Morning Bible Study 2 Chronciles 16 20141130 2Ch 16:1 In the year thirty-six of the reign of Asa, Baasha, king of Israel, came up against Judah and built Ramah, to the intent that he might let no one go out or come in to Asa, king of Judah. 2Ch 16:2 Then Asa brought out the silver and the gold out of the treasuries of the house of the LORD and of the kings house, and sent unto Benhadad, king of Syria, that dwelt at Damascus, saying, 2Ch 16:3 There is a covenant between me and thee, as there was between my father and thy father; behold, I have sent thee silver and gold; go, break thy league with Baasha, king of Israel, that he may depart from me. 2Ch 16:4 And Benhadad hearkened unto King Asa and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel, and they smote Ijon and Dan and Abelmaim and all the store cities of Naphtali. 2Ch 16:5 And when Baasha heard it, he left off building of Ramah and let his work cease. 2Ch 16:6 Then Asa, the king, took all Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and the timber thereof, with which Baasha was building, and he built Geba and Mizpah with it. 2Ch 16:7 And at that time Hanani, the seer, came to Asa, king of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the LORD thy God, therefore, the host of the king of Syria has escaped out of thy hands. 2Ch 16:8 Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet, because thou didst rely on the LORD, he delivered them into thy hand. 2Ch 16:9 For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of those whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly, for from now on thou shalt have wars. 2Ch 16:10 Then Asa was wroth with the seer and put him in the prison house, for he was in a rage with him because of this thing. And Asa killed some of the people at the same time. 2Ch 16:11 And, behold, the acts of Asa, first and last, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. 2Ch 16:12 And Asa in the year thirty-nine of his reign was diseased from his feet up; yet in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but the physicians. 2Ch 16:13 And Asa slept with his fathers and died in the year forty-one of his reign. 2Ch 16:14 And they buried him in his own sepulchres, which he had made for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odours and aromas prepared by the apothecaries art; and they made a very great burning for him. Jubilee Bible (from the Scriptures of the Reformation) Edited by Russell M. Stendal Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2010 2 Chronicles 16:1-10 Then Asa brought out silver and gold out of the treasuries of the house of the Lord. The folly of bribery Trust in man, not in God— I. Led to sacrilege in religious things. Gifts bestowed or promised with a view to prevent judgment or corrupt morals abominable. Bribery a canker in constitutional governments, a disgrace in all departments of life. II. Brought down Divine reproof. III. Defeated its own ends. 1. Asa missed the opportunity of a double victory. Possible by unnecessary and improper alliances to hinder our good and prevent God from granting deliverance. 2. Asa exposed himself to greater danger. Those who bribe and those bribed not to be depended upon. For gold men will sell their votes, their conscience, and themselves. Cato complained that M. Coelius the Tribune “might be hired for a piece of bread to speak or to hold his peace.” (J. Wolfendale.) 2 Chronicles 16:7 Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the Lord. Asa’s want of faith Sin like Asa’s has been the supreme apostasy of the Church in all her branches and through all her generations: Christ has been denied, not by lack of devotion, but by want of faith. Champions of the faith, reformers and guardians of the temple, like Asa, have been eager to attach to their holy cause the cruel prejudices of ignorance and folly, the greed and vindictiveness of selfish men. They have feared lest these potent forces should be arrayed amongst the enemies of the Church and her Master. It has even been suggested that national Churches and great national vices were so intimately allied that their supporters were content that they should stand or fall together. On the other hand, the advocates of reform have not been slow to appeal to popular jealousy and to aggravate the bitterness of social feuds. (W. H. Bennett, M.A.) 2 Chronicles 16:9 For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth. Divine providence We need not concern ourselves with the occasion on which these words were uttered. Spoken by a prophet to Asa, king of Judah, they have been “recorded for our instruction.” The representation sets forth Divine things under human similitudes. Now it can hardly be necessary that we expose the falseness of the opinion that having created this world God left it to itself, and bestows no thought on its concerns. But whilst there are few who hold the opinion, there are many who would limit the providence of God; and it is very easy to put forward descriptions of the magnitude and the power of the Creator, and then to set in contrast the insignificance of man, and to argue from the comparison that it is derogatory to the greatness of God to suppose Him careful of what befalls a house-hold or happens to an individual. But this is poor reasoning; it would not hold good if applied amongst ourselves. If it were possible that a great statesman or potentate, whilst superintending the concerns of an empire, should yet find time for ministering at the bedside of sickness, and be active for the widow and the orphan: well, what would you say—that it was derogatory to him that, without neglecting momentous things, he showed himself capable of attending to things comparatively petty? Nay, you would admire and you would venerate him all the more. Neither is it derogatory—nay, rather, it is essential to the greatness of our God—that whilst He marshals the stars and orders the motions of all the worlds in immensity, He yet feedeth the young ravens that call upon Him, and numbereth the very hairs of our head. But now we will bring this truth before you in greater minuteness, and show what is involved in the saying, “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth.” I. We may first alarm it evident that nothing can happen in any spot of the peopled immensity which is not known to Him who is emphatically the Omniscient—indeed, it were to deny the omniscience of God to suppose any the most trivial incident not included within His knowledge. And it is far more than the inspection of an ever-vigilant observer. It is not merely that nothing can happen without the knowledge of our Maker: it is that nothing can happen but by His appointment or permission, for we must ever remember that God is the first cause, and that on the first all secondary depend. But how beautifully simple does everything appear when we trace one hand in all that occurs! It is God whose energies are extended throughout the earth and sea and air, causing those innumerable and beneficial results which we ascribe to nature; it is God by whom all those contingencies which seem to us fortuitous and casual are ordered, so that events brought round by what men count accident proceed from a Divine and therefore irreversible appointment. It is God by whom the human will is secretly inclined towards righteousness, so that there is not wrought upon earth a single action such as God can approve, to whose performance God hath not instigated. It is God who, acting through the instrumentality of various and apparently conflicting causes, keeps together the discordant elements of society, and prevents the whole framework of civil institutions from being rapidly dissolved and broken up piecemeal. I know that it is not the monarch alone at the head of his provinces and tribes who is observed by the Almighty; I know that it is not only at some great crisis in life that an individual becomes the object of the attention of his Maker; rather do I know that the poorest, the meanest, the most despised, the very outcast of society, shares with the monarch the notice of the Universal Protector. Yea, and that this notice is so incessant and so unwearied, that when he goes to his daily toil, or his daily prayer, when he lies down at night, or rises in the morning, or gathers his little ones to the scanty meal, the poor man is not unnoticed by God; he cannot weep a tear God knows not, he cannot smile a smile God knows not, he cannot breathe a wish God knows not. But whilst the universal providence of God is to the full as incomprehensible as aught else that belongs to Divinity, there is nothing in it but what commends itself to the very warmest feelings of our nature. II. We come now to the second doctrine laid down in our text—that all the motions of providence have for their ultimate end the good of those whose heart is perfect towards God. And you may examine this doctrine under two points of view—as referring either to the Church at large, or separately to the individuals of whom that Church is composed. With Scripture for our guide, we must see that God’s design, in all His dealings with this earth, has been the glorifying Himself in the redemption and final exaltation of a vast number of our apostate race. Before Christ appeared amongst men, the whole course of human events was so ordered as to prepare the way for the promised Deliverer. If God sent His own Son to deliver man from the consequences of transgression, and to extirpate evil from the universe, we cannot doubt the objects which engaged so stupendous an interposition must still be those to whose furtherance the Divine dealings tend. There can be no other objects commensurate in importance with those, for no others have required so costly a process; and since these as yet have been only partially attained, we must justly conclude that their thorough accomplishment is the proposed end of all the dealings of providence. The globe was partitioned out with a view to the Church, this land assigned to one nation and that to another, with the set purpose of consulting by the distribution the well-being of Israel. It is as though the Psalmist had said that God directs all the tumults and confusions of the world, guiding the flood with holy and merciful intentions towards His people, that the turbid waters may bring them strength and peace. Why is it that the Church has outlived so many a fierce persecution—that in the place of being vanquished she is only to be invigorated by assault? We ascribe nothing to the native energies of the preachers or professors of Christianity: we ascribe everything to the protecting and fostering care of Him who so loved the world as to give His Son. And it is not only in reference to the Church at large that we are warranted in thus speaking of God’s providence. Of each member in this Church we may declare that God watches sedulously over him with the express design of succouring him with all needful assistance. You learn from various portions of Holy Writ that God has a great interest in the righteous, so that the Lord’s portion is said to be His people, and Jacob the lot of His inheritance. He now calls His people His jewels, and declares that whosoever toucheth them toucheth the apple of His eye. We know that many things may happen to the righteous which seem against them, and that it is easy to find in their disasters apparent exceptions to the truth affirmed by the text; yet who that knows anything of Christian experience would deny that the trials which are permitted to overtake the godly serve as means through which their spiritual well-being is advanced, and afford occasions for such communications of grace as prove that God’s strength is made perfect in weakness? It is no proof that the eye of the Lord is not on the righteous that troubles may be found in their portion. When again this man is visited with calamity, death may make inroads in his household, and disorder may pervade his affairs; but the eyes of the Lord are incessantly on him, and if he will but seek his comfort in God, God will show Himself strong by giving him a peace which passeth all understanding. And if anything can encourage the righteous man, and give him confidence amid the onsets of trial, it must be the consideration that the providence of the Almighty is thus perpetually vigilant in his behalf. (H. MeLvill, B.D.) 2 Chronicles 16:10 Then Asa was wroth with the seer. A reluctant conscience It is said that straw which had been used for the bedding of the lions at Wombwell’s menagerie was sold, and placed in a stable as bedding for some horses. No, sooner did the horses enter than they began to show signs of alarm, snorting, snuffing the air, and trembling as though conscious of a threatening presence. Horses in this country have had no experience of the hostility or strength of carnivora; but there is a persistency in hereditary powers which certain objects can stimulate into activity. The conscience of man exhibits a similar persistency of sense, if not by self-reproach or remorse, at least by a reluctance to enter on the consideration of sin. It is not too much to infer that all is not right, when pain, alarm, aversion are felt when inquiry is suggested. (Bp. Boyd Carpenter.) 2 Chronicles 16:11-12 And, behold, the acts of Asa, first and last, lo, they are written in the books of the kings. Asa; or failure at the last Asa’s case is a Scriptural declaration, that one who has begun well, who has even done much for God, may fall miserably, may fail at last. What were the causes of his fall? I. He was tried by great success. Nothing is more liable than success to produce self-confidence, and neglect of Him who bestoweth on the wise their wisdom and on the strong their strength. Unless s man watches himself very narrowly, pride will insinuate itself even into the midst of his thanksgivings; complacent thoughts of his own foresight underlie his recognition of God’s providence; confessions of his own good desert qualify his confessions of sin. II. He was placed in the perilous position of having to guide and instruct others. This is a great snare to any one. The mother who teaches her child to pray; the father who watches over his son’s moral progress; the master who is a strict censor of the behaviour of his servants; the Scripture-reader, the district visitor, the nurse of the sick, the almoner of the poor; yea, even the minister of God who has professionally to bring before his people the means of grace and hope of glory; these persons are all in danger of neglecting themselves—of placing themselves, as it were, ab extra, to the duties which they have to inculcate. They are tempted to forget themselves, to abate their self-discipline, and when the novelty of their employment has passed away, to fall back on other things; it may be, to end with languor, disgust, or carelessness, if not with utter faithlessness and sin. (D. Hessey.) 2 Chronicles 16:12-13 And Asa, in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet Mind-cure That sickness is twin born with sin is the oldest tradition in the world. Our maladies arise from something finer than the germs any microscope can detect; and if all disease has its origin in the ill-disposed spirit, in a different well-disposed spirit it may have its cure. There can be no doubt that a mind morbid or in health affects the body. Some persons, by their presence and air, make us sick or well. Temperance is a virtue before it is a bodily trait. All vice digs a mine of ruin which no physician can countermine. What doctor can prescribe for an inordinate affection, from his pocket-book or medicine-chest? A little mind-cure were better than a complete apothecary’s shop; and in one’s own mind, often more than in another’s, the remedy lies. Safety and peril reside in the same region of the affections, even as the very sea that tosses brings us to port. Like cures like; the hair of the dog his own bite; and herbs, as George Herbert says, the flesh they find their acquaintance in. There is no malady which guilty intrigues, extravagant passions, and corroding cares may not produce or increase; and none which good affections will not alleviate or remove. Many a heap of flowers have I seen on coffins that would not have been made by plane and hammer so soon had a tithe of the green leaves, lilies, and roses been strewn along the way. Christ’s miracles were wrought on a promise of faith, for the blind eye, for the withered hand, and for the remorseful conscience in him whom He assured, “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee,” an insane compunction being in this case the evil root. Peter commanded the cripple to stand on his feet, perceiving that he had faith to be healed. The good Samaritan poured out something more than oil and wine into the robbed traveller’s wounds. There are in us gashes and ghastly wounds, perhaps unknown to the inflictors, which no sword or dagger ever made. A word or a look was enough to stab us; shall no words or looks suffice to make us whole? No medicaments, only mental cure, can either probe them or bind them up. Right ordering of our active powers is a medicine, as well as that merry heart of which the Preacher speaks. The steadfast will is a life-preserver, and buoys up against spiritual drowning. Heal the mind tired and sore with brooding on absent or unresponsive objects: with labour that eases it, while it wearies the muscles and makes the sweat, according to the old decree, run down the face. As the girders and cross-ties of the bridge distribute the pressure on it of heavy loads, so various duty lightens by dividing every burden of grief or pain. Such considerations may show how far a sane body is not only inhabited, but made, by a sane mind. Let us notice more particularly the connection between sickness and sin. I. They have the same origin. II. They have the same propagation and spread. III. Why, then, should not the cure of sickness run parallel with its continuance and cause? Disorder is inherited. Ezekiel protests against the proverb that the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge. Nevertheless, it is true. For example of this communication or transmission, take the illustration of fear. What a leaven it is! Terror is not only a wretchedness, but a disgrace, an exposure to harm. You will be likely to have what you dread. What you rehearse you will enact. This is the shorthand history of disease, misery, and crime. Bonaparte, in his better days, thought the bullet was not run and moulded he should be hit by, though cannonballs ploughed the earth into powder at his side; felt no alarm for himself from the plague in Egypt, and fortified his soldiers against it, with that brave deportment of his own. To what but panic is due the large destruction of life in buildings falling or on fire, in battles like that of Bull Run, and in wrecks at sea? We must be of good heart to be secure. How many have been sick of a thought or of a certain company or of a single companion! How many have got well with thoughts alone that could cure! By one who served in our civil war I was told of sick soldiers who, in their despair, voluntarily turned their faces to the wall and died, because they wanted, and had made up their mind, to die. If as they lay moaning on their beds had come some token of affection, the step of some Florence Nightingale, or any good message, they would have opened their eyes, stretched their limbs, and lived! A grain, a hair, the twentieth part of a scruple, in delicate conditions and a tremulous suspense determines the scale; and the balance hangs for us all to put the atom into, so intimate is the relation between body and mind. We decide each other’s fate every day. Balzac tells us of a mother who suddenly expires after one more of her unnatural daughter’s hard words; and he adds that the slaughter by savages of those too old to continue on the march is philanthropy in the comparison. This is happening every day. A gentle remembrance from one—a note, a flower, a book, a hand-grasp—to assure us our days of usefulness are not over, enables us to live and labour still. The supernatural acts through the natural. Let us make the connection and be all of us well. Be its fault or defect what it may, I greet, therefore, the new departure which lays the stress on the mind. (C.A. Bartol, D.D.) The Biblical Illustrator By Joseph S. Exell, M.A. This remarkable work is the triumph of a life devoted to Biblical research and study. Assisted by a small army of students, the editor has drawn upon all the rich stores of the great minds since the beginning of New Testament times. Anecdotes, Similes, Emblems and Illustrations; Expository, Scientific, Geographical, Historical and Homiletic, gathered from a wide range of Home and Foreign Literature, on the verses of the Bible. Published in 1900; public domain. Asa did not turn to the Lord in all matter, he sought the help of men instead of God. Asa whole heart was not given to the Lord because of this sin God punished Asa not only with war but with a disease that effected his feet and eventually killed him. Sin is that way for us when we allow the sin of the world to influence us then we are Asa we are trusting more in man than we are in God. God wants us to give him everything, our whole hearts, souls, and minds. He wants us to trust in Him for everything we go through during the day nothing is to small or to big for God to handle. We just have to have the faith that God will provide and be there with us. Revelation from God
Posted on: Sun, 30 Nov 2014 13:33:50 +0000
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