Bible Commentaries
2 Chronicles 14

Verses 1-14

IV

THE REIGN OF ASA AND THE PARALLEL FORTUNES OF ISRAEL

1 Kings 15:9-22; 2 Chronicles 14:1-16:14

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. 1 Kings 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 2 Chronicles 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.

2 Chronicles 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 2 Chronicles 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 2 Chronicles 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 Hosea 4:1-5).

There is a remarkable date in 2 Chronicles 15:19; 2 Chronicles 16:1, when compared with 1 Kings 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 1 Chronicles 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 1 Kings 15:19 and 2 Chronicles 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 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 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. 2 Chronicles 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" (Mark 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 2 Chronicles 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 2 Chronicles 15:19; 2 Chronicles 16:1, comparing with 1 Kings 16:8.

20. Winy is Azariah’s prophecy attributed to Oded in 1 Chronicles 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"?