The Old Testament history books of Kings and Chronicles are full of really interesting and peculiar stories.

They follow the history of the Hebrew people after the time of King David – the building of the Temple, and how the kingdom was divided between Judah and Israel.

The primary way that the successive kings are evaluated is by whether they followed the Lord or not. Did they hold to the Word of God, or did they follow the idols of the neighboring nations?

Most of the kings did ‘evil in the sight of the Lord,’ which led the people into deeper and deeper sin and judgement from the Lord.

Some, however, served the Lord wholeheartedly. They destroyed the pagan temples, got rid of idols and other things that led the people to sin. These kings were blessed by the Lord, and the people often saw the power of the Lord in dramatic ways.

One of these good kings was Asa. During the early part of his reign, he was radically on fire for the Lord. In fact, God had promised him through a prophet…

The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.

2 Chronicles 15:2

King Asa took this seriously and aggressively cleaned up the kingdom. He rebuilt the altar to the Lord and called on the people to offer sacrifices and to turn their hearts back to God. It was a really good time in Judah’s history.

In fact, Asa’s obedience ushered in a time of peace that was in stark contrast to what the people had been living in…

In those days it was not safe to travel about, for all the inhabitants of the lands were in great turmoil. One nation was being crushed by another and one city by another,because God was troubling them with every kind of distress. 

2 Chronicles 15:5-6

So, Asa’s faithfulness to God was a great thing for the nation and they all enjoyed peace and prosperity.

This is a wonderful story of encouragement that even though things may look grim, God responds when we seek Him. He can take what appears to be a hopeless situation and turn it around completely.

Let that be an encouragement to you! Seek the Lord and go to Him with everything. He is faithful!

Tomorrow, I’ll share the rest of the story and where the “physicians” come into play.