2 Chronicles 16:10

Asa began his reign well. He was a zealous reformer who led Judah in seeking the LORD and in renewing the covenant, and the land had rest (2 Chronicles 15). When Zerah the Ethiopian came against him with an enormous army, Asa prayed, and the LORD struck the invaders down before Judah (2 Chronicles 14:9–15).

Then Baasha, king of the northern kingdom of Israel, moved against Judah. Asa took the silver and gold out of the treasuries of the house of the LORD and of his own house and sent it to Ben-hadad, king of Syria, to persuade him to break his treaty with Baasha and attack Israel (2 Chronicles 16:1–6). Ben-hadad did so, Baasha withdrew, and by every earthly measure Asa’s problem was solved.

“At that time” Hanani came. The words tie his visit to what Asa had just done, so God answered the king’s choice at once. The LORD cared about the way Asa reached his goal as well as the goal itself. Asa reigned in the ninth century before Christ, about 913 to 873 BC, in years of constant tension between Judah and Israel, when smaller kingdoms often bought the help of stronger neighbours such as Syria, which the Hebrew calls ʼĂrâm, Aram. For a king of Judah, bound by covenant to the LORD, that common move raised the question of trust: would he rest his kingdom on a foreign king’s army, or on the LORD his God, who had already proved his power on Asa’s behalf?

The heart of the charge is one verb. Hanani uses “relied” twice in verse 7: Asa has relied on the king of Syria, and has “not relied on the LORD thy God”. The Hebrew shâʻan means to support oneself, to lean on something or rest on it, and in verse 8 the seer uses it once more for the day Asa relied on the LORD. The picture is of a man putting his whole weight on a support. Asa’s fault lay in where he put that weight. He took his confidence and his security off the God who had proved faithful and set them on a human king, and he paid for that support with treasure from the house of the LORD.

The two objects are set side by side, the king of Syria and the LORD thy God, and they show that Asa had a choice to make between them. “Because … therefore” then ties the choice to its result. Scripture says the same in many places. A psalm sets those who trust in chariots and horses beside those who remember the name of the LORD (Psalm 20:7). Proverbs tells us to trust in the LORD with all our heart and to lean on him rather than on our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5–6). Jeremiah sets a curse and a blessing side by side, one on misplaced trust and one on trust in the LORD (Jeremiah 17:5–8), and Isaiah pronounces woe on those who go down to Egypt for help (Isaiah 31:1). Leaning on a man in God’s place gives that man the allegiance that belongs to God, and so it is a kind of idolatry.

Hanani’s question in verse 8 expects the answer yes. “Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen?” Asa knew the answer because he had been there. The Ethiopians are Cushites, Kûwshîy, and the Lubims are Libyans, and they had come with Zerah in a single army of a million men and three hundred chariots (2 Chronicles 14:9). Chariots were the strongest weapon of war in that day, a sign of overwhelming power and speed, and for a small kingdom like Judah such an army threatened its very existence. The usual course would have been to find a powerful ally or to surrender.

Asa cried to the LORD (2 Chronicles 14:11), and the outcome is what Hanani now recalls: “yet, because thou didst rely on the LORD, he delivered them into thine hand.” The seer names Asa’s trust as the reason for the victory, and he gives the victory to God. “Huge host” uses chayil again, the same word as the Syrian host of verse 7. “He delivered” is nâthan, the ordinary verb for giving, so the enemy army was God’s gift placed in Asa’s hand. “Into thine hand”, with yad once more, means that God put them wholly under his power. Judah’s own strength had little to do with it, because the battle was the LORD’s, as David said before Goliath (1 Samuel 17:47).

Hanani reminds Asa of this battle because the contrast speaks for itself. If God could deliver him from a million men, he could certainly deliver him from Baasha, a lesser threat, without any bribe paid to a foreign king. Remembering what God has done is meant to steady us when the next trouble comes, as the psalmist resolves to remember the works of the LORD (Psalm 77:11). Asa had his own history with God, and he let it fade at the moment he needed it.

Verse 9 is the best-known line of the passage: “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.” The word for eyes, ʻayin, is the eye of the body, used of God in human terms so that we can grasp his knowledge and his watchful care. The verb shûwṭ, “run to and fro”, is a word for going about and travelling far. God’s eyes go over the whole earth with purpose, the way a person searches diligently for something. Proverbs says that the eyes of the LORD are in every place (Proverbs 15:3), and a psalm says that his eye is on those who fear him, to deliver them (Psalm 33:18–19).

The purpose of the search is what makes the verse precious. God looks in order “to shew himself strong”. The verb is châzaq, to seize or be strong, and here it means to show his strength on someone’s behalf. His eyes are looking for people to defend and uphold with his power. The verse gives the reason behind verse 8, since Asa had seen this strength himself on the day he relied on the LORD.

Then the seer turns to Asa himself. The verb çâkal means to act the fool. Hanani speaks of a moral and spiritual folly, the folly of distrusting God and setting human means above his power, so the cleverest move of Asa’s reign is the one God calls foolish.

“Therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.” The LORD had given Asa rest and peace in the land (2 Chronicles 14:6–7), and now that peace is over. Conflict is the fitting end of a choice to seek security from the nations, and Proverbs speaks in the same way of what comes to those who reject wisdom (Proverbs 1:32–33).

Verse 10 shows how Asa took the word. “Then Asa was wroth with the seer.” The verb kaʻaç means to be vexed or angry, and Asa turned his anger on the messenger and left the message unheeded. “He was in a rage with him because of this thing” adds a second word, zaʻaph, rage or indignation, so the verse names Asa’s anger twice over and shows how fierce it was. “This thing” is Hanani’s message. The king who had once cried humbly to God now found correction unbearable. The words that stung were the ones that called his heart divided and his wisdom folly, and they struck at his pride and at his sense of his own authority.

“And put him in a prison house.” The verb is nâthan again, the broad word for giving, putting or setting, the same verb Hanani had just used in verse 8 for the LORD giving the Ethiopians into Asa’s hand. The “prison house” is mahpeketh with bayith, house. Mahpeketh means the stocks, something that wrenches the body, so Hanani was most likely held fast in stocks, a confinement that brought pain and shame. To imprison God’s prophet was to silence God’s word and reject his authority, and it marked a turn toward a king ruling by his own will.

“And Asa oppressed some of the people the same time.” The verb râtsats means to crack in pieces, crush or bruise, and here it means to oppress. The people, ʻam, is the ordinary word for a people as one gathered body. The verse leaves the victims unnamed. They may have been those who sided with Hanani or questioned the alliance with Syria. Whoever they were, the king’s anger against one man spread into injustice against his own subjects.

Asa, a king of Judah, leaned on a foreign king and raged at God’s prophet. Jesus, the true King of Judah, relied on his Father all through his earthly life. In the wilderness he refused to use his power to feed himself or to gain the kingdoms of the world (Matthew 4:1–11). He said that he did only what he saw the Father doing (John 5:19). In Gethsemane he submitted to the Father’s will (Luke 22:42), and he humbled himself to death on the cross (Philippians 2:8), trusting the Father to raise him. Hebrews calls him the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), and through him we learn to rely on the LORD our God.

Asa shut up the prophet who spoke the truth. Jesus is the truth itself (John 14:6), and the sin of rejecting God’s messenger reached its height when the people denied the Holy and Righteous One and put him to death (Acts 3:14–15). His kingdom is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17), and it is free of the oppression Asa brought on his people.

The whole heart God looks for comes to us as his gift as well. By Christ’s one offering his people are perfected (Hebrews 10:14), and God promised to give them a new heart and a new spirit (Ezekiel 36:26).

This passage shows us a God who is looking for people to help. His eyes go over the whole earth, and what they seek is a heart that leans on him, so that he can show himself strong for it. Asa had known that strength when a million men came against him, and the memory of it was meant to carry him through the next danger.

It shows too that success by the world’s measure and success in God’s sight can part company. Asa’s alliance worked, and God called it folly. The LORD cares how his people meet their troubles, and he gives them a plain word when they lean on other helpers, because he means to give them the victory himself.

And it shows how a good beginning can be spoiled when correction is refused. Hanani’s rebuke was a mercy, a call back to the trust Asa once had. The eyes that saw Asa’s divided heart are the same eyes that watch today for those who rely on the LORD, and verse 9 stands as his promise to them.