July 31st
Share your thoughts, comments, reflections and questions on the readings for July the 31st
2 Chronicles 14:1-16:14,Psalm 89:38-45,Proverbs 19:6-7,Acts 25:1-22
Judah returns to the good times. Abijah had followed God, but Asa took that to the next level, he didn’t just follow God but he encouraged the whole nation to do the same by removing the idols and other places of worship to other gods. And so God blessed Asa. The land was at peace for most of his reign. And when they did go to war God fought on their side. With only ˝ million soldiers they defeated an army of double their size because God was with them.
So God sends a prophet to Asa to encourage him. Asa responds by removing the detestible things and restoring the temple and then leading the people in worship there. They respond with a covenant – “to seek the Lord God of their ancestors with all their mind and with all their heart.” This is very much like the Jewish Shema – the prayer that they were commanded in Deuteronomy to teach and pray on a regular basis:
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
They were rediscovering what Moses had taught their ancestors in worship and as a way of life. The commitment was such that anyone who refused to seek God was put to death! That is difficult for us to understand, especially in the light of what we read about next.
36 years into his reign king Baasha on Israel decides to try to cut Judah off and starts to build a city called Ramah. Remember what we have just read about seeking God and following him with all your mind and heart. So the first thing king Asa did of course was to seek God – it is so obvious of course he did – NO he didn’t. He never sought God and used his own wisdom to get the job done for him by another king. He brings out the gold and silver from the temple (God’s gold and silver) and from the palace and sends them to king Aram to get him to do the dirty work for them. Asa robs God, never consults him and his actions speak loudly and where his heart really was by now. The result is that God still protects Judah, but king Asa’s life goes downhill from here.
I think we can easily be just like king Asa. We come to worship on a Sunday, or in our small groups, or on our own and we praise, worship and glorify God. In God’s presence we declare that our hearts are his, we will seek only him and he is our Lord and master. But when we get to work on Monday, or when the post comes through our letter box with a bill that we can’t afford, or when we hear of illness in our family we turn first to our own wisdom and our own solutions. As you go through today, and tomorrow …. try bringing everything before God, the small and the big. It may not be waiting for a word from heaven, but simply praying ‘God please help me in this decision I need to make.’ Try putting God first in everything and then trusting him to help and guide you all the time listening to see if he wants to give you specific guidance.