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Context No. 1637 of 4322 · 1 Kings

Context · Reflection

1 Kings 15:16-24: in context

16There was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days. 17Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah, and built Ramah, that he might not allow anyone to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah. 18Then Asa took all the silver and the gold that was left in the treasures of the LORD’s house, and the treasures of the king’s house, and delivered it into the hand of his servants. Then King Asa sent them to Ben Hadad, the son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, who lived at Damascus, saying, 19“Let there be a treaty between me and you, like that between my father and your father. Behold, I have sent to you a present of silver and gold. Go, break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel, that he may depart from me.” 20Ben Hadad listened to King Asa, and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel, and struck Ijon, and Dan, and Abel Beth Maacah, and all Chinneroth, with all the land of Naphtali. 21When Baasha heard of it, he stopped building Ramah, and lived in Tirzah. 22Then King Asa made a proclamation to all Judah. No one was exempted. They carried away the stones of Ramah, and its timber, with which Baasha had built; and King Asa used it to build Geba of Benjamin, and Mizpah. 23Now the rest of all the acts of Asa, and all his might, and all that he did, and the cities which he built, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? But in the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet. 24Asa slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in his father David’s city; and Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his place.

Asa, a generally faithful king of Judah, is under pressure from Baasha, king of Israel, who is fortifying a city to blockade him. In the crisis, Asa reaches for a solution: he takes the silver and gold left in the treasuries of the temple and his own palace, and sends it to Ben-hadad, the king of Syria, to buy an alliance and get him to attack Israel from the north. The scheme works; Baasha withdraws, and Asa dismantles his fortifications. But the parallel account records that a prophet rebuked Asa for relying on Syria and not on the LORD.

Asa was, on the whole, a faithful king, and yet in this crisis he reached first for a human solution rather than for God. Facing pressure, he did not seek God; he emptied the temple treasury to buy a foreign alliance, trusting a political scheme and a pile of silver to solve his problem. And it worked, in the short term; but he had leaned on a human fix rather than on the God who had delivered him before. There is a warning in this that even the generally faithful need to hear. It is possible to walk with God for years and still, when a crisis comes, revert to trusting our own schemes, our money, our alliances, the visible human fix, rather than turning to God. The pressure of the moment pushes us toward the solution we can arrange ourselves, and God is left out of the very crisis where we most need him. Asa's whole life was mostly faithful, and yet in this pinch he trusted Syria and silver rather than the LORD. The temptation is real for all of us: when trouble comes and a human solution is available, to reach for it and forget to seek God, relying on what we can arrange rather than on the God who is our real help. The visible fix is tempting because it seems within our control; but to trust it instead of God, even, or especially, in a crisis, is to lean on an arm of flesh. Asa bought his rescue with the temple's gold and was rebuked for not relying on God; the lesson is to bring even our crises first to God, rather than reaching past him for the human fix.

When a crisis comes and a human solution is available, do I, like Asa, reach first for the visible fix, my own schemes, money, or alliances, forgetting to seek God, or do I bring even my crises first to the God who is my real help rather than leaning on an arm of flesh?

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