The First Good King

During the period of the divided kingdom of Israel there are only a handful of truly good kings (6 really . . . go back and see if you can name them). All of the good kings are from Judah of course (the Kings of Isreal were all really bad). The first genuinely good king of Judah is Asa and we get to know him chapter 14 of 2 Chronicles. Many of Judah's kings were martinally good, but when a truly good king comes along after him we see the extent of the house cleaning that is done by the good king and it becomes more clear that the mantinally good king before him was really mostly bad.

Such is the case with Asa. Look at what he does . . .

Verses 3-5 -- "... he took away the altars of the strange gods, and the high places, and brake down the images, and cut down the groves: And commanded Judah to seek the LORD God of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandment. Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the images: and the kingdom was quiet before him."

He cleans up the mess started by his father and grand father. We know that Rehoboam did evil before God. Clearly, his father Abijah was not a good man either. Think back to chapter 13 where Abijah brags to Jeroboam and Israel about how they (the kingdom of Judah) were following God's law and how they had God on their sides. What I find myself thinking of most as I read this chapter about this good king Asa is what a weak smoke and mirrors act his father was. Look at the evil junk he left in his wake for Asa to clean up.