The Person God Is Searching For (1 Kings & 2 Chronicles)

A Few Thoughts to Consider

Are you wholeheartedly devoted to God?

This question was the dividing line between those kings of Israel who followed Yahweh and those who rejected him. 1 Kings 15:3 says Rehoboam’s son, Abijam, “walked in all the sins his father before him had committed, and he was not wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord his God as his ancestor David had been.” It wasn’t “true.” Despite Abijam’s break from God’s covenant, God is faithful to remember his promise to David. As Paul House notes, “Certainly David sinned in the Bathsheba/Uriah incident, yet he never turned to idols as Solomon, Rehoboam, and now Abijah have done. God keeps his promises even when David’s descendants do not.”^[1]

This brings us to Asa, the third king of the Kingdom of Judah following the division of the united monarchy of Israel into two kingdoms: Israel in the north and Judah in the south. As Provan notes, “Asa’s reign in Judah was a long one and he saw five Israelite kings rise and fall (15:25–16:28) before Ahab began to rule in the north (16:29ff.).”^[2] For most of his life, he stands out as a bright spot in a series of wicked rulers. 1 Kings 15:11-15 says,

¹¹ Asa did what was right in the Lord’s sight, as his ancestor David had done. ¹² He banished the male cult prostitutes from the land and removed all of the idols that his ancestors had made. ¹³ He also removed his grandmother Maacah from being queen mother because she had made an obscene image of Asherah. Asa chopped down her obscene image and burned it in the Kidron Valley. ¹⁴ The high places were not taken away, but Asa was wholeheartedly devoted to the Lord his entire life. ¹⁵ He brought his father’s consecrated gifts and his own consecrated gifts into the Lord’s temple: silver, gold, and utensils.

There is the phrase again, “wholeheartedly devoted.” Because of Asa’s wholehearted devotion, 2 Chronicles 14:2 says, “Asa did what was good and right in the sight of the Lord his God.” He removed pagan altars and high places, commanded Judah to seek the Lord, and restored the altar of the Temple of Jerusalem. As a result, there was peace in the land for a time, and the people of Judah returned to Yahweh. 

For a time, when he does fall into trouble, 2 Chronicles 14:11 says, “Then Asa cried out to the Lord his God, ‘Lord, there is no one besides you to help the mighty and those without strength. Help us, Lord, our God for we depend on you, and in your name we have come against this large army. Lord, you are our God. Do not let a mere mortal hinder you.’”

Then, as he grows older, 2 Chronicles 16 notes Asa’s wholehearted devotion shifts. The chapter opens with Asa forming an alliance with Ben-Hadad, king of Aram, using treasures from the temple and his palace to persuade Ben-Hadad to break his alliance with Baasha, king of Israel. This political maneuver temporarily halted Baasha’s fortification of Ramah. However, the prophet Hanani rebuked Asa for depending on a foreign king rather than on God, predicting continual wars for Judah as a consequence of Asa’s faithlessness. Notice these words.