Relying on God Always

Greetings to you in the name of Christ Jesus.

Today, I bring to you Goodnews from the Book of Chronicles II. I shall be looking at the lifestyle of King Asa, king of Judah and the lessons that we can learn from it. All scripture verses are taken from the Authorised King James Version [KJV]. The main scripture verse is taken from II Chronicles 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 not relied on the LORD thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand. Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen? 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 show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars."

King Asa was a good king when he took over the reign of kingship when his father, Abijah died [II Chronicles 14:1-2]. Asa started leading the people of Judah on the path of righteousness. He destroyed the altars of the strange gods in the land of Judah. He also destroyed idolatry from Judah and commanded them to stick to the laws and commandment of Jehovah God. We learnt that Asa’s heart clang unto the Lord in everything that he did.

His faith in Jehovah God was further elaborated in II Chronicles 14:11, when he called on God to fight the Ethiopians troops of one million and three hundred chariots. This is how the King James version puts it:

“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.”

And true to his prayer, God brought victory to him against the Ethiopians. Man cannot defeat God. His confidence in God went a step further by taking an oath. Asa and the people of Judah took an oath unto God to the extent that anyone who would not seek God should be put to death [II Chronicles 15:13]. To show his love for God, he even removed her mother from being Queen because of her idolatry.

So, because Asa put his total faith in God, for 35 good years of his reign, he had peace. But something happened. The king of Israel, Baasha came up against Judah. What did Asa do? He went into the house of God and took the treasures (silver and gold) and sent them to king of Syria, Benhadad to prevent Baasha from coming against him. Unlike him, his father Abijah had similar challenge when the king of Israel, Jeroboam came against him, but he put his trust in God and won against Jeroboam [II Chronicles 13:13-20].

King Asa succeeded despite not relying God. Our God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God [Deut. 4:24]. But, in His love [Zechariah 3:17] God sent Hanani the seer to rebuke Asa. But what did Asa do this time? In his anger, he put him in jail and oppressed some of the people.  Because he did not listen to the voice of God through Hanani, during his last days as a king, he never had peace. He was diseased in his feet in his 39th year reign as king. Despite the fact that the disease was great, he didn’t put his trust in God to cure him, instead he put his trust in physicians.

“And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not to the LORD, but to the physicians” [II Chronicles 16:12].

Now, what are the lessons over here for us to learn? Most of us have depended and trusted God to our current level in life. But, we soon forget that it was God who through His grace has brought us this far. We turned to put our trust in things around us: friends, family members, co-workers, politicians, economists, scientists, etc. We should also know that the Word of God is for rebuke [2 Tim 4:2]. When we transgressed and are rebuked we should take it in good faith and repent.

The story and life of Asa should be a life-changing experience for us. Even in his sickness, God expected Asa to trust him for healing. But he didn’t do that. Probably he thought because he was rebuked God will not forgive him. The good news is that God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins when we turn to him [I John 1:7-10]. God is daily calling us to come unto Him.

In conclusion, from what we learnt now, God expects us to always rely on Him for the solution of our problems. Be it financial, academic, spiritual or what have you, He is ready to listen to us and give us peace.

May the Peace of God which passes all understanding guide your hearts in everything you do.

AMEN!