I’ll use Psalms 123:1-2, 134:1-3; 31:1-4

My Shepherd met me in His green pastures and laid me down in 2 Chronicles.

The Mind of the Spirit stirred up the thoughts of the spirit of my mind in verse 9:

2 Chronicles 16:9 For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.

Here is what happened. Asa began his reign doing what was good and right before the eye of the LORD (2 Chronicles 14:2-8). He prospered mightily and had favor with GOD and with the people. He purged the land of idols and led a revival that returned the hearts of the people to the GOD of Abraham. He fortified his land and built up his army till he had 580k men of war prepared to battle (2 Chronicles (see v. 7-8). “The kingdom was quiet before him” (2 Chronicles 14:5b).

But ten years into his reign (2 Chronicles 14:1b), a great test was about to challenge his faith: Zerah the Ethiopian brought against Asa an army of 1 million soldiers and 300 chariots (2 Chronicles 14:9). Asa rose to the challenge, trusing in GOD: “Asa cried unto th LORD hi God, and said, LORD, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or ith 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” (2 Chronicles 14:11).

God sent His prophet, Azariah, who, by the Spirit of God, affirmed the victory was according to Asa’s faith, and not his might, and confirmed this was the path forward for him: “The LORD is with you, while ye be with him; and if. ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you” (2 Chronicles 15:1-2).

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa (2 Chronicles 15:10), the people, with their king, made a covenant established by law that it would be treason to forsake the God of Jacob, saying, “Whosoever would not seek the LORD God of Israel should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman” (2 Chronicles 15:13-15).

Along the still waters, I reflected on how, during Asa’s twenty-one years of peace and prosperity (from the 15th to the 36th years of his reign—2 Chronicles 15:10, 16:1a), his reliance shifted from GOD to himself. A smaller test would be sent. Baasha, king of Israel, began encroaching on Judah, building fortifications in Ramah of Benjamin, about 5 miles northwest of Jerusalem. It does not appear this was a staging of a massive army with the intent to invade, but, according to Scripture, it was something of a blockade: “to the intent that he might let none go out or come in to Asa king of Judah” (2 Chronicles 16:1b).It is clear that this threat to Judah was significantly insignificant when compared to the earlier threat from Zerah (2 Chronicles 16:8-9).

Asa did not seek the LORD in this matter. He depended upon his own shrewdness and cleverness. And it worked. He used the silver and gold of the House of God to hire the king of Syria, Benhadad, God’s enemy, to attack Israel from the north. This required Baasha to withdraw from Ramah and send all his forces into the north to defend against Benhadad’s invasion. Israel was defeated, and Judah was safe. His clever plan worked.

Apparently, he assumed God had blessed his contrivance. Odd, since he raided the treasures of the House of God to hire God’s enemy to attack his brother, Israel. The following insights occurred to me:

Pride rises in times of ease and plenty. Asa was in far greater danger after a long run of peace than when faced with a massive invading force from a foreign power. The challenges of peace and prosperity are seen in the tendency of our flesh to relax into vanities.

A smaller threat can be more dangerous than a great one. We are more inclined to assume there is no need to “bother” God with a small matter when a great matter would compel us to humbly appeal to GOD for help. This tendency is insidious. (The word insidious is rooted in a French word that speaks of a threat that is watching in hiding, lying in wait, to entrap, treacherous, sly, deceitful—inidious.) Resident in our flesh is the vanity of self-reliance. Often, we fail to seek God in a matter because we regard it fully within our own capacity to address. This is why Jesus told us, “Without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5).* We don’t think to pray about matters when we don’t perceive the need for divine intervention. We don’t believe the song we sing: “I need thee every hour.”

Asa received the encouraging message from God’s prophet in his early days (2 Chronicles 15:1-8), but deeply resented being corrected by the prophet after his vanity got the better of him in the matter of Baasha. When under the threat of the great army of Zerah, he humbly received the exhortation of God’s prophet. When ease and prosperity dulled his senses and let pride creep in, now he reacts to the message of God’s prophet with anger and haughty spite. Three years he continued in his bitterness against God, till God gave him a disease in his feet, which should have humbled the king. Instead, it drove him deeper into pride and rejection of God from his life: Asa sought not to the LORD, but to the physicians (2 Chronicles 16:12).

He died a bitter, ungrateful, and miserable man.

In the valley, feeling my own Asa inclinations, I begged the King to remind me to seek the LORD for all things. I asked whether my own tendency to respond to minor matters with confidence in my own abilities, and my tendency to resent the notion that I must rely upon Him for everything, would be cause for Him to “resist” my prayers when I do seek Him? Jesus connected His exhortation regarding our utter dependency on Him, “Without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5), to having our prayers answered: “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7).

He made clear the thing I must do daily in order to avoid ending up like Asa: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23).

At the table, He graciously anointed my head with His oil. He began to walk away without filling my cup! I refused to rise from the table and prayed, “I need thee every hour,” and held my cup up to Him with head bowed, pleading with Him for the grace I require for every day. He filled my cup. We walked into the harvest, goodness and mercy faithfully attending.

Praying for revival! 🙏

Going live asap:

https://rumble.com/v7af7b2-shepherds-pasture.html

[*This means both that whatever we do it is done “with Him,” and that nothing can be done without Him, whether good or evil (“Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid” (1 Corinthians 6:15; see 15-19). And in the context of John 15:5, it is clear that whatever fruit we might bring forth in our service to Him can only come from our abiding in Him, and His words in us (John 15:1-8).]