines, and you will build up a superstructure strong, after the nature and quality of the foundation upon which you build. Do not snatch at life. Do not take out an odd motto here and there and say, “This will do for the occasion.” Life should be deeply laid in its bases, strongly cemented together in its principles, noble in its convictions; then it can be charitable in its concessions and recognitions. On what is your life based? What is the point at which you are aiming? If you have no broad foundation, no solid rock, no complete purpose and policy, then you are adventurers, speculators, and the turn of the wheel will mean your present or ultimate ruin.
“And he [Asa] took courage, and put away the abominable idols [abominations] out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from mount Ephraim, and renewed the altar of the Lord” ( 2Ch 15:8 ).
Let us not trifle with the occasion by suggesting that we have no idolatries to uproot, no heathen groves to examine, to purify, or to destroy. That would indeed be making light of history, and ignoring the broadest and saddest facts of our present circumstances. The world is full of little gods, man-made idols, groves planted by human hands, oppositions and antagonisms to the true theism of the universe. We are so apt to think that the idols are a long way off, far beyond seas; or that they existed long centuries ago and spoke languages now obsolete or forgotten. Nothing of the kind; they live here, they build to-day. Our gods are a million strong. We do not call them gods, but we worship them none the less. Luck, Accident, Fortune, Fashion, Popularity, Self-indulgence these are the base progeny of idols that did once represent some ideal thought and even some transcendental religion. Idolatry has retrograded; polytheism has gone quickly backward. To worship the sun! Why, there is reason in it; verily, sometimes he looks as if made to be worshipped, to be hailed with song and to be followed with adoring wonder in his infinite course of illumination. But we worship accident, fortuitous circumstances, probabilities. We calculate at the counter of our gods where the men we often mock fell down and dumbly worshipped what they did not understand. Theirs the nobler idolatry! having in it a touch of heavenly philosophy. Asa said, in effect, “We must be right about our gods before we can be right with one another.” That is true teaching. With a wrong theology we never can have a thoroughly sound and healthy economical system. To be wrong in our conception of God is to be wrong in every point in the line of our thinking. The points themselves may be apparently sustained by great force of reasoning and great witness of concurrent facts; but when connected with their starting point they are vitiated by the mistake which was originally made. Looking on all human history we find that the conception of God any god which any people have held, has ultimately determined their fortunes. We rest on this philosophy. We believe in a God of righteousness, purity, mercy; a Father-God, loving all, redeeming all, caring for each as if each were an only child; patient with us, careful about us, studying our littlenesses, and making our infirmities the starting-points of new beneficences. We cannot be true to that conception of God, and have along with it a morality that we can palter with, and duties with which we can trifle. The conviction of a theology so massive, so substantial, so rational, will make itself felt in every pulsation of individual thought and social relationship.
This was the corner-stone upon which Asa built his great and gracious policy. What was the effect of it upon other people? We find that the effect then was what it must always be:
“They fell to him out of Israel in abundance [comp. chap. 2Ch 11:16 ], when they saw that the Lord his God was with him” ( 2Ch 15:9 ).
Such is the influence of a great leadership. If Asa had been halting, the people would have halted too. Asa was positive, and positiveness sustained by such beneficence begets courage in other people. “They fell to him out of Israel in abundance” that is, they came over to him and were on his side. They ranked themselves with Asa; they looked for his banner and called it theirs, “when they saw that the Lord his God was with him.” Nations perish for want of great leaders. Social reformers are dependent to a large extent upon the spirit of the leadership which has adopted them. The Church is always looking round for some bolder man, some more heroic and dauntless spirit, who will utter the new truth, if any truth can be new say rather, the next truth; for truth has always a next self, a larger and immediately-impending self, and the hero, who is also martyr, must reveal that next phase of truth and die on Golgotha for his pains. Can we not, in some small sense, be leaders in our little circles, in our business relations, in our family life, in our institutional existence? Many people can follow a tune who cannot begin one. That is the philosophy we would unfold and enforce. You would suppose from the immediate answer to the leader that any man in the whole thousand could have begun the tune the reality of the case being, that the leader alone, perhaps, might be able to start it; yet, the moment his clear, dominating tone is heard, a thousand men took it up as if they had begun it. It is so in morals. Many persons can feel a speech who cannot make one. That is the secret of true speaking. So the reporter does not report the speech only; he reports the whole proceedings. Hence the interruptions are as essential to the understanding of a meeting as is the eloquence itself. We must know who applauded, where they applauded, how much they applauded; so that, having read the reporter’s notes, we know what a thousand men or more felt and said, for every hearer in a great and responsive audience is as truly a speaker as is the one man who gives articulation to the common sentiment of the multitude. We want leaders men who will have the courage to say now and then, “Let us pray.” The people are waiting for good leadership. They know the shepherdly voice when they hear it; “There is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding,” and you might have had a more unanimous following if your leadership had been less marked by ambiguity and equivocation. Your family might have been more united if to firmness you had added grace if to grace you had added firmness. Regard all leaders with prayerful hopefulness in so far as they want to do good and to be good. Sympathise with them, say to Asa, even the king, “What thou hast done thou hast well done; in God’s name we bless thee for the purification of the land and for the encouragement of all noble things.”
Asa showed the limits of human forbearance and human philosophy. He broke down in the very act of doing that which was right because he went too far. He made a covenant and the people made it along with him.
“And they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul; that whosoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman” ( 2Ch 15:12-13 ).
That is the danger. You cannot make men religious by killing them, by threatening them, by inflicting upon them any degree of penalty. Do not force a child to church. Lead it; lure it; make the church so bright and homelike and beautiful that the child will eagerly long for the time to come when the door will be opened. We conquer by love. The Christian cause advances, not by persecution but by charity; not even by argument but by love. Controversy has done nothing for the truth compared with what has been done by holiness, purity, nobleness, patience, and the quiet heroisms which can only be accounted for by the existence of deep and real religious convictions.
Asa was impartial. There was a touch of real grandeur about the man. He would not even allow his mother to keep an idol. The queen had an idol of her own “in a grove.”
“And also concerning Maachah the mother of Asa the king, he removed her from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove: and Asa cut down her idol, and stamped it and burnt it at the brook Kidron’ ( 2Ch 15:16 ).
Thus ruthlessly Asa disestablished that little royal church. See how burningly in earnest the man was; and what a man will do when his earnestness is fervent! He knows nothing about fathers, mothers, partialities, or concessions. He says, “Light is the foe of darkness, and you cannot have any little dark corner of your own. This light must find you out, chase away every shadow and purify every secret place in human life and thought.” Many men fail to follow Asa just at that point. They are great reformers upon a public scale; but their own houses are stables that need to be cleansed. They are quite violent progressists in all national matters; but the moment they go home and shut the house-gate upon themselves they fall into all kinds of confusion and tumult and false relationship. “Now,” said Asa, in effect, “what is good for the public is good for the individual; what is good for the subject is good for the queen. Cut down the queen’s idol, cut down the queen’s grove; and when you have got the little god, stamp on it, burn it, throw the ashes into the brook; and because the queen no longer repents of her idolatry, she must leave her throne.” We want more men of that kind. They will have uncomfortable lives, they will not be popular men; they will be fools according to the world’s arithmetic, they will be madmen in the estimation of cold minds; but they are God’s sons, children of the light, born not of men, not of blood, but born of God, born in heaven.
Let us consider this man’s case well, and apply it to ourselves. We must have no persecution, no threatening, no driving; only prayer, reasoning, hope, love; inform the mind, guide the reason, multiply the schools, double the circulation of all good books, inspire the affections, purify the very source and spring of the will; and our victories will not be so many coarse and costly destructions, but will be as the triumph of light over darkness, fair as the morning and beneficent as the summer.
Prayer
Almighty God, we pray thee for the true vision. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. We cannot see thee otherwise. This way is thine own, it is therefore best, and we pray to be led in it like little children. We want to see God. We would see thee every day, we would walk with thee, and talk with, thee, and be thy friends; we need not see death because of our companionship with thee, but breathe ourselves into heaven: but we do not understand what it is to see thee; our idea is wrong, our whole thought has gone astray, we are fools before heaven. Thou art in us, thou art round about us, thou art in every flower that blooms, and in every star that burns, and in every wind that breathes over the earth. Why do we not see thee, and love thee? wait for thee, and never go out without thee? The heart of man is stubborn, his eyes are blind, and his will has strayed away in deserts and foreign lands. Oh that some mighty one might be sent to us to speak the right word in the right tone, to hurl upon us the great thunder, or speak to our aching hearts in the still small voice, anyhow, that we may see and feel the living God. Thou art in our life, thou art giving it shape and tone and colour and meaning; thou art raising up men, and putting down men, and altering the face of the earth; and behold we wonder, but seldom pray. This is the Lord’s doing, all this shaping and directing and toning life, and it is marvellous in our eyes: but our hearts do not receive the revelation with openness and frankness and joy. We have heard of thee through Jesus Christ thy Son, who said if we saw him we saw thyself. This was wondrous, we did not know its meaning; but we listened, and read and thought, and lo, a new day dawned upon our minds, and before we were fully aware the. whole heaven was alight with a new glory, and from that time we have spoken of the marvellous light; we have said, Jesus Christ brought life and immortality to light; he has made everything beautiful with light; God is light. May we therefore continue to study the words of Jesus Christ thy Son, and may his Spirit be in us, and may we be led from the doctrine to the sacrifice, from the infinite gospel to the infinite atonement, which is its very centre and glory; may we be led to the cross of Christ, symbol of misery and weakness and yet made into the symbol of immortal victory and eternal rest. Lead us day by day; lead us into all truth; sanctify us by thy word: thy word is truth; may it dwell in us, rule in us, be a light in our understanding, and a fountain of consolation in our hearts, and may our whole life be shaped and directed by the Spirit of the living word. Help us to bear life’s burdens, sometimes so heavy, sometimes too heavy; help us in the restless night to meditate lovingly upon God; help us in the long uphill work to put our confidence in the Almighty. Dry our tears when they blind us to any beauty, but multiply them like a river when they help us to see thee better. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
IV
THE REIGN OF ASA AND THE PARALLEL FORTUNES OF ISRAEL
1Ki 15:9-22
In the introductory chapter I mentioned certain helpful books. Three of them I rename as very helpful on this lesson: Hengenstenberg’s “Kingdom of God in the Old Testament,” Vol. II; Geikie’s “Hours with the Bible,” Vol. IV; Edersheim’s “History of Israel,” Vol. V. On this section we need not look at Josephus. He has something to say about it, but it is worth very little. My advice is to master thoroughly 2 Chronicles 14-16; the Chronicles record is far better than the record in Kings.
The time period of Asa’s reign is 955 B.C. to 914, forty-one years, and the contemporaneous kings of Israel, and the dynasties are as follows: Jeroboam and his son Nadab, first dynasty; Baasha and his son Elah, second dynasty; Zimri, third dynasty — he reigned just a week; Omri and his son Ahab, fourth dynasty. For a while there was a contestant against Omri, Tibni by name, but this contest lasted only three years.
The general character of Asa is: “And Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, as did David his father” (meaning his forefather). So we have a long and good reign, and it is a wonder that, while about half the kings of Judah were bad kings, the reign of the good men extended 200 years of the 253; so, that at least four to one, in time, Judah was governed by good men.
A great blessing marked the beginning of his reign. The record tells us that there were ten years of peace, resulting mainly from the great victory of his father, Abijah, gained over Jeroboam the son of Nebat. It is a great blessing when we have a peaceful opportunity to set in order a church or a nation, or to prepare for a great enterprise wisely.
This peace interval was graciously employed as follows: First, he put down idolatry in all its forms throughout his kingdom. Second, he fortified many cities, and the record tells us that he made Jehovah his chief defense. Well does that psalm say, “He laboreth in vain to build a house except the Lord build the house; and they watch in vain to keep a city except the Lord keep the city.” Third, he raised and disciplined an army consisting of 300,000 spearmen of the tribe of Judah, that is, they had long lances and heavy targets; a target is simply a big shield. Also he had 280,000 slingers and archers. These had a little shield, and carried bows and slings. They were of the tribe of Benjamin. That certainly shows that by this time the bulk of the tribe of Benjamin was standing with Judah. The Benjaminites were left-handed and were great archers and slingers. At one place back of us in the history we learned that they could sling stones a great distance with great accuracy. David was an adept with the sling himself. That is a big contingent from Benjamin, 280,000.
The second great event of his reign was the great victory over Zerah, the Ethiopian, who invaded Judah with a million men and three hundred chariots of war. The battle was fought at Maresha, a place between Hebron, a southern Jewish town, and Ashdod, an old Philistine town in the south.
Some say that this great number, a million men, is not credible, but we must remember that in those days, when war was made, the whole available male population went into the army like Indian tribes and later we learn that Xerxes led three million men against the Greeks though by measurement, not count, only 1,800,000 of them were soldiers. And we learn still later in the interbiblical period, that the last Darius, king of Persia, at the battle of Arbela, had 1,400,000 men. The record says, “Zerah the Ethiopian.” The word in the Hebrew is “Cushite.” We get “Ethiopian” in our text from the Septuagint Version. The Greeks called the Cushites “Ethops,” which meant “browned black in the sun.” But where were the Cushites? In the northern part of Arabia, from which place they crossed the narrow intervening sea to Africa, and established themselves in what is now called upper Egypt the Nile runs north toward the Mediterranean Sea; then upper Egypt would be southern Egypt. 1Ki 16:8 tells us that there were Lybians in the army, as well as Ethiopians, and we know that Lybia in Africa is on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt, west of the mouth of the Nile. Quite a number of my commentaries say that Zerah was the same as Ozorchon, the son of Shishak. But that is not quite clear to my mind. I do know from one of my histories that about 944 B.C., the Cushites, when they crossed over the intervening seas, invaded Egypt, and then passed back into Asia. We will have to leave it that way.
Asa’s appeal to Jehovah when he saw this great host, and how God responded to him are found in 2Ch 14:11 : “And Asa cried unto the Lord his God, and said, Lord, there is none to help beside thee . . . O Lord our God; for we rely on thee, and in thy name are we come out against this multitude. O Lord, thou art our God; let no man prevail against thee.” I gave that to a professor of homiletics once and asked him to analyze it as he would a sermon, and he said that I put the question to him only to give me an opportunity to tell him how to do it. Well, now, let’s analyze that: “There is none beside God who can help the weak against the mighty”, that is a fine start for a prayer, the announcement of a great doctrine. “We rely upon thee”, that is faith. “And in thy name we come out against this multitude”, that identifies the people’s case with God himself. “Therefore, Lord, let no man prevail against thee.” It was a fine prayer, and the response was that the Lord smote the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah, and the Ethiopians fled.
There were mighty results of this victory. The record says that there fell of the Ethiopians so many that they could not recover themselves, for they were destroyed before the Lord, and before his hosts; or as the margin puts it, “so that none remained alive.” That must have been a terrific slaughter. The second result was that they carried away very much booty. Of course, the arms would be gathered up, the jewels and the camp equipage, and the munitions of war. Notice that these Egyptians fled toward Egypt, by the lower road toward Gerar; and so they smote all the cities about Gerar; and the fear of the Lord came upon them) and they spoiled all the cities, and they carried away sheep in abundance and camels.
2Ch 14:15 says, “They smote also the tents of the cattle.” Now, what does that mean? It means that following such an army were herds of cattle for feeding the army, and the “tents” would be the shelters of the herdsmen. To smite the tents of the cattle is to smite the herdsmen that drove the cattle. Stonewall Jackson, in one of his hungry days, when his men were half-starved, having heard that Banks was coming with immense supply trains and herds of cattle, said, “This army can whip any army that has a herd of cattle along.”
The warning of the prophet Azariah, who went to meet Asa returning from that great battle, we find in 2Ch 15:1-7 . The time we need to be most watchful is in the moment of a great victory. When the times are hard, when we are pressed to the wall, we are apt to be humble and look to God; but when it looks like everything is going our way, the danger is that we will be puffed up. Now the prophet of God met that army coming, with all those spoils and said, “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: the Lord is with you while you be with him; if ye seek him he will be found of you; if ye forsake him he will forsake you.” What a warning, that! “God is with you while you are with God; but if you turn away from God, he will turn away from you.” Notice 2Ch 15:3 of that warning: “Now for long seasons Israel was without the true God, and without a teaching priest and without law. But when in their distress, they turned unto the Lord, the God of Israel, and sought him, he was found of them. And in those days there was no peace to him that went out: nor to him that came in, but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the land. And they were broken in pieces, nation against nation, city against city; for God did vex them with all adversity.” .Here I raise this question: Is that a prophecy of future events, or is it a historical retrospect quoted to enforce the text, “If you are with God, he is with you, if you forsake him, he will forsake you”? It may surprise the reader that some commentaries construe it as prophecy: “For a long time Israel will be without the true God.” Henstenberg, one of my favorites, takes that position, but he is mistaken, I think: the tense forbids it. The prophet is enforcing his exhortation by the past history of the people, well known to those whom he addressed. Then I raise another question: If a retrospect, what events of the past verify it? My answer is that if we look to the period of the judges alone we may find every particular verified. Deborah says that before she came to the front the highways were not travelled; they were not safe; that the people were scattered; and in the time of Samson it is said that the Israelite was not only not allowed to have arms, but he must go to a Philistine to get permission to sharpen his ax or goad, on his grindstone, and that tribe was against tribe. There is abundant historical verification, looking at it as a retrospect. We are in a bad fix when we have to go to the enemies of religion to get a grindstone to sharpen our ax. One of Israel’s later prophets foretells a similar condition. It is in the prophecy of Hosea. (See Hos 4:1-5 ).
There is a remarkable date in 2Ch 15:19 ; 2Ch 16:1 , when compared with 1Ki 16:8 : “And there was no more war unto the fifth and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa.” Now we know that another war comes before that date, so what about this date? I give you my method of reconciling the difficulty: the word “reign” in this passage should be translated “kingdom” (which is a good translation), “And there was no more war unto the fifth and thirtieth year of the kingdom of Asa.” That means from Rehoboam’s time, and that exactly corresponds with the facts, as may be demonstrated, because the very next war we are going to tell about occurred before the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign, and the man who conducted the war was dead before we get to the thirty-fifth year of Asa, and the cause of the war is an event of this section.
Azariah’s prophecy is attributed to Oded, in 1Ch 15:8 , thus: “And when Asa heard these words of the prophecy of Oded the prophet.” Above he is called Azariah, the son of Oded. My solution of this difficulty is that the father, himself a prophet, may have sent a son to deliver the prophecy.
Now let us look at the elements of the second great reformation under Asa: “And he put away the Sodomites out of the land; he took courage and put away all the abominations out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from the hill country of Ephraim [his father had captured them in the war with Jeroboam]; and he renewed the altar of the Lord which was before the porch of the Lord. And he brought into the house of God the things that his father had dedicated and he himself had dedicated, silver and gold and vessels. And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and them that sojourned with them out of Ephraim and Manasseh, and out of Simeon: for they fell to him out of Israel in abundance, when they saw that the Lord his God was with him. So they gathered themselves together in Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa.” And there was a great convocation including multitudes from Israel, and the record says that the object of that great convocation was to renew the covenant with God, and solemnly take oath that they would not only seek Jehovah alone, but would put to death him that suggested the worship of a false god. His grandmother, the queen regent, Maacah, the granddaughter of Absalom, had been the occasion of this idolatry, and had herself set up idols. He not only destroyed the idols of his grandmother, but he removed her from her position as queen regent in the realm. He burnt the idol that she worshiped, and poured out the ashes into the brook Kidron. This is a great reformation, and the result is expressed thus: “And they sware unto the Lord with a loud voice, and with shouting and with trumpets, and all Judah rejoiced at the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and sought him with their whole desire, and he was found of them: and the Lord gave them rest round about.” It is a solemn thing when one assembles a-great convocation, and submits to the people the true worship of God, and induces them to enter into a covenant before God to follow him, and to turn aside from idols. Whenever anyone does that in any community, whenever he brings about such a result as that, already he has become one of earth’s great reformers.
Now let us take up the occasion and reason of the war of Baasha, king of Israel, against Asa and the step taken in view of this reason, thus: “And Baasha, King of Israel, went up against Judah, and built Ramah, that he might not suffer anyone to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah.” We have just learned the fact which disturbed Baasha: “For they fell to Asa out of Israel in abundance, when they saw the Lord his God was with him.” Now, the king of Israel, when he saw that immense secession of his people going over to Judah, determined to make war to stop it. The step that he took was to build Ramah within five miles of Jerusalem, and to fortify it, so that it would command the entrance into Jerusalem.
Asa freed himself from this attack of Baasha, by taking the treasuries, even the sacred treasures out of Jerusalem, the Temple, and sending them as tribute to Benhadad, the king of Syria, whose country lay north of the ten tribes, and making an alliance with him, “to step on the tail of this army invading him.” Note that 1Ki 15:19 and 2Ch 16:3 , both commence this way: “There is a league between me and thee, between my father and thy father”, or, “there is a league between me and thee as there was between my father and thy father.” How shall we explain that? Notice that the words, “there is” are in italics: that shows that the translators supplied those words. Let us supply better words: “Let there be a league between thee and me as there was between my father and thy father.” There was no league extant between Asa and Benhadad; on the contrary Benhadad had leagued with Baasha; and he says, “Now let there be a league between me and thee, and break your league with Baasha.” The result of the bribe was that Benhadad marched an army against Israel, the ten tribes, took many of their cities, and Baasha had to leave Ramah and his fortifications and go back to fight for his own country. Asa disposed of Baasha’s fortifications at Ramah, by having these fortifications taken down, and the material used in building two fortifications, or cities, that were to protect Jerusalem and hold these roads. There is an ancient and also a far future tragic event associated with Ramah. The ancient event was the death of Jacob’s wife, Rachel, at that place, and the great mourning that followed it. The far distant future event was the slaughter of the innocents at Bethlehem by Herod, where the New Testament says, “The voice of Rachel weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted because they were not.”
The sin of Asa’s alliance with Benhadad and how Jehovah announced his displeasure, are found in 2Ch 16:7-9 : “And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa, king of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and hast not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thy hand. Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubim a huge host, with chariots and horsemen exceeding many? Yet, because thou didst rely on the Lord, he delivered them into thine hand? For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly; for from henceforth thou shalt have wars.” Washington, President of the “United States, in his farewell address said, “Beware of entangling alliances.” Well, Asa made such an entangling alliance, which proved very harmful to him; it would have been far better if he had relied upon Jehovah and whipped both of them.
Asa’s added transgression was to put the prophet in prison who rebuked him. Now, when one gets mad at the truth being told to him and confesses that it is the truth; and when he tries to put away the truth by imprisoning the people who tell the truth, he should remember this: “The word of God cannot be bound.” One may imprison the speaker, but the word of God that he told cannot be bound. And Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time. Of course, when one goes wrong in one thing, he will likely add another wrong. (I omit all the references to Israel just now because I have reserved for a later discussion the House of Omri).
A disease overtook Asa in his old age: “And in the ninth and thirtieth year of his reign, Asa was diseased in his feet; and his disease was exceeding great.” I suppose he had the gout. Anyhow, the gout comes to people who live luxuriously and especially those who drink much port wine are sure to have it. 2Ch 16:12-13 seems to veil a sarcasm against the physicians: “Asa was diseased in his feet . . . yet in his disease he sought not Jehovah, but to the physicians. And Asa slept with his fathers.” The New Testament has a similar passage, concerning the afflicted woman who “had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse” (Mar 5:26 ). I sometimes quote these passages when joking with my friends, the doctors. Dr. Broadus well says that nothing better could have been expected from the medical practice of that day. An intelligent modern physician would laugh to scorn the remedies prescribed by physicians of New Testament times, much less Asa’s more distant days. The old-time symbol of a physician was a duck that looked like it was just about to say, “quack.” The practice was a mixture of magic, witchcraft, and superstition, like the old granny’s remedies in Edward Eggleston’s Hoosier Schoolmaster.
In 2Ch 16:14 we have the last reference to Asa: “And they buried him in his own sepulchre, which he had hewn out for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odors and divers kinds of spices prepared by the apothecaries’ art: and they made a very great burning for him.” Was he cremated? Some commentaries quote this to show how early the cremation of bodies commenced. But that is not the thought at all. He is following the Egyptian method of having the body embalmed. They put him in a bed of sweet odors and divers kinds of spices prepared by the apothecaries’ art. The burning was the burning of incense at the mouth of the tomb. It was not the cremation of the body. The object was to preserve the body so it would not decay.
QUESTIONS
1. What is the theme of this section and what helps especially commended?
2. What was the time period of Asa’s reign, who the contemporaneous kings of Israel, and how many and what dynasties?
3. What was the general character of Asa and how do the kings of Judah compare with those of Israel?
4. What great blessing marked the beginning of his reign and how was it obtained?
5. How was it utilized?
6. What was the second great event of his reign and where did it take place?
7. Is the great number of men given here credible and what is the proof?
8. What is the origin, meaning and application of the name “Ethiopian”?
9. Where were the Cushites?
10. What is the proof that this was also an Egyptian army?
11. Who, then, according to some, was this man, Zerah?
12. Give and analyze Asa’s appeal to Jehovah when he saw the great host and God’s response to him.
13. What were the mighty results of this victory?
14. What is the meaning of “tents of the cattle”?
15. Analyze the warning of the prophet, Azariah, who went to meet Asa returning from the great battle.
16. Is that a prophecy of future events or is it a historical retrospect, quoted to enforce the text?
17. If a retrospect, what events of the past verify it? Explain and illustrate.
18. Cite a passage from one of Israel’s later prophets who foretells a similar condition.
19. Explain the remarkable date in 2Ch 15:19 ; 2Ch 16:1 , comparing with 1Ki 16:8 .
20. Winy is Azariah’s prophecy attributed to Oded in 1Ch 15:8 ?
21. Give an account of the second great reformation of Asa.
22. What was the occasion and reason for the war of Baasha, king of Israel, against Asa, and what step taken in view of this reason?
23. How did Asa free himself from this attack of Baasha? Explain fully his words to Benhadad.
24. How did Asa dispose of Baasha’s fortifications at Ramah?
25. What ancient and what far distant future events associated with Ramah?
26. What was sin of Asa’s alliance with Benhadad and how did Jehovah announce his displeasure?
27. What was Asa’s added transgression?
28. What disease overtook Asa in his old age?
29. What is the author’s sarcasm relative to Asa’s sickness and death?
30. What was the last reference to Asa and what the meaning of “a great burning for him”?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
2Ch 14:1 So Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David: and Asa his son reigned in his stead. In his days the land was quiet ten years.
Ver. 1. So Abijah slept with his fathers. ] See 1Ki 2:10 .
In the city of David.
a Dio, l. 59. c. 13. s. 2. 8:451
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2 Chronicles Chapter 14
Then in 2Ch 14 we have Asa. “And Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of Jehovah his God: for he took away the altars of the strange gods, and the high places, and brake down the images, and cut down the groves: and commanded Judah to seek Jehovah God of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandment. And he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the images: and the kingdom was quiet before him. And he built fenced cities in Judah.” And, further, we find that he was blest of God in his day of trial when the Ethiopians came against him. “And Asa cried unto Jehovah his God, and said, Jehovah, [it is] nothing with Thee to help, whether with many or with them that have no power: help us, O Jehovah our God, for we rest on Thee, and in Thy name we go against this multitude. O Jehovah, Thou [art] our God; let not man prevail against Thee. So Jehovah smote the Ethiopians before Asa, and before Judah, and the
Ethiopians fled. And Asa and the people that [were] with him pursued them into Gerar: and the Ethiopians were overthrown, that they could not recover themselves; for they were destroyed before Jehovah, and before His host; and they carried away very much spoil. And they smote all the cities round about Gerar; for the fear of Jehovah came upon them; and they spoiled all the cities; for there was exceeding much spoil in them.”
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
slept, &c. See note on Deu 31:16.
quiet ten years. There was only border fighting (1Ki 15:19, 1Ki 15:32), but no actual campaign. See note on 2Ch 15:19.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
By Chuck Smith
In chapter 14 we find the death of Abijah listed and the son Asa coming to the throne.
and Asa his son reigned in his stead. The land was quiet for ten years. Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God: he took away the altars of the strange gods, the high places, he broke down the images, and cut down the groves: and he commanded Judah to seek the LORD God of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandment ( 2Ch 14:1-4 ).
Now you remember under the reign of Rehoboam they began to…he turned away from God and the people turned away from God also. He began to worship these other gods. Began to plant these groves as places to worship God. Built the altars unto these false gods and so forth. And so now Abijah allowed these things to exist and there was a co-mingling during his reign. God was still worshipped in Jerusalem, but yet there were people who were allowed to worship these other gods in these other ways.
Now when Asa came to the throne, he established a spiritual reform. He got rid of all of the idols and the images. He got rid of the altars that had been erected to these other gods. He cut down the groves. However, he did not destroy all of the high places where also they gathered to worship.
He took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the images: and the kingdom was quiet before him ( 2Ch 14:5 ).
But it was not a complete thing. He had allowed some of them to remain, as we will read.
And he built fenced cities in Judah: for the land had rest, there was no war ( 2Ch 14:6 )
And there came up against him, verse 2Ch 14:7 ,
He had an army of three hundred thousand men from Judah; plus eighty thousand from Benjamin ( 2Ch 14:8 ).
Or five hundred and eighty thousand men all total.
There came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian with a host of a thousand thousand ( 2Ch 14:9 ),
Or a million men.
three hundred chariots; and they came to Mareshah. Then Asa went out against him, and they set the battle in array in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah. And Asa cried unto the LORD his God ( 2Ch 14:9-11 ),
Now here you’re faced with… you’ve got a strong army. You’ve got six hundred eighty thousand men, but you’re facing an army of one million plus the advantage that the enemy has of three hundred chariots. So having placed the men in their battle positions, then he does what is the wisest thing you can do, is just cry unto God and say, “O God, we need You. Odds are against us.” Whenever the odds are against you, it’s good to have the Lord on your side. It’s good to cry unto the Lord. Whenever you know that you don’t have the strength for the battle, it’s good to cry unto the Lord. And he cried unto the Lord his God.
and he said, LORD, it is nothing for you to help, whether with many, or those that have no power ( 2Ch 14:11 ):
Recognizing that God doesn’t need a big army. Recognizing that it’s really nothing for God to help. It doesn’t take away from God at all to help. No matter what your problem may be, God’s able to handle it. It’s nothing for God to help. We say, “Oh, this is a big problem. Oh, this is difficult. Oh, this is so hard.” Not for God. We only look at it from our own human limitations. You can’t really talk about difficulty when God is involved. “O Lord, it is nothing for Thee to help, whether with many, or those who have no power.”
Just as easy for God to heal a cancer as it is an earache. The only difficulty lies in our own concepts of God, because we carry over to God our own human limitations. So many times we do think of God in an anthropomorphic way. He becomes a projection of ourselves and we carry our limitations over to God. Now this is true of all of us. I don’t care how spiritual you are. You have each one placed the limitations on what you believe God does.
If a fellow should come up without an arm, and say, “I was in Vietnam, grenade exploded, blew up my arm. Would you please pray that God will give me another arm and hand? It’s inconvenient not having my right arm. And I want the elders to gather and pray for me that God will give me a new arm.” We’d say, “Now brother, we know that God is able to do anything.” But we would start rationalizing why God wouldn’t give you a new arm, because I have limitations on God in my own mind. Perhaps because I’ve never seen God put a new arm on somebody. It doesn’t mean that God can’t. It doesn’t mean that God wouldn’t if someone would really believe and trust Him to do it. It’s not impossible for God to do.
Break off a crab’s leg; it will grow a new one. So we would always just break off a leg and toss them back so they’d grow new legs so we’d catch them again. An octopus will grow a new tentacle if it’s cut off. Even an earthworm will grow a new end if it’s cut off. But God loves earthworms more than He loves man. Because God will do that for an earthworm, but He won’t do it for man. He loves starfish more than He loves you. They can grow a new extension if it’s been cut off.
We’ve got in our minds, and I confess, I do in my mind. I’m not going around praying God put a new leg or a new arm on people. And I will frankly confess I could not pray that God would in real faith. If someone came and asked me to do that, I would oblige and I would pray, but I really wouldn’t believe that God was going to do it. I’d rather explain to them why God wasn’t going to do it. And yet, the bottom line is that it would be just as easy for God to do that as it would for Him to heal that person of a sore toe. If God is going to put into operation His supernatural power in taking away your headache, that same power of God that could remove your headache could also give you a new leg, a new arm or whatever else. Just as easily. The difficulty doesn’t lie with God or on God’s part. The difficulty lies on our part, because we carry over to God the limitations of our own selves.
“Lord, it is nothing for You to help, whether with many or those who have no power.”
help us, O LORD ( 2Ch 14:11 )
His petition. Now it is interesting this is in the whole prayer. There is only one petition, and this is it. “Help us.” The rest is just the acknowledgment of God, the greatness of His power, the glory of God, and so forth. And he does all of that acknowledgment of God, but he has one petition: help.
for [he said] we rest on thee ( 2Ch 14:11 ),
That’s a hard position to come to, but yet it is a position that many times we are forced to because there is nothing else you can do. “God, if You don’t do it, it’s not going to be done.” Now, I don’t always come to this place of beyond myself. And thus, I don’t always rest on God. It seems that as long as there is a chance to do it another way, I’ll try. If another possibility turns up, another idea, “Oh, that’s sounds good, let’s try it.” And I usually don’t rest on God until there is nothing else that can be done, I’m convinced that there is no way out, and then I rest on God. And I always don’t rest too comfortably. Sometimes I’m still worried. Sometimes I’m still fretting.
The pastor of our Bakersfield church called me the other day. He was going to a school board meeting. The church in Bakersfield has been growing very beautifully. They have now about a thousand members and they’ve outgrown their facility in the downtown part of Bakersfield, so they’re looking at a school to purchase, $850,000. And when you purchase schools, they want all cash. And they had the $85,000 non-refundable down payment to submit their offer, but he was concerned that if they took their offer, what was he going to do to get the rest of the money on a ninety-day escrow? “Well, just trust the Lord, brother. You know, it’s nothing for God to help whether with many or with those who have no power, and God can provide. Did he give you the $85,000? Did He provide that?” “Yes.” “Well then, you know, what’s the difference with God? It makes no difference, eight hundred fifty or eighty-five.” “I hate to think about losing all this money, God’s people’s money and all.” I know exactly what he was going through. I know exactly what he was going through, having difficulty resting on God. I mean, after all, $85,000 is a lot of bucks to put out, especially if you can’t come through with the whole thing and then you lose it. How are you going to tell the people, “Well, the Lord led us to buy this school and then the Lord let us down. We didn’t get the rest of the financing and we lost it now. And with our eighty-five thousand.” Tough position for a young pastor to be in. A tough position for an old pastor to be in.
But why is it so tough to trust in God? Why is it so tough to rest on God? When we were going through our growing pains and we had entered into escrow on the first ten acres here, because the lady had accepted our offer of $350,000 cash and we had $67,000 and we were in escrow on this place, as I would drive up from our other chapel and park over here waiting for the green arrow to turn left to go home, I would look over at these ten acres and I would panic within. I would talk to myself and say, “Chuck, what are you doing to these people? Things are going so great. The bills are all paid. You’re in triple services. There’s enough money to cover all of the needs. You got your building-up funds in the bank. But look what you’re doing. You’re obligating them to that ten acres. And that’s just the beginning. Once you get the property, then you’ve got over a million dollars worth of buildings to put up, plus over a hundred thousand in street improvements and all. What are you doing? What if the whole thing flops? What if it fails?” And I would sit there and start to sweat, looking at this bare acreage over here, as Satan would start to hassle my mind. And believe me, he would.
And then the Lord would speak to me. And He would say, “Whose church is it?” I’d say, “It’s Your church, Lord.” He said, “Then what are you worried about?” I said, “I don’t know.” And I’d have victory. Man, I’d cruise over the San Diego freeway. Just, praise the Lord, “It’s Your church. If the whole thing goes down the tube, Lord, Your church down the tube.” I mean, I just dumped the burden off of my own shoulders, because I couldn’t handle it. He’d say, “Who created the problem?” “You created the problem.” “All right then, it’s My responsibility.” Yes, Lord.
So I said to the young pastor the other day who was so desperate, I said, “Whose church is it?” He said, “Well, it’s the Lord’s church.” I said, “Who created the problem? Are you that fantastic a preacher that they’re all coming to hear you?” “No.” “Well then, who created the problem, the overcrowding conditions?” “Well, the Lord did.” “Well,” I said, “It’s His responsibility, His church, why are you worried?”
“Lord, we rest on Thee.” That’s not always easy to do. But it’s always so comforting when we do. Oh, how I love it when I get to that place of resting on the Lord. When I quit fretting about it, when I quit worrying about it, when I dump it off on Him and say, “Well, sink or swim, Lord. It’s Your business. And I’m just going to rest on You.” Now God often brings us to that place of the end of our own resources that we might learn to trust in God. And that we might learn to just rest on the Lord where it doesn’t matter now what happens. If we go under, it’s the Lord’s church. Doesn’t make any difference. Like Esther, “If I perish, I perish” ( Est 4:16 ). So, that’s the worst that can happen, I guess. But it’s His business, His church. And I’m just going to rest, Lord, on You.
You know, God had in mind things that I never dreamed. God had methods and ways that I never thought about. I was consoling myself into the fact that it was a good buy and the property, we could spin off five acres maybe, because we would never need more than five acres. And so we could spin off five acres and then we would be able to build our church on the other five. But we could recover over half of what we paid by spinning off the five acres. The board members had more faith than I did. “No, we’re going to need the whole thing.” I said, “No, no, we’ll never need ten acres. After all…”
My motto is think small. So they talked us into not spinning off five acres. But instead, the Lord sold the corner for half of what we paid for the whole thing. It didn’t take five acres, just a little part out of the corner as Shell Oil called and offered us $150,000 for the corner. Paid off one of the notes. And God continued to supply, and each week He’d provide enough to buy enough materials to keep the crews going. And we just kept going. So that by the time the church was completed, the whole thing was paid for.
It’s exciting to see God work, but it’s even more exciting to learn to rest on God. I think that that was the greatest thing that came out of that experience in my life. I did learn at that point to rest on God, because I knew that it was much bigger than I could ever handle. And it’s still much bigger than I can handle. But don’t panic, folks, I haven’t handled this thing for a long, long time. I wouldn’t dare to try to handle it. It’s His church, His business. I’m just a servant. I would hate to try to manage or handle this thing. I don’t think… I know I couldn’t. But I’m just resting on Him, because He’s doing such a fabulous job of building His church. And it’s just exciting to watch God work.
“O Lord, nothing for you to help, with many or those who have no power. Help us, O Lord, for we rest on Thee.”
and in thy name we’re going out against this host ( 2Ch 14:11 ).
“Lord, we’re on Your side.” How opposite this is of so many programs today, where we devise our whole program and then we say, “Okay God, get on our side now and bless this program that we have all worked out.” How many times we find ourselves in that position of trying to get God on my side. “I choose God. You’re on my side, God. Now You get behind me, God, and You support every idea and program that I have. And You follow my instructions carefully, Lord, so that we don’t get this thing botched up. Now, Lord, I want You to do this. I want You to do that. And Lord, if You’ll run over here and do this for me, and then when You get through with that, if You come back and run over here, Lord.” And we think of prayer as ordering God around the place in order that He might do my will. But that’s a totally wrong concept of prayer, because God never ever intended prayer as a medium whereby you might accomplish your will on the earth. And that’s a mistake that people make concerning prayer. They think that prayer is something whereby they can get everything they wish if they would only believe strong enough and hard enough. That my will can be done.
“Oh, but doesn’t Jesus say, ‘And whatsoever you ask in my name, that will I do, that my Father may be glorified in the Son’ ( Joh 14:13 )? Again He said, ‘Henceforth you’ve asked nothing in my name: ask, please ask, that you may receive, that your joy may be full’ ( Joh 16:24 ). And again He said, ‘And if you shall anything in faith, believing, it shall be done unto you’ ( Mat 21:22 ). Aren’t those the words of Jesus? Aren’t those His promises to us?” Yes. Who did He make the promises to? Who was He talking to when He said, “Ask and you shall receive”? Who was He talking to when He said, “And whatsoever you ask in faith believing ye shall receive”? Who was He talking to when He said this? Was He talking to the multitudes? No. Who then was He talking to? He was talking to His own disciples when He made these glorious promises concerning prayer.
Now what does it take to be His disciple? “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me” ( Mat 16:24 ). To whom is Jesus saying, “Ask, and if ye shall ask anything”? He is saying that to the man who, first of all, has denied himself. Thus, he’s not thinking about himself or looking out for himself or really even asking for himself, because he has denied himself. He’s talking to the man who has submitted himself totally to the will of God, even as Jesus said concerning the cross, “Not my will, Thy will be done” ( Luk 22:42 ). He’s talking to the man who is fully following Him. And for that man who has denied himself and submitted himself totally to the will of God and is interested only in seeing God’s will accomplished. He said, “Just ask, please ask, that you might receive that your joy may be full.”
But it doesn’t mean that I can ask for every little whim and fancy that I may desire, every little luxury that I might be able to live a very lavish and lustful life. It means that I am so committed to God I’m really not looking or caring about things for myself. I’m only caring now for the work of the kingdom, and thus, my asking is involved with the things of the kingdom, the lost souls that are around me and that work of God to be wrought in these hearts and lives in this community in which I live. And it’s glorious to wield that kind of power for God’s sake in this needy world. But we’ve got the wrong concept of prayer in thinking that God is going to yield Himself to my will, to answer my demand that I may make upon Him in prayer. That is not the case.
The purpose of prayer is always to get the will of God done, not my will. And thus, if you shall ask anything according to His will, He hears you. And if He hears, then you know that you’ll receive the petitions that you made of Him. But God’s will is definitely involved in your prayer and your prayers cannot change the will of God. And it would be horrible if they could, because God’s will for your life is the very best that could happen to you. God’s will in this situation is the very best thing that can happen in this situation. God’s will in the life of your child is the very best thing that could happen to your child. And because He loves you so much, He isn’t capricious and will just change His will in order to answer your little whim. Because you don’t know what the whole story is and what the full issue is, and you’re just looking with this narrow shortsightedness, and you don’t see the long-term thing that God is working out. And that’s why you don’t understand God. That’s why sometimes you get upset with God. That’s sometimes why you feel like you’re just almost destroyed. “God doesn’t answer my prayer. I fully believed and trusted Him to work, but He didn’t work. Why? After all, I had fulfilled my part.” Because it isn’t the purpose of God to accomplish your will. Or it isn’t the purpose of prayer. The purpose of prayer is to get God’s will done.
“O Lord, in Thy name we go out against this enemy.”
don’t let man prevail against you ( 2Ch 14:11 ).
That’s exactly the place I came to. “And the church, Lord, it’s Your church and I’m going to rest on You. It’s Your church, Lord. Don’t let anything happen to Your church, Lord. Don’t let Your church go bankrupt, Lord. Don’t let Your church go under, Lord.” “In Thy name, Lord, don’t let man prevail against You.” Hey, far from going bankrupt, God has provided, because we’ve acknowledged the lordship of Christ. We acknowledged the fact that it’s His church and we acknowledged that when He sends the funds, the surplus funds in, that we have the obligation before Him to spend those funds just like He wants them spent for whatever purpose and plan He has. And really, the greatest burden upon the board is the proper expenditure of the funds that God has so lavishly bestowed upon us here.
And that’s why we went into the radio ministry. In order that we might have. We felt that this was an excellent way to, more or less, multiply across the United States what God has done here. Because what God has done here has been the result of the teaching of His Word and the people becoming strong in the Word. Knowing God and becoming strong in the Word, God has expanded and blessed the work here, because people got turned on through the Word of God. As they really begin to know God, they could relate to God and have these meaningful relationships where God has begun to work and change their lives. And we see the fruit of the Word of God, and so we felt the best way to multiply this across the country is to go on the radio teaching across the country.
And the interesting thing, every time we take a step and appropriate a little more money for the radio and we expand the radio ministry, God sends in more. We can’t keep up with Him. We can’t spend it all. So we’re in the process of expanding the radio ministry again. We’re looking into television. Outreach in television. We’re looking into several different interesting outreaches to sort of invest that which God has given to reach the lives of people across the country. We’re thinking in terms of financing a huge Bob Dylan concert at Anaheim Stadium just to reach the people. It will cost us some bucks, but we’ll be able to reach thousands of people and have an impact on young people all over this area.
And so we are looking for ways to wisely invest those funds that God has placed in our hands in order that we might expand the work of God throughout the world. And when God guides, God provides. And when God provides, God guides in where it should be used to expand the kingdom.
“Lord, in Thy name we’re going out against this host. Let not man prevail against You.”
And so the LORD smote the Ethiopians before Asa ( 2Ch 14:12 ),
That’s interesting. The Lord smote them before Asa.
and before Judah; and the Ethiopians fled. And Asa and the people that were with him pursued them unto Gerar: and the Ethiopians were overthrown, that they could not recover themselves; for they were destroyed before the LORD, and before his host; and they carried away [that is, Asa carried away] very much spoil. They smote the cities of Gerar; and the fear of the LORD came upon them: and they spoiled all the cities; for there was exceeding much spoil in them. And they smote also the tents of cattle, and carried away sheep and camels in abundance, and returned to Jerusalem ( 2Ch 14:12-15 ).
Chapter 17
At his death his son Jehoshaphat took over the throne. Jehoshaphat was a very good king and God strengthened him.
The Lord was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the first ways of his father David, and sought not unto Baalim [the false god]; But he sought to the LORD God of his fathers, and walked in his commandments, and not after the doings of the northern tribe of Israel. Therefore the LORD stablished the kingdom in his hand; and all Judah brought to Jehoshaphat presents; and he had riches and honor in abundance ( 2Ch 17:3-5 ).
“Seek first the kingdom of God, all these things will be added unto you” ( Mat 6:33 ).
And his heart was lifted up in the ways of the LORD: moreover he took away the high places and the groves out of Judah. And in the third year of his reign he sent to his princes, even to Benhail, and to Obadiah, and to Zechariah, and to Nethaneel, and to Michaiah, to teach in the cities of Judah. And he sent with them the Levites [in order that they might also instruct the people]. And they taught in Judah, and had the book of the law of the LORD with them, and they went about throughout all the cities of Judah, and taught the people ( 2Ch 17:6-9 ).
So he sent out evangelistic teams to go to the cities of Judah that they might teach the people the ways of God, the laws of the Lord. And he really, again, is bringing the people back to God as the center of their national life.
And the fear of the LORD fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were round about Judah, so that they dared not to make war against Jehoshaphat. And even the Philistines began to pay tribute to him. And he waxed great exceedingly; and he built in Judah castles, and cities for their store [houses]. And he had much business in the cities of Judah: and the men of war, mighty men of valor, were in Jerusalem ( 2Ch 17:10-13 ).
And the number of the army was close to a million now that he had amassed. And they waited on the king.
Chapter 18
Now Jehoshaphat had these riches and honor in abundance, and [for some reason,] he joined affinity with Ahab ( 2Ch 18:1 ).
Who was one of the most wicked of all the kings of the northern tribes. Why? I don’t know. But he went up to visit Ahab in Samaria. And while he was there visiting, Ahab said, “Look, I’m going to go out and fight against the Syrians at Ramothgilead. You want to go with me?” Jehoshaphat said, “Why not? You know, I’m with you as one. We’re one together. We’re both kings over the nation. So sure, I’ll go with you.” And so they went up against Syria there at Ramothgilead. But Jehoshaphat, before they went said, “Hey, is there a prophet of God that we can inquire of to see if God’s in this thing?” And so he called the prophets in, four hundred of them. And they all said, “Go up, the Lord be with you and prosper you and give you victory over your enemy.”
Now Jehoshaphat said, “Isn’t there any other prophet?” Now here were four hundred guys agreeing together. But Jehoshaphat somehow felt something a little funny about it. He said, “Isn’t there any other prophet that we might inquire?” “There’s one guy, his name is Micaiah. But that man, he never has anything good to say to me. I don’t like to call him because always bad news for me from this guy.” He said, “Don’t say that. Maybe this will be good. Just call him in and see what he say to say.” So they sent his servant to get this one prophet Micaiah and he said, “Now look fellow, you’ve got a reputation of giving bad news to the king all the time. So hey, say a good word. Don’t give him bad news.”
So the king, when Micaiah came in, said, “Shall I go up against Syria at Ramothgilead?” And old Micaiah said, “Yes, go, prosper, defeat your enemies. Sure, go ahead.” And the king said, “Look, man. How many times have I told you not to lie to me in the name of the LORD?” And he said, “All right, if you want to know the truth, I’ll lay it on you, King. I saw a vision and the men of Israel were all scattered, and they were like sheep without a shepherd.” Declaring that the king was going to fall in the battle. And he said, “Didn’t I tell you this guy never has anything good to say about me?”
And so the prophet went on to tell him.
I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all of the host of heaven were standing on his right hand and his left ( 2Ch 18:18 ).
What an awesome vision the prophet had. God’s throne and all of the host of heaven.
And the LORD said, Who shall entice Ahab the king of Israel, that he may go up and fall at Ramothgilead? And one spake saying, I can do this, and another said, I can do this. But there came out a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will entice him. And the LORD said, How? And he said, I will go out, and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And the LORD said, Thou shalt entice him, and thou shalt also prevail: go out, and do even so. Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil against thee ( 2Ch 18:19-22 ).
So Zedekiah, one of the prophets that was there who had made some iron horns and went running around like a nut with these iron horns and saying, “Thus you’re going to push the king of Syria all over the place.” He slapped this guy in the face. He said, “Tell me, what direction did the spirit go that told me to slap you?”
And Micaiah said to him, Behold, you shall see the day when you are going to go to the inner chamber to hide yourself ( 2Ch 18:24 ).
So the king of Israel ordered him to be taken and put in jail until I come back in peace. He said, “Hey, if you come back in peace, I’m a false prophet.”
Now the difficulty lies in how God worked in this circumstance. Why would God allow a lying spirit to fill the four hundred prophets to entice the king to go to battle at Ramothgilead? I don’t want to get too involved in it. We don’t have time tonight. But God has created all things for His purposes. And even Satan is fulfilling the purposes of God. God has placed the limitations on what Satan can do. He can only do what God allows him to do. Satan complained against certain limitations and restrictions that God had placed upon him concerning Job. But God does use Satan for His purposes.
When God created man a free moral agent, gave to man the capacity of self-determination, gave to man the power of choice, it was necessary in order that man’s choice be valid that there be something to choose. If you didn’t have any choice, then what value is it to have the capacity of choice? It doesn’t really make sense that God has endowed me with this glorious capacity of choice. “I’m going to create man after My own image, a self-determinate being. He will be able to choose,” but then there’s nothing to choose. All there is is good in the whole universe. There’s nothing, there’s no alternatives to choose. So take your choice. But there isn’t any choice.
So God had to create the choice. He had to allow Satan to rebel in order to create the alternate choice in order that He might know that man truly loves Him and serves Him from a heart of love. Because God was looking for love and fellowship from man. God could never know if that love was genuine unless the capacity of choice was there. And thus, God allowed the rebellion of Satan. God placed the tree in the garden. He allowed Satan to exploit the tree in order that man might have the opportunity to exercise that choice, in order that God might receive true fulfillment from the love that man offered unto God.
So God has given to you the capacity of choice tonight. You don’t have to love God. You don’t have to serve God. You don’t have to express your love to God. But you have the choice. You can do it if you want. But if you choose to do it, then God knows that you’ve done it by choice, that it is really in your heart to do so. “Oh God, I love You.” I don’t have to say that. I could choose to hate God if I desired. I could choose to rebel against God. I could choose to live a life totally after my own flesh in complete rebellion against God. I have that choice. But by the very virtue of the fact that I have chosen to love God, to serve God, to commit myself to God, He knows that it’s a genuine love, a genuine commitment, because I don’t have to. And thus, He receives from it that warmth of fellowship that He was desiring from man.
So God here is allowing this spirit, a lying spirit to come into the mouths of the prophets in order that He might fulfill His purpose to get this guy up to Ramothgilead. You say, “Well, couldn’t God have used something else?” Of course He could. But He chose and He has that capacity and power to, and I can’t really argue with the choices that God makes. I don’t know why God has chosen me. I’m glad He did. I don’t argue with it. And I made a point not to argue with the choices of God, because I know that He is wiser than I am, much smarter than I am. So I just say, “Lord, if that’s what You chose. You know what’s best.”
Now it worked. Ahab went up against Benhadad or the forces of Syria. Now Benhadad the king had said to his captains, he said, “Look, there is only one guy we really want, that’s Ahab the king. So concentrate on getting him. Let that be the concentration of the battle is to get the king. I’m not worried about the rest of the army. If we can get the king, they’ll fold.” So as they were going into battle, these two fellows, Jehoshaphat and Ahab, Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “Hey, I like to sort of get into the thick of things. Let me just put on the robes of one of my soldiers. Here, you put on my robe and all and you ride in my chariot. I want to get another chariot. I want to get into the battle here.”
So Jehoshaphat got in the king’s chariot and there he was with the king’s robe on. And of course, the captains of Syria were all looking for the king’s chariot. When they saw him, they began to encircle him. And he got on the horse and really got going and crying out, you know, and really trying to get out of there because they were all concentrating on him. And when they saw that it wasn’t Ahab, then they turned from pursuing him. And one guy just pulled back, you know, bunch of people over there. Just pulled back and let fly with his arrow. Had a venture. Wasn’t really shooting at anybody, just shooting in the direction of the enemy. And God directed that arrow and it came right through, pierced through Ahab the king. And he propped himself up in the chariot to continue the battle. But by the end of the day, Ahab had died. And the prophecies of God were fulfilled. The purposes of God were fulfilled. And Jehoshaphat, of course, returned back to Jerusalem. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
2Ch 14:1-8
2Ch 14:1-8
ASA’S WAR WITH ZERAH THE ETHIOPIAN
ASA (913-873 B.C.)
THE DEATH OF ABIJAH AND THE ACCESSION OF ASA
“So Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David; and Asa his son reigned in his stead. In his days the land was quiet ten years. And Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of Jehovah his God: for he took away the foreign altars, and the high places, and brake down the pillars, and hewed down the Asherim, and commanded Judah to seek Jehovah, the God of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandment. Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the sun-images: and the kingdom was quiet before him. And he built fortified cities in Judah; for the land was quiet, and he had no war in those years, because Jehovah had given him rest. For he said unto Judah, Let us build these cities, and make about them walls, and towers, gates, and bars; the land is yet before us, because we have sought Jehovah our God; we have sought him, and he hath given us rest on every side. So they built and prospered. And Asa had an army that bare bucklers and spears, out of Judah three hundred thousand; and out of Benjamin, that bare shields and drew bows two hundred and fourscore thousand: all these were mighty men of war.”
“In his days, the land was quiet ten years” (2Ch 14:1). This was most likely due in large part to the tremendous victory that God had given Abijah over Jeroboam. Judah had rest, “Until the invasion of Zerah in 896 B.C.; and this was God’s reward for Asa’s reforms.”
The Chronicler gave much more space to Asa than was given in Kings; but this was not due to the Chronicler’s having derived all of this, “from his Midrashic source,” a false allegation common enough among critics. Greater and greater respect among competent scholars for Chronicles tends more and more to the acceptance of the absolute historicity of every word in it.
“He took away … the foreign altars … the high places … brake down the pillars … hewed down the Asherim” (2Ch 14:3). Kings also records other reforms of Asa, but these are supplementary, not contradictory. Some scholars have fallen into the error of supposing that the high places, “In earlier years, had been acceptable secondary places for worshipping Jehovah”; but this cannot possibly be true. God had specifically forbidden all of these pagan things in Deu 16:21-22, and had sternly demanded their destruction (Deu 7:5; Deu 12:3).
We reject the ridiculous emendation by which the RSV translated pillars in this passage (2Ch 14:5) as incense altars. They were no such thing. The very height of them would have made them useless as altars of incense; those that Solomon put in the temple were 35 cubits high! “They were probably the symbols of the male element in nature … they and the sacred trees of the Asherah were associated with sexual practices repugnant to the worshippers of God.” P.C. Barker backs up this opinion in the Pulpit Commentary.
While serving as a chaplain in Japan and Korea during the Korean war, this writer saw some of those `pillars’ associated with pagan worship. They were carved wooden models of the human penis six to eight feet in height; and he still has photographs of them. They were carried in a procession by young virgins in an annual parade.
“Three hundred thousand … two hundred and fourscore thousand” (2Ch 14:8). Payne thought that, “These figures must have included the whole population”; and Ellison rejected the mention of Zerah’s million man army in 2Ch 14:9 with the comment that, “A million probably means no more than an exceedingly large number.” Such comments must be rejected, because they are merely scholarly devices for saying, “Of course, this is not true.” Regarding the numbers in 2Ch 14:8, Canon F. C. Cook observed that, “They correspond well with the numbers given in 2Ch 13:19. In ten years of peace, the army had grown from 400,000 to 580,000, as should have been expected in a time of peace and prosperity.”
And, as regards that million man army mentioned in 2Ch 14:9, below, Cook pointed out that, “This is the largest collected army of which we read in Scripture; but it does not exceed the known numbers of other Oriental armies of ancient times. Darius Codomannus brought into the field of Abela a force of 1,040,000; and Xerxes crossed the Hellespont with more than a million combatants.”
Any thoughtful person may see prejudice and bias in the fact than any statement by any pagan writer whomsover, regardless of how preposterous it may be, is received as gospel truth, while a malicious skepticism is pointed at every line of the Sacred Scriptures. The army of Zerah mentioned in the next verse, below, just as certainly had a million men in it as did the army of Zerxes, a fact that is implicit in Asa’s prayer in which he recognized that his own force of only 580,000 was as nothing compared with it.
E.M. Zerr:
2Ch 14:1. Quiet ten years means there were no war activities in that time. City of David was called Mount Zion also, and was the most prominent part of Jerusalem.
2Ch 14:2. Right in the eyes of the Lord is a more significant expression than is realized many times. Almost anything would be right in the eyes of some men; the real question is, what does the Lord consider to be right.
2Ch 14:3. Strange means “foreign or outside.” Strange gods, then, would be gods outside of the authority of the true God. Images is defined in the margin of some Bibles as “statues.” They had been erected at the high places (see my comments at 1Ki 3:2), for which the sacrifices were offered on the altars referred to in the same connection. See comments at 2Ki 17:16 for explanation of the groves.
2Ch 14:4-5. The reformation of Asa was scriptural and logical in its order. He first had the unlawful practices stopped, then commanded the people to resume that which was lawful. It would not have been of any use to profess the lawful service while continuing the evil kind. The same principle holds good today. If a man expects the Lord to receive his services, he must first cease his evil practices.
2Ch 14:6. Fenced cities were those with walls, built around them for defense.
2Ch 14:7. Build these cities does not mean to start them, but to improve and fortify them. While the land is yet before us, and given us rest, are significant expressions, and are related in one principle, “in time of peace prepare for war.” This is an old saying that is wise, and shows the motive that Asa had at the time he proposed his work on the cities. They were then in his possession, and he was not occupied with war. It was an opportune time, therefore, to “strengthen the things that remained.” But the inclination for war was so general that Asa was destined not to be at rest always as we shall soon see.
2Ch 14:8. Asa not only prepared for the future by the works he did on his cities, but he formed and maintained a strong military force which is described in this verse. Targets were large shields for defense against the spears and darts of the enemy. The spears were long poles with points of metal at the end, used by casting against the foe. Shields were similar to the targets except that they were smaller. These instruments of aggression and defense were wielded by an army of several thousand men who were strong and brave.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
In Asa there was a break in the continuity of naughtiness which so singularly characterized the succession of kings. His was a long reign, and though not characterized by the pronounced reforms which obtained under future kings, it did give the nation some glimpses of a better order. He commenced by breaking down false worship so far as he was able, and as a result the land had “quiet before him.” He took advantage of the peaceful years to build and wall the cities. In a time of peril resulting from the invasion of the Ethiopians, the kings crv to God was answered by a signal deliverance.
How unfailingly the patience of God is made to appear in these records! The repetition of the fact in notes of exposition becomes almost monotonous. Yet, after all, is it not the monotony of the perfect music of those who with veiled faces chant the story of God’s holiness and love? The condition of the chosen people as a whole at this time was terrible. Yet immediately man or nation returned to God with repentance and amendment, He responded with pardon and deliverance. There is a limit to His forbearance; but if this history teaches anything it is that the limit is set where by the act of the sinner, be that sinner man or nation, there is no possibility of return. God never ratifies the hardening of any heart until the hardness is absolute through the action of the sinner.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
2Ch 14:2
There is many a useful lesson to be learnt from the story of Asa’s life.
Consider:-
I. Where his piety was born. In a most unlikely home. He was brought up in an ungodly family. The court was corrupt. Society was rotten. The moral atmosphere he breathed was enough to poison the finest child that was ever born. The same grace that preserved Asa pure and devout amid the corruptions of the royal court may keep you clean.
II. How was Asa’s piety evidenced? (1) By his fervent prayerfulness. (2) By his uncompromising opposition to everything that was sinful.
III. Where did the piety of Asa fail? His prosperity proved-I shall not say his ruin, but his loss-his eternal loss. It may have added to the lustre of his earthly crown, but I fear it dimmed the splendour of his heavenly.
J. Thain Davidson, Talks with Young Men, p. 219.
2Ch 14:11
I. Prayer in emergencies should be founded on a strong faith in God’s independence of human resources and methods of judgment. Much is gained when we appreciate the ease with which God achieves marvellous issues in response to prayer. “A God doing wonders” is one of His significant titles-significant of the usage of His dominion. To Him there are no such things as emergencies.
II. The example before us suggests a profound sense of the inadequacy of all other sources of relief but God. We need to feel that we are shut up to God, and to God only.
III. Prayer in emergencies is a profound identification with God. “In Thy name we go against this multitude.” In a selfish prayer we beat the winds. Nothing is sure in this world but the purposes of God. No interests are safe but His. No cause is secure but His.
IV. One other phase of prayer in such emergencies is a hearty recognition of God’s ownership of us. “O Lord, Thou art our God; let not man prevail against Thee.” By the right of creation and redemption we belong to God. Will God desert His own with such rights as these?
A. Phelps, The Old Testament a Living Book, p. 33.
References: 2Ch 14:11.-G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 234; J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 1st series, p. 20.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
CHAPTER 14 The Reign of Asa
1. The death of Abijah and Asa becomes king (2Ch 14:1)
2. The good beginning (2Ch 14:2-8)
3. His victory over Zerah (2Ch 14:9-15)
Asa, (which means healing or who will heal?), the son of Abijah, began his reign well. He did what was right in the sight of the Lord. The strange altars, the high places and the images were taken away and the groves cut down. He was not satisfied with this work, but he also commanded Judah to seek the Lord. The land was quiet. The Lord blessed him and the land for the faithful work which had been done. The land had rest, and he had no war in those years, because the LORD had given him rest. it was a remarkable work for one so young; probably Asa was not yet twelve years old when he became King. Maachah, his grandmother, most likely had some oversight as queen-mother. (In 1Ki 15:13 she is called the mother of Asa; the same is the case in our book 15:16. Mother in these passages has the meaning of grandmother.) Notice the great prosperity which followed the work he had done. The Kingdom was quiet before him. Cities were built and fortified. They readily acknowledged that it was all of God. Because we have sought the LORD our God, we have sought Him, and He hath given us rest on all sides. So they built and prospered.
But faith had to be tested. A powerful army under the leadership of Zerah, an Ethiopian, came against Judah. The battle was to take place in the open field, in the valley of Zephathah. Before the forces ever clashed Asa cried to the Lord. His prayer is most beautiful and simple. It still breathes freshness and has been a help to all Gods trusting people in all ages. LORD it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power; help us, O LORD our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude. O LORD, thou art our God, let not man prevail against thee. What confidence and trust! He put the whole matter upon the LORD. Their enemies were His enemies. In His name, resting on Him, they went forth. May we know and practice the same confidence. Such a prayer could not remain unanswered. The LORD smote the Ethiopians and gave to His people a great victory.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
am 3049, bc 955
slept: 2Ch 9:31, 1Ki 2:10, 1Ki 14:31
Asa: 1Ki 15:8-24, 1Ch 3:10, Mat 1:7, Mat 1:8
Reciprocal: Psa 68:30 – Rebuke
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Ch 14:1. In his days the land was quiet ten years There was no war with the kingdom of Israel, which did not recover the blow given in the last reign for a great while. Abijahs victory, which was owing, under God, to his courage and bravery, laid a foundation for Asas peace, which was the reward of his piety, and the reformation he effected. Though Abijah had little religion himself, he was instrumental in preparing the way for one that had much. If Abijah had not done what he did to quiet the land, Asa could not have done what he did to reform it.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Ch 14:3. Altars of the strange The author of this book, like Moses, Deu 32:16, would not pollute his text with the unhallowed name of idols.
2Ch 14:8. Out of Benjamintwo hundred and fourscore thousand. Josephus following the Septuagint says, Two hundred and fifty thousand. The mode of numbering in Hebrew subjected the scribes to make frequent mistakes, which in very many places embarrass the sacred text.
REFLECTIONS.
Of Zerahs great army, and of Asas victory over it, we had no account in the book of kings; nor are we told in what year of his reign he was invaded; but it probably happened in his early and more prosperous days. Whether this Zerah was an Ethiopian king who had overrun Egypt, and advanced with a million of men into Palestine, or whether he was an Arabian prince, which does not seem improbable, is wholly uncertain. But this is evident, that he met with shame instead of glory, and ruin instead of booty. From the immense slaughter of the ten tribes in the last reign, and the like slaughter of the heathen in this, we clearly perceive that while Jerusalem remained in close covenant with God, all that meddled with it, meddled to their own hurt; and their unavailing malice tended only to make the Lords anointed rich and powerful in the earth, and more confident of his protection. To the christian, this should be a most encouraging consideration to abide in Christ.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Ch 14:1 to 2Ch 16:14. The Reign of Asa (see notes on 1Ki 15:8, 1Ki 15:11-23).Most of this section has no parallel in 1 K.
2Ch 14:1-8 describes Asas loyalty to Yahweh, his defences, and his army. For the sun-images in 2Ch 14:5 cf. Lev 26:30, Isa 17:8; Isa 27:9, Eze 6:4; Eze 6:6; the Hebrew word is hammanim, sun-pillars (hamma is a poetical expression for the sun in Isa 24:23, Job 30:28), which were used in connexion with Phnician Baal-worship; this worship had been imported into Palestine (see 1Ki 16:31 ff.).
2Ch 14:9-15 tells of Asas victory over Zerah the Cushite. This piece reads like a midrash on some narrative of an actual historical occurrence (see 1Ki 15:23, where unrecorded doings of Asa are hinted at). Whether the Chronicler was here using the source itself or a midrash on some portion of the source, or whether he himself composed this midrashic account, is an open question. The Cushites were probably a people living in Arabia (see 2Ch 21:16).
2Ch 14:15. tents of cattle: an improbable expression; probably, as is suggested by the LXX rendering, the text is not in order; see the Hebrew of Gen 4:20.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
THE REIGN OF ASA
(vv.1-15)
Abijah was buried in Jerusalem and his son Asa took the throne of Judah. To his credit the land was quiet for ten years, with no attacking enemies, for the character of Asa was such that he did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord (vv.2-3). His faithfulness involved the constructive work of commanding Judah to seek the Lord and to observe the law, but some destructive work was no less important: he removed the high places and incense altars that had been introduced in Solomon’s time and was continued by Rehoboam and Abijah.
But while the land enjoyed rest from war, he was wise in preparing for wan He built fortified cities in Judah and encouraged the people to build and make walls about the including towers, gates and bars. Believers today also are wise to take advantage of times of peace to store up the Word of God in their hearts as a protection from the attacks of the enemy that are sure to come eventually. Thus Asa’s prosperity is an incentive for us today to learn to prosper spiritually while we have opportunity for it.
Asa also gathered an army of 300,000 from Judah and 280,000 from Benjamin, all capable warriors (v.8). However, after ten years of his reigning the king of Ethiopia came to attack him with an army of one million men and 300 chariots (v.9). Thus, he had 420,000 more men than Asa had. But Asa was not discouraged. After setting his troops in battle array, he prayed a prayer of simple confidence in the Lord, reminding Him, “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 men prevail against You” (v.11).
Such genuine confidence in the Lord produced the results we ought to expect. By the Lord’s intervention the Ethiopians were routed in fear. Asa’s army pursued them and overthrew all their power, leaving them without any ability to recover. Judah carried away a great amount of spoil (v.13). At the same time they defeated all the cities around Gerar. This was Philistine territory which really belonged to Judah, but had not been possessed by them. From these cities they took a great amount of plunder also, including much livestock (vv.14-15).
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
ASA: DIVINE RETRIBUTION
2Ch 14:1-15; 2Ch 15:1-19; 2Ch 16:1-14
ABIJAH, dying, as far as we can gather from Chronicles, in the odor of sanctity, was succeeded by his son Asa. The chroniclers history of Asa is much fuller than that which is given in the book of Kings. The older narrative is used as a framework into which material from later sources is freely inserted. The beginning of the new reign was singularly promising. Abijah had been a very David, he had fought the battles of Jehovah, and had assured the security and independence of Judah. Asa, like Solomon, entered into the peaceful enjoyment of his predecessors exertions in the field. “In his days the land was quiet ten years,” as in the days when the judges had delivered Israel, and he was able to exhort his people to prudent effort by reminding them that Jehovah had given them rest on every side. This interval of quiet was used for both religious reform and military precautions. The high places and heathen idols and symbols which had somehow survived Abijahs zeal for the Mosaic ritual were swept away, and Judah was commanded to seek Jehovah and observe the Law; and he built fortresses with towers, and gates, and bars, and raised a great army “that bare bucklers and spears,”-no mere hasty levy of half-armed peasants with scythes and axes. The mighty array surpassed even Abijahs great muster of four hundred thousand from Judah and Benjamin: there were five hundred and eighty thousand men, three hundred thousand out of Judah that bare bucklers and spears and two hundred and eighty thousand out of Benjamin that bare shields and drew bows. The great muster of Benjamites under Asa is in striking contrast to the meager tale of six hundred warriors that formed the whole strength of Benjamin after its disastrous defeat in the days of the judges; and the splendid equipment of this mighty host shows the rapid progress of the nation from the desperate days of Shamgar and Jael or even of Sauls early reign, when “there was neither shield nor spear seen among forty thousand in Israel.” These references of buildings, especially fortresses, to military stores and the vast numbers of Jewish and Israelite armies, form a distinct class amongst the additions made by the chronicler to the material taken from the book of Kings. They are found in the narratives of the reigns of David, Rehoboam, Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, Jotham, Manasseh, in fact in the reigns of nearly all the good kings; Manassehs building was done after he had turned from his evil ways. {1Ch 12:1-40, etc.; 2Ch 11:5 ff; 2Ch 17:12 ff; 2Ch 26:9 ff; 2Ch 27:4 ff; 2Ch 28:23-24 ; 2Ch 33:14} Hezekiah and Josiah were too much occupied with sacred festivals on the one hand and hostile invaders on the other to have much leisure for building, and it would not have been in keeping with Solomons character as the prince of peace to have laid stress on his arsenals and armies Otherwise the chronicler, living at a time when the warlike resources of Judah were of the slightest, was naturally interested in these reminiscences of departed glory; and the Jewish provincials would take a pride in relating these pieces of antiquarian information about their native towns, much as the servants of old manor-houses delight to point out the wing which was added by some famous cavalier or by some Jacobite Squire.
Asas warlike preparations were possibly intended, like those of the Triple Alliance, to enable him to maintain peace; but if so, their sequel did not illustrate the maxim, “Si vis pacem, para bellum.” The rumour of his vast armaments reached a powerful monarch: “Zerah the Ethiopian.” (2Ch 14:9-15) The vagueness of this description is doubtless due to the remoteness of the chronicler from the times he is describing. Zerah has sometimes been identified with Shishaks successor, Osorkon I, the second king of the twenty-second Egyptian dynasty. Zerah felt that Asas great army was a standing menace to the surrounding princes, and undertook the task of destroying this new military power: “He came out against them.” Numerous as Asas forces were, they still left him dependent upon Jehovah, for the enemy were even more numerous and better equipped. Zerah led to battle an army of a million men, supported by three hundred war chariots. With this enormous host he came to Mareshah, at the foot of the Judaean highlands, in a direction southwest of Jerusalem. In spite of the inferiority of his army, Ass came out to meet him; “and they set the battle in array in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah.” Like Abijah, Asa felt that, with his Divine ally, he need not be afraid of the odds against him even when they could be counted by hundreds of thousands. Trusting in Jehovah, he had taken the field against the enemy; and now at the decisive moment he made a confident appeal for help: “Jehovah, there is none beside Thee to help between the mighty and him that hath no strength.” Five hundred and eighty thousand men seemed nothing compared to the host arrayed against them, and outnumbering them in the proportion of nearly two to one. “Help us, Jehovah our God; for we rely on Thee, and in Thy name are we come against this multitude. Jehovah, Thou art our God; let not man prevail against Thee.”
Jehovah justified the trust reposed in Him. He smote the Ethiopians, and they fled towards the southwest in the direction of Egypt; and Asa and his army pursued them as far as Gerar, with fearful slaughter, so that of Zerahs million followers not one remained alive. Of course this statement is hyperbolical. The carnage was enormous, and no living enemies remained in sight. Apparently Gerar and the neighboring cities had aided Zerah in his advance and attempted to shelter the fugitives from Mareshah. Paralyzed with fear of Jehovah, whose avenging wrath had been so terribly manifested, these cities fell an easy prey to the victorious Jews. They smote and spoiled all the cities about Gerar, and reaped a rich harvest “for there was much spoil in them.” It seems that the nomad tribes of the southern wilderness had also in some way identified themselves with the invaders; Asa attacked them in their turn. “They smote also the tents of cattle”; and as the wealth of these tribes lay in their flocks and herds, “they carried away sheep in abundance and camels, and returned to Jerusalem.”
This victory is closely parallel to that of Abijah over Jeroboam. In both the numbers of the armies are reckoned by hundreds of thousands; and the hostile host outnumbers the army of Judah in the one case by exactly two to one, in the other by nearly that proportion: in both the king of Judah trusts with calm assurance to the assistance of Jehovah, and Jehovah smites the enemy; the Jews then massacre the defeated army and spoil or capture the neighboring cities.
These victories over superior numbers may easily be paralleled or surpassed by numerous striking examples from secular history. The odds were greater at Agincourt, where at least sixty thousand French were defeated by not more than twenty thousand Englishmen; at Marathon the Greeks routed a Persian army ten times as numerous as their own; in India English generals have defeated innumerable hordes of native warriors, as when Wellesley-
“Against the myriads of Assaye Clashed with his fiery few and won.”
For the most part victorious generals have been ready to acknowledge the succoring arm of the God of battles. Shakespeares Henry V after Agincourt speaks altogether in the spirit of Asas prayer:-
“O God, Thy arm was here; And not to us, but to Thy arm alone, Ascribe we all Take it, God, For it is only Thine.”
When the small craft that made up Elizabeths fleet defeated the huge Spanish galleons and galleasses, and the storms of the northern seas finished the work of destruction, the grateful piety of Protestant England felt that its foes had been destroyed by the breath of the Lord; “Afflavit Deus et dissipantur.”
The principle that underlies such feelings is quite independent of the exact proportions of opposing armies. The victories of inferior numbers in a righteous cause are the most striking, but not the most significant, illustrations of the superiority of moral to material force. In the wider movements of international politics we may find even more characteristic instances. It is true of nations as well as of individuals that-
“The Lord killeth and maketh alive; He bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up: The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich; He bringeth low, He also lifteth up: He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, He lifteth up the needy from the dunghill, To make them sit with princes And inherit the throne of glory.”
Italy in the eighteenth century seemed as hopelessly divided as Israel under the judges, and Greece as completely enslaved to the “unspeakable Turk” as the Jews to Nebuchadnezzar; and yet, destitute as they were of any material resources, these nations had at their disposal great moral forces: the memory of ancient greatness and the sentiment of nationality; and today Italy can count hundreds of thousands like the chroniclers Jewish kings, and Greece builds her fortresses by land and her ironclads to command the sea. The Lord has fought for Israel.
But the principle has a wider application. A little examination of the more obscure and complicated movements of social life will show moral forces everywhere overcoming and controlling the apparently irresistible material forces opposed to them. The English and American pioneers of the movements for the abolition of slavery had to face what seemed an impenetrable phalanx of powerful interests and influences; but probably any impartial student of history would have foreseen the ultimate triumph of a handful of earnest men over all the wealth and political power of the slave-owners. The moral forces at the disposal of the abolitionists were obviously irresistible. But the soldier in the midst of smoke and tumult may still be anxious and despondent at the very moment when the spectator sees clearly that the battle is won: and the most earnest Christian workers sometimes falter when they realize the vast and terrible forces that fight against them. At such times we are both rebuked and encouraged by the simple faith of the chronicler in the overruling power of God.
It may be objected that if victory were to be secured by Divine intervention, there was no need to muster five hundred and eighty thousand men or indeed any army at all. If in any and every case God disposes, what need is there for the devotion to His service of our best strength, and energy, and culture, or of any human effort at all? A wholesome spiritual instinct leads the chronicler to emphasize the great preparations of Abijah and Asa. We have no right to look for Divine co-operation till we have done our best; we are not to sit with folded hands and expect a complete salvation to be wrought for us, and then to continue as idle spectators of Gods redemption of mankind we are to tax our resources to the utmost to gather our hundreds of thousands of soldiers; we are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.
This principle may be put in another way. Even to the hundreds of thousands the Divine help is still necessary. The leaders of great hosts are as dependent upon Divine help as Jonathan and his armor-bearer fighting single-handed against a Philistine garrison, or David arming himself with a sling and stone against Goliath of Gath. The most competent Christian worker in the prime of his spiritual strength needs grace as much as the untried youth making his first venture in the Lords service.
At this point we meet with another of the chroniclers obvious self-contradictions. At the beginning of the narrative of Asas reign we are told that the king did away with the high places and the symbols of idolatrous worship, and that, because Judah had thus sought Jehovah, He gave them rest. The deliverance from Zerah is another mark of Divine favor: And yet in the fifteenth chapter Asa, in obedience to prophetic admonition, takes away the abominations from his dominions, as if there had been no previous reformation, but we are told that the high places were not taken out of Israel. The context would naturally suggest that Israel here means Asas kingdom, as the true Israel of God; but as the verse is borrowed from the book of Kings, and “out of Israel” is an editorial addition made by the chronicler, it is probably intended to harmonize the borrowed verse with the chroniclers previous statement that Asa did away with the high places. If so, we must understand that Israel means the Northern Kingdom, from which the high places had not been removed, though Judah had been purged from these abominations. But here, as often elsewhere, Chronicles taken alone affords no explanation of its inconsistencies.
Again, in Asas first reformation he commanded Judah to seek Jehovah and to do the Law and the commandments; and accordingly Judah sought tile Lord. Moreover, Abijah, about seventeen years before Asas second reformation, made it his special boast that Judah had not forsaken Jehovah, but had priests ministering unto Jehovah, “the sons of Aaron and the Levites in their work.” During Rehoboams reign of seventeen years Jehovah was duly honored for the first three years, and again after Shishaks invasion in the fifth year of Rehoboam. So that for the previous thirty or forty years the due worship of Jehovah had only been interrupted by occasional lapses into disobedience. But now the prophet Oded holds before this faithful people the warning example of the “long seasons” when Israel was without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law. And yet previously Chronicles supplies an unbroken list of high-priests from Aaron downwards. In response to Odeds appeal, the king and people set about the work of reformation as if they had tolerated some such neglect of God, the priests, and the Law as the prophet had described.
Another minor discrepancy is found in the statement that “the heart of Asa was perfect all his days”; this is reproduced verbatim from the book of Kings. Immediately afterwards the chronicler relates the evil doings of Asa in the closing years of his reign.
Such contradictions render it impossible to give a complete and continuous exposition of Chronicles that shall be at the same time consistent. Nevertheless they are not without their value for the Christian student. They afford evidence of the good faith of the chronicler. His contradictions are clearly due to his use of independent and discrepant sources, and not to any tampering with the statements of his authorities. They are also an indication that the chronicler attaches much more importance to spiritual edification than to historical accuracy. When he seeks to set before his contemporaries the higher nature and better life of the great national heroes, and thus to provide them with an ideal of kingship, he is scrupulously and painfully careful to remove everything that would weaken the force of the lesson which he is trying to teach; but he is comparatively indifferent to accuracy of historical detail. When his authorities contradict each other as to the number or the date of Asas reformations, or even the character of his later years, he does not hesitate to place the two narratives side by side and practically to draw lessons from both. The work of the chronicler and its presence with the Pentateuch and the Synoptic Gospels in the sacred canon imply an emphatic declaration of the judgment of the Spirit and the Church that detailed historical accuracy is not a necessary consequence of inspiration. In expounding this second narrative of a reformation by Asa, we shall make no attempt at complete harmony with the rest of Chronicles; any inconsistency between the exposition here and elsewhere will simply arise from a faithful adherence to our text.
The occasion then of Asas second reformation was as follows: Asa was returning in triumph from his great defeat of Zerah, bringing with him substantial fruits of victory in the shape of abundant spoil. Wealth and power had proved a snare to David and Rehoboam, and had involved them in grievous sin. Asa might also have succumbed to the temptations of prosperity; but, by a special Divine grace not vouchsafed to his predecessors, he was guarded against danger by a prophetic warning. At the very moment when Asa might have expected to be greeted by the acclamations of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, when the king would be elated with the sense of Divine favor, military success, and popular applause, the prophets admonition checked the undue exaltation which might have hurried Asa into presumptuous sin. Asa and his people were not to presume upon their privilege; its continuance was altogether dependent upon their continued obedience: if they fell into sin the rewards of their former loyalty would vanish like fairy gold. “Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: Jehovah is with you while ye be with Him; and if ye seek Him, He will be found of you; but if ye forsake Him, He will forsake you.” This lesson was enforced from the earlier history of Israel. The following verses are virtually a summary of the history of the judges:-
“Now for long seasons Israel was without the true God, and without teaching priest, and without law.”
Judges tells how again and again Israel fell away from Jehovah. “But when in their distress they turned unto Jehovah, the God of Israel, and sought Him, he was found of them.”
Odeds address is very similar to another and somewhat fuller summary of the history of the judges, contained in Samuels farewell to the people, in which he reminded them how when they forgot Jehovah, their God, He sold them into the hand of their enemies, and when they cried unto Jehovah, He sent Zerubbabel, and Barak, and Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies on every side, and they dwelt in safety. Oded proceeds to other characteristics of the period of the judges:
“There was no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in; but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the lands. And they were broken in pieces, nation against nation and city against city, for God did vex them with all adversity.”
Deborahs song records great vexations: the highways were unoccupied, and the travelers walked through by-ways; the rulers ceased in Israel; Gideon “threshed wheat by the winepress to hide it from the Midianites.” The breaking of nation against nation and city against city will refer to the destruction of Succoth and Penuel by Gideon, the sieges of Shechem and Thebez by Ahimelech, the massacre of the Ephraimites by Jephthah, and the civil war between Benjamin and the rest of Israel and the consequent destruction of Jabesh-gilead. {Jdg 5:6-7; Jdg 6:2; Jdg 8:15-17; Jdg 9:1-7; Jdg 12:6}
“But,” said Oded, “be ye strong, and let not your hands be slack, for your work shall be rewarded.” Oded implies that abuses were prevalent in Judah which might spread and corrupt the whole people, so as to draw down upon them the wrath of God and plunge them into all the miseries of the times of the judges. These abuses were wide-spread, supported by powerful interests and numerous adherents. The queen-mother, one of the most important personages in an Eastern state, was herself devoted to heathen observances. Their suppression needed courage, energy, and pertinacity; but if they were resolutely grappled with, Jehovah would reward the efforts of His servants with success, and Judah would enjoy prosperity. Accordingly Asa took courage and put away the abominations out of Judah and Benjamin and the cities he held in Ephraim. The abominations were the idols and all the cruel and obscene accompaniments of heathen worship. {Cf. 1Ki 15:12} In the prophets exhortation to be strong, and not be slack, and in the corresponding statement that Asa took courage, we have a hint for all reformers. Neither Oded nor Asa underrated the serious nature of the task before them. They counted the cost, and with open eyes and full knowledge confronted the evil they meant to eradicate. The full significance of the chroniclers language is only seen when we remember what preceded the prophets appeal to Asa. The captain of half a million soldiers, the conqueror of a million Ethiopians with three hundred chariots, has to take courage before he can bring himself to put away the abominations out of his own dominions. Military machinery is more readily created than national righteousness; it is easier to slaughter ones neighbors than to let light into the dark places that are full of the habitations of cruelty; and vigorous foreign policy is a poor substitute for good administration. The principle has its application to the individual. The beam in our own eye seems more difficult to extract than the mote in our brothers, and a man often needs more moral courage to reform himself than to denounce other peoples sins or urge them to accept salvation. Most ministers could confirm from their own experience Portias saying, “I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching.”
Asas reformation was constructive as well as destructive; the toleration of “abominations” had diminished the zeal of the people for Jehovah, and even the altar of Jehovah before the porch of the Temple had suffered from neglect: it was now renewed, and Asa assembled the people for a great festival. Under Rehoboam many pious Israelites had left the Northern Kingdom to dwell where they could freely worship at the Temple; under Asa there was a new migration, “for they fell to him out of Israel in abundance when they saw that Jehovah his God was with him.” And so it came about that in the great assembly which Asa gathered together at Jerusalem not only Judah and Benjamin, but also Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, were represented. The chronicler has already told us that after the return from the Captivity some of the children of Ephraim and Manasseh dwelt at Jerusalem with the children of Judah and Benjamin, {1Ch 9:3} and he is always careful to note any settlement of members of the ten tribes in Judah or any acquisition of northern territory by the kings of Judah. Such facts illustrated his doctrine that Judah was the true spiritual Israel, the real or twelve-tribed whole, of the chosen people.
Asas festival was held in the third month of his fifteenth year, the month Sivan, corresponding roughly to our June. The Feast of Weeks, at which first-fruits were offered, felt in this month; and his festival was probably a special celebration of this feast. The sacrifice of seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep out of the spoil taken from the Ethiopians and their allies might be considered a kind of first-fruits. The people pledged themselves most solemnly to permanent obedience to Jehovah; this festival and its offerings were to be first-fruits or earnest of future loyalty. “They entered into a covenant to seek Jehovah, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul; they sware unto Jehovah with a loud voice, and with shouting, and with trumpets, and with cornets.” The observance of this covenant was not to be left to the uncertainties of individual loyalty; the community were to be on their guard against offenders, Achans who might trouble Israel. According to the stern law of the Pentateuch, {Exo 22:20, Deu 13:5, Deu 13:9, Deu 13:15} “whosoever would not seek Jehovah, the God of Israel, should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman.” The seeking of Jehovah so far as it could be enforced by penalties, must have consisted in external observances; and the usual proof that a man did not seek Jehovah would be found in his seeking other gods and taking part in heathen rites. Such apostasy was not merely an ecclesiastical offense; it involved immorality and a falling away from patriotism. The pious Jew could no more tolerate heathenism than we could tolerate in England religions that sanctioned polygamy or suttee.
Having thus entered into covenant with Jehovah, “all Judah rejoiced at their oath because they had sworn with all their heart, and sought Him with their whole desire.” At the beginning, no doubt, they, like their king, “took courage”; they addressed themselves with reluctance and apprehension to an unwelcome and hazardous enterprise. They now rejoiced over the Divine grace that had inspired their efforts and been manifested in their courage and devotion, over the happy issue of their enterprise, and over the universal enthusiasm for Jehovah; and He set the seal of his approval upon their gladness, He was found of them, and Jehovah gave them rest round about, so that there was no more war for twenty years: unto the thirty-fifth year of Asas reign. It is an unsavory task to put away abominations: many foul nests of unclean birds are disturbed in the process; men would not choose to have this particular cross laid upon them, but only those who take up their cross and follow Christ can hope to enter into the joy of the Lord.
The narrative of this second reformation is completed by the addition of details borrowed from the book of Kings. The chronicler next recounts how in the thirty-sixth year of Asas reign Baasha began to fortify Ramah as an outpost against Judah but was forced to abandon his undertaking by the intervention of the Syrian king. Benhadad, whom Asa hired with his own treasures and those of the Temple; whereupon Asa carried off Baashas stones and timber and built Geba and Mizpah as Jewish outposts against Israel. With the exception of the date and a few minor changes, the narrative so far is taken verbatim from the book of Kings. The chronicler, like the author of the priestly document of the Pentateuch, was anxious to provide his readers with an exact and complete system of chronology; he was the Ussher or Clinton of his generation. His date of the war against Baasha is probably based upon an interpretation of the source used for chapter 15; the first reformation secured a rest of ten years, the second and more thorough reformation a rest exactly twice as long as the first. In the interest of these chronological references, the chronicler has sacrificed a statement twice repeated in the book of Kings: that there was war between Asa and Baasha all their days. As Baasha came to the throne in Asas third year, the statement of the book of Kings would have seemed to contradict the chroniclers assertion that there was no war from the fifteenth to the thirty-fifth year of Asas reign. {1Ki 15:16; 1Ki 15:32-33}
After his victory over Zerah, Asa received a Divine message which somewhat checked the exuberance of his triumph; a similar message awaited him after his successful expedition to Ramah. By Oded Jehovah had warned Asa, but now He commissioned Hanani the seer to pronounce a sentence of condemnation. The ground of the sentence was that Asa had not relied on Jehovah, but on the king of Syria.
Here the chronicler echoes one of the keynotes of the great prophets. Isaih had protested against the alliance which Ahaz concluded with Assyria in order to obtain assistance again the united onset of Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, king of Israel, and had predicted that Jehovah would bring upon Ahaz, his people, and his dynasty days that had not come since the disruption, even the King of Assyria. {Isa 7:17} When this prediction was fulfilled, and the thundercloud of Assyrian invasion darkened all the land of Judah, the Jews, in their lack of faith, looked to Egypt for deliverance; and again Isaiah denounced the foreign alliance: “Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek Jehovah; the strength of Pharaoh shall be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.” {Isa 31:1; Isa 30:3} So Jeremiah in his turn protested against a revival of the Egyptian alliance: “Thou shalt be ashamed of Egypt also, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria.” {Jer 2:36}
In their successive calamities the Jews could derive no comfort from a study of previous history; the pretext upon which each of their oppressors had intervened in the affairs of Palestine had been an invitation from Judah.
In their trouble they had sought a remedy worse than the disease; the consequences of this political quackery had always demanded still more desperate and fatal medicines. Freedom from the border raids of the Ephraimites was secured at the price of the ruthless devastations of Hazael; deliverance from Rezin only led to the wholesale massacres and spoliation of Sennacherib. Foreign alliance was an opiate that had to be taken in continually increasing doses, till at last it caused the death of the patient.
Nevertheless these are not the lessons which the seer seeks to impress upon Asa. Hanani takes a loftier tone. He does not tell him that his unholy alliance with Benhadad was the first of a chain of circumstances that would end in the ruin of Judah. Few generations are greatly disturbed by the prospect of the ruin of their country in the distant future: “After us the Deluge.” Even the pious king Hezekiah, when told of the coming captivity of Judah, found much comfort in the thought that there should be peace and truth in his days. After the manner of the prophets, Hananis message is concerned with his own times. To his large faith the alliance with Syria presented itself chiefly as the loss of a great opportunity. Asa had deprived himself of the privilege of fighting with Syria, whereby Jehovah would have found fresh occasion to manifest His infinite power and His gracious favor towards Judah. Had there been no alliance with Judah, the restless and warlike king of Syria might have joined Baasha to attack Asa; another million of the heathen and other hundreds of their chariots would have been destroyed by the resistless might of the Lord of Hosts. And yet, in spite of the great object-lesson he had received in the defeat of Zerah, Asa had not thought of Jehovah as his Ally. He had forgotten the all-observing, all-controlling providence of Jehovah, and had thought it necessary to supplement the Divine protection by hiring a heathen king with the treasures of the Temple; and yet “the eyes of Jehovah run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.” With this thought, that the eyes of Jehovah run to and fro throughout the earth, Zechariah {Zec 4:10} comforted the Jews in the dark days between the Return and the rebuilding of the Temple. Possibly during Asas twenty years of tranquility his faith had become enfeebled for want of any severe discipline. It is only with a certain reserve that we can venture to pray that the Lord will “take from our lives the strain and stress.” The discipline of helplessness and dependence preserves the consciousness of Gods loving providence. The resources of Divine grace are not altogether intended for our personal comfort; we are to tax them to the utmost, in the assurance that God will honor all our drafts upon His treasury. The great opportunities of twenty years of peace and prosperity were not given to Asa to lay up funds with which to bribe a heathen king, and then, with this reinforcement of his accumulated resources, to accomplish the mighty enterprise of stealing Baashas stones and timber and building the walls of a couple of frontier fortresses. With such a history and such opportunities behind him, Asa should have felt himself competent, with Jehovahs help, to deal with both Baasha and Benhadad, and should have had courage to confront them both.
Sin like Asas has been the supreme apostasy of the Church in all her branches and through all her generations: Christ has been denied, not by lack of devotion, but by want of faith. Champions of the truth, reformers and guardians of the Temple, like Asa, have been eager to attach to their holy cause the cruel prejudices of ignorance and folly, the greed and vindictiveness of selfish men. They have feared lest these potent forces should be arrayed amongst the enemies of the Church and her Master. Sects and parties have eagerly contested the privilege of counseling a profligate prince how he should satisfy his thirst for blood and exercise his wanton and brutal insolence; the Church has countenanced almost every iniquity and striven to quench by persecution every new revelation of the Spirit, in order to conciliate vested interests and established authorities. It has even been suggested that national Churches and great national vices were so intimately allied that their supporters were content that they should stand or fall together. On the other hand, the advocates of reform have not been slow to appeal to popular jealousy and to aggravate the bitterness of social feuds. To Hanani the seer had come the vision of a larger and purer faith, that would rejoice to see the cause of Satan supported by all the evil passions and selfish interests that are his natural allies. He was assured that the greater the host of Satan, the more signal and complete would be Jehovahs triumph. If we had his faith, we should not be anxious to bribe Satan to cast out Satan, but should come to understand that the full muster of hell assailing us in front is less dangerous than a few companies of diabolic mercenaries in our own array. In the former case the overthrow of the powers of darkness is more certain and more complete.
The evil consequences of Asas policy were not confined to the loss of a great opportunity, nor were his treasures the only price he was to pay for fortifying Geba and Mizpah with Baashas building materials. Hanani declared to him that from henceforth he should have wars. This purchased alliance was only the beginning, and not the end, of troubles. Instead of the complete and decisive victory which had disposed of the Ethiopians once for all, Asa and his people were harassed and exhausted by continual warfare. The Christian life would have more decisive victories, and would be less of a perpetual and wearing struggle, if we had faith to refrain from the use of doubtful means for high ends.
Odeds message of warning had been accepted and obeyed, but Asa was now no longer docile to Divine discipline. David and Hezekiah submitted themselves to the censure of Gad and Isaiah; but Asa was wroth with Hanani and put him in prison, because the prophet had ventured to rebuke him. His sin against God corrupted even his civil administration; and the ally of a heathen king, the persecutor of Gods prophet, also oppressed the people. Three years after the repulse of Baasha a new punishment fell upon Asa: his feet became grievously diseased. Still he did not humble himself, but was guilty of further sin he sought not Jehovah, but the physicians. It is probable that to seek Jehovah concerning disease was not merely a matter of worship. Reuss has suggested that the legitimate practice of medicine belonged to the schools of the prophets; but it seems quite as likely that in Judah, as in Egypt, any existing knowledge of the art of healing was to be found among the priests. Conversely, physicians who were neither priests nor prophets of Jehovah were almost certain to be ministers of idolatrous worship and magicians. They failed apparently to relieve their patient: Asa lingered in pain and weakness for two years, and then died. Probably the sufferings of his latter days had protected his people from further oppression, and had at once appealed to their sympathy and removed any cause for resentment. When be died, they only remembered his virtues and achievements; and buried him with royal magnificence, with sweet odors and divers kinds of spices; and made a very great burning for him, probably of aromatic woods.
In discussing the chroniclers picture of the good kings, we have noticed that, while Chronicles and the book of Kings agree in mentioning the misfortunes which as a rule darkened their closing years, Chronicles in each case records some lapse into sin as preceding these misfortunes. From the theological standpoint of the chroniclers school, these invidious records of the sins of good kings were necessary in order to account for their misfortunes. The devout student of the book of Kings read with surprise that of the pious kings who had been devoted to Jehovah and His temple, whose acceptance by Him had been shown by the victories vouchsafed to them, one had died of a painful disease in his feet, another in a lazar-house, two had been assassinated, and one slain in battle. Why had faith and devotion been so ill rewarded? Was it not vain to serve God? What profit was there in keeping His ordinances? The chronicler felt himself fortunate in discovering amongst his later authorities additional information which explained these mysteries and justified the ways of God to man. Even the good kings had not been without reproach, and their misfortunes had been the righteous judgment on their sins.
The principle which guided the chronicler in this selection of material was that sin was always punished by complete, immediate, and manifest retribution in this life, and that conversely all misfortune was the punishment of sin. There is a simplicity and apparent justice about this theory that has always made it the leading doctrine of a certain stage of moral development. It was probably the popular religious teaching in Israel from early days till the time when our Lord found it necessary to protest against the idea that the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices were sinners above all Galileans because they had suffered these things, or that the eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and killed them were offenders above all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. This doctrine of retribution was current among the Greeks. When terrible calamities fell upon men their neighbors supposed these to be the punishment of specially heinous crimes. When the Spartan king Cleomenes committed suicide, the public mind in Greece at once inquired of what particular sin he had thus paid the penalty. The horrible circumstances of his death were attributed to the wrath of some offended deity, and the cause of the offence was sought for in one of his many acts of sacrilege, possibly he was thus punished because he had bribed the priestess of the Delphic oracle. The Athenians, however, believed that his sacrilege had consisted in cutting down trees in their sacred grove at Eleusis; but the Argives preferred to hold that he came to an untimely end because he had set fire to a grove sacred to their eponymous hero Argos. Similarly, when in the course of the Peloponnesian war the Aeginetans were expelled from their island, this calamity was regarded as a punishment inflicted upon them because fifty years before they had dragged away and put to death a suppliant who had caught hold of the handle of the door of the temple of Demeter Theomophorus. On the other hand, the wonderful way in which on four or five occasions the ravages of pestilence delivered Dionysius of Syracuse from his Carthaginian enemies was attributed by his admiring friends to the favor of the gods.
Like many other simple and logical doctrines, this Jewish theory of retribution came into collision with obvious facts, and seemed to set the law of God at variance with the enlightened conscience. “Beneath the simplest forms of truth the subtlest error lurks.” The prosperity of the wicked and the sufferings of the righteous were a standing religious difficulty to the devout Israelite. The popular doctrine held its ground tenaciously, supported not only by ancient prescription, but also by the most influential classes in society. All who were young, robust, wealthy, powerful, or successful were interested in maintaining a doctrine that made health, riches, rank, and success the outward and visible signs of righteousness. Accordingly the simplicity of the original doctrine was hedged about with an ingenious and elaborate apologetic. The prosperity of the wicked was held to be only for a season; before he died the judgment of God would overtake him. It was a mistake to speak of the sufferings of the righteous: these very sufferings showed that his righteousness was only apparent, and that in secret he had been guilty of grievous sin.
Of all the cruelty inflicted in the name of orthodoxy there is little that can surpass the refined torture due to this Jewish apologetic. Its cynical teaching met the sufferer in the anguish of bereavement, in the pain and depression of disease, when he was crushed by sudden and ruinous losses or publicly disgraced by the unjust sentence of a venal law-court. Instead of receiving sympathy and help, he found himself looked upon as a moral outcast and pariah on account of his misfortunes; when he most needed Divine grace, he was bidden to regard himself as a special object of the wrath of Jehovah. If his orthodoxy survived his calamities, he would review his past life with morbid retrospection, and persuade himself that he had indeed been guilty above all other sinners.
The book of Job is an inspired protest against the current theory of retribution, and the full discussion of the question belongs to the exposition of that book. But the narrative of Chronicles, like much Church history in all ages, is largely controlled by the controversial interests of the school from which it emanated. In the hands of the chronicler the story of the kings of Judah is told in such a way that it becomes a polemic against the book of. Job. The tragic and disgraceful death of good kings presented a crucial difficulty to the chroniclers theology. A good mans other misfortunes might be compensated for by prosperity in his latter days; but in a theory of retribution which required a complete satisfaction of justice in this life there could be no compensation for a dishonorable death. Hence the chroniclers anxiety to record any lapses of good kings in their latter days.
The criticism, and correction of this doctrine belong, as we have said, to the exposition of the book of Job. Here we are rather concerned to discover the permanent truth of which the theory is at once an imperfect and exaggerated expression. To begin with, there are sins which bring upon the transgressor a swift, obvious, and dramatic punishment. Human law deals thus with some sins; the laws of health visit others with a similar severity; at times the Divine judgment strikes down men and nations before an awestricken world. Amongst such judgments we might reckon the punishments of royal sins so frequent in the pages of Chronicles. Gods judgments are not usually so immediate and manifest, but these striking instances illustrate and enforce the certain consequences of sin. We are dealing now with cases in which God was set at naught; and, apart from Divine grace, the votaries of sin are bound to become its slaves and victims. Ruskin has said, “Medicine often fails of its effect, but poison never; and while, in summing the observation of past life not un-watchfully spent, I can truly say that I bare a thousand times seen Patience disappointed of her hope and Wisdom of her aim, I have never yet seen folly fruitless of mischief, nor vice conclude but in calamity.” Now that we have been brought into a fuller light and delivered from the practical dangers of the ancient Israelite doctrine, we can afford to forget the less satisfactory aspects of the chroniclers teaching, and we must feel grateful to him for enforcing the salutary and necessary lesson that sin brings inevitable punishment, and that therefore, whatever present appearances may suggest, “the world was certainly not framed for the lasting convenience of hypocrites, libertines, and oppressors.”
Indeed, the consequences of sin are regular and exact; and the judgments upon the kings of Judah in Chronicles accurately symbolize the operations of Divine discipline. But Rain, and ruin, and disgrace are only secondary elements in Gods judgments; and most often they are not judgments at all. They have their uses as chastisements; but if we dwell upon them with too emphatic an insistence, men suppose that pain is a worse evil than sin, and that sin is only to be avoided because it causes suffering to the sinner. The really serious consequence of evil acts is the formation and confirmation of evil character. Herbert Spencer says in his “First Principles” “that motion once set up along any line becomes itself a cause of subsequent motion along that line.” This is absolutely true in moral and spiritual dynamics: every wrong thought, feeling, word, or act, every failure to think, feel, speak, or act rightly, at once alters a mans character for the worse. Henceforth he will find it easier to sin and more difficult to do right; he has twisted another strand into the cord of habit: and though each may be as fine as the threads of a spiders web, in time there will be cords strong enough to have bound Samson before Delilah shaved off his seven locks. This is the true punishment of sin: to lose the fine instincts, the generous impulses, and the nobler ambitions of manhood, and become every day more of a beast and a devil.