Asa
“Healer or physician”
Summary
The third king of Judah after the division of the kingdom, who reigned forty-one years and instituted significant religious reforms.
☩Religious Reforms
Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord. He removed the foreign altars and high places, broke down the sacred pillars, and cut down the wooden images. He commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers and to observe His law. His reforms extended even to his own family—he removed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother because she had made an abominable image for Asherah, which Asa cut down and burned at the Brook Kidron.
☩Military Victories
During a period of peace, Asa built fortified cities and assembled a large army. When Zerah the Ethiopian came against Judah with an army of a million men, Asa cried out to the Lord, saying 'Lord, it is nothing for You to help, whether with many or with those who have no power.' God struck the Ethiopians before Asa and Judah, giving them complete victory and much plunder.
☩Later Years and Death
In his later years, Asa's faith faltered. When Baasha king of Israel built Ramah to prevent access to Judah, Asa took silver and gold from the temple treasury and sent it to Ben-Hadad of Syria to break his alliance with Israel—relying on human help rather than God. When the prophet Hanani rebuked him for this, Asa imprisoned the prophet in anger. In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa was diseased in his feet, yet even in his disease he did not seek the Lord but the physicians. He died in his forty-first year and was buried with great honor in Jerusalem.
Related Verses72 mentions
References
- 1.John McClintock and James Strong, "Asa," in Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature, vol. I (Harper & Brothers, 1867–1887).
- 2.James Orr (ed.), "Asa," in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. I (Howard-Severance Company, 1915).