Immerse: Chronicles Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 80
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IMMERSE
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CHRONICLES
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| 14:9–15:9
armed with large shields and spears. He also had an army of 280,000 warriors from the tribe of Benjamin, armed with small shields and bows. Both
armies were composed of well-trained fighting men.
Once an Ethiop ian named Zerah attacked Judah with an army of
1,000,000 men and 300 chariots. They advanced to the town of Mare
shah, so Asa deployed his armies for battle in the valley north of Mare
shah. Then Asa cried out to the Lord his God, “O Lord, no one but you
can help the powerless against the mighty! Help us, O Lord our God,
for we trust in you alone. It is in your name that we have come against
this vast horde. O Lord, you are our God; do not let mere men prevail
against you!”
So the Lord defeated the Ethiopians in the presence of Asa and the
army of Judah, and the enemy fled. Asa and his army pursued them as far
as Gerar, and so many Ethiopians fell that they were unable to rally. They
were destroyed by the Lord and his army, and the army of Judah carried
off a vast amount of plunder.
While they were at Gerar, they attacked all the towns in that area, and
terror from the Lord came upon the people there. As a result, a vast
amount of plunder was taken from these towns, too. They also attacked
the camps of herdsmen and captured many sheep, goats, and camels before finally returning to Jerusalem.
Then the Spirit of God came upon Azariah son of Oded, and he went
out to meet King Asa as he was returning from the battle. “Listen to me,
Asa!” he shouted. “Listen, all you people of Judah and Benjamin! The
Lord will stay with you as long as you stay with him! Whenever you seek
him, you will find him. But if you abandon him, he will abandon you. For
a long time Israel was without the true God, without a priest to teach
them, and without the Law to instruct them. But whenever they were in
trouble and turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, and sought him out,
they found him.
“During those dark times, it was not safe to travel. Problems troubled
the people of every land. Nation fought against nation, and city against
city, for God was troubling them with every kind of problem. But as for
you, be strong and courageous, for your work will be rewarded.”
When Asa heard this message from Azariah the prophet, he took courage and removed all the detestable idols from the land of Judah and Benja
min and in the towns he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim. And
he repaired the altar of the Lord, which stood in front of the entry room
of the Lord’s Temple.
Then Asa called together all the people of Judah and Benjamin, along
with the people of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who had settled
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