Asa

AI summary: Asa matters because he is presented as a king who takes covenant reform seriously and benefits from the peace that follows. The cross references show him removing idols, resisting rival powers, and receiving prophetic encouragement to seek the Lord wholeheartedly. Yet the later part of his story also introduces tension, especially when he relies on political maneuvering and, in illness, is remembered for seeking physicians rather than the Lord. Taken together, the material presents Asa as a substantially faithful king whose life still warns that strong beginnings do not remove the need for continued dependence on God.¹

Physician, son of Abijah and grandson of Rehoboam, was the third king of Judah. He was zealous in maintaining the true worship of God, and in rooting all idolatry, with its accompanying immoralities, out of the land (1 Kings 15:8-14). The Lord gave him and his land rest and prosperity. It is recorded of him, however, that in his old age, when afflicted, he “sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians” (comp. Jer. 17:5). He died in the forty-first year of his reign, greatly honoured by his people (2 Chr. 16:1-13), and was succeeded by his son Jehoshaphat. ³