Commentary - 1 Kings 15:9-24

Bird's-eye view

The reign of Asa, king of Judah, is a tale of two halves, a story of righteous reformation followed by pragmatic compromise. The text presents us with one of the better kings of Judah, a man who, for the most part, did right in the eyes of the Lord, measuring up to the gold standard of his father David. He begins with a zealous and costly house cleaning, purging the land of idolatry and even deposing his own grandmother for her promotion of Asherah worship. And yet, this commendable record is tarnished. A lingering compromise with the high places serves as a foreshadowing of a much greater failure. When faced with a military threat from Baasha of Israel, Asa's faith falters. Instead of trusting in Yahweh, who had blessed his earlier reforms, he resorts to the carnal wisdom of international politics. He raids the treasuries of God's house to hire a pagan king, a scheme that succeeds on its own worldly terms but represents a profound spiritual failure. Asa's story is therefore a crucial case study in the nature of partial obedience and a solemn warning that a good start does not guarantee a faithful finish.

This passage forces us to confront the tension between a heart that is "wholly devoted" and actions that are deeply flawed. It demonstrates that our sanctification is an uneven process and that past victories are no security against future failures. Asa's reign is a microcosm of the history of Judah itself: moments of glorious, God-honoring revival, punctuated by disastrous lapses into self-reliance and worldly entanglement. Ultimately, Asa's mixed record points us to our need for a perfect King, one whose heart is not only devoted but whose obedience is flawless, and who builds His kingdom not with the pilfered gold of the temple, but with His own precious blood.

Outline

Context In 1 Kings

This section of 1 Kings comes right after the definitive split of the United Monarchy. The northern ten tribes, Israel, have descended into a spiral of apostasy, beginning with Jeroboam's golden calves. Their kings come and go in a series of bloody coups, each one walking in the sins of Jeroboam. The southern kingdom, Judah, is where the line of David continues, and the story is more complex. Asa's father Abijam had a short and wicked reign, and his grandfather Rehoboam was the fool who lost the kingdom. Asa's reign, therefore, represents a significant and hopeful course correction for the southern kingdom. He is the first king since David and Solomon to receive a generally positive review from the sacred historian. His story stands in stark contrast to the concurrent chaos in the north under kings like Nadab and Baasha, providing a clear lesson on the blessings of covenant faithfulness, however imperfect, and the curses of outright apostasy.

Key Issues

Reformation and Realpolitik

We have in Asa a king who starts like a rocket and finishes like a rock. His early reign is a textbook example of what a godly ruler should do. He sees the filth of idolatry that has corrupted the land and he acts decisively. He doesn't form a committee or take a poll. He cleans house. And this is not a cheap or easy thing to do. It costs him politically, and it costs him personally, forcing him to confront his own grandmother. This is the spirit of reformation. It is a willingness to obey God's Word regardless of the consequences.

But then the pressure comes. The political and military realities of his situation begin to loom larger in his mind than the spiritual realities of God's covenant promises. And so, the reformer becomes a politician. He trades in faith for what the Germans call Realpolitik, a system of politics based on practical rather than moral or ideological considerations. He makes a calculated, strategic decision that makes perfect sense from a worldly point of view, and is utter foolishness from a heavenly one. This is the perennial temptation for the people of God: to adopt the world's methods to achieve God's ends. But the Bible's consistent testimony is that God's ends must be achieved by God's means. Asa's story is a cautionary tale written in the inspired Scriptures for our benefit, lest we also trade the power of God for a bag of Syrian gold.

Verse by Verse Commentary

9-11 Now in the twentieth year of Jeroboam the king of Israel, Asa began to reign as king of Judah. And he reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom. And Asa did what was right in the sight of Yahweh, like David his father.

The account begins by setting the stage. Asa's long reign of forty-one years is itself a mark of divine blessing and stability, especially when contrasted with the revolving door of kings in the north. The historian immediately renders the verdict on his reign: he "did what was right." And the standard is not his immediate predecessors, but "David his father." This is the covenantal benchmark. To be a good king in Judah was to be a son of David not just in lineage, but in character and piety. Asa, at least at the outset, meets this high standard.

12 He also put away the male cult prostitutes from the land and removed all the idols which his fathers had made.

His righteousness was not a matter of private sentiment; it was public and active. He launches a full-scale purge. The "male cult prostitutes" were a particularly vile feature of Canaanite fertility worship, a complete inversion of God's created order for sexuality and worship. Asa expels them. He also removes the "idols which his fathers had made." This means he was reversing the sinful policies of Rehoboam and Abijam. Reformation always requires a confrontation with the sins of the previous generation.

13 He also removed Maacah his mother from being queen mother, because she had made a horrid image for Asherah; and Asa cut down her horrid image and burned it at the brook Kidron.

This is the pinnacle of his zeal. The "queen mother" was a position of great honor and influence in the court. But Maacah, his grandmother, was using her position to promote idolatry. She had made a "horrid image," likely an obscene wooden idol, for the worship of Asherah, the Canaanite consort of Baal. Asa's response is twofold and decisive. First, he strips her of her royal office. He understands that allegiance to God trumps allegiance to family. Second, he deals with the idol itself. He doesn't just put it in storage; he "cut down" the image and "burned it at the brook Kidron." The Kidron Valley was Jerusalem's garbage dump. He is treating this object of worship as the vile refuse that it is. This is a public act of desecration, showing his utter contempt for this false god.

14 But the high places were not removed; nevertheless the heart of Asa was wholly devoted to Yahweh all his days.

Here is the great tension in the passage. After listing his righteous acts, the historian notes a significant failure: "the high places were not removed." These were local shrines where people would worship, often sincerely worshipping Yahweh, but in a way that violated the command for centralized worship at the tabernacle, and later the temple (Deut 12). It was a syncretistic and disobedient practice. This was a failure of nerve, or a blind spot. And yet, in the very next breath, we are told his heart was "wholly devoted" or "perfect" with Yahweh. This does not mean he was sinless. It means his fundamental orientation, his core allegiance, was to God. He was not trying to serve two masters. His failure was one of incomplete obedience, not a divided heart. It is a picture of every believer's life: a heart truly given to God, yet still battling with remaining sin and inconsistency.

15 And he brought into the house of Yahweh the holy things of his father and his own holy things: silver and gold and utensils.

Reformation is not just about tearing down the bad; it is about building up the good. Having purged the land of idols, Asa now replenishes the Lord's house. He brings in the treasures that he and his father had dedicated to God, likely from the spoils of war. True worship involves not just the removal of sin, but the joyful offering of our substance to God.

16-17 Now there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days. And Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah and built up Ramah in order to prevent anyone from going out or coming in to Asa king of Judah.

The scene shifts from religious reform to military conflict. The cold war between Judah and Israel turns hot. Baasha makes a strategic move, fortifying Ramah, a town just a few miles north of Jerusalem. This effectively creates a blockade, cutting off trade and travel to Asa's capital. It was a serious threat to Judah's security and sovereignty.

18-19 Then Asa took all the silver and the gold which were left in the treasuries of the house of Yahweh and the treasuries of the king’s house, and delivered them into the hand of his servants. And King Asa sent them to Ben-hadad... saying, “Let there be a covenant between you and me... go, break your covenant with Baasha king of Israel so that he will withdraw from me.”

Here is the great pivot from faith to pragmatism. Faced with a crisis, Asa does not inquire of the Lord or call the people to prayer. Instead, he looks at his resources. And his eyes fall on the treasuries of the temple. The very treasures he had just dedicated to God (v. 15), he now repurposes for a political bribe. This is sacrilege. He is treating God's house like his personal ATM. His proposal to Ben-hadad, the pagan king of Aram, is pure Machiavellian politics. He asks Ben-hadad to break a treaty he already has with Baasha. Asa is not only being faithless toward God, he is actively promoting faithlessness among the pagans.

20-21 So Ben-hadad listened to King Asa... and struck down... Israel... Now it happened that when Baasha heard of it, he ceased building up Ramah and remained in Tirzah.

And the plan works. This is the seductive danger of worldly wisdom. Ben-hadad is happy to take the money and attack his rival's northern territories. The pressure on Israel's northern flank forces Baasha to abandon his project at Ramah and pull back. From a purely military and political standpoint, Asa's gambit was a brilliant success. He neutralized the threat. But he did so by robbing God and trusting a pagan. He won the battle, but he revealed a deep rot in his soul.

22 Then King Asa caused an announcement to be heard throughout all Judah, none was exempt, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber with which Baasha had been building. And King Asa built with them Geba of Benjamin and Mizpah.

Asa now adds insult to injury. He conscripts the entire population of Judah to haul away the building materials Baasha left behind. He then uses these spoils of his faithless policy to build up his own border defenses. The very stones of Geba and Mizpah would stand as monuments to his moment of panic and unbelief. He has secured his kingdom, but he has done it with resources stolen from God and materials gained through a faithless alliance.

23-24 Now the rest of all the acts of Asa... are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? But in the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet. And Asa slept with his fathers... and Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his place.

The summary of his reign points to other sources for more details. But it includes one final, ominous note. In his old age, he was afflicted with a severe disease in his feet. The parallel account in 2 Chronicles 16 makes it clear that this was a judgment for his sin with Ben-hadad and for his subsequent imprisonment of the prophet who rebuked him. The Chronicler adds that even in his disease, "he did not seek help from Yahweh, but only from the physicians." The man who started with such zeal for God ended his life trusting in the arm of flesh. It is a tragic end to a promising beginning, a solemn warning about the importance of finishing the race well.

Application

Asa's story comes to us as both an encouragement and a severe warning. We should be encouraged by his early zeal. He shows us that reformation is possible. A godly leader can, by God's grace, push back against cultural rot and familial sin. His willingness to confront his own grandmother for the sake of God's law is a model of true loyalty. We are called to the same kind of decisive action against the idols in our own lives, our families, and our churches.

But the warning is just as stark. The great test of our faith is not when things are going well, but when the pressure is on. When Baasha is building a fortress on our border, what is our first move? Do we, like Asa, immediately look to our earthly resources, our political connections, our financial reserves? Do we begin to see the treasures of God's house, the resources of the church, as tools to be leveraged for our own security? Or do we, like David, inquire of the Lord? Asa's sin was to believe that a pagan king in Damascus was a more reliable savior than the God of Heaven and Earth. We commit the same sin every time we trust in political solutions, financial schemes, or our own cleverness to solve problems that can only be truly solved by faith in the living God.

Finally, Asa's incomplete obedience reminds us of our desperate need for a better King. Asa's heart was devoted, but his reforms were partial and his faith was fragile. He is a signpost pointing to the one King who was not partial, whose faith never wavered, and who, when faced with the ultimate crisis, did not raid the temple's treasury but gave His own life as a ransom. Our security is not built with the stones of a faithless alliance, but upon the rock of Christ's perfect righteousness.