2 Chronicles 15

Then Azariah son of Obed, moved by the Spirit of God, went out to meet Asa. He said, “Listen carefully, Asa, and listen Judah and Benjamin: God will stick with you as long as you stick with him. If you look for him he will let himself be found; but if you leave him he’ll leave you. For a long time Israel didn’t have the real God, nor did they have the help of priest or teacher or book. But when they were in trouble and got serious, and decided to seek God, the God of Israel, God let himself be found. At that time it was a dog-eat-dog world; life was constantly up for grabs—no one, regardless of country, knew what the next day might bring. Nation battered nation, city pummeled city. God let loose every kind of trouble among them.

The Spirit of God came on Azariah. He was the son of Oded.

Azariah went out to meet Asa. He said to him, “Asa and all you people of Judah and Benjamin, listen to me. The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you really look for him, you will find him. But if you desert him, he will desert you.

For a long time Israel didn’t worship the true God. They didn’t have a priest who taught them. So they didn’t know God’s law.

But when they were in trouble, they turned to the Lord, the God of Israel. When they did, they found him.

In those days it wasn’t safe to travel around. The people who lived in all the areas of the land were having a lot of trouble.

One nation was crushing another. One city was crushing another. That’s because God was causing them to suffer terribly.

“But it’s different with you: Be strong. Take heart. Payday is coming!”

But be strong. Don’t give up. God will reward you for your work.”

Asa heard the prophecy of Azariah son of Obed, took a deep breath, then rolled up his sleeves, and went to work: He cleaned out the obscene and polluting sacred shrines from the whole country of Judah and Benjamin and from the towns he had taken in the hill country of Ephraim. He spruced up the Altar of God that was in front of The Temple porch. Then he called an assembly for all Judah and Benjamin, including those from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who were living there at the time (for many from Israel had left their homes and joined forces with Asa when they saw that God was on his side).

Asa heard that prophecy. He paid attention to the words of Azariah the prophet, the son of Oded. So Asa became bolder than ever. He removed the statues of gods from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin. He also removed them from the towns he had captured in the hills of Ephraim. He did it because the Lord hated those gods. Asa repaired the altar of the Lord. It was in front of the porch of the Lord’s temple.

Then Asa gathered together all the people of Judah and Benjamin. He also gathered together the people from Ephraim, Manasseh and Simeon who were living among them. Large numbers of people had come over to him from Israel. They came because they saw that the Lord his God was with him.

They all arrived in Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign for a great assembly of worship. From their earlier plunder they offered sacrifices of seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep for the worship. Then they bound themselves in a covenant to seek God, the God of their fathers, wholeheartedly, holding nothing back. And they agreed that anyone who refused to seek God, the God of Israel, should be killed, no matter who it was, young or old, man or woman. They shouted out their promise to God, a joyful sound accompanied with blasts from trumpets and rams’ horns. The whole country felt good about the covenant promise—they had given their promise joyfully from the heart. Anticipating the best, they had sought God—and he showed up, ready to be found. God gave them peace within and without—a most peaceable kingdom!

They gathered in Jerusalem. It was the third month of the 15th year of Asa’s rule.

At that time they sacrificed to the Lord 700 oxen and 7,000 sheep and goats. The animals were among the things they had taken after the battle.

They made a covenant to obey the Lord, the God of their people. They would obey him with all their heart and soul.

All those who wouldn’t obey the Lord, the God of Israel, would be killed. It wouldn’t matter how important they were. It wouldn’t matter whether they were men or women.

They made a promise to the Lord. They praised him out loud. They shouted. They blew trumpets and horns.

All the people of Judah were happy about the promise they had made. They turned to God with all their heart. When they did, they found him. So the Lord gave them peace and rest on every side.

In his cleanup of the country, Asa went so far as to remove his mother, Queen Maacah, from her throne because she had built a shockingly obscene image of the sex goddess Asherah. Asa tore it down, smashed it, and burned it up in the Kidron Valley. Unfortunately he didn’t get rid of the local sex-and-religion shrines. But he was well-intentioned—his heart was in the right place, loyal to God. All the gold and silver vessels and artifacts that he and his father had consecrated for holy use he installed in The Temple of God. There wasn’t a trace of war up to the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign.

King Asa also removed his grandmother Maakah from her position as queen mother. That’s because she had made a pole used to worship the female god named Asherah. The Lord hated it. So Asa cut it down. He broke it up. He burned it in the Kidron Valley.

Asa didn’t remove the high places from Israel. But he committed his whole life completely to the Lord.

He and his father had set apart silver, gold and other things to the Lord. Asa brought them into God’s temple.

There weren’t any more wars until the 35th year of Asa’s rule.