{"id":4777,"date":"2019-09-03T20:00:10","date_gmt":"2019-09-04T03:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=4777"},"modified":"2019-09-03T22:21:26","modified_gmt":"2019-09-04T05:21:26","slug":"2chronicles_16_1-14-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/2chronicles_16_1-14-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Seek God and Experience Rest on Every Side"},"content":{"rendered":"

2 Chronicles 16:1-14\u00a0\u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 2 Chronicles 16:1-14.<\/p>\n

2 Chronicles 16:7 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him: “Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand.”
\n<\/em>
\nOn verses 1-9:\u00a0\u00a0King Asa and his land of Judah are attacked by Baasha king of Israel.\u00a0\u00a0Baasha sets up a stronghold at Ramah near the border of Israel and Judah, preventing any more Israelites from flocking to Judah (see 2 Chronicles 15:9).\u00a0\u00a0Instead of placing his hope in God, Asa places his hope in King Ben-Hadad of Aram to save him.\u00a0\u00a0With silver and gold from the temple as well as from his own palace, Asa bribes King Ben-Hadad of Aram to break his treaty with Baasha and attack Baasha.\u00a0\u00a0King Ben-Hadad of Aram accepts the bribe and helps Asa to fend off Baasha.\u00a0\u00a0However, God sends the prophet Hanani to rebuke Asa, saying that \u201c[b]ecause you relied on the king of Aram and not on the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand\u201d (v7).\u00a0\u00a0In other words, God\u2019s original intent was not for Asa to trust in shifty Aram, but to conquer Aram.\u00a0\u00a0But because Asa decided to partner with Aram, this opened the door for\u00a0Aram later to turn around and do much damage to Judah over the next several decades (see 22:5-6; 24:23; 28:5).\u00a0\u00a0It also would result in Judah being at war for the rest of Asa\u2019s reign as king.\u00a0\u00a0While rebuking Asa for unwisely trusting in Aram, Hanani the prophet speaks these powerful words, \u201cFor the eyes of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.\u201d (v9)<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Sometimes enemy attacks will come.\u00a0\u00a0When attacks come, put your hope in God, not in people or circumstances.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0As Psalm 20:7-8 says\u00a0\u201c<\/sup>Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0our God.\u00a0\u00a0They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0When we trust in ourselves instead of trusting in the Lord, this may bring short-term gain, but even more, long term pain.\u00a0\u00a0In contrast,\u00a0trusting in God might bring short-term inconvenience or discomfort, but always results in peace and blessing for the long term.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
    1. Avoid partnering with someone who has no problems breaking their commitments to others.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0For if they are willing to betray others so that they can be with you, don\u2019t be surprised if one day they betray you so that they can be with someone else.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      2 Chronicles\u00a016:10\u00a0(NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
      \n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Asa 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.<\/em><\/p>\n

      On verse 10:\u00a0\u00a0Asa pridefully rejects God\u2019s Word and places the prophet Hanani in prison.\u00a0\u00a0At the same time, Asa is also found brutally oppressing some of the people in his land.\u00a0\u00a0What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0When your relationship with God is not healthy, your relationships with people will not be healthy either.\u00a0When you are not in a good place with God, your relationships with other people suffer too.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0There is a direct correlation between the health of your relationship with God and the health of your relationships with people.<\/p>\n

      2 Chronicles\u00a016:12\u00a0(NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
      \n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from theLORD, but only from the physicians.<\/em><\/p>\n

      On verses 11-14:\u00a0\u00a0Here we see Asa in his final years battling a disease.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But instead of seeking God for help and placing his hope in Him like he did as a young king, Asa seeks help only from physicians, who could not help him.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Asa dies and is buried.<\/p>\n

      What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0Age does not guarantee wisdom.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0As Asa grew older, Asa seemingly lost his hunger for God.\u00a0\u00a0He became less God-centered and more human-centered.\u00a0\u00a0This caused Asa to make foolish decisions, trusting in people who ultimately did not help him.\u00a0\u00a0As you get older and more experienced, never lose your dependence on God.\u00a0\u00a0Stay humble, hungry and desperate for God, for apart from Him we can do nothing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

      Heavenly Father, no matter how old or experienced I get, may I always stay humble, hungry and desperate for You, knowing that apart from You I can do nothing.\u00a0Thank You that Your eyes range throughout the earth to strengthen those who hearts are fully committed to You.\u00a0\u00a0Please strengthen me today.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

      <\/div>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

      Today\u2019s passage is 2 Chronicles 16:1-14.<\/p>\n

      2 Chronicles 16:7 (NIV)\u00a0
      \n7\u00a0\u00a0At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him: “Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand.”<\/p>\n

      On verses 1-9:\u00a0\u00a0King Asa and his land of Judah are attacked by Baasha king of Israel.\u00a0\u00a0Baasha sets up a stronghold at Ramah near the border of Israel and Judah, preventing any more Israelites from flocking to Judah (see 2 Chronicles 15:9).\u00a0\u00a0Instead of placing his hope in God, Asa places his hope in King Ben-Hadad of Aram to save him.\u00a0\u00a0With silver and gold from the temple as well as from his own palace, Asa bribes King Ben-Hadad of Aram to break his treaty with Baasha and attack Baasha.\u00a0\u00a0King Ben-Hadad of Aram accepts the bribe and helps Asa to fend off Baasha.\u00a0\u00a0However, God sends the prophet Hanani to rebuke Asa, saying that \u201c[b]ecause you relied on the king of Aram and not on the\u00a0LORD\u00a0your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand\u201d (v7).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4778,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4777"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4780,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4777\/revisions\/4780"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}