Tue, 13 December, 2005: Today’s Bible readings.

2 Chronicles 14:9-15

⁹ Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million men and 300 chariots, and came as far as Mareshah. ¹⁰ And Asa went out to meet him, and they drew up their lines of battle in the Valley of Zephathah at Mareshah. ¹¹ And Asa cried to the LORD his God, “O LORD, there is none like you to help, between the mighty and the weak. Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this multitude. O LORD, you are our God; let not man prevail against you.” ¹² So the LORD defeated the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah, and the Ethiopians fled. ¹³ Asa and the people who were with him pursued them as far as Gerar, and the Ethiopians fell until none remained alive, for they were broken before the LORD and his army. The men of Judah carried away very much spoil. ¹⁴ And they attacked all the cities around Gerar, for the fear of the LORD was upon them. They plundered all the cities, for there was much plunder in them. ¹⁵ And they struck down the tents of those who had livestock and carried away sheep in abundance and camels. Then they returned to Jerusalem.

In chapter 14 of 2 Chronicles, the Chronicler tells us of good king Asa, and how God blessed him as he sought to be pleasing to God. But as we often see in the scriptures, God’s blessing doesn’t mean an exemption from suffering, and so we see the Ethiopian’s come against Judah with a million man army.

What do we learn from this?

Asa realizes that he is no match for the army that is coming against his nation. He realizes that he can’t fight them and expect to win in his own strength. And so Asa throws himself upon the mercy of God. After committing himself to God’s mercy, he then procedes to do everything he can, and Asa leads his greatly outnumbered army out to war. God honors Asa and grants him a surprising victory over the enemy.

We are commanded to commit ourselves into God’s care. That is what Asa did. He saw the futility of the battle in his own strength, and so he entrusted himself to God. We need to seek God in our daily activities, especially when we run into times of great difficulty. Our hardships should drive us to God, and to seek His mercy upon our lives. He might not give us exactly what we ask, but He has promised to grant peace to His people in their difficulties as they bring them to Him in faith.

Where is Christ in this passage?

As we consider Asa in his hopeless situation, facing an overwhelming army and realizing that he doesn’t have the resources to withstand it, we realize there are parallels to what we face as Christians. Not to overly spiritualize it, but we all face an insurmountable opponent in sin and death. We have all sinned and we all face God’s punishment in our lives. We can’t do anything about it in our own strength. But God has provided Jesus Christ as our substitute, and as we come to Him in faith, trusting in Jesus Christ, His provision for paying the penalty of our sin, we are met by God’s mercy and are saved from our own sin by God’s power.

But the salvation we find in Jesus Christ is only found as we come to Him in faith, trusting in what He has done for us.