The Daily Audio Bible

Abijah dies

14 Abijah died and they buried him beside his ancestors in the City of David. Abijah's son Asa became king after him. The country had peace for ten years while Asa was king.

Asa rules Judah as king

² Asa did things that pleased the Lord his God. ³ He removed the altars and other places where people worshipped foreign gods. He broke the stone pillars and he cut down the Asherah poles.^{[a] 4} Asa commanded the people of Judah to worship the Lord, the God of their ancestors. He told them to obey God's law and his commands. ⁵ He removed the altars on the hills. He also removed the altars in all Judah's cities where people burned incense. There was peace in his kingdom while he ruled.

⁶ While there was peace in the land, Asa made the cities of Judah strong and safe. No enemies fought wars against Judah during that time. The Lord gave Asa rest from any trouble.

⁷ Asa said to Judah's people, ‘We should build these towns and make them stronger. We must put walls around them, with towers and strong gates. Judah still belongs to us because we have obeyed the Lord our God. He has made us safe from our enemies all around us.’

So the people made these towns strong. Everything went well for them.

Zerah attacks Asa

⁸ Asa had an army of 300,000 men from Judah. They carried big shields and spears. He also had 280,000 men from Benjamin's tribe. Those men carried small shields and they could shoot arrows with their bows. They were all brave soldiers who could fight well.

⁹ A man from Ethiopia called Zerah marched out to attack Judah. He had a very big army of a million soldiers and 300 chariots. When he reached Mareshah, ¹⁰ Asa went out to fight against him. The two armies prepared to fight a battle in Zephathah valley, near Mareshah.

¹¹ Then Asa called out to the Lord his God to help him. He prayed, ‘There is nobody like you Lord. You have power to help a few weak people against many strong people. Help us, Lord our God, because we trust you. We want people to give honour to your name. That is why we have come to fight against this large army. Lord, you are our God. You cannot let these men win against you.’

¹² So the Lord knocked down Zerah's soldiers as Asa and Judah's army attacked them. The Ethiopian soldiers ran away. ¹³ Asa and his soldiers chased after them until they reached Gerar. So many Ethiopian soldiers died there that their army could not fight any more. The Lord and his army completely destroyed them. Judah's soldiers carried away lots of their enemies' things for themselves.

¹⁴ The Lord caused the people in the towns near Gerar to become very afraid. So Judah's soldiers were able to attack those towns. There were many valuable things in all those towns and Judah's men took them away for themselves. ¹⁵ They also attacked the tents of the people who took care of animals. They took away many sheep and camels from there. Then they returned to Jerusalem.

Azariah speaks to Asa

15 God's Spirit came to Oded's son Azariah. ² Azariah went to meet King Asa. He said to him, ‘Listen to me Asa and all you people of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. The Lord will be with you while you are faithful to him. If you ask him for help, he will answer you. But if you turn away from him, he will turn away from you. ³ For a long time, the Israelites did not serve the true God. They did not have any priests to teach them what was right. They did not know God's law. ⁴ But when they were in trouble, they turned to the Lord, Israel's God. They asked him to help them and he answered them. ⁵ At that time it was not safe to travel very far. There was too much trouble among the people of other countries. ⁶ One nation would attack and destroy another nation. The people of one city destroyed other cities. God caused all this trouble to happen to those people. ⁷ But you must be strong. Continue to be brave. God will make your work successful.’

⁸ Asa felt strong again when he heard God's message from Azariah, son of the prophet Oded. He removed the disgusting idols from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin. He also removed them from the towns that he had taken in the hill country of Ephraim. He repaired the Lord's altar that was in the yard at the front of the Lord's temple.

Asa brings all the people together in Jerusalem

⁹ Then King Asa brought all the people together who belonged to the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. He also brought people from the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who had come to live in Judah. Many people from the other tribes of Israel had come to Judah to serve King Asa. They had seen that the Lord his God was with him to help him.

¹⁰ All these people met together in Jerusalem in the 15th year after Asa had become king. They met in the third month of the year. ¹¹ At that time they offered many animals to the Lord as sacrifices. They were animals that they had taken from their enemies. There were 700 bulls and 7,000 sheep. ¹² They made a serious promise that they would faithfully serve the Lord, the God of their ancestors. ¹³ If anyone refused to worship the Lord, Israel's God, they would punish that person with death. They agreed to do that, whoever the person was, young or old, male or female. ¹⁴ As they made this promise to the Lord, they shouted loudly to show that they agreed. They also made a loud noise with trumpets and sheep's horns. ¹⁵ All Judah's people were happy to make this promise, because they truly wanted to serve the Lord. They wanted him to help them and he answered them.

After that, the Lord made them safe from their enemies all around them.

Asa punishes Maakah because she worshipped idols

¹⁶ King Asa also told his grandmother Maakah that she could no longer have authority as the Queen Mother.^[b] This was because she had made a disgusting Asherah pole to worship. Asa cut down the Asherah pole and he burned it in the Kidron Valley.^{[c] 17} Asa did not remove the altars on all the hills in Israel, but he served the Lord faithfully for his whole life. ¹⁸ He brought into God's temple the things that he and his father had made as gifts for God. They used silver and gold to make some of these things.

¹⁹ There were no more wars in Judah until Asa had been king for 35 years.

King Baasha of Israel attacks Judah

16 After Asa had been king of Judah for 36 years, King Baasha of Israel attacked Judah.^[d] He put a group of his soldiers in Ramah and he made it a strong town. As a result, nobody could travel into Judah or out of Judah, where King Asa ruled.^[e]

² Then Asa took all the silver and gold that they had stored in the Lord's temple and in the king's palace. He sent it to Ben-Hadad, king of Syria, who lived in Damascus. ³ He also sent this message to Ben-Hadad: ‘We should make an agreement to be friends, as our fathers did. I am sending you this silver and gold. Please stop being friends with Baasha, king of Israel. If you no longer help him, he will have to take his soldiers out of my country.’

⁴ Ben-Hadad agreed to do what King Asa asked him to do. He sent his army with its leaders to attack towns in Israel. They won the battles at Ijon, Dan, Abel-Maim and all the cities of Naphtali's tribe where they stored things. ⁵ When King Baasha heard this news, he stopped the work in Ramah and he went away. ⁶ Then King Asa told all the men in Judah to do some hard work. They had to carry away from Ramah all the big stones and the wood that Baasha had been using there. Then King Asa used those things to make Geba and Mizpah strong towns again.

Hanani warns King Asa

⁷ At that time, the prophet Hanani went to visit Asa, king of Judah. He said to him, ‘You asked the king of Syria to help you. You should have trusted the Lord your God to help you instead. Because of that, the army of Syria's king has escaped from your power. ⁸ The armies of Ethiopia and Libya were very large. They had lots of chariots and soldiers who rode on horses. But you trusted the Lord when they attacked you, and he put them under your power. ⁹ The Lord carefully watches over the whole earth. If people serve him faithfully, he makes them strong. But you have done a foolish thing. As a result, you will now always be fighting wars.’

¹⁰ Asa was angry with the prophet, so he put him in prison. At that time Asa also started to do cruel things to some people.

Asa dies

¹¹ All the things that happened while Asa was king are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of the kings of Judah and Israel’. ¹² When Asa had been king for 39 years, he had a disease in his feet. He became very ill, but he did not ask the Lord to help him. Instead, he asked doctors to make him better.

¹³ Asa died when he had been king for 41 years. ¹⁴ His people buried him in the grave that he had prepared for himself in the City of David. They put him on a special bed that had spices and different kinds of perfume on it. They burned a large fire to give him honour.

The Jews have not believed in Christ

9 What I am telling you is true. I speak as someone who belongs to Christ. I am not telling lies. God's Holy Spirit rules my thoughts and I am sure that I am right. ² I tell you this: Deep inside myself, I am always very sad and upset because of Israel's people. ³ I belong to the same family as they do. They are my own people. I really want them to believe in Christ too. If it would help them, I would even ask God to curse me. I would ask him to make me separate from Christ.

⁴ They are Israelite people. God chose them to belong to him as his own children. He showed them that he is very great. He made many agreements with them and he gave his Law to them. He showed them how they should worship him. He promised many good things to them. ⁵ It was their ancestors that God chose to make great many years ago.^[a] And Christ himself, as a man, was born to an Israelite family. Christ is God, who rules over all things. We should praise him for ever! This is true! Amen.

⁶ God promised good things to Israel's people. But I am not saying that what God promised did not happen. It is clear that not all of Israel's people are God's true people. ⁷ Not all of them are true descendants of Abraham. God told Abraham, ‘It is only Isaac that I will call the father of your descendants.’

⁸ This means that not all of Abraham's children are really God's children. It is only those children who were born as a result of God's promise. Only they are the people that God calls true descendants. ⁹ This is what God promised to Abraham: ‘At this time next year I will come back. Then Sarah, your wife, will have a son.’^[b]

¹⁰ Remember this too: Later, Isaac's wife, Rebekah, gave birth to twins. Those two sons had the same father, who was our ancestor, Isaac. ¹¹ And God spoke to Rebekah before her sons were born. God spoke before the boys had done anything either good or bad. God did this to show clearly that he himself was choosing one child. He was not choosing someone because of what that person had done. He himself decided who he would choose. ¹² God said to Rebekah, ‘The older son will serve the younger son.’ ¹³ This is written in the Bible: ‘I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.’^[c]

¹⁴ Because of this, someone might say that God is not fair. No! We should never say that! ¹⁵ Think about this. God said to Moses, ‘I will be kind to whoever I choose to be kind to. I will feel sorry for whoever I choose to feel sorry for.’^{[d] 16} So then, it is God who decides these things. It is not because of what people want. It is not because of what people do. It is because God chooses to be kind.

¹⁷ The Bible tells us what God said to Pharaoh: ‘This is why I caused you to be king of Egypt. My purpose was to show how powerful I am. As a result, people everywhere would know that I am great.’^{[e] 18} So we see this: God is kind to some people and he forgives them. But he causes some people, like Pharaoh, to turn against him. He chooses what he will do with each person.

God himself decides when he will be angry or kind

¹⁹ One of you may say to me, ‘God always does what he wants to do. Nobody can change what God makes them do. So God should not say that people have done wrong things.’ ²⁰ But you are only human. You have no authority to speak against God like that. God has made you. A pot cannot speak against the person who made it! It cannot ask him, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ ²¹ Somebody who makes pots can choose to make any kind of pot. He can use the same piece of clay to make two different pots. One of the pots may be for special parties. The other pot is for dirty things.

²² What does that teach us about God? Some people are like pots that are ready for God to destroy. God is angry with people like that. He is ready to show his power against them. But he has chosen to wait patiently. He keeps his anger for later. ²³ Other people are like valuable pots that God has chosen to make. God wants to be kind to people like that. He wants to use them to show people how great he is. He has prepared them to be with him for a special party in heaven. ²⁴ We are those people! God has chosen us to be his people. It is not only Jews that he has chosen. He has also chosen Gentiles.

This is a song that David wrote for the music leader.

God teaches us about himself