Revival under Asa
15 The Spirit of God came on Azariah son of Oded.
God uses people who are not well known or who may not be mentioned but once in His Word.
2 So he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Asa and all Judah and Benjamin, hear me. The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you abandon him, he will abandon you.
The prophet Azariah announced a clear understanding of how God runs his house. If you seek God he will not hide from you. He is not distant, busy, or unreachable. He can be found. He is not lost as in missing. He is where he said he was but only available to those who are in a sincere search of Him. However, if you abandon him, he will be abandon by you.
God does not leave us. We leave him. Hosea is a good example of a husband never leaving his wife no matter how he was treated. To be abandon by God means you have no security and we walk in total darkness and we love it. God will not be found in darkness or sin. Darkness repels God and his light. If God saw darkness, he demands that light take over. In God, darkness does not exist.
3 For many years Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without instruction,
Imagine living in a world where there was no teaching. And it was your choice to live like that. Israel had priests, but the priest had no knowledge of God. God will not allow his word to be mishandled. You will not hear from God unless you seek His Word. Israel had a form of godliness, but no knowledge of God. Israel left God and lived in chaos and became comfortable for a season without Him. Having no instructions is like building a crooked house. When we live without God's word, we choose to live in confusion. Israel had priests, but in name only. A priest without God is an imposter.
4 but when they turned to the Lord God of Israel in their distress and sought him, he was found by them.
Israel became so corrupted until they could not stand it. So they called on God and He answered. Why does trouble cause us to realize God exists? Who wants something broken down until it is almost impossible to be restored? God does. God will take us back if we sincerely turn our hearts back to him. I pray that our world will return to God's Word and be what and who we were meant to be. What does it mean to return to God? How can we return to a God we never met? When Adam sinned, we fell in the position of sin too. At one time man was one with the Father. Ever since that day, God calls all men back to him. Man, as we are all called, left God and today, we are as Adam.
God is speaking to each of us telling man to come back to Him. God knows what it was like to have man under His control. God loved it when He was God over us, Today, He has waited thousands of years to get us back to Him and as for this moment in time, he still awaits.
5 In those times there was no peace for those who went about their daily activities because the residents of the lands had many conflicts.
When Adam fell from God and the continuation of men born of Adam repeated the crime of disobeying God, man lived in chaos. God gave them an opportunity to change, they refused.
When Israel, the chosen lived in the time of the Judges, men lived in total chaos. There was the absence of the government that authorized judges and security ordained for safety. When men continue to live in sin, God removes the protection plan. You cannot abuse an agreement and expect the policy to be upheld.
Israel refused instructions and God left it into the hand of the blind who did not want to see. The prophet Azariah is warning Judah and Benjamin of turning away from the inevitable; Conflict after conflict after conflict. We live today in a world that is holding a funeral and at the same time killing people who are dying of a plague.
6 Nation was crushed by nation and city by city, for God troubled them with every possible distress.
God is God who is over the good and the evil. Nothing exists without him. People of the same cultural background fought against people of different cultural backgrounds. Although this is not what God had planned for man, he did allow what he did not want for man to happen to men because men told God, we want danger. We don't say we want danger per se, we walk out of the light, which is God's Word, and we choose to live the life that speaks, "give us chaos with pickles and cheese" by our ignorance or lack of instructions from God's Word.
7 But as for you, be strong; don’t give up,[a] for your work has a reward.”
The unknown prophet Azariah encourages Asa and the people he led, to take heart and do what the Word of God instructs. Every obedience to God's Word comes with a reward.
8 When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Azariah son of Oded the prophet, he took courage and removed the abhorrent idols from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim. He renovated the altar of the Lord that was in front of the portico of the Lord’s temple.
Asa listened to the prophet Azariah. Asa took away everything he saw that offended God and made the land match what God told Moses to tell all. It took courage to do as Asa. It took hard work to obey God because the forces of evil are stubborn, but Asa was not lackadaisical; he heard from God and made the necessary modifications.
9 Then he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, as well as those from the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who were residing among them, for they had defected to him from Israel in great numbers when they saw that the Lord his God was with him.
When the men of the northern kingdom of Israel saw that Asa was a king who followed God, they came out of the closet of sin and openly confessed we want God! Asa told all of the people in the land that we will seek God and obey. People search for leaders who are connected to no non-sense who is God.
10 They were gathered in Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign.
11 At that time they sacrificed to the Lord seven hundred cattle and seven thousand sheep and goats from all the plunder they had brought.
They came together and did more than just think or talk. The people who wanted God left their comfort zone and gave God an offering of repentance. It is not always easy to repent of wrongdoings. When we repent, meaning to change our bad habits, it shows God we are serious and we want him as our God. It means Lord, instructs us and we will obey. If each animal was a replica of the persons who repented, it took a while to bring the offering that God was willing to accept. When we want to change, it demands order and time. Do not mistake time meaning to look back and forward of your decision to follow God, it means taking time to wait your turn to make your move according to God's as your director.
12 Then they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their ancestors with all their heart and all their soul.
After repenting, they made a promise to seek God's Word and keep it. They made the covenant with the heart and soul. This means that they received God's instructions and carefully obeyed everything they thought God meant.
13 Whoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel would be put to death, young or old,[b] man or woman.
The people of God were serious. The people of God were tired of living in total chaos. If you were not serious, they made a decision to relieve you of life. The Word of God was as Law. Seek and Do, or Die. Gender or age did not matter. Israel wanted God.
14 They took an oath to the Lord in a loud voice, with shouting, with trumpets, and with rams’ horns.
This was a public announcement. Israel made it clear with music and shouting, "We Want God!"
15 All Judah rejoiced over the oath, for they had sworn it wholeheartedly. They had sought him with all sincerity, and he was found by them. So the Lord gave them rest on every side.
They asked for God. God showed up! God showed up and the enemy left! Israel had God's provision and protection from every side.
16 King Asa also removed Maacah, his grandmother,[c] from being queen mother because she had made an obscene image of Asherah. Asa chopped down her obscene image, then crushed it and burned it in the Kidron Valley.
Family members, not even his grandmother could not stop king Asa from doing the will of God. Even if his grandmother had been in business for years, he tore down every ounce of what she represented. When we follow God the force of family has no precedent.
17 The high places were not taken away from Israel; nevertheless, Asa was wholeheartedly devoted his entire life.
There were high places in Israel as places today that God will deal with himself. However, Asa said as for me and my house we will obey God. God will deal with any and everything out of my reach.
[d] 18 He brought his father’s consecrated gifts and his own consecrated gifts into God’s temple: silver, gold, and utensils.
Asa brought everything that was set aside for God's use that his father consecrated and the things he consecrated, were brought and placed back into the temple. Things made of silver and gold and the tools used for the sacrificial offerings were returned to their rightful place.
19 There was no war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign.
When we return back under God's instructions, God rebukes the devil for our sake. We again live under God's protection. And now we can get back to business as God would have it.
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