TEN

Too Smart for Our Own Good?

OFTEN WHEN OUR PASTORAL staff meets together, amid the flurry of busy days and what the world would term “church success”—a large membership, nearly twenty branch churches, the choir performing at Billy Graham crusades, our videos being televised nationwide, invitations to speak here and there—a nagging thought from the Lord spreads across the edges of our hearts: Remember who has done all this. Your need for me hasn’t lessened at all.

If you have been a Christian for any length of time, the same is true for you individually. Your first rush of emotion at how God wonderfully saved you from sin has faded. Your desperate early days when you cried out to the Lord because you didn’t know what you were doing (as I had to do back on Atlantic Avenue) have given way to a degree of confidence and assurance. You and I have learned a lot, seen and heard a lot, built a track record, and accumulated a fair storehouse of “wisdom.”

That’s why we are at great risk.

We discover what this means in the life of a man named Asa. You probably haven’t thought about this Old Testament king in a long time—maybe never. Most readers of the Bible, unless they happen to be history buffs, doze off once they finish the accounts of the famous monarchs Saul, David, and Solomon.

Asa was Solomon’s great-grandson. God gave him three whole chapters of 2 Chronicles for a reason. I happen to think his biography is one of the most important in all of Scripture, especially for today. Asa was not brought up to be a spiritual person. Solomon, as everyone knows, had wandered from God near the end of his life. Rehoboam, who came next, and then Abijah, Asa’s father, let idol worship come right into the midst of what was supposed to be a godly society. Baal was welcomed as a help to the crops; Asherah poles, oversized carvings of the male sex organ supposed to bring fertility, were common; children were actually offered as sacrifices in the fires of Molech.

In such a spiritual climate, who was it who got through to young Asa and convinced him to seek the Lord? We don’t know. Second Chronicles 14:2–4 tells us only that early in his reign Asa “did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God. He removed the foreign altars and the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He commanded Judah to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, and to obey his laws and commands.”

In essence, Asa was saying, “Time out! We have a mess on our hands. The foreign altars and immorality must go. We’re going to clean house throughout this entire kingdom. We’re going to start obeying the Lord’s commands and call out to him with all our hearts. We must have him near us in order to receive his blessing.”

These people were Israelites, sons and daughters of Abraham, living in a specially chosen land. But they were in a terrible spiritual condition nonetheless. Their heritage did not remove the consequences of displeasing God. No claim of special rank could exempt them. In fact, their elect status would bring God’s correction even more quickly than it would to their enemies.

The first step in any spiritual awakening is demolition. We cannot make headway in seeking God without first tearing down the accumulated junk in our souls. Rationalizing has to cease. We have to start seeing the sinful debris we hadn’t noticed before, which is what holds back the blessing of God.

I wonder if any government employee said, “Excuse me, King Asa, but your father built that particular shrine…. Your grandfather dedicated that incense altar. Are you sure you want them demolished?”

If they had, Asa would have replied, “Tear them down—now! They’re wrong. This idolatry was borrowed from the Canaanites—but we’re not Canaanites. God will never bless us as long as these things stand.”

Anytime people get hungry to truly know the Lord, the Holy Spirit quickly puts a shovel and broom into their hands. Husbands and wives begin to deal with long-buried issues hurting their marriages. Adults take a closer look at their choice of TV programs and movies. Church members begin to see the damage wreaked by their gossip, their racial attitudes, their criticism.

I admit this sounds old-fashioned. I am out of step with the modern habit of “claiming” God’s blessing regardless of how we live. But what does the Bible show us?

Sin grieves the Holy Spirit and quenches his power among us. Without his blessing we miss out on what God has for us and wants us to be, no matter what religious label we may be carrying.

One Sunday about 20 years ago, back in our days in the YWCA, I said something impromptu while receiving new members into the church that has stuck with us ever since. People were standing in a row across the front before me, and as I spoke, the Holy Spirit seemed to prompt me to add, “And now, I charge you, as pastor of this church, that if you ever hear another member speak an unkind word of criticism or slander against anyone—myself, another pastor, an usher, a choir member, or anyone else—you have authority to stop that person in midsentence and say, ‘Excuse me—who hurt you? Who ignored you? Who slighted you? Was it Pastor Cymbala? Let’s go to his office right now. He will get on his knees and apologize to you, and then we’ll pray together, so God can restore peace to this body. But we will not let you talk critically about people who are not present to defend themselves.’

“New members, please understand that I am entirely serious about this. I want you to help resolve this kind of thing immediately. And meanwhile, know this: If you are ever the one doing the loose talking, we will confront you.”

To this very day, every time we receive new members, I say much the same thing. It is always a solemn moment. That is because I know what most easily destroys churches. It is not crack cocaine. It is not government oppression. It is not even lack of funds. Rather, it is gossip and slander that grieves the Holy Spirit.

People nod their heads with understanding, and as a result, rumor and busybody talk are kept to a minimum. We have had to confront a few people along the way, of course, but the general concern to live with clean hearts and clean speech before the Lord prevents many problems from ever getting started.

Asa’s early years were marked by a national housecleaning. God’s blessing flowed upon the king and his people in response.

A GREAT CHALLENGE

UNFORTUNATELY, SEEKING THE LORD wholeheartedly does not exempt us from outside attack. After ten years of peace, Asa’s corner of the world was suddenly invaded by a huge Cushite (Ethiopian) army for no apparent reason. Asa’s godliness did not guarantee a smooth road for the rest of his life.

In such a moment, seekers after God have built up a reservoir of ready faith to meet new problems. They know exactly what to do:

“Asa called to the LORD his God and said, ‘LORD, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. O LORD, you are our God; do not let man prevail against you’” (2 Chron. 14:11).

Asa’s faith was not some kind of instant cake mix stirred from a box on the pantry shelf. He and the people had already been calling out to God for a decade. Hence, there was no panic. They cried for the Lord to arise—and he did. The Cushites were decisively wiped out, despite their overwhelming numbers, “for the terror of the LORD had fallen upon them” (v.14).

This is a classic example of a cardinal principle of God’s dealing with humanity. Hebrews 11:6 expresses it best: “Anyone who comes to [God] must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” I cannot say it strongly enough: When we seek God, he will bless us. But when we stop seeking him … all bets are off, no matter who we are. It doesn’t matter how much talent we have, how many diplomas hang on our walls, what word of prophecy was proclaimed over us, or anything else.

On Asa’s way home from the battle, a prophet stopped him and his army along the road to reinforce what had just happened:

“Listen to me…. The LORD is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you” (2 Chron. 15:2). The cause-and-effect relationship could not be clearer.

The more we seek God, the more we see our need to seek him. Asa, buoyed by this experience, began to look around … and discovered things he had missed earlier. The altar in God’s temple was broken down; he immediately ordered it repaired. He called a solemn assembly of the whole population, where he made a new covenant with God.

He was later shocked to find that his own grandmother, Maacah, still had “a repulsive Asherah pole” (15:16). He cut down the pole and deposed the elderly woman from her throne as queen mother. Can you believe that Asa had the nerve to bust his own grandmother! The people of the land could not help but say to one another, “This king is serious about pleasing God.”

Imagine the social current he was up against. Imagine the emotional ties he had to sever. His whole sense of family allegiance was arrayed against God’s will. But Asa was determined to be more than just “Maacah’s grandson.”

I see many churchgoers today who find family pressure too much to challenge. Others are caught up with being part of the middle-class scene, or with being white, or black. God did not call me to be a white middle-class Christian; he called me to be a Christian, period, and whatever he asks takes precedence over every other loyalty.

Even being an American is not of the same magnitude with being a seeker after God. Preserving the American culture cannot be allowed to compete with advancing God’s kingdom. Whatever God approves of comes first. Whatever grieves him has to go.

Asa understood who deserved his first loyalty. It was not his grandmother, his culture, his tradition, or anything else. It was God alone. What a wonderful example of single-hearted service to the Lord!

THE BLUNDER

I WOULD GIVE ANYTHING if Asa’s story ended this way. It doesn’t.

Twenty-five years went by. Somewhere along the way—as has happened to many churches, pastors, choir directors, and whole denominations—Asa stopped feeling his need to seek the Lord. We don’t know why. We don’t know whether the cares of life somehow made him spiritually soft. Maybe he thought he had reached a spiritual pinnacle and could relax. But the Bible teaches that we are always either drawing nearer to God or falling away. There is no holding pattern.

One day Asa received news that a small army from his northern neighbor was starting to build a blockade around his territory (see 2 Chron. 16). The opponent was not nearly the size of the Cushite horde of a quarter century earlier. What would Asa do now? How would he respond?

“Asa then took the silver and gold out of the treasuries of the LORD’s temple and of his own palace and sent it to Ben-Hadad king of Aram, who was ruling in Damascus. ‘Let there be a treaty between me and you,’ he said” (vv. 2–3).

This is stranger than Ripley’s Believe It or Not. The man who had built his whole success in life upon seeking after God was now dipping into the Lord’s coffers for a secular buy-off!

And the king of Aram was willing to be bought. He sent his army to put pressure on Asa’s enemy, who quickly backed away from attacking Jerusalem. Asa even got to capture some building materials that were left behind.

In other words, the plan “worked.” Asa probably felt proud of himself. I used my head and figured my way out of this one. I’m smart.

The people realized they had a very clever leader. Many churches today are making the same assumption: Whatever “works” is the way to go. If a technique gets the building filled and the bills paid, it must be blessed by God. Visible results are the proof that a strategy is heaven-ordained. Such thinking is due for a rude awakening when we stand before the Lord.

While Asa’s court officials were high-fiving each other on the brilliant maneuver just completed … in walked another prophet, named Hanani. He began to speak, and faces suddenly dropped.

“Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the LORD your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand….” (v. 7). In other words, there would be no way for Asa ever to oppose Aram in the future; he was locked into being cooperative with this pagan empire.

God’s messenger pressed on:

“Were not the Cushites and Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen? Yet when you relied on the LORD, he delivered them into your hand. For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war” (vv. 8–9, italics added).

Today God’s eyes are still running all across America, Canada, Mexico, the islands of the sea, the world … looking for someone—anyone—who will totally and passionately seek him, who is determined that every thought and action will be pleasing in his sight. For such a person or group, God will prove himself mighty. His power will explode on their behalf.

Day after day goes by, and God keeps looking, looking…. Doesn’t anyone want to call out for his blessing? Upon whom can he pour his grace? Isn’t anyone interested?

The less we look for God, the more he has to go looking for us. Why not run in his direction? When Jesus cried out in the middle of the temple crowd in Jerusalem, he said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him” (John 7:37).

When we align ourselves with the channel of God’s living grace, all kinds of marvelous things take place. His power energizes us to face any army, large or small, and win victories for him. We call upon him, and he sends us forth to accomplish what we could never do alone, regardless of our money, education, or track record.

TOUGH TO THE END

I WISH I COULD tell you that Asa fell on his knees and begged God’s forgiveness for straying, for thinking up his own political solution instead of calling upon the Lord. I wish I could say that Asa’s heart melted in confession, resulting in a return to the fervent faith of his younger days.

In fact, the opposite happened.

“Asa was angry with the seer because of this; he was so enraged that he put him in prison. At the same time Asa brutally oppressed some of the people” (2 Chron. 16:10).

The young king who once led a whole nation in seeking God now became a coldhearted oppressor of that nation. Asa’s story illustrates how people who stop seeking God tend to get crusty and arrogant. They think they know everything. A prophetic rebuke only irritates them.

Compare Asa with his great-great-grandfather, David, who in his later years made mistakes, too. In fact, David’s blunders were even worse: a one-night stand with a married woman, a follow-up murder of her husband, later on, an unwise census. But when rebuked by prophets—Nathan in one case, Gad in the other—David broke down. “I have sinned greatly in what I have done,” he confessed (2 Sam. 24:10). Psalm 51 is an eloquent, emotional outpouring of guilt before the Lord. No wonder he was called “a man after God’s own heart.”

People who have a seeking heart still make mistakes. But their reaction to rebuke and correction shows the condition of that heart. It determines what God is able to do with them in the future.

If Asa, like David, had broken before God, who knows how his life would have ended? But he did not, and the closing picture of Asa is downright pitiful. As an old man he developed a painful case of foot trouble, probably gout. He hobbled around his palace, every step bringing a grimace to his face. “Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the LORD, but only from the physicians. Then in the forty-first year of his reign Asa died” (2 Chron. 16:12–13).

Christendom, like Asa, is suffering from major illness today. Our vital signs are not good. Now we face a choice. We can stay hard and justify our backsliding by saying, “Don’t tell me my spiritual life needs correction. I’m getting along; everything is still ‘working,’ isn’t it? Leave me alone.” Or we can be like David and admit the truth.

Anything and everything is possible with God if we approach him with a broken spirit. We must humble ourselves, get rid of the debris in our lives, and keep leaning on him instead of our own understanding. Your future and mine are determined by this one thing: seeking after the Lord. The blessings we receive and then pass along to others all hang on this truth: “He rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Heb. 11:6).