Asa's Plan

Reflecting on the Lessons of Kings (1 of 2)

Asa of Judah was on top of the world: the northern kingdom was falling to pieces. When Asa came to the throne, Jeroboam had suffered a major defeat in the short reign of Abijah, king of Judah. The northern kingdom had begun with a major advantage in men and military strength, but the war with Abijah (2 Chronicles 13:2ff) had reduced them to parity. Jeroboam was driven back within his borders, and Asa was given room to maneuver. Asa began his reign by introducing reforms into Judah. Late in the reign of Solomon, idolatrous gods were introduced into the religion of Israel. We may presume that the God of Israel remained the supreme God and the national deity of the nation: indeed, this seems to have remained the case in both Israel and Judah until the reign of Ahab of Israel, when there was a brief attempt to reconstitute the northern kingdom as a Canaanite nation under Baalism. The north had been sponsored by the Egyptians, and the Ethiopians, under the reign of the Egyptians, attempted to shore up their position by invading Judah in the reign of Asa. Zerah the Ethiopian suffered a catastrophic defeat (2 Chronicles 14:9). 2 Chronicles 15:9 tells us that after the war, Asa gathered to himself those of Judah and Benjamin- and Ephraim and Manasseh and Simeon- in other words, Israelites of the north who had sworn fidelity to the dynasty of David after beholding the victories of Asa. Meanwhile, the north was undergoing a process of state collapse. Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, was murdered. Baasha comes to the throne in a palace coup: the legitimacy of the state is in shambles, its patron in Egypt (presuming that the Ethiopians were of one kingdom with Egypt at this moment) had been given a bloody nose, and its people are departing to the south.