King Asa

Take your Bibles with me and turn to 1 Kings 15. 1 Kings 15. Tonight we are going to look at one of the most interesting characters in the whole Bible - a man who has a lot to teach us - King Asa.

If you remember, David has died. Solomon took over the kingdom and was a mixed king. He was very good and then very bad at the end. In judgment God split his kingdom. His son Rehoboam was a poor king and only ruled Judah and Benjamin. The rest of the tribes followed Jeroboam, who led the northern kingdom into idolatry.

So far in this history, both kingdoms have been circling the drain. Since Solomon's early days, there hasn't been a good king in either kingdom - that is going to change with Asa.

Are you in 1 Kings 15? Let's read starting in verse 8 and we'll read down through verse 22:

[!bible] 1 Kings 15:8-22 - KJV 8. And Abijam slept with his fathers; and they buried him in the city of David: and Asa his son reigned in his stead. 9. And in the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel reigned Asa over Judah. 10. And forty and one years reigned he in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom. 11. And Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, as did David his father. 12. And he took away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made. 13. And also Maachah his mother, even her he removed from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove; and Asa destroyed her idol, and burnt it by the brook Kidron. 14. But the high places were not removed: nevertheless Asa’s heart was perfect with the LORD all his days. 15. And he brought in the things which his father had dedicated, and the things which himself had dedicated, into the house of the LORD, silver, and gold, and vessels. 16. And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days. 17. And Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah, and built Ramah, that he might not suffer any to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah. 18. Then Asa took all the silver and the gold that were left in the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king’s house, and delivered them into the hand of his servants: and king Asa sent them to Ben-hadad, the son of Tabrimon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, that dwelt at Damascus, saying, 19. There is a league between me and thee, and between my father and thy father: behold, I have sent unto thee a present of silver and gold; come and break thy league with Baasha king of Israel, that he may depart from me. 20. So Ben-hadad hearkened unto king Asa, and sent the captains of the hosts which he had against the cities of Israel, and smote Ijon, and Dan, and Abel-beth-maachah, and all Cinneroth, with all the land of Naphtali. 21. And it came to pass, when Baasha heard thereof, that he left off building of Ramah, and dwelt in Tirzah. 22. Then king Asa made a proclamation throughout all Judah; none was exempted: and they took away the stones of Ramah, and the timber thereof, wherewith Baasha had builded; and king Asa built with them Geba of Benjamin, and Mizpah.

So Asa came to the throne of Judah, and the Bible tells us he was a good king, that "his heart was perfect before God all his days." He reigned for 41 years. That's a very long time to stay in power.

Turn with me to 2 Chronicles chapter 14. This is a much more detailed look at King Asa. Let's read the first seven verses of that chapter.

[!bible] 2 Chronicles 14:1-7 - KJV

1. So Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David: and Asa his son reigned in his stead. In his days the land was quiet ten years.
2. And Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God:
3. For he took away the altars of the strange gods, and the high places, and brake down the images, and cut down the groves:
4. And commanded Judah to seek the LORD God of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandment.
5. Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the images: and the kingdom was quiet before him.
6. And he built fenced cities in Judah: for the land had rest, and he had no war in those years; because the LORD had given him rest.
7. Therefore he said unto Judah, Let us build these cities, and make about them walls, and towers, gates, and bars, while the land is yet before us; because we have sought the LORD our God, we have sought him, and he hath given us rest on every side. So they built and prospered.

Ok, so here is the first thing we see about Asa: he was a godly king. He was a religious reformer.

Abijah, his father had been a wicked king and had setup all kinds of idolatry in Judah. There was great wickedness in the land. But Asa, as soon as he came to the throne, he started cleaning house.

I think a lesson we can take from this is that we don't have to repeat the sins of our fathers. We can make a clean break.

I hope your parents were godly in all of their ways, but if they weren't, you can draw a line and stop it. You can serve the Lord. You don't have to continue in their wickedness.

• Maybe your parents were drug addicts or alcoholics - by God's grace that legacy can end with you.
• Maybe your parents were unfaithful in their marriage - by God's grace you don't have to be.
• Maybe your parents were hypocritcal Christians - you can stop that right there. You can start a new chapter.

Look at what Asa did here. He started removing the altars and the groves. He started removing the places where people had been worshiping these false gods. Tearing them up. Destroying them.

That's a great start. But he didn't end there.

He made it the law of the land that people follow God. You might say "You can't legislate morality" well, Asa did. He made the law the law.

He also got rid of some serious perversion in the land. Judah had a bunch of people the Bible calls Sodomites. These were homosexual ritual priests. There were homosexual acts that were a part of the worship of these false gods, and Asa drove these perverted men from the land.

He really cleaned house.

Listen, if we are going to renew our lives, we have to clean house. We have to get rid of the paganism that's there. We might have to find the altars and the high places and the idols of our heart and tear them up.

When my stepdad came to Christ, I was a young boy, and I remember going to the record store with him and he sold all of his rock music records. He had been a semi-professional hockey player, and after he became a Christian, I never knew him to play hockey.

I'm not saying there is anything wrong with playing hockey, but he was just cleaning house in his life. He was getting rid of things associated with his old lifestyle.

Remember the old kids song "The things I used to do, I don't do them anymore. The places I used to go I don't go there anymore. The songs I used to sing, I don't sing them anymore." Why? "There's been a great change since I've been born again."

Asa was cleaning house. And do you want to know how serious he was about it all? He even got rid of his own grandmother.

Look at 2 Chronicles 15, let's read verses 10-15.

[!bible] 2 Chronicles 15:10-15 - KJV 10. So they gathered themselves together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa. 11. And they offered unto the LORD the same time, of the spoil which they had brought, seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep. 12. And they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul; 13. That whosoever would not seek the LORD God of Israel should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. 14. And they sware unto the LORD with a loud voice, and with shouting, and with trumpets, and with cornets. 15. 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.

Listen, this is how serious it was for Asa - they were putting people to death for serving other gods. They were really taking the law of God seriously.

Let's keep reading in 2 Chronichles 15, because this next part is really interesting.

[!bible] 2 Chronicles 15:16 - KJV 16. And also concerning Maachah the mother of Asa the king, he removed her from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove: and Asa cut down her idol, and stamped it, and burnt it at the brook Kidron.

So Asa had a grandmother. Maachah. She's called his mother here and in 1 Kings. But in hebrew, they used mother and father for any of your ancestors. She's actually Abijam's mother, and Asa's grandmother.

But she's still alive, and apparently she is honored as the queen mother. But she is a pagan and she has made her own wicked pagan altar.

And Asa, to his credit, doesn't go easy on her. He deposes her from being the queen mother. He gets rid of his own grandmother because of her idolatry. He destroys her idol.

Listen, sometimes, when we are a Christian, we have to even draw the line with our own family members. We can love them, but we don't have to condone their sin.

Some of you may have had to have some hard conversations with your family and said

• "Listen, I love you, I'll always be there for you, but I'm not going to be around that lifestyle anymore.
• I'm not going to watch that dirty movie with you.
• I'm not going to go out drinking with you.
• I'd appreciate it if you didn't speak that way around the kids.
• Yeah, we'd love to come and visit, but we are going to be at church on Sunday morning."

Asa had to get rid of his own grandmother because she was a leader of this idolatry.

And listen, because of all this, God brought great prosperity back to Judah. God brought them 10 years of peace. God brought wealth back to the land. God really blessed them. They were able to build up again what had been torn down.

But eventually, God brought some more tests to Asa. Those tests came in the way of military invasions.

Look back at 2 Chronicles 14 again. We stopped at verse 8. Let's read the rest of the chapter. Picking back up in verse 9.

[!bible] 2 Chronicles 14:9-14 - KJV 9. And there came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian with an host of a thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots; and came unto Mareshah. 10. Then Asa went out against him, and they set the battle in array in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah. 11. And Asa cried unto the LORD his God, and said, LORD, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O LORD our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude. O LORD, thou art our God; let not man prevail against thee. 12. So the LORD smote the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah; and the Ethiopians fled. 13. And Asa and the people that were with him pursued them unto Gerar: and the Ethiopians were overthrown, that they could not recover themselves; for they were destroyed before the LORD, and before his host; and they carried away very much spoil. 14. And they smote all the cities round about Gerar; for the fear of the LORD came upon them: and they spoiled all the cities; for there was exceeding much spoil in them.

So a huge test comes to Asa in the form of an invading army from Africa. Judah has a 300,000 man army. That's impressive. But they are attacked and surrounded by this army that has more than 1,000,000 soldiers. It's not looking good.

Notice what Asa does: He brings it to the Lord. He asks the Lord to help him.

And do you know what, God does help him. God fights the Ethiopians and gives Judah their spoils. It's a miraculous victory.

And here is where we get to what I think is the main lesson of Asa's life: God wants us to rely on him.

In the beginning of chapter 15 God sends a prophet named Azariah to warn Asa. And Azariah says:

[!bible] 2 Chronicles 15:2 - KJV 2. And he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; The LORD is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you.

Basically, he says if you seek the Lord, He is going to help you. But if you forsake the lord, the Lord is going to forsake you.

For most of Asa's life, he sought the Lord. He trusted in the Lord. 2 times he was challenged with a military battle and two times he prayed and asked God.

But unfortunately, that's not how Asa ended his life. Asa was a good king, but something happened to him in his older years where he stopped seeking God.

Remember the kingdoms were divided? Well the king of Israel now is a man named Baasha. And Baasha is upset because a lot of people were fleeing Israel and going to Judah. Under Asa's reign, lots of people had seen the good things happening there and wanted to be right with God and they had come to Judah.

And so Baasha restarts fighting with Judah and he basically builds a baracade at the most popular way for the people of Israel to come to Jerusalem. It wasn't so much to keep Judean's out of Isreal, as it was to keep Isreali's out of Judah.

It kind of reminds me of the old Ronald Reagan speech he gave to the British parliament, where he said that in East Berlin they had built this wall and setup these soldiers - not to keep westerners out of East Berlin - no, the soldiers had their guns pointed at their own people. They were trying to keep their own people in.

That was Baasha. And eventually the hostility got to be too much and Israel and Judah were at war again.

Now, what should Asa have done? He should have done the same thing he had already done twice. He should have gone to God and asked God's help. But that isn't what he did. He went to the Syrians and asked them to come in and invade Israel from the north.

Instead of trusting God. Asa trusted in god's pagan enemies.

And this was a great sin. Look at 2 Chronicles 16 verse 7.

[!bible] 2 Chronicles 16:7-10 - KJV 7. 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 not relied on the LORD thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand. 8. Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen? yet, because thou didst rely on the LORD, he delivered them into thine hand. 9. For 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 toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars. 10. Then Asa was wroth with the seer, and put him in a prison house; for he was in a rage with him because of this thing. And Asa oppressed some of the people the same time.

God sent a prophet to speak out against Asa, and do you know what godly Asa did? he put the prophet in prison.

Listen, godly men, even great godly men, are not always wise. Unfortunately something happened to Asa here and he didn't want to trust in God anymore. He was too proud to be chastised by the prophet.

So Asa became a persecutor. Then he started persecuting the people. Oppressing the people.

It's not good.

Look at verse 12. This is end of Asa.

[!bible] 2 Chronicles 16:12 - KJV 12. And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not to the LORD, but to the physicians.

God sent Asa a disease in his feet. We don't know what it was, it could have been gout. It could have been something else. But he's in a lot of pain.

And rather than seeking God, Asa sought physicians.

Now, listen, there is nothing wrong with going to doctors. There is nothing wrong with medicine. Even Paul told Timothy "take a little wine for your stomach's sake." Paul had Luke with him, who was most likely his private physician.

Doctors aren't bad and going to doctors isn't bad. But what Asa did here in the end of his life is he started looking to everyone but God for help. He should have sought the Lord.

And so this great king, probably one of the greatest kings of the divided era - doesn't end well. He spends his last 5 years or so in disobedience and rebellion.

Conclusion: The Choice is Always Before Us

King Asa's life teaches us that faithfulness to God is not a one-time decision—it's a daily choice we must make throughout our entire lives. Asa started strong. He cleaned house, removed idolatry, even stood against his own family when they opposed God. For decades, he sought the Lord and God blessed him with peace, prosperity, and miraculous victories.

But somewhere along the way, Asa stopped looking up and started looking around. When challenges came, instead of turning to the God who had never failed him, he turned to human allies. Instead of seeking the Lord who had delivered him from a million-man army, he sought physicians for his diseased feet.

The tragedy of Asa is not that he fell—it's that he had seen God's faithfulness so many times before. He knew better. He had experienced God's power. But pride crept in, and he stopped being teachable.

Here's what we need to remember: Our past victories with God don't guarantee our future faithfulness to God. The question isn't just "How will you start?" but "How will you finish?"

Maybe you're young in your faith tonight, just starting to clean house like Asa did. Don't get discouraged—God honors every step toward Him.

Maybe you've been walking with God for years, and you've seen His faithfulness time and again. Don't get comfortable. Don't start trusting in your own wisdom or other people's help more than you trust in God.

The same choice Asa faced is before each of us every single day: Will we seek the Lord, or will we seek something else? Will we rely on God, or will we rely on ourselves and others?

Let's learn from both sides of Asa's story. Let's start well, and by God's grace, let's finish well too.