Asa had been a good king for thirty-five years, and it seemed unlikely that he would fall at the final hurdle. But, sadly, the last six years of his reign were nothing like the previous thirty-five. Danger lurks round every corner of our pathway through life; ‘Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall’.
Baasha’s attempt to blockade Judah was thwarted when Asa enlisted the help of Ben-hadad, king of Syria. It seemed a successful move in human terms, but it was a disaster in spiritual terms. Listen to Hanani; ‘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’, v. 7. Asa’s lack of faith was all the more culpable since he had already proved that God could be trusted, ‘Were not the Ethiopians and Lubims a huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet, because thou didst rely on the Lord, He delivered them into thine hand’, v. 7. Faith in God is an acknowledgement of our weakness and, at the same time, confidence in His strength. Only those who trust Him completely are assured of His help and blessing; ‘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 towards him’, v. 9. It is foolish not to trust God!
Asa’s sad lack of faith was accompanied by resentment of God’s word. Years before, he had responded to the message of Oded, and dealt summarily with idolatry, 15. 8. But look at the change now – ‘Then Asa was wroth with the seer, and put him in the prison house; for he was in a rage with him because of this thing’, v. 10. Both message and messenger were rejected. But how do we react when the word of God stings us, and touches our conscience?
Towards the end of his reign, Asa contracted a disease in his feet which worsened as time passed. After Hanani’s reproof, we might have hoped that Asa would have learnt the lesson, and turned to God in his distress. But ‘in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians’, v. 12. When he died, he was buried with ‘sweet odours and divers kinds of spices’, v. 14; far better if he had entered eternity in triumphant faith!
