No Odds - part 2 Like Father Like Son

Asa was a king who soared to victory as he followed God with his life and kingdom. In 2 Chronicles 14 Abijah’s son takes the throne and builds on his father’s tradition of following God. Look what he did:

“Asa pleased the LORD, his God, by doing what was right and good.
He removed the foreign altars and the pagan places of worship,
broke down the sacred stone columns, and cut down the symbols of the goddess Asherah.
He commanded the people of Judah to do the will of the LORD, the God of their ancestors, and to obey his teachings and commands.
Because he abolished the pagan places of worship and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah, the kingdom was at peace under his rule.”

He was dedicated to the God of his fathers. All seemed to be going very well. And then it happened. A one million man army descended on Judah from, of all places, Ethiopia. Zerah and his troops came with 300 chariots; the drones of his day. Doom was certain.

Why when someone is doing as God commands and directs do things like this happen? Never had Saul faced a million man army! He did everything wrong, reigned for 40 years and never came into a situation like this one. Can you imagine looking out over a million warriors ready for battle? The odds again were against Judah. A horrendous battle was about to take place between the million and the 580,000.

What could Asa’s battle strategy possibly be ? It was a stroke of genius! He cried out to God! “LORD it is nothing for you to help, whether with many or with those who have no power; help us, o LORD God, for we rest on you, and in your name we go against this multitude o LORD you are God; do not let men prevail against you!”

We look back on this account and say GO GET EM ASA! YOU DA DUDE! SEND THOSE BAD GUYS BACK TO WHERE THEY CAME FROM! THEY HAVE NO POSSESSION IN ISRAEL! WHO DO THEY THINK THAT THEY ARE MESSING WITH? Whew... let me catch my breath!

We we shout this because we know what is about to happen. We know that EVERY STINKING ONE OF THOSE bad dudes is gonna die! They are doomed. They are toast. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Asa wasn’t privy to that information. This was a do or die proposition. He spoke with tremendous confidence and trust in Jehovah. “God it is nothing for you to help, whether with many or with those who have no power...”. He automatically put himself into that latter category.

But wait! He was a king! He had power. He was a descendent of David, of Solomon! He was God’s chosen. He had been following God’s will. All of which was true. Was it easier to face the million because of these truths? I doubt it.

How could Asa trust? Actually, trust was all that he had. The million were on his doorstep. They weren't going away anytime soon. God would prove himself or he wouldn’t.

And He did! In a BIG way. How exactly we don't know. But one million died as a direct result of Asa’s prayer and confidence in his God.

Am I so confident? Are you?

God Made Clothes

And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. Gen 3:21 I have always heard the following explanation of this verse. Because Adam and Eve had sinned, they died spiritually. They also lost the right to be in the Garden of Eden and were cursed in other ways. For example, they had made clothes out of fig leaves, but God sacrificed a lamb; thus, God shed blood and made clothes. This sacrifice of an innocent lamb symbolized what Jesus Christ would do in the distant future. Is this what you have heard? I don't know; it seems like this interpretation is stretching what Moses wrote in the above text. The text says that God made clothes for Adam and his wife from skins. We see no blood, we don't know what kind of skins, nor can I imagine God making an animal sacrifice. Did God have to skin animals to make these clothes? Or could he have just made them like he had everything else in the universe just a little while earlier? To th...

What Are You Worth?

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We see Abraham lying at times. He twice told people that his wife was his sister. He was worried that someone might kill him because his old wife was so beautiful. In the text that I read today, he comes into territory ruled by Abimelek and tells the great fib. Not too long afterward, the king takes Sarah into his harem. Lately, I have become interested in real estate investing and have learned quite a bit in the last few years. One crucial lesson acquired was that I need to treat investing as a business and not have too many sentimental attachments. Years ago, I would rent with a "charitable" mindset. I kept the rent low on my only rental because I was "helping people (friends) out." I kept that rent low for 20 years. For those years, that rent never moved from $650 a month. Granted, we could keep the property and barely pay the maintenance and taxes, but the rent was low. It wasn't until I turned that property over to a property manager that I realized what ...

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