The transition from 2 Chronicles 15 to 2 Chronicles 16 is stunning. In chapter 15 Asa is leading the people to follow the Lord fully. Just prior to that when confronted with the massive Ethiopian army he prays this incredible prayer and then is delivered by the Lord. "O Lord, there is none like you to help, between the mighty and the weak. Help us, O Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this multitude. O Lord, you are our God; let not man prevail against you. " Asa is leading the people of Judah in the ways of the Lord - it is a refreshing sight!
But when we enter chapter 16 everything changes. Confronted now just with the armies of Israel, Asa looks to Ben-hadad, king of Syria. Instead of looking to the God that had delivered them previously and promised to be with them and give them victory, Asa looked to man. And then....when he was rebuked by the prophet for this, he not only abused the prophet and some of the people but continued in his rebellion. The Lord afflicted his feet but not even that was enough to turn his heart back to the Lord. The text says he didn't seek the Lord but sought the physicians instead.
There are a couple of important points to consider in this passage. The first is that we must persevere to the end in this Christian life. There is no guarantee that the state to which we have attained in our walk will be maintained without effort. Even Paul tells us in Philippians to "hold fast to what we have attained" - to strain forward to what lies ahead and not to fall back. How important it is to "end well". Asa did not do so though God's gracious assessment of him is that he fully followed the Lord.
The second point takes a little more wisdom to apply. We live in a world of inventions and conveniences and discoveries, all of which have the potential to "cause" us look away from the Lord and place our confidence in these things. We look to science and medicine and wealth and intellect / information, and in times of crisis we tend to look at those things first. We look to them for solutions.
Not it is not that we should not look to these things, they may well be the means God ordains to care for us. The person with cancer would do well to seek these means. But ....if we look at these means as the ultimate solution, neglecting the One who truly is our "help in trying times", we will be impoverished because of this and we will not be bringing glory to our God. We will also likely miss the miracle that God may have in store for us. We'll miss the work He might have done had we looked in faith to Him.
The words of Jesus are haunting: Will the Son of Man find faith when He comes? In our day and age of many crisis, but also of many alternate "saviors", may we all look first to our Lord in faith. Let our communion with Him be that which guides us to other means which the Lord might choose to use for His glory.
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