Success That Leads to Defeat
About the 4th king down from David was a man by the name King Asa who was son of the king Abijah who was a pretty good king. King Asa’s life stands out because he was one of the most different and great kings that you read about. King Asa came to the throne and immediately started a spiritual reformation. He started tearing down idols that were propped up under the reign of his father. He started going against the flow.
On top of that he instructed the people in the ways of the Lord. He gave all the glory to God and for 10 years, the kingdom was at peace with no wars. Here was an outstanding king who was unusually spiritual and devoted to God. He built up and fortified cities, he gave glory to God, and then after 10 years he was attacked by an Ethiopian army of 1 million men. They were known as the Cushites and he was outnumbered. King Asa leads his people into battle, and prays one of the greatest prayers:
2 Chronicles 14:11 Asa prayed to the Lord his God, “O Lord, you can help a weak army as easily as a powerful one. Help us now, O Lord our God, because we are relying on you, and in your name we have come out to fight against this huge army. Lord, you are our God; no one can hope to defeat you.”
As they fought they had victory. He comes back to Jerusalem, people are cheering and they are celebrating victory and then he starts another reformation and gets rid of things in the land that shouldn’t be there. He is really doing what God wants him to do. He made a covenant with the people that anyone didn’t serve God would be put to death.
2 Chronicles 15:2 He went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.
2 Chronicles 15:8 When Asa heard this message from Azariah the prophet, he took courage and removed all the detestable idols from the land of Judah and Benjamin and in the towns he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim. And he repaired the altar of the Lord, which stood in front of the entry room of the Lord’s Temple.
GROUP QUESTION: Have you ever had an encouraging Word from a prophet or a man of God?
9 Then Asa called together all the people of Judah and Benjamin, along with the people of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who had settled among them. For many from Israel had moved to Judah during Asa’s reign when they saw that the Lord his God was with him. 10 The people gathered at Jerusalem in late spring, during the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign. 11 On that day they sacrificed to the Lord 700 cattle and 7,000 sheep and goats from the plunder they had taken in the battle. 12 Then they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, with all their heart and soul. 13 They agreed that anyone who refused to seek the Lord, the God of Israel, would be put to death—whether young or old, man or woman. 14 They shouted out their oath of loyalty to the Lord with trumpets blaring and rams’ horns sounding. 15 All in Judah were happy about this covenant, for they had entered into it with all their heart. They earnestly sought after God, and they found him. And the Lord gave them rest from their enemies on every side.
16 King Asa even deposed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother because she had made an obscene Asherah pole. He cut down her obscene pole, broke it up, and burned it in the Kidron Valley. 17 Although the pagan shrines were not removed from Israel, Asa’s heart remained completely faithful throughout his life. 18 He brought into the Temple of God the silver and gold and the various items that he and his father had dedicated. 19 So there was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign.
GROUP QUESTION: Have you ever served God with power and momentum, you started up and were on fire pursuing his call?
Then the story picks up after 26 years.
2 Chronicles 16:1 In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign, King Baasha of Israel invaded Judah and fortified Ramah in order to prevent anyone from entering or leaving King Asa’s territory in Judah. 2 Asa responded by removing the silver and gold from the treasuries of the Temple of the Lord and the royal palace. He sent it to King Ben-hadad of Aram, who was ruling in Damascus, along with this message: 3 “Let there be a treaty between you and me like the one between your father and my father. See, I am sending you silver and gold. Break your treaty with King Baasha of Israel so that he will leave me alone.”4 Ben-hadad agreed to King Asa’s request and sent the commanders of his army to attack the towns of Israel. They conquered the towns of Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-maacah, and all the store cities in Naphtali. 5 As soon as Baasha of Israel heard what was happening, he abandoned his project of fortifying Ramah and stopped all work on it. 6 Then King Asa called out all the men of Judah to carry away the building stones and timbers that Baasha had been using to fortify Ramah. Asa used these materials to fortify the towns of Geba and Mizpah.
GROUP QUESTION: Why do you think King Asa, after experiencing God’s power in earlier battles, chose to rely on human wisdom and political alliances instead of trusting God later in his reign?
7 At that time Hanani the seer came to King Asa and told him, “Because you have put your trust in the king of Aram instead of in the Lord your God, you missed your chance to destroy the army of the king of Aram. 8 Don’t you remember what happened to the Ethiopians and Libyans and their vast army, with all of their chariots and charioteers? At that time you relied on the Lord, and he handed them over to you. 9 The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. What a fool you have been! From now on you will be at war.”
10 Asa became so angry with Hanani for saying this that he threw him into prison and put him in stocks. At that time Asa also began to oppress some of his people.
After 36 years of reigning, Asa is attacked. No matter how long you serve God, sing in the church, pastor a church, no matter what you do, where you live, how long you know Jesus, you are subject and vulnerable to attack. The Christian life is not a storm free life. This only reminds us that its not over till its over, or when die and go to be with the Lord. It doesn’t matter how long you have served, how effective you were in ministry, you are susceptible to attack. This is why we fight the good fight of faith. A fight of whether you will have faith in God or not.
In the beginning Asa trusted God against a 1 million man army by praying to God and trusting him. But now he doesn’t pray, he is clever. He wants to use his head and intelligence. It worked but this is the success that leads to defeat. He got clever, and it looked so good because it worked. Now we learn a lesson. Not everything that looks good is good.
GROUP QUESTION: What does Asa’s story teach us about the danger of becoming spiritually complacent, even after many years of walking with the Lord?
Something must have cause him to lose out on God somehow in those 26 years. Instead of childlike trust and the instinct to pray, he’s being smart. And after a prophet shows up to tell him that God is looking for someone who trusts him with childlike trust, he is reminded that when he trusted God, did he not come through? And now you’re not gonna trust Him? Now you don’t need him anymore, you’re gonna figure this out for yourself? Guess what you could have defeated both armies if you would have just trusted God. Now you got nothing but trouble coming your way.
GROUP QUESTION: In what ways can “success” or “clever solutions” actually lead us into spiritual defeat? Can you think of modern examples?
We know something happened with Asa’s soul because instead of listening to what the prophet said and being rebuked and corrected and being humbled, he got angry and threw him in jail.
This is how some of us get. If we don’t like it, we fight against is, regardless if it’s the truth from God. When you backslide from God, you’re not thinking about what’s true, you are thinking about what you like. I don’t like that sermon, I don’t like that church. It doesn’t matter if you like it, is God in it? Is it in the Word?
GROUP QUESTION: Why do you think Asa became angry and imprisoned the prophet instead of humbling himself and repenting?
How do we sometimes respond the same way when confronted with truth?
On top of everything, he starts to mistreat his people. 2 In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa developed a serious foot disease. Yet even with the severity of his disease, he did not seek the Lord’s help but turned only to his physicians.
Asa died and had some good things in his record, but he died locking up prophets, trusting only in his physicians.
GROUP QUESTION: Is it possible for a Christian to go backwards in their faith instead of forwards? What are some signs of spiritual regression?
Even after 36 years the enemy will still be attacking you. Are you a position where you cannot fall, where you don’t need Christ? Anyone can lose out on God lose the blessing, go backwards.
Spiritual growth is not automatic. If you do not grow spiritually, you will regress. If you are a Christian, that doesn’t mean you are going to grow naturally. You need the Word, fellowship with Christians, you need to learn how to pray and worship and use the gifts that God has given you.
In your spiritual life, you do not automatically go forwards. “Well Ive been a Christian for 26 years”, that doesn’t mean anything. The question is have you been growing. You can be less kind 26 years into being a Christian than you were 1 week a Christian. You can be meaner, gossiping more, nastier, with less prayer, less of the bible 29 years in! You can be a preacher and lose you anointing.
This is why we have to love and encourage each other. Everyone goes through battles. King Asa, out of nowhere. It reveals where he was spiritually. He lost his childlike trust. He lost the insticinct to pray. He lost that thing where you just run to God, run to Jesus, bring your problems to Jesus and ask Him what to do.
GROUP QUESTION: How can we guard ourselves from losing the instinct to pray and trust God?
Some of us may lose on childlike faith, just because we have a nicer lifestyle than we did before. Money is good, life is good, no worries. You are cruising in life. Now you can be so smart that you got it all figured out, and you think it worked but it didn’t work. It just looks like it works. A lot of things just look successful but are full of dead mans bones and every kind of filth (Matt 23:27).
Just because it looks good doesn’t mean its good. God is not impressed by your performance. Without faith its impossible to please God.
2 Chronicles 16:9 The eyes of the LORD search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.
GROUP QUESTION: What is an example of a heart that is fully commited vs partially committed to him?
God is still looking, searching, for those who are committed to him. What can he do? Who can he show himself mighty to? What miracle can he do for you? The eyes of the Lord are looking throughout all the people. Not for perfect people, but just those who trust him and run to him and pray.
