Sat.’s Devo - Building the Foundation For the Future

Read: 2 Chronicles 14:1-16:14; Romans 9:1-24; Psalm 19:1-14; Proverbs 20:1 Peace in the land is always associated with following God’s commands. Asa became king after Abijah and he did what was pleasing to the Lord. He removed all places of idol worship from the land. When there is peace in a country, then they can build up their own country which is what Asa did. He fortified his cities and built new ones. King Asa had an army of 300,000 that handled heavy artillery and an army of 280,000 who handled light artillery. His army was challenged by an Ethiopian named Zerah. Zerah had over one million warriors. When Asa saw how overpowered he was, he cried out to God who he was fighting for. God sent his army and destroyed them and Judah left with much plunder. The prophet, Azariah when out to meet Asa as he was returning home with his victory and told him that as long as they sought the Lord, He would be with them and his priests would teach them. When they got into trouble, God would save them. Then he gave them a scenario that sounds like today: dark times, not safe to travel, people of every land were troubled, nation fought against nation, city against city. It was all because God was troubling them with every kind of problem. Then he added, “But as for you, be strong and courageous for your work will be rewarded.” Asa’s response to all this trouble was to rally the people together and offer a sacrifice of all the plunder that God had gotten in the war that God had fought. Asa offered 7,700 animals to God and the people entered into a covenant to seek Him with all their hearts and soul They shouted their promise with trumpets blaring and horns sounding and all Judah was happy about their covenant and returned home to live many years of peace. Twenty-five years later, Israel invaded Judah and fortified Ramah so that no one could travel from Israel to Judah or vice versa. Ramah was the gateway. That meant that no one could come to Jerusalem from Israel to celebrate during the feast days. Asa foolishly hired King Ben-hadad from Aram to help him instead of asking God who has a much more powerful army that never fails. God sent Hanani, the prophet to tell King Asa that because he didn’t ask God to help, he missed his opportunity to crush the King of Aram. From that time forward they would be in war. King Asa got so mad at the prophet that he threw him in jail. King Asa became deceased in his feet. Even then, he didn’t ask God to heal him. He was mad at God and refused to repent. His walk with God had become like his feet - diseased. Romans Nine is a difficult chapter to understand because God’s ways are higher than ours. He chose us before the foundation of the earth and some are chosen for salvation and some are chosen for destruction. But let’s look at it another way. Paul gave the history of the nation of Israel starting with Abraham. Abraham is the father of God’s nation. He has a son named Isaac who is a picture of Jesus. Isaac has two sons Esau, the first born and Jacob the second. God rejects the first born and accepts the second. We are born first of the flesh and that birth is destined for hell unless we are born again. If we are born again then we are accepted and given eternal life and blessing. This born-again man stands for Jacob, the second born. God is saying that he rejects those who are not born again and choose to be Esau’s who despised his inheritance. All of this was settled before we were born but we still have a choice in how much of our inheritance we are going to walk in on earth and how much of our destiny we are going to fulfill or whether we will leave to the next generation to fulfill. If we fulfill all of our destiny then our children will only have to work of their own destiny which will be built on our foundation. Lord, may we fulfill all of our destiny and leave a firm foundation for the next generation to build on.