Today’s reading: 2Chronicles 14-17
2Chronicles 16.09 “9
“For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may
strongly support those whose heart is completely His. You have acted foolishly
in this. Indeed, from now on you will surely have wars.””
In todays reading, the chronicler
tells us the reign of Asa (2Chronicles 14-16), and the beginning of the reign of
Jehoshaphat (2Chronicles 17).
Asa started out well, calling on
the LORD for help in time of need (2Chronicles 14.11) and bringing reform to the Southern
Kingdom (2Chronicles 15). But, in the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign, Baasha the
king of Israel came against Judah (2Chronicles 16.01). Asa felt so vulnerable to Baasha that he
took the silver and gold from the Temple treasury to bribe Ben-hadad king of
Aram (modern day Syria) to break his (Ben-hadad’s) treaty with Baasha and make
one with Asa. Ben-hadad did and attacked some towns in the Northern Kingdom (2Chronicles 16.02-06).
When this happened, Hanani the
prophet rebuked Asa for trusting in man and not in the LORD (2Chronicles 16.07-09). God is displeased when He is not trusted, especially
when man relies on the arm of flesh instead of the LORD.
To show Asa that he was wrong,
Hanani told him that of all people, Asa had no reason to not trust in the LORD,
for the LORD previous delivered Asa from a perilous situation (2Chronicles 16.08). How quickly does man
forget the many times that the LORD has given him great victory when defeat
seemed certain? Man often trusts in the LORD
when he has nothing else to rely on, but when man has others to turn to, how
quickly he turns to the arm of flesh and not to the LORD.
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