Coasting

Success is a form of temptation. While it certainly brings gladness and a great sense of fulfillment, it also tends to make us complacent by giving us a sense of ascendency and a false mood of invincibility. Our response to it will reveal what is in our hearts. The Bible has many examples of such cases that should help us avoid the pitfalls that accompany such impulsions.

Let me share with you the highlights of the life of Asa king of Judah from the account of his life as can be gleaned from 1Kings 15:9-24 and in 2Chronicles 14:1 up to 2Chronicles 16:13. I have tried to arrange these events in their right sequence as far as can be understood from the given pericopes.

• King Abijah dies and Asa reigned in his stead. There was quiet in the land for ten years.
• Asa becomes king in Judah.
• Asa did good and right in the eyes of the LORD, building fenced cities in Judah.
• The Spirit of God came upon Azariah and he prophesied to King Asa encouraging him to take courage because his work would be rewarded.
• Asa obeyed the LORD as David had done.
• Asa took courage at the word from the LORD and he put away the detestable idles from all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and repaired the altar of the LORD.
• Forced prostitutes at the shrines to leave the country, got rid of the idols his ancestors had made.
• Took the idol of Asherah from his grandmother and burned it in Kidron Valley.
• Removed Maacah from her position as queen mother.
• Asa said to Judah, “Because we have sought the LORD our God, He has given us rest on every side.” They built and prospered.
• Asa had an army of 300,000 from Judah and 280,000 from Benjamin.
• He did not destroy the local shrines.
• Zerah the Ethiopian attacked with 1 million soldiers and 300 chariots.
• Asa cried unto the LORD and the LORD smote the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah and the Ethiopians were destroyed and could not recover. They spoiled all the cities round about Gerar.
• The heart of Asa was wholly true all his days.
• He gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who were residing with them, for great numbers had deserted to him from Israel when they saw that the LORD his God was with him.
• Furnished the temple with the silver and gold that he and his father had dedicated to the LORD.
• They sacrificed to the LORD and entered into a covenant to seek the LORD with all their heart and soul and decreed that whoever would not seek the LORD should be put to death whether young or old, man or woman.
• All Judah rejoiced over the oath and the LORD gave them rest all around.
• Always at war with King Baasha of Israel.
• Baasha invaded Judah and captured Ramah, and started to fortify it to block Judah’s ingress and egress.
• Asa “bribed” King Benhadad of Syria to align with him and break off his treaty with King Baasha. He used the same silver and gold he had furnished the temple with.
• Asa reminded Benhadad of the existing covenant between their fathers, and hence, also between them.
• King Benhadad agreed and sent the Syrian army into Israel, capturing the towns of Ijon, Dan, and Abel-Bethmacah, and the territories of Chinneroth and Naphtali.
• King Baasha left Ramah and went back to Tirzah.
• Asa took the stones and wood Baasha used in Ramah and used it to fortify the town of Geba in Benjamin and the town of Mizpah.
• Hanani the seer rebuked Asa for relying on Benhadad instead of on the LORD. Because of this unholy alliance, the army of the king of Syria had escaped. He reminded Asa of how the LORD defeated the Ethiopians and the Libyans who had a huge army with many chariots and horsemen and condemned Asa for this, saying, “You have done foolishly in this, for from now on you will have wars.”
• Asa became enraged with the seer and imprisoned him.
• Asa inflicted cruelties upon some of the people at the same time.
• When he got older, he had a foot disease.
• In the 39th year of his reign, he developed a foot disease that worsened.
• Yet even in his disease he did not seek the LORD but sought help from physicians.
• Died in the 41st year of his reign.

Who Was He?

King Asa is undoubtedly one of the remarkable kings of Judah. His life is portrayed in two books in the Old Testament, in 1Kings and 2Chronicles. Compared to his father King Abijah whose life can be read in just one chapter with twenty-two verses (2Chronicles 13:1-22), King Asa’s life and accomplishments can be found in 1Kings 15:9-24 and 2Chronicles 14:1 up to 2Chronicles 16:13!

Characteristically, as we see in his story above, he started his career well and with much spiritual zeal; sadly, towards the end of his life, he stopped walking – not just because he had a foot disease, but spiritually, with God.

Because King David is the best king Israel ever had, we can compare all the other kings of Israel to him to see how they measure up. As we do this with king Asa, we see his demeanor is comparable to David’s righteous deeds. “And Asa did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, as David his father had done.” (1Kings 15:11). But there was one very important thing that Asa didn’t have. It was the frequency and fervency of prayer.

This article will not talk about how to develop one’s frequency and fervency of prayer but will attempt to show how success and prosperity affect one’s prayer life, and hence, the trajectory of one’s spiritual life.

Let’s Look at David. We read of David the following praying instances:

• Psalm 4:1  To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Psalm of David. Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!
• Psalm 17:1  A Prayer of David. Hear a just cause, O LORD; attend to my cry! Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!
• Psalm 55:1  To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Maskil of David. Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!
• Psalm 61:1  To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. Of David. Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer;
• Psalm 72:20  The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended.
• Psalm 86:1  A Prayer of David. Incline your ear, O LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.
• Psalm 142:1  A Maskil of David, when he was in the cave. A Prayer. With my voice I cry out to the LORD; with my voice, I plead for mercy to the LORD.
• Psalm 143:1  A Psalm of David. Hear my prayer, O LORD; give ear to my pleas for mercy! In your faithfulness answer me, in your righteousness!

We might plead king Asa’s case as that he was probably neither a psalmist nor a musician like David. But as far as the Bible reveals about these two men, there is only one verse in the two books where we hear that Asa prayed! This was when Judah was facing a war against Zerah the Ethiopian who came with an army of a million men and three hundred chariots (2Chronicles 14:9), whereas Asa had an army of only 300,000 men from Judah and 280,000 men from Benjamin.

Asa, like David, prayed in times of distress. David prayed more because he faced more distressing times. It seems Asa had just one episode of danger throughout his reign! David had lots of them. David ended his kingship and life well, but Asa did not.

Does God want to say something to us about distress? I am tempted to digress, but I won’t.

Let me propose that Asa’s life had a plenitude of good things, but David had an abundance of failures from which he had to rise from. Thus, David had more reasons to cling to God, that he would be called “a man after God’s own heart” (1Samuel 13:14).

Does this mean that we should seek and desire stressful situations so that we will become more Godly in our character? I think that is coming to a wrong conclusion.

What Happened (IMHO)

Perhaps we should understand that comparing Asa with David is a mistake. A better picture can be seen if we widened our scope of comparison. So let’s include Asa’s father, Abijah.

Our story/analysis should start from the statement, “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.” (2Chronicles 14:1) Abijah’s story is in 2Chronicles. His life’s testimony was that of a battle against Israel’s King Jeroboam. But before they clashed, he did something unusual. Abijah delivered a sermon to Jeroboam rebuking him of: his rebellion, obtaining the aid of mercenaries (vain men, the children of Belial), their idolatry, rejecting the priests and Levites, and employing heathen fake priests for their religious services (2Chronicles 13:6-9). Then he informed Jeroboam that God was on Judah’s side, and tried to discourage the soldiers who were with Jeroboam. “But as for us, the LORD is our God, and we have not forsaken him; and the priests, which minister unto the LORD, are the sons of Aaron, and the Levites wait upon their business: And they burn unto the LORD every morning and every evening burnt sacrifices and sweet incense: the shewbread also set they in order upon the pure table; and the candlestick of gold with the lamps thereof, to burn every evening: for we keep the charge of the LORD our God; but ye have forsaken him. And, behold, God himself is with us for our captain, and his priests with sounding trumpets to cry alarm against you. O children of Israel, fight ye not against the LORD God of your fathers; for ye shall not prosper.” (2Chronicles 13:10-12)

But unbeknownst to him, Jeroboam sneaked up behind Judah and tried to ambush them (2Chronicles 13:13). When Judah realized the danger they were in, they cried unto the LORD, and the priests sounded with the trumpets. The men of Judah shouted, and God stepped in. (2Chronicles 13:14-18). The result was a rout for Israel to the point that Israel never recovered militarily throughout Abijah’s reign of three years. The LORD also killed Jeroboam sometime later (2Chronicles 13:19-20).

By the way, Abijah, like David, had several wives. Fourteen, to be exact, and from them had twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters (2Chronicles 13:21). King David, on the other hand, had eight wives with names but had other wives and concubines who are unnamed. The Jewish site, chabad.org, states that: “Although David married numerous women in the course of his lifetime, he never bypassed the limits imposed by the Torah. Indeed the Talmud deduces the exact number of wives permitted to a Jewish monarch as eighteen, from King David’s behavior as King.”

So What Do We Have Here?

There are a few things these pair of fathers and sons have in parallel. So father should be compared with father and son to son. Abijah should be compared to David, and Asa to Solomon!
Abijah wrought peace for Judah and the land had peace for ten years which he bequeathed to his son Asa.
David with his military might brought peace to Judah and left that peace to his son Solomon throughout the latter’s life (1Chronicles 22:9).
Asa enjoyed peace, interrupted only by that one episode against the Ethiopians. Solomon’s reign was more peaceful because David’s conquests were more numerous and expansive.

This explains why Asa’s life was relatively of ease and therefore, tempted him away from prayer, and therefore from spiritual matters. The same thing happened to Solomon. (This is not in any way suggesting that Asa and Solomon are lost. I believe that before their last breathing moments, they recognized their spiritual state and repented back into God’s grace.)

Our Take-Away

In our service and worship of God, we must never allow any victory to tempt us to put our spiritual guards down, shift to neutral and allow the moment to coast us through for a season. In the natural, coasting may happen, but in the spiritual, once our foot is off the gas, the car reverses.

“Now it is written, “The just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul does not delight in him.” But we are not of those who draw back unto destruction; rather, we are of faith unto the saving of the soul.” (Hebrews 10:38-39)