2 Chronicles 15:2

_AND HE WENT OUT TO MEET ASA, AND SAID UNTO HIM, HEAR YE ME, ASA, AND ALL JUDAH AND BENJAMIN; THE LORD IS WITH YOU, WHILE YE BE WITH HIM; AND IF YE SEEK HIM, HE WILL BE FOUND OF YOU; BUT IF YE FORSAKE HIM, HE WILL FORSAKE YOU._ The Lord is with you, while ye be with him. You have had, in your recent signal success, a remarkable proof that God's blessing is upon you; your victory has been the reward of your faith and piety. If you stedfastly adhere to the cause of God, you may expect a continuance of His favour; but if you abandon it, you will soon reap the bitter fruits of apostasy....

Verse 2 Chronicles 15:2. _THE LORD IS WITH YOU, WHILE YE BE WITH HIM_] This is the settled and eternal purpose of God; to them who seek him he will ever be found propitious, and them alone will he abandon who forsake him. In this verse the unconditional perseverance of the saints has no place: a doctrine which was first the ruin of the human race, _Ye shall not die_; and ever since the fall, has been the plague and disgrace of the Church of Christ. The _Targum_ is curious: "Hearken to me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: The WORD of the Lord shall be your helper, while ye walk in _his_ ways. If ye seek doctrine from _his presence_ he will be found of you in times of trouble; but if you cast away _his fear, he_ will abandon you....

EXPOSITION This chapter is something like an oasis in our history, and was perhaps such in the real life of Asa also. Presumably it covers a period of some twenty years. Reading between the lines, and indeed chapters, we may very well suppose that the mission of "Azariah son of Oded" to Asa now was one of all mercy. Great salvation had been shown to him and his people, and as time went on they might forget the Saviour, and imagine the work was all their own. Moreover, their own proper work had tarried, and beside caution and humility (in season for him as a returning conqueror-king, verse 2), Asa needed stimulus; perhaps the Lord's loving-kindness knew that he needed every kindly encouragement. For there are not wanting signs that he was before his people, and felt the drag of them upon him as Moses himself did. These are the features of the physical geography, so to say, of the chapter,...

AND HE WENT OUT TO MEET ASA,.... From Jerusalem, as Asa was coming to it: AND SAID UNTO HIM, HEAR YE ME, ASA, AND ALL JUDAH AND BENJAMIN; the principal inhabitants of which tribes had been collected, and went to this war, and were now returning: THE LORD IS WITH YOU, WHILE YE BE WITH HIM; it was a clear case he had been with them, in giving them the victory over the Ethiopians; and as long as they continued in the service of God, and abode by his pure worship, they might expect he would yet be with them, otherwise not: AND IF YE SEEK HIM, HE WILL BE FOUND OF YOU; you will see his face, and enjoy his favour, and have his presence, and help from him in every time of need, when they sought him by prayer and supplication, as Asa had, and attended his worship and ordinances: BUT IF YE FORSAKE HIM; his laws and his service: HE WILL FORSAKE YOU; and leave you to fall into the hands of

CHAPTER 15 THE REIGN OF ASA, WARNING AND REFORMATION _ 1. The warning message of Azariah (2 Chronicles 15:1)_ 2. Asa's response and reformation (2 Chronicles 15:8) But the Lord knew the danger which threatened Asa. He had begun well. He was faithful to Jehovah, and he and the people had a wonderful demonstration that the Lord hears and answers prayer. Would he continue and end as well as he had begun? The Spirit of God came at this important time upon Azariah (whom the Lord helps). When victorious Asa returned the prophet met him and delivered his message. It was a needed and timely message, for the danger for God's people is always the greatest after a victory is won and outward success and prosperity is enjoyed. “The LORD is with you, while ye be with Him; an

The words of Azariah the son of Oded (not mentioned elsewhere) form a kind of introduction to the account of Asa's religious reforms; if the words in 2 Chronicles 15:3 refer to any definite period, it must be to that of the Judges, for the description of the state of the nation does not agree with any other period recorded in the OT. The whole of this section, however, reads like a midrashic expansion of 1 Kings 15:11....

2 Chronicles 15:1-15 (no parallel in Kings). The Prophecy of Azariah and its Sequel 2. _went out to meet_ Cp. 2 Chronicles 19:2. _if ye seek him_ Cp. 1 Chronicles 28:9....

DISCOURSE: 404 THE EQUITY OF THE DIVINE PROCEDURE 2 Chronicles 15:2. _And he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; The Lord is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you_. AS in a season of affliction it may be sometimes necessary to blend reproof with consolation, so in a season of joy and triumph it may sometimes be proper to temper our congratulations with prudential advice. When Asa was returning with his victorious army after the destruction of his Ethiopian enemies, the prophet Oded was sent forth to meet him, and was directed by God himself not to salute him with fulsome compliments, but to impress upon his mind a salutary admonition. In this concise and pointed address, we see, I. The rule of God’s procedure— God is n

4. THE REIGN OF ASA (14-16) TEXT 2 Chronicles 14:1. So Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David; and Asa his son reigned in his stead. In his days the land was quiet ten years. 2. And Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of Jehovah his God: 3. for he took away the foreign altars, and the high places, and brake down the pillars, and hewed down the Asherim, 4. and commanded Judah to seek Jehovah, the God of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandment. 5. Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the sun-images: and the kingdom was quiet before him. 6. And he built fortified cities in Judah; for the land was quiet, and he had no war in those years, because Jehovah had given him rest. 7, For he said unto Judah, Let us build these cities, and make about them walls, and towers, gates, and bars; the

REIGN OF ASA (CONTINUED) An account of how Asa, moved by the prophet Azariah, made a covenant to seek.the LORD. This chapter is almost entirely supplementary to what is recorded of Asa in 1 Kings 15....