14:2, 4
"And Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God....and commanded Judah to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, and to keep the law and the commandment."
How do you “command” a group of people to "seek" the Lord? In the next chapter, Asa told what the results would be if you didn't follow this command...
15:12, 13
"And they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul, but that whoever would not seek the LORD, the God of Israel, should be put to death, whether young or old, man or woman."
Talk about no separation between church and state...If they didn’t seek the Lord, they would be killed. Now or later, I suppose. How did they monitor who was sincerely seeking the Lord and who wasn't? What if we had that law today? Who would still be alive among us? Many things in the Bible I don’t understand...
14:11
"And Asa cried to the LORD his God, 'O LORD, there is none like you to help, between the mighty and the weak. Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this multitude. O LORD, you are our God; let not man prevail against you.'"
I love Asa’s prayer (it’s better than “The Prayer of Jabez”, to me). He addressed his problem to the only one who could help—the LORD, acknowledging his total dependence on him. He let the Lord know that he put his confidence in him. Later, Asa would go to battle and NOT rely on the Lord, and suffer defeat...
16:
7 "At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him, 'Because you relied on the king of Syria, and did not rely on the LORD your God, the army of the king of Syria has escaped you.
8 Were not the Ethiopians and the Libyans a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because you relied on the LORD, he gave them into your hand.
9 For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him. You have done foolishly in this, for from now on you will have wars.'"
O Lord, why do we find it so hard to remain faithful? You prove yourself worthy over and over, yet we give up on you so quickly and run to our own tiny arsenal of trivial resources to solve our God-sized problems. Let me remember with delight that you don’t just passively sit back waiting for someone to knock on your door for help—you are actively out there, looking for people with problems for you to solve. Let me remain one of those...a consistent seeker of the Lord.
