Estimated reading time: 4 minute(s)

I love reading the Bible. It’s actually rather entertaining. It’s history. I like history. But it’s history that unlike my high school textbooks, does not eliminate God from the picture. It puts him in his rightful place as director of history. I also find that reading about the crazy kings and all the people who just couldn’t get it right helps me (in a way) to feel like at least I am doing better than them… until Asa.

Asa “did what was right in the LORD’s sight” as opposed to the other dudes. While they were setting up idols to be worshipped and thumbing their noses at God, he was tearing down the altars and idols and sending out missionaries to re-teach the people the Law of the Lord (the stuff God had given them through Moses hundreds of years earlier) I kinda identified with this guy, cause for the most part, I “do what’s right in the LORD’s sight…” 🙂 But there came a crucial juncture in Asa’s life that I all too easily also identified with.

In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign, King Baasha of Israel invaded Judah and fortified Ramah in order to prevent anyone from entering or leaving King Asa’s territory in Judah. Asa responded by taking the silver and gold from the treasuries of the LORD’s Temple and from the royal palace. He sent it to King Ben-hadad of Aram, who was ruling in Damascus, along with this message:

“Let us renew the treaty that existed between your father and my father. See, I am sending you a gift of silver and gold. Break your treaty with King Baasha of Israel so that he will leave me alone.”

Ben-hadad agreed to King Asa’s request and sent his armies to attack Israel. They conquered the towns of Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-maacah, and all the store cities in Naphtali. As soon as Baasha of Israel heard what was happening, he abandoned his project of fortifying Ramah. Then King Asa called out all the men of Judah to carry away the building stones and timbers that Baasha had been using to fortify Ramah. Asa used these materials to fortify the towns of Geba and Mizpah.

That all seems good, eh? The King had a good plan, put it into action, and it WORKED! But, read what happened next…

At that time Hanani the seer came to King Asa and told him, “Because you have put your trust in the king of Aram instead of in the LORD your God, you missed your chance to destroy the army of the king of Aram. Don’t you remember what happened to the Ethiopians and Libyans and their vast army, with all of their chariots and horsemen? At that time you relied on the LORD, and he handed them all over to you. The eyes of the LORD search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. What a fool you have been! From now on, you will be at war.” Asa became so angry with Hanani for saying this that he threw him into prison. At that time, Asa also began to oppress some of his people.

Do you see what happened? Unfortuately, I do. Too clearly. Too closely. I have been struggling recently with many things. Money has been super tight, and it has been burdening me a lot more than ever before – and I have been trying my hardest to make sure that I pay the bills, that I take care of my family. I have a friend who is making unwise choices in life that are going to hurt him and a lot of other people, and I love him, and care about him and so my heart is deeply burdened by what he is doing and what I need to do to help. I have some sizeable debt from various (mostly) business expenses over the past 5 years or so that we continue to try to pay down, but now interest is making that slightly harder to do, so I am burdened by the responsibility of paying off my debt.

Did you notice what happened in that paragraph? That was true to what I am thinking right now… did you see all the “I”s and the “my”s and the “me”s? DON’T YOU REMEMBER? Those were the words that stuck out to me as I read this morning. God has done the most amazing things in our life … when we were letting him.

Later in 2 Chronicles 16 it talks about a foot disease that Asa had contracted and it says “even when the disease had gotten life threatening, he did not seek the LORD’s help but sought help only from his physicians.” That gets me. That makes me think… why don’t I remember what GOD can do?

I sign autographs. Mostly kids. But I do. And when I do, I make sure to write Eph 3:20-21 near my name. Cause I want people to read that. I want people to know that God can do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine. That’s incredible. That means no matter how big you think God is, he’s bigger. Which means he’s bigger than anything you’re dealing with. BUT, what do we do? WE shoulder the burden. WE come up with the solutions. WE carry out our plans. WE, I, ME, MY.

Don’t you remember, Greg, how God provided for you in the past? Don’t you remember that your heart was lighter when you trusted HIM instead of your own sweat and long hours to provide for your family. Don’t you remember that HE is the one who changes hearts? Don’t you remember that you don’t have to do this life on your own?

Don’t you remember?

I think I do. 🙂