1 Kings 15:1-7
Abijah became King. His name means "my father is the Lord" and he is called Abijah in 2 Chronicles 13. He is called Abijam in kings which was the name of a Canaanite god meaning 'father of the sea'. It may be that the name Abijam reflects the role God played in his life; he was raised up a son of the Lord but failed to live and reign that way. Abijam did evil in the eyes of the Lord. His heart wasn't fully devoted like the heart of David. We see that David was the standard by which all other kings were measured. Abijah didn't do what was right in the sight of the Lord. But for David's sake the Lord gave him a lamp in Jerusalem; this is to say God allowed the line of David to continue, not based on Abijah but on God's faithfulness.
It is interesting that even with Abijah's heart problem, he still spoke of the Lord and knew what was expected of him. He at least acknowledged the ways of the Lord. In 2 Chronicles 13 we see God grant him a victory over Israel when Abijah cried out to the Lord.
1 Kings 15:9-15
Asa, Abijam's son, became king when Abijam died and hereigned for 41 years. This certainly seems to reflect God's blessing on his reign in contrast to Abijam's three-year reign. Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. He got rid of the male cult prostitutes and removed all the idols his forefathers had put in place. He even removed his grandmother from being queen mother because she had made an obscene image. The queen mother was an office of the mother of the king and she was respected and a leader in her own way. This is why Asa had to deal with her. His housecleaning was pretty thorough. He burned the horrid image she had made. The 'obscene image' was something considered horrible and repulsive. Many believe this image was a sexually explicit Asherah; a phallic symbol tied to fertility cults. Asa didn't remove all the high places though and this seems to be a noted shortcoming. Although it was likely unintentional since his heart was fully on the Lord.
1 Kings 15:16-24
There was war between Asa and Baasha, king of Israel. Baasha was fortifying Ramah in order to war against Asa. By controlling Ramah he controlled one of the major routes in and out of Judah and could cut off supplies. But Asa made a treaty with the neighboring king of Syria; buying them as mercenaries, breaking the treaty he had with Israel. Syria then attacked the northern parts of Israel on behal of Judah. So Baasha abandoned Rmah and went to Tirzah.
The fact that the king of Judah had to rely on Syria doesn't sound consistent with what God would expect his faithful king to do. In fact, we see in 2 Chronicles 16:7-10 that God was, in fact, not happy with that.
Asa was diseased in his feet in his old age. This may have been some judgment from God for Asa started well and did many things right be he seemed to have a rough finish. Asa's response was to seek the physicians and not the Lord (2 Chronicles 16:12). This seems to be from a lingering anger or bitterness from the prophet Hanani. See Jeremiah 41:9 also. When he died, Jehoshaphat succeeds him.
1 Kings 15:25-34
Nadab succeeded Jeroboam as king of Israel. This was while Asa was king. He reigned 2 years doing evil in the eyes of the Lord. He essentially continued what his father had started. God told Jereboam in 1 Kings 11:38 that he would bless him and give him a lasting throne if he followed God's ways. Then when Jereboam failed the Lord told him what would happen to him in 1 Kings 14:7-13.
Baasha was the son of Ahijah and he conspired to murder the king. Baasha killed the king and the entire family of Jeroboam. The prophecy was that all the males would be killed; he killed all the men, women and children. While this was a fulfillment of prophecy it doesn't remove the guilt from Baasha who came to the throne by murder. This set the tone of his reign of evil. Baasha reigned 24 years and did evil in the sight of the Lord.
©2016 Doug Ford
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