Can we thank the Lord for the privilege of gathering together in His name?
I would like to read just one verse from the Old Testament: 2 Chronicles 16:9.
For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.
I will read it again:
For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.
Before we get into what we would like to fellowship about this evening, I think probably it will be helpful if we first make some general observations on the two books of Chronicles.
Sometimes we may think that Chronicles is a repetition of Kings. But if we read carefully, we find that the two books of Chronicles are very different from the two books of Kings.
In Chronicles, the Spirit of God gives us only the records of King David, his successors, Solomon, and the kings of the nation of Judah.
Furthermore, it is not just a record of the kings of the nation of Judah, but they are given with a very specific viewpoint. That viewpoint is in relation to the covenant and the worship of God.
Whenever you find kings who are faithful to God’s covenant and restore God’s worship, the nation will be blessed and will be in rest and prosperity. But whenever a king violates the covenant of God and corrupts God’s worship, the nation will be cursed and in decline.
So here you find that the Spirit of God is giving us a picture of the relationship of the king to God’s covenant and worship, and the effect of such a relationship. Of course, we can learn much in that respect.
Furthermore, you will find in Chronicles that much emphasis is laid upon the king. When there is a good king, the whole nation is blessed. But when there is a wicked king, then the whole nation suffers.
Why? Because God puts great emphasis on leadership. The king is the leader, and the people are like sheep.
You know, we say that sheep are very innocent, sometimes to the point of foolishness. They depend very much upon the shepherd. If there is a good shepherd, then the flock will really prosper and be blessed. But if there is a bad shepherd, then woe to the sheep, because they cannot protect themselves.
They do not know the way. They are so innocent, even to the point of ignorance and weakness.
You know, this principle of spiritual leadership is applicable even to our days. It is true that, on the one hand, everyone is directly responsible to God. We can never try to put the blame on somebody else.
As children of God, we have the Holy Spirit with us, and it is our responsibility to know the mind of God. If in any way we are misled, we are responsible too, because we have the Holy Spirit.
Yet, on the other hand, those whom God raises up as leaders have tremendous responsibility. God will hold them responsible not only for what they are and what they do, but for the nation, the people, and the flock God gives them to care for.
When our Lord Jesus walked on earth, He looked upon this matter of leadership as tremendously important. You remember, He said:
Let them alone: they are blind guides. And if the blind guide the blind, both shall fall into a pit.
In Matthew 23, you find our Lord Jesus denouncing the leaders of His day and proclaiming woes upon them. Why? Because they were responsible for His people.
So I think in the two books of Chronicles we may learn much about spiritual leadership: its place, its responsibility, and its effect upon the whole nation.
In the book of Chronicles, you find how God is faithful to His promise, His covenant with David.
Again and again, you find that it was because God was mindful of His covenant with David that there might be a lamp in his house. God would not destroy the house of David completely.
In spite of the fact that there were many wicked kings in the nation of Judah, God was reluctant to remove the lampstand. For David’s sake, God allowed that lamp to continue to shine.
But unfortunately, at the very end, there was nothing God could do but remove the lampstand. The nation of Judah was finally taken into Babylonian captivity.
Yet, in spiritual application, there is a difference. If we take the nation of Judah as a type of the church, the church is supposed to be a lampstand to shine for the testimony of Jesus in this dark world.
But how often the church fails in fulfilling her mission. Yet God is faithful. Therefore, throughout the centuries, even in the darkest hours of church history, there has never failed to be a lamp somewhere.
God’s testimony has continued throughout the centuries. The church in general may fail, but God’s testimony continues. There is always a lamp shining—not because of the faithfulness of men, but because of the faithfulness of God.
One day, those who stumble in the house of Judah shall be as strong as the house of David, and the house of David as the angel of the Lord.
In the history of the nation of Judah, one day the lamp was extinguished for a long time, until it was restored in the Son of David, Christ. But in the history of the church, Christ is so faithful that He maintains that lamp throughout history through the house of David—that is, the company of overcomers.
So the principle of overcomers can again be found in the two books of Chronicles.
Having laid these general observations, we would like to fellowship tonight on one of the kings of Judah.
Unfortunately, there were more wicked kings than good kings. But thank God, there were good kings. God raised up a number of good kings in the nation of Judah: Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, Josiah, and some others.
In other words, God, because of His great love toward His people, raised up good leadership. Under good leadership, you find how the nation was blessed.
This evening we will focus on King Asa. You find his history in 2 Chronicles 14–16. We will not be able to read all three chapters; I have just read half a verse. But I hope that you will read them afterwards.
Asa was the grandson of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. Under Rehoboam, the nation was divided into the northern kingdom of ten tribes and the southern kingdom of two tribes. Rehoboam ruled over the southern kingdom, the nation of Judah.
But Rehoboam was a wicked king. He had no heart for God. After him was Abijah. He had a little heart for God, but not much.
Then, after Abijah, came Asa. The Bible says in 2 Chronicles 14:2:
And Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God.
The grandfather was a wicked one. The father had little heart for the Lord. But here you find the grandson, Asa, who seemed to have much heart for God. He did what was good and right in the sight of the Lord.
He took away the altars of the strange gods and the high places. He broke down the pillars and cut down the Asherim. These were the things and places of idol worship.
In other words, Asa rose up to get rid of the nation’s abominations because his heart was toward the Lord. He commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, and to practice the law and the commandment.
Negatively, he got rid of the nation’s abominations—anything contradictory to the worship of the God of their fathers. Positively, he commanded the people to seek the Lord.
Because he was in the position of leadership, he was able to lead the nation in this way. God gave him this opportunity, the privilege of serving God in this manner.
Because of this, you know what happened? God gave him rest. For ten years there was no war; there was rest all over the nation.
During the years of rest, there was much building going on. He was able to fortify cities in Judah, for the land had rest and he had no war in those years, because the Lord had given him rest. They built and prospered.
You know, dear brothers and sisters, if we do what is right and good in the sight of God, if we get rid of anything contradictory to the worship of God, and if we set our heart on seeking the Lord, two things will happen.
First, we will have rest. Second, there will be building going on.
You remember that our Lord Jesus said in Matthew 11:28:
Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Before we came to the Lord Jesus, we were heavy laden. We were laboring, and we were heavily burdened. We could not bear our loads because they were too much for us. There was such restlessness.
But when we came to the Lord, He gave us rest. This is a rest that we have already received. It is a rest given to us when we come to Him, because He took our burdens away.
Then, in Matthew 11:29, the Lord continues:
Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
Here you find two different kinds of rest. The first rest is something given; it is rest in the spirit. But the second rest is something we must find, and it is rest in the soul.
All who have come to the Lord Jesus have been given rest in the spirit. We rest in the finished work of Christ. Our conscience enters into peace because the blood of the Lord Jesus has washed away the defilements of our hearts, our sins, and our accusations.
But, brothers and sisters, sometimes after we have trusted the Lord and continued on for a while, we discover that even though there is rest down in our spirit, our soul is restless.
Our emotions are in turmoil. Our mind seems to be in constant battle, and our will seems always to be changing direction. There is no rest in our souls. Why?
How can we find rest for our souls? The secret is that the Lord says, “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me.”
There is a yoke. It is the yoke of the Lord. When He was on earth, He willingly put Himself under that yoke.
We know that a yoke is something put upon an animal, upon the neck of an animal. Without being yoked, no work can be done. The farmer cannot plow the field if the animal is not under a yoke.
God cannot do His work unless we are put under His yoke. A lot of people try to serve God, but they do not want to be yoked. They want to be free animals and serve God in a free way. You cannot do that. No one can do that.
Even our Lord Jesus, when He came into this world to do the work of the Father, had to put His neck under the yoke.
The yoke is something heavy, taking away your liberty, as it were, and putting you under obligation. You cannot do what you want because you are yoked.
Our Lord Jesus took that voluntarily because of His love for the Father. He voluntarily took the yoke upon Him: the Father’s will.
Not My will, but Thine, be done.
Under that yoke, He was able to complete the work of God. Now the Lord Jesus says that the reason why we are restless is because we are too free.
We think that we are restless because we have no freedom, but it is just the contrary. We are restless because we are under no yoke. We are too free.
The Lord says, “Take My yoke upon you. Be yoked together with Me. I am on one end; now put your neck under the yoke on the other end, and then work with Me.”
We have not learned. Even when we are put under the yoke, we still struggle to go our own way. But if we look at the One with whom we are yoked, we begin to learn.
Take My yoke upon you. Dear brothers and sisters, if we want to have rest in our souls, if we want to have rest in the church corporately, the secret is that each one of us must put ourselves under the Lord’s yoke and then learn of Him.
There is much we have to learn. Do not think that once you choose to put yourself under His yoke, you will take His will all the time. Not so. Experience tells us that the will needs to be broken, and it is very hard to be broken.
Oh, how we need to look at the Lord continually and learn of Him. See how willing, how humble, how obedient, and how quick He is in obedience.
As we learn of Him, we find rest unto our souls. Our hearts become meek and lowly. In other words, we become submissive, flexible, teachable, humble, and willing in the hand of God.
Only when you give yourself to the Lord in this way will you find rest in your soul. Do we need that rest in our souls? The way is to take the yoke and learn of the Lord.
That is wonderful. But there is another thing: if we set our hearts toward the Lord, we will not only have rest, but there will be much building going on.
You cannot build when there is war. The reason why God did not allow David to build the temple was because David was a man of war. War can destroy, but it cannot build. You need a man of peace to build.
It is only when we really enter into rest—rest in the Lord, the rest that you find in the book of Hebrews—that building work can proceed.
We have a rest promised to us. We are told to strive to enter into that rest—that is, to cease from our own works. Only when we enter into that rest will the building work proceed.
Oftentimes we try to build, and we find blood on our hands everywhere. We cannot build in that way. We have to be men of rest; we have to be men of peace before we can really build together.
Dear brothers and sisters, how important it is that there be building work going on. The Lord said:
I will build My church upon this rock.
He will be building it, but He will build it with us. He needs our cooperation.
So it is not a matter of merely gathering together. You may gather stones together and have them in piles, but that is not building. The stones must be fitted to one another, and then you find the house of God built.
When the house of God is built, it is like fortified cities. The enemy will be defeated.
The reason why the enemy is able to do so much damage among God’s people is that God’s people are not built together. There is no fortification.
If the enemy is able to separate God’s people, he can deal with each one one by one and finish everyone. But when God’s people are built together, it is like a fortification. It can withstand all the assaults of the enemy.
This is what you find in Asa’s time. Under spiritual leadership, the whole nation was encouraged to seek the Lord. They received rest, built cities, and prospered. May it be so with His people today.
But then the enemy came. Everything that is of the Lord must be tested.
After God had prospered Asa, given him rest, and brought much building and strengthening to the nation, testing came. Zerah the Ethiopian came out with a great multitude of soldiers.
His army was double the size of Asa’s army. They came with a host of a thousand thousand and three hundred chariots against Asa and the nation of Judah.
You know, dear brothers and sisters, there is a great difference between temptation and testing. Temptation comes from the enemy; testing comes from God.
Temptation tries to draw out the lust of the flesh in you in order to defeat you. Testing draws out the reserve that God has deposited in you in order that it may be further strengthened.
Sometimes Satan tempts us, but God will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able to bear. Why? Because when He allows Satan to tempt us, He has already deposited within us that which is needed to overcome the temptation.
If this were not so, He would not allow the temptation to come to us. Brothers and sisters, this is our assurance. Oftentimes we think that we are tempted beyond our measure. No such thing.
If God allows the enemy to tempt us, He knows what He has already deposited in us. If we only look to Him, we will be able to overcome. The reason why we are defeated is that we do not look to Him.
We do not draw upon the resources that He has already deposited within us.
So here you find Zerah the Ethiopian coming with an army double the size of Asa’s army. By all appearances, it was more than Asa could meet. But not so.
Why? Because a little with the Lord is much more than many without the Lord.
King Asa was faced with this situation. By all outward appearances, his strength was far less than the strength of the Ethiopians. It seemed there was nothing he could do.
But in 2 Chronicles 14:11, Asa cried unto the Lord his God and said:
Lord, there is none besides Thee to help, between the mighty and him that hath no strength: help us, O Lord our God; for we rely on Thee, and in Thy name are we come against this multitude. O Lord, Thou art our God; let not man prevail against Thee.
Oh, how we thank God for Asa. He knew that outwardly he could not meet the enemy, yet at the same time he knew that he had a resource, because he relied on the Lord.
Notice what he said: “Lord, there is none besides Thee to help, whether there be much or no power.” Is that not true? If God is for us, who can be against us?
Even if we have much power, we need God. That much power is still not enough. If we have no power, that does not diminish anything, because with God all things are possible.
So it is not a matter of much power or little power. It is a matter of God. If God is for us, that is what matters.
Oftentimes much power can be a hindrance, because if we have much power, we rely upon our power instead of relying upon Him. Whenever you do that, you find that your power is not enough, no matter how great it may be.
Sometimes it is better to have no power, because knowing that we are powerless, we have to depend upon the Lord.
That is the reason why, oftentimes, in big battles we overcome, while in small battles we are overcome. The children of Israel could overcome Jericho, but they were defeated before Ai.
That is very true in our lives. We think it depends on much power or no power, but it makes no difference. The power of God is made perfect in our weakness. Therefore Paul said that he would boast in his weaknesses.
Here you find Asa committing the whole thing to the Lord. “Now, Lord, it is Your case. Do not let man prevail against You.”
If we commit ourselves to the Lord, the Lord will commit Himself to us. The measure of our commitment to the Lord often governs the measure of God’s commitment.
We can involve God. “How much can You be involved here?” It depends on how much you trust Him, how much you have committed yourself to Him.
If we have committed ourselves to Him wholeheartedly, we have involved Him. Now it is no longer us. It is no longer, “Let no man prevail against us,” but, “Let no man prevail against Thee.”
Oh, dear brothers and sisters, if we are brought to that point, how blessed it is. When you realize that it is not yours—not your thing, not your position, not your power, not your glory—but it is the Lord’s, then the battle is the Lord’s.
When you are brought to that point because of full commitment to the Lord, the Lord says, “Yes, it is My concern. The battle is Mine. I will fight for it.”
Then you find that the Lord fought against the Ethiopians. 2 Chronicles 14:12 says:
So the Lord smote the Ethiopians before Asa, and before Judah; and the Ethiopians fled.
There was great victory, much spoil taken.
Dear brothers and sisters, we cannot avoid spiritual conflict. On the one hand, as we follow the Lord, there will be rest and there will be building. Yet, on the other hand, there will be conflict.
There is bound to be spiritual conflict, but there is nothing to be afraid of, because every conflict is an opportunity to prove God. Every conflict brings out the strength of God, and every conflict will bring much spoil for God.
Humanly speaking, it is difficult to combine these two things. How can we have rest and conflict at the same time? But spiritually, this is very true.
On the one hand, there is rest; on the other hand, there is conflict. Sometimes they go on together. At other times there is a period of rest, then a period of conflict, and then another period of rest. Whatever it may be, these are normal.
Sometimes God gives us a period of rest, and we become complacent. We think that all our problems are over. Then immediately there are problems and problems and problems. Thank God for that.
God has to test us. He has to test what He has already done in us, just as steel must be tested after it has been prepared.
When Asa had won such a victory, our God was gracious. In 2 Chronicles 15, you find that the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded. He went out to meet Asa and said:
The Lord is with you, while ye are with Him; and if ye seek Him, He will be found of you; but if ye forsake Him, He will forsake you.
Then, in 2 Chronicles 15:7, he said:
But be ye strong, and let not your hands be weak; for your work shall be rewarded.
You know, it is always like a repetition of what happened in Genesis. After Abraham defeated the kings and rescued his nephew Lot, he came back in victory.
You remember, Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of God Most High, met him. He reminded Abraham that it was the Lord who had given him the victory. He gave him bread and wine to keep Abraham in his place before the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, the greatest danger is after a great victory. Oftentimes after great victory, there is failure. This happens individually as well as collectively.
The reason is that after a great victory, we tend to forget. We come to think that we have done it. Oh, how we need to be kept in our place.
Asa was reminded by the prophet: “The Lord is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him, you will be found of Him. If you forsake Him, He will forsake you. But be strong, for there is a great reward for you.”
How we need such a warning. How easy it is for our hearts to be elated and uplifted unconsciously. We need to be continually reminded that it is the Lord; it is not us.
We need to be reaffirmed and reinforced in knowing that there is reward if we seek the Lord with all our hearts.
Asa humbled himself before the Lord. He listened to the words of the prophet, and then he took courage. He did something even more.
He put away all the abominations, not only from the land of Judah but also from Benjamin, and even from the cities that he had taken from Ephraim. He renewed the altar of the Lord that was before the porch of the Lord.
He assembled the people together, and they made a covenant with God.
How we thank God that he went from strength to strength. They made a covenant to seek God. Asa was so wholehearted that he even removed his mother from being queen mother because she had made an idol.
He destroyed the idol and removed his mother. In other words, he wanted to serve God wholly.
Furthermore, he put into the house of God the things that his father had dedicated and the things that he himself had dedicated—gold, silver, and vessels. God gave rest until the thirty-fifth year of his reign.
In seeking the Lord, there is progress. In the beginning, because Asa sought the Lord, he removed all the abominations in the land of Judah and commanded the people to seek God.
After the victory and the warning, he took courage and cleared away abominations even beyond his boundaries. He made a covenant with God and dedicated things for God.
In the temple of God there were gold, silver, and vessels for the service of God. This is true of us today. How can we furnish the service of the house of God?
By dedicating silver, gold, and vessels—not material things, but ourselves. The silver, gold, and vessels are none other than ourselves. We are vessels of honor.
If we separate ourselves from vessels of dishonor—that is, if we separate ourselves from being contaminated by these vessels of dishonor—then we will be vessels of honor, fit for the Master’s use in His house.
There was rest. So far, so good. Under such leadership, it was good, and the whole nation benefited.
But then, in the thirty-sixth year of his reign, something happened. He had been king for thirty-five years already, and during those years he had sought the Lord, and God had blessed him and blessed the nation.
Unfortunately, in the thirty-sixth year of his reign, something happened. Asa had a heart for God, but somehow his heart was not perfect. There was some flaw somewhere.
That flaw was found out as he grew older. You know, that is always true. When we get older, many flaws that seem hidden when we are young begin to appear.
In the thirty-sixth year of his reign, Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah and built Ramah in order to let none go out or come in to Asa king of Judah.
Because Asa had become so prosperous, God had blessed him so much that his influence extended beyond the boundary of his kingdom. People in the northern kingdom began to come over to Jerusalem to worship God.
Of course, that created a problem. King Baasha of Israel was frightened because he saw Asa’s influence penetrating into his kingdom. His people began to flock to the southern kingdom to worship God.
So Baasha rose up and built the city of Ramah. In other words, he built a city as a boundary in order to contain the influence of Asa. It was a dividing wall.
He built that dividing wall so that his people could not go to the south to worship God. By that means, he tried to stop the good influence of Asa.
But when Asa saw that, somehow he became frightened. Instead of seeking the Lord, as he had always done, you know what he did?
He took gold and silver out of his own house, and also the dedicated gold and silver that was in the house of God, and gave them to Ben-hadad, king of Syria.
He asked King Ben-hadad to break his league with the king of Israel and to strengthen his league with him, to attack the king of Israel.
Humanly speaking, he was successful in that strategy. The king of Israel left off building Ramah, and Asa and his people took all the materials and built their own cities.
But notice 2 Chronicles 16:7–9:
And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and hast not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thy hand.
Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubim a huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet, because thou didst rely on the Lord, He delivered them into thine hand.
For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him. Herein thou hast done foolishly; for from henceforth thou shalt have wars.
Why did Asa do such a foolish thing? He who had begun so well and continued so well ended so tragically.
Could it be because he was so blessed by the Lord that he began to be proud of himself and of his strength? That is possible.
Could it be that, as the years went by, his love for the Lord began to grow cold? That is possible.
You remember Revelation 2. The Lord’s word to the church in Ephesus was:
But I have this against thee, that thou didst leave thy first love.
In the beginning, Asa loved the Lord. But now, because he had become so prosperous, he began to love himself more than the Lord. He began to love the blessings of the Lord more than the Lord of the blessings, and his love began to grow cold.
Could it be possible that, seeing his success, he became ambitious? Perhaps he wanted his influence to overcome the whole nation of Israel and bring the nation back. When he found that this influence was being contained, he would not allow it to be so.
Whatever the reason, you find that instead of inquiring of the Lord, instead of relying upon the Lord as he had done before in much more difficult situations, he began to rely upon his own maneuvers.
That is one thought. The second is this: he bribed the king of Syria to break a league with the king of Israel. He used money and dedicated gold and silver.
What right did he have to rob God of that which had been dedicated? It showed how little respect he had for God.
Is that not strange? A leader who begins so well, a leader who seems to go on with the Lord so well and is so blessed, may nevertheless end so poorly.
He could become so cold, so self-centered, so aggressive, and have so little respect for God that he would produce such things. It is a sobering question.
Sometimes God gives us according to our request, but sends leanness to our soul.
When Asa was warned, instead of accepting the warning, accepting the discipline, and humbling himself under the mighty hand of God, he was angry with the prophet and put him in prison.
From that time onward, his heart became harder and harder. He began to oppress some of his people.
What a warning to leadership. You know, the greatest temptation to leadership is success.
If God does not give you success, you have no temptation of this kind. But if God gives you success, oh, how easy it is for our hearts to become cold, vicious, and arrogant.
That is the greatest danger of leadership. Dear brothers and sisters, you can see it even today. How many great leaders have fallen in their later years because of success.
How we need to humble ourselves continually before the Lord.
It was so sad. After this, in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa was diseased in his feet, and his disease was exceedingly great.
Yet, in his disease, he did not seek the Lord, but the physicians.
Even when he was disciplined by the Lord, instead of repenting, his heart had become so hard that he did not even seek the Lord, but only sought physicians.
Is it because he had failed God so much that he felt he could not go to the Lord and inquire of Him? Sometimes the enemy tries to deceive us and says, “Now you have gone too far. There is no more hope.”
“What right do you have to go to the Lord and inquire of Him anymore?” You know, that is a defeating thought.
No matter how far, how long, or how deeply we have fallen, we should seek the Lord. Maybe from our point of view restoration seems impossible, but anyway, there can be restoration.
But there was no restoration for Asa. He was hard to the very end. In the forty-first year, after two years of sickness, he passed away.
Oh, dear brothers and sisters, the lesson is in the word that we read at the beginning:
For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.
The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth. It is a picture not only of His looking around and looking again, but also of His looking deeply and more deeply.
What is He looking for? He is looking for a perfect heart. Why does He look for a perfect heart? Because He wants to show Himself strong.
There is no problem with the strength of God. The problem is the perfect heart.
If there is a perfect heart, the strength of the Lord will be manifested. God will show Himself strong in behalf of those whose hearts are perfect toward Him.
How important it is, dear brothers and sisters, in this matter of a perfect heart. What is a perfect heart?
A perfect heart is an undivided heart. We cannot serve two masters. We cannot have God and mammon. That is a divided heart, and a divided heart will lead you nowhere.
A perfect heart is a united heart.
Unite my heart to fear Thy name.
A perfect heart is a pure heart. There is no ulterior motive—only God, God, God. That is a perfect heart.
You are not expecting to get anything out of it. You just want God at all costs.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
God is looking for such a perfect heart. Again and again, in the book of Chronicles, God uses David as the standard because David served God with a perfect heart.
God measured every king according to that standard: whether they served God with a perfect heart as David did, or whether they served God with a heart that was not like David’s.
David was not perfect, but his heart was perfect. You may find fault with his walk, but his heart was perfect toward the Lord.
How important it is today that God is looking for a perfect heart among His people, especially among those in leadership.
We do not need to be concerned about whether God will show Himself strong in our behalf or not. What we really need to be concerned about is our heart.
It is true that our heart is deceitful above all things. Who knows it? We ourselves do not know our hearts. It is God who tries our hearts and examines the inward parts.
How important it is that we pray as the psalmist prayed in Psalm 139:23–24:
Search me, O God, and know my heart:
Try me, and know my thoughts;
And see if there be any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.
Oh, how we need to lay our hearts before the Lord and ask Him to shine His light upon our hearts, to see whether there is any flaw somewhere.
If there is any flaw, ask the Lord to remove it, lest one day, because of that flaw, something should happen. It may not come out today, but one day it will come out.
But thank God, He was not unmindful of King Asa. Even though Asa ended tragically, God did give him respect and honor from the people.
When Asa was buried, they laid him in the sepulcher which he had made for himself, and filled it with spices and diverse kinds of preparations prepared by the perfumer’s art. They made a very great burning for him.
God did not forget all the good that Asa had done in his life. But still, how much better it would have been if Asa had served the Lord with a perfect heart.
That would have given God more opportunity to show Himself strong. Oh, how God’s strength is limited by us because our hearts are divided.
So I think this is the central lesson that we have to learn. It is a basic lesson to leadership, and of course, it is a basic lesson for all of us to live by.
Our heavenly Father, we do praise and thank Thee that Thy Word is not just history, but Thy Word is all relevant to us today.
Thy Word brings to us eternal truth, the unchangeable principles of spiritual things. Oh, we do pray that we may learn these lessons from history.
We ask Thee, O Lord, that Thou wilt be merciful to Thy people, raising up spiritual leadership with perfect hearts toward Thee.
We ask Thee to give Thy people a perfect heart, that Thou mayest manifest Thyself and be strong in their behalf.
It is all for Thy praise and glory. We ask in Thy precious name. Amen.