**The Folly of King Asa**
In the thirty-sixth year of King Asa’s reign over Judah, the land enjoyed a season of peace. The high places of idol worship had been torn down, the cities fortified, and the people had long prospered under a king who had once trusted wholly in the Lord. But now, a shadow crept over Asa’s heart—a shadow of self-reliance and forgotten faith.
Word reached the king that Baasha, ruler of Israel, had marched to Ramah, a city just north of Jerusalem. Baasha sought to cut off all traffic to and from Judah, strangling trade and isolating Asa’s kingdom. Fear gripped the king’s council as they debated their next move. Once, Asa would have sought the Lord’s guidance, as he had when the Cushites threatened Judah years before. But this time, his faith wavered.
Instead of turning to the God who had delivered him before, Asa reached for his treasury. He sent messengers to Ben-Hadad, king of Aram in Damascus, with a fortune in silver and gold from the temple and his own palace. “Let there be a treaty between you and me,” he urged, “as there was between my father and your father. Break your alliance with Baasha of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me.”
Ben-Hadad, enticed by Judah’s wealth, agreed. He sent his armies to strike the northern cities of Israel—Ijon, Dan, Abel Maim, and all the store cities of Naphtali. The assault forced Baasha to abandon Ramah and rush to defend his own lands. With the threat lifted, Asa mustered all of Judah to dismantle Ramah’s fortifications, using the stones and timber to strengthen Geba and Mizpah, cities of his own.
Yet in his triumph, Asa did not see the danger of his choice.
### **The Prophet’s Rebuke**
Not long after, Hanani the seer stood before King Asa in the palace courtyard. The prophet’s eyes burned with divine fire as he spoke:
“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. 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.”
The words struck Asa like a hammer. But instead of repentance, rage boiled within him. He clenched his fists, his face darkening. “Seize him!” he roared to his guards. Hanani was dragged away and thrown into prison. The king’s fury did not stop there—he began to oppress some of his own people who dared to speak against his tyranny.
### **The Lord’s Judgment**
In the years that followed, Asa’s health began to fail. A severe disease afflicted his feet, swelling them with pain. Yet even then, his pride held firm. He sought physicians but refused to seek the Lord. His heart, once tender toward God, had grown hard as stone.
The sickness worsened, and in the forty-first year of his reign, Asa breathed his last. The people mourned, burning spices in his honor and laying him in a tomb he had carved for himself in Jerusalem. But the legacy of his later years was one of warning—a king who began in faith but ended in folly.
For though the Lord had been his shield, Asa had chosen the arm of flesh. And in that choice, he lost the peace that comes only from trusting in the Almighty.
