WHERE TO GO FOR HELP

King Asa made a big enough impact on the history of Israel that he takes up three chapters in 2 Chronicles.  The story we read in today's chapters tells a sad story of a bad ending to a good king, one who did it right until the end of his reign.

I'm going to talk about three different ways Asa sought to solve his problems. One of them is an awesome promise. Another is a sad commentary. And the third? Well, what we can do help ourselves.

The promise: God will let  himself be found. (2 Chronicles 15:1-2 MSG)  When Asa paid attention to God--God promised to be available. No silent heavens. God communicated His will to Asa (even when he got into trouble.)  No silent treatment.

The response? Asa helped himself. When he heard the prophecy, he "took a deep breath, then rolled up his sleeves, and went to work." (2 Chronicles 15:7-8 MSG).  God didn't just give Asa the solution. He told him how to do it - and Asa went to work.  The reward was amazing, "peace within and without."  Peace with myself and with my fellow man?  Isn't that what we all want?

And then. . . in the 36th year of a 41 year reign. . .he messed up.  Early in his reign God had given him victory of the million-plus Ethiopian army.  Now Baasha king of Israel attacks him--and he turns to the king at Damascus for help.

Had he forgotten that God invited--commanded--him to seek God first?

Did he, perhaps, wonder if God would play favorites between Israel and Judah?

Whatever his reason, the results were disastrous. You were foolish to go for human help when you could have had God's help. (2 Chronicles 16:9 MSG)

I don'ta think the problem was so much in asking for help. It was that he didn't ask God for battle plans first.  From that point forward, he faced one military encounter after another.

There is a time and a place to ask others for help (consider the huge worship services in his reign, and the way he drew true Israelites to Judah.)  But there is a wrong time, as well.

Whenever we face a decision - let's ask God first. Ask God whether He's going to do it for us, if there is something we should do--or if it's time to ask people for help.

GOOD KING ASA (2 Chronicles 14)

Asa was a good king. ( 2 Chronicles 14:2)

Yesterday I wrote about Rehoboam, who was a "bad' king, not an "evil" one.

Asa is an example of the other end of the spectrum. He is one of only a few kings called "good" (Jotham, whom we'll meet later, is another).  In the same way Rehoboam was bad two ways--bad in behavior and bad in effectiveness--Asa was good both ways. He was a righteous man, and because he led his nation to righteous living, his kingdom was at peace. As verse 6 says, "God kept the peace."

Sigh. What a wonderful eulogy for a man.

What earned Asa the appellation of "good"?

• He did things right in God's eyes. This must have started in his personal life. He not only obeyed the law, his heart matched his behavior. In all the myriad of ways we have a choice of how to behave, Asa did things right. Not 100% of the time. None of us (except Jesus) do that. Shall we say an A for effort.
• He got rid of the centers of pagan  worship, including the sex-and-religion groves that popped back up as soon as they were smashed. 
• He led his people back to God. He not only told his people to follow the commandments, he also told them to "center their lives in God"--probably a reflection of the way he lived himself. He urged to do as God commanded through Moses--to write the law on their hearts and to talk about it wherever they were, whatever they were doing.

God honored their obedience with peace--which in turn allowed Asa to turn to fortifying Judah's defenses.  Success followed success.

Don't get sidetracked--make God the center of your lives.

That's God's measure of a good man.

Pray God I have enough left over to fortify my defenses, and not only repel attacks. (don't seem to be so well in those areas, however.)

REHOBOAM, THE LUKE WARM KING

But the final verdict on Rehoboam was that he was a bad king--God was not important to him; his heart neither cared for nor sought after God. (2 Chronicles 12:14, MSG)

After these months of studying the kings of Israel and Judah from Saul to Jehoichim, we have seen some truly evil kings, men who actively encouraged their people to idol worship and who sacrificed their own children.

The writer of Chronicles doesn't say what Rehoboam did wrong. He doesn't even call him an evil king, just a bad one. Bad in a moral sense, perhaps, but also ineffective. He let his nation down. 2 Kings only mention what the people of Judah chose to do. Rehoboam didn't lead in idol worship, but neither did he interfere.

As Chronicles says, God wasn't important to him. Rehoboam didn't care about God enough to seek after him.  If David's approach to worship was whole-hearted, and Solomon's approach was philosophical, Rehoboam's was--going with the flow.

His approach reminds me of Jesus's words to the church at Laodicea: I know you inside and out and find little to my liking. You're not cold, you're  not hot--far better to be either or hot! You're stale. You're stagnant.

I suspect God's command to Rehoboam would have resembled what Jesus command the Laodicean church: buy medicine from me so that you can see, really see. 

Rehoboam didn't see that his inattention to God set his kingdom on a downward spiral that they never fully recovered from.

Moral for the day? Check your temperature--turn on the heater for God. 

STRENGTH TURNED INSIDE-OUT (2 Chronicles 8)

Solomon built impulsively and extravagantly--whenever a whim took him. (2 Chronicles 8:6)

Solomon brought Pharaoh's daughter from the City of David to a house built especially for her. "Because," he said, "my wife cannot live in the house of David king of Israel, for the areas in which the Chest has entered are sacred." (2 Chronicles 8:11)

I believe that my weaknesses are my strengths carried to excess.

My ability to focus on writing in excess has led to a lack of physical exercise with fairly bad consequences.

I see the same principle at work here.  Solomon clearly had great skills as an administrator.  He led two detailed building projects (temple and palace) plus a long list of other places.  He made sure the accounts were handled to the penny.

But he was impulsive in his building. In fact, Solomon liked it so much, that he ended up building temples to his wives' gods. Starting with the holy-sounding reason, "I can't let Pharaoh's daughter live in a place which housed the Chest of God."

Sounds good, especially if she made no effort to worship Solomon's God.

But . . . would Solomon's story have ended differently if he had sought to include his wife in worship?  If instead of shutting her away from God, he had introduced her to Him instead?

In his impulsive building decisions, would Solomon have listened to a prophet warning him, "God says no," the way David listened about the temple? (In fact, I find it hard to believe that prophets didn't warn Solomon about building those temples. But that's only supposition, no record kept.)

God has generously given each of us gifts, of personality, and family, work and spiritual gifts, material goods and immaterial blessings.  But they still belong to Him--and perhaps we should check in more often before we get carried away.

A BREAK IN ROUTINE (2 Chronicles 5)

Then a billowing cloud filled The Temple of God. The priests couldn't even carry out their duties because of the cloud--the glory of God!--that filled The Temple of God. (2 Chronicles 5:13-14, MSG)

Today we arrive at the dedication of Solomon's temple. We could camp out at Solomon's prayer and all the way he asked God to respond to Israel's confession of sin (take a look-see at chapter 6) but I am battling illness and don't have that much time to write. 

This verse above caught my attention.  God came in their midst--in a very visible, obvious, not-to-be-mistaken way. The cloud reappeared! And filled the Temple (and what is the deal with all the capital letters?)

The priests took their job seriously. They wanted to obey God's law. They also wanted to please the king. He had divided the Levites into several regiments, responsible for different aspects of security and worship and offerings. This day was their party, and they wanted to get it right.

No wonder--they knew the history of priests who died because they handled holy things incorrectly. No one wanted any mistakes on this day.

And then . . . God showed up, and made their regular duties impossible. 

And I ask myself, do I ever get so caught up in my routines, that I neglect to recognize when and where God is at work? 

Are my current health problems and my adherence to routines keeping me from God's new work in and through me?  I continue to wonder if the time has come for me to stop writing. Not because my joy in it has ended, but because I struggle with meeting deadlines or doing my best work.  I don't know if I've had a single deadline not impacted by family or health emergency. 

Do I get so caught up in routines (and deadlines) that I neglect the people God brings across my path?

God-ordained routines, such as gathering for worship, the Lord's Supper/Communion, and baptism (sacraments Christians are pretty unanimous about, even if we vary a little in our practices)--are important.

But if we miss when God takes over--we're missing the point. 

Lord, keep our eyes and ears open.