Year One, November 13

Cursed Is the Man Who Trusts in Man1

2 Chronicles 16:1-14

1In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah and built Ramah, that he might permit no one to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah. (The king of Israel was annoyed because the peace and prosperity of Judah, and the nation’s faith in the true God, had inspired many of his subjects to move to the land under Asa’s rule.) 2Then Asa took silver and gold from the treasures of the house of the LORD and the king’s house and sent them to Ben-hadad king of Syria, who lived in Damascus, saying, 3“There is a covenant between me and you, as there was between my father and your father. Behold, I am sending to you silver and gold. Go, break your covenant with Baasha king of Israel, that he may withdraw from me.” 4And Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel, and they conquered Ijon, Dan, Abel-maim, and all the store cities of Naphtali. 5And when Baasha heard of it, he stopped building Ramah and let his work cease. 6Then King Asa took all Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber, with which Baasha had been building, and with them he built Geba and Mizpah.

What a proof this is that the best believers may fall into unbelief and sometimes place their trust in humans. Asa turned to Syria for help and for a while he was glad he did. The good outcome probably convinced him he was right in asking King Ben-hadad for help. But we are mistaken if we measure the correctness of our actions by their result. The Lord was angry with Asa and chastised2 him with trouble for the rest of his life. He took the temple gold to bribe a heathen king to break his treaties, but his great fault was that he trusted in human power rather than in God.

7At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him, “Because you relied on the king of Syria, and did not rely on the LORD your God, the army of the king of Syria has escaped you. 8Were not the Ethiopians and the Libyans a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because you relied on the LORD, he gave them into your hand. 9For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him. You have done foolishly in this, for from now on you will have wars.” (Hanani was faithful to Asa and told him the truth. This godly king should have been touched in his conscience, but his soul was not in agreement with God. He did not receive the rebuke like a gracious man should have.) 10Then Asa was angry with the seer and put him in the stocks in prison, for he was in a rage with him because of this. And Asa inflicted cruelties upon some of the people at the same time.

His trust in physical means had apparently led to good results and so the king resented the prophet’s warning. He became irritated and, sadly, the old nature in him took over. Until this time Asa had been a fair-minded king, but now he acted like a tyrant. We must not judge anyone by their isolated actions, but by the general course of their life. After all, Asa was one of the best kings in Judah’s history.

11The acts of Asa, from first to last, are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. 12In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet, and his disease became severe. Yet even in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but sought help from physicians. (As a child of God he could not be left undisciplined for such sins. The disease in his feet became a heavy rod with which the Lord used to strike him. It is sad to see him at this time repeating his reckless trust in the creature instead of the Creator. We may call in the physician, but we must not forget our God. The most skillful doctor will do us no good unless God is in it.) 13And Asa slept with his fathers, dying in the forty-first year of his reign. 14They buried him in the tomb that he had cut for himself in the city of David. They laid him on a bier that had been filled with various kinds of spices prepared by the perfumer’s art, and they made a very great fire in his honor.

The people knew how to value a good king. His memory was very fragrant among them. May our names also “smell sweet and blossom in the dust.”3

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¹ Jeremiah 17:5

² chasten, chastening or chastisement - The act of discipline which may include scolding, criticizing or pain inflicted for the purpose of correction or moral improvement

³ English poet James Shirley (1596-1666) from The Contention of Ajax and Ulysses