The Reign Of Good King Asa of Judah c. 911-870 BC (1 Kings 15:9-24).
In Asa we have the first king following David who made a genuine effort to turn the people back to YHWH. He removed the most blatant excesses, and his only failure was that he failed to rid the land of all its illegitimate high places. But that was not as easy as it sounded for they abounded everywhere, and his men would receive no help from the locals in searching them out. It required a period when he could concentrate on that and nothing else, and that opportunity seemingly never arose. Possibly had he not had the continual problems on his frontiers he might have achieved more, for we are informed that his heart was fully right towards YHWH.
In dealing with Asa (and the other kings) we do not intend to continually incorporate the material from Chronicles, except where helpful in understanding Kings. For in order to understand what the prophetic author is getting at we have to deal with what he included, and mainly ignore what he omitted, remembering that he almost certainly knew about it and did not see it as suited to his purpose. For the life of Asa in Chronicles see 2 Chronicles 14-16.
Analysis.
a And in the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel Asa began to reign over Judah (1 Kings 15:9).
b And he reigned forty and one years in Jerusalem, and his mother's name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom (1 Kings 15:10).
c And Asa did what was right in the eyes of YHWH, as did David his father, and he put away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols which his fathers had made, and also Maacah his mother he removed from being queen, because she had made an abominable image for an Asherah, and Asa cut down her image, and burnt it at the brook Kidron. But the high places were not taken away. Nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect with YHWH all his day (1 Kings 15:11-14).
d And he brought into the house of YHWH the things that his father had dedicated, and the things that he himself had dedicated, silver, and gold, and vessels (1 Kings 15:15).
e And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days. And Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah, and built Ramah, in order that he might not allow any one to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah (1 Kings 15:16-17).
d Then Asa took all the silver and the gold which were left in the treasures of the house of YHWH, and the treasures of the king's house, and delivered them into the hand of his servants. And king Asa sent them to Ben-hadad, the son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, who dwelt at Damascus, saying, “There is an alliance between me and you, between my father and your father. See, I have sent to you a present of silver and gold. Go, break your alliance with Baasha king of Israel, that he may depart from me.” And Ben-hadad listened to king Asa, and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel, and smote Ijon, and Dan, and Abel-beth-maacah, and all Chinneroth, with all the land of Naphtali (1 Kings 15:18-20).
c And it came about that, when Baasha heard of it, he left off building Ramah, and dwelt in Tirzah. Then king Asa made a proclamation to all Judah. None was exempted. And they carried away the stones of Ramah, and its timber, with which Baasha had built, and king Asa built with it Geba of Benjamin, and Mizpah (1 Kings 15:21-22).
b Now the rest of all the acts of Asa, and all his might, and all that he did, and the cities which he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? But in the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet (1 Kings 15:23).
a And Asa slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father, and Jehoshaphat his son reigned instead of him (1 Kings 15:24).
Note that in ‘a' Asa began to reign, and in the parallel he slept with his fathers and was buried. In ‘b' he reigned in Jerusalem as David's heir, and the previous queen mother continued to reign and proved unacceptable in her behaviour, and in the parallel the source from which the details of his reign could be found is given, and he was diseased in his feet. In ‘c' he removed from the land all the religious innovations which threatened it, and in the parallel he removed the physical threat from the land. In ‘d' he accumulated treasure in the Temple and in his house, and in the parallel he had to use it to obtain help from the Aramaeans. Centrally in ‘e' there was continual hostility with Israel who blockaded his frontiers, thus hindering trade and access to Judah from the north.
‘ And in the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel Asa began to reign over Judah.'
Asa began to reign over Judah in the twentieth year of Jeroboam. Rehoboam had reigned seventeen years and Abiyah three years in Judaean reckoning.
‘ And he reigned forty and one years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom.'
And he reigned forty one years in Jerusalem, ‘the city which YHWH had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there' (1 Kings 14:21) because of His love for David. The YHWH/David partnership continued.
“And his mother” s name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom.' This could make him the brother of Abiyah, but it is more likely that having been appointed ‘queen mother' Maacah continued in the position, either because her daughter, Asa's mother, was dead, or simply through seniority. She had only been in the position a short while. She would thus be Asa's grandmother. (The Hebrew word is vaguer about the relationship than our English words and can mean mother or grandmother).
‘ And Asa did what was right in the eyes of YHWH, as did David his father.'
Asa is the first king after David of whom it was said that ‘he did what was right in the eyes of YHWH' (compare Deuteronomy 13:18), and was thereby compared with David positively. David was the standard by which many of the kings of Judah would be judged.
‘ And he put away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols which his fathers had made.'
Asa put away the male and female cult prostitutes out of the land and ‘removed all the idols which his fathers had made'. In fact the only king of whom we have learned that he established idols in the land was Solomon, but Rehoboam and Abiyam had to take responsibility for not having rid the land of them, and for having allowed numerous idols to be established in the syncretistic high place. Thus Asa rid the land of all the idols that he was aware of.
‘ And also Maacah his mother he removed from being queen, because she had made an abominable image for an Asherah, and Asa cut down her image, and burnt it at the brook Kidron.'
And he especially removed his grandmother Maacah from being ‘queen mother', which confirms that that position was a high official status. And he did it because she had erected an Asherah image in Jerusalem. Then he cut down the image and burnt it at the Wadi Kidron where the ashes of burnt waste were disposed of (compare 2 Kings 23:6). Thus he showed neither fear nor favour.
“Abominable image.” The root word means ‘a shock, an earthquake' (Job 9:6), and thus something that causes trembling (compare Psalms 55:5; Isaiah 21:4; Ezekiel 7:18).
‘ But the high places were not taken away. Nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect with YHWH all his days.'
But the high places were not taken away. There were large number of them up and down the land, and what Asa did to Maacah's image demonstrated that he would do the same to any that he found. But rooting out all of them would have required concentrated manpower, and he was busy defending Judah against her enemies. The ‘grumble' was not against the legitimate high places such as Gibeon, Hebron and possibly Beersheba. In mind were the high places where pillars and Asherah-images had been erected, which YHWH had commanded must be rooted out in Leviticus 26:30; Numbers 33:52 (it was not a Deuteronomic idea). That he did what he could was fully appreciated so that it could be said of him that ‘his heart was perfect with YHWH all his days'.
‘ And he brought into the house of YHWH the things that his father had dedicated, and the things that he himself had dedicated, silver, and gold, and vessels.'
Since the removal by Shishak of Egypt of the treasures from the Temple and the king's house in the days of Rehoboam more treasures had been accumulated by raiding spoils, by tolls from trading and by ‘taxation', and these had presumably been stored in the House of the Forest of Lebanon as dedicated to YHWH. Asa now brought them into the Temple, together with what he himself had gathered and dedicated to YHWH. He was concerned lest YHWH think that he was retaining it all for himself. It included silver, and gold (there was no coinage) and vessels. The dedication of such things to the gods was common throughout the Ancient Near East.
‘ And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days.'
Due to the fact that Baasha came to the throne of Israel after Asa had become king of Judah the author's ‘system' has failed to mention him previously. It was one problem with his method. Baasha had in fact slaughtered Jeroboam's family and had usurped the throne from Jeroboam's son after Jeroboam's long reign (1 Kings 15:27-30). Like Jeroboam he was a belligerent king, and thus during his reign there was continual hostility between Judah and Israel. Instead of cooperating, which would have been to their mutual benefit, they were still at each other's throats.
‘ And Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah, and built Ramah, in order that he might not allow any one to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah.'
Baasha went even further than past kings, for he advanced into Judah and sought to fortify Ramah which was in the territory of Benjamin (part of which had gone over to the ‘ten tribes') and only about eight kilometres (five and a half miles) north of Jerusalem. It was in a crucial position, being on the north-south road through mountainous country and at the head of the Descent of Beth-horon which led down to the Coastal Plain. It thus enabled Baasha to prevent people, especially trading caravans, and those who wished to visit the Sanctuary at Jerusalem (see 2 Chronicles 15:9), from travelling to Judah through Israel, and also prevented direct passage from Judah to the north. People could, of course still enter Judah by going through the valley of Esdraelon from the north and along the way that they would take for Philistia and Egypt, and then turning eastwards, but it made it a far longer circuitous journey. Baasha was trying to squeeze Judah's trade and communications, and at the same time prevent his own people from going to Jerusalem to worship.
1 Kings 15:18 a ‘Then Asa took all the silver and the gold which were left in the treasures of the house of YHWH, and the treasures of the king's house, and delivered them into the hand of his servants.'
Asa saw that this could cause him great trouble, and that it was even close enough to be very threatening to Jerusalem, so not seeing himself as strong enough to compete with Israel on his own (for which in Chronicles he was rebuked by YHWH), he sought assistance from the Aramaeans (Syrians) who were to the north of Israel, and centred on Damascus. These were the people who, for reward, had gone to the aid of the Ammonites in the time of David (2 Samuel 10), and it was from Damascus that Rezon had caused trouble for Solomon (1 Kings 11:23-25). They were always ready to give aid if paid enough.
In order to obtain their help Asa knew that he would have to ‘bribe' them, and so he took all the silver and the gold which he had stored up in the house of YHWH and in his own house, and arranged for his servants to take it to the Aramaeans in return for their assistance. Note again the emphasis on the fact that it was not just the Temple that was depleted, it was the king's own treasury as well. It was the whole house of David and the country that suffered loss. We should note that while mentioned where necessary, the Temple is not a focal point of Kings. The focus is on the covenant with the house of David.
This is a reminder that although Asa was such a good king there were things in his life which displeased YHWH, otherwise all this would not have happened. What was lacking was a full trust in YHWH. When faced with this testing he should have trusted completely in YHWH, but instead he relied on human princes and as a result lost all the treasures that he had so laboriously built up (Chronicles makes it explicit).
1 Kings 15:18-19 ‘And king Asa sent them to Ben-hadad, the son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, king of Aram (Syria), who dwelt at Damascus, saying, “There is an alliance between me and you, between my father and your father. See, I have sent to you a present of silver and gold. “Go, break your alliance with Baasha king of Israel, that he may depart from me”.'
Ben-hadad, the king of Aram, who lived in Damascus had made treaties with both countries as it suited him. And in the long term he broke them as it suited him (no treaty could be expected to last for ever. It would only have been treacherous if he had broken it immediately on making it). So Asa asked him to remember his alliance with Judah, and forget his alliance with Baasha, in return for a huge present of silver and gold, in view of Israel's belligerence against Judah. He wanted Ben-hadad to act in such a way that Baasha, threatened from the rear, would withdraw.
Ben-hadad (which means ‘son of Hadad', a prominent god of Aram and their equivalent of Baal the storm god) was a name confirmed in 8th century Aramaic inscriptions. He was the son of Tab-rimmon (‘Rimmon is bountiful, or willing, or good' - Rimmon was another god in the Aramaean pantheon closely related to Baal), who was the son of Hezion. It is disputed whether Hezion was the Rezon who had been a thorn in the flesh to Solomon. Hezion may well have been his original name and Rezon his royal title, with the latter name meaning ‘prince'.
(The Milqart Stele (mid-9th century BC) from near Aleppo, written in Aramaic, was inscribed as follows: ‘The monument which Bar-hadad, son of Tab-rammon, son of Hadyan, king of Aram, set up for his Lord Milqart, which he vowed to him and he listened to his voice --').
‘ And Ben-hadad listened to king Asa, and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel, and smote Ijon, and Dan, and Abel-beth-maacah, and all Chinneroth, with all the land of Naphtali.'
Benhadad responded to Asa's generous offer and sent his commanders to raid cities in northern Israel. These included Ijon, Dan and Abel-beth-maacah, as well as the area around the sea of Galilee (Chinneroth) and all the land of Naphtali (which would interrupt the trade route to Tyre and Sidon). It thus gave the appearance of being a serious invasion (and would in fact have gathered much booty, and brought much suffering to the inhabitants).
Ijon and Dan were north of the Sea of Galilee. Abel-beth-maacah was in north Naphtali, and was the prominent city in which Sheba had been besieged by Joab (2 Samuel 20:14).
‘ And it came about that, when Baasha heard of it, he left off building Ramah, and dwelt in Tirzah.'
When Baasha heard of this he ceased fortifying Ramah, recognising that he had to pay attention to his wider frontiers, and returned and took up residence in Tirzah, his capital city, from where he could administer all Israel, and meet the threat posed by the Aramaeans.
‘ Then king Asa made a proclamation to all Judah. None was exempted. And they carried away the stones of Ramah, and its timber, with which Baasha had built, and king Asa built with it Geba of Benjamin, and Mizpah.'
Seizing his opportunity, Asa conscripted all Judah to the work of dismantling Ramah of Benjamin. None were exempted. And they took the materials of which Ramah was made and used it to fortify Geba of Benjamin and Mizpah, two strong border cites of Judah, thus making the frontiers secure.
The massive defences unearthed at Mizpah demonstrate a strengthening at this time of the defences northward in order to resist chariot attack.
‘ Now the rest of all the acts of Asa, and all his might, and all that he did, and the cities which he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? But in the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet (1 Kings 15:23).'
In the typical closing formula the prophetic author as usual informs us that if we want to know more about the doings and might of Asa, and the cities that he fortified, we should consult the court records for Judah. And he adds a typical postscript to the fact that Asa was diseased in his feet. This was probably not gout but something more serious, and the aim in mentioning it was in order to bring out that YHWH was not totally pleased with Asa. (Chronicles gives us more detail)
‘ And Asa slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father, and Jehoshaphat his son reigned instead of him.'
Asa too died peacefully, probably in his sixties, and he was buried with his fathers in the city of David ‘his father'. He shared the Davidic inheritance, in accordance with YHWH's covenant with David in 2 Samuel 7. The reference to ‘his father' underlines that he walked as David walked. And in accordance with YHWH's covenant with David his son Jehoshaphat reigned instead of him.
Asa had had a long reign, which covered the period from the end of Jeroboam's reign, through the reigns of Baasha, Nadab, and Omri, and up to the third year of Ahab. Thus while religious turmoil was taking place in Israel, Judah was relatively religiously stable. And this would carry on during the reign of his son Jehoshaphat.
There are numerous lessons from Asa's long life. The first is that we need to walk faithfully in accordance with God's requirements, with a heart that is right towards God. The second is that we need to root out of our lives all our ‘idols'. The third is that we need to learn to trust fully in God rather than in men. The fourth is that we need to take every opportunity to build up our defences (Ephesians 6:10-18).