O my soul,

Have you accepted worldliness into your life?

Of course the answer is yes. For now though let’s leave to one side how or what to do and let’s simply consider the great cost that you have suffered and will continue to suffer because of this.

Consider King Asa of Judah about whom we read this.

Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David. And Asa his son reigned in his place. In his days the land had rest for ten years. And Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God.

The heart of Asa was wholly true all his days.

― 2 Chronicles 14:1-2, 15:17b

Wouldn’t we be inclined to rank Asa among the upright and true kings, one of so very few men of integrity along with Hezekiah and Josiah and David himself? Of course we would and he is even commended for it. So why is he my example of worldliness? Exactly for this reason in fact, that he was otherwise upright and true. And may his life serve as a solemn warning to any who might consider themselves also to be upright and true, living a life of integrity and honouring the Lord.

For what do we find in his later years?

In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah and built Ramah, that he might permit no one to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah.

― 2 Chronicles 16:1

Baasha king of Israel was undeniably evil.

In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha the son of Ahijah began to reign over all Israel at Tirzah, and he reigned twenty-four years. He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and walked in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin which he made Israel to sin.

― 1 Kings 15:33-34

Not only was Baasha evil but he had a reputation for destruction.

And as soon as he was king, he killed all the house of Jeroboam. He left to the house of Jeroboam not one that breathed, until he had destroyed it, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke by his servant Ahijah the Shilonite. It was for the sins of Jeroboam that he sinned and that he made Israel to sin, and because of the anger to which he provoked the LORD, the God of Israel.

― 1 Kings 15:29-30

So what was good king Asa to do? Was he to suffer the same fate as the house of Jeroboam? Not if he could help it!

Then Asa took silver and gold from the treasures of the house of the LORD and the king’s house and sent them to Ben-hadad king of Syria, who lived in Damascus, saying, “There is a covenant between me and you, as there was between my father and your father. Behold, I am sending to you silver and gold. Go, break your covenant with Baasha king of Israel, that he may withdraw from me.”

― 2 Chronicles 16:2-3

This was the same king who had faced an Ethiopian army twice the size of his own, who had cried out to God and been miraculously delivered.

Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million men and 300 chariots, and came as far as Mareshah. And Asa went out to meet him, and they drew up their lines of battle in the Valley of Zephathah at Mareshah. And Asa cried to the LORD his God, “O LORD, there is none like you to help, between the mighty and the weak. Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this multitude. O LORD, you are our God; let not man prevail against you.” So the LORD defeated the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah, and the Ethiopians fled.

― 2 Chronicles 14:9-12

Asa had cried out to the Lord who had defeated the Ethiopians before him. And yet now we find him raiding the treasures of the temple of the Lord to use as a bribe for Ben-hadad king of Syria, to deliver him from the hand of Baasha.

How could this be? How could this good and upright king whose heart was wholly true all his days behave in such a faithless and godless way?

O my soul, know that I scoured three chapters of the Chronicles for evidence of an explanation, and found only this.

And [Asa] gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who were residing with them, for great numbers had deserted to him from Israel when they saw that the LORD his God was with him. They were gathered at Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa. They sacrificed to the LORD on that day from the spoil that they had brought 700 oxen and 7,000 sheep. And they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul, but that whoever would not seek the LORD, the God of Israel, should be put to death, whether young or old, man or woman.

But the high places were not taken out of Israel.

― 2 Chronicles 15:9-13, 17

We must understand the significance of these high places which were not taken out.

And Judah did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins that they committed, more than all that their fathers had done. For they also built for themselves high places and pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, and there were also male cult prostitutes in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations that the LORD drove out before the people of Israel.

― 1 Kings 14:22-24

These high places were an abomination from the time before the Lord’s people were given the land of Canaan. They were the epitome of worldliness, and yet they were tolerated, remaining in the land, tainting and corrupting the Children of the Promise, and if I am right, becoming the downfall of Asa, that otherwise good, right, and true king.

And what a tragic end he consequently suffered, this king whose heart was nevertheless wholly true all his days.

At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him, “Because you relied on the king of Syria, and did not rely on the LORD your God, the army of the king of Syria has escaped you. Were not the Ethiopians and the Libyans a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because you relied on the LORD, he gave them into your hand. For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is whole toward him. You have done foolishly in this, for from now on you will have wars.”

― 2 Chronicles 16:7-9

Furthermore Asa did not respond well to this rebuke from the Lord.

Then Asa was angry with the seer and put him in the stocks in prison, for he was in a rage with him because of this. And Asa inflicted cruelties upon some of the people at the same time.

The acts of Asa, from first to last, are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet, and his disease became severe. Yet even in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but sought help from physicians. And Asa slept with his fathers, dying in the forty-first year of his reign.

― 2 Chronicles 16:10-13

What a tragic end to an otherwise right and true life. And what a solemn and sober warning to those who might be following Asa into worldliness.

Asa had been warned so clearly, but perhaps in his complacency he had failed to take the warning seriously.

The Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded, and he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: The LORD is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.”

― 2 Chronicles 15:1-2

The Lord looks throughout the whole earth for those whose hearts are wholly for him, and he gives them strong support. Rejoice that he does so and be that wholehearted one!

O my soul, be vigilant and purge the worldliness from your own life, for the Lord knows whose hearts are wholly for him, and he gives them strong support! 🙏