AUSTRALIAN BIBLE CHURCH January 20, 2008

A CONTINUATION OF THE THRUST AND BASE OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
OF AUSTRALIA ON BIBLICAL LINES …  

VARIABILITY, VICTORY, VICE AND LIBERTY

I Kings 15, II Chronicles 14-16 - King Asa as an Example

I Barney with Hanani

What change can be wrought in the heart and mind of man! King Asa of Judah as you see in Kings, was a man of notorious faith, industrious, zealous, moral-minded. He banished the perverts (often found in ritual religious mode), removed his grandmother from the post of Queen because of her indulgence in immoral idolatry, and the image with her, brought dedicated things back into the house of the Lord, initiated reform in a polluted nation. Indeed he built fortified cities in Judah and they had rest, and this he did while speaking of seeking the Lord (II Chronicles 14:7).

Into this realm of righteous rule came Zerah the Ethiopian with a massive army. Asa, bright in peace, was not dimmed in war.

"Lord," he cried, "it is nothing for You to help,
whether with many or with those who have no power.
Help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on You,
and in Your name we go against this multitude.
O Lord, You are our God: do not let man prevail against You" (II Chronicles 14:11).

The victory over this vast army was great, and indeed they invaded the area of the attack.

One might have thought that this brilliant beginning to the reign of Asa would mark him as a hero for all time, Yet in I Kings 15, II Chronicles 16:1-5, we see his foolish seeking of help against an aggressive act of Israel to the North of Judah, by asking the pagan Syrian King to help. That king attacked Israel of the North and so delivered beleaguered Judah; but at what cost! Was this not exactly that fellowship and co-operation with the godless in action that was the cause of Jehu, the son of Hanani's rebuke to Jehoshaphat! (II Chronicles 19:2), later in the line of kings.

Indeed, Hanani himself came to Asa after this evil, declaring the result of his faithless action to the erring King, who had taken the easy and culturally clammy way, and did so after earlier finding the power of God to deliver. "Because you have relied on the king of Syria and have not relied on the Lord your God, therefore the arm of the king of Syria has escaped from your hand." He could have advanced the security of Israel, but in this way sent a message of dependence, where he ought not depend. It is the triune Lord on whom one depends. He is one Being and not two!

Hanani reminded Asa of the signal way in which the Lord had delivered him in the overthrow of the vast Ethiopian army, and made that beautiful declaration concerning the Lord which enthralls us still: "For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth,
                  to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him."

There was the known path which Asa had ignored in his troubles, and what a challenge that is, that we must never rely on this world and its ways, or our own thoughts, but on the Lord whose thoughts are above our thoughts as the heavens are above the earth, and who has TOLD us what to do (Micah 6:6-8, Isaiah 55).

This Hanani, the prophet added a word to Asa who had succumbed to what is not spiritual,  in this major episode, to the damage to his own name and to the results of faith which might have been obtained: "From now on you will have wars" (II Chronicles 17:7-9). Worse, Asa, angered at the prophet, actually put him in prison, and oppressed some of the people. He went off course, like the Challenger space ship in its day, which likewise was dashing off into a realm not given to man (Psalm 115:15-16). It was only from the Lord's mercy that King Asa did not have a similar end to that suffered by that 20^th century crew!

However, discipline he did receive, who had so lowered the glory of the Lord and the testimony in Israel, by failing to act in faith at challenge coming from the threatening moves of idolatrous Israel. Alas for him, in the 39th year of his reign, he became diseased in those feet which had so erred, and he died in the 41st year. He himself was ‘imprisoned’ by a failure in his feet! Asa went, but the word of the Lord continued!

As Paul showed, you can imprison the servant of the Lord, the prophet, but not the word of God which is so given (as in II Timothy 2:8-10):

"Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead
according to my gospel: in which I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even to bonds;
but the word of God is not bound. Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sakes,
that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory."

How sad when someone not only strays, but taking offence at correction, attacks the very servant of God who is sent to help! In the case of John the Baptist, it led to his beheading. But what is it like ? It resembles trying to strangle a surgeon as he seeks to remove a tumour. The prospect from that is not good; nor was the result for Asa good. He had time to repent at leisure at this, his combination of errors and folly. This did nothing to undo the good he had done, but it served as a reminder that sanctification is not to be assumed; it must be sought. If the Lord keeps those who are His (II Timothy 1:8ff., Romans 8:32ff.), yet from discipline, due, deserved and even exemplary, they are not exempt. Therefore let us all humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, and not be carried away in superficial acts, unbelieving approaches or counter-attacks on grace!

II Asa and Jacob

In sum: Asa made the profound mistake of fighting with God as a baneful episode in his life (II Chronicles 16:10). It followed a slack episode in which he trusted in worldly means for what should have been in the first place, spiritual objectives (16:1ff.). Indeed, godly response to challenge, this was not something new to him, but he fell with success, and became slack with habituation. Complacency is not another name for faith. We who are Christians need to fight, not in order to be saved (already done by the Lord alone, Ephesians 2:5-8), but to be sanctified. We all need as one looks for the upper air after a smog-filled city, to seek God and for the knowledge of His will. Paul declares this, “Do not be thoughtless, but know what the will of the Lord is” (Ephesians 5:17). The Greek word here could be rendered perhaps vague, senseless, unreflecting, rash! Wisdom is not like that. It seeks godly knowledge and understanding, not rash human  act to settle a matter speedily or simply! Care and prayer is needed, in faithful consultation with His Word, the Bible.

"And everyone who competes for a prize is temperate in all things.
Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable.
Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air; but I discipline my body ..." (I Corinthians 9:24-25).

The horror of the pit can assail a man, because of its putridity, as when he passes a stench which seems at times to enter into one's very being. Hating such things, one avoids them; loving holiness and godly health, he seeks it. So saved, and seeing the pit, one avoids it, since the love and life of God within one, makes it clear and His power enables one (Romans 8:32ff., James 1:5).

Asa had grown slack, like an athlete with flabby muscles; and though declared a righteous king, had a trough in his sine curve, a pit on his premises, and suffered a sustained bout of an inflamed spirit. Consider by contrast, the patriarch Jacob when he wrestled with the angel, and declared, "I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved" (Genesis 36:22ff.). Gratitude was his, and not sloth and conceit. Indeed, in this, his famous 'wrestling' with the angel, in the form of a man - as indicative of the incarnation to come, when he was deeply challenged in his life, he worked hard. He acted manfully, being fortified by grace. Searched out in the struggle with the angel, he was touched in the socket of his hip, so that it went out of joint, and he limped thereafter. Better than that dying from intestinal decay! Better have faith’s reward of cleanliness than the income of injustice or the godless guilt of going astray.

Jacob did not repudiate the word of God, but was tested by it. After all, this wrestling happened on the night before he had to meet once more that Esau, his brother, whom he had cheated out of the blessing of his father, by pretending to be he, as his father came near to death. Then, he had fled; but now the meeting was to come, at long last. So do events challenge us which reach us after a time; but if we have been near the Lord, HE is there before us, and though we may have to wrestle free, yet in His mercy, He will not let us be tested beyond what we can bear (I Corinthians 10:13).

In integrity of heart and purity of mind and intention, therefore, let us live with all sincerity before God, for there is none who is not a sinner, and all must overcome. Moreover the peace of His rule and the beauty of His pardon, in the strength of His purchase (Matthew 20:28, Romans 3:23-27), which makes salvation free: these things give grounds for vitality and resource in every spiritual war. 

III Asa and War

Let us reflect. Where did the decline start with Asa ? It was in the triumph of success, the acme of reputation and strength, victory and established rest! Thus fortified by an excellent beginning, he strayed badly. Fancy in all the earth a man of God asking someone who is NOT a Christian, or some government or agency, to HELP him in a spiritual war, a godly matter, a divine duty! Is the devil an ally then ? Imagine, for that matter, anyone staying in a Church where the word of God is not honoured! (Isaiah 8:20, Psalm 94:20-21, II Chronicles 25:7-8,19:2-3, 16:7-9).

Is the competitor and adversary an ally then ? Imagine, again, seeking to follow this world's shallow and sallow ways in an emergency, as if to trust in one's own wits or worldly enterprise, and taking counsel in one's own desire! Imagine trusting in this, doing this and not looking to the word and will of God, sought as Jacob sought Him, even if it involves a wrestling of heart and conscience!

What is the good of being a verbal Christian and a vital fraud, equipped with loss or relying on rubble! Thus in asking Syria, a pagan and idolatrous nation, to help him by paying them money from what should have been for the LORD, Asa entered into multiple collision with the Lord. Firstly, in this, he was demeaning the name of the Lord. Secondly, he was seeking help from what is weak instead of from Him whose strength has NO limits (as Asa well knew and had seen); and thirdly, he was doing despite to the glory of the Lord by trying to perform a spiritually discerned task,  by secular means!

That had been the challenge: Aggression against the people of the Lord, in Judah, was this not an obvious matter for divine aid! Would earthly means suffice ? Is a cigarette paper a good present to a bride, instead of a diamond ring ? and is a form of words a presentation to God, instead of one's very mind and body and spirit as a godly sacrifice, as Romans 12:1ff., and I Thessalonians 5:23 so eminently declare.

It is no superficial spirituality that fits with the Lord, any more than superficial love fits in a marriage, or superficial reliability in a friend! A friend loves at all times, we read; and the friend of God loves HIM at all times; and if at a moment, a man of God errs, then the repentant response is sure and must be soon! Spirituality not only must touch practical life, but inhere in it, like a light in a dark house at night. Is it so hard to love the source of love, and to delight in its great Original, for God is love (I John 4:7ff.), and sent His Son into this world, that  many might be saved,  as many as received Him. From Him, from His love shed abroad in our hearts (Romans 5:5), love gains force, faithfulness, delight and felicity. It is not impure, but savoury, not gross but seemly, not a parade, but a reality.

In Christ the emphasis is both a joy and a duty: profound spirituality and persistent practicality (cf. James 2). Liberty is not gained from putting Christ's light in prison, but by repelling invasion of vice, of mind, spirit, body by faith - as exemplified in Asa's early and beautiful cry, shown in II Chronicles 14:11.

The sort of true totality of commitment and involvement in the Lord is shown by a more recent illustration. Thus Churchill, the British war-time PM, for years in the 1930s warned and exhorted the British nation to prepare, seeing that Hitler was a menace. It did not.  It wanted peace. PM Chamberlain came back from Munich with a paper, signed, in his arm, declaring "Peace in our Time".  This was one of the most inept proclamations of all time; for it brought war for years, then a cold war, and now there has come more war from rising Islamic militarists, who desire to grab power after Europe has now long laboured in its woes and wars.

Churchill however, though right in this, was wrong on one vital point. He wanted, he declared, to make things simple and so he found them, since he had but one ambition, to destroy Hitler, that bad man! If, he said, Hitler were to attack hell, he would say a good word about the devil in the House of Commons. To be sure, it is good to have one major objective in life, but it must be comparable to life itself!

It is not for the destruction of this or that, that one must live, with total commitment. It is for CHRIST, who "both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living" (Romans 14:9). ONE THING, said David (Psalm 27:4), have I desired and THAT I will seek after - "that I might dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple. In trouble, He will hide me, He will set me upon a rock,” said the King.

Thus not variability, but victory, not vice but liberty comes to make of life a prized possession, held in trust by the Lord, on whom one actually relies, in whom is the height for faith, who from the depth of futility hides, as from the vacuities of what is not worth the sight. In Him is abundant life, for He is the source of it, both to create and to redeem (John 10:10, Colossians 1:15, Galatians 3).