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.