Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Chronicles 14:11
And Asa cried unto the LORD his God, and said, 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.
11. it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power ] R.V. there is more beside thee to help, between the mighty and him that hath no strength.
we rest on thee, and in thy name we go ] R.V. we rely on thee, and in thy name are we come.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
It is nothing … – i. e., Thou canst as easily help the weak as the strong.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
2Ch 14:11-12
And Asa, cried unto the Lord his God.
Victories over superior numbers
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. For the most part victorious generals have been ready to acknowledge the succouring 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. When Elizabeths fleet defeated the Spanish Armada, the grateful piety of Protestant England felt that its foes had been destroyed by the breath of the Lord: Afflavit Deus et dissipantur. (W. H. Bennett, M.A.)
The superiority of moral to material force
Characteristic instances are to be found in the wider movements of international polities. 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 to-day 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. 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. 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. We have no right to look for Divine co-operation till we have done our best; we are to work out our own salvation, for it is God that worketh in us. (W. H. Bennett, M. A.)
King Asas prayer on the eve of battle
I. Our text is a prater–the surest weapon in war as in all other emergencies.
II. It is the prayer of a king on the eve of battle, and therefore partakes of a national character.
III. It is a prayer of faith, exhibiting reliance on the Divine arm for help, and therefore implying humiliation, together with a distinct conviction that no human force, however vast, can prevail, except under the recognised championship of the Almighty. (The Penny Pulpit.)
The all-sufficiency of Gods help
I. Asa acted promptly and energetically as the occasion required. Only one purpose moved him, and that was to bring out all the military strength of his kingdom, and at once, with no unnecessary delay, strike the foe, every soldier realising that the crown of victory was the prize to be won or lost, according as he should be faithful or unfaithful in his particular duty. Having acted thus promptly and energetically, then–
II. Asa called on God for help. He did not ask God to work a miracle on his behalf. Whoever calls upon God for help without first helping himself, without first putting forth his own efforts to secure that for which he invokes the Divine aid, will call upon God in vain. There are other elements of strength in war besides those which are merely physical. God is a moral and spiritual force which will make an army of inferior numbers more than adequate to encounter and overcome the mere physical force which inheres in superiority of numbers. Hence the wisdom and virtue of prayer.
III. What was the issue? The Lord smote the Ethiopians before Asa, etc. (W. T. Tindley, D.D.)
Asas prayer
This King Asa, Rehoboams grandson, had had a long reign of peace, which the writer of the Book of Chronicles traces to the fact that he had rooted out idolatry from Judah. The land had rest, and he had no war . . . because the Lord had given him rest. But their came a time when the war-cloud began to roll threateningly over the land, and a great army came up against him. Like a wise man he made his military dispositions first, and prayed next. This prayer contains the very essence of what ought to be the Christian attitude in reference to all the conditions and threatening dangers and conflicts of life.
I. The wholesome consciousness of our own impotence. It did not take much to convince Asa that he had no power. His army, according to the numbers given of the two hosts, was outnumbered two to one. If we look fairly in the face our duties, our tasks, our dangers, the possibilities of life and its certainties, the more humbly we think of our own capacity, the more wisely we shall think about God, and the more truly we shall estimate ourselves. The world says Self-reliance is the conquering virtue. Jesus says to us, Self-distrust is the condition of all victory. And that does not mean any mere shuffling off of responsibility from our own shoulders, but it means looking the facts of our lives, and of our own characters, in the face. And if we will do that, however apparently easy may be our course, and however richly endowed in mind, body, or estate we may be, we shall find that we each are like the man with ten thousand that has to meet the King that comes against him with twenty thousand; and we shaft not desire conditions of peace with our enemy, for that is not what in this ease we have to do, but we shall look about us, and not keep our eyes on the horizon, and on the levels of earth, but look up to see if there is not there an ally that we can bring into the field to redress the balance, and to make our ten as strong as the opposing twenty. Now all that is true about the disproportion between the foes we have to face and fight and our own strength. It is eminently true about us Christian people, if we are doing any work for our Master. You hear people say, Look at the small number of professing Christians in this country, as compared with the numbers on the other side. What is the use of their trying to convert the world? If the Christian Church had to undertake the task of Christianising the world with its own strength, we might well threw up the sponge and stop altogether. We have no might. But we are not only numerically weak. A multitude of non-effectives, mere camp-followers, loosely attached, nominal Christians have to be deducted from the muster-roll. So a profound self-distrust is our wisdom. But it is not to paralyse us, but to lead to something better, as it led Asa.
II. Summoning God into the world should follow wholesome self-distrust. Asa uses a remarkable expression, which is, perhaps, scarcely reproduced adequately in another verse, It is nothing with Thee to help, whether with many or with them that have no power. It is a strange phrase, but it seems most probable that the suggested rendering in the Revised Version is nearer the writers meaning, which says, Lord! there is none beside Thee to help between the mighty and them that have no power, which to our ears is a somewhat cumbrous way of saying that God, and God only, can adjust the difference between the mighty and the weak. Asa turns to God and says, Thou only canst trim the scales and make the heavy one the lighter of the two by casting Thy might into it. So help us, O Lord, our God. One man with God at his back is always in the majority. There is encouragement for people who have to fight unpopular causes in the world. The consciousness of weakness may unnerve a man; and that is why people in the world are always patting each other on the back and saying, Be of good cheer, and rely upon yourself. But the self-distrust that turns to God becomes the parent of a far more reliable self-reliance than that which trusts to men. My consciousness of need is my opening the door for God to come in. Just as you always find the lakes in the hollows, so you will always find the grace of God coming into mens hearts to strengthen them and make them victorious, when there has been the preparation of the lowered estimate of ones self. Hollow out your heart by self-distrust, and God will fill it with the flashing waters of His strength bestowed. The way by which we summon God into the field: Asa prays, Help us, O Lord, our God, for we rest on Thee; and the word that he employs for rest is not a very frequent one. It carries with it a very striking picture. It is used in that tragical story of the death of Saul, when the man that saw the last of him came to David and drew in a sentence the pathetic picture of the wearied, wounded, broken-hearted, discrowned, desperate monarch leaning on his spear. You can understand how hard he leaned, with what a grip he held it, and how heavily his whole, languid, powerless weight pressed upon it. And that is the word that is used here. We lean on Thee as the wounded Saul leaned upon his spear. Is that a picture of your faith?
III. Courageous advance should follow self-distrust and summoning god by faith. It is well when self-distrust leads to confidence. But that is not enough. It is better when self-distrust and confidence in God lead to courage. And as Asa goes on, Help us, for we rely on Thee, and in Thy name we go against this multitude. Never mind though it is two to one. What does that matter? Prudence and calculation are well enough, but there is a great deal of very rank cowardice and want of faith in Christian people, both in regard to their own lives and in regard to Christian work in the world, which goes masquerading under much too respectable a name, and calls itself judicious caution and prudence. If we have God with us, let us be bold in fronting the dangers and difficulties that beset us, and be sure that He will help us.
IV. The all-powerful plea which God will answer. Thou art my God, let not man prevail against Thee. That prayer covers two things. You may be quite sure that if God is your God you will not be beaten; and you may be quite sure that if you have made Gods cause yours He will make your cause His, and again you will not be beaten. Thou art our God. It takes two to make a bargain, and God and we have both to act before He is truly ours. He gives Himself to us, but there is an act of ours required, too, and you must take the God that is given to you, and make Him yours because you make yourselves His. And when I have taken Him for mine, and not unless I have, He is mine, to all intents of strength-giving and blessedness. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
The name of God written in life
Our whole life ought to be filled with His name. You can write it anywhere. It does not need a gold plate to carve His name upon. It does not need to be set in jewels and diamonds. The poorest scrap of brown paper, and the bluntest little bit of pencil, and the shakiest hand will do to write the name of Christ; and all life, the trivialities as well as the crises, may be flashing and bright with the sacred syllables. Mohammedans decorate their palaces and mosques with no pictures, but with the name of Allah in gilded arabesques. Everywhere, on walls and roof, and windows and cornices, and pillars and furniture, the name is written. There is no such decoration for a life as that Christs name should be inscribed thereon. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 11. Whether with many] The same sentiment as that uttered by Jonathan, 1Sa 14:6, when he attacked the garrison of the Philistines.
O Lord our God – we rest on thee] “Help us, O Lord our God; because we depend on thy WORD, and in the name of thy WORD we come against this great host.” – Targum.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
It is nothing with thee, i.e. there is no difference, nor no difficulty, with thee. In thy name; by thy commission, in confidence of thy assistance, and for the maintenance of thy honour, and service, and people.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11-13. Asa cried unto the Lord hisGodStrong in the confidence that the power of God was able togive the victory equally with few as with many, the pious kingmarched with a comparatively small force to encounter the formidablehost of marauders at his southern frontier. Committing his cause toGod, he engaged in the conflictcompletely routed the enemy, andsucceeded in obtaining, as the reward of his victory, a rich booty intreasure and cattle from the tents of this pastoral horde.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And Asa cried unto the Lord his God,…. Or prayed, as the Targum, with vehemence, being in distress; this he did before the battle began, at the head of his army, and for the encouragement of it:
and said, Lord, [it is] nothing with thee to help; nothing can hinder from helping, his power being superior to all others, and even infinite, and none besides him could:
whether with many, or with them that have no power; numbers make no difference with him, nor the condition they are in; whether numerous and mighty, or few and feeble; he can as easily help the one as the other, see 1Sa 14:6,
help us, O Lord our God; who are few and weak in comparison of the enemy:
for we rest on thee; trust in thee, and rely upon thee for help; the Targum is,
“on thy Word we lean:”
and in thy name we go against this multitude; expressing faith in him, expecting help from him, encouraging and strengthening themselves in him, going forth not in their own name and strength, but in his; the Targum is,
“in the name of the Word of the Lord:”
O Lord, thou [art] our God: and thou only we know, and serve no other, and we are thy people, called by thy name:
let not man prevail against thee; for should this enemy prevail against them, it would be interpreted prevailing against their God.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(11) Lord, it is nothing to thee . . . have no power.Rather, Lord, there is none beside, or like literally, along witli] thee to help between strong and powerless, i.e., in an unequal conflict to interpose with help for the weaker side. Between strong and [literally, to] powerless. The same construction occurs Gen. 1:6, between waters to waters. Others assume between . . . to, to mean whether . . . or, which would be in accordance with Rabbinic rather than ancient usage. A very plausible view is that of Kamphausen, who proposes to read lar for lazr (to retain strength for to help), an expression which actually occurs at the end of the verse, and to render the whole: Lord, it is not for any to retain (strength) with (i.e., to withstand) Thee, whether strong or powerless. (Comp. 2Ch. 13:20; 1Ch. 29:14). The Syriac paraphrases thus: Thou art our Lord, the helper of thy people. When thou shalt deliver a great army into the hands of a few, then all the inhabitants of the world will know that we rightly trust in thee. This is much more like a Targum than a translation. The difficulty of the text is evaded, not explained.
We rest.Rely (2Ch. 13:18).
We go.We are come.
This multitude.Hmn; a term used of Jeroboams army (2Ch. 13:8), and usually denoting an armed multitude.
Let not man prevail.Literally, Let not mortal man retain (strength) with thee.
With.Against, as in the phrase to fight with.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
11. Asa cried unto the Lord The vast hosts of the enemy made Asa feel that his help and hope lay not in numbers. His prayer and his faith made a deep impression on the minds of his people. 1Ch 16:8.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Reader! do not fail to observe the beauties of this prayer, short as it is, for they are many. In the first place remark in it the ground of Asa’s cry to God. He had served God in the day of his prosperity, and therefore now in the day of his adversity he might truly call upon him. Observe moreover, that the God he called upon was not an unknown God, but a well known and a well proved God; even God in covenant. O Lord, our God, said Asa! oh! how precious, how inconceivably precious is it, to have God in Christ in all the covenant engagements of redemption in the Lord Jesus, to fly to in time of need. Observe still further the strong faith Asa had in the power of God. It is nothing with thee (said he) to help with many or with few. Oh! for faith to every poor sinner when a sense of abounding transgression would overwhelm the soul! Thy covenant grace, almighty Father, and thy cleansing blood and justifying righteousness, thou blessed Jesus, can save from all sin! – Observe once more the humbleness of soul in Asa concerning his own strength; we rest on thee; not in our arms, nor in our strength. So saith the poor sinner made sensible of his own nothingness and depravity. His language is, I place no more dependence on my best prayers for acceptance, than on my worst sins. Neither repentance, nor faith, are the causes of my hope: But Jesus alone, his merits, his blood, his righteousness. And lastly, let not the Reader pass over as distinguishing a feature in Asa’s prayer as any; thou art our God; let not man prevail against thee. Intimating that the cause was the Lord’s, and so would be the glory of the triumph. And is not this the case in all the great objects of redemption? All is for the honour of Jesus; that God may be glorified in him. So sung the redeemed in heaven, which John heard, who, while ascribing redemption to Jesus, proclaimed at the same time that this redemption was from God as the first cause, and reverted back to God again as the final end. Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood. Rev 5:9 . See, Reader! what a true gospel prayer is here recorded of Asa in the book of the Chronicles.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2Ch 14:11 And Asa cried unto the LORD his God, and said, 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.
Ver. 11. It is nothing with thee. ] See 1Sa 14:9 .
Help us, O Lord our God; for we rest on thee.
For in thy name,
Let not man prevail against thee.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2 Chronicles
ASA’S PRAYER
2Ch 14:11
This King Asa, Rehoboam’s grandson, had had a long reign of peace, which the writer of the Book of Chronicles traces to the fact that he had rooted out idolatry from Judah, ‘The land had rest, and he no war . . . because the Lord had given him rest.’
But there came a time when the war-cloud began to roll threateningly over the land, and a great army-the numbers of which, from their immense magnitude, seem to be erroneously given-came up against him. Like a wise man he made his military dispositions first, and prayed next. He set his troops in order, and then he fell down on his knees, and spoke to God.
Now, it seems to me that this prayer contains the very essence of what ought to be the Christian attitude in reference to all the conditions and threatening dangers and conflicts of life; and so I wish to run over it, and bring out the salient points of it, as typical of what ought to be our disposition.
I. The wholesome consciousness of our own impotence.
Now all that is true about the disproportion between the foes we have to face and fight and our own strength. It is eminently true about us Christian people, if we are doing any work for our Master. You hear people say, ‘Look at the small number of professing Christians in this country, as compared with the numbers on the other side. What is the use of their trying to convert the world?’ Well, think of the assembled Christian people, for instance, of Manchester, on the most charitable supposition, and the shallowest interpretation of that word ‘Christian.’ What are they among so many? A mere handful. If the Christian Church had to undertake the task of Christianising the world by its own strength, we might well despair of success and stop altogether. ‘We have no might.’ The disproportion both numerically and in all things that the world estimates as strength which are many of them good things, is so great that we are in a worse case than Asa was. It is not two to one; it is twenty to one, or an even greater disproportion. But we are not only numerically weak. A multitude of non-effectives, mere camp followers, loosely attached, nominal Christians, have to be deducted from the muster-roll, and the few who are left are so feeble as well as few that they have more than enough to do in holding their own, to say nothing of dreaming of charging the wide-stretching lines of the enemy. So a profound self-distrust is our wisdom. But that should not paralyse us, but lead to something better, as it led Asa.
II. Summoning God into the field should follow wholesome self-distrust.
One man with God at his back is always in the majority; and, however many there may be on the other side, ‘there are more that be with us than they that be with them.’ There is encouragement for people who have to fight unpopular causes in the world, who have been accustomed to be in minorities all their days, in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation. Never mind about the numbers; bring God into the field, and the little band, which is compared in another place in these historical Books to ‘two flocks of kids’ fronting the enemy, that had flowed all over the land, is in the majority. ‘God with us’; then we are strong.
The consciousness of weakness may unnerve a man; and that is why people in the world are always patting each other on the back and saying ‘Be of good cheer, and rely upon yourself.’ But the self-distrust that turns to God becomes the parent of a far more reliable self-reliance than that which trusts to men. My consciousness of need is my opening the door for God to come in. Just as you always find the lakes in the hollows, so you will always find the grace of God coming into men’s hearts to strengthen them and make them victorious, when there has been the preparation of the lowered estimate of one’s self. Hollow out your heart by self-distrust, and God will fill it with the flashing waters of His strength bestowed. The more I feel myself weak, the more I am meant not to fold my hands and say, ‘I never can do that thing; it is of no use my trying to attempt it, I may as well give it up’; but to say, ‘Lord I there is none beside Thee that can set the balance right between the mighty and him that hath no strength.’ ‘Help me, O Lord my God!’ Just as those little hermit-crabs that you see upon the seashore, with soft bodies unprotected, make for the first empty shell they can find, and house in that and make it their fortress, our exposed natures, our unarmoured characters, our sense of weakness, ought to drive us to Him. As the unarmed population of a land invaded by the enemy pack their goods and hurry to the nearest fortified place, so when I say to myself I have no strength, let me say, ‘Thou art my Rock, my Strength, my Fortress, and my Deliverer. My God, in whom I trust, my Buckler, and the Horn of my Salvation, and my high Tower.’
Now, there is one more word about this matter, and that is, the way by which we summon God into the field. Asa prays, ‘Help us, O Lord our God! for we rest on Thee’; and the word that he employs for ‘rest’ is not a very frequent one. It carries with it a very striking picture. Let me illustrate it by a reference to another case where it is employed. It is used in that tragical story of the death of Saul, when the man that saw the last of him came to David and drew in a sentence the pathetic picture of the wearied, wounded, broken-hearted, discrowned, desperate monarch, leaning on his spear. You can understand how hard he leaned, with what a grip he held it, and how heavily his whole languid, powerless weight pressed upon it. And that is the word that is used here. ‘We lean on Thee’ as the wounded Saul leaned upon his spear. Is that a picture of your faith, my friend? Do you lean upon God like that, laying your hand upon Him till every vein on your hand stands out with the force and tension of the grasp? Or do you lean lightly, as a man that does not feel much the need of a support? Lean hard if you wish God to come quickly. ‘We rest on Thee; help us, O Lord!’
III. Courageous advance should follow self-distrust and summoning God by faith.
‘. . . I am weak,
But confident in self-despair.’
IV. And now the last point that I would notice is this-the all-powerful plea which God will answer.
‘Thou art our God.’ ‘It takes two to make a bargain,’ and God and we have both to act before He is truly ours. He gives Himself to us, but there is an act of ours required too, and you must take the God that is given to you, and make Him yours because you make yourselves His. And when I have taken Him for mine, and not unless I have, He is mine, to all intents of strength-giving and blessedness. When I can say, ‘Thou art my God, and it is impossible that Thou wilt deny Thyself,’ then nothing can snap that bond; and ‘neither life nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature’ can do it. But there is a creature that can, and that is I. For I can separate myself from the love and the guardianship of God, and He can say to a man, ‘I am thy God,’ and the man not answer, ‘Thou art my God.’
And then there is another plea here. ‘Let not man prevail against Thee.’ What business had Asa to identify his little kingdom and his victory with God’s cause and God’s conquest? Only this, that he had flung himself into God’s arms, and because he had, and was trying to do what God would have him do, he was quite sure that it was not Asa but Jehovah that the million of Ethiopians were fighting against. People warn us against the fanaticism of taking for granted that our cause is God’s cause. Well, we need the warning sometimes, but we may be quite sure of this, that if we have made God’s cause ours, He will make our cause His, down to the minutest point in our daily lives.
And then, if thus we say in the depths of our hearts, and live accordingly, ‘There is none other that fighteth for us, but only Thou, O God!’ it will be with us as it was with Asa in the story before us, ‘the enemy fled, and could not recover themselves, for they were destroyed before the Lord and before His hosts.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
man = mortal man. Hebrew. ‘enosh. App-14.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
cried unto: 2Ch 13:14, 2Ch 18:31, 2Ch 32:20, Exo 14:10, 1Ch 5:20, Psa 18:6, Psa 22:5, Psa 34:6, Psa 50:15, Psa 91:15, Psa 120:1, Act 2:21
nothing: Lev 26:8, Deu 32:30, Jdg 7:7, 1Sa 14:6, 1Ki 20:27-30, Amo 5:9, 2Co 12:9, 2Co 12:10
them that: 2Ch 20:12, Deu 32:36, Isa 40:29-31
rest on thee: 2Ch 32:8, 1Sa 17:35, 1Sa 17:36, Psa 37:5, Pro 18:10, Isa 26:3, Isa 26:4, Isa 41:10-14, Joh 14:1, Joh 14:27, Rom 8:31
in thy name: 2Ch 13:12, 2Ch 13:18, 1Sa 17:45, 1Sa 17:46, Psa 20:5, Psa 20:7, Isa 26:13, Act 3:16
man: or, mortal man, Deu 32:27, Jos 7:8, Jos 7:9, 1Sa 2:9, Psa 9:19, Psa 79:9, Psa 79:10, Isa 2:22, Jer 1:19, Zec 2:8, Mat 16:18, Act 9:4
Reciprocal: Deu 1:30 – he shall Deu 20:1 – horses Jos 14:12 – if so be Jdg 7:2 – too many 1Ki 12:21 – an hundred 1Ki 15:11 – Asa 1Ki 18:37 – Hear me 1Ki 20:15 – two hundred 1Ki 22:43 – he walked 2Ki 18:5 – after him 2Ki 19:15 – prayed 2Ch 6:34 – thy people 2Ch 17:3 – his father David 2Ch 20:7 – our God 2Ch 20:32 – the way 2Ch 25:8 – God hath power 2Ch 26:7 – God helped Psa 11:1 – In the Psa 108:11 – go forth Psa 118:12 – in the name Isa 28:12 – This Isa 37:15 – General Zec 4:6 – Not Mat 8:25 – save Heb 11:34 – turned Jam 5:16 – The effectual
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
KING ASAS PRAYER
And Asa cried unto the Lord his God.
2Ch 14:11
Asa set the battle in array first, and then he prayed. Effort and prayer go well together.
I. The prayer rises by three flights to the height of supreme confidence.Asa knows that his army is outnumbered, and fears Zerahs chariots, which were not used in the Hebrew armies. But faith can afford to see clearly the weakness of its resources and yet to count on victory, for it counts on God.
II. So Asas second flight rose above the first by its asking for needed and possible help, and basing the petition on the two pleas that it was faith that asked and faith and obedience that had made him and his men dare this unequal fight.Our reliance on God gives us a claim on Him which it is impossible that He should not recognise. God never dishonours faiths drafts. And He never sends us a warfare at our own charges.
III. Asas third flight rises still higher, for in it he, as it were, effaces himself and his troops altogether, and puts Jehovah in their place as the real antagonist of Zerah.Because God is their God, and they are fighting in and for His name, the lustre of victory or the shame of defeat will be Gods, not theirs. It is the daring of faith thus to identify our cause with Gods, to lose ourselves in Him, and it is blasphemous to do so unless we have done as Asa didgone into the fight depending on God and for His glory.
Illustration
Asas prayer is a model for all who are going forth to meet an enemy. It would be a good prayer to offer at the head of an army before a battle. The several points of this prayer should be noticed particularly. Note, first, Asas plea, based upon Gods powerit is nothing with Thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power. God has omnipotence in His arm, and can as well give victory against a million as against ten. This ought to give us comfort and confidence in danger. Gods power never can be overmatched. Note, next, the appeal to the love of GodHelp us, O Lord our God; for we rely on Thee. Any strong man knows how an appeal to his love and sympathy and his kindness of heart moves him. This is, indeed, a moving prayer. God loves nothing in us more than to have us throw ourselves with childlike confidence upon His goodness and grace. Note, third, that the battle was the Lords, and that therefore the king could appeal to God for help. In Thy name we are come against this multitude. The plea made was that, since the battle was the Lords, and Asas army was standing for God, therefore no man should be permitted to prevail against God.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
2Ch 14:11. Asa cried unto the Lord his God He that sought God in the time of his peace and prosperity, could, with holy boldness, cry to God in the day of his trouble, and call him his God. Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, &c. There is no difference or difficulty with thee, to help or save by many or few, by those that are mighty, or by them that have no power Thus he gives the glory of his almighty power to him, who works in his own strength, not in the strength of instruments: nay, whose glory it is to help the most helpless, and perfect strength in the weakness of his people. Help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on thee He was well prepared for this attack, having of Judah three hundred thousand, and of Benjamin two hundred and eighty thousand, all well armed, and mighty men of valour, 2Ch 14:8; yet he trusted not to his preparations, but relied on the Lord. In thy name we go against this great multitude That is, by thy commission, in confidence of thy assistance, and for the maintenance of thy honour, and service, and people. Let not man prevail against thee Hebrew, , enosh, mortal man. If he prevail against us, it will be said that he prevails against thee; because thou art our God, and we rest on thee, and go forth in thy name, which thou hast encouraged us to do. The enemy is a mortal man; make it appear what an unequal match he is for an immortal God! Maintain, Lord, thine own honour.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
14:11 And Asa cried unto the LORD his God, and said, 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; {f} let not man prevail against thee.
(f) Thus the children of God neither trust in their own power or policy, nor fear the strength and subtilty of their enemies, but consider the cause and see whether their enterprises tend to God’s glory, and thereupon assure themselves of the victory by him, who alone is Almighty and can turn all flesh into dust with the breath of his mouth.