Reading for Today:

• 2 Chronicles 13:1 Chapter 13 1 In the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam began Abijah to reign over Judah. –14:15
• Psalms 81:1-5 Chapter 81 1 Sing aloud unto God our strength: Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. 2 Raise a song, and bring hither the timbrel, The pleasant harp with the psaltery. 3 Blow the trumpet at the new moon, At the full moon, on our feast-day. 4 For it is a statute for Israel, An ordinance of the God of Jacob. 5 He appointed it in Joseph for a testimony, When he went out over the land of Egypt, `Where' I heard a language that I knew not.
• Proverbs 20:22-23 22 Say not thou, I will recompense evil: Wait for Jehovah, and he will save thee. 23 Diverse weights are an abomination to Jehovah; And a false balance is not good.
• Acts 15:22-41 22 Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men out of their company, and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; `namely', Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren: 23 and they wrote `thus' by them, The apostles and the elders, brethren, unto the brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greeting: 24 Forasmuch as we have heard that certain who went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls; to whom we gave no commandment; 25 it seemed good unto us, having come to one accord, to choose out men and send them unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26 men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who themselves also shall tell you the same things by word of mouth. 28 For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: 29 that ye abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication; from which if ye keep yourselves, it shall be well with you. Fare ye well. 30 So they, when they were dismissed, came down to Antioch; and having gathered the multitude together, they delivered the epistle. 31 And when they had read it, they rejoiced for the consolation. 32 And Judas and Silas, being themselves also prophets, exhorted the brethren with many words, and confirmed them. 33 And after they had spent some time `there', they were dismissed in peace from the brethren unto those that had sent them forth. 34 `But it seemed good unto Silas to abide there.' 35 But Paul and Barnabas tarried in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also. 36 And after some days Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us return now and visit the brethren in every city wherein we proclaimed the word of the Lord, `and see' how they fare. 37 And Barnabas was minded to take with them John also, who was called Mark. 38 But Paul thought not good to take with them him who withdrew from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work. 39 And there arose a sharp contention, so that they parted asunder one from the other, and Barnabas took Mark with him, and sailed away unto Cyprus; 40 but Paul choose Silas, and went forth, being commended by the brethren to the grace of the Lord. 41 And he went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches.

Notes:

2 Chronicles 13:1 Chapter 13 1 In the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam began Abijah to reign over Judah. 5 God struck Jeroboam and all Israel. At the time of certain defeat, with 400,000 troops behind and the same number in front, Judah was saved by divine intervention. What God did is unknown, but the army of Israel began to flee (v. 16), and the soldiers of Judah massacred 500,000 of them in an unimaginable blood bath (v. 17).

2 Chronicles 13:1 Chapter 13 1 In the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam began Abijah to reign over Judah. 7 Before the battle, Jeroboam outnumbered Abijah two to one (13:3). After the fray, in which the Lord intervened on behalf of Judah, Abijah outnumbered Jeroboam 4 to 3.

Psalms 81:3 3 Blow the trumpet at the new moon, At the full moon, on our feast-day. New Moon…full moon. The seventh month of Israel’s year (Tishri; Sept./Oct.) culminated the festival year with a succession of celebrations. The month began with the blowing of the trumpets, continued with the Day of Atonement on the tenth day, and celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles on the fifteenth day when the moon was full. The Feast of Tabernacles praised God for His care in the wilderness wanderings and also pointed to the coming kingdom (Matt. 17:1–4).

DAY 9: How did a godly king respond to crises?

Second Chronicles 14:1–16:14 records the reign of Asa in Judah (ca. 911–870 B.C.). First Kings 15:11 says that Asa did as his forefather David had done—honoring God while building the kingdom (vv. 6–8). Times of peace were used for strengthening. “Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of LORD his God” (v. 2). He removed elements of false worship that had accumulated over the years of Solomon, Rehoboam, and Abijah (1 Kin.15:12, 13). Apparently, he did not remove all the high places or, once removed, they reappeared (1 Kin. 15:14; 1 Chr. 15:6). His son Jehoshaphat later had to remove them (2 Chr. 17:6), although not completely (1 Chr. 20:33).This was done in an effort to comply with Deuteronomy 12:2 2 Ye shall surely destroy all the places wherein the nations that ye shall dispossess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree: , 3.

Asa had an army of 580,000 men “who carried shields and drew bows; all these were mighty men of valor” (v. 8). Yet a major threat developed from Zerah, the Ethiopian, probably on behalf of the Egyptian Pharaoh, who was attempting to regain control as Shishak had during the days of Rehoboam (2 Chr. 12:7, 8), ca. 901–900 B.C. The Ethiopians came against them with “an army of a million men and three hundred chariots” (v. 9).

Asa’s appeal to God centered on God’s omnipotence and reputation and is well worth memorizing. “LORD, it is nothing for You to help, whether with many or with those who have no power; help us,…O LORD, You are our God; do not let man prevail against You!” (v. 11). God’s response was to strike the Ethiopian army and overthrow them. “And they carried away very much spoil” (v. 13). It appears that this great horde was a nomadic people who moved with all their possessions and had set up their camp near Gerar. The spoils of Judah’s victory were immense.

From The MacArthur Daily Bible Copyright © 2003. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson Bibles, a division of Thomas Nelson, Inc, Nashville, TN 37214, www.thomasnelson.com.

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