GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
2 CHRONICLES 15:8-15
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8 When Asa heard these words, the prophecy of Azariah the son of Oded the prophet, he took courage and put away the detestable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities that he had taken in the hill country of Ephraim, and he repaired the altar of the LORD that was in front of the porch of the house of the LORD.
The Hebrew text does not have “Azariah the son of” here, but just “the prophecy of Oded the prophet.” Either Azariah’s name dropped out by accident (both Azariah and Oded begin with the same letter in Hebrew) or else there was an earlier prophecy from Oded which paralleled that of Azariah, or else Oded, too old or ill to travel, gave the message to his son to deliver. But all of this is conjecture; the word of God was delivered to Asa, and he responded well. The idols were removed from recently captured cities. Also, repairs were made to the altar that Solomon had made. By now it was almost seventy years old, and ordinary wear and tear on an altar that was used daily outdoors would be required. I have a friend who has an outdoor firepit that needs attention every single year; we can imagine that the steps, grill, and other items needed some fixing.
9 And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who settled among them, for great numbers had deserted to him from Israel 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 reign.
Now that tribes such as Benjamin, Ephraim and Manasseh had left the northern kingdom to join with Judah once again, our prophet also takes a moment to mention Simeon, which had been absorbed into Judah. But counting Levi, that means that six tribes had significant representation in Judah, and that detail may lay behind this tally. Half the tribes were now part of the south, or at least well-represented in the south. Judah no longer stood alone.
The fifteenth year of Asa’s reign was 895 BC; the third month was Sivan (corresponding to late May and early June), which is when Pentecost, the Feast of Weeks, was observed. We take this to be the return of Asa with his army after the victory over Zerah the Cushite. This also has some effect on another date given at the end of the chapter, and we will address more of this at that time.
Since the prophet of Chronicles makes many references to dates and years, it will help us understand the text if we begin to record what these years were; some readers will find this more interesting and useful than others. I will begin with King Saul:
The United Monarchy (including Ish-Bosheth the pretender)
| Saul | 1052-1010 | 1 Sam. 13:1 |
| Ish-Bosheth | 1010-1008 | 2 Sam. 2:10 |
| David | 1010-970 | 2 Sam. 5:4 |
| Solomon | 970-930 | 2 Chron. 9:30 |
The Divided Monarchy (Judah, the Southern Kingdom)
| Rehoboam | 930-913 | 1 Kings 14:21 |
| Abijah | 913-910 | 2 Chr. 13:1-2 |
| Asa | 910-869 | 2 Chr. 16:13 |
By the end of Asa’s reign, the Northern Kingdom had seen eight kings come and go, and they had been through the worst and perhaps most dangerous year in the history of the Divided Kingdom, which was 885 BC, when three kings died in a single year, two by assassination and once by suicide. But we have been talking about Asa’s return from the battle with Zerah the Cushite, and the celebration they made to commemorate the Lord’s victory…
11 On that day they sacrificed to the LORD from the plunder that they had brought: seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep. 12 And they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul. 13 More than this: whoever would not seek the LORD, the God of Israel, should be put to death, whether young or old, man or woman. 14 They swore an oath to the LORD with a loud voice and with shouting and with trumpets and with ram’s horns. 15 And all Judah rejoiced over the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and had sought him very eagerly, and he was found by them, and the LORD gave them rest on every side.
Here we see much of the plunder that was taken by Asa’s soldiers. They brought the animals to the temple and the newly repaired altar and gave the animals to the Lord. These were probably whole burnt offerings, which were a form of spontaneous worship and dedication to the Lord, but there were regulations about just which animals might be used for this (Leviticus 1:2; 1:10; 1:14). The fellowship offering was not restricted in the same way and could be any healthy male or female that was a clean animal (from the herd or flock, Leviticus 3:1,7). The benefit of making fellowship offerings is that the army could participate in the fellowship meal along with the priests who served them, and the meat could be consumed on the day of the sacrifice and also on the next day (Leviticus 7:16).
Asa made a special provision to punish unbelievers with death, to purge the nation of anyone who was in rebellion against the Lord. This came from the law of Moses (Exodus 22:20; Deuteronomy 13:6-10). God wanted them to purge such unbelief from the nation so that it would not be led off into idolatry from within (nor into atheism). Another reason for this hard punishment was as a deterrent: “Then all Israel will hear about it and be afraid, and no one among you will do such an evil thing again” (Deuteronomy 13:11).
Why does God punish some things now, without waiting for Judgment Day? Augustine (City of God) said: “If every sin were to be published right now with an obvious punishment, one would think that nothing was being saved for the final judgment. On the other hand, if God were to punish no sin openly right now, one would believe that there is no divine providence.” The judgments God imposes on certain sinners in this lifetime, even to the point of putting them to death either through his servants or immediately through his own fearsome power, are not the same as the eternal punishment of hell.
1, The former are particular, the latter is universal.
2, The former occur daily, but we are still waiting for the latter to happen.
3, The former are only a sort of beginning of divine judgment, but the latter will be its full execution because the special rewards and punishments are being put off until that Day (2 Peter 2:9).
We wait for the unveiling of God’s full and fabulous mercy, when our bodies will be stripped of all sin, defect, temptation, bad memory, and imperfection of every kind. Our spirits will likewise be renewed and rejoined with our new flesh; we will be holy, perfect, pure, and glorious in ways we cannot imagine. We will be invited home to heaven to live with God forever, blessed on account of Jesus’ blood and sacrifice, and wed to him as one holy Christian church, the communion of saints. The judgment for us will be overwhelming, spectacular and glorious, because we will still be ourselves, with memory, personality, senses, and flesh as we had in our lifetimes, but “without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” (Ephesians 5:27). The blessing of Paradise will go on forever without end, and we will praise our God who has rescued us and blessed us for all eternity. And we will have rest on every side forever.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – 2 Chronicles 15:8-15 The victory celebration