2 Chronicles 16:1-10,12
In the six and thirtieth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah, and built Ramah, to the intent that he might let none go out or come in to Asa king of Judah. Then Asa brought out silver and gold out of the treasures of the house of the LORD and of the king’s house, and sent to Benhadad king of Syria, that dwelt at Damascus, saying, There is a league between me and thee, as there was between my father and thy father: behold, I have sent thee silver and gold; go, break thy league with Baasha king of Israel, that he may depart from me.
And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the LORD thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand. Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen? yet, because thou didst rely on the LORD, he delivered them into thine hand. For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars. Then Asa was wroth with the seer, and put him in a prison house; for he was in a rage with him because of this thing. And Asa oppressed some of the people the same time…
And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not to the LORD, but to the physicians.
G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): This is a very sad chapter, telling as it does the story of the lapse of a man who, considering the conditions under which he lived, had for six and thirty years been so remarkably true to God.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): That Asa was a pious man is clear from 2 Chronicles 14:2, where we are told that he “did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God.” Alas, like many whose early life promised well, it expired amid the shadows. And wherein was it that he failed so lamentably?
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Notice the grave error into which Asa fell—the foolishness for which the Prophet rebuked him. He was threatened by Baasha, the king of the neighbouring territory of Israel. He was not directly assailed by war, but Baasha began to build a fortress which would command the passages between the two countries—and prevent the people of Israel from coming to settle in the land of Judah, or making their annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem. Now, one would naturally have expected, from Asa’s former conduct, that he would either have thought very little of Baasha, or else that he would have taken the case to God, as he did before in the matter of the Ethiopians, 2 Chronicles 14:9-11. And this was a smaller trouble altogether, and somehow I fancy it was because it was a smaller trouble, that Asa thought that he could manage it very well himself by the help of an arm of flesh. In the case of the invasion by countless hordes of Ethiopians, Asa must have felt that it was of no use calling in Benhadad, the king of Syria, or asking any of the nations to help him, for with all their help he would not have been equal to the tremendous struggle. Therefore he was driven to God. But this, being a smaller trial, he does not seem to have been so thoroughly divorced from confidence in man.
C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Now here was a man of God who had committed the very common sin of making alliance with the world. He made a league with Ben-hadad, king of Syria―he relied on the king of Syria, and did not rely on Jehovah.
C. H. SPURGEON: According to God’s mind, the king’s course was evil, but it did not turn out badly for him politically. Now, many people in the world judge actions by their immediate results. If a Christian does a wrong thing and it prospers, then at once they conclude he was justified in doing it; but, ah, Brothers and Sisters, this is a poor, blind way of judging the actions of men.
G. CAMPBELL MORGAN: Things which appear successful may be in the life of faith most disastrous. How perpetually men defeat their own ends when either through lack of faith, or overconfidence, which are practically the same thing, they attempt to do by policy what God is prepared to do for them in answer to their obedient belief.
C. H. SPURGEON: Oh, the tricks, plots, deceptions, equivocations and intrigues of diplomacy! Asa, I have no doubt, thought that all was fair in war. He took the common rule, the common standard of mankind, and went upon that. Whereas, as a child of God, he ought to have scorned anything that was dishonourable or untrue. And as to saying to a heathen king, “Break your league with Baasha and make a league with me”—why, if he had been in a right state of heart, he would sooner have lost his tongue than have uttered such disgraceful words! But, child of God as he was, when he once got off the plain simple way of believing in God and taking his trouble to God, there was no telling what he would do.
C. H. MACKINTOSH: When once a man allows himself to slip aside from the position in which faith would keep him, there is no accounting for the extremes into which he may run.
G. CAMPBELL MORGAN: The story is the sadder in that the king seems to have had no repentance for his wrong. He persecuted the prophet, flinging him into prison.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “And Asa oppressed some of the people the same time; by fines and imprisonments, such as perhaps expressed their disapprobation of his league with the king of Syria, and of his ill usage of the prophet.”
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Alas! what an awful picture is this of Asa. Oh! how evident it is when men grow cool towards God that they grow impatient of reproof.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): The old also think, that wrong is in a manner done them when they are reproved.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): “Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished,” Ecclesiastes 4:13. That is, he will not suffer any counsel or admonition to be given him―no one about him dares contradict him, or, he will not hearken to the counsel and admonition that are given him…Folly and wilfulness commonly go together, and those that most need admonition can worst bear it.
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): Thus he added sin to sin, as the best shall do if God restrain them not.
MATTHEW HENRY: Is this Asa? Is this he whose heart was perfect with the Lord all his days? Well, let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. A wise man, and yet in a rage! An Israelite, and yet in a rage with a prophet! A good man, and yet impatient of reproof, and that cannot bear to be told of his faults! Lord, what is man, when God leaves him to himself?
C. H. SPURGEON: For a man to trust himself in the beginning of his Christian career is very unwise, for Scripture warns him against it! But for him to trust himself after he has been 20 or 30 years a Christian is surely insanity, itself—a sin against common sense! If we have spent only a few years in the Christian life, we ought to have learned from our slips, follies, failures, ignorance and mistakes, that we are less than nothing! The college of experience has done nothing by way of instructing us if it has not taught us that we are weakness, itself―Are you an aged Christian and yet self-confident? Surely this cannot be!
WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): And are we in no danger of this? Read the Scriptures. See the falls of good men, and men eminently good.
