By: Obed Pineda
Of the twenty kings who ruled the southern kingdom of Judah (after the twelves tribes of Israel split into two kingdoms) only a handful of them are described by Holy Writ as good and righteous rulers, who “did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God” (2nd Chronicles 14:3). The northern kingdom of Israel, on the contrary, did not have a single moral king among the twenty that sat on her throne. This was indisputably because none of them ever made an effort to bring the people back to Jehovah God by allowing Jeroboam’s heinous crimes against God’s worship to continue (cf. 1st Kings 12:25-33, 2nd Chronicles 11:13-15). This travesty quickly drifted Israel away from her great Redeemer and, as time progressed, the wormwood of idolatry continued to ferment and benumb the hearts of the children of Israel. Thus, it should come as no surprise that with each passing ruler Israel’s society only increased in immorality and wickedness (cf. Amos 2:6-16, 4:1ff). Judah, on the other hand, was able to resist Israel’s evil influence enticing them to turn away from worshiping Jehovah God at Jerusalem, in accordance with His commandments (cf. Deuteronomy 12:5-14, 2nd Chronicles 13:4-12). This was in great part due to the sapient leadership of those few godly kings who devoted themselves to the service of the sovereign God. It is right to mention that Judah’s first two monarchs (Rehoboam and Abijah) did not walk in the ways of the LORD, and therefore Judah’s spiritual condition during her first twenty years as an autonomous kingdom was not too different from her northern sister (cf. 1st Kings 14:21-24, 15:1-3). It was not until Asa became king that the Biblical account verifies that a Judean king “did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, as did his father David” (1st Kings 15:11). King Asa’s rectitude before Jehovah commenced with the removal of everything involving pagan forms of worship (cf. 2nd Chronicles 14:2-5). Asa’s commitment to restoring the people back to God shines as Scripture reads “he banished the perverted person from the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made. Also he removed Maachah his grandmother from being queen mother, because she had made an obscene image of Asherah. And Asa cut down her obscene image and burned it by the Brook Kidron” (1st Kings 15:12-13). It is imperative to realize that by stripping his own grandmother of her royal office as punishment for her involvement in heathen ceremonies, Asa was courageously and fervently denouncing all religious rites not approved by the Almighty in His law. He was announcing to Judah that idolatry was outlawed from the kingdom immediately as exemplified by the removal of his own grandmother from her position on his royal court. This mighty statement also publicly demonstrated to the children of Judah the gravity of violating this royal edict and that no one was exempt from being punished by the law, if found guilty of participating in idol worship. Regrettably, Asa felt short in his task of completely ridding Judah from her adulation with pagan worship since “the high places were not removed. Nevertheless Asa’s heart was loyal to the LORD all his days” (1st Kings 15:14). It must be understood that there is no contradiction between 2nd Chronicles 14:3-5 and 1st Kings 15:14 on account of the clarification made by the inspired penmen of the latter Scripture. It was Asa’s loyalty to Jehovah God that prompted him to remove and destroy all the objects of pagan worship, cast out all promoters of idolatry from Judah to prevent wicked influence, and to strictly enforce God’s law against such abominations in order to deter anyone from considering engaging in idolatry. Yet, even with everything the king did in his effort to return the people of Judah back to God’s pathway, they still chose to respond “We will not walk in it” (Jeremiah 6:16b). Holy Writ’s declaration of Asa’s faithful worship to God, after having stated that he was unsuccessful in removing all the high places from Judah, establishes that Asa did not rebuild any of the high places that he had previously destroyed. Asa did not revert to worshiping again the false gods of his fathers either. For this reason, it becomes evident that the “high places that were not removed” mentioned by the Holy Spirit were most likely altars or shrines that were restored and rebuilt by the people after the king had them destroyed, or new locations chosen by them where they could continue to offer sacrifices to their deities. Keep in mind that the high places mentioned by Scripture does not solely refer to the physical structure (i.e. an altar), but it could also refer to certain geographic locations, such as a high hill or under a green tree, where these pagan rituals commonly took place (cf. Isaiah 57:4-5, Jeremiah 3:12-13). Therefore, the Bible is making a compare and contrast between Asa’s heart devoted only to the God of Israel with Judah’s heart divided by their absurd attempt at serving two masters that are contrary to one another (cf. 1st Corinthians 10:14-22). Jehoshaphat, son of Asa and the king who followed after him, continued his father’s campaign in eliminating this wicked habit from Judah’s society, but it is written “Nevertheless the high places were not taken away, for as yet the people had not directed their hearts to the God of their fathers” (2nd Chronicles 20:33). It is astounding to learn that even with Asa’s extraordinary exhibition of commitment to God by deposing his own grandmother from remaining as a queen mother, Judah persisted in disobeying God. However, it is just amazing to observe in these Scriptures the mercy and righteousness displayed by our sublime King. It should bring to memory the assurance God gave Abraham that if ten righteous people could be found in Sodom, “I will not destroy it for the sake of ten” (Genesis 18:32). The Almighty demonstrated the truth of these words when He delayed punishing Judah because of the handful of good and just kings who ruled her. Kings who, like Asa, attempted to reform and refrain a wicked and obdurate nation, in order to prevent the just rod of God from destroying them as punishment for their sins. Asa’s actions simultaneously prove that obedient faith is an individual responsibility; it is not inherited nor gained by association to someone faithful. This, too, braces the undeniability that “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2nd Corinthians 5:10).