Let’s talk for a minute about King Asa, who ruled over Judah for 41 years. As we read about all the kings of Israel and Judah, we’ll see that roughly half of the time the kingdoms had good kings and half the time they had bad kings. But, the bad kings generally had short reigns and the good kings had long reigns. Asa was one of the good kings.

We’re told that he did right in the sight of the Lord, like David his father. (Of course, the word “father” here means his ancestor. Don’t be confused.) He made some important changes that I’m quite sure were not at all popular. He got rid of the the sexually immoral religions, the male prostitutes, the idols and the Asherah poles that were despicable in the sight of God. They were a blight on the land, and God hated them.

He even deposed his grandmother Maachah (called his mother in our text) from her position as queen mother because she had built an Asherah pole.

All these things had become entrenched in the culture, despite God’s command to have no other Gods before Him. But Asa was a man who loved God, and was willing to make unpopular decisions in order to do what was right.

Would that our leaders would do the same.

What do you think?