>> Jen: Good morning, faithful listeners. I hope you all had a fantastic weekend. Today we're going to be talking about fear and how to overcome it. And also a king that struggled with fear in his life. All right, faithful listeners, if you have a prayer request, always feel free to reach out to me. You'll find my email listed in the description of this episode.
You can contact me and tell me any prayer request that you have, or you can just reach out and tell me how you found the podcast and, uh, where you live, what the weather is like. I really do love hearing from you guys and I do read all my emails. So please don't hesitate to reach out if you would like
to. But today we're going to be reading First Kings, chapter 15, which talks about King Asa and his life and how he was a king fully dedicated to Yahweh, like his heart was committed to Yahweh, but he struggled with fear and lost trust in Yahweh later on in his life. But yet scripture claims that all the days of his life he was committed to
Yahweh. So that begs the question, how can you be both committed to Yahweh all the days of your life, but also struggle with fear and lack of trust in Yahweh as well? So we will definitely talk about that today. Make sure to grab your Bible and the version that you prefer and also your cup of coffee or your cup of tea this morning. I've got cranberry apple tea with me today. It's very festive. But grab your favorite cup of tea or coffee and let's go ahead and read 1 Kings 15, 9,
24. I'll be reading from the web. In the 20th year of Jeroboam, the king of Israel, Asa began to reign over Judah. He reigned 41 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Maacah, the daughter of Abishalam. Asa did that which was right in Yahweh's eyes, as David, his father, did. He put away the sodomites out of the land and removed all the idols that his fathers had made. He also removed Maacah, his mother, from being queen because she had made an abominable image
for an Asherah. Asa cut down her image and burned it at the brook Kidron. But the high places were not taken away. Nevertheless, the heart of Asa was perfect with Yahweh. All his days, he brought into Yahweh's house the things that his father had dedicated and the things that he himself had dedicated. Silver, gold and utensils. There was War between Asa and Baasha, king of Israel. All their days.
Baasha, the king of Israel, went up against Judah and built Ramah that he might not allow anyone to go out or come in to Asa, king of Judah. Then Asa took all the silver and the gold that was left in the treasuries of Yahweh's house and the treasuries of the king's house and delivered it into the hand of his servants. Then King Asa sent them to Ben Hadad, the son of Tebreman, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, who lived at Damascus, saying, there is a treaty between me and you, between my
father and your father. Behold, I have sent to you a present of silver and gold. Go and break your treaty with Baasha, king of Israel, that he may depart from me. Ben Hadad listened to King Asa and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel and struck aijin and Dan and Abel, Beth Maacah and all of Chinnereth, with all the land of Naphtali. When Baasha heard of it, he stopped building Ramah and lived in Tirzah. Then King Asa made a proclamation to all Judah. No
one was exempted. They carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber with which Baasha had built, and King Asa used it to build Geba of Benjamin and Mizpah. Now, the rest of the Acts of Asa and all his might and all that he did and the cities which he built, aren't they written in the book of the Chronicles of the king of Judah? But in the time of his old age, he was diseased in his feet. Asa slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in his father
David's city. And Jehoshaphat, his son, reigned in his place. So I was reading through First Kings to get a good glimpse of what the rest of the book is about. And I've read through the Kings before. I love the Kings. I've read through them multiple times, actually. But when I was comparing the Kings to the Chronicles this time around, I did notice something that I never noticed before. The Kings are going to focus a lot more on Israel rather than Judah, especially from here on
out. And because Asa was more of a major king in, uh, Judah's history, he does get quite a big mention in 1 Kings. But if you look at his story in 2 Chronicles, he has three chapters dedicated to his life. So he gets a much larger mention in the book of 2 Chronicles than he does here in 1 Kings 15. But I'm going to try to mesh the two together to give you a full picture of who Asa really
was. So as we talked briefly about last Wednesday, Asa's father was Abijam and he was a weirdo and kind of a creep and did not, uh, do what God, uh wanted him to do. In fact, he was only the king for three years. There's also some weird thing going on potentially with Asa's mom. His mom could have also been his grandmother. So we're not really sure what's going on there because it mentions at the very beginning of 1 Kings 15 that Abijam, who was Asa's father, Abijam's
mother's name was Maacah, the daughter of Abishalam. Then when you move down to Asa, it says Asa's mother's name was Maacah, the daughter of Abishalam. A lot of translations will translate it to his grandmother, but if you look at the Hebrew word for mother used there, which is im, the word IM almost consistently
means mother. So it could be that there was some strange inbreeding going on, like we talked about on Wednesday, or it could just mean that Asa was potentially raised by his grandmother and called her his mother because Asa's real mother had died or something. We don't know. Regardless, Asa's mother, Maacah was not a nice woman. She was partaking in idol worship the same way that all of Judah was doing. And Asa, because he really had a heart for Yahweh, which
is mentioned here in verse 14. It says the heart of Asa was perfect with Yahweh all his days. And that word perfect here in Hebrew could be translated as something like committed. So his heart was committed to Yahweh all his days. And Asa is the first king mentioned that has a committed heart to Yahweh other than David. So Asa is the first good king to come along since David so many years before him. It mentions that Asa did that, which is right in Yahweh's eyes, as David,
his father, did. And so the first things that Asa does when he becomes the next king, it says he puts away the sodomites out of the land. And this would have been the sodomite cult that was going on in Judah at the time. There were places of worship where men and women could go to get male and female prostitutes. And Judah was sinning by partaking in these fertility, um, rituals and cults that were going on. And so Asa, whose heart is for Yahweh, immediately gets rid of all that stuff.
In fact, not only did he get rid of all that stuff. He completely tore down all of the altars and even outlawed all of this stuff, which I think is mentioned in Second Chronicles. He removed all the idols that his fathers had made. And in Second Chronicles, it mentions that he got rid of the altars on the high places and also the incense areas in the high places as well. So basically, Asa removed pretty much everything associated
with idol worship. And he also removed, in verse 13, his mother, Maacah from being the Queen Mother, because she made an abominable image for an Asherah. Once again, if you go back to the Greek, the word abominable image translated as something grotesque. And we know that the Asherah cult was a fertility cult, so there was a lot of sex involved in it. And whenever you see an Asherah pole being mentioned in scripture, it's usually something phallic.
And so most likely Maacah, his mother or grandmother, made a grotesque phallic image that people could go worship Asherah at. And Asa immediately destroys this image. It says he cut down her image and burned it at the Brook Kidron. Now the Brook Kidron. It's really interesting how often this brook pops up in the Old Testament and also in the New Testament. In fact, it was the brook that Jesus had to pass over in the Book of John to get to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray and then be
crucified by the people. So the Brook Kidron has some symbolism associated with it as the place where just darkness and death happens. In fact, Kidron itself means darkness. So Asa cuts down this image that Maacah, his mother, had made, and he also deposes her as being the Queen Mother. So he removes her position from her. And that's the thing, you know, Asa showed some great boldness here by doing this because he went against the grain. He probably made a lot of
people very angry. And he didn't even show favoritism or nepotism to his own mother because she was against Yahweh. Asa's heart truly was committed to Yahweh in the fact that he put Yahweh above his own mother. And that's actually what Jesus says to do. Luke 14:26 is Jesus speaking. And out, uh, of the NLT. It says, if you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else. Your father, your mother, wife and children, brothers and
sisters, yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. So, uh, our love for Jesus should be overtaking everything else in our lives. And King Asa demonstrated that love. He had For Yahweh very clearly in the fact that he didn't even allow his own mother to come above Yahweh, and she was sinning. So he took the powerful position of queen mother away from her. It does mention here in verse 14 that he did leave the high places. It says, but the high places were
not taken away. We do know that there were two types of high places mentioned in scripture. Some high places were specifically meant for idol worship, and other high places were places where people would go to worship Yahweh more conveniently. And God, uh didn't like either of them. He was never a fan of any high places, even if those high places, some of them were dedicated to him. In fact, even Samuel, okay, the great prophet Samuel, he even worshiped
at the high places it mentions. But God, uh never appreciated any high places whatsoever because God, uh wanted people to go to one location to worship him. And at this point in time, it happened to be the temple in Jerusalem. That was the place where God, uh had chosen. And you might wonder, well, why, Why m did God, uh want one central location back in these days? Well, if people go off and start worshiping at more convenient place for them, then they're going to start doing other things out
of convenience. And in order to not snowball that it would be much better for people to come to one central location where the priests were, where the altar was, where the ark of the covenant was, and everything be done there so that the people don't have the chance to fall away into potential temptation of worshiping God, uh more conveniently and then also potentially worshiping other idols as well as that continues to snowball even further. Because think about what, um, Jeroboam did up in
Israel at this time. He was making a religion of convenience. He didn't want the people to go down to Judah, uh, and to Jerusalem to worship God, uh there because he was concerned about, um, losing power. So he made a convenient religion that the people could just easily do. The people of Israel absolutely loved this new convenient way to worship in their own, uh, particular way. So that's why God, uh desired a
central location for the people to go to. Less convenient, but the proper way to worship Yahweh. But that being said, I kind of went off on a rabbit trail there. That being said, there were two types of high places. Some dedicated to Yahweh God, uh, others dedicated to idols. It looks like asa removed the high places dedicated to idols, but did not remove the high places dedicated to Yahweh, even though Yahweh did not like those
high Places either. Asa, uh, possibly thought that it was okay to keep the high places up that were dedicated to Yahweh. It says in verse 14, though. But the high places were not taken away. Nevertheless, the heart of Asa was perfect. With Yahweh all his days, he brought into Yahweh's house the things that his father had dedicated and the things that he himself had dedicated. Silver, gold, and utensils.
So not only did Asa have a good heart towards Yahweh and proved it very early on in his king career, he also tithed to Yahweh and brought in gold, silver utensils to the house of Yahweh to build it back up. Because you'll remember that only a couple decades prior to Asa, the Pharaoh of Egypt actually went into Jerusalem and totally ransacked the temple, took everything out of it. The gold, the silver,
everything. So Asa did his part in providing more beautiful things to the temple of Yahweh to build it back up to its former glory. It also mentions that he brings the stuff that his father had dedicated. And that's interesting to me that, um, Asa's father, Abijam, never brought his tithe to the temple in the whole three years that he was the king. So that kind of shows where Abijam's heart was. He kept sitting on these gifts he was supposed to be giving to the temple to God, uh. But now
Asa finally brings everything. He brings everything his father had said he would. And then also Asa himself brought some gifts as well. But here's the thing. Asa's life was not without serious hardship. If you read through Second Chronicles, he had many, many problems. Really scary and deep problems. Lots of war, lots of issues. At one point in time, the entire Ethiopian army was up against him. I believe it was 2 million soldiers to Judah's like, uh, 88,000 or
something. I can't remember the exact numbers, but Asa had some serious issues going on. So a life dedicated to Yahweh does not mean free from issues. Verse 16. There was war between Asa and Baasha, the king of Israel, all their days. This is the first time Baasha, the king of Israel is mentioned. Up until now, Jeroboam has still been the king of Israel, but
now it mentions that Baasha is the king of Israel. I'm not going to go into Baasha's story right this second because we're going to talk about Baasha quite a bit because he's a weirdo. And, uh, there's a lot of problems going on in Israel at this time. But just know that Baasha now is the current king of Israel because Jeroboam had died. And then Jeroboam's son, who was supposed to take over, there were some problems there. Baasha became the king. And so now Asa is having issues with
Baasha. It mentions Baasha, the king of Israel went up against Judah, and Baasha built Ramah that he might not allow anyone to go out or to come in to Asa, king of Judah. So Baasha was really laying it on heavy to Judah. He was fighting against them. And on top of that, he wasn't allowing any trade whatsoever between Israel and Judah, and he also wasn't letting anybody from Israel go down to Judah to worship Yahweh. So everybody in Israel was stuck in Israel. Sort of reminds me of the
Berlin wall. But in 2 Chronicles and also in Jeremiah 41, shockingly enough, it mentions Asa's fear. In fact, I'm going to read Jeremiah 41:9 that briefly, briefly talks about Asa building a pit, uh, to ward off Bashan out of fear of him. And there's no need to know the context of this story. I'm purely reading this for the part that mentions asa. Okay.
Jeremiah 41:9. Now, the pit in which Ishmael cast all the dead bodies of the men whom he had killed by the sight of Gedalia, this was that which Asa the king had made for fear of Baasha the king of Israel. So that clearly mentions that Asa was afraid of King Baasha. And reading through second Chronicles, you'll also notice many times where it says Asa was afraid of King Baasha. So Asa, in his fear, here's what
he does. Towards the end of his reign, actually, verse 18 of, uh, 1 Kings 15, Asa took all the silver and the gold that was left in the treasuries of Yahweh's house and the treasuries of the king's house and delivered it into the hand of his servants. So that's not a good sign that Asa took everything back that he had dedicated to Yahweh all those years prior. Everything that was in the storehouses of the temple, he went and took it. And he also did the same in his
own house. And then he sends all of this silver and this gold from the treasuries of the temple and the treasuries of his own house to this guy named Ben Hadad, who was the king of Syria. And apparently Ben Hadad, the king of Syria had a treaty going on with Baasha, the king of Israel. So Asa tries to dissuade Ben Hadad from continuing on this treaty with Israel. So Asa sends Ben Hadad all this gold, and he says, there's a treaty between me and you, between my father and your father.
Behold, I have sent you a present of silver and gold. Go and break your treaty with Baasha, the king of Israel, that he may depart from me. So there you go. Asa was afraid of Baasha. He just wanted Baasha gone, out of his life. So Ben Hadad, the king of Syria, listened to King Asa, and so he sends captains of his armies against the cities of Israel. It says that Ben Hadad struck aijin, Dan, Abel, Beth, Maacah, all of Chinnereth, and then the entire land of
Naphtali. So basically the entire northern portion of Israel, which was very close to Syria and Damascus. Ben Hadad took all of it. Took so much land away from Israel. But this did work, because when Baasha hears about this, he stops fighting with Judah to turn his attentions toward, uh, Syria. So it says that Baasha stopped building Ramah and instead lived in Tirzah. So Asa got what he wanted, which was Baasha to go away and to stop
building up Ramah. And it says that King Asa then issues a statement that nobody, not a single man in Judah, was exempt from that. All of them. All these young men have to go up to Israel, to Ramah, to steal the building materials and bring them back down to Judah. And that is what they do. They take all of the building materials that Baasha leaves in Ramah and brings them back down to Judah. And with all of these building materials, it says that Asa built up Geba of Benjamin and also
Mizpah. But in Second Chronicles, God, uh was not pleased with what Asa had done, because Asa caused a lot of issues. Firstly, he took things that belonged to Yahweh to send them to a foreign king and make a treaty with a foreign king, which was expressly against the Old Testament laws, where kings of Judah and Israel were not supposed to make treaties with any foreign king. So that's two things that
Asa did that was wrong. Stealing from Yahweh's house and then also making a treaty with a foreign king. But thirdly, Asa also was relying on this foreign king to save him. And that was what made God, uh the most disappointed in what Asa had done. He was disappointed in the fact that Asa did not rely on him, but instead acted out of fear. God, uh ended up punishing Asa for the lack of trust that Asa had in him in the very end. But the fourth thing that Asa did wrong was he caused Israel to lose
land to Syria. And even though Israel was under God's punishment, God, uh had given that land to Israel. It belonged to Israel. It didn't belong to anybody else. It was Israel's land. And it was clear that Israel wasn't supposed to give up any of their land to any foreign nation. So King Asa caused some issues, and God, uh punished him in the end of his life. It mentions here briefly of the punishment that Asa got, that Asa had a disease in his feet.
Verse 23 of 1 Kings 15. In the time of his old age, he was diseased in his feet. So for the last two years of ASA's life, he had this just encroaching disease that he couldn't get rid of. And what's really sad is that Asa didn't rely on God, uh at the end of his life. He instead relied on all of these doctors to try to heal him. It says he never prayed to Yahweh to heal him of this disease, if you read Second Chronicles.
So Asa, towards the end of his life, became so fearful that he forgot that Yahweh could protect him and take care of him. Now you might be like, well, doesn't it say that Asa's heart was committed to Yahweh all of his days? Yes, it does. In fact, it mentions that twice. It mentions that here in 1st Kings 15, and it also mentions that in 2 Chronicles. So Asa's heart was committed to Yahweh. But just because our hearts are committed to Yahweh doesn't mean we can't struggle with
fear. As in Asa's case, for example. I am very fearful of vomiting. I have pretty bad emetophobia. Uh, and with my stomach problem that's going on right now, I feel nauseated quite often, and I feel like I have to throw up sometimes. So the other night, I was pretty close to having to throw up. It was like the closest I ever got since the last time I threw up. And I was just sitting there next to the toilet, and I was just absolutely in panic mode. I was shaking, I was angry, my heart was
racing. I was fearful. I was like. So I was an anxious wreck because I felt like I was going to throw up. And so the feeling finally passed. I didn't end up throwing up. And so I was kind of just like, sitting there relaxing after this, like, traumatizing thing I went through emotionally. And I was reading first John, chapter four, which happened to be the verse of the day on my phone. So I read the entire chapter because I needed some comfort from the
Bible. And I. Once again, it's really funny because I keep going back to this verse without trying to go back to this verse. I keep going back to the verse that says, perfect love casts out fear. And so I decided to research that verse, and I did do some research on it, and maybe I'll, uh, I'll talk to you guys about that in, like, a special episode or a YouTube video or something like that.
But one thing I realized was that you can be committed to God, uh while struggling with a, uh, deep fear or with a phobia, because in those moments when I was getting ready to throw up and I was, like, seriously panicking, I was praying the entire time. And right after that, I went to my Bible and I read it. Though I was fearful, my heart was still committed in a way to worshiping Yahweh during those moments. And I believe Asa struggled with the same thing. I believe his heart was committed. I
believe that he loved Yahweh. But I think at the end of his life, as he was getting older and as he dealt with so much PTSD and trauma through all these wars that he had to go through, I think at the end of his life, he was just struggling with fear so badly, especially as this disease was encroaching, that he was spending all of his money on doctors that he thought could heal him instead of just praying to God, uh, instead of really
trusting God, uh. Because ultimately, what fear comes down to is lack of trust in God, uh and lack of understanding God's love that he has for you. So Asa, though he was a, uh, committed man, he was a fearful man as well. But scripture alludes to the fact if Asa would have just let go of his fears and his phobias that he had, he would have lived a more successful life, and possibly even God, uh would have healed him from that disease he had in his feet that ended up taking his
life. And actually, I'm going to read two chronicles, chapter 16 and talk about Asa's death. Here it says in verse 12, in the 39th year of his reign, Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness, he did not seek help from the LORD, but only from the physicians. Then, in the 41st year of his reign, Asa died and rested with his ancestors. They buried him in the tomb that he had cut out for himself in
the city of David. So Scripture really alludes to the fact that Asa allowed his fear to control him in the end, and he didn't fully trust in God's love. So Asa's story ultimately is a warning for you and I to not let fear control us, because fear takes all joy out of life. And honestly, it takes years off of our life as well. Instead, we need to trust Yahweh and trust in Yahweh's love for us, because God's perfect love casts out fear.
So I guess the best way to overcome fear or a, uh, phobia is to pray to understand more about God's love for you, that God, uh causes all things to work together for good, and that you're going to be okay, even if you have to face that fear or phobia someday, because God's going to actually get you through it. Just like Asa, if you do end up reading his whole
story in 2 Chronicles. Before we get to it on the podcast, you'll notice that Asa had to deal with a lot of very scary things, but he actually was able to deal with them, um, when they came his way. And that's because Yahweh was on Asa's side, and he's on your side, too.
So if there's something scary that you have to deal with or a fear that you have to face or a phobia you're trying to get over, maybe start first and foremost by praying to have trust in God, uh and also praying that you understand God's love for you more fully and that you also become perfected in love. Perfect love drives out fear is what scripture says. So maybe I'll talk about that on a YouTube video or something. We'll see.
Faithful listeners, I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If you did, check out all of the links listed in the description of this episode. You'll notice the shop, you'll notice my YouTube channel, you'll notice my, um, merch store, and all the books that I sell as well. And yes, I have written a few books. They are devotionals. One is about the life of Joseph the slave from the book of Genesis. One of my favorite stories in the Old Testament and also another book that I wrote is the Adore
Advent Devotional for Teenage Girls. And right now, Advent is literally here. It is the middle of Advent. But just because Advent already started doesn't mean you can't grab yourself an Advent devotional for a teenage girl that you know. But just to let you know, a shortened version of the Advent Devotional is available on YouVersion, which you will also notice is listed in the description of the episode. But with the free devotional on you version, you won't get all the bells and whistles.
You know what? It's Christmas. You won't get all the jingle bells and whistles with the book version of the Adore Advent devotional. So you want to check out the book version as well as the free version. Anyway, faithful listeners, have a fantastic and wonderful rest of your day. I'll see you guys tomorrow, bright and early, 6am or whenever you choose to wake up. Happy listening and God, uh bless.