10/07/2008
1 Kings 15:9 - 13 (HCSB) 9In the twentieth year of Israel’s King Jeroboam,£ Asa became king of Judah; 10he reigned 41 years in Jerusalem. His grandmother’s£ name was Maacah£ daughter£ of Abishalom.
11Asa did what was right in the LORD’s eyes, as his ancestor David had done.£ 12He banished the male shrine prostitutes£ from the land and removed all of the idols that his fathers had made.£ 13He also£ removed his grandmother£ Maacah from being queen mother because she had made an obscene image of £Asherah. Asa chopped down her obscene image and burned it£ in the Kidron Valley.
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After the death of Solomon, Israel split with the northern tribes retaining the name Israel, and the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin called Judah. Solomon’s son Rehoboam sat as king for 17 years, but did not follow God. Abijam followed for 3 years and also allowed the kingdom to sink further into depravity.
Asa, son of Abijam, took the throne but remembered the Lord and removed the idols, shrine prostitutes and as the verses say, obscene images which had been placed by his grandmother.
What we need to take away from this passage is that in order for us to maintain (or return to) a right relationship with God, we must also remove the junk that we allow to invade our lives. Over Solomon’s later years, and his two successors, the remembrance of God had been corrupted with junk from other religions. All these do is obscure our right relationship with God.
It is so easy for us to allow false practices and ideas to invade our thinking and we need to step back to take account of what idols, practices, and even obscene things we have allowed into our lives. We must destroy them-not just put them in a closet, so to speak.
King Asa did a thorough house-cleaning in the kingdom, and was recognized by God for it.
Do you need to clean house in your life? What things in your life are standing in the way of your right-relationship with God?
Jeff Justus
Cleff Publishing
www.cleffpublishing.com
©2008 Cleff Publishing, all rights reserved.
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