Bible Study 2 Chronicles 16
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2 Chronicles 16 · WEB

Asa's Alliance with Aram; Rebuke by Hanani; Asa's Death

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In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah, and built Ramah, that he might not allow any one to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah.
2Then Asa brought out silver and gold out of the treasuries of Yahweh's house and of the king's house, and sent to Ben Hadad king of Syria, who lived at Damascus, saying,
3"There is a covenant between me and you, and between my father and your father. Behold, I have sent you silver and gold. Go, break your covenant with Baasha king of Israel, that he may depart from me."
4Ben Hadad listened to king Asa, and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel. They struck Ijon, and Dan, and Abel Maim, and all the storage cities of Naphtali.
5When Baasha heard of it, he left off building Ramah, and let his work cease.
6Then king Asa took all Judah; and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber, with which Baasha had built; and he built with them Geba and Mizpah.
7At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said to him, "Because you have relied on the king of Syria, and have not relied on Yahweh your God, therefore the army of the king of Syria has escaped out of your hand.
8Weren't the Ethiopians and the Lubim a huge army, with chariots and horsemen exceedingly many? Yet because you relied on Yahweh, he delivered them into your hand.
9For the eyes of Yahweh run back and forth throughout all the earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. You have done foolishly in this; for from now on you shall have wars."
10Then Asa was angry with the seer, and put him in the prison, for he was in a rage with him because of this. Asa also oppressed some of the people at that time.
11Behold, the acts of Asa, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.
12In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa was diseased in his feet; his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he didn't seek Yahweh, but the physicians.
13Asa slept with his fathers, and died in the forty-first year of his reign.
14They buried him in his own tomb, which he had cut out for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odors and various kinds of spices prepared by the apothecary's art; and they made a very great burning for him.
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Summary

After 35 years of faithfulness, Asa faces a threat from Baasha of Israel and makes a catastrophic mistake: he bribes the Aramean king Ben-hadad with temple treasure to attack Israel from the north. The strategy works militarily but the prophet Hanani rebukes Asa sharply: "Because you relied on Syria instead of God, Syria has escaped your hand. God's eyes search for those whose hearts are wholly his." Asa responds to the rebuke not with repentance but with rage — imprisoning the prophet. When Asa later develops a foot disease, he consults physicians but still does not seek God. He dies without recovering his former faithfulness.

Themes

  • The danger of trusting human alliances over God
  • God seeking hearts wholly devoted to him
  • The tragedy of a good beginning undone by a faithless ending

Key verses

  • 2 Chr 16:12 — “In his disease he didn't seek Yahweh, but the physicians.”
  • 2 Chr 16:7 — “Because you have relied on the king of Syria, and have not relied on Yahweh your God, therefore the army of the king of Syria has escaped out of your hand.”
  • 2 Chr 16:9 — “For the eyes of Yahweh run back and forth throughout all the earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.”

Context & background

Ramah (modern Er-Ram, just north of Jerusalem in the West Bank) was a strategic choke point — Baasha was building a fortification there to blockade Jerusalem. Asa's use of temple treasury money to hire Ben-hadad of Aram (modern Damascus, Syria) was a pragmatic political solution but spiritually disastrous — it depleted the sacred treasury and set a precedent of buying protection from foreigners rather than trusting God. Hanani's famous declaration — "the eyes of Yahweh run back and forth throughout all the earth" (v. 9) — is one of the Old Testament's most beautiful statements about God's providential care for the faithful. Asa's foot disease may have been severe gout or gangrene.

Cross-references

  • 1 Kings 15:17-24 — Parallel account of Asa's alliance with Ben-hadad
  • 2 Chronicles 14:11 — Asa's earlier prayer: "we rely on you" — now replaced by reliance on Syria
  • Jeremiah 17:5,7 — "Cursed is the man who trusts in man... Blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh"
  • Proverbs 3:5-7 — "Trust in Yahweh with all your heart... lean not on your own understanding"
  • Zechariah 4:10 — "The eyes of Yahweh... range throughout the earth" — same imagery as v. 9

Check your reading

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  1. Observe

    What did Asa do when Baasha king of Israel built Ramah to blockade Judah?

  2. Observe

    What was Asa's response when the seer Hanani rebuked him for relying on Syria rather than on Yahweh?

  3. Interpret

    Why might it be harder to rely on God in familiar, manageable-looking situations than in obviously impossible ones?

  4. Interpret

    What does Hanani's image of God's eyes running back and forth throughout all the earth reveal about God's character?

  5. Apply

    When you face illness or crisis, what is your first instinct — and what should it be?

  6. Apply

    How do you guard the long-term health of your faith so that your finish reflects the same devotion as your beginning?

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