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2
Chronicles Chapter Fourteen
2 Chronicles 14
Chapter Contents
Asa's piety
He strengthens his kingdom.
Asa aimed at pleasing God
and studied to approve himself
to him. Happy those that walk by this rule
not to do that which is right in
their own eyes
or in the eye of the world
but which is so in God's sight. We
find by experience that it is good to seek the Lord; it gives us rest; while we
pursue the world
we meet with nothing but vexation. Asa consulted with his
people how to make a good use of the peace they enjoyed; and concluded with
them that they must not be idle
nor secure. A formidable army of Ethiopians
invaded Asa's kingdom. This evil came upon them
that their faith in God might
be tried. Asa's prayer is short
but it is the real language of faith and
expectation from God. When we go forth in God's name
we cannot but prosper
and all things work together for the good of those whom he favours.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on 2 Chronicles》
2 Chronicles 14
Verse 1
[1] So Abijah slept with his fathers
and they buried him in
the city of David: and Asa his son reigned in his stead. In his days the land
was quiet ten years.
Quiet — There was no open war
but there were private
hostilities between his and Baasha's subjects.
Verse 6
[6] And he built fenced cities in Judah: for the land had
rest
and he had no war in those years; because the LORD had given him rest.
The land had rest — Those have rest
indeed
to whom God gives rest; peace indeed
to whom Christ gives peace. We
find by experience
it is good to seek the Lord. While we pursue the world
we
meet with nothing but vexation.
Verse 7
[7] Therefore he said unto Judah
Let us build these cities
and make about them walls
and towers
gates
and bars
while the land is yet
before us; because we have sought the LORD our God
we have sought him
and he
hath given us rest on every side. So they built and prospered.
Before us — In our power.
Verse 9
[9] And there came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian with
an host of a thousand thousand
and three hundred chariots; and came unto
Mareshah.
Ethiopian — Or
the Arabian
as the Hebrew
word Cush is commonly used: these being much nearer to Asa than the Ethiopians.
Verse 11
[11] And Asa cried unto the LORD his God
and said
LORD
it
is nothing with thee to help
whether with many
or with them that have no
power: help us
O LORD our God; for we rest on thee
and in thy name we go
against this multitude. O LORD
thou art our God; let not man prevail against
thee.
Let not man prevail — If he prevails
against us
he prevails
as it were
against thee; because thou art our God.
And we rest on thee
and go forth in thy name
which thou hast encouraged us to
do.
Verse 12
[12] So the LORD smote the Ethiopians before Asa
and before
Judah; and the Ethiopians fled.
Smote — With terror
and an unaccountable consternation.
Verse 14
[14] And they smote all the cities round about Gerar; for the
fear of the LORD came upon them: and they spoiled all the cities; for there was
exceeding much spoil in them.
Smote the cities — because they had
joined
with Zerah in this war.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on 2 Chronicles》
14 Chapter 14
Verses 1-15
Verses 1-4
And Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord
his God.
Asa faithful to his God
We have watched the steady fall of the kingdom of Israel Judah
also began in shame and ended in disaster
but its shame was not so unmixed nor its
disaster so complete. The reason for this better fate is suggested in our text:
the saving influence of good men interposed to hold the people to God and
prosperity. Our lesson presents Asa as the righteous leader of his people.
1. Asa reformed the religion of Judah. Like Gideon
he began his rule
with a bold attack upon the popular idolatry. The worship of Baal and Ashtoreth
had clung to the people ever since they met it when entering Canaan
in spite
of God’s warning that for this very sin the inhabitants were cast out before
them. In recent years Solomon had patronised it
Rehoboam encouraged and Abijah
confirmed it; and under these royal leaders Judah had become fascinated with
its worship and debauched with its hideous vice. But the reformer’s axe went
crashing through the groves. He was well named Asa(“Physician
” “Cure”)
for he
healed the hurt of his people. We hear of no resistance to his vigorous
measures. The conscience of the nation yet answered to the conscience of the
king: “the land was quiet before him.”
2. Asa advanced the material prosperity of Judah. In the ten years of
rest which God gave him “he built fenced cities
with walls and towers
gates
and bars
” to protect them from Israel on the north and Egypt on the south.
3. Passing now to determine the nature and the extent of Asa’s
influence
we find the cause of his success in his piety. He was a sound
reformer
an able king
and a successful soldier
because he was faithful to
his God. “He did that which was right
and commanded the people to serve the
Lord.” So
too
his best work for his subjects was upon their characters. Asa’s
influence was most important and enduring. He ascended the throne at a crisis
in the nation’s history. Israel was already twenty years along in its fatal
transgression
and Judah was hastening after it. His father and grandfather had
forsaken the righteousness of David and perpetuated the iniquity of Solomon
rather than his splendour or his wisdom. Had the succeeding reign of forty-one
years followed the same course
we must believe that the current toward
wickedness would have been set past turning. Had Asa been like Jeroboam
Judah
would have gone down like Israel. Through Asa’s faithfulness the old man’s
dying blessing has come to pass: “Judah
thou art he whom thy brethren shall
praise: thy father’s children shall bow down before thee
and unto him shall
the gathering of the people be.” For Judah prevailed above his brethren
and of
him came the chief ruler. The Jewish monarchy fell at last
but the real cause
for which Asa struggled shall never perish. He who reads the story of Israel and
Judah will mark with wonder the controlling power exercised by the king upon
the religious faith of the nation. If it is written of one
“He did evil in the
sight of the Lord
” it is always true that “he made Israel to sin.” If he
worshipped Jehovah
his subjects worshipped with him. The character of the king
decided the character of the people. The saving influence of righteous leaders.
The power to lead others may come either from external circumstances or from
personal qualities.
1. The influence given by external circumstances.
2. Besides the control given by external circumstances
we may notice
the influence of personal qualities. Not what the man has
but what the man is
makes him a leader. Jeroboam is an instance in point. Beginning life as a common
labourer
he died king of Israel. How continually have gifted
accomplished
and learned men brought saving help to the Church of God throughout her
history. There is a subtle
mighty influence which should always be consecrated
to holy uses--popularity
power to win the favour of others. Disciplined
character has a peculiar mastery over others for good. Its control is quieter
and deeper than any we have marked; it is the atmosphere of a soul refined to
its highest uses. “All high beauty has a moral element in it. Gross and obscure
natures
however decorated
seem impure shambles; but character gives splendour
to youth
and awe to wrinkled skin and grey hairs.” God has been at great pains
to fit souls for this service. (Monday Club Sermon.)
Verse 7
Therefore said he unto Judah
Let us build these cities . . . while
the land is yet before us
The duty of improving present opportunity
(a Sunday-school sermon):--Consider--
I.
The
opportunity for labour with which we are blessed. “The land is yet before us.”
1. We have liberty to labour.
2. The facilities are great: multiplication of elementary books
circulation of Bibles
etc.
3. The encouragements are numerous. The prejudices of society are in
our favour. God’s command
etc.
II. The importance
of labouring while we have this opportunity.
1. What is the work to which we are called? That of teaching the
young the Word of God (Deuteronomy 6:6-7; Psalms 78:5; Psalms 78:7; Proverbs 22:6).
2. The duty of improving existing opportunities. Conclusion: Address
children. If you had to pass through a long and dark passage where there were
many deep pits
how anxious
at the beginning
would you feel for light. Such is the Word of God given to
you at your entrance into life (Psalms 119:105). (J. G.
Breay
B.A.)
Verse 11-12
And Asa
cried unto the Lord his God.
Victories over superior numbers
These victories over superior numbers may easily be paralleled or
surpassed by numerous striking examples from secular history. The odds were
greater at Agincourt
where at least sixty thousand French were defeated by not
more than twenty
thousand Englishmen; at Marathon the Greeks routed a Persian army ten times as
numerous as their own; in India English generals have defeated innumerable hordes
of native warriors. For the most part victorious generals have been ready to
acknowledge the succouring arm of the God of battles. Shakespeare’s Henry V
after Agincourt
speaks altogether in the spirit of Asa’s prayer: “O God
Thy
arm was here; and not to us
but to Thy arm alone
ascribe we all.” When
Elizabeth’s fleet defeated the Spanish Armada
the grateful piety of Protestant
England felt that its foes had been destroyed by the breath of the Lord:
“Afflavit Deus et dissipantur.” (W. H. Bennett
M.A.)
The superiority of moral to material force
Characteristic instances are to be found in the wider movements of
international polities. Italy in the eighteenth century seemed as hopelessly
divided as Israel under the judges
and Greece as completely enslaved to the
“unspeakable Turk” as the Jews to Nebuchadnezzar; and yet
destitute as they
were of any material resources
these nations had at their disposal great moral
forces: the memory of ancient greatness and the sentiment of nationality; and
to-day Italy can count hundreds of thousands like the chronicler’s Jewish
kings
and Greece builds her fortresses by land and her ironclads to command
the sea. The Lord has fought for Israel. But the principle has a wider
application. The English and American pioneers of the movements for the
abolition of slavery had to face what seemed an impenetrable phalanx of
powerful interests and influences. It may be objected that if victory were to
be secured by Divine intervention
there was no need to muster five hundred and
eighty thousand men
or indeed any army at all. We have no right to look for
Divine co-operation till we have done our best; we are to work out our own
salvation
for it is God that worketh in us. (W. H. Bennett
M. A.)
King Asa’s prayer on the eve of battle
I. Our text is a
prater--the surest weapon in war as in all other emergencies.
II. It is the
prayer of a king on the eve of battle
and therefore partakes of a national
character.
III. It is a prayer
of faith
exhibiting reliance on the Divine arm for help
and therefore
implying humiliation
together with a distinct conviction that no human force
however vast
can prevail
except under the recognised championship of the
Almighty. (The Penny Pulpit.)
The all-sufficiency of God’s help
I. Asa acted promptly
and energetically as the occasion required. Only one purpose moved him
and
that was to bring out all the military strength of his kingdom
and at once
with no unnecessary delay
strike the foe
every soldier realising that the
crown of victory was the prize to be won or lost
according as he should be
faithful or unfaithful in his particular duty. Having acted thus promptly and
energetically
then--
II. Asa called on
God for help. He did not ask God to work a miracle on his behalf. Whoever calls
upon God for help without first helping himself
without first putting forth
his own efforts to secure that for which he invokes the Divine aid
will call
upon God in vain. There are other elements of strength in war besides those
which are merely physical. God is a moral and spiritual force which will make
an army of inferior numbers more than adequate to encounter and overcome the
mere physical force which inheres in superiority of numbers. Hence the wisdom
and virtue of prayer.
III. What was the
issue? “The Lord smote the Ethiopians before Asa
etc. (W. T.
Tindley
D.D.)
Asa’s prayer
This King Asa
Rehoboam’s grandson
had had a long reign of peace
which the writer of the Book of Chronicles traces to the fact that he had
rooted out idolatry from Judah. “The land had rest
and he had no war . . .
because the Lord had given him rest.” But their came a time when the war-cloud
began to roll threateningly over the land
and a great army came up against
him. Like a wise man he made his military dispositions first
and prayed next.
This prayer contains the very essence of what ought to be the Christian
attitude in reference to all the conditions and threatening dangers and
conflicts of life.
I. The wholesome
consciousness of our own impotence. It did not take much to convince Asa that
he had “no power.” His army
according to the numbers given of the two hosts
was outnumbered two to one. If we look fairly in the face our duties
our
tasks
our dangers
the possibilities of life and its certainties
the more
humbly we think of our own capacity
the more wisely we shall think about God
and the more truly we shall estimate ourselves. The world says “Self-reliance
is the conquering virtue.” Jesus says to us
“Self-distrust is the condition of
all victory.” And that does not mean any mere shuffling off of responsibility
from our own shoulders
but it means looking the facts of our lives
and of our
own characters
in the face. And if we will do that
however apparently easy
may be our course
and however richly endowed in mind
body
or estate we may
be
we shall find that we each are like “the man with ten thousand” that has to
meet “the King that comes against him with twenty thousand”; and we shaft not
“desire conditions of peace” with our enemy
for that is not what in this ease
we have to do
but we shall look about us
and not keep our eyes on the
horizon
and on the levels of earth
but look up to see if there is not there
an ally that we can bring into the field to redress the balance
and to make
our ten as strong as the opposing twenty. Now all that is true about the
disproportion between the foes we have to face and fight and our own strength.
It is eminently true about us Christian people
if we are doing any work for
our Master. You hear people say
“Look at the small number of professing
Christians in this country
as compared with the numbers on the other side.
What is the use of their trying to convert the world?” If the Christian Church
had to undertake the task of Christianising the world with its own strength
we
might well threw up the sponge and stop altogether. “We have no might.” But we
are not only numerically weak. A multitude of non-effectives
mere
camp-followers
loosely attached
nominal Christians have to be deducted from
the muster-roll. So a profound self-distrust is our wisdom. But it is not to
paralyse us
but to lead to something better
as it led Asa.
II. Summoning God
into the world should follow wholesome self-distrust. Asa uses a remarkable
expression
which is
perhaps
scarcely reproduced adequately in another verse
“It is nothing with Thee to help
whether with many or with them that have no
power.” It is a strange phrase
but it seems most probable that the suggested
rendering in the Revised Version is nearer the writer’s meaning
which says
“Lord! there is none beside Thee to help between the mighty and them that have
no power
” which to our ears is a somewhat cumbrous way of saying that God
and
God only
can adjust the difference between the mighty and the weak. Asa turns
to God and says
“Thou only canst trim the scales and make the heavy one the
lighter of the two by casting Thy might into it. So help us
O Lord
our God.”
One man with God at his back is always in the majority. There is encouragement
for people who have to fight unpopular causes in the world. The consciousness
of weakness may unnerve a man; and that is why people in the world are always
patting each other on the back and saying
“Be of good cheer
and rely upon
yourself.” But the self-distrust that turns to God becomes the parent of a far
more reliable self-reliance than that which trusts to men. My consciousness of
need is my opening the door for God to come in. Just as you always find the
lakes in the hollows
so you will always find the grace of God coming into men’s
hearts to strengthen them and make them victorious
when there has been the
preparation of the lowered estimate of one’s self. Hollow out your heart by
self-distrust
and God will fill it with the flashing waters of His strength
bestowed. The way by which we summon God into the field: Asa prays
“Help us
O
Lord
our God
for we rest on Thee”; and the word that he employs for “rest” is
not a very frequent one. It carries with it a very striking picture. It is used
in that tragical story of the death of Saul
when the man that saw the last of
him came to David and drew in a sentence the pathetic picture of the wearied
wounded
broken-hearted
discrowned
desperate monarch leaning on his spear.
You can understand how hard he leaned
with what a grip he held it
and how
heavily his whole
languid
powerless weight pressed upon it. And that is the
word that is used here. “We lean on Thee” as the wounded Saul leaned upon his
spear. Is that a picture of your faith?
III. Courageous
advance should follow self-distrust and summoning god by faith. It is well when
self-distrust leads to confidence. But that is not enough. It is better when
self-distrust and confidence in God lead to courage. And as Asa goes on
“Help
us
for we rely on Thee
and in Thy name we go against this multitude.” Never
mind though it is two to one. What does that matter? Prudence and calculation
are well enough
but there is a great deal of very rank cowardice and want of
faith in Christian people
both in regard to their own lives and in regard to
Christian work in the world
which goes masquerading under much too respectable
a name
and calls itself “judicious caution” and “prudence.” If we have God
with us
let us be bold in fronting the dangers and difficulties that beset us
and be sure that He will help us.
IV. The
all-powerful plea which God will answer. “Thou art my God
let not man prevail
against Thee.” That prayer covers two things. You may be quite sure that if God
is your God you will not be beaten; and you may be quite sure that if you have
made God’s cause yours He will make your cause His
and again you will not be beaten. “Thou art our
God.” “It takes two to make a bargain
” and God and we have both to act before
He is truly ours. He gives Himself to us
but there is an act of ours required
too
and you must take the God that is given to you
and make Him yours because you make yourselves
His. And when I have taken Him for mine
and not unless I have
He is mine
to
all intents of strength-giving and blessedness. (A. Maclaren
D.D.)
The name of God written in life
Our whole life ought to be filled with His name. You can write it
anywhere. It does not need a gold plate to carve His name upon. It does not
need to be set in jewels and diamonds. The poorest scrap of brown paper
and
the bluntest little bit of pencil
and the shakiest hand will do to write the
name of Christ; and all life
the trivialities as well as the crises
may be
flashing and bright with the sacred syllables. Mohammedans decorate their
palaces and mosques with no pictures
but with the name of Allah in gilded
arabesques. Everywhere
on walls and roof
and windows and cornices
and
pillars and furniture
the name is written. There is no such decoration for a
life as that Christ’s name should be inscribed thereon. (A. Maclaren
D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》