March 23, 2020: Day 51 – I Kings 15

Now we begin what some could describe as a bit of a tedious accounting of the acts of the kings that followed Rehoboam and Jeroboam.  Remember, with Solomon, who was the father of Rehoboam, there was only one kingdom.  But once he died then that all changed.  One kingdom became two.  Now we see a series of successors who come along.  They are all unfaithful as we would expect them to be.

All of them except Asa who was faithful to God.  He removed the queen mother because she worshiped idols.  He, according to vs.11: “did what was right in the sight of the Lord.”  He got rid of the male temple prostitutes.  Doesn’t say anything about the female prostitutes associated with the temple, however.  He got rid of the idols.  He brought into the temple things of value after they had been stripped.  

Asa was also diplomatic in reaching out to the neighboring countries who had made alliances with the northern kingdom, again the enemy of the south, where Asa ruled.  Notice that Asa ruled for 41 years.  That’s pretty impressive.  I would call it the pax asana.