2 Chronicles 14 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36
 
Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord

2 Chronicles 14:1 So Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David: and Asa his son reigned in his stead. In his days the land was quiet ten years.

• Asa means physician, or cure
• Son of Abijah and third king of Judah. (B.C. 956-916.)
• His long reign of 41 years was peaceful in its earlier portion, and he undertook the reformation of all abuses, especially of idolatry.
• He burnt the symbol of his grandmother Maachah's religion and deposed her from the dignity of "king's mother," and renewed the great altar which the idolatrous priests apparently had desecrated.
• Besides this he fortified cities on his frontiers, and raised an army, amounting, according to 580,000 men, a number probably exaggerated by an error of the copyist.
• During Asa's reign, Zerah, at the head of an enormous host, attacked Mareshah.
• There he was utterly defeated, and driven back with immense loss to Gerar.
• The peace which followed this victory was broken by the attempt of Baasha of Israel to fortify Ramah.
• To stop this Asa purchased the help of Benhadad I. king of Damascus, by a large payment of treasure, forced Baasha to abandon his purpose, and destroyed the works which he had begun at Ramah.
•  In his old age Asa suffered from gout, He died, greatly loved and honored, in the 41st year of his reign.
• Ancestor of Berechiah a Levite who resided in one of the villages of the Netophathites after the return from Babylon.

2 And Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God:

3 For he took away the altars of the strange gods, and the high places, and brake down the images, and cut down the groves:

4 And commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandment.

5 Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the images: and the kingdom was quiet before him.

6 And he built fenced cities in Judah: for the land had rest, and he had no war in those years; because the Lord had given him rest.

7 Therefore he said unto Judah, Let us build these cities, and make about them walls, and towers, gates, and bars, while the land is yet before us; because we have sought the Lord our God, we have sought him, and he hath given us rest on every side. So they built and prospered.

8 And Asa had an army of men that bare targets and spears, out of Judah three hundred thousand; and out of Benjamin, that bare shields and drew bows, two hundred and fourscore thousand: all these were mighty men of valour.

9 And there came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian with an host of a thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots; and came unto Mareshah.

10 Then Asa went out against him, and they set the battle in array in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah.

11 And Asa cried unto the Lord his God, and said, Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O Lord our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude. O Lord, thou art our God; let not man prevail against thee.

12 So the Lord smote the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah; and the Ethiopians fled.

13 And Asa and the people that were with him pursued them unto Gerar: and the Ethiopians were overthrown, that they could not recover themselves; for they were destroyed before the Lord, and before his host; and they carried away very much spoil.

14 And they smote all the cities round about Gerar; for the fear of the Lord came upon them: and they spoiled all the cities; for there was exceeding much spoil in them.

15 They smote also the tents of cattle, and carried away sheep and camels in abundance, and returned to Jerusalem.

 

• Exactly 2520 years from the exile of Benjamin, Iceland became an independent nation.

 

•  The first tribe to be conquered by the Assyrians was Manasseh, in 745 B.C. Exactly 2520 years later America became a nation on July 4, 1776.

 

• Study the book: Abrahamic Covenant, (A study outline of the identity of God's people) By E. Raymond Capt - page 25