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.
And Ben-hadad hearkened to king Asa, and sent the captains of his forces against the cities of Israel; and they smote Ijon and Dan and Abelmaim, and all the store-magazines of the cities of Naphtali.
Asa, king of Judah, took silver and gold from the temple and paid the king of Syria to break his treaty with Israel. The money worked — Syrian troops hit Israel's northern towns — but the chapter asks whether a plan that works is a plan God approved.
The towns named here lay in the north, in the land of the tribe of Naphtali:
Naphtali's land was mountainous and fertile. It lay in the north, with the upper Jordan on the east and Asher on the west. Ijon, which was farther north than Dan, was in their land. Joshua 19:32-39. When Baasha, king of Israel, attacked Judah, Asa sent gold and silver to Ben-hadad, king of Syria, for help. He responded at once.
The verse opens by saying Ben-hadad listened to Asa. One writer points to what bought that answer, and to how Asa likely felt about the result:
Only his love for silver and gold moved Ben Hadad, king of Syria. He agreed to break a treaty he had with Israel and take sides with Judah (vv. 3-4). He attacked some of the cities of Israel including the storage cities of Naphtali. This had the effect Asa wanted. No doubt Asa felt justified, as many do who think that the end justifies the means (vv. 5-6).
The plan worked. One writer weighs what it cost:
At first Asa's unfaithfulness seems to bear excellent fruit. Baasha stops building Ramah. Asa and his people carry its stones away to build fortresses against Israel. The king seems to have escaped a great disaster by taking this path. But he loses all the blessing of a walk of faith, and he will prove this in a sad way. Oh, how much happier he was when he felt he had no strength at all, and still stood against the countless army of Zerah!
The Syrian army that marched for Asa was an army he could have beaten himself. One writer draws the wider principle:
Asa, instead of looking to the Lord, makes an alliance with Syria. It produced the effect he wanted, but it stirred up Gentiles against Israel. And this was not all; 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."
The loss follows a rule that holds for us too:
How remarkable is the government of God. Whatever wrong step we take to reach a goal, it not only fails to reach it, but it brings its own chastening with it. The very thing we least desire comes upon us. God would have stopped not only Israel, but Syria too. Instead, the army of the king of Syria escaped out of his hands.
The towns struck here belonged to Asa's own people. He paid a Gentile king — an outsider to Israel — to attack them, and one writer calls that almost unthinkable:
Asa is so forgetful of God, of His mercy, of His promise and of His claims on them, that he seeks help from the Syrian. So we see this amazing, even monstrous thing: Judah seeking Gentile help against Israel, and buying it with the Lord's treasures. This tells their evil condition before God. If they were ready to worship the Gentiles' God, why not ask the Gentiles for help?
The same writer brings it into the present day:
So Asa made the fatal mistake of getting the world's help to fight against his own brothers, the people of Israel. Instead of making a treaty with Syria, how much better it would have been for Asa to seek the restoration of Israel! But too often today, believers use shocking ways to fight other believers who have offended them.
What moved Asa still moves us. One writer names the danger:
The pull to meet a worldly trial in a worldly way is immense. We easily think that spiritual means cannot meet the world's attacks on us. So we are in danger of turning to earthly means to escape. ... Be sure, if we do not feel the danger, it is because we are ourselves under the world's influence.
- Bought: Ben-hadad "listened" because he was paid; his motive was love of silver and gold, not loyalty to Judah.
- Worked: the Syrian raids on Ijon, Dan, Abel-maim and Naphtali's store cities did what Asa wanted. Success is not proof of God's approval.
- Lost: the army that fought for him was the army God would have given into his hand. An alliance with the world keeps us from overcoming the world.
- Turned: a wrong step brings its own chastening. The thing we least want comes instead.
- Warned: the pull to meet a worldly trial in a worldly way is strong. If we do not feel the danger, we are already under the world's influence.
And it came to pass when Baasha heard of it, that he left off building Ramah, and let his work cease.
Asa paid the king of Syria to break with Israel, and the plan worked: Baasha stopped fortifying Ramah, and the crisis passed. So the verse raises a hard question — does a plan that works mean God approved it?
At first the results looked excellent. Commentators point out what Asa lost at the same moment.
At first Asa's unfaithfulness seems to bear excellent fruit. Ben-hadad accepts silver and gold taken out of the house of the Lord as tribute. He breaks his alliance with Baasha. He uses the chance to attack the cities of Ephraim and to make himself master of the store cities of Naphtali. Baasha stops building Ramah. Asa and his people carry its stones away to build fortresses against Israel. By taking this path the king appears to escape a great disaster. But he loses all the blessing of a walk of faith, and he will sadly prove it.
When the outcome is good, we stop questioning the method. Commentators warn about that danger here.
This had the effect Asa wanted. No doubt Asa felt himself justified, as many do who think the end justifies the means. Asa was able to attack Ramah and reduce it to nothing. He gained his object through friendship with the world! Suppose he had instead asked for the grace and guidance of the Lord, to be freed from the threatened attack of the ten tribes. God would then have stepped in, in the best way possible. We too may find great blessing through depending on the Lord. Then we are in great danger of depending on our own ability to get what we want.
Asa got Israel off his back, but Syria's army escaped him. His bargain bought less than faith would have given.
How remarkable is the government of God. Whatever wrong step we take to reach an aim, it not only fails to reach it, but it brings its own chastening with it. The very thing we least desire comes upon us. God would not only have hindered Israel, but Syria. Instead of this, the army of the king of Syria escaped out of his hands.
Nothing bad happened on the day Baasha withdrew. God's rebuke and years of war came later.
A sad decline in his later days — that the king of Judah finds his refuge in the king of Israel instead of in the Lord. Nevertheless, all goes, apparently, well for the moment, for God does not judge all at once. "When Baasha heard of it, he stopped building."
Asa had already faced Zerah's much bigger army and won by trusting God. Baasha was the smaller threat, which makes this collapse strange.
It is difficult to account for this sudden defect in Asa's faith. Not long before, with God's help, he had destroyed the huge army of Zerah the Ethiopian. Now he faces an enemy not half as strong, and his faith fails. He depends for rescue on human strength. It was the beginning of Asa's downfall. He did get the rescue he wanted, for "Ben-hadad listened to King Asa," and Baasha "stopped building Ramah, and let his work cease." But it cost him the rebuke of God and wars to the end of his reign.
Ramah was Baasha's blockade between the two kingdoms. Asa's answer was to hire Syria against his own family instead of praying.
When war threatened Asa from Baasha and Israel, the faith of Asa sadly faltered. Baasha built Ramah to stop any traffic between Judah and Israel. Why did Asa not simply bring this matter to the Lord in prayer? Asa made the fatal mistake of enlisting the world's help to fight against his own brothers, the children of Israel. Instead of making a treaty with Syria, how much better it would have been for Asa to seek the restoration of Israel! But too often today, believers use shocking means to fight other believers who have offended them.
- Smaller test. Asa fell to a weaker enemy than the one he had already beaten by faith. Past victories do not carry you through the next crisis.
- Hired help. He relied on the king of Syria rather than on God, paying for it with treasure taken out of the Lord's house.
- Quick result. Baasha stopped building, just as Asa planned. Commentators warn that success like this tempts us to call the method right.
- Lost victory. Because he relied on Syria, Syria's army escaped him; God would have stopped both enemies for him.
- Later cost. God's rebuke and wars to the end of his reign followed, because God does not judge all at once.
And king Asa took all Judah; and they carried away the stones and the timber from Ramah, with which Baasha had been building, and he built with them Geba and Mizpah.
Asa's payment to Ben-hadad worked. Baasha pulled back from the fort he was building at Ramah. Asa then stripped the abandoned site and used its timber and stone for his own walls. The verse records a win, and commentators ask the harder question: what did that win cost Asa?
One writer traces the whole sequence in a few lines:
Later Baasha king of Israel threatened Asa. Baasha began to build Ramah, a fortified city only a few miles from Jerusalem. To stop this, Asa paid a large sum of money to Ben-hadad king of Syria to invade Israel. This worked for the time being. The building of Ramah stopped, and Asa carried away its stones and built Geba and Mizpah.
Every outward sign pointed to a wise decision. One commentator sets that gain beside an earlier day when Asa felt he had no strength:
At first Asa's unfaithfulness seems to bear excellent fruit. Baasha leaves off building Ramah; Asa and his people carry its stones away to build fortresses against Israel. By taking this path the king seems to have escaped a great disaster. But all the blessing of a walk of faith is lost to him, and he will make sad proof of this. Oh, how much happier he was when he felt himself to be without strength and yet withstood the vast army of Zerah!
Because it worked, Asa would have had no sense of having done wrong:
This had the effect that Asa had desired, and Asa would no doubt feel himself justified, as many do who consider that the end justifies the means. Asa was able to attack Ramah and reduce it to nothing. He gained his object through friendship with the world! ... We too, after we have found great blessing through depending on the Lord, may find ourselves in great danger of then depending on our own ability to gain our ends.
Notice who the new forts at Geba and Mizpah were pointed at. The same writer draws the line from Asa's hired army to the way believers treat one another:
He failed badly by enlisting the help of the Lord's enemies against his own brothers the Israelites. Nor was that all, for he took the silver and gold that was left in the treasuries of the house of the Lord to pay for this help from Syria... Instead of making a treaty with Syria, how much better it would have been for Asa to seek the restoration 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 serve their own selfish ends.
The words "has escaped you" point to a win Asa could have had and let go:
It was the beginning of Asa's downfall. He got the deliverance he wanted, but it cost him the rebuke of God and wars to the end of his reign... Instead of calling on Ben-hadad for help, he might have subdued him, as "has escaped you" implies. David had reigned over Damascus. Only in the days of Solomon's decline did Syria begin to exist as a separate and independent kingdom... it was in God's heart to use Asa to destroy this heathen power. In days to come that power caused His people so much sorrow and distress.
Two forts gained; one nation left standing that God meant to remove. Another writer sees a rule at work here:
How remarkable is the government of God. We may take a wrong step to reach some end. It will not reach that end, and it brings its own chastening with it. The very thing we least desire comes upon us. God would have hindered not only Israel, but Syria.
One of the two cities Asa built from Ramah's stones appears again long after his death:
Nebuchadnezzar puts Gedaliah in charge of the people left in the land, to tend the vines and work the fields... Gedaliah lived at Mizpah, a strong city that Asa, king of Judah, had built with the stones of Ramah.
- Stones gained. Baasha stopped building, and Asa carried the material away to fortify Geba and Mizpah. A real, visible win.
- Blessing lost. The plan seemed to bear excellent fruit, yet all the blessing of a walk of faith was gone. Asa was happier when he had no strength and faced Zerah's vast army.
- Aim mistaken. Asa raised the new walls against his own brothers. He paid for them with silver and gold from the house of the Lord. Believers still fight believers with what belongs to God.
- Victory forfeited. The Syrian army escaped him. God meant to use Asa to destroy that power, which later caused His people much sorrow.
- Government felt. A wrong step never reaches the end it aims at. It brings its own chastening, and what we least desire is what comes.