2 Chron 16: ⁷ At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him: “Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand. ⁸ Were not the Cushites^[b] and Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen^[c]? Yet when you relied on the Lord, he delivered them into your hand. ⁹ For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war.”

King Asa, an outstanding king of Israel who turned to the Lord and served him with all his heart for 35 years, because of one major silly mistake turned his life upside down, and rejected by the Lord. What happened? By one mistake, he fell! What about King David? It’s not like David never made any mistakes? From the moral point of view, David made much bigger and more serve mistake, like he committed adultery with someone’s wife, Bathsheba, and also set it up to have the man killed in the battlefield. In our modern world, he would be impeached as the king of Israel, borrowing what’s happening today in America. But he turned with all his heart and repented, and God loved him all the same. It’s amazing. But for Asa, it’s one mistake , he’s gone from the favor and blessings of God. Why?

The accusations from the prophet to Kin Asa is that he didn’t rely on the Lord in the forthcoming battle with an invasion army, but he relied on the King of Aram to deter the invasion by the King of Israel. Why is this so serious?

He failed to trust in the Lord

This is about trust in God or some other idols, while David’s case, he’s always trusted in the Lord fully, but he gave in to his lust.

You can see that giving into your own moral values is not as serious as failing to acknowledge God in your life, especially you are a leader in the house of God. In a sense, Asa didn’t commit moral failure, but he committed a divine failure, by not putting his trust in the Lord, instead he propped himself up with another power, a foreign king.

This is a stunning revelation. I wonder how the ecclesiastical bodies today will judge King David and King Asa? In my mind, I think David will be far more condemned and probably impeached. But Asa, will be reprimanded and rebuked, but he will be in power.

We can see that God is above moral values and judgements. In fact if we trust in God, we won’t fall into moral failures in the first place. So, David fell, but he loved the Lord dearly. First thing that came out of his mouth, after he was rebuked by Nathan the prophet after his adultery with Bathsheba, and indirectly killed her husband, was that “I have sinned against the Lord”,. You see how close God is towards his heart. He yelled it out from his mouth automatically. Reading through Psalms, you will know that David is so close to the Lord, and deeply passionate about the Lord, and intimate with God. There is no way God will drop him, even with his moral failures at that point. Indeed, he was judged by God, but after he’s recovered, he was mightily blessed and favored by God. Ironically, Jesus came through the descendent of Bethesda and David, not other wives. Amazing indeed. What does that tell you? In spite of such immorality and murder, the next king after David was Solomon, his son through Bethesda too! God honored Bathsheba enough for that to happen.

So guys, my word here is that relationship with God crowns over morality.

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God has proven to Asa before, and yet he failed

⁸ Were not the Cushites^[b] and Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen^[c]? Yet when you relied on the Lord, he delivered them into your hand. 

God is mad with King Asa because God has worked miracles for him in another similar battles, and yet he failed to trust in God the second time. What went wrong? His carnality, his trust in the more tangible things in the world, pulled him away from the most important source of his power, might, favor, and strength, the Lord. That was too much for God to take, and God abandoned him. King Asa crushed.

So as Christians if we ever put our trust in other things, or persons, in our lives, we are potentially facing big troubles in our lives.

Put our trust and faith in Jesus especially if we have experienced the goodness of God before.

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