Day to day life is not easy for most of us. We encounter battles of one kind or another, which cause us to evaluate or re-evaluate our situation. We are supposed to take everything to Lord God in prayer, always follow Lord God's leadership, and keep our eyes and our hearts on Lord God.
Asa, son of Abijah, reigned over Judah 10 years in peace. The Holy Bible says Asa was good. He took down altars to idols and led the people to worship Lord God. There was no battle in Judah because the Lord God had given him rest and Judah prospered.
Asa did have an army even though there was peace in the land. There were 300,000 men out of Judah and 280,000 out of Benjamin. Zerah the Ethiopian came against them with an army of 1,000,000 and 300 chariots. Asa and his army were greatly outnumbered. Asa prayed to the Lord God requesting help.
2 Chronicles 14:11
Then Asa called to the Lord his God and said, "Lord, there is no one besides You to help in the battle between the powerful and those who have no strength; so help us, O Lord our God, for we trust in You, and in Your name have come against this multitude. O Lord, You are our God; let not man prevail against You."
The Holy Bible says the Lord God smote the Ethiopians and the Ethiopians fled. Asa and his army pursued them, overthrew them and the Ethiopians were destroyed, and Asa and his army carried away spoils. Although the surrounding cities were not involved in the battle and were not part of the Ethiopians, Asa and his army continued in battle attacking the surrounding cities and the tents in the fields keeping livestock and carried away their livestock and returned to Jerusalem.
Asa had called on the Lord God in his time of need, when he was outnumbered, and the Lord God was with him, and he won that battle. However, the Lord God never intended for Asa and his army to attack the surrounding cities and the herders in the field.
After Asa and his army returned to Jerusalem, the Spirit of God came upon Azariah and led him to Asa to inform him of the importance of maintaining relationship with Lord God and of keeping God’s statutes.
2 Chronicles 15:2-7
And he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; The Lord 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. Now for a long season Israel hath been without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law. But when they in their trouble did turn unto the Lord God of Israel, and sought him, he was found of them. 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 countries. And nation was destroyed of nation, and city of city: for God did vex them with all adversity. Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak: for your work shall be rewarded.
After hearing this, Asa once again removed all the idols from the land of Judah and renewed the altar to the Lord God and gathered everyone together, including the strangers that they had brought from Ephraim and Manasseh, and they made offering to the Lord and made a covenant with the Lord God that they would seek the Lord God with all their heart and with all their soul. They also vowed that whosoever did not seek the Lord God would be put to death. They swore their oath with all their heart and all their desire, and so Lord God was with them, and the Lord God gave them rest once again and there was no more war until Asa had reigned 35 years.
I believe that this shows that keeping Lord God’s commandments and statutes and abiding in the word of the Lord is an important part of having relationship with Lord God and for Lord God to be with us continually. Having Lord God with us continually is both a blessing and prevention of many things that would otherwise act against us.
In the 36th year of Asa’s reign, Baasha king of Israel came against Judah. Baasha attempted to build Ramah with the intent to prevent anyone in or out of Judah. This time Asa sent gold and silver to his ally Ben-hadad requesting that Ben-hadad break his alliance with Baasha king of Israel so that Baasha would leave them. Ben-hadad accepted the gold and silver and attacked cities within Israel, causing Baasha to leave Ramah. After Baasha had left Ramah, Asa and his men went and gathered all the building materials from Ramah and carried them away and built Geba and Mizpah.
The Lord sent to Asa a seer named Hanani, who told Asa because he had not called on the Lord God during his time of trouble and sought outside help, the king of Syria had escaped from his hand. Read this passage:
2 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 shew 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.
This passage is so meaningful. Because they did not seek the Lord God and found other solutions, they will now have wars. While all of us would rather avoid war altogether, the text leads me to believe that perhaps the Lord God wanted him to have that one battle; perhaps to prevent other battles, perhaps to prevent a greater evil, but because they did not call on the Lord God and did not follow Lord God’s leadership the Lord God is now not going to protect Judah from war and they might even have more battles than they would have otherwise.
This has meaning even today. First, if we abide in the Lord and keep all his commandments and statutes, the Lord God is with us. If we go outside of God or try to go around God, he is not our protector. Second, there are many times when we call on Lord God when trouble arises, and we are supposed to. But if we had been keeping our hearts on Him in the first place, we might not have ever been in a situation where we needed rescue. Third, sometimes we need to battle. There might be a greater purpose outside of ourselves, one that we might never know. The important point is that we keep our eyes and our hearts on Lord God and Christ Jesus and that we follow Lord God’s leadership. We cannot lose faith. Fourth, the Lord God has already promised that if we will repent and pray, he will heal our land. I think our land needs to be healed and we need to spend more time in prayer.
2 Chronicles 7:14
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
Let us pray:
In the name of Christ Jesus, I pray to Lord God in the highest heaven and Christ Jesus of Nazareth requesting that the Lord God and Christ Jesus forgive my sin and grant me salvation in Christ Jesus again. Please heal me and be with me. Please lead me and guide me. Please protect me. Please make whatever battles that I must endure be few and short in duration. Please heal the land and loose peace to be across the land. I pray this request in the name of Christ Jesus of Nazareth. Amen.