I HAVE been looking at 2 Chron. 16 with much interest. What a wicked thing of the king of Israel to weave such a spider’s web around the king of Judah! And yet it is what has been done, even as it were yesterday, consciously or unconsciously, by some of whom we might have expected better. Sad that it should be so; but the Bible is a book for all times―its words are living words, and speak the things that are, as well as those that have been, and that shall be. There is no one so marked as a man of God, who seeks to do right, and carry on the Lord’s work. Such an one was Asa, and beautiful indeed is the picture given of his early days. (See chap. 14.) “In his days the land was quiet.” “He took away the altars of the strange gods, and the high places, and brake down the images, and cut down the groves: and commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers ... and the kingdom was quiet before him. And he built fenced cities in Judah: for the land had rest, and he had no war in those years; because the Lord had given him rest.” Now everything flows from the divine favor! All blessing is received from Him who is love―the God of love and peace―and oh, that this were more deeply realized by each and all! To trace the blessing up to Him, to give Him the glory of it all, is what the true and faithful heart delights in. “Because we have sought the Lord our God, we have sought, and He hath given us rest on every side.” (14:7.) It is not surprising that a soul taught thus to glorify the Lord in peace and prosperity, should be ready, in the hour of battle, to exhibit the beautiful and affectionate trust which the knowledge of the Lord engenders. “Asa cried unto the Lord his God, and said, Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: Help us, O Lord our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude. O Lord, thou art our God; let not man prevail against thee.” Here was the secret of his conquest—reliance upon God. This is the principle that ever brings blessing to the soul—faith; faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. God honors faith, and faith honors Him. This is evident throughout the Bible history. Jesus ever loved to see faith in the people. And surely there is nothing that honors Him so much. He sounded, as it were, the depths of it in those who came to Him. “Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto Him, Yea, Lord. Then touched He their eyes, saving, according to your faith be it unto you.” (Matt. 9:28, 29.) Confidence in Jesus is the spring of peace, bringing rest in this dark world, and hope that maketh not ashamed in looking onward to another. But to return to the narrative in 2 Chron. 16. See how one wrong leads to another, unless the eye be very single. (v. 2.) The danger is of getting off the path of dependence upon the Lord―of trust in Him. He is ever at hand, if the soul did but realize it. Asa saw the strait, but what a course he took for deliverance. He calls in the aid of Syria, helping the Syrian with the treasures of the house of the Lord. What a condition of things! And yet the wicked design of the king of Israel is baffled. “Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler,” the people might have sung; but oh, how humbling! It is the Syrian that smites Israel; and the deliverance wrought for Judah is wrought, not as of old, by means of the ox-goad, sling, or lamp and pitcher of her children, but by the sword and spear of those who were “afar off.” Still it is deliverance; and not only is the snare broken, but the spoils go to the building of two cities for, instead of one against, the people. How wonderful is the wisdom of God in this! It is always so. Let the enemy lay what plots he will, they always rebound upon himself. The remaining verses give a tale of warning, lest the soul should rely on any but the Lord (v. 7); a tale of encouragement, too, seeing that He can accomplish His purposes, work out His sovereign will without man’s aid; yet does He seek that the heart should rely upon Him; seeks that it should be perfect towards Him. Blessed, blessed Lord! How wonderful that He should care for man as He does―wonderful that He should love him so. “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards Him.” Blessed Jesus, how sweet is thy mercy! How happy the portion of the soul that trusts in thee!
May the reader go over the whole chapter and gather its instruction. One thing is mournful, to see how little the later days of some of the Old Testament saints corresponded with their earlier ones. Asa seems here to afford an instance of this. Alas! what is man? He rages against the message of truth even. But God is able to recover His saints. Blessed be His name, He does not finally cast away. The faults of His children are told, and told plainly; but there is forgiveness. with Him, even at the eleventh hour. The covenant of grace, of life and peace, is with a greater than Asa; a greater than David, or than Solomon. The true King of Israel, the Lord of life and glory, Jesus, the Son of God, who hung upon the tree for sinners, for wretched, lost, apostate man, the substitute, the sufferer, the Saviour, has accomplished all that was needed for the vindication of the divine glory in the salvation of all that believe. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen.