Latest / The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal / 2 Chronicles 14 - Asa's Perfect Heart

Transcript

2 Chronicles 14 - Asa's Perfect Heart · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Life Audio, Well, how do their friends and faith listeners?
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for tuning into the Bible Explain
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Podcast on this lovely Wednesday morning. We're gonna be talking
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: about Second Chronicles fourteen and the reign of King Asa
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: and how God helps him defeat an army of Ethiopians
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: that totaled a million people. We'll get into it now.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Before I get into the episode, here is a quick
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: word from our sponsors. Okay, guys, so don't forget. The
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: next week is the Bible Explained Christmas Candlelight podcast episode
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: that I do every single year. It is a mouthful,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: but it's always a really fun episode that I just
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: love doing for you guys, and so I'm definitely excited
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: to bring you this year's episode. I just can't believe
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: that it's almost Christmas already. You know what, I did
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: not decorate my house this year. Didn't. In fact, I
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: still have one fall decoration up. It was like this
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: little stained glass door hanging thing that I made a
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: couple months ago at this like class I did with
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: my sister in law. I still have it up. You know,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: I just didn't get around to decorating this year because
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: I've been so busy. This is the first year ever
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: since I've been married that I have not decorated for Christmas.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: In fact, even when I lived with my parents, I
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: always decorated for Christmas. My parents always had Christmas to
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: core up. And this year, I don't know, just didn't
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: get to it. And so I have my tiny little
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: porcelain tree out, you know the ones with the lights
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: that you stick in there. That's about all my Christmas
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: decre this year. But favor listeners, you tell me did
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: you decorate for Christmas? And do you go all out
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: for Christmas? I'd love to hear about that. But let's
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: read Second Chronicles fourteen today, one through fifteen, the entire chapter.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: It is a short chapter. We're gonna be talking about
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: King Asa, his life and also this massive victory he
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: has over the Ethiopian army. So let's get into it.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: As usual, I'll be reading from the web version of scripture,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: but grab the version of scripture that you prefer this morning,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: and also your cup of coffee or your cup of
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: tea to share with me as we read Second Chronicles fourteen.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: So Abaijah slept with his fathers and they buried him
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: in David's city, and Asa, his son, reigned in his place.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: In his days, the land was quiet for ten years.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Asa did that which was good and right in Yahweh,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: his God's eyes. For he took away the foreign altars
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: and the high places, broke down the pillars, cut down
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: the Ashera poles, and commanded Judah to seek Yahweh, the
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: God of their fathers, and to obey his law and command.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Also he took away out of all the cities of
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Judah the high places and the sun images, and the
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: kingdom was quiet before him. He built fortified cities in Judah,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: for the land was quiet, and he had no war
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: in those years because Yahweh had given him rest. For
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: he said to Judah, let's build these cities and make
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: walls around them with towers, gates bars. The land is
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: yet before us, because we have sought Yahweh, our God.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: We have sought him, and he has given us rest
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: on every side. So they built and prospered. Asa had
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: an army of three hundred thousand out of Judah, who
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: bore bucklers and spears, and two hundred eighty thousand out
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: of Benjamin, who bore shields and drew bows. All these
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: were mighty men of valor Zara. The Ethiopian came out
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: against them with an army of a million troops and
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: three hundred chariots, and he came to Merisha. Then Aesa
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: went out to meet him, and they set the battle
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: in array in the valley of Zephythah. At Merisha, Asa
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: cried to Yahweh, his God, and said, Yahweh, there is
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: no one beside you to help, between the mighty and
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: him who has no strength, help us, Yahweh, our God,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: for we rely on you, and in your name we
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: are come against this multitude. Yahweh, you are our God.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Don't let man prevail against you. So Yahweh struck the
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Ethiopians before Aesa and before Judah, and the Ethiopians fled.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Asa and the people who are with him pursued them
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: to Jarar. So many of the Ethiopians fell. They could
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: not recover themselves, for they were destroyed before Yahweh and
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: before his army. Judah's army carried away very much booty.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: They struck all the cities around Jurar, for the fear
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: of Yahweh came on them. They plundered all the cities,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: for there as much plunder in them. They also struck
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: the tents of those who had livestock and carried away
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: sheep and camels in abundance, then returned to Jerusalem. Asa
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: is one of my favorite kings in Israel's history. I
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: just think he's a really interesting guy. He's one of
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: those kings that starts out really good, but then you know,
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: over time kind of falls away from Yahweh a little bit,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: not so much so as some of the other kings,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: but you know, Asa was a human being. He had
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: his problems, obviously, but he started out as a great king.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: And he was the son of a Bijah. Remember we
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: talked about Abijah earlier this week, and Bijah was a
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: weird die, like real weird. He was another king that
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: kind of started out okay, but he only reigned for
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: three years because he was not a very good king,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: and so God didn't bless Abijah's reign. But the one
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: really nasty thing we talked about on Monday is the
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: fact that Abijah's mother is also listed as the mother
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: of Asa. Okay, so that's just gross, Like what, I
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: don't know what happened there. I don't know if there
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: was some sort of incest, going on because Maka, who
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: was Abijah's mother, wanted to keep the throne for herself
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: because queen mother was a very important role, very powerful
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: role in Israel. So I have no clue what happened there,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: But yeah, Maka was both the mother of Abijah and
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: also the mother of Asa. That's talked about in First
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Kings fifteen. And we know that Maka was not a
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: good woman because she was an idolatrous. She was part
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: of the cult of the Asherah, which was a sex
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: cult by the way, So let's read First Kings fifteen
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: nine through fifteen. It says in the twentieth year of
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Jereboam king of Israel, Asa began to reign over Judah.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: He reigned forty one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: was Maka, the daughter of a Bishalam. Asa did that
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: which was right in Yawi's eyes, as David his father did.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: He put away the Sodomites out of the land and
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: removed all the idols that his father had made. He
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: also removed Maka, his mother, from being queen because she
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: had made an abominable image for an Asherah. Asa cut
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: down her image and burned it at the Brook Kidron.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: So yeah, that shows a little bit more about ASA's
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: mother and father. You know, they were idolators. They introduced
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: these foreign gods into Israel and were worshiping them, and
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: specifically Maka was part of the Ashera sex cult. But Asa,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: who was a Yahweh follower, knew these things were wrong.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: So after Abaijah, his dad died, Asa took the throne
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: and immediately starts this reform in Israel. He's like, no,
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: we're not going to worship these false idols that my
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: dad and mom, who's also my grandmother brought into this land.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: We are going to get rid of them and we
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: are going to worship Yahweh. And that's what it says
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: in our passage for today, Second Chronicles fourteen, verse two.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: Asa did that which was good and right in Yahweh,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: his God's eyes. For he took away the foreign altars
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: and high places, broke down the pillars, cut down the
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Asherah poles, and commanded Judah to seek Yahweh, the God
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: of their fathers, and to obey his law and command. Also,
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: he took away out of the cities of Judah the
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: high places and the sun images, and the kingdom was
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: quiet before him. So because of this reform that Asa
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: was doing, God ends up blessing ASA's reign. He reigned
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: for a very long time, and also God gave him rest,
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: it says for ten years, because Asa was seeking Yahweh
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: and encouraging Israel to seek Yahweh as well. But notice
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: something here. It says in verse three that he took
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: away the foreign altars and the high places. In fact,
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: twice in this little passage it mentions that he took
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: away the high places in verse three and also in
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: verse five. But if you go back to First Kings fifteen,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: it actually says that Asa did not remove the high places.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: Here's what this says. One Kings fifteen fourteen, Asa cut
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: down her image and burned it at the brook Kidron,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: but the high places were not taken away. And then
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: again in Second Chronicles fifteen, verse seventeen, it says the
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: high places were not taken away out of Israel. Nevertheless,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: the heart of Asa was perfect all his days. So
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: what is happening here? Because in Second Chronicles fourteen it
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: says that the high places were taken away, but then
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: in Second Chronicles fifteen and First Kings fifteen it says
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: they weren't taken away under King Asa. So how do
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: we remedy these two things. Well, there's two possibilities. The
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: first possibility is that Asa removed certain high places because
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: we know that there are two types of high places.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: The first type of high place was for the foreign idols.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: You know, on the hilltops. People would build these monuments
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: to foreign gods and worship at these high places. Essentially,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: it could be that Asa went and destroyed all of those,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: every single monument or high place he found that was
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: dedicated to Astrara or to Bail or anything else. Asa
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: removed those high places, but he left the high places
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: that were dedicated to Yahweh because we know that there
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: were high places for that as well. There were altars
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: that people would go to to worship Yahweh. But God
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: didn't even like those high places, the ones that were
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: dedicated to him, because they were mimicking the way that
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: pagan nations would worship. You know, the pagan nations would
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: build their monuments on top of hills and under green trees.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: And God specifically told his people here is how I
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: want worship done. You know, if you're gonna worship me,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: worship me the way I want. Don't imitate or mimic
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: these other nations, but worship me truly as an example
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: to all of these other nations as to how worship
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: is really supposed to be done. You know, God always
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: wanted his people to shine a light. He didn't want
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: them to imitate the world. He wanted them to be
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: a light to the dark world. So God didn't even
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: like the high places that were specifically dedicated to him,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: but Asa thought those ones were okay and possibly left them,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: which is why it says in Second Chronicles fifteen and
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: First Kings fifteen that the high places were not taken away,
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: but yet ASA's heart remained loyal to God all of
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: his days. So maybe Asa had a misunderstanding of what
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: those high places actually were. So that's the first possibility,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: is that he removed the idolatrous high places, but then
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: left the high places for Yahweh. But the second possibility
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: is that Asa removed all the high places, including the
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: ones for Yahweh, but the people with their idolatry constantly
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: kept rebuilding them, and towards the end of ASA's life,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: he kind of started getting hands off with it and
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: didn't fight the people anymore and was just like, fine,
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: you know, whatever, you guys want the high places, then
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: you can have the high places. And it could be
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: that Asa compromised a little bit with his people, but
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: his own personal relationship with God remained steadfast, and he
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: never worshiped any other idols all of his days. It
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: actually says in Second Chronicles fifteen that the heart of
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Asa was perfect all his days. Now we know that
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: that does not mean that Aso was sinless. Right, whenever
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: scripture talks about somebody having a perfect heart, that is
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: not talking about them never sinning. That means that their
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: heart is for Yahweh. They are worshiping Yahweh without worshiping
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: other idols. Which is why it says that Solomon's heart
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: was not perfect with Yahweh all of his days. You know,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: Solomon loved Yahweh. You talked about his life. He would
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: go to the temple two times a day very religiously,
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: and you know, sacrifice these sacrifices to God. And he
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: would celebrate all of the Jewish holidays and feasts very religiously.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: But yet his wives turned his heart away from God.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: And so while doing all of this worship to Yahweh,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: he starts burning incense to these other foreign gods. His
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: heart was not perfect with Yahweh. It was led astray.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: But Asa, his heart was perfect with Yahweh. All of
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: his days, he only ever worshiped Yahweh, and that was it.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: So Asa was a good king. He was one of
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: the best kings that Israel had since the days of David,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: and God ended up blessing his reign completely. It says
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: right here in verse six. The kingdom was quiet before him,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: so he built fortified cities in Judah, for the land
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: was quiet, and he had no war in those years
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: because Yahweh had given him rep So he said to Judah,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: let's build these cities and make walls around them with towers,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: gates and bars. This land is yet before us because
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: we have sought Yahweh, our God. We have sought him,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: and he has given us rest on every side. So
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: they built and prospered. So even Asa recognized that God
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: was blessing him, that God was blessing Judah because Judah's
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: heart was starting to turn a little bit more towards
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: Yahweh once again. And the king has a lot to
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: do with that, obviously, as to whether or not Israel
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: is going to worship God or worship some other idol.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: Even though it's very possible that the people of Judah
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: did not really turn their hearts back to Yahweh, because
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: it kind of says that in the Book of Jeremiah
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: that God was irritated with Judah since it's a foundation,
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: because the people's hearts were always led astray from Him
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: no matter what, even if there were good kings, the
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: people never changed their minds. So yes, it very well
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: could be that Asa was the one leading this, but
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: the people weren't really following. And yet in spite of that,
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: God's mercy was toward Asa because of ASA's religious reform. Essentially,
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: so Israel was being built up and prospered. And this
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: is where ASA starts to build fortified walls around all
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: of these cities, which would have helped Israel survive any
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: incoming attacks. In verse eight, it said that Asa had
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: an army of three hundred thousand out of Judah, who
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: bore bucklers and spears, and two hundred and eighty thousand
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: out of Benjamin, who bore shields and drew bows. All
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: these were mighty men of valor. So Asa had approximately
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: five hundred thousand warriors in his army. You know, that's
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: a decent sized army, but it's not that big compared
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: to the Ethiopian army that tries to take Israel. In
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: just the next verse, Zara the Ethiopian came out against
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: them with an army of a million troops and three
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: hundred chariots, and he came to Marisha. So at this
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: point in history, the Ethiopians are gaining a lot of power.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: They're also called the Kushites sometimes you'll see that in scripture,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: depending on the version that you read. Well, the Ethiopians
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: are gaining a lot of power, specifically in Egypt, and
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: they were kind of on a conquest. It said that
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: they had a million troops and three hundred chariots, and
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: they decide to set their sights on Judah. They're like,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: that's a good place to go. You know, this weak
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: little country with only five hundred thousand men. We are
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: going to take that country. So this guy Zara comes
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: up against Judah for no reason other than to take
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: that land for himself. And so Asa goes out to war.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: And by the way, this would have been after the
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: ten years of peace. Asa goes out to war, and
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: he sets the battle in array in the valley of
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: Zephytha at Marisha. Asa is terrified and so in verse eleven,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: it says that Asa cried to Yahweh, his God, and said, Yahweh,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: there is no one besides you to help, between the
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: mighty and him who has no strength, help us, Yahweh,
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: Our God, for we rely on you, and in your name,
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: we are come against this multitude. Yahweh, you are our God.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: Don't let man prevail against you. And I love that prayer.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: I think it's an absolutely gorgeous prayer. It's a prayer
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: of humility. You know, Asa knows that under ordinary circumstances,
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: he is not going to win this battle. A million
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: troops versus five hundred thousand troops. You know you're not
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: gonna win that battle. So Asa cries out to God.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: He cries out to Yahweh because that is who he
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: always worshiped, and he says, there is no one who
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: can help me except for you. You help the mighty man,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: and you help the person who has no strength. So
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: help us, Yahweh, our God, We rely on you. Man.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: I love that. I love that prayer. We are come
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: against this multitude in your name. It's also a prayer
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: of faith, you know, it's not just a prayer of humility.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: But Asa is truly relying on God here. He knows
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: that in ordinary circumstances, this is a death sentence for
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: him and his men, especially considering the fact that the
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: Ethiopian army was very powerful at this time. This was
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: a death sentence he was going into. So he cries
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: out to God in faith, trusting in God to help
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: him in spite of the odds against him. And God
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: listens to ASA's prayer. It says, Yahweh struck the Ethiopians
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: before Asa and before Judah, and the Ethiopians fled, and
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: we have no clue how God did this. You know,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: sometimes scripture explains how God helps in battle, you know,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: for example, like God will confuse people and they'll start like,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: you know, killing each other, or he'll send some sort
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: of like natural disaster. But in this case, it does
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: not say how God struck these Ethiopians. He could have
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: actually used the army of the Judites. He could have,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: you know, given them the strength of ten men each
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: individual person. We don't know how he struck the Ethiopians,
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: but it says, the Ethiopians were terrified and they fled,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: and so Asa and all the people who are with
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: him pursued them to Jurrar. So many Ethiopians fell that
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: they could not recover themselves. They were destroyed before Yahweh
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: and before his army. So notice that it mentions that
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: this army of ASA's was actually Yahweh's army. I really
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: enjoy that. You know, God is all powerful and he
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: can do whatever he wants to do. And yet because
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: God is so humble, he often lets people share in
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: the glory of what he does. God was truly the
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: one protecting his people, and yet his people were able
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: to share in that glory. And that's what He does
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: for you and I as well. You know, he uses
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: us to do things for him, exciting things for him.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: He does that all the time. And so God's army,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: the Judites carries away, it says, much booty. So they
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: were able to go and essentially loot the Ethiopians because
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: they were just falling down dead all around them from
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: whatever God was doing. And so the Judites also struck
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: the cities around Jarar, for the fear of Yahweh came
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: on them. So it sounds like the people in the
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: cities of Jurar actually like fled. You know, they saw
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: the Israelites and they ran for their lives. And so
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: the Israelites were able to essentially go into these cities
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: and actually take the plunder from these cities. So not
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: only did the Ethiopians completely lose this battle, they lost tremendously.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: They even lost cities because the Judites go in, they
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: plunder all the cities because there's much plunder in them.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: They also struck the tents of those who had livestock
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: and carried away sheep and camels in abundance, and then
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: returned to Jerusalem. And if anybody is listening to this,
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: being like, oh man, you know the Israelites they should
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: have stopped before striking all of these homes and all
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: of these tents. Well, I say to that the Ethiopians
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: shouldn't have instigated this fight to begin with. You know,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: the Ethiopians started it. They're the ones that went to
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: battle against Judah in the first place. So in my mind,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: Asa and his army were just finishing what the Ethiopians
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: had started. Asa was not being mean by protecting his
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: people and you know, taking advantage of the victory that
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: God gave Israel ASO is not being mean during all
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: of this. In fact, I did a YouTube video on
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: this a couple years ago that people were really really
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: mad about. I talked about God's kill count and how
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: you know, people will use that to be like, oh,
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: God is so mean. You know, He's struck on a
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: million Ethiopians or something like that, and so I talked
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: about all of that on the YouTube video and I
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: essentially showed how each individual, you know, quote unquote kill
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: count of God is actually just a really stupid argument
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: and God always had a reason for his judgment on people.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: He is not a cruel God. He is not a
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: mean God that just strikes people dead all the time,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: even though that's what you might hear from the world,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: because the world doesn't understand who God is, and they
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: certainly don't read the Old Testament, they don't read the
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: Bible and see for themselves that God is very very
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: kind to people. You know, I was just reading Jeremiah
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: in my personal reading, and God actually called the tribe
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: of the Ammonites a daughter in Jeremiah what was it,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: I think forty eight or something. It was really striking
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: to me, you know, because the Amonites were constantly fighting
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: against the Israelites pretty much for their entire existence, and
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: yet God recognized other nations as being his creation, his people.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: So God is very kind to everybody. He doesn't play
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: any favorites ever, and so when we read stories like this,
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: it's really important to understand the context as to why
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: God struck down all of these Ethiopians. There was a
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: reason for it. It was to protect Israel, who is
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: completely innocent in all of this. All right, guys, before
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: I end the podcast, here's a quick word from our sponsor. Well,
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: faithful listeners, if you have any questions about scripture or
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: you have a prayer request, please send it my way.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: You will find my email address listed in the description
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: of this episode. And I love hearing from all of you, guys,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: and I do try to get back to you. I
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: am kind of not caught up on my emails, so
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: some of you have reached out and I haven't gotten
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: back to you yet, so forgive me for that. I
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: will try to get to all of my emails by
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: the end of this week. But faithful listeners, have a
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: fantastic and wonderful the rest of your day. I will
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: see all of you guys tomorrow for an episode from
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: one Timothy, Happy Listening and God bless. I just want
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: to take a second to thank the team at Life
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: Audio for their partnership with me on the Bible Explain podcast.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: In fact, if you go to lifeaudio dot com you
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: will find dozens of other faith centered podcasts in their network.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: They've got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.