Dean Bible Ministries presents the Bible teaching ministry of Dr. Robert Dean, pastor of West Houston Bible Church. These and other Bible lessons are available from www.deanbible.org. Now let's listen to our lesson from God's Word, the Bible. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not grow weary, they shall walk and not faint. Fear thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall defend your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee. for the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Before we get started, let's have a few moments of silent prayer to make sure we're in fellowship, then I'll open in prayer. Let's pray. Father, we're so thankful we can be here this evening, that we have the opportunity to study your word, to see these tremendous patterns in history that also teach us many key principles of our own spiritual life. Father, we continue to be thankful for the freedoms that we have in this nation. We're thankful that we have you in control of the events of history, the events in this nation, and that even when we look about us and see uncertainty, see times of financial crisis, and see times of uncertain national security, that you are indeed in control, and so we can relax knowing that your plan is being worked out. Father, as we study these events in Kings, we'll see these same kinds of patterns that go along throughout the history of Israel in the north and Judah in the south. And yet we still see that despite the chaos and crisis and their histories, you were in control and you were the one that needed to be turned to in order for there to be stability. So now fathers, we continue our study. We pray that we can continue to focus on these timeless truths. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Okay, we're in 1 Kings chapter 15, and in 1 Kings 15 and 1 Kings 18, we're going to go through eight kings that have a, or rather seven kings, that form this transition from the focal point on the descendancy of the kingship from Solomon to Rehoboam and Jeroboam, and form this transition to the time of Elijah and Elisha. So it's relatively a short period of time, not a lot is said, but we certainly see the trends. both good and bad, and in these trends we also see the blessing of God in terms of when there is obedience and the discipline from God, when there is disobedience, all in light of what God had promised within the Mosaic Law. So one of the key doctrines that's really shown here is the faithfulness of God to His Word, that what God has said He will do, He will do. A second thing that we see here is God's grace, that He does not discipline them as strongly and as harshly as He could, and despite the fact that they reject Him again and again, He reaches out in a grace initiative to the nation to give them opportunities to turn to Him. Now last time we looked at the first of these kings in chapter 15 verses 1 through 8 of 1 Kings focusing on the reign of the one who is referred to in Kings as Abijah and in Chronicles as Abijah and that last syllable relates to, depending on whether or not you have the final consonant of the M or the H, is just a variation of the same name. Often these kings had several names, just like today if you look at Prince Charles in England, he has probably eight or nine different names, hardly any of which I could remember and won't try in the right order. But only one is the name by which we know him, which is Prince Charles. But he has Edward and William and half a dozen other names in there. And that was true in the ancient world as well. And so these kings that we know of as David or Solomon, Abijam, Asa, may have had and probably did have several other names, but this was the name by which they are referred to in the scripture. We have seen that in the development of the kings that in the southern kingdom Rehoboam was referred to as evil, he did not have a heart for the Lord as David his father did, the same is true of Abijah who follows in the sins of his father Rehoboam. But Asa is going to turn around, Asa is going to be focused on the Lord. So we see the same kinds of trends among among the kings in the southern kingdom of Judah that we see in our own history. We have some leaders, some presidents that are oriented more towards establishment truth and establishment principles, and then we have others who are not. And depending on how the people in the United States are, depending on their orientation to grace, to God, and to truth, we see whether or not these are times of blessing or times of discipline. The key element to watch as we go through this, are going to be references that go back to the covenant. Some references go back to the Davidic covenant, others go back to the Mosaic covenant. But the key thing that's being traced through Kings is the Davidic line. And we study Genesis, a couple of years ago and saw that a key phrase in Genesis was the term, the seed. And after Adam and Eve died, God, as part of the curse, said that the seed of the woman would bruise the seed of the serpent on his head. And so we have that terminology introduced of the seed. And then when Abraham is called out, God promised that there would be a seed through him. And that that terminology then is carried out through Isaac and Jacob, Joseph, and on down to indicate the people of Israel. And so that becomes a key term. Now when we come to the Davidic covenant, the seed of David is going to ultimately culminate in the Messiah. And so what these books do is to show the faithfulness of God in history in terms of those covenants and his promise to provide a deliverer, a Messiah, for Israel. And as we go to the scriptures and we observe these patterns and we see God's faithfulness in the ebb and flow of human history from the ups and downs, the conquest, we go back to the Old Testament, period of the exile, 722 the Northern Kingdom went out into exile, 586 the Southern Kingdom went out, there are times of economic prosperity, times of economic collapse, times of military defeat, times of military success, and yet through it all God is faithful to his word in bringing about that which he has promised. And so we can look at that large picture, that macro picture, and understand that our history in terms of our own individual spiritual life fits within that same pattern, that God has made promises in His Word to each one of us within the framework of the New Testament, or in terms of salvation, and that God is faithful that no matter what happens in history around us, no matter how chaotic it may be, no matter how much prosperity there may be, no matter how much calamity there may be, God is faithful no matter what we do, whether we're choosing to obey Him and walk with Him or disobey Him. God is still faithful to his word and he is going to fulfill that which he has promised. So we can look at all of these episodes within those broader elements of the faithfulness of God to his word, the faithfulness of God to his covenant, and the promises that God makes to people and to individuals. As we saw this, we saw that there are And within this chapter especially, these kings, we'll just put them up here on the screen briefly, in the south we've looked at Rehoboam and last time at Abijah or Abijam, and this time we'll look at Asa. And then we'll look at the descendants of Jeroboam beginning in verse 25 with Nadab, who doesn't last very long because He is going to be assassinated by Baal-Shah, and Baal-Shah is going to wipe out all the family in fulfillment of that prophecy that Ahijah had given to Ahijah the prophet, the Shilonite, back in chapter 14. and beginning in verse, from about verse 10 down through verse 16. And then there will be this, again, a revolt against, I mean, Abashah has a son, Eli, he doesn't last very long either because God promises to wipe out his line with the same kind of result that, same kind of prophecy given Jeroboam that they would die in the streets again, and then there's a, Zimri leads a very short-lived revolt against Elah, and then there's a period of civil war between Tibni and Amri, and Amri rises to the ascendancy in 880, and that gives that period of time. Omri then founds a dynasty and his son is Ahab. So that brings us, will take us right up to the beginning of our time with Elijah. So right now we're just looking at Asa. And just to remind you, I think I got this backwards last time so I want to make sure you have it right. There are two ways in which these reigns are counted, and it's very precise. An excellent book was written some years ago. I had the first edition that I'd Xeroxed because it was out of print when I was a student at Dallas. And then in the mid 80s, a revision came out called The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings by Edwin R. Teeley. And what he did was to go through all of these numbers that are given in the text, and he made sense of them because he realized that the people in the north and those in the south counted up the years that a king reigned in different ways. And once that was recognized, everything began to come together and dovetail together. And prior to that time, Kings was one of those books that critics of the Bible would go to, and they would point to these numbers and say, okay, we know that this king ruled at this time, and this other king ruled at that time, and that's only 20 years. But if you add up all the numbers that are given in the text, you get 35 years. So how can you squeeze 35 years into 20? This is really bad history. And in the introduction to this book, the writer says, regarding this book. Still, most readers will feel that the major byproduct of Professor Thiele's Careful study is more striking. He has taken passages commonly regarded as patent disclosures of carelessness. It's so typical of the liberals just to constantly pick at the scripture and point out all these things as if they're glaring errors without taking the time to dig and study and see if perhaps they're the ones that are in error. So he has taken passages commonly regarded as patent disclosures of carelessness, if not of ignorance, on the part of the Hebrew historians and shown them to be astonishingly reliable. It is an achievement of far-reaching significance. We have, it is true, come some distance from the radical criticism of a half a century ago. At the time he wrote this, that would be in the early 1900s. In treatment of the text and in appraisal of the historical reliability of the records, we are now in a much more cautious mood. As we have seen one uncertain point after another clarified, our skepticism has dissipated under the new facts. But many uncertainties remain, and it is a matter of first-rate importance to learn now that the books of Kings are reliable in precisely the features that formerly excited only derision. Similar are the implications in regard to the long process through which the biblical writings have come down to us. That's the process of the transmission of the text. How can we be sure that these words that we have, and even the numbers that we have, are accurate? What if they change? What if some scribe left some things out? How do we know that we really have what Samuel or Isaiah or Jeremiah wrote down? So that's one of the implications of this, and this writer says, here too we have learned caution through our mistakes. It has been a sobering experience to discover that in some cases the text of the Old Testament passages had been preserved and accurately transmitted by the scribes, apparently for ages after they had lost the meaning of the words that they copied. But Professor Thiele's findings enforce this result. He has shown that suspicion of the accuracy of the received text actually arose in pre-Christian times and is fully evidenced in manuscripts of the Septuagint and then later in the works of Josephus. And further, in his account of recent theories in regard to Hebrew chronology, He has pointed out how the latest of these proceeds on the basis that, quote, it is incredible that all these numbers can have been handed down through so many editors and copyists without often becoming corrupt. He says, the vast bulk of them are precise to the point of astonishment. Now, that doesn't surprise you, but it does surprise a lot of academicians out there. So he goes on to say, the few errors that crept in are such as actually to enhance the reliability of the copyist. But with one exception, they form a consistent pattern. And the amusing fact is that this one passage where error in transmission seems to have occurred, a real quote, corruption, unquote, is exactly the one on which this latest theory just now mentioned bases its entire reconstruction. So that's one of the reasons it's important. It's very time-consuming to do this kind of research, but it's extremely necessary. Now, one of the problems is there's two different ways of counting up the renal years. The first is called the accession year dating, and the second is the non-accession year dating. Now, accession year dating is when the year that the king comes to the throne is not counted. So if he comes to the throne on January the 3rd, that year from January 3rd to the next January 1st would not be counted because that's not a full year. His first year, official year, does not begin until the first New Year's that he has once he is in, once he is on the throne. On the other hand, with non-accession year dating, The time before the first new year is counted as part of his first renal year. So if he takes the throne on December the 29th, that year would be counted a full year, even though there's only three days in which he ruled in that year. But see, the last year of the preceding king would have been that year as well. So they overlap. So you have these overlapping numbers. And then in many cases, when there were fathers and sons, there would be a period of a co-regency that's not identified in the text as a co-regency. And yet that would have been the case where the son began to reign alongside the father for a period of five or ten years before before the father died, in which case, again, you have overlapping years. Those years would be counted for the father and then they would be counted for the son, making it look like you have a lot more years than were actually there. So it takes a lot of time to work all those details out. And I just want you to be aware of some of this in case anybody starts trying to add up the numbers. So what we're watching is the Davidic line, David to Solomon, to Rehoboam, to Abijam, to Asa, and to Jehoshaphat, and all of the other lines that go along with that. And just to orient us, we'll come to a map in just a minute. Okay, let's take a look at what's going on beginning in verse 9. Beginning in verse 9, and we come to the account of Asa. Count of Asa, whose dates are 910 to 869 B.C., 910 to 869 B.C., and the records are in 1 Kings 15, 9 to 24, and then in 2 Chronicles chapter 14, through chapters 16 verse 6 through 2nd Chronicles chapter 16 down to well down to 14 which counts for his death. So it's all of 14, 15, and 16. Three chapters covered in 2nd Chronicles and you have only about 16 verses covered in 1st Kings, so they're different accounts. To really understand Asa, you have to go over and look at the Chronicles account, which we will do. It gives much more detail and gives a lot more information and fills in the gaps than the account in Kings. Kings is written primarily to give the spiritual evaluation of each of the kings of Judah. Chronicles comes in and will give us more of the historical details of what was going on. So you might keep your place in 1 Kings 15 and let's go ahead and turn over to 2 Chronicles chapter 14. Now the spiritual evaluation God's evaluation, God's report card on Asa is recorded in 1 Kings chapter 15 verse 11 that Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord as did his father David. So he gets a high grade. There's only one minor problem that he has, some people want to make a larger issue out of it, than is necessary, and that is that he doesn't completely remove the high places. And what these were was followed really an older pattern of worship that still hung over from time, the time of the judges, where people had their own family altars and their own places of worship where they would sacrifice to and worship Yahweh. They would worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They weren't worshipping a false god. They weren't worshipping an idol. They just were violating the law of the central sanctuary and they weren't going to Jerusalem as the exclusive place of sacrifice and the exclusive place of offering. So it's more of a sin of omission than it's a sin of commission. And every southern king did that, or let me say it another way, because some southern kings were quite evil. Every southern king, no matter how good he was, failed at this one point. They just couldn't bring themselves, as it were, to come in and say, well, you can't have your own altar to Yahweh. So they just left that alone. OK, the spiritual evaluation of 1 Kings 15 and 11, he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, like David, his father. And that's repeated in 2 Chronicles 14 to Asa did good and right. and the sight of the Lord his God. So he gets a high mark. Now, when we look at 2 Chronicles 14.1, it wraps up the end of Abijah's reign. We're told that he rested with his fathers and they buried him in the city of David. Then Asa his son reigned in his place. In his days, that is in Asa's days, the land was quiet for 10 years. Now we know that he's going to reign for 41 years. So this means that we have to understand that the first 10 years of his reign is a time of peace. It is a time of quiet, a time of stability, a time for him to carry out a foundational reform movement. Now, if you look at the passage in 1 Kings 15, those first 8 or 9 verses there related to his reign summarize what we discover in 2 Chronicles to be two phases of this reform movement. There is the first phase which involves the first ten years, then in Chronicles tells us there is a major war as Judah is invaded by the Pharaoh of Egypt who is an Ethiopian, and then there is a second phase to his reform. And as a result of those reforms, God brings peace and stability to Judah, and there is tremendous prosperity. And then at the end, we see that Asa is going to fail because he fails to exclusively trust in God for the security of the nation. And then there is a failure personally as well, but that doesn't come until the end of his life. So first of all, we see that he did, after we see the summary evaluation in verse 2, we see that he does six things that are related to improving the spiritual condition of the southern kingdom of Judah. He does six things First of all, he removed the altars of the foreign gods in the high places. So they had been there since Solomon, because Rehoboam did not remove them. Abijah did not remove them. And so they are still there. Solomon introduced these because of his foreign wives. So for the first time, these are removed, the foreign gods in the high places. These are the national gods of the Moabites and the Ammonites and all the various people that surrounded Israel. Second, he broke down the sacred pillars, and he cut down the wooden images. Now, these were used in fertility worship. The sacred pillars would represent the various asherah, or asherim would be the plural. And this was the female goddess, the consort of Baal. And so we see that that's been introduced, but not officially, but it has found its way into the Southern Kingdom. So the Southern Kingdom has had a period of apostasy since the time of Solomon. They have been spiritually as bad as the Northern Kingdom. And the northern kingdom has been worshiping the idols that Jeroboam set up at Bethel in the north near Dan. So he removes the altar of the foreign gods in the high places. He broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the wood images. That would be third. He broke down the sacred pillars. And third, he cut down the wooden images. Fourth, he commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers. He commanded them. So this is positive. On the one hand, he removes the false religions and he takes measures to get rid of the influence of paganism and idolatry in the culture. And on a positive note, he then commands Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, so he's not being generic about God, he's being very specific, it is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And fifth, they are to observe the law and the commandments. They are to observe the law and the commandments, so they are to implement all of the Mosaic law. Then sixth, we're told in verse five, he also removed the high places and incense altars from all the cities of Judah. So these would be various idols and worship centers that were set up related to each of the cities and the prosperity of those particular cities. And the result is in verse five, the kingdom was quiet under him. There is peace. Now this covers this period of 10 years, same word used in verse one as used down here in verse and verse five. So what was it that brought real peace and stability and tranquility to the nation? It was the fact that they were obedient to God. And so God is blessing them during this 10 year period, as he had promised in the Mosaic law. The second thing that he does after he does spiritual reform, and I want you to pay attention to the order, there is a spiritual reformation that is at the foundation of national security. There is a spiritual reformation that is at the foundation of national security. It is not national security first, and then we'll worry about our spiritual foundation. It is a spiritual foundation first, and then there is the attention to national security. And because they have a right relationship to God, they have peace, and there isn't as big a concern for national interests. God keeps the enemies away. But at that same time, because of this orientation to doctrine, there's a recognition and understanding that freedom is secured and maintained on the basis of a strong defense and a strong military, and so we have the description in verse 7 of his policy to strengthen the military, strengthen the fortifications around the borders in order to have security, but ultimately he realizes that their security is not in their military, their security is not in their technology, their security is not in their training, their security is in the Lord. And that becomes very clear when they have to go into battle against the invasion from the South. So, verse 7, he says to Judah, let us build these cities, make walls around them, and towers, gates, and bars, for the land is yet before us, because we have sought the Lord our God. Notice, it is this emphasis on national security that comes out of their orientation to reality through their relationship to God. When we have a relationship to God, we understand what truth is, we understand the divine institutions, the fourth divine institution is national distinctions, and as part of the fourth divine institution, we should have a strong military and emphasize in order to provide for our national security. The trouble is that when you have people who are disoriented to reality and disconnected from truth, then they don't understand the importance of national security. And people think that, isn't it wonderful? Let's just have all these open borders and let's just let people come in and out and do whatever they want to. And the result is that it destroys your culture. There's no basis anymore for the assimilation of foreigners, new people coming into your culture. And that's true of whatever it is, whether you're talking about a A corporation, for example, you talk about any corporation, whether it's General Motors, or Exxon, or Phillips, or any corporation has a culture. A church has a culture. Now, if we're not a very large church, we tend to run around anywhere from 100 to 130 on Sunday morning, and we have a steady flow of visitors. But let's say something were to happen and we were to wake up all of a sudden and have this huge influx of 150, 200, 400 people who really had no background, no orientation to the entire frame of reference or doctrine that we teach or our philosophy of ministry or anything like that. We could just become absolutely overwhelmed by those numbers because we wouldn't have the time for them to sit and learn and be taught and to become gradually assimilated into the culture of West Houston Bible Church. Well, if you just extrapolate that out by about 10 billion, You get the problems we have, and it's not just here, but you have the same problems in Europe, of huge, vast numbers of immigrants coming into a culture without absorbing the values of the culture that was already there through a steady, slow process of assimilation. So they stay isolated, stay in various pockets, and then the next thing you know, the culture that has been there for centuries is radically changed and it's no longer there. The French are profoundly threatened, the Brits are profoundly threatened through the assimilation of various other cultures that have maintained their separate identity and not assimilated to French culture, French ways, British culture, British ways. And the same thing is happening here. It's not that you're antagonistic to immigrants. It's that just a basic position of common sense that there has to be a process of control and order maintained in order to preserve who and what you are as a nation in light of these things. And so It's all part of the fourth divine institution in terms of protecting and defending a nation. That's not even talking about the problems that come in as a result of terrorism or criminality and all of the things associated with that. Asa is strengthening Judah in verse 7, and rightly so because he is going to receive his second test. His first test was a spiritual test, which he passed with flying colors, and then his second test is going to be a military test, but he recognizes the source of his security at the end of verse 70 says, because we have sought the Lord our God, we have sought him and he has given us rest on every side. So they built and prospered. And the point is that because of Israel's spiritual relationship to the God, that was the ultimate causative factor in their stability and in their national security. Now, verse 8 indicates the size of the military. at this time. Asa had an army of 300,000 from Judah who carried shields and spears, so they're an armed infantry. And from Benjamin, 280,000. So Benjamin at this time is almost as large as the tribe of Judah and fields just 20,000 men fewer than the tribe of Judah. And the distinction is that Judah has shields and spears, and the tribe of Benjamin carried shields and drew bows. And all of these were mighty men of valor. And then in verse 9, we'll be introduced to the problem. But before we get there, I want to say one thing about the leadership that Asa has demonstrated here, because this is real leadership. He has become the king in a time of apostasy. His views about God and spirituality were contrary to the culture at large. The culture at large has just slid downhill spiritually, and the vast majority of them are completely oriented to paganism. They're completely oriented to their idols and everything that went with them. They're out here trying to manipulate the gods into making them prosperous. And yet Asa is going to take a stand as a leader and say this is wrong, but we're going to do what's right, and he began to initiate policies so that he could change the culture by prohibiting people from doing that which was illegal, And promoting that which was legal, remember their law code is the Mosaic Law, which said that they needed to put God, Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob first, and that there should be no idolatry, thou shalt have no other gods before me, and is the second commandment. So, all of this comes out of his own character, his own spiritual convictions, and that's what is true leadership, and it is oriented to that which is absolutely true, and he understands that, and it flows out of his understanding of God, and he's not afraid to tell people who are pagan that paganism is not going to be allowed because it is destructive to the culture. When you have divine viewpoint, you know what truth is, and you can't just say, well, you know, you have your views, and I have my views. I'm going to let you do what you want to do, even though I know that it's going to destroy this nation. But we're going to do what's right. And that's what real leadership does. That's what real statesmen would do. If we had any, they don't go around and take polls of people and then give them just what they want. OK, now we come to the military challenge. the military challenge starting in verse 9. And because they are oriented to scripture, because they are oriented to truth to begin with, then when they are faced with a military threat, they are able to respond And that response is ultimately going to be based on their trust in God, not on their technology, not on their numbers, not on anything, because when you have 580,000 going against 1.3 million, and you're outnumbered a little more than two to one, then you don't have very good options, especially when you're facing a chariot corps of 300 that can outmaneuver you and you don't have any chariots, and you have a million men that could be split two or three different ways to create any number of envelopments that could decimate your army. And this is exactly what could transpire. So we're told in verse nine that there is an Egyptian army, a Kushite army led by this Ethiopian Zira. He would come from the upper Nile. The upper Nile is the area of Ethiopia in the south. And during this time, we know from from history that during this period of the 25th dynasty that the upper Egyptian area had taken over and was dominating the northern area or lower Egypt. Some have suggested that this Zira, is Ossorkon I, who was the second pharaoh of the 22nd dynasty. Others have put it as far as the 25th dynasty. But there were various, and there were times here, it's very difficult in Egyptian chronology to work this out because you had this northern kingdom and southern kingdom between Thebes and Memphis, and you had sometimes overlapping dynasties. So the 22nd and 23rd were at the same time, 24th, I believe 24th and 25th were at the same time. I'm just running off of memory there. And so they overlapped, and they weren't all consecutive. So it's very difficult in Egyptian chronology to specifically identify this, and there's all kinds of other problems that enter in, so I tend to stay away from trying to identify individuals pharaohs mentioned in scripture with what we know of in Egyptian history because their chronology is still very questionable in some areas. But what we do know is Zira is very intent, extremely intent on expanding Egyptian power. Now, think about how many times we've heard about Egypt since 1446. This is now about 900, so it's been 546 years since the Exodus. Now there were 40 years in the wilderness and Pharaoh never caught up with them and God just decimated Egypt. When you go back and you look at those 10 plagues and what happened, he virtually wiped out the Egyptian civilization for 500 years. You don't hear about Egypt again. You don't hear about Egypt in Joshua. You don't hear about Egypt in Judges. With all the nations that are coming in and dominating the Jews and the land in the period of the Judges, you never hear about about Egypt, you hear about the Philistines and the Midianites and Ammonites and various other groups, but you never hear about the Egyptians. You go through all of 1 Samuel, the problems of Philistines. It's not the Egyptians and the Amalekites. You get into 2 Samuel, same thing. You get into the first part of 1 Kings. The first time we hear Egypt mentioned again after the Exodus is when Solomon marries the daughter of the Pharaoh. And suddenly we realize Egypt hasn't been around And now they are in a position of ascendancy and the Pharaoh wants to impress people by marrying his daughter to Solomon. So they aren't at the top yet, but they're coming up. And now we've seen that after the breakup of the northern and southern kingdom under Rehoboam, the king of the south, there was an invasion by Shishak. as it's recorded in Scripture, Shyshak comes in and puts this pressure on Jerusalem such that Rehoboam has to strip all the gold out of the temple in order to bribe Shyshak to go home. And so then he has to maintain the facade of prosperity and he coats everything with bronze instead of instead of gold, so it would look the same, but it's not the same. Then he had to put a guard on the temple so that people wouldn't get in there. So there's been that one invasion under Shoshek, and here's another one under Zerah the Ethiopian. And he comes up with a million men, Zerah the Ethiopian, just remember this, next time somebody says, who had the first million man march, it was Zerah the Ethiopian. And he marched up from the south. Now, verse 10, Asa went out against him and they set the troops in battle array in the valley of Zephathah at Moreshah. I'm going to try once again to use a different map. See if I've got it up here. There we go. OK. Down in the south, there are a series of valleys. Now you probably can't read that. That says Zephatha Valley. They're just above Lakeish and between the H and the E in Shephelah. You have the, what is that, the text again, the Zephathah Valley. This Zephathah Valley is just one valley south of the Elah Valley, which is where David fought Goliath. And it is just to the northwest of Hebron, about halfway between Hebron and the area that had been along the Gaza Strip here, where the Philistines had been in control. So this is the area here, just north of that sea in Lachish, where they had this battle. Now, when they leave, when they defeat them, the Egyptians are going to head south. And these towns down here, Ziklag, Gerarga, are all still under Philistine control. And they're going to seek some sort of aid there, it seems. And so the Israelite army or the Judah army under Asa are going to just Use this as an opportunity to take control of that whole area. But it's because of their orientation to the Lord, and that's the real dynamic that you have to focus on here, and that's in verse 11. As they lined up to do battle, the first thing that happens is Asa prays. Asa cried out to the Lord, his God, and said, Lord, it's nothing for you to help, whether with many or with those who have no power. Whether it's a lot, whether we're facing a huge enemy or a small enemy, Lord, you can handle anything. He has tremendous faith here. He says, help us, O Lord our God, Yahweh Eloheinu, and his focus there is on the name of Yahweh as the covenant name of God in establishing the Mosaic Covenant. So by using this phrase, Yahweh Eloheinu, he is emphasizing the fact that God is a God who made certain promises to protect them, and he's exercising the faith rest drill. He says, Yahweh Eloheinu, for we rest On you. Now there is a tremendous passage to go to for the faith, rest, drill. We rest on you. Another translation says we lean on you. That's the idea of the Hebrew word here is that they're leaning or depending upon God as the source of their strength, that no matter what they have in terms of power, techniques, technology, what they understand about strategy or tactics. It is ultimately the Lord that they're resting in. He says, O Lord our God, for we rest on you, and in your name we go against this multitude. O Lord, you are our God. Do not let man prevail against you. And so he is basically giving a theological rationale to God for entering into human history and giving them victory on the basis of the Mosaic contract. And we've seen this before in the faith-first drill, that part of claiming a promise, a very simple way is just to say, God, you promised that you would give me peace, and so I'm praying for that, or God, you promised that I can cast all my cares upon you, and so I'm going to let you worry about it, and I'm not going to worry about it." And that is a simple form, but at other times we need to, especially for our own mental attitude, we need to stop and think through the rationale that underlies our appeal to God. Why are we imploring God to intervene on our behalf? What is the scriptural foundation for that, and establishing, as it were, an argument much the same way that a lawyer would provide an argument to a jury to act in a certain way, and so we're calling upon God to do that, and that's what he has done here. And the result is that God intervenes, verse 12, and he intervenes through the intermediate power of the army. He doesn't just come down and destroy the army like he does later on with the Assyrians outside of Jerusalem. He is going to do it by means of the southern army. Sometimes, more often than not, when we pray for something, there is often an element on our side of responsibility that we have to engage in. We don't just sit in the house and continue to pray day after day that God is going to get the grass cut or the leaves raked. Sooner or later, we have to get up and turn on the lawnmower or grab the rake. But a lot of people don't understand that there's an area of our responsibility that extends to a certain And then after that, it's all in the Lord's hands. And so God is the one who gives them victory through enabling the military power of Judah to succeed. Verse 13, and Asa and the people who were with him pursued them to Jerar, which is a distance of about 30 miles. So the Ethiopians were overthrown. They could not recover, for they were broken before the Lord and his army, and they carried away. And that day is the army. the Israelite army, the army of Judah, they carried away very much spoil, then they defeated all the cities around Jerar, for the fear of the Lord came upon them, and they, that is again the army, So you have that noun, army, in verse 13, and every pronoun after that has to go back to the nearest noun referent, which is his army. So they, that is the army of Judah, defeated all the cities around Jerar for the fear of the Lord came upon them, and they, that is the army of Judah, plundered all the cities for there was exceedingly much spoil in them. They, that is the army of Judah, also attacked the livestock enclosures and carried off sheep and camels in abundance and returned to Jerusalem. So they are assaulting that area in the south. On this map, it's just right down here. Here's Gerar. in this area and this is over in the Philistine territory. And so that's who they are attacking and all this is designed to secure their south eastern our southwestern border, much as they need to do today. But because of the peace accords, when they brought all the Jewish settlements out of the Gaza Strip, now they're left with all of this vulnerability down in the southwest. And so Hamas and these Palestinian terrorists are constantly either sending sappers through these tunnels that they build, that they've built under the walls, and they come out and they plant mines and they send out homicide bombers or they send rockets over the top to all these cities all along the edge of the Gaza Strip. So there's no national security because they elevated this pseudo desire for peace or this pseudo value of peace over national distinctiveness and national security and true understanding of divine institution number four. So chapter 15 then goes into phase two of the reforms of Asa and these are motivated by a prophet who comes on the scene. So this is 10 years into the reign after the military victory when Asa would be flying high on what he has accomplished, and out of the blue comes this new prophet that we've never seen before, Azariah, Azariah, as it would be pronounced in the Hebrew, the son of Oded. And he goes out to meet Asa, and he says to him, Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you while you are with him. In other words, as long as you're obedient to the law, God is going to bless you. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. So there's this warning, don't become arrogant and desert God. And then there's a historical reminder in verse 3, for a long time Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without law. So this is extended from near the end of Solomon's reign through the reign of Rehoboam, which was roughly 18 years, depending on how you're adding it up, 17 years according to the accession system. So this has been going on for about 25 years. There's been no law, no teaching of the word, and they have been completely without divine blessing. But God in His grace is offering and blessing and reminding them that He can continue to protect them. Verse 4, But when in their trouble they turned to the Lord God in Israel and sought Him, He was found by them. And in those times, as in those previous times, there was no peace. But what we've seen twice already is a reference to there was quiet, there was peace in Israel under Asa in these first ten years. And all around there had been all these problems. And now in verse 7 we read, But you be strong, and do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded. So God is telling Asa that if you continue your reforms, then I will continue to protect the nation and to bless them. And so verse 8, you hear Asa's response when he heard these words in the prophecy of Oded. He took courage. And he removed the abominable idols from the land. So now he is going to continue to carry out these reforms and going around the country, getting rid of these false religious sites, these idolatrous sites, removing the abominable idols in all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities which he had taken in the mountains of Ephraim. So that's up in the northern border here on this map. It would be in the area that you see where the circle is. Now that's going to become important because of what happens in chapter 16. So he is going up to this area of this land that's been taken away from the northern kingdom and he is cleansing it spiritually. And then he has a great celebration described in verses 9 and 10, they gather at Jerusalem, and the third month, now in the ceremonial calendar, the first month is roughly March, March to April, April to May, May to June, so this is more than likely Pentecost. That's what this festival time is. It would fit. It would be Pentecost. They gather together to Jerusalem in the third month in the 15th year of the reign of Asa. So he had 10 years of peace. And now there's been another five years of cleansing. And now they're going to be able to reestablish this the purity of the temple and temple worship. And they offered to the Lord, there's a rededication of the temple here, they offered to the Lord at that time 700 bulls and 7,000 sheep from the spoil that they had brought. So it appears that there were 10 years of peace, It wasn't that that invasion occurred right after 10 years, but that threat began to develop, because if they bring these sheep in right after that, then it's sometime close, so about three or four years maybe of preparing for that battle with the Egyptians, and then about a year or two after that when they've continued the reforms. And now they are using the spoils that they brought up from the Philistines as the basis for the sacrifices and offerings to God. Then, verse 12, they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their hearts and with all their souls. For the people are positive to God. And whoever would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, was to be put to death. Look at that. And that was the penalty under the Mosaic Law. So they're taking the Mosaic Law seriously for those who are traitors to it. So whoever would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, was to be put to death with a small or great, with a man or woman. Then they took an oath before the Lord with a loud voice, with shouting trumpets, ram's horns, and all Judah rejoiced at the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and sought Him with all their soul, and He was found by them. and the Lord gave them rest all around." So from the 15th year to the 36th year, so for another 21 years, there's going to be peace and prosperity in the land. And he removes Ma-ka, who is his grandmother. It says, the mother of Asa the king, just stated to be his mother in the first king's account, but it's a reference where mother is used as grandmother. Maka, the mother of Aisha the king, and she was the granddaughter of Absalom, remember? removes her from being queen mother because she is so perverse in her paganism. She's made an obscene image of the Asherah. This was the fertility goddess. So she's got this pornographic idol that is just absolutely shameful. And Asa cuts it down and takes it and burns it down in the brook Kidron. And then we see the one exception, verse 17, but the high places were not removed from Israel. These would be private individual places where people worshiped Yahweh, they were not idolatrous, but they were not part of the Mosaic law. Nevertheless, verse 17, the heart of Asa was loyal all his days. He also brought into the house of God the things that his father dedicated, and that he himself had dedicated silver and gold and utensils. Now, remember under Rehoboam, Rehoboam had to basically strip the temple of gold and silver to pay off Shyshak. So this indicates economic prosperity under Asa. But he's going to, just as he gets to the point where he has restored the economy and everything is going well and the people are in prosperity, another threat occurs, a military threat, and he's going to strip the temple, he's going to forget about God, and he's going to use all of that financial resource from the temple to buy off and bribe the Syrians. to keep them from invading them and to get them to turn against the Northern Kingdom. And we'll look at that next time, beginning in Chapter 16 of 2 Chronicles. Father, thank you for this opportunity to study your Word and to be reminded that even in times of crisis, uncertainty, times of calamity, whether it's personal or national, That you are always faithful to your word. You never turn your back on your promises. And that we can always count on you to do exactly what you have said that you will do. Father, we pray that as we travel this Thanksgiving weekend, you watch over each one of the congregation, keep us safe on the roads, and that we might be mindful during this time that we are to be thankful for every blessing that we have comes from you. And we thank you for that. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.