I Kings 15:1-24; II Chronicles 13-16     Listen

Rehoboam out; Abijam (aka Abijah) in (I Kings 15:1-8; II Chronicles 13)

Rehoboam's boy takes over after his death, but reigns only 3 years - didn't serve the One True God according to I Kings 15:3. He is compared (in a bad way) to David in this verse. David is commended for having a "perfect heart" before God here. For more information on David's "perfect heart," click here. Abijah was pretty much preoccupied with getting Israel united with Judah once again for his 3 years as king of Judah. He even went to war with the Northern Kingdom in what can only be described as an enormously bloody battle. With supernatural help from God and despite an ambush maneuver by Jeroboam, 500,000 of the 800,000-man army of Israel (Northern Kingdom) under King Jeroboam were wiped out.

Abijah does precede the battle with a noteworthy speech, making some excellent points to Jeroboam in II Chronicles 13:4-12. He basically says to Jeroboam, "Your new gods ain't nuthin'!" Obviously, Abijah intends to leave a legacy of a united Israel. Abijah does, in fact, prevail in that battle, and Jeroboam never recovers afterward. But with all the excitement of his three years, when the smoke clears, there's still a Northern Kingdom separate from Judah (Southern Kingdom). Abijah's only significant legacy at the end of his short reign was 14 wives, 22 sons and 16 daughters. I wonder when he even had time to fight.

The "covenant of salt" found in II Chronicles 13:5 is only referenced one other time in the Old Testament - Numbers 18:19 (see notes), "All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer to the LORD, I have given to you and your sons and daughters with you as an ordinance forever; it is a covenant of salt forever before the LORD with you and your descendants with you." It is apparently a reference to the preservation, the permanence of a covenant.

Incidentally, in verse 7 Abijah refers to "children of Belial." While the KJV frequently transliterates the Hebrew word, Belial, as a proper name, in fact it is a general Hebrew word meaning worthless or wicked. Seeing it capitalized, one might get the impression that it was the name of a pagan god, but not so. In the NKJV it is translated here at "worthless rogues."

So...Abijah's three-year mission as king of Judah was characterized as a Northern/Southern Kingdom of Israel unification period, but it failed. He died after tremendous bloodshed with nothing to show for his efforts. There's a great lesson to be learned here. Abijah missed the whole point...BIG TIME! The kingdom split because of Solomon's tolerance for paganism (I Kings 11, see notes). The split of Israel into the Northern and Southern Kingdoms was done by the hand of God. Therefore, restoring the Kingdom of Israel as it was during Solomon's reign could only have been accomplished by King Abijah serving the one true God of Israel. However, I Kings 15:3 says he did not have any interest in that; instead, "he walked in all the sins of his father." As I said, Abijah missed the point - the spiritual point. The forced reunification of Israel was not the remedy for a spiritual problem...yet Abijah was not in tune with God and did not see that.

How about a good king for a change...enter Asa (I Kings 15:9-15; II Chronicles 14)

Abijah's boy, Asa, becomes king - a good king - not perfect, but a good king. It's about time. Asa rids the land of the male prostitutes and removes all the idols his father had made. He got rid of most of the high places (altars to pagan gods) - the ones in the cities of Judah anyway. According to I Kings 15:14, he didn't exactly get all of them though. They kind of crept back in during his reign. He fortified the cities of Judah and built up a 580,000-man army. Asa had a large army, but it was nothing compared to the Ethiopian army of 1 million that attacks Judah, headed up by Zerah the Ethiopian (aka Zerah the Cushite). Following is an entry extracted from "The Expositor's Bible Commentary" regarding this battle: "Cushites, known also as Nubians, served as Egyptian mercenaries and, by the close of the next century, had come to rule all Egypt, as the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty."

This battle was fought in Southern Israel. However, Asa prays for victory! God enables Judah to pursue them as they fled back toward Ethiopia and wipe out this massive army. What a miracle and a testimony to the power of God!

We again see a little bit of complication with elementary math when it comes to counting up the Tribes of Israel. Even though Judah was the lone tribe of the Southern Kingdom, it is obvious from this passage that a sizable fighting force (280,000) from the Tribe of Benjamin joined with them. You will recall that Simeon had no distinct territorial lines of its own; it was all contained within the borders of Judah. It must be that some of the Tribe of Benjamin aligned themselves with the Northern Kingdom, while others merged with Judah. Otherwise, one can only account for nine Northern Kingdom tribes instead of ten. Click here to see more on that issue from the notes on I Kings 12:16-24.

Asa's all Jehovah all the time (II Chronicles 15)

1 Now the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded.
2 And he went out to meet Asa, and said to him: “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. The LORD is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.
3 For a long time Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without law;
4 but when in their trouble they turned to the LORD God of Israel, and sought Him, He was found by them.
5 And in those times there was no peace to the one who went out, nor to the one who came in, but great turmoil was on all the inhabitants of the lands.
6 So nation was destroyed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every adversity.
7 But you, be strong and do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded!”
8 ¶ And when Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and removed the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities which he had taken in the mountains of Ephraim; and he restored the altar of the LORD that was before the vestibule of the LORD.
9 Then he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those who dwelt with them from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, for they came over to him in great numbers from Israel when they saw that the LORD his God was with him.
10 ¶ So they gathered together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa.
11 And they offered to the LORD at that time seven hundred bulls and seven thousand sheep from the spoil they had brought.
12 Then they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul;
13 and whoever would not seek the LORD God of Israel was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman.
14 Then they took an oath before the LORD with a loud voice, with shouting and trumpets and rams’ horns.
15 And all Judah rejoiced at the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and sought Him with all their soul; and He was found by them, and the LORD gave them rest all around.
16 ¶ Also he removed Maachah, the mother of Asa the king, from being queen mother, because she had made an obscene image of Asherah; and Asa cut down her obscene image, then crushed and burned it by the Brook Kidron.
17 But the high places were not removed from Israel. Nevertheless the heart of Asa was loyal all his days.
18 ¶ He also brought into the house of God the things that his father had dedicated and that he himself had dedicated: silver and gold and utensils.
19 And there was no war until the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Asa.

Then Asa gets really zealous towards God at this point after hearing from God through Azariah the son of Oded. He gets rid of more idols and high places to false gods. These little rascal gods seemed to multiply (with some help from the misguided people). He goes one step further this time in an attempt to suspend their seeming proliferation; he enters into an oath with the people of Judah to stop making those idols and stop worshipping those gods...and death this time to those who have a relapse. The oath was marked with one of those big smoky days at the really big altar - 700 oxen and 7,000 sheep sacrificed...in one day. He even makes the gutsy move of removing his own Mama from being Queen because of her idol worship. And then, here it is again, verse 17 says he did fall a tad short of complete success in his extermination of false worship.

What about freedom of religion? Not here! Notice verse 13, "and whoever would not seek the LORD God of Israel was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman." Asa was obviously DEAD serious about the one true God. We see in verse 9 that Asa's influence against pagan worship extended into the Northern Kingdom (verses 8-9), but he fell short of ridding Judah AND Israel of their pagan worship when it says in verse 17, "But the high places were not removed from Israel. Nevertheless the heart of Asa was loyal all his days."

Asa has a tough time in his elder years (I Kings 15:16-24; II Chronicles 16)

In the 36th year of Asa's 41 years of reign, Baasha, King of Israel (Northern Kingdom), builds Ramah right outside Jerusalem for the purpose of interrupting Judah's trade routes. So, what does Asa do - kick them out like he did the 1,000,000 Ethiopians with God's help? No! He calls the King of Syria (Benhadad) for assistance - of all people, the King of Syria. Here's the good news and the bad news. That worked; Baasha did evacuate Ramah and give up the idea of attacking Jerusalem, but God sends a prophet, Hanani, to tell Asa that, because he didn't rely on God like before against the Ethiopians, it'll be war for the rest of his days. It's great to have a conduit to God like this bold prophet, right? Well, Asa goes on a tear and locks the prophet up while exercising cruelties toward some of his own people.

There's a not-so-obvious dynamic working here which may explain Asa's decision to involve the King of Syria. Asa's father, Abijam (aka Abijah) had wiped out the Northern Kingdom's army back in II Chronicles 13:17 (see above) - 500,000 men. So, basically, Israel was unable to defend itself from predators. It is likely that Baasha was no more than a vassal king of Syria's King Benhadad at this point in time, and the only way he was able to flex his muscles at all was with the assistance of the Syrians. Without assistance from the Syrians, Baasha had no warring abilities to speak of. It probably made sense to Asa to call in the markers with the King of Syria to abandon his relationship with the Northern Kingdom and support Judah instead - for a price of course. Once Syria switched its support from the North to the South, it was over.

Asa dies after reigning for 41 years - dies of a foot disease. Sounds like diabetes to me. II Chronicles 16:12 says, "And in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet, and his malady was severe; yet in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but the physicians." With all the good Asa did before the Lord, his life ends with a lapse of spiritual insight accompanied by bad judgment.