Immerse: Chronicles Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 82
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IMMERSE
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CHRONICLES
2C
| 16:8–17:9
God, you missed your chance to destroy the army of the king of Aram.
Don’t you remember what happened to the Ethiopians and Libyans and
their vast army, with all of their chariots and charioteers? At that time
you relied on the Lord, and he handed them over to you. The eyes of the
Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts
are fully committed to him. What a fool you have been! From now on you
will be at war.”
Asa became so angry with Hanani for saying this that he threw him into
prison and put him in stocks. At that time Asa also began to oppress some
of his people.
The rest of the events of Asa’s reign, from beginning to end, are recorded
in The Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. In the t hirty-ninth year of his
reign, Asa developed a serious foot disease. Yet even with the severity of
his disease, he did not seek the Lord’s help but turned only to his physicians. So he died in the f orty-first year of his reign. He was buried in the
tomb he had carved out for himself in the City of David. He was laid on a
bed perfumed with sweet spices and fragrant ointments, and the people
built a huge funeral fire in his honor.
Then Jehoshaphat, Asa’s son, became the next king. He strengthened Ju
dah to stand against any attack from Israel. He stationed troops in all the
fortified towns of Judah, and he assigned additional garrisons to the land
of Judah and to the towns of Ephraim that his father, Asa, had captured.
The Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he followed the example of his
father’s early years and did not worship the images of Baal. He sought
his father’s God and obeyed his commands instead of following the evil
practices of the kingdom of Israel. So the Lord established Jehoshaphat’s
control over the kingdom of Judah. All the people of Judah brought gifts
to Jehoshaphat, so he became very wealthy and highly esteemed. He was
deeply committed to the ways of the Lord. He removed the pagan shrines
and Asherah poles from Judah.
In the third year of his reign Jehoshaphat sent his officials to teach in
all the towns of Judah. These officials included Ben-hail, Obadiah, Zech
ariah, Nethanel, and Micaiah. He sent Levites along with them, including
Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Ad
onijah, Tobijah, and Tob-adonijah. He also sent out the priests Elishama
and Jehoram. They took copies of the Book of the Law of the Lord and
traveled around through all the towns of Judah, teaching the people.
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