The Reign of King Asa
Turn with me please to 2 Chronicles chapter 13, the end of 2 Chronicles 13. We are looking at the subject tonight, “God’s warning to good men” in the reign of King Asa.
The reign of King Asa, God’s warning to good men. God’s warning to good women. God’s warning to all of us, but especially God’s warning to good leaders and to good pastors. Remember the kings of Israel were called shepherds by the prophets. God told the prophets of Israel to call their kings shepherds and the Hebrew word for shepherd and the Hebrew word for pastor is the same word. Roeh, roeh, and theres much to be learnt in pastoral ministry in studying the kings of Israel. There’s good shepherds and bad shepherds, there’s good pastors and bad pastors and the typology of the kings of Israel teach us about good and bad pastors but it applies to all of us. God’s warning to good men as we see in the reign of King Asa.
What we see here in verse 20 of chapter 13, “and Jereboam a bad king of the north did not again recover strength in his days of Abijah, now Aviyah, Abijah means my Father is Yahweh, and the Lord struck him and he died but Aviyah, Abijah became powerful and took 14 wives to himself and became the father of 22 sons and 16 daughters. Now the rest of the acts of Abijah and his ways and his words are written in the treaties of the prophet Ego. Now that word treaties, we translate treaties, what does yours say, mine says treaties, what does the King James say? Stories! The Hebrew word is Midrash, enquiring into. Some people try to say “well midrash is not in the Bible” its because they dont read Hebrew. Midrash certainly is in the Bible and that’s exactly what the word is. The Midrash!
Asa in chapter 14 succeeds Abijah in Judah. Asa was a good king, his father was not a bad king and his son was a pretty good king but Asa begins as a good king. So Aviyah, Abijah, slept with his fathers. Now the idea of being gathered to the fathers is what we call in Hebrew “the Avot” Avot is the plural of Ava, father. We have to understand this.
We have the Hebrew world Sheol, meaning the netherworld, the place where the spirits of the souls and the dead went. Sheol, Sheol! Sheol had two halves, two sections. One section was Geheno, Gehena. Now Gehenna was the area, was named after the area outside of the refuse gate of Jerusalem where they burned the rubbish. It was the tip that burned day and night but it was the place of abomination where Molech worship was practiced. It was where the Kidron Valley and the Tyropean Valley came together and they sacrificed human babies to demons, Molech worship and it was a symbol of hell. Jesus said to the Pharisees “How will you escape the judgement of Gehenna?” So Sheol had two halves. One half was the place of Gehenna for those who were wicked and then there was the big chasm between the two that you couldn’t cross and then the other side was the place of the Avot, normally referred to as the “bosom of Abraham”. In Luke 16, you see Lazarus and the rich man. Lazarus was in the bosom of Abraham, he’s in the place of the Avot, he’s gathered to the fathers, the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob the other was in the place of the damned, Genhenna with the chasm in between. Now notice hell is eternal, it’s conscious. Lazarus was able to answer the man being tormented and the rich man was able to see the blessings of Lazarus and the Avot. Of course, we have people today, like Roger Forster teaching that there is no such place as hell, that hell is just a place of annihilation. If you don’t repent of your sins, when you die you won’t exist anymore. That’s what the “March for Jesus” people teach, it’s what Roger Forster teaches. If you don’t repent when you die you won’t exist anymore. This is of course what unsaved people believe anyway. What’s the point of giving them the gospel if they’re going to be annihilated. But that’s not what the Bible teaches.
Lazarus was conscious and the rich man was conscious and they saw what each other were doing.
Now the problem we have is when the New Testament translates this concept, it translates this place Sheol into Hades. Hades, it took the Greek equivalent and just called Sheol - Hades. So far that’s not too bad except that when the King James Bible was translated it mistranslated Hades - Hell. So when it says when Jesus went to hell, they think he went down to hell. This is where Copeland and Hagan get their crazy doctrine. He didn’t go to hell, he went to the Avot. He went to Sheol, to Hades, he went to the Old Testament saints who died faithful under the law. Those who were in the bosom of Abraham, waiting for the Messiah to come. Once the Messiah came and died for sin, then they could enter eternal Heaven. But of course all the money preachers, the Copeland, Hagin people and all these crazy people, they twist this idea of the Avot.
“He was gathered to his fathers and they buried him and his son Asa became king in his place. The land was undisturbed for ten years during his days and Asa did good and right in the sight of the Lord his God for he removed the foreign altars and high places tore down. The sacred pillars he cut down, the Asherin and commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers and to observe the law and the commandment, and he also removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah and the kingdom was undisturbed under him and he built fortified cities in Judah since the land was undisturbed and there was no-one at war with him during those years because the Lord had given him rest for he said to Judah, Let us build these cities and surround them walls and towers, gates and bars, the land is still ours because we have sought the Lord, we have sought him and he has given us rest on every side. So they built and prospered.
Now notice he directly relates the rest that he had and the prosperity he was getting to the fact that the people were faithful to God. “Now Asa had an army of three hundred thousand from Judah bearing large shields and spears and two hundred and eighty thousand from Benjamin.
(Judah and Benjamin were the two southern tribes together with some of the Levites, the other ten tribes were the northern ones) And they were bearing shields and wielding bows, all of them were valiant warriors.
All of them were valiant warriors! Pay attention! The people in the north were imitating the way of the pagan gentiles, they were taking on the religious beliefs of the pagans. The people in the south stayed faithful. The people in the south did not have the same wealth or numbers as the people in the north. They had ten tribes, the south only had two plus the Levites. They didn’t have the wealth but the Lord was with them, that’s where the temple was and they had the throne of David. David is the Old Testament shadow of Christ, as good shepherd and as king. So they had the Lord. They had the inheritance, the heritage of David. They didn’t have the money or the numbers. Now the north also had a big army, much bigger than theirs but they were not all valiant warriors. Only people who are really faithful to God will be valiant in spiritual warfare. OK. To God quality is always more important than quantity. 15 SAS are better than 15,000 girl scouts.
To God quality is always more important than quantity. They may have the numbers, they may have the money. They may have most of the real estate but they are not going to be valiant in war. Let’s look at them. Do you see them leading Muslims to Christ? No, of course not, they are compromising with them. In fact they are imitating them.
Let’s understand what’s happening. Remember the oldest enemy of the gospel in these islands were the druids. The first opponents of the gospel on these islands were the druids. The ancient celtic religion, Stonehenge crowd. Now just the week before last, you had them all going to Stonehenge didnt you, for the solstice, the rebirth of paganism in Britain . Post-Christian neo-pagan Britain are returning to paganism.
You go to Belfast, I’ve got to go to Belfast in a few days, you see the murals on the walls in Belfast, both the Catholic ones and the Protestant ones, the ancient celtic war gods and mythical heroes. Cohowin and Arene. Arene was the old hag who demanded the blood of the youth so she could keep her beauty. These are the images used by the para-military and terrorist organisations when they are killing kids.
The same demonic powers. Some people call them territorial spirits, a better translation is principalities. The rebirth of paganism in Britain. So the oldest enemy of the gospel and in Ireland of course it was Patrick, St. Patrick who confronted the druids. Now the oldest enemy of the gospel in these islands are the druids, but the leader of the Church of England is one. And, he’s a druid who ordains homosexuals and who appoints homosexual bishops. You understand, this is just like Israel .
When you read the Torah, what it emphasizes and they had to keep all the law, they kept the Torah, they kept the commandments. Among those commandments, if you look at Leviticus, there was a lot of the commandments dedicated to avoiding unnatural sexual practice including bestiality, including incest and certainly including homosexual and lesbian relationships, that they’re unnatural and perverted. Now we’re making laws in this country where if you say that, you’re guilty of a hate crime. What an insult to minorities. They’re saying that’s the same as making an ethnically derogatory remark. They’re saying that’s the same as calling a Jew a kyte, a black a nigger or an Asian a Paki. You’re telling me that Jews, that blacks and Asians are the same as homosexuals? Nobody ever went to hell because of the color of their skin, or because of their race. Nobody ever went to hell for being an Asian, or a black or a Jew. There’s nothing wrong with being an Asian, being a black or a Jew. That’s not perverted or unnatural but that’s what they’re trying to tell us. And they’re going to make a law that if we say this, they can arrest us. That if a church teaches this, you’ve just lost your registered charity status. Now you’re taxable. And they will get these laws and if they don’t get these laws, Europe will impose it.
That’s how its going to work. But even more sick, is that the established churches will support it. The Methodists will support it, the Presbyterians will support it, the United Reformed Church will support it, the Church of England will support it. Give it a few years, you’re going to see Pentacostals support it.
It’s the end times. Absolutely right!
So Israel became just like the pagan nations around it. I was speaking at a church at Somerset before I went to New Zealand. I had to take a long way around to get to this church in Somerset, (I had to go like this) to avoid all the new-agers going down to Stonehenge. I had to go 40, 50 miles out of my way to avoid the traffic jams, they were coming from all over the place. But now the leader of the church of the country is one. He’s appointing homosexual bishops. Sad, that’s exactly what happened here. They became pagan and immoral just like the nations that surrounded them. Yet, they tried to keep the name of being Jews. Just like today, they’re trying to keep the name of being Christian. But Jesus said if you love me, keep my commandments.
Notice what the text says, they did not keep his statutes. Now God told them in Deuteronomy “keep my statutes that it may be well with you”. God does not tell us to keep his statutes for his sake. God is God. He doesn’t need anybody to do anything. He says keep my statutes for your sake. If people kept his statutes, there would be no crime, there would be no social injustice, there would be no HIV infection. If people kept his statutes, it would be well with us. People wouldn’t be dying of aids, if we kept his statutes. But they become like the pagan nations and this is global. You know I go to Africa a lot. Unlike in England , most of the black African Anglicans are born again. In Uganda, in Kenya , most of them are really saved. It’s only Desmond Tutu’s crowd in South Africa , that aren’t and he wants to ordain lesbian priestesses and he hangs out with the witch doctors. Almost every black african anglican is born again, except for his crowd. He’s like here, he’s like the ones you have here. Terrible, terrible, terrible. What do you have, Israel and Judah. To a Kenyan, homosexuality is perverted. Its amazing, when you see people removed from the decadence of the affluent western world, when you see people in the third world who live in a simple culture how come they don’t have any endemic homosexuality? You don’t find it among rural black africans or asians, they don’t have it.
The only place that I’ve ever seen homosexuality in the third world is in asia, where they were turning little kids into homosexual prostitutes to cater for westerners in Thailand, that I saw. The Buddhists were selling little boys and little girls.... It was the only time I ever saw homosexuality in Asia. I’ve never seen it in Africa. Never. It’s only when they get influenced by the corrupt western world. In their own culture, to an African, its perverted. Giraffes wouldn’t do that, what human beings are going to do it! It’s sick to them. They wouldn’t even think of it. They wouldn’t even think of it. Israel and Judah!
That Tutu’s crowd, oh they’re influenced by the west, international, same here, there’s Israel and you have Judah. Let’s look!
He begins getting rid of all this stuff and God blesses him. Verse 9 “Now Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of one million men and three hundred chariots and he came to Mareshah."
Now he’s outnumbered Asa a little less than 2:1.
“So Asa went out to meet him and they drew up in battle formation in the Valley of Zephathah at Mareshah. Then Asa called to the Lord his God and said Lord there’s no one besides thee to help in the battle”
Notice, “no-one other than you God” These guys they had more chariots, a bigger army, they’re tougher than we are. “Nobody but you” to help in the battle between the powerful and those that have no strength, so.... “help us O Lord our God for we trust in thee and in thy name have come against this multitude O Lord, thou art our God, let not man prevail against thee”
Notice “let not man prevail against us?” - no - “let not man prevail against you.” When you see these people pushing immoral agendas like homosexuality or paganism and faithful Christians and faithful churches are trying to stand against it - they’re not coming against us. they’re coming against the Lord Himself. They make themselves the enemy of God.
