Thur.’s Devo - The Clashing of Kingdoms

Read: 1 Kings 15:1-24; 2 Chron. 13-16
Judah and Israel are now enemies. Jerusalem, the temple, the priests and the law was in Judah so Israel had to manufacture their own worship. Jereobam had had 2 golden calves to keep the people in Israel and allowed just about anyone who brought a sacrifice to be a priest. Abijah, king of Judah reminded Jeroboam, king of Israel, all of this when they met on the battle field. Jeroboam had twice the army of Abijah and ended up ambushing them. Abijah cried out to the Lord and God delivered them with a shout. Abijah chased Jeroboam and took several of his cities. God struck Jeroboam and he died.
When Abijah died, his son, Asa ruled. Asa set his heart to worship God and rid his country of idolatry so God gave him rest from his enemies. During that rest he fortified the cities he had and trained a great army. But it was no match for Zerah, the Ethiopian, who came to battle him with a thousand thousand and 300 chariots. Asa went to the Lord and God sent His host and smote the Ethiopians so bad they were not able to recover.
After this, God sent the prophet, Azariah to encourage Asa with a good word which spurred Asa to continue to cleanse his land of idolatry. People were coming from Israel to live in Judah because they knew that God was with Asa. Asa had a big feast with much sacrificing to renew his nation’s covenant with God.
Asa even had his own mother kicked out of the palace because she had an idol. The only thing Asa didn’t do was to remove the high places.
Basaha, king of Israel rose up and built Ramah on the border of Israel and Judah to keep people from being able to leave Israel for Judah. This is where Asa made his mistake. Instead of asking God to take care of the situation and fight Israel…he hired the Syrians to fight for him. The Syrians did the job and more but God was not pleased. After all God had done for Asa this was a grave mistake.
God sent a prophet to Asa to give him God’s rebuke: because he went to Syria for help, he would continue to have wars. Asa got so mad at the prophet he threw him in jail then unleashed his anger on his own people. Asa brought a curse on himself and was diseased in his feet. Instead of going to God he went to the doctors of his day. He died two years later.
Father, truly your eyes run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show yourself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. May we have a perfect heart.