“Asa’s Folly” – 2 Chronicles 16

Most of you can remember the occasion in which you left your parents’ house and became independent; living on your own and making your own decisions. For some of you it was when you went off to college. For others it might have been when you got married. And some others may have left home much earlier or some much later than that.

I remember when that day came for me. My dad actually came to me and told me that it was time. He told me he loved me and that I was welcome there any time but that it was time for me to become my own man and that I needed to find my own place. I respected that in my dad. He did what needed to be done for my own good. And I’m sure it wasn’t easy for him. Especially since I was only 6 years old at the time. I just got on my tricycle and rode off.

They say that the average age for leaving home and becoming independent is about 18-20 years old but I wonder when is the average age for Christians to start becoming independent from God. I mean, that’s what happens, right? As we grow and mature in the Lord, we are able to start making decisions on our own. We don’t have to rely on God like we did at first, right? Of course not.

In fact, as is so common in God’s way, it is just the opposite. What is natural for man and makes good sense is just the opposite from what God wants for us in our relationship to Him. We are coming out of a series on the wisdom of God and the wisdom of man and we have seen that what God does and what He wants is foolishness to man because they can’t believe it or understand it. But through the teaching of the Holy Spirit, we as believers can understand it and do His will.

So it is with our reliance on God. Natural man would think that the more wisdom you received from God and the older and supposedly smarter you got, the less you needed God. But we know differently…even if we don’t always show it. In fact, I think that is part of the reason that older people are generally more reluctant to accept Jesus into their life. They have to agree that their way is not best and that they give up control of their life and that is very hard for somebody who has been in charge of their life for so many years.

Usually what it takes is for something bad to happen and they realize that while they may be in charge of their lives, they are not in control of what happens to them and so they then admit that they would rather have God be in charge instead of themselves. And then as they grow in the Lord, they see that they need God even more and more.

What is sad is when that “old man” or “old fleshly nature” rears its ugly head in the life of a mature believer and they forget or ignore what they have known and seen with their own eyes about relying on God and they decide to make some important decision without the help of the Holy Spirit that lives inside of us and without going to God in prayer about it first. In our passage this morning in 2 Chronicles in the Old Testament we will see that Asa was that kind of person.

Asa was the great-great grandson of King David himself and was king for over 40 years. And for the first 36 years, it says he did what was right in the sight of the Lord. At this time the nation of Israel had been split in two with the northern part still called Israel and the southern part called Judah . And for years, while they were separate, there was still peace between them. In fact, God had given Judah peace with all its neighbors for a long time since Judah had fought with the much larger armies of the Cushites and the Libyans. And when they had fought, God allowed the much-smaller Judah to beat them easily. So, with that background, let’s read 2 Chronicles chapter 16. It’s not terribly long and you need the whole chapter for reference.

“In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah and fortified Ramah to prevent anyone from leaving or entering the territory of Asa king of Judah . ² Asa then took the silver and gold out of the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and of his own palace and sent it to Ben-Hadad king of Aram, who was ruling in Damascus. ³ “Let there be a treaty between me and you,” he said, “as there was between my father and your father. See, I am sending you silver and gold. Now break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel so he will withdraw from me.” ⁴ Ben-Hadad agreed with King Asa and sent the commanders of his forces against the towns of Israel . They conquered Ijon, Dan, Abel Maim^[a] and all the store cities of Naphtali.⁵ When Baasha heard this, he stopped building Ramah and abandoned his work. ⁶ Then King Asa brought all the men of Judah , and they carried away from Ramah the stones and timber Baasha had been using. With them he built up Geba and Mizpah. ⁷ At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him: “Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand. ⁸ Were not the Cushites^[b] and Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen^[c]? Yet when you relied on the Lord, he delivered them into your hand. ⁹ For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war.” ¹⁰ Asa was angry with the seer because of this; he was so enraged that he put him in prison. At the same time Asa brutally oppressed some of the people. ¹¹ The events of Asa’s reign, from beginning to end, are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel . ¹² In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the Lord, but only from the physicians. ¹³ Then in the forty-first year of his reign Asa died and rested with his ancestors. ¹⁴ They buried him in the tomb that he had cut out for himself in the City of David . They laid him on a bier covered with spices and various blended perfumes, and they made a huge fire in his honor.”

So, here we have King Asa who is about to be attacked by the country directly to the north, Israel . He has been in worse situations and God has always provided for him. He has been a believer and follower of the one true God all of his life and instead of ending the race strong by believing in God’s proven power and provision, Asa does a 180 and puts his trust in a treaty.

Now, the first thing I want to do is to take up for poor old Asa. There are good things to be said about him and even this decision. First, he had done lots of good things in the past. In the previous chapter it says that he removed the old idols and repaired the altars. That’s a good thing. It even says that for a while his heart was fully devoted to God.

Secondly, this decision had precedence. He says in verse 3 that their fathers had done this same thing. So how bad could it be? And lastly…it worked, right? Baasha stopped preparing for war with Judah and started to defend himself against the other country. So what’s the problem? Why would Hannani the prophet (or seer) say he was foolish? Was he just jealous? Maybe Asa had not listened to Hannani’s ideas and Hannani just got mad. No. Hannani spoke for the Lord and said that the problem was that Asa had not relied on God but instead relied on the treaty.

In fact, there is nothing that says Asa ever tried to ask God or the prophet anything about it. He just did it. Nike would be proud of him because he just did it but God was not. So, I want to look at this closer and see first how this could have happened and then we will see what the consequences were.

Now, to see how this could have happened, we first need to define the problem. And if you had asked Asa he probably would have said he made a little mistake. He might say it was a misjudgment, a lapse, blunder, boo-boo or misstep. But what does God call it? Sin. And one way or another, pride is the root of all sin. When you lie it is to keep from looking bad. When you gossip, it is to make somebody look bad so you can look better. When you lust, pride tells you that you deserve it. Pride is the high opinion of oneself and always leads to sin one way or another.

But while you have an active, passionate relationship with God, you won’t sin because you will see yourself in light of Who God is and when that happens, pride goes out the window. 1 John 2:16 says, “For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world.” But on the other hand, Psalm 37:4 says, “Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

To stop the cycle of sin you have to get rid of pride and to get rid of pride you have to delight yourself in the Lord. And you do that by spending time with Him in prayer and in His Word. And I know what you’re thinking. Well, you’re not really thinking it. You wouldn’t dare consciously think this. But somewhere in the back of your mind you are thinking that all that prayer and Bible study takes a lot of time and effort.

Can’t God be satisfied with once or twice on Sundays and maybe a Wednesday thrown in every now and then? Doesn’t He give any credit for what we have done in the past? I mean lots of people act worse than I do. He should grade on the curve. I’m a busy guy and I’m not near as bad as the guy over there.

I’m not married but I have it on good authority that an intimate relationship takes a lot of time and effort. It takes time and it takes understanding and affection and I hate to say it guys, but she is right. You are going to have to communicate. I know. I know. You can’t communicate if she is communicating all the time but you have to figure out a way. But if you spent as much energy on your marriage as you do your relationship to God, how long ago would your marriage last?

You can’t show up at the house once a week and spend a few minutes with your spouse and expect everything to be ok. Why should God be any different? In fact, unlike your spouse, the Holy Spirit of God lives inside of us as believers and is there to help you and to talk to you and guide you all the time. Do you know why? Because He wants to spend time with you. He wants to help you because He loves you.

Look at verse 9. For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. What a great and powerful and comforting verse…if you are fully committed to Him. If not…well, let’s see what the consequences were for Asa. We have seen that pride and a poor relationship will cause you to sin. Let’s see what happened to Asa because of his sin.

To get a good picture you have to go back to how it used to be for Asa. Look in the previous chapter; chapter 15 and the 15^thverse. “They sought God eagerly, and He was found by them. So the Lord gave them rest on every side.” How much is peace worth? How much is it worth to you as a person, not just as a country? What would you give to have rest on every side?

This doesn’t say that all their problems were solved and life was perfect. It doesn’t mean that they no longer had to work or shop or pay for their property. They still had death and disease and drought and poverty. But because they relied on God, they had peace. Isaiah 26:3 says, “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts You.”

And those were the good old days for Asa. But Satan came along and whispered to him (and maybe you have heard this too). “Hey, you’re a pretty smart guy. You have made some wise decisions and you can make this one. You are a good person and even your parents made this decision so it’s not necessary to spend time in prayer about it. It’s no big deal. But you better move quickly.”

And that all makes sense. We know Satan is the father of lies but all of that just makes sense so it can’t be him, right? And so we plug our ears to that still, small voice that comes from deep inside that urges us to seek God’s face about this and we make the decision based on worldly wisdom and then what happens?

Read verse 10 again in chapter 16. Asa was angry with the seer because of this; he was so enraged that he put him in prison. At the same time Asa brutally oppressed some of the people. Have you known people like that? Maybe, probably that even describes you sometimes. The peace that we used to enjoy is gone. And because we don’t have peace in our lives it spills out and onto other people including those that we love and trust the most. And that is not what we want and not what we intended. How did this happen?

And then we see that Satan has done it to us again. But we can’t blame him. It’s our fault and all because we didn’t spend a little time with the Lord before we made that decision.

What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

Let me just tell you that every time you see conflict, sin is involved somewhere. I’m not saying at all that we always have to agree with each other but any time there is conflict, whether it is between husband and wife or church members or countries, there is sin involved somehow. One of the parties or maybe both have sin in their lives and God is not being honored in that situation. So, a spiritually mature and wise person will see conflict start to flare up and will immediately take stock of himself and his motives and, if needed, will make the correct change so that peace can be restored.

I was talking to our friend Gerry Lewis at Harvest Association the other day and he said he was in a meeting not long ago where he said not one person agreed with another how to accomplish the goal. He said it got loud and it got lively but not one person insisted that their way was correct and not one insulted another and nobody tried to hurt anybody with their words. Gerry said it was the most fun he has ever had in a meeting and wished they were all like that.

And our meetings and our worship and our dinners and our socializing will be like that when we have peace with God. When we have peace with God, we will, to the best of our abilities, have peace with others. It doesn’t mean that we won’t have disagreements. And it doesn’t mean we won’t have problems. This is still planet earth where Satan is the prince of the air and so man, born of woman, will have few days and full of trouble. (Job 14)

Picture a massive hurricane out in the ocean. On the surface, the winds are whipping the waves up high and then crashing down over and over again. The spray, the wind, the whitecaps are everywhere and never-ending. But below the surface, if you go far enough down, the water is calm and clear. The fish swim with no troubles. They can see what is going on up above but it doesn’t affect them because they have the depth to protect them.

It’s the same with our relationship with God through His Son Jesus. If we have depth and maturity and His wisdom then we too can have peace when the storm comes. Pride will say, “Hey, you can handle the storm. You’re strong enough.” Wisdom says, “Whether God calms the storm or allows it to rage, I can still have peace because I can rely on God.” He has proven Himself faithful even when we have not and the longer we rely on Him the more we realize how much we need Him.