2 Chronicles 15:7

_BE YE STRONG THEREFORE, AND LET NOT YOUR HANDS BE WEAK: FOR YOUR WORK SHALL BE REWARDED._ Be ye strong. Great resolution and indomitable energy would be required to persevere in the face of the opposition your reforming measures will encounter. YOUR WORK SHALL BE REWARDED - i:e., what you do in the cause and for the glory of God will assuredly be followed by the happiest results both to yourself and your subjects....

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,...

BE YE STRONG THEREFORE, AND LET NOT YOUR HANDS BE WEAK,.... Be hearty, earnest, and vigorous, and not languid and remiss in reforming the worship of God, which Asa had begun: FOR YOUR WORK SHALL BE REWARDED; with peace and prosperity at home, and success against enemies abroad, of which they had had a recent instance....

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....

_Be ye strong therefore_ R.V. BUT BE YE STRONG. The prophet's warning is continued in this verse. _be weak_ R.V. BE SLACK....

DISCOURSE: 405 ENCOURAGEMENT TO EXERTION 2 Chronicles 15:7. _Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak: for your work shall be rewarded. And when Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage_. THERE are two extremes to which mankind are prone—presumption, and despondency. To the former the ungodly are inclined; to the latter, the righteous. King Asa was a man who “did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God [Note: 2 Chronicles 14:2.],” and “his heart was perfect all his days [Note: ver. 17.]:” yet did he need encouragement from a prophet of the Lord, to sustain his fainting mind. In the passage before us, we have, I. An historic record— Asa had been enabled to vanquish an host of not

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....

2 CHRONICLES: GOD DESIRES LOYAL PEOPLE The *Kingdom called Judah 2 CHRONICLES CHAPTER S 10 TO 36 _IAN MACKERVOY_ CHAPTER 15 ASA OBEYS THE *PROPHET – 2 CHRONICLES 15:1-8 V1 The Spirit of God came upon Oded’s son, Azariah. V2 He went to meet Asa. And he said, ‘Listen to me Asa and all of you people in Judah and Benjamin. The *LORD is with you while you are with him. If you obey him, you will find him. But if you leave him, he will leave you. V3 For a long time, *Israel was without the real God. They did not have a priest who taught them. And they did not have the law. V4 But when they were in trouble, they *turned to the *LORD, *Israel’s God. They sea