And Baasha, the son of Ahijah— See note on 1 Kings 15:2 of the next chapter.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, Asa succeeded to the throne of Israel in the twentieth year of Jeroboam, and reigned long and successfully over Judah.
1. His piety is recorded to his honour. He copied after the illustrious David in all that was excellent, and was constantly and zealously attached to the worship of God all his days. His heart was right with God, and therefore he laboured to suppress all wickedness, and to reform his deluded subjects. The men of unnatural propensities were removed: either they were put to death, or they fled out of the land for fear. Such abominations a good prince will never suffer among his subjects. The idols which his father made, he destroyed; and because his grandmother Maachah was the great patroness of idolatry, he spared not to put her and her idol to public shame. He burnt it, cast the dust into the brook Kidron, and, degrading her from her dignity, removed her from court, lest her bad example should corrupt it, and that after such an example none might hope to be connived at. He also enriched God's house with the treasures that he had dedicated from the spoil of the Ethiopians; see 2 Chronicles 14:13-14 as well as those which his father had dedicated out of the spoils of Jeroboam, 2 Chronicles 13:21. Note; A good king, who would promote religion among his subjects, must begin with discountenancing all wickedness at court.
2. His faults are faithfully transmitted. The high places, such of them at least as had been resorted to before the temple was built, were left: he feared that it might be dangerous to attempt rooting out what long custom had consecrated. His war with Baasha put him on a sinful project, to cause a diversion in his favour, and recover Ramah. He robbed the treasury of God's house of the dedicated things, and sent them to Ben-hadad, in order to engage him to a wicked violation of his league with Baasha. The contrivance was successful; Ben-hadad consented; and whilst, to oppose his invasion, the king of Israel drew off his forces, Asa by proclamation summoned all his subjects, who went up, and brought away all the stones and timber of Ramah, and utterly demolished the place. But God rebuked him for his sin, 2 Chronicles 16:7-9 and he suffered for it by the continual wars in which he was involved. Note; Though a sinful project may succeed, the success will be embittered.
3. He strengthened his kingdom by new cities which he built; two with materials brought from Ramah, and others besides, 1 Kings 15:23. To him, probably, the more pious Israelites returned, and chose their abode under his rule, rather than dwell in the tents of ungodliness. But his greatness or goodness prevented not the infirmities of old age coming upon him; till death, after a glorious reign of forty-one years, removed him to a better kingdom, whilst his pious son Jehoshaphat, who succeeded him, made his loss in Judah less sensibly felt.
2nd, We are led to turn our eyes from the flourishing state of Judah to the distractions of Israel. Nadab, the heir of his father's crimes, as well as his crown, walked in the established idolatry; and God's patience with the house of Jeroboam being ended, he raised up Baasha to conspire against him. Baasha was, probably, an officer in his army; and whilst Nadab besieged Gibbethon, which the Philistines had seized, he slew him in the camp, and was by the army proclaimed king in his stead. His first care was, to extirpate the family of Jeroboam, with an intention only to secure the kingdom to himself; but was made herein God's instrument to execute the threatened judgment on that ungodly house. But, though he removed his rivals, he took no care to depart from their sins, and so inherited the same curse that he had executed upon them. Note; (1.) God's patience has its bounds: he will say to the sinner, My spirit shall no longer strive. (2.) The path of sin leads down to death and hell.