And he said to Judah, Let us build these cities, and surround them with walls and towers, gates and bars, while the land is yet before us; for we have sought Jehovah our God; we have sought him, and he has given us rest on every side. And they built and prospered.
Asa's words to Judah tie three things together. There is a cause: they had sought the LORD their God. There is a gift: God gave them peace on every side, which older translations call rest. And there is a task to do while that gift lasts. It raises a practical question: what is a quiet season for?
Rest Traced Back to Its Source
The building work is not shown as the win of a capable king. Asa and the people name the reason for their security before they name their plans. One writer notes how plainly they credited God:
Notice the great prosperity which followed the work he had done. "The kingdom was quiet before him." He built and fortified cities. They acknowledged that it was all of God.
That seeking had already shown itself in action. Asa's reign pulled down high places and incense altars, and called the nation to seek God:
His faithfulness showed in constructive work. He commanded Judah to seek the Lord and to keep the law. But the destructive work mattered just as much. He removed the high places and incense altars that Solomon's reign had introduced and that Rehoboam and Abijah had kept.
Quiet Years Spent on Walls
Asa did not treat peace as permission to relax. He read it as an opportunity, and one commentator sets his choice against the alternative:
How did Asa make use of this rest? He did not act like David, who thought about resting while his own men were in the field. Instead, he used the quiet that God granted him to defend himself against the enemy outside.
The same writer turns this into a rule for God's people, and names what our own walls and towers are:
What instruction Asa's attitude gives us! When God gives us rest, it is so that we can put all our energy into arming ourselves against the enemy's attacks. He will not be slow to return. Our means of defence and our fortresses are the Word and nothing but the Word. Let us use the time when no storms are beating on us to ground ourselves in the Word and draw from it our strength to stand.
Tearing Down Is Not Enough
Asa's reforms had two halves. Breaking idols clears the ground; walls and towers put something in its place:
He did more than smash idols. If he had the zeal to break down the images, he also had the wisdom to build fortified cities. Exposing evil is good, but it is truth filling the soul that keeps the enemy out. They made the best use of the time, as Ephesians 5:16 tells us to do: "making the best use of the time, because the days are evil." So God was with them.
Defence, though, was not the whole of Asa's preparation, and the pattern carries over:
The work was not only building cities to defend God's people. It was also preparing God's army, a host the Lord could use against His enemies. We are not only builders in God's service. We are also part of the Lord's army, contending "for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3). That means we must stand against the enemies of God.
While the Land Is Still Ours
Asa's phrase carries a limit inside it — the land is theirs now. One writer points to the Reformation, the movement that reshaped the churches of Europe, as a season of rest that went to waste:
The churches of the Reformation had a quiet spell afterwards. It would have been well for them if they had been as wise and used it to build and fortify their position, defending "the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints." But they slept. So when worldliness, empty ritual and human reasoning arrived at their borders, they had no power to drive them back. Unlike Judah, they were not ready or able to resist the enemy when he came.
Asa himself later failed to hold the ground he had gained. When Baasha, a rival king, moved against him, he forgot how God had already given him victory over an earlier invader, Zerah:
Asa forgot his experience with Zerah and how God had won that victory (see his beautiful prayer, 2 Chronicles 14:11). He forgot that the Lord who struck down Zerah could also strike down Baasha. So he feared the rival king.
Summary
- Sought — Asa and Judah did not take credit for their quiet years. They traced their peace straight back to God.
- Given — the rest came as a gift with a purpose. Spend it arming yourself, because the enemy will return.
- Built — pulling down what is false is only half the work. Truth has to fill the space, and the Word is the only real fortress.
- Armed — walls were not Asa's whole preparation. Beside the builder stands the soldier, contending for the faith.
- Kept? — the land was theirs only for a while. The churches after the Reformation slept through their rest, and the enemy overran them. Asa himself later forgot who had won his victory.