15th Dec

2 Chronicles 16     Zechariah 2     Revelation 6     (Click on the Reference to go to the passage)


Yesterday in 2 Chronicles we read about King Asa of Judah who (in the parlance of 1066 and All That), was a ‘good king’. Not only did he do what was right in the eyes of the Lord (2 Chronicles 14:2), but, when it came to the crunch in a crucial battle with the Cushites, Asa calls upon the Lord – relying upon Him to defeat the enemy (2 Chronicles 14:11-13).
However in today’s reading it all goes wrong. This time the military threat comes from Baasha king of Israel, and instead of turning to the Lord as he did before, Asa puts his faith in a deal with Ben-Hadrad of Aram: in exchange for a pile of treasures Ben-Hadrad agrees to switch sides. Baasha backs off and the situation is (apparently) resolved. God, however, is not pleased – he sends Hanani the seer to chastise Asa for putting his faith in his own resources instead of relying on the Lord as he did during the Cushite episode. Asa responds by going further off the rails – imprisoning Hanani and oppressing his people. The next time Asa gets into difficulty – this time with some sort of foot disease - he again refuses to rely on the Lord, turning to his doctors instead – yet another dumb move! Two years later he’s dead.
This is a hard lesson in the dangers of taking our relationship with God for granted. No matter how strong our faith in Him today, it is all too easy to succumb to the temptation to switch our allegiance of faith to the resources of ourselves or of the world. 

(member of the congregation)