And Asa did what was right in the sight of Jehovah, as David his father.
Asa became king of Judah after his father Abijam, and the record of him breaks the pattern. Two questions sit in the verse. What does doing right in the LORD's eyes look like? And why is David — not Asa's own father — the measure?
The good verdict on Asa did not begin with Asa. One writer traces it back to David — who failed badly, was disciplined, and was restored.
God remembers David and his obedience, even though he had turned aside from what was right in the matter of Uriah. But after the bitter discipline this required, his restored soul found fellowship with his God again. The Lord did not forget these things; so we see Abijam's successor and son, Asa, raised up for David's sake as a true witness for God in Judah. Only the grace of God could do this, not the merits of man — and all the more so because Asa grew up under the same female influence as his father. His grandmother Maachah tried to promote idolatry during his reign, but Asa's faith fought that influence, rebuked it, and destroyed it, so that the rights of the Lord might be known again in Judah.
The verse gives the verdict. The record shows the acts behind it: Asa broke the idols down, and then he built.
His name, "healing," or "cure," reads like a prophecy of the reform and rest he brought in the earlier part of his reign. He made a most excellent beginning... He was no mere image-breaker. If he had the zeal to break down the images, he also had the wisdom to build fortified cities. To expose evil is very well, but filling the soul with truth is what protects it from the enemy's attack.
Asa's reform did not stop at his own conduct. He turned the nation, and he did it when he was still very young.
He did what was right in the sight of the Lord... He was not satisfied with this work, but he also commanded Judah to seek the Lord. The land was quiet. The Lord blessed him and the land for this faithful work. It was a remarkable work for one so young. Asa was probably not yet twelve years old when he became king.
Other kings of Judah were praised for copying their own fathers. One writer asks what that praise is worth.
What does it mean that Jotham walked in his father's steps? It was good as far as it went, but it was not piety, nor obedience, of the highest kind. Scripture says of both Hezekiah and Josiah that David their father was their model... David was the man after God's own heart; Uzziah was not, and to remember this is to see the difference. It is the often-repeated truth, that to see what God's mind is, we must go back to the beginning.
David's mark was not a flawless life but a whole heart. That is where the failing kings fell short.
This great thing is said of David, that he followed the LORD with all his heart. There was power in the LORD to engage His people's hearts completely. This became the standard for judging later faithless kings: "his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father."
The verse opens a reign that did not end as it began.
Asa's reign was long and remarkably blessed... Chronicles gives us the detailed account of all the faithfulness he showed. Here the Word considers him more from the side of responsibility. A very sad lack of faith marks the close of his reign. To oppose Baasha, the king of Israel, Asa relies on Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, sends him presents, and courts his alliance... What unfaithfulness in this godly king, who had defeated Zerah the Ethiopian and his army of a million men, to fail to trust his interests to the Lord! An alliance with the world may bring us advantages at first, but afterwards we taste its bitter fruits.
Even so, God's verdict on Asa stands. (Older translations say his heart was "perfect" with the LORD; the ESV reads "wholly true.") One writer ties that word to the truth God had revealed at the time.
Remarkable is God's word concerning Asa: though he did not remove the idolatrous high places, yet his heart was perfect with the LORD all his days. (1 Kings 15:14; 2 Chron. 15:17.) Perfection is always in relation to the truth revealed.
- Grace first. Asa's good reign came for David's sake — grace raising him up, not merit earning it.
- Grace shown. Doing right in the LORD's eyes meant breaking the images down, and then building. Clear the evil out; put truth in its place.
- Grace spreading. He was not content with his own obedience; he commanded Judah to seek the LORD, and the land was quiet.
- Grace measured. David, not his own father, is the standard. To know God's mind, go back to the beginning — and what marked David was a whole heart.
- Grace tested. A reign that began so well leaned on Syria at its close. Yet God still called his heart perfect, measured by the truth revealed in that day.
And he put away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his father had made.
Asa became king of Judah after two generations of kings had let pagan worship settle into the land. His first recorded act was demolition. Two questions follow. What was he tearing down? And what does it cost a man to destroy what his own family built?
Older translations call these men "sodomites." One writer traces the Hebrew word behind them. It has a masculine and a feminine form, and both carry the idea of consecration — here, consecration to the goddess Astarte:
The ordinary view is far more probable: it supposes a "consecration" to the corrupt Astarte, or Venus, of early and later idolatry... The masculine form of the word occurs in Deuteronomy 23:17; 1 Kings 14:24; 15:12; 22:46; 2 Kings 23:7 and Job 36:14. Can it be argued that holy men, or seers, are intended there? If the masculine form plainly means a class of people of extreme moral corruption, then the argument about the feminine form falls to the ground. They are forms of the same word, and the idea of holiness, or consecration, of course runs through both alike. Terrible to say, prostitution was an almost universal element of heathen holiness!
So the two halves of the verse describe one problem. These men were not an immoral fringe beside the idols. They belonged to the idol worship itself. The same word appears in chapters before Asa and long after him.
Asa did not inherit a clean slate. He inherited shrines his own father had built. Removing them meant overruling his father in front of everyone:
Because he acted rightly, he took action against the corrupt worship of idols. He banished those who practised sodomy and prostitution in their religious ceremonies, and he removed all the idols his father had made (v.12). This was no light matter. The idol worshippers would resist him fiercely, claiming that he was dishonouring his father. But he meant to honour the Lord, and he would not let family ties get in the way of obeying God's Word.
Asa grew up inside the system he tore down. The same influences that ruined his father surrounded him too. One writer traces his stand back to grace alone:
The Lord did not forget these things. So we see Asa, Abijam's son and successor, raised up for David's sake as a true witness for God in Judah. Only the grace of God could do this, not the merits of man. That is all the more clear because Asa lived under the same female influence his father had.
Asa's verbs are physical: he put away, he removed. One writer draws the line between disliking evil and getting rid of it:
There must be separation from the evil that led to their departure from the Lord. Idolatry must be judged and "put away." This is more than a protest against evil; it involves dealing with the evil. We are often willing to protest against evil while shrinking from dealing with it. We may plead that it is hard to deal with. We may fear the result. We shrink from the dislike it may bring on us. So, under one excuse and another, we dodge our plain responsibility.
Clearing idols out once did not settle the matter. One writer notes how often they turn up again:
He takes away the strange gods, for we keep finding them again. It takes energy to cast them out and to keep them from coming back.
Asa did not stop at pulling things down. He built as well, and one writer draws out the lesson:
He was no mere image-breaker. If he had the zeal to break down the images, he also had the wisdom to build fortified cities. To expose evil is very good, but to furnish the soul with truth is what protects it from the invasion of the enemy.
- Removed — what. The men and the idols went together. These men were consecrated to a corrupt goddess, and prostitution counted as part of pagan holiness.
- Removed — despite whom. The idols were his father's. Asa put obedience above family loyalty, even though the worshippers accused him of dishonouring his father.
- Removed — by grace. Asa grew up under the same influences that ruined his father. His stand came from God's grace, which remembered David — not from his own merit.
- Removed — not just resisted. Judging evil goes past protesting it. Difficulty, consequences and unpopularity are the usual excuses for dodging the responsibility.
- Removed — then replaced. Idols come back unless energy keeps them out. Breaking images down is only half the work. Truth in the soul is what keeps the enemy out.