The Daily Audio Bible

14 Abijah lay down with his ancestors and was buried in David’s City. His son Asa succeeded him as king.

Asa rules Judah

^[a] In Asa’s time, the land had peace for ten years. ^2 [b] Asa did what was right and good in the Lord his God’s eyes. ³ He removed the foreign altars and shrines, smashed the sacred pillars, cut down the sacred poles,^{[c] 4} and urged Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, by doing what the Instruction and the commandments required. ⁵ He also removed the shrines and incense altars from all the cities of Judah so that the kingdom was at peace under him. ⁶ When the land was at peace, he built fortified cities in Judah; there was no war in those years because the Lord had given him rest.

⁷ “Let’s build up these cities,” Asa told Judah. “We’ll surround them with walls, towers, gates, and crossbars while the land is still ours, because we sought the Lord our God and he sought us^[d] and surrounded us with rest.” As a result, the people successfully completed their building projects.

Judah defeats Cush

⁸ Asa had an army of three hundred thousand Judeans armed with body-sized shields and spears and another two hundred eighty thousand from Benjamin armed with small shields and bows. All were brave warriors. ⁹ Zerah the Cushite marched against him with an army of one million men and three hundred chariots. When he got as far as Mareshah, ¹⁰ Asa marched against him, setting up for battle in a valley north^[e] of Mareshah.

¹¹ Then Asa cried out to the Lord his God, “Lord, only you can help the weak against the powerful.^[f] Help us, Lord our God, because we rely on you and we have marched against this multitude in your name. You are the Lord our God. Don’t let a mere human stand against you!”

¹² So the Lord struck the Cushites before Asa and Judah, and the Cushites fled. ¹³ Asa and his troops chased them as far as Gerar. The Cushites fell until there were no survivors. They were completely crushed by the Lord and his army, who carried off a huge amount of loot, ¹⁴ and attacked all the cities surrounding Gerar who were terrified of the Lord. They plundered all these cities as well because there was a great amount of loot in them. ¹⁵ They also attacked the herdsmen’s camps, taking many sheep and camels before returning to Jerusalem.

15 When God’s spirit came upon Azariah, Oded’s son, ² he confronted Asa: “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin,” he said. “The Lord is with you as long as you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you abandon him, he will abandon you. ³ For a long time Israel was without the true God, without a priest to teach them, and without the Instruction. ⁴ But in their time of trouble they turned to the Lord, Israel’s God. They sought him and found him! ⁵ At that time, it wasn’t safe to travel because great turmoil affected all the inhabitants of the area. ⁶ Nation was crushed by nation and city by city, as God troubled them with every kind of problem. ⁷ But as for you, be brave and don’t lose heart, because your work will be rewarded!”

Asa’s reforms

⁸ As soon as Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Azariah, Oded’s son,^[g] he felt brave and removed the detestable idols from all of Judah and Benjamin, as well as from the cities he had captured in Ephraim’s highlands, and he repaired the Lord’s altar that stood before the Lord’s entrance hall. ⁹ Then Asa gathered all Judah and Benjamin, along with those who were living among them as immigrants from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, because many people from Israel had joined up with him when they saw that the Lord his God was with him. ¹⁰ They gathered in Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s rule. ¹¹ On that day they sacrificed to the Lord part of the loot they had taken: seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep. ¹² They made a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, with all their heart and all their being. ¹³ They agreed that anyone who refused to seek the Lord, Israel’s God, would be put to death, whether young or old, male or female. ¹⁴ They swore this to the Lord with a loud voice, shouts of joy, and blasts from trumpets and horns. ¹⁵ All Judah was delighted with the solemn pledge because they had sworn it with all their hearts. When they enthusiastically sought God, he was found by them, and the Lord gave them peace on every side. ¹⁶ Asa the king even removed his grandmother Maacah from the position of queen mother because she had made an image of Asherah. Asa cut down her image, pulverized it, and burned it in the Kidron Valley. ¹⁷ Although the shrines weren’t removed from Israel, Asa nevertheless remained committed with all his heart throughout his life. ¹⁸ He brought into God’s temple the various silver and gold objects that he and his father had dedicated. ¹⁹ There was no war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s rule.

Aram invades Judah

16 In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s rule, Israel’s King Baasha attacked Judah and fortified Ramah to prevent Judah’s King Asa from moving into that area. ² Asa took silver and gold from the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and the royal palace and sent them to Aram’s King Ben-hadad, who ruled in Damascus, with the following message: ³ “Let’s make a covenant similar to the one between our fathers. Since I have already sent you silver and gold, break your covenant with Israel’s King Baasha so that he will leave me alone.” ⁴ Ben-hadad agreed with King Asa and sent his army commanders against the cities of Israel, attacking Ijon, Dan, Abel-maim, and all the store-cities of Naphtali. ⁵ As soon as Baasha learned of this, he stopped building Ramah and abandoned his work. ⁶ Then King Asa had all Judah carry away the stone and timber that Baasha was using to build Ramah, and King Asa used it to build Geba and Mizpah. ⁷ At that time Hanani the seer came to Judah’s King Asa and said to him, “Because you relied on Aram’s king and not on the Lord your God, the army of Aram’s king has slipped out of your grasp. ⁸ Weren’t the Cushites and the Libyans a vast army with chariots and horsemen to spare? Still, when you relied on the Lord, he delivered them into your power, ⁹ because the Lord’s eyes scan the whole world to strengthen those who are committed to him with all their hearts. Your foolishness means that you will have war on your hands from now on.” ¹⁰ Asa was angry with the seer. Asa was so mad he threw Hanani in jail and took his anger out on some of the people.

Asa’s disease and death

¹¹ The rest of Asa’s deeds, from beginning to end, are written in the official records of Israel’s and Judah’s kings. ¹² In the thirty-ninth year of his rule, Asa developed a severe foot disease. But even in his illness he refused to seek the Lord and consulted doctors instead. ¹³ In the forty-first year of his rule, Asa lay down with his ancestors. ¹⁴ He was buried in the tomb he had prepared for himself in David’s City, and was laid on a bed filled with sweet spices and various kinds of perfume, with a huge fire made in his honor.

The tragedy of Israel’s unbelief

9 I’m speaking the truth in Christ—I’m not lying, as my conscience assures me with the Holy Spirit: ² I have great sadness and constant pain in my heart. ³ I wish I could be cursed, cut off from Christ if it helped my brothers and sisters, who are my flesh-and-blood relatives. ⁴ They are Israelites. The adoption as God’s children, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Law, the worship, and the promises belong to them. ⁵ The Jewish ancestors are theirs, and the Christ descended from those ancestors. He is the one who rules over all things, who is God, and who is blessed forever. Amen.

Israel and God’s choice

⁶ But it’s not as though God’s word has failed. Not all who are descended from Israel are part of Israel. ⁷ Not all of Abraham’s children are called Abraham’s descendants, but instead your descendants will be named through Isaac.^{[a] 8} That means it isn’t the natural children who are God’s children, but it is the children from the promise who are counted as descendants. ⁹ The words in the promise were: A year from now I will return, and Sarah will have a son.^[b]

¹⁰ Not only that, but also Rebecca conceived children with one man, our ancestor Isaac. ¹¹ When they hadn’t been born yet and when they hadn’t yet done anything good or bad, it was shown that God’s purpose would continue because it was based on his choice. ¹² It wasn’t because of what was done but because of God’s call. This was said to her: The older child will be a slave to the younger one.^{[c] 13} As it is written, I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.^[d]

¹⁴ So what are we going to say? Isn’t this unfair on God’s part? Absolutely not! ¹⁵ He says to Moses, I’ll have mercy on whomever I choose to have mercy, and I’ll show compassion to whomever I choose to show compassion.^{[e] 16} So then, it doesn’t depend on a person’s desire or effort. It depends entirely on God, who shows mercy. ¹⁷ Scripture says to Pharaoh, I have put you in this position for this very thing: so I can show my power in you and so that my name can be spread through the entire earth.^{[f] 18} So then, God has mercy on whomever he wants to, but he makes resistant whomever he wants to.

¹⁹ So you are going to say to me, “Then why does he still blame people? Who has ever resisted his will?” ²⁰ You are only a human being. Who do you think you are to talk back to God? Does the clay say to the potter, “Why did you make me like this?”^{[g] 21} Doesn’t the potter have the power over the clay to make one pot for special purposes and another for garbage from the same lump of clay? ²² What if God very patiently puts up with pots made for wrath that were designed for destruction, because he wanted to show his wrath and to make his power known? ²³ What if he did this to make the wealth of his glory known toward pots made for mercy, which he prepared in advance for glory? ²⁴ We are the ones God has called. We don’t come only from the Jews but we also come from the Gentiles.

Psalm 19

For the music leader. A psalm of David.