In Need of Our Asa

Scripture: Asa did what was good and right in the sight of the Lord his God. He removed the pagan altars and the high places. He shattered their sacred pillars and chopped down their Asherah poles. He told the people of Judah to seek the Lord God of their ancestors and to carry out the instruction and the commands. He also removed the high places and the shrines from all the cities of Judah, and the kingdom experienced peace under him. 2 Chronicles 14:2-5

Observation: The lineage of the kings is this ... Saul, then David, then Solomon, then when the kingdom divided it is Rehoboam, Abijah (just 3 years), and now Asa. David honored the Lord, and Solomon spent the first half of his reign building the temple. However, he became susceptible to influence from foreign wives, and his son Rehoboam ran with that. As a result, Asa is already needing to "clean up" Judah from the influence of pagan rituals and idols to other gods.

And certainly, all these items - pagan shrines in "all the cities of Judah" and all the "high places" in the land - were not built by just two kings. Rather, they were built by the locals. Approximately 30 years removed from the completion of the temple and witnessing the arrival or Yahweh in Jerusalem, the Jews have already walked away from the Lord so far that a full restoration of every city and all the land is required.

Application: Thirty years ago was 1993. While our country was struggling through moral change at that time, we would have absolutely thought of ourselves as a "Christian" country. Throughout that decade even, terrorists were attacking our people in part because they perceived us as Christian.

Today ... it's deemed improper to pray in public, laws have been passed to sanction biblical sins, people can get in trouble at work for talking about Jesus, and there is an emerging motion to classify the Church as a 'hate' organization.

We have so quickly walked away from the Lord, and just like Judah it isn't just because one leader set a bad example. The pagan alters are everywhere, sometimes figuratively, but evident by the culture nonetheless. And as we are about to enter into a new election cycle, I don't see our Asa on the horizon. Where is our national leader who will remove those alters, and cut up and burn the obscene elements currently being worshipped by society? Yes, the Church can support the movement, but we need our own Asa.

Prayer: Lord, today I pray for a person I do not know and cannot yet name. We need a national leader who will help us restore our faith and our love for you, oh Lord. You can bring revival into our land if it is your will, and I pray that it is in fact your will. May we come back from the brink, and may there be a person who can lead us back in your great name. Amen.