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continuing to trust

2 Chronicles 16:1-14

2 Chronicles 16:1 In the thirty-sixth year of Asa, Israel’s King Baasha went to war against Judah. He built Ramah to keep anyone from leaving or coming to King Asa of Judah.
2 Chronicles 16:2 So Asa brought out the silver and gold from the treasuries of Yahveh’s temple and the royal palace and sent it to Aram’s King Ben-hadad, who lived in Damascus, saying,
2 Chronicles 16:3 “There’s a treaty between me and you, between my father and your father. Look, I have sent you silver and gold. Go break your treaty with Israel’s King Baasha so that he will withdraw from me.”
2 Chronicles 16:4 Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies to the cities of Israel. They attacked Ijon, Dan, Abel-maim, and all the storage cities of Naphtali.
2 Chronicles 16:5 When Baasha heard about it, he quit building Ramah and stopped his work.
2 Chronicles 16:6 Then King Asa brought all Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and the timbers Baasha had built it with. Then he built Geba and Mizpah with them.
2 Chronicles 16:7 At that time, the seer Hanani came to King Asa of Judah and said to him, “Because you depended on the king of Aram and have not depended on Yahveh your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from you.
2 Chronicles 16:8 Were not the Cushites and Libyans a vast army with many chariots and horsemen? When you depended on Yahveh, he handed them over to you.
2 Chronicles 16:9 For the eyes of Yahveh roam throughout the land to show himself strong for those who are wholeheartedly devoted to him. You have been foolish in this matter. Therefore, you will have wars from now on.”
2 Chronicles 16:10 Asa was enraged with the seer and put him in prison because of his anger over this. And Asa mistreated some of the people at that time.
2 Chronicles 16:11 Note that the events of Asa’s reign, from beginning to end, are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.
2 Chronicles 16:12 In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa developed a disease in his feet, and his disease became increasingly severe. Yet even in his disease he didn’t seek Yahveh but only the physicians.
2 Chronicles 16:13 Asa rested with his fathers; he died in the forty-first year of his reign.
2 Chronicles 16:14 He was buried in his own tomb that he had made for himself in the city of David. They laid him out in a coffin that was full of spices and various mixtures of prepared ointments; then they made a great fire in his honor.

continuing to trust

Asa had relied on the LORD all of his reign, but faltered at the end of it. His story is a lesson for those of us who have been with the LORD for decades. It does not matter how much experience we have, or how many resources and strategic connections we have. It only matters that we remain faithful, continuing to trust in our one Resource.

LORD, give us the wisdom of consistent reliance upon you.