seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
2 Chronicles 14:1 [a]And Abijah rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David. Asa his son succeeded him as king, and in his days the country was at peace for ten years.
2 Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. 3 He removed the foreign altars and the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles.(b) 4 He commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and to obey his laws and commands. 5 He removed the high places and incense altars in every town in Judah, and the kingdom was at peace under him.6 He built up the fortified cities of Judah, since the land was at peace. No one was at war with him during those years, for the Lord gave him rest.
7 “Let us build up these towns,” he said to Judah, “and put walls around them, with towers, gates and bars. The land is still ours, because we have sought the Lord our God; we sought him and he has given us rest on every side.” So they built and prospered.
8 Asa had an army of three hundred thousand men from Judah, equipped with large shields and with spears, and two hundred and eighty thousand from Benjamin, armed with small shields and with bows. All these were brave fighting men.
9 Zerah the Cushite marched out against them with an army of thousands upon thousands and three hundred chariots, and came as far as Mareshah. 10 Asa went out to meet him, and they took up battle positions in the Valley of Zephathah near Mareshah.
11 Then Asa called to the Lord his God and said, “Lord, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. Lord, you are our God; do not let mere mortals prevail against you.”
12 The Lord struck down the Cushites before Asa and Judah. The Cushites fled,13 and Asa and his army pursued them as far as Gerar. Such a great number of Cushites fell that they could not recover; they were crushed before the Lord and his forces. The men of Judah carried off a large amount of plunder. 14 They destroyed all the villages around Gerar, for the terror of the Lord had fallen on them. They looted all these villages, since there was much plunder there. 15 They also attacked the camps of the herders and carried off droves of sheep and goats and camels. Then they returned to Jerusalem.
a. 2 Chronicles 14:1 In Hebrew texts 14:1 is numbered 13:23, and 14:2-15 is numbered 14:1-14.
b. 2 Chronicles 14:3 That is, wooden symbols of the goddess Asherah; here and elsewhere in 2 Chronicles
So... Judah has had two good guys in a row. First Abijah figured it out and God helped him... then his son Asa had something to work with. I had a boss once who warned me that a new broom sweeps clean. In verse 3, Asa, cleaned up all the poop left by his great grandfather Solomon, when he built up those temples for his many wives and concubines. Asa cleaned up the junk his grandfather Rehoboam left behind. He got back some of the plunder taken from the Temple during those raids. Asa's dad Abijah had been a good king. When the king from Egypt came up against Asa's dad, Abijah, Asa got a good lesson in trust. Asa, apparently, is starting out like gangbusters. He tore down all the fake crap around the districts of Judah and Benjamin. He built up foritifications.... and Asa turned Judah back into a Theocracy. Check out verse 4..... "He commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and to obey his laws and commands." Asa went back to Deuteronomy and Leviticus! Asa moved Judah away from a kingdom and back to a Theocracy with a king.
Asa's faith was pretty big and he really knew how to talk to God. This is from the enduringword.com site.Came out against them with an army of a million men and three hundred chariots: This fearful army obviously posed a great threat to the Kingdom of Judah. Even though the army of Judah had an army of 580,000 men (2 Chronicles 14:8), this enemy army was almost twice as large.
Asa could know that God’s power was not limited because the army of Judah was smaller by what God did for Judah under the reign of Abijah, his father (2 Chronicles 13:3).
“Zerah himself is most likely to have been a Nubian (= Sudanese) general in the army of Pharaoh Osorkon I (c. 924-884 b.c.), Shoshenq I’s son and successor.” (Selman)
Asa cried out to the LORD his God: In his prayer Asa correctly understood that God’s power was not enhanced or limited by man’s apparent strength or weakness. He recognized that this battle belonged to the LORD and called upon God to defend His honor (do not let man prevail against You!).
Walls work, Asa built plenty of walls, but God works better. Asa understood that and forced that knowledge on the people but taking away all the crap left by others who kept shiny little objects.
The easy English commentary has a bit more about walls and plunder.
Asa could see that his army could not win against the much larger army. So, he prayed to the LORD his God. Asa knew that nobody except God could help him against such a strong enemy. It did not matter to the LORD how strong the enemy was. Nothing was too hard for the LORD. So, Asa and Judah had to depend on the LORD.
Asa did not run away from a battle that he could not win without help. But he trusted in the LORD and he went forward to fight. He expected the LORD to answer his prayer. He expected the LORD to help Judah to win. If Zerah won, it would be against the God of Israel. The LORD could not let men defeat him.
As the army of Judah attacked, God defeated the army of Zerah in front of them. The army from Cush ran away in terror from the battle. Asa’s army chased them all the way to the town called Gerar. Gerar was south east of Gaza and it was on the route back to Egypt. The LORD and Judah’s army destroyed Zerah’s army. And Judah’s soldiers carried away a large quantity of valuable things from the enemy.
Asa killed so many of the army from Cush that they could not recover. The king of Egypt did not attack Judah again until the time of Josiah (35:20). Even then, King Neco of Egypt did not come to fight against Judah.
In the town called Gerar and the villages round it, lived the Philistines. The Philistines and Israel were often fighting. It is probable that the Philistines had helped Zerah. So, Asa attacked all the towns and villages round Gerar.
The local people were so afraid of the LORD that they could not defend themselves against Asa. Asa’s men took away many valuable things from these towns and villages. They also attacked the camps of the shepherds. And they took away their sheep, goats and camels. It is probable that these shepherds had supplied food to Zerah.
So from what I read here..... Asa built a bunch of walls. He tore down fake churches and forced the people to follow the Mosaic Law [the laws set down in Deuteronomy and Leviticus] but when God handed the victory to a severely outnumbered army from little Judah, the people took notice.
