In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah, and built Ramah, in order to let none go out or come in to Asa king of Judah.
Asa of Judah had reigned well for years, until Baasha of Israel fortified a border town to fence his own people in. This verse opens the turn in Asa's story, and it raises two questions: why does the date look odd, and why does the king's faith give way here?
Commentators have long debated this date and differ on how to settle it. One approach counts the years from a different starting point:
Critics have made much of the supposed wrong date, the thirty-sixth year of Asa's reign. Compare 1 Kings 15:33 with the first verse of this chapter to see the apparent discrepancy. Suppose Baasha invaded Judah soon after the events recorded in the previous chapter. Then this was the thirty-sixth year after the ten tribes revolted. This presents a possible solution. Others think it is the error of a scribe.
The town Baasha chose to fortify stood close to Judah's capital:
Baasha king of Israel threatened Asa and began to build Ramah, a fortified city only a few miles from Jerusalem.
People were leaving Israel for Judah, and Baasha meant to stop it:
Baasha, king of Israel, had become alarmed at the thought of some from Israel defecting to Judah. Therefore he came and built Ramah as a buffer between the two companies. What a picture! Those who have left the Lord's center will do all they can to keep their followers from returning to the Lord's place for them. This was not a direct attack upon Judah, but Asa considered it an offense.
Another writer names the wider pattern behind the wall:
Baasha could not attack Asa without putting himself in danger. So he wanted to stop his subjects from leaving him and joining God's testimony. This principle appears again and again: those who, like Baasha, still keep up a profession of true religion, though mixed with deadly errors, cannot bear a testimony near them that attracts souls.
The invasion did not create Asa's problem; it uncovered it. Years of energetic reform had not gone as deep as they looked:
Baasha's move against the kingdom of Judah brings out the lack of faith in Asa's heart. He had no confidence in God. His unceasing activity in zeal against idolatry had no reality in his soul. Then Baasha's invasion rose like the sun, and this outward show of godliness withers away, because there was no depth of soil. He goes to the king of Syria for help; there is not even the appearance of going to God.
Asa had faced a far bigger army before, and that comparison makes this collapse striking:
It is difficult to account for this sudden defect in Asa's faith. Not long before, with God's help, he had destroyed the immense army of Zerah the Ethiopian. Now, facing an enemy not half so strong, his faith fails. He looks to human strength to rescue him.
One writer traces the fear back to an evil Asa had tolerated:
Sadly, by tolerating a certain evil, Asa gave an opening for this hostility. Baasha could have thought: Asa claims to be closer to God than we are, yet he does the same things we do when they suit his ambitions! Asa fears Baasha. He has given way on one point, so he can no longer treat the world as a system he must never compromise with and never ask help from. He knows he has no strength of his own, just as when the Ethiopians attacked. But he no longer has the same assurance that all his strength is in God.
- Wall. Baasha built Ramah as a buffer to stop his people crossing to Judah; those who leave the Lord's center work to keep their followers from returning.
- Test. Baasha's threat was smaller than the Ethiopian army Asa had already survived, yet this time his faith failed.
- Root. His zeal against idols was busy, but it had no reality in his soul. The sun rose, and the plant withered for lack of depth.
- Crack. One tolerated evil left him unable to treat the world as something he must never ask help from.
- Reliance. So he went to the king of Syria, and there was not even the appearance of going to God.
And Asa brought out silver and gold out of the treasures of the house of Jehovah and of the king's house, and sent to Ben-hadad king of Syria, who dwelt at Damascus, saying,
Asa had already seen God shatter a far larger army. Yet when a smaller threat came from Israel, he took silver and gold — some of it from God's own house — and sent it to a foreign king to buy protection. How does a man of real faith end up hiring the world instead of asking the Lord?
From the outside, Asa still looked strong. God saw something else.
God knew His servant Asa. There was clearly backsliding that no one could see from the outside. So God allowed Baasha to come against him, to prove what was in his heart. Asa was such a good man, and his heart was perfect all his days. Yet there was just that departure from first love that the Lord could discern.
Part of the payment came out of the temple treasury. One writer sees where the trouble began.
One hardly knows anything sadder than this account of Asa. No doubt he was the Lord's, but he was out of communion, and he relied on his own resources. And he begins by robbing God. Then he asked a worldly man to do something plainly dishonourable... If we get out of communion, there is no telling what we may do. It is sad to think that the flesh has more room to work in a believer than in the unconverted.
Asa himself had once filled that treasury.
Asa has brought silver and gold into the house of God; now he gives these treasures to Ben-hadad, and adds to them treasures from his own house. All this is the glory of the kingdom departing from the house of David.
Asa's own record makes this move hard to explain.
It is difficult to account for this sudden defect in Asa's faith. He had only recently, with God's help, completely destroyed the immense army of Zerah the Ethiopian. Now, faced with an enemy not half so dangerous, his faith fails. He depends for deliverance on human strength... It was the beginning of Asa's downfall. Though he got the deliverance he wanted, it cost him the rebuke of God and wars to the end of his reign.
Asa bought his way out of the threat. In doing so he followed his father's example.
To block this plan, Asa relies on Ben-hadad, the king of Syria. He sends him presents, courts his alliance, and uses him to drive Baasha away... A league with the world may bring us advantages at first, but afterwards we taste its bitter fruits... His father had allied himself with the enemies of God's people; Asa acknowledges and seeks after this alliance!
Ben-hadad took the money and attacked Israel. By every visible measure, Asa had solved his problem.
Ben-hadad, king of Syria, moved only by his love of silver and gold, agreed to break a treaty he had with Israel and take sides with Judah... Asa would no doubt feel himself justified, as many do who think the end justifies the means. He gained his object through friendship with the world! If instead of this he had sought the grace and guidance of the Lord... certainly God would have acted in the best way possible.
The payment cost him a victory over Syria he could have won.
Alliance with the world prevents our overcoming the world. If he had not done this, the Syrians would have fallen into Asa's hands. For "the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him." Solemn and precious word!
- Tested. A smaller threat than he had already beaten exposed a decline no one around him could see.
- Spent. He paid for rescue with the temple's silver and gold. What he once brought into God's house went out to a foreign king.
- Traded. He leaned on his father's old alliance. Trust in the Lord gave way to trust in Syria.
- Gained. The plan worked. Baasha pulled back, and success made the wrong method look right.
- Lost. The bought victory cost him a greater one — and brought God's rebuke and wars to the end of his reign.
There is a league between me and thee, and between my father and thy father behold, I send thee silver and gold; go, break thy league with Baasha king of Israel, that he may depart from me.
Asa had shown real faith earlier in his reign, and once faced an overwhelming army trusting God alone. Why then, in his thirty-sixth year, does a smaller threat from Baasha of Israel send him to buy a treaty with silver and gold from God's house?
Asa had faced a far greater army and trusted God then. One writer states the puzzle:
It is hard to explain this sudden failure in Asa's faith. Only a short time before, with God's help, he had wiped out the huge army of Zerah the Ethiopian. Now, facing an enemy not half so dangerous, his faith fails, and he leans on human strength to save him.
The collapse did not come out of nowhere. Asa had already given way on a smaller point:
Asa fears Baasha. Since he has given way on one point, he can no longer treat the world as a system he must never compromise with and never ask help from. He knows well that he lacks strength, just as he did when the Ethiopian attacked. But he no longer has the same assurance that all his strength is in God.
Notice where the payment comes from, and what Asa asks for. He takes the money out of God's house, and he asks Ben-hadad to break his word to another king:
It is hard to find anything sadder than this account of Asa. No doubt he belonged to the Lord, but he was out of communion with God, and relied on his own resources. And he begins by robbing God. Then he asked a worldly man to do a plainly dishonourable thing... If we get out of communion there is no saying what we may do.
That gold belonged to God's house, and it ended up in a foreign king's hands:
God will not give His glory to another (Isa. 42:8), but Asa in effect gave God's glory (the gold) to Ben-Hadad! So Asa made the fatal mistake of enlisting the world's help to fight against his own brothers, the children of Israel... But too often, in our day, believers use shocking means of fighting against other believers who have offended them. They also use things that belong to God (as Asa used the gold and silver from the house of the Lord) to get what they selfishly want.
Asa's appeal rests on a treaty his own father had already made. One writer weighs what kind of man that father was:
How sad to hear a godly king say such things! Abijam, Asa's father, had walked "in all the sins of his father" — and now Asa identifies himself with him.
The plan worked. But success is not the same as God's approval:
Asa would no doubt feel himself justified, as many do who consider that the end justifies the means... He gained his object through friendship with the world! Suppose instead he had asked the Lord for grace and guidance, to be freed from the threat of the ten tribes of Israel. God would certainly have intervened in the best possible way.
The treaty also lost him a victory God was ready to give:
Instead of looking to the Lord, Asa allies himself with Syria. The alliance produced the effect he wanted, but it stirred up the nations against Israel. And that was not all: alliance with the world stops us from overcoming the world. Had he not done this, the Syrians would have fallen into the hands of Asa.
The relief was real. So was the bill:
This was the beginning of Asa's downfall. The deliverance he wanted did come — Ben-hadad listened to King Asa, and Baasha stopped building Ramah. But it cost Asa the rebuke of God, and wars to the end of his reign.
- Concession — Asa "has given way on one point." After that he can no longer treat the world as something he must never bargain with. Big failures grow out of small ones.
- Fear — A lighter test than the Ethiopian invasion breaks him. He no longer has the assurance that all his strength is in God.
- Robbery — He pays for the treaty out of God's treasury. He "begins by robbing God," and hands God's glory to Ben-hadad.
- Success — The plan works, and that is why it deceives. Those who gain their object this way feel justified, as many do who think the end justifies the means.
- Loss — "Alliance with the world stops us from overcoming the world." Asa paid Syria instead of trusting God. So the enemy God would have handed him escaped, and wars followed to the end of his reign.