April 24, 2021: Day 49 – II Chronicles 16

Like we find in just about all of the characters of the Bible we see another king who falls short of what they should have done.  Israel begins to cause trouble, so that would be northern kingdom.  So Asa, who is in the south, notices this and basically bribes the nearest ally to the north, the king of Aram.  He gives him gold and silver and tells him to tell Israel that they will no longer protect the southern Israelite border.  So as a result this foreign nation comes to the aid of Judah, or King Asa.  They go up against the north, or Israel, and begin to battle against it.  

As a result Israel backs away from the troop pile up that had been going on near Judah and king Asa considers this a victory and is able to expand his land even more.  But God was not happy.  Remember the Ethiopians?  Remember the million or more troops that were amassed against Judah?  God intervened and made sure that king Asa would win that battle.  God was not happy because Asa did not reach out to God and ask for help.

An object lesson to this is that we see Asa gets sick, his feet are all messed up, and he doesn’t even seek out God for help with that.  God moves away from Asa because Asa had first moved away from him.  He forgot all that God had done for him and tried to do it by himself.  Not a great lesson for any of us.  Continue to seek God in all times of our lives.