1 Kings 15

The history of the kings of Israel and Judah was full of disobedience and disappointment. The Lord repeatedly referred back to David as the touchstone of what a king should be. This despite what is called here “the matter of Uriah the Hittite.” The prophets continued to talk about David long after his death, sometimes referring to a future David who would come.

Abijam, David's grandson, was not the David who would come. He did not follow in David's ways. Yet the Lord kept the line of David going in Jerusalem according to His promise.

Abijam's son, Asa, was commended by the Lord in this account. He took steps to purify the worship and life of Judah, even taking action against his own mother when she made an idolatrous image.

Asa concerned himself not only with the religious and moral life of Judah. He also took decisive action against the rulers to the north in Israel who still tried to prevent their people from coming to Jerusalem.

Like David, Solomon, Rehoboam, and Abijam before him, Asa would die and be buried. There was more to the story of Asa, not all of it glowing, that we find elsewhere in the Scriptures. Here in 1 Kings the focus of God is on Asa as a better king than Abijam. Yet we also hear that Asa faced challenges with his body in his old age.

The story of diseases of body and soul afflicting the sons of Adam are all too familiar to us. We ask for the Lord's healing, but we also seek to be faithful in the midst of what may be severe trials that will not go away. The difficulties that come from the fall of mankind touch both rulers and their subjects. Eventually our days come to an end. Is there any answer to the problems of disease and the grave?

Our hearts long for eternity. But where can we find solid hope and lasting treasures? Certainly not among the northern kings. Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, reigned for two years. His evil days came to an inglorious end. His assassin destroyed all the house of Jeroboam in accord with the prophetic word God gave to Jeroboam in earlier days.

Baasha, the man who killed Nadab, would also do what was evil in the sight of the Lord. With evil rulers in the northern kingdom, and the stain of mortality even among better kings in the south, we are forced to look beyond this earth for one who will be able to truly defeat sin and death forever.

Even though the victory of the kingdom of God has come decisively for us in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we so easily imagine that our hope lies in better leaders among the sons of man. An Asa may certainly be better than a Nadab. And a David is better than both of them. Yet even with a David there is the matter of Uriah the Hittite.

But now our perfect David has come. We can search the Scriptures from beginning to end, and we will find no sin in Him. He has become for us the way of life and the gate to eternal blessing.