As I was reading about king Asa in the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of 2 Chronicles, I started to see many similarities between his life and the life of the our nation. We aren’t going to do an extensive study on these three chapters, so I would just ask you to read them for yourself. You will find that Asa was a king that started off tremendously well. “He removed the foreign altars and the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles.” (2 Chronicles 14:3) He also built up the towns in Judah, urged the people to worship the true God, and prepared his army to protect the nation of Judah. He was a good king.
You’ll see in verse nine that Zerah the Cushite wanted to start some trouble with Judah. Then, in verse eleven, you’ll see that Asa was a king that relied solely on the Lord. And in verses twelve through fifteen you’ll see that the Lord delivered Asa. 2 Chronicles 15:2 says, “The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.” We need to forever remember, that the Lord will be with us as long as we are with him. But, we should also remember that as soon as we forsake him, he will forsake us. Deuteronomy 31:6 is a verse you see all over the place, which says, “the Lord will never leave you nor forsake you.” The sad thing is that it’s been taken out of context. Later in that same chapter, you read that the Lord will, indeed, forsake you if you forsake him (Dt. 31:17). You see that repeated again right here. The important thing is, that you won’t have to worry about it as long as you don’t forsake the Lord.
We see this principle very clearly as we study the life of king Asa. For, he was a king that started off trusting in the Lord, and the Lord delivered him. But, as time went on, Asa started to make, seemingly, small compromises. He began to put his trust in others. Therefore, God forsook him. And, just as Asa started off on the right track, so did America, but she is now barreling down the path leading toward destruction. How has this happened?
Alexis De Toqueville said this about America: “I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there. In the fertile fields and boundless prairies, and it was not there. In her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits, aflame with righteousness, did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”
We recently celebrated Independence Day. A day where we celebrate our Independence from the oppressive British Monarchy. In our government schools, we are taught that the main reason for the Revolution was taxation without representation. However, we are never taught the origination of that phrase. The truth is, it comes from a sermon delivered by the Reverend Johathan Mayhew in the city of Boston in 1750. Why are we not taught this? Because, as a nation, we have turned our backs on Almighty God. Our leaders do not want us to know that this nation was founded on the Word of God. They don’t want us to know that all of the ideas in the Declaration were taken from sermons that the founders had heard over the past fifty or so years.
You’ll find in chapter sixteen of 2 Chronicles that Asa also turned his back on God. Even though God had delivered him from a massive army in chapter fifteen, he now bribed the pagan king, Ben-Hadad, to take care of his enemy, Baasha king of Israel. He had forsaken the Lord, and now the Lord would forsake him. In America, we have forsaken the Lord, and he is now forsaking us.
In our early years, when we relied on the Lord, he delivered us over and over. Now, as we have become so clever as to believe that our greatness comes from ourselves, he has begun to forsake us. He is draining our wealth, turning us over to our enemies, and slapping us in the face with one natural disaster after another. He is allowing the sin, which we celebrate, to rule over us.
I wonder what De Toqueville would say if he were to take a look at America today. If he were to seek for greatness, he certainly would not find the trace of it. Even our leaders have openly confessed that America is no longer great. And why is this? Because, as a fulfillment to De Toqueville’s statement, we have ceased to be good. We have forsaken the law and praised the wicked. We have called good evil and evil good. But, if we are to seek the root cause of all of this, we need not point our fingers at the governmental leaders. If we ask ourselves why we are no longer good, we will find the root of this decay behind the pulpits of this land. Because our pulpits are no longer aflame with righteousness, we, as a nation, are no longer good. Therefore, we are no longer great. The pitiful state of our nation is due to the pitiful state of our pulpits.
Just as the compromises of Asa led to his downfall, so have the compromises of the church led to the downfall of this nation. And, just as Asa began to persecute the prophets and oppress the people (2 Chronicles 16:10), you are now seeing, in the United States of America, the same thing. The land of the free and the home of the brave is quickly becoming a meaningless phrase. This same nation, that was once a shining city set upon a hill, is quickly becoming a lonely flagstaff on a mountaintop, a banner on a hill. And, just as we have seen in 2 Chronicles, God’s judgment will continue to be poured out on us until we get to the point that we have no where else to go.
So, is there an answer to this madness? How can we stop America from barreling down the track toward her destruction. Maybe we could continue to put our trust in big government or in the Republican Party. Hey, I know what. We just need to get some true conservatives in office (whatever that means). Yeah! That will fix it! Conservatism fixes everything! Hmmm…book, chapter and verse, please.
No, the answer to our problem will only come when we realize who and what our problem is. Our problem is God! Why? Because we have forsaken him.
God sent the prophet Isaiah to the nation of Judah to deal with the same thing. They were a nation that had turned their backs on God. Therefore, God sent his judgment against them, in hopes that they would repent and, once again, trust in him. However, instead of dealing with their sin, they too turned to political saviors and alliances. Listen to what Isaiah had to say about this:
“This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’ Therefore you will flee! You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’Therefore your pursuers will be swift! A thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you will all flee away, till you are left like a flagstaff on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill.” (Isaiah 30:15-16)
I would highly recommend that you read the entire chapter of Isaiah chapter thirty. God has a message for us. The question is, “Are we willing to listen?” Or, are we going to be like king Asa when he was confronted with his sin in 2 Chronicles 16:7-9? How did he respond? “Asa was angry with the seer because of this; he was so enraged that he put him in prison. At the same time Asa brutally oppressed some of the people.” (2 Chronicles 16:10) Is that going to be our response? It certainly seems so.
For His Glory,
Adam Tennant
Posted by akatennant 
IF MY PEOPLE... 