2 Chronicles · chapter 16 of 36
Updated on
2 Chronicles 16 tells how, facing the advance of Baasha of Israel, Asa takes silver and gold from the temple to pay Ben-hadad of Syria to break his alliance with Baasha. It works militarily, but the seer Hanani rebukes him because he relied on a king and not on the Lord. Asa becomes angry and imprisons the prophet, and years later he falls ill in his feet and seeks the physicians without seeking God.
After thirty-five years of peace and faithfulness, Asa's reign takes a sad turn. The chronicler does not hide the failure of a king who had cried out to God against an army of a million. This time, facing a lesser threat, Asa turns to a political resource, and the chapter shows how the faithfulness of a lifetime can cool at the end.
In the thirty-sixth year of Asa's reign, Baasha, king of Israel, goes up against Judah and builds Ramah to keep anyone from going out or coming in to Asa's territory. Asa takes silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the Lord and of the palace and sends them to Ben-hadad, king of Syria, who lived in Damascus, asking him to break his alliance with Baasha so that he will withdraw. Ben-hadad sends his commanders against the cities of Israel and conquers Ijon, Dan, Abel-maim and the store cities of Naphtali.
When Baasha hears it, he stops building Ramah and ceases his work. Asa gathers all Judah, who carry away the stones and timber with which Baasha had been building, and with them he builds Geba and Mizpah. At that time the seer Hanani comes to Asa, king of Judah, and tells him that because he relied on the king of Syria and not on the Lord his God, the army of the king of Syria has escaped from his hand. He reminds him that the Cushites and Libyans were a huge army, and that when he relied on the Lord, he gave them into his hand. The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the earth to show his might on behalf of those whose heart is wholly his. He tells him that he has done foolishly, and that from now on there will be wars against him.
Asa becomes angry with the seer, puts him in prison and oppresses some of the people at that time. In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa becomes severely diseased in his feet, and even in his disease he does not seek the Lord but the physicians. He dies in the forty-first year of his reign and is buried in the tomb he had cut for himself in the city of David, laid on a bed filled with spices and various kinds of perfumes prepared by the perfumers, and they make a very great fire in his honor.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Hanani accuses Asa of relying on the king of Syria and not on the Lord his God. The problem is not using diplomacy but changing the object of his trust, something he had not done against the Cushites.
The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the earth to show his might on behalf of those whose heart is wholly his. It is a picture of an attentive God who looks for those who trust him and strengthens them.
Asa becomes angry with the seer and imprisons him. Instead of repenting, he hardens his heart, and the chronicler shows that rejecting correction is one more step in drifting away.
In his illness Asa does not seek the Lord but the physicians. The chronicler does not condemn physicians but points out that he sought human help without seeking God, the same pattern as in the war.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: He built Ramah to keep anyone from going out or coming in to Asa's territory. — 2 Chronicles 16:1
Answer: He took silver and gold from the treasuries of the temple and the palace and sent them to Ben-hadad of Syria to break his alliance with Baasha. — 2 Chronicles 16:2-3
Answer: He used them to build Geba and Mizpah. — 2 Chronicles 16:6
Answer: For relying on the king of Syria and not on the Lord his God. — 2 Chronicles 16:7
Answer: He became angry, put him in prison and oppressed some of the people. — 2 Chronicles 16:10
Answer: He became severely diseased in his feet, and in his illness he did not seek the Lord but the physicians. — 2 Chronicles 16:12
This chapter warns that one can begin very well and end badly. Asa trusted the Lord before a million soldiers and did not do so before a neighboring king. Sometimes we trust God in great crises and turn to our own resources in things that seem manageable. In a small group we can ask in which areas of life we tend to look first for human solutions.
It also teaches us to receive correction. Hanani spoke a hard truth, and Asa answered with anger. Christians need brothers and sisters who speak frankly to us, and humility to listen. Seeking medical help is wise; what the text reproaches is leaving God out.
2 Chronicles 16 closes Asa's reign with a painful lesson about trusting God to the end. In 2 Chronicles 17 the reign of his son Jehoshaphat begins, who strengthens Judah, seeks the Lord and sends teachers through the cities to teach the law.
No. The Bible does not condemn medicine, and Luke, the author of a Gospel, is called a physician in Colossians 4:14. What the text points out is that Asa sought only human help and did not seek the Lord. One can go to a doctor and pray at the same time.
Because Asa stopped trusting the Lord and put his security in a foreign king, paying him with temple treasures. Immediate success does not justify distrust. Hanani also points out that he lost the chance to see God defeat the Syrian army.
A seer, that is, a prophet who received visions and messages from God. He is probably the father of the prophet Jehu, who will later rebuke Jehoshaphat, according to 2 Chronicles 19:2. His message to Asa is a rebuke based on the king's own history.