151 And the spirit of God came on Azariah, the son of Oded; 2 And he came face to face with Asa and said to him, Give ear to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin: the Lord is with you while you are with him; if your heart's desire is for him, he will be near you, but if you give him up, he will give you up. 3 Now for a long time Israel has been without the true God, and without a teaching priest and without the law; 4 But when in their trouble they were turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, searching after him, he let their search be rewarded. 5 In those times there was no peace for him who went out or for him who came in, but great trouble was on all the people of the lands. 6 And they were broken by divisions, nation against nation and town against town, because God sent all sorts of trouble on them. 7 But be you strong and let not your hands be feeble, for your work will be rewarded.
8 And Asa, hearing these words of Azariah, the son of Oded the prophet, took heart and put away all the disgusting things out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the towns which he had taken from the hill-country of Ephraim; and he made new again the altar of the Lord in front of the covered way of the Lord's house. 9 And he got together all Judah and Benjamin and those of Ephraim and Manasseh and Simeon who were living with them; for numbers of them came to him out of Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was with him. 10 So they came together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the rule of Asa. 11 And that day they made offerings to the Lord of the things they had taken in war, seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep. 12 And they made an agreement to be true to the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and all their soul; 13 And that anyone, small or great, man or woman, who was not true to the Lord, the God of Israel, would be put to death. 14 And they made an oath to the Lord, with a loud voice, sounding wind-instruments and horns. 15 And all Judah was glad because of the oath, for they had taken it with all their heart, turning to the Lord with all their desire; and he was with them and gave them rest on every side. 16 And Asa would not let Maacah, his mother, be queen, because she had made a disgusting image for Asherah; and Asa had her image cut down and broken up and burned by the stream Kidron. 17 But the high places were not taken away out of Israel; but still the heart of Asa was true to the Lord all his life. 18 He took into the house of God all the things which his father had made holy and those which he himself had made holy, silver and gold and vessels. 19 And there was no more war till the thirty-fifth year of the rule of Asa.
161 In the thirty-sixth year of the rule of Asa, Baasha, king of Israel, went up against Judah, building Ramah so that no one was able to go out or in to Asa, king of Judah. 2 Then Asa took silver and gold out of the stores of the Lord's house and of the king's store-house, and sent to Ben-hadad, king of Aram, at Damascus, saying, 3 Let there be an agreement between me and you as there was between my father and your father: see, I have sent you silver and gold; go and put an end to your agreement with Baasha, king of Israel, so that he may give up attacking me. 4 And Ben-hadad did as King Asa said, and sent the captains of his armies against the towns of Israel, attacking Ijon and Dan and Abel-maim, and all the store-towns of Naphtali. 5 Then Baasha, hearing of it, put a stop to the building of Ramah, and let his work come to an end. 6 Then King Asa, with all Judah, took away the stones and wood with which Baasha was building Ramah, and he made use of them for building Geba and Mizpah.
7 At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa, king of Judah, and said to him, Because you have put your faith in the king of Aram and not in the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has got away out of your hands. 8 Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubim a very great army, with war-carriages and horsemen more than might be numbered? but because your faith was in the Lord, he gave them up into your hands. 9 For the eyes of the Lord go this way and that, through all the earth, letting it be seen that he is the strong support of those whose hearts are true to him. In this you have done foolishly, for from now you will have wars. 10 Then Asa was angry with the seer, and put him in prison, burning with wrath against him because of this thing. And at the same time Asa was cruel to some of the people. 11 Now the acts of Asa, first and last, are recorded in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. 12 In the thirty-ninth year of his rule, Asa had a very bad disease of the feet; but he did not go to the Lord for help in his disease, but to medical men. 13 So Asa went to rest with his fathers, and death came to him in the forty-first year of his rule. 14 And they put him into the resting-place which he had made for himself in the town of David, in a bed full of sweet perfumes of all sorts of spices, made by the perfumer's art, and they made a great burning for him.
27 Now is my soul troubled; and what am I to say? Father, keep me from this hour. No: for this purpose have I come to this hour. 28 Father, give glory to your name. Then there came a voice out of heaven, saying, I have given it glory, and I will give it glory again. 29 Hearing the sound, a number of people who were there said that it was thunder: others said, An angel was talking to him. 30 Jesus said in answer, This voice came not for me but for you. 31 Now is this world to be judged: now will the ruler of this world be sent out. 32 And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will make all men come to me. 33 (This he said, pointing to the sort of death he would have.) 34 Then the people in answer said to him, The law says that the Christ will have life without end: how say you then that it is necessary for the Son of man to be lifted up? Who is this Son of man? 35 Jesus said to them, For a little time longer the light will be among you; while you have the light go on walking in it, so that the dark may not overtake you: one walking in the dark has no knowledge of where he is going. 36 In so far as you have the light, put your faith in the light so that you may become sons of light. With these words Jesus went away and for a time was not seen again by them.
37 But though he had done such a number of signs before them, they still had no belief in him: 38 So that the words of the prophet Isaiah might come true, when he said, Lord, who has any belief in our preaching? and the arm of the Lord, to whom has it been unveiled? 39 For this reason they were unable to have belief, because Isaiah said again, 40 He has made their eyes blind, and their hearts hard; for fear that they might see with their eyes and get knowledge with their hearts, and be changed, and I might make them well. 41 (Isaiah said these words because he saw his glory. His words were about him.)
42 However, a number even of the rulers had belief in him, but because of the Pharisees they did not say so openly for fear that they might be shut out from the Synagogue: 43 For the praise of men was dearer to them than the approval of God.
44 Then Jesus said with a loud voice, He who has faith in me, has faith not in me, but in him who sent me. 45 And he who sees me, sees him who sent me. 46 I have come as a light into the world, so that no one who has faith in me will go on living in the dark. 47 And if any man gives ear to my words and does not keep them, I am not his judge: I did not come to be judge of the world but to give salvation to the world. 48 He who puts me on one side and does not take my words to heart, is not without a judge: the word which I have said will be his judge on the last day. 49 For I have not said it on my authority, but the Father who sent me gave me orders what to say and how to say it. 50 And I have knowledge that his order is eternal life: so that the things which I say, I say them even as the Father says them to me.
(Read John 12:27-33)
The sin of our souls was the troubled of Christ's soul, when he undertook to redeem and save us, and to make his soul an offering for our sin. Christ was willing to suffer, yet prayed to be saved from suffering. Prayer against trouble may well agree with patience under it, and submission to the will of God in it. Our Lord Jesus undertook to satisfy God's injured honour, and he did it by humbling himself. The voice of the Father from heaven, which had declared him to be his beloved Son, at his baptism, and when he was transfigured, was heard proclaiming that He had both glorified his name, and would glorify it. Christ, reconciling the world to God by the merit of his death, broke the power of death, and cast out Satan as a destroyer. Christ, bringing the world to God by the doctrine of his cross, broke the power of sin, and cast out Satan as a deceiver. The soul that was at a distance from Christ, is brought to love him and trust him. Jesus was now going to heaven, and he would draw men's hearts to him thither. There is power in the death of Christ to draw souls to him. We have heard from the gospel that which exalts free grace, and we have heard also that which enjoins duty; we must from the heart embrace both, and not separate them.
(Read John 12:34-36)
The people drew false notions from the Scriptures, because they overlooked the prophecies that spoke of Christ's sufferings and death. Our Lord warned them that the light would not long continue with them, and exhorted them to walk in it, before the darkness overtook them. Those who would walk in the light must believe in it, and follow Christ's directions. But those who have not faith, cannot behold what is set forth in Jesus, lifted up on the cross, and must be strangers to its influence as made known by the Holy Spirit; they find a thousand objections to excuse their unbelief.
(Read John 12:37-43)
Observe the method of conversion implied here. Sinners are brought to see the reality of Divine things, and to have some knowledge of them. To be converted, and truly turned from sin to Christ, as their Happiness and Portion. God will heal them, will justify and sanctify them; will pardon their sins, which are as bleeding wounds, and mortify their corruptions, which are as lurking diseases. See the power of the world in smothering convictions, from regard to the applause or censure of men. Love of the praise of men, as a by-end in that which is good, will make a man a hypocrite when religion is in fashion, and credit is to be got by it; and love of the praise of men, as a base principle in that which is evil, will make a man an apostate, when religion is in disgrace, and credit is to be lost for it.
(Read John 12:44-50)
Our Lord publicly proclaimed, that every one who believed on him, as his true disciple, did not believe on him only, but on the Father who sent him. Beholding in Jesus the glory of the Father, we learn to obey, love, and trust in him. By daily looking to Him, who came a Light into the world, we are more and more freed from the darkness of ignorance, error, sin, and misery; we learn that the command of God our Saviour is everlasting life. But the same word will seal the condemnation of all who despise it, or neglect it.
