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2Chronicles 15-16

Chapter 15

15:1The Spirit of God came on Azariah son of Oded. 2So he went out to meet Asa and said to him, "Asa and all Judah and Benjamin, hear me. The Lord is with you when you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you abandon Him, He will abandon you. 3For many years Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without instruction, 4but when they turned to the Lord God of Israel in their distress and sought Him, He was found by them. 5In those times there was no peace for those who went about their daily activities because the residents of the lands had many conflicts. 6Nation was crushed by nation and city by city, for God troubled them with every possible distress. 7But as for you, be strong; don't be discouraged, for your work has a reward."
8When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Azariah son of Oded the prophet, he took courage and removed the detestable idols from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim. He renovated the altar of the Lord that was in front of the portico of the Lord's temple. 9Then he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, as well as those from the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who had settled among them, for they had defected to him from Israel in great numbers when they saw that Yahweh his God was with him.
10They were gathered in Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa's reign. 11At that time they sacrificed to the Lord 700 cattle and 7,000 sheep from all the plunder they had brought. 12Then they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their ancestors with all their mind and all their heart. 13Whoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel would be put to death, young or old, man or woman. 14They took an oath to the Lord in a loud voice, with shouting, with trumpets, and with rams' horns. 15All Judah rejoiced over the oath, for they had sworn it with all their mind. They had sought Him with all their heart, and He was found by them. So the Lord gave them rest on every side.
16King Asa also removed Maacah, his grandmother, from being queen mother because she had made an obscene image of Asherah. Asa chopped down her obscene image, then crushed it and burned it in the Kidron Valley. 17The high places were not taken away from Israel; nevertheless, Asa was wholehearted his entire life. 18He brought his father's consecrated gifts and his own consecrated gifts into God's temple: silver, gold, and utensils.
19There was no war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa's reign.

Chapter 16

16:1In the thirty-sixth year of Asa, Israel's King Baasha went to war against Judah. He built Ramah in order to deny access to anyone-going or coming-to Judah's King Asa. 2So Asa brought out the silver and gold from the treasuries of the Lord's temple and the royal palace and sent it to Aram's King Ben-hadad, who lived in Damascus, saying, 3"There's a treaty between me and you, between my father and your father. Look, I have sent you silver and gold. Go break your treaty with Israel's King Baasha so that he will withdraw from me."
4Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies to the cities of Israel. They attacked Ijon, Dan, Abel-maim, and all the storage cities of Naphtali. 5When Baasha heard about it, he quit building Ramah and stopped his work. 6Then King Asa brought all Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and the timbers Baasha had built it with. Then he built Geba and Mizpah with them.
7At that time, Hanani the seer came to King Asa of Judah and said to him, "Because you depended on the king of Aram and have not depended on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand. 8Were not the Cushites and Libyans a vast army with many chariots and horsemen? When you depended on Yahweh, He handed them over to you. 9For the eyes of Yahweh roam throughout the earth to show Himself strong for those whose hearts are completely His. You have been foolish in this matter. Therefore, you will have wars from now on." 10Asa was angry with the seer and put him in prison because of his anger over this. And Asa mistreated some of the people at that time.
11Note that the events of Asa's reign, from beginning to end, are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. 12In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa developed a disease in his feet, and his disease became increasingly severe. Yet even in his disease he didn't seek the Lord but only the physicians. 13Asa died in the forty-first year of his reign and rested with his fathers. 14He was buried in his own tomb that he had made for himself in the city of David. They laid him out in a coffin that was full of spices and various mixtures of prepared ointments; then they made a great fire in his honor.

Hebrews 9

Chapter 9

9:1Now the first covenant also had regulations for ministry and an earthly sanctuary. 2For a tabernacle was set up, and in the first room, which is called the holy place, were the lampstand, the table, and the presentation loaves. 3Behind the second curtain, the tabernacle was called the most holy place. 4It contained the gold altar of incense and the ark of the covenant, covered with gold on all sides, in which there was a gold jar containing the manna, Aaron's staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. 5The cherubim of glory were above it overshadowing the mercy seat. It is not possible to speak about these things in detail right now.
6With these things set up this way, the priests enter the first room repeatedly, performing their ministry. 7But the high priest alone enters the second room, and he does that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance. 8The Holy Spirit was making it clear that the way into the most holy place had not yet been disclosed while the first tabernacle was still standing. 9This is a symbol for the present time, during which gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the worshiper's conscience. 10They are physical regulations and only deal with food, drink, and various washings imposed until the time of restoration.
11But the Messiah has appeared, high priest of the good things that have come. In the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands (that is, not of this creation), 12He entered the most holy place once for all, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. 13For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow, sprinkling those who are defiled, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14how much more will the blood of the Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to serve the living God?
15Therefore, He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance, because a death has taken place for redemption from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. 16Where a will exists, the death of the one who made it must be established. 17For a will is valid only when people die, since it is never in force while the one who made it is living. 18That is why even the first covenant was inaugurated with blood. 19For when every command had been proclaimed by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, along with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll itself and all the people, 20saying, This is the blood of the covenant that God has commanded for you. 21In the same way, he sprinkled the tabernacle and all the articles of worship with blood. 22According to the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
23Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves to be purified with better sacrifices than these. 24For the Messiah did not enter a sanctuary made with hands (only a model of the true one) but into heaven itself, so that He might now appear in the presence of God for us. 25He did not do this to offer Himself many times, as the high priest enters the sanctuary yearly with the blood of another. 26Otherwise, He would have had to suffer many times since the foundation of the world. But now He has appeared one time, at the end of the ages, for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27And just as it is appointed for people to die once-and after this, judgment- 28so also the Messiah, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.

Daily Comments

**2 Chron. 15**
V.1-16
God invited Asa into peace. If we align ourselves with God, we can have peace. But if we do not, He will not bend to match us. He cannot deny Himself. Thank God for the power of His Spirit in us which is able to conform our hearts and minds to His. May we be eager to accept the invitation from God to repent while the invitation still stands. Daily may we surrender all in our lives that doesn't conform to Him. In doing this we can hope for peace with God. That peace that Jesus proclaimed to His disciples after he rose from the dead.

V.17
Compare to 14:3. Either this is a second renewal in which the high places were not torn down, the first tearing down of high places was a limited scope, or this second statement refers to the northern kingdom.

**2 Chron. 16**
V 1-6
Israel (Baasha) went to war against Judah (Asa). Asa did what seemed good in his own eyes. He sought help from the pagan Nation of Aram (Ben-Hadad). Asa gave them gold and silver in exchange for a political move which would stop Israel from fighting Judah without bloodshed. Asa was proud of this accomplishment and thought it to be a good solution. But he had not sought the Lord's wisdom in this situation...

V.7-10
God declared through the prophet that Asa had trusted in man rather than in God, and as a consequence he would have wars for the rest of his life. Asa in his pride refused to acknowledge that God's ways were better than his. He grew bitter toward God because of the consequence which could have turned his heart back to God if he had received it in humility.

V.11-13
These verses reveal the bitterness toward God in Asa's heart. Rather than call out to the Lord as he had in his youth (14:11), he refused to call out to God at all. Bitterness and pride can carry our hearts away from God. Beware of these enemies and surrender them to God as soon as you see them in your heart.