The Folly of Pragmatic Unbelief
Introduction: The Subtle Rot of Compromise
There are two ways a man's faith can die. The first is a dramatic blowout, a catastrophic failure that is plain for all to see. The second, and far more common, is a slow leak. It is a gradual, almost imperceptible drift from a radical reliance on God to a sensible, pragmatic reliance on the world's way of doing things. This is the story of King Asa's tragic turn. Asa was, by all accounts, a good king. He began his reign with zealous reforms, purging Judah of its idols and calling the people back to covenant faithfulness. He was a man who had seen the mighty hand of God deliver him from an overwhelming foe.
But spiritual success is a dangerous thing. A long period of blessing can lead to a short memory. The man who once trusted God for the impossible begins to think he can handle the merely difficult on his own. He starts to confuse God's blessing with his own competence. And so, when a new threat arises, instead of turning to the God who gave him the great victory, he turns to the political playbook that seems so much more tangible, so much more realistic. He makes a phone call to Damascus instead of falling on his knees in Jerusalem.
This passage is a bucket of ice water for the comfortable church. It is a warning against the kind of practical atheism that mouths the right doctrines on Sunday and then runs its business, its family, and its politics like an unbeliever from Monday to Saturday. The issue here is not a denial of God's existence, but a denial of His relevance. It is the sin of supplementing our faith with a security deposit of pagan alliances. It is the belief that while God is certainly our co-pilot, we need to keep a worldly hand on the controls, just in case. This story shows us in stark terms that God will not be a consultant for our plans. He is either Lord of all, or He is not Lord at all.
The Text
Now at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him, "Because you have leaned on the king of Aram and have not leaned on Yahweh your God, therefore the military force of the king of Aram has escaped out of your hand. Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubim a vast military force with an exceedingly vast number of chariots and horsemen? Yet because you leaned on Yahweh, He gave them into your hand. For the eyes of Yahweh move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is wholly devoted to Him. You have acted foolishly in this. Indeed, from now on you will surely have wars." Then Asa was vexed with the seer and put him in prison, for he was enraged at him for this. And Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time.
(2 Chronicles 16:7-10 LSB)
The Prophet's Indictment (v. 7)
We begin with the unwelcome arrival of God's messenger.
"Now at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him, 'Because you have leaned on the king of Aram and have not leaned on Yahweh your God, therefore the military force of the king of Aram has escaped out of your hand.'" (2 Chronicles 16:7)
The issue is one of posture, of reliance, of where you place your weight. The word is "leaned." It is a picture of dependence. When faced with a threat from Baasha, king of Israel, Asa's first instinct was not prayer, but payment. He raided the treasuries of the Lord's house and his own house and sent the silver and gold to Ben-hadad, king of Aram, to buy an alliance. From a purely secular, geopolitical perspective, it was a brilliant move. It worked. Baasha withdrew.
But God is not a secular geopolitician. He is the king of the universe. Asa's sin was not in having foreign relations. His sin was in placing his trust, his weight, his ultimate confidence in the arm of flesh. He treated Yahweh as a backup plan and the king of Aram as his frontline defense. This is the essence of idolatry. It is not just bowing to a statue; it is leaning on anything other than God.
And notice the bitter irony of the consequence. "Therefore the military force of the king of Aram has escaped out of your hand." What does this mean? It means God's plan was bigger than Asa's. God intended to deliver not only Israel into Asa's hand, but the Arameans as well. He wanted to give Asa a double victory. By settling for a clever political solution, Asa forfeited a supernatural triumph. He thought his plan was shrewd, but it was shortsighted. He paid a bribe to get rid of one enemy and in so doing, missed the opportunity God was giving him to defeat two. This is always how compromise works. It promises a manageable success but robs us of a glorious victory.
The Appeal to Memory (v. 8)
Hanani does not just state the principle; he brings Asa's own life into evidence against him. God argues with us from our own history.
"Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubim a vast military force with an exceedingly vast number of chariots and horsemen? Yet because you leaned on Yahweh, He gave them into your hand." (2 Chronicles 16:8)
This is a direct reference to the great victory recorded back in chapter 14. An army of a million men and three hundred chariots had come against Judah. By any human calculation, Asa was finished. But in that moment, Asa cried out to God and said, "O Yahweh, there is no one besides You to help in the battle between the powerful and the one who has no power; so help us, O Yahweh our God, for we lean on You." He used the very same word. He had a history of leaning on God in an impossible situation and seeing God act.
But now, facing a much smaller threat, he forgets. He has grace amnesia. His faith has atrophied from disuse. This is a profound warning. Past victories do not guarantee future faithfulness. Each new trial is a fresh test of where we are going to place our trust. Hanani is forcing Asa to look at the glaring contradiction. "You trusted God with the million-man army, but you can't trust Him with Baasha? You leaned on Him when you had no power, but now that you have a little silver in the treasury, you lean on that instead?" The greater the blessing, the greater the temptation to forget the Giver of the blessing.
The Divine Reconnaissance (v. 9)
Here we find the central theological lesson of the entire episode. This is the principle that governs reality.
"For the eyes of Yahweh move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is wholly devoted to Him. You have acted foolishly in this. Indeed, from now on you will surely have wars." (2 Chronicles 16:9)
This is a magnificent picture of God's active, engaged, providential rule. He is not a distant, passive observer. His eyes are scanning, searching, on active reconnaissance. And what is He looking for? He is not looking for the most powerful armies, the cleverest politicians, or the wealthiest nations. He is looking for a particular kind of heart: a heart that is "wholly devoted to Him." The Hebrew word is shalem, meaning complete, perfect, undivided. God is looking for hearts that lean on Him and Him alone.
And when He finds such a heart, His intention is to "strongly support" it. God is on the lookout for people through whom He can display His magnificent power. He is searching for opportunities to show off, not for our glory, but for His. Asa had a divided heart. He wanted God's blessing, but he wanted Aram's security. God will not be used that way. He will not be a junior partner in an alliance with a pagan king.
"You have acted foolishly in this." In the Bible, foolishness is not an intellectual problem; it is a spiritual one. The fool is not the man who cannot reason, but the man who says in his heart, "There is no God," or, what amounts to the same thing, "There is a God, but I'll handle this one myself." And the consequence is the natural outworking of his choice. "From now on you will surely have wars." You have put your trust in the sword, so you will live by the sword. You have chosen the path of worldly conflict, so that is the path you will walk.
The King's Rage (v. 10)
The final verse reveals the true condition of Asa's heart. The Word of God is a hammer, and here it strikes a heart that has become stone.
"Then Asa was vexed with the seer and put him in prison, for he was enraged at him for this. And Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time." (2 Chronicles 16:10)
A heart that is right with God, when confronted with the truth, breaks in repentance. Think of David when Nathan confronted him: "I have sinned against Yahweh." But a heart that is hardened in its pride, when confronted with the truth, shatters in rage. Asa cannot refute the message, so he attacks the messenger. He was "vexed" and "enraged." The prophet's words exposed the idol of self-reliance in his heart, and his pride could not bear the exposure.
So he does what all tyrants do when they are confronted by a truth they hate. He tries to silence it. He throws Hanani into the "house of stocks," a place of confinement and torture. When you cannot win the argument, you lock up the man who is making it. This is the spirit of our age. It is the spirit of cancel culture. It is the rage of a world that cannot stand the prophetic voice of the church, and so it seeks to imprison it, to shut it down, to label it as hate speech.
And notice the contagion of sin. His rage against God's prophet immediately spills over into injustice against his own subjects. "And Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time." When a ruler rebels against God, it is never long before he becomes a tyrant to his people. The rejection of the ultimate authority leads to the abuse of all delegated authority.
Conclusion: Where Are You Leaning?
The story of Asa is a solemn warning written for our benefit. It shows us that a man can have a great testimony and still end poorly. It shows us that the fundamental battle of the Christian life is the daily battle of dependence. Every morning, every decision, every crisis presents us with the same choice Asa had: will I lean on the king of Aram, or will I lean on Yahweh?
The king of Aram has many modern names. He is called your bank account. He is called your political savvy. He is called your retirement plan. He is called your own cleverness. These things are not evil in themselves, but they make terrible gods. They are all broken reeds, and if you put your full weight on them, they will splinter and pierce your hand.
God's eyes are searching this room right now. He is searching for hearts that are wholly His. He is looking for men and women who will abandon their pragmatic unbelief and trust Him completely, not as a last resort, but as their first and only resort. He wants to show Himself strong on your behalf.
And when His Word comes to you, as it has today, and it exposes an area of compromise, an area where you have been leaning on Aram, do not be vexed. Do not rage. Do not build a prison for the truth. Let it do its work. Let it break you. For it is only when we are broken of our self-reliance that we can learn to lean with all our weight on Him. The only truly whole heart is a heart that has been broken and then remade by the grace of God in Jesus Christ. He is the only king who never failed to lean on His Father, and it is only by leaning on Him that we can stand.