Oh, summer! A busy time, and at the same time, it can be quite restful. Charlotte Lankard says she remembers the summer her granddaughter, Jessica, was six and she herself was 60—my exact age as well. The little girl proclaimed, "Grammy, next year I'll be seven, and you will be seventy!" Oh, kid's math! Hey, wait a minute—she might be on to something there. My Granddaughter, Lilia, will be three next summer; that would make me thirty. If only, huh?
Another summer found the two taking an Amtrak vacation to Fort Worth, and while there, they took a ballroom dancing lesson. When Charlotte came off the dance floor, little Jessica declared, "You don't look like a grandma!" When the little girl reached her 15th birthday, the two sat in the airport waiting for the girl's flight home. She thanked her grandmother for the visit, the presents, and the time spent together and said, "Grammy, someday, I'll do these things for you!" Summer! Yes, it can be such a busy time, and yet, the memories stack up like a skyscraper.
We just bought a big, yellow garden wagon for little Lilie, in which to cruise the neighborhood. Boy, does she love it! By next summer, Lord willing, we will see how her younger twin brothers like it, too—all at the same time! Oh, and the water table on the deck—all she has to do is spot it through the kitchen door, and BAM—"Fun in the water, fun in the water???" And away we go! Oh, summer—busy, but memorable. We have all been blessed with summer memories. I wonder what we'll do with the rest of this Summer—both the "R and R" of it, as well as the rest—the time that remains? Recently, I was reading in 2nd Chronicles about the restful reign of good King Asa, and wondered—why and how? It begins—"So Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David: and Asa his son reigned in his stead. In his days the land was quiet ten years. And Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God." (14:1,2)
We're told, that in obedience to the Word of the Lord in Deuteronomy 12:2-3, Asa took away the altars of the false gods and destroyed the images. These "images" were Canaanite-like pillars of stone, believed to be inhabited by the local fertility gods, the Baalim. Right beside these, were wooden poles—sometimes called "the groves"—erected to the worship of Asherah, Baal's goddess-consort. William F. Albright, the famous archaeologist, suggests that these pillars and poles served as incense stands for their pagan worship. Though the king ordered their complete abolition and abandonment, we read in the next chapter that, "... the high places were not taken away out of Israel; nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect all his days." (15:17) A perfect heart, but what about the rest of the life? During the years of peace and quiet, he, "built fenced cities in Judah: for the land had rest, and he had no war in those years; because the Lord had given him rest." (vs. 6) Resting, but ready! In the next verse, we find it was because he and the people had sought the Lord, they were given "rest on every side." This "rest," in the Hebrew, means, "to settle down and dwell in peace." And then it happened—the test. We are told that Asa had an army of just over 500,000—"mighty men of valour..." (vs. 8b) And up comes Zerah, the Ethiopian, with over 1,000,000 battle-hardened warriors. Whoa! Time to worry! But, "...Asa cried unto the Lord his God, and said, Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O Lord our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude. O Lord, thou art our God; let not man prevail against thee." (vs. 11) Yes, Asa decided to rest in the Lord. This "rest," in the Hebrew, is more practical than even before—he leaned on his Lord, finding all the support he needed. Such is the Cross!
Psalm 37:7 tells us, "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him: fret not thyself..." Oswald Chambers writes, "Fretting means getting ourselves 'out of joint,' mentally or spiritually. It is one thing to say, 'Do not fret,' but something very different to have such a nature that you find yourself unable to fret. Is it possible to 'rest in the Lord,' when our own little world is turned upside down and we seem to be forced to live in confusion and agony like so many other people? If this 'Do not,' doesn't work there, then it will not work anywhere. This 'Do not,' must work in our days of difficulty, or it will never work. And if it will not work in your particular case, it will not work for anyone else. Resting in the Lord is not dependent on your external circumstances at all, but on your relationship with God Himself." Oswald Chambers goes on to make clear that worrying always results in sin. Why? Because it rises from our determination to have our own way. A good case in point is Jesus Himself—He never worried, and, in fact, commanded all of us not to worry. His purpose was never to accomplish His own plans, but to fulfill God's plan. Chambers concluded with this statement—"All our fretting and worrying is caused by planning without God." Oh, we can put God's name on our plan, but are we being totally honest about it? I mean, really?
Not much space is given to the victory, but the Ethiopians,"...were destroyed before the Lord, and before His host." (vs.13)—a powerful spiritual picture of what happens to our Enemy when the Lord and His true Church stand together. As long as King Asa rested in the Lord and not on his own plans, there was victory. And then it was confirmed—"...the spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded: and he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; the Lord is with you, while ye be with Him; and if ye seek Him, He will be found of you; but if ye forsake Him, He will forsake you." (15: 1,2) You see, this is the "how" and the "why!"—and, boy, does it ever fly in the face of so much modern theology.
Today, so many people believe that since God is a God of love, it doesn't matter what
we do. Yes, it does matter—we are promised He will never leave nor forsake us, but that is as long as we want Him! You see, it's a promise to the true Church, and not to individuals who refuse that vital connection. So, "...they (the people of God; yes, the Church—notice the plurality) entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their Fathers with all their heart and with all their soul...and all Judah rejoiced at the oath...and the Lord gave them rest round about." (vss.12,15) Did you see it? It all boils down to the Cross—Redemption, Response, and Reconciliation. Chambers wrote, "When God gives us a vision of truth, there is never a question of what He will do, but only of what we will do." Praise God—Asa and his people were not about to let anything slip through the cracks in this time of revival and reform. Even the queen—Asa's own grandmother (1 Kings 15:2,10)—was removed from her throne due to her own unrepentant idol worship—"Asa cut down her idol, and stamped it, and burned it at the brook Kidron." (vs.16b) Even his own family was not going to stand in the way of his commitment to God. But then it happened—the years had passed, and another test—by the way, life is full of them—"Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah..." (16:1a) And Asa was scared stiff—worry and fretting filled every fiber of his being now. So, he ransacked the temple of its gold and silver and used it all to bribe Benhadad, the pagan king of Syria, to come to his aid. Where is the rest in that? His plan worked, but at what cost? The prophet told Asa that the Lord, "...shows Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him, Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars." (vs.9) No more rest! Asa threw the prophet in prison and spent the "rest" of his years oppressing his own people and died a diseased and broken man. Ironic—for a man whose name means "healing," in the end, he didn't even seek the Lord for that! (vs.14)
He had begun so well, but ended so poorly—he refused to go God's way all the way to the end! If you don't want Him, He is not going to force you. So, do what is good and right, like Asa did, but
be that every day until the last day. Don't quit a day too soon! Remember—Jessica said, "Someday, I'll do these things for you." Let's say it to Jesus, but not "someday,"—what about right now and forever? Paul warned the Galatians, and us—"Are ye so foolish: having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect in the flesh?" (3:3)
It didn't have to be that way if they—and we—would just be filled with Jesus and His Holy Spirit—remember, it is God who gives the rest. Speaking of this, Hebrews 4:9-10 tells us, "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His." So what about the "rest" of this summer?
