Reasonable Doubt

In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa developed a serious foot disease. Yet even with the severity of his disease, he did not seek the LORD’s help but turned only to his physicians. [2 Chronicles 16.12] 

The implications of this verse are deeper than they first appear. 

While it may seem reasonable that Asa should have sought God's help along with the physician's help, the careful student of the Word will recognize that his failure was not just an error of not including God. Instead, Asa's failure in 2 Chronicles 16.12 reveals what is the final step in his digression away from God altogether that started in 2 Chronicles 16:

In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign, King Baasha of Israel invaded Judah and fortified Ramah in order to prevent anyone from entering or leaving King Asa’s territory in Judah. Asa responded by removing the silver and gold from the treasuries of the Temple of the LORD and the royal palace. He sent it to King Ben-hadad of Aram, who was ruling in Damascus, along with this message: “Let there be a treaty between you and me like the one between your father and my father. See, I am sending you silver and gold. Break your treaty with King Baasha of Israel so that he will leave me alone.” [2 Chronicles 16.1-3]

Asa's error of soliciting Ben-hadad's help (including God by using money from the Temple) and then turning only to the physicians reveals that the digression to complete faithlessness may only take two steps.

The first step of Asa's faithlessness was to seek help from another king and kingdom. God was still included in the process because the money to pay for Ben-hadad's protection came from God's Temple. 

The second step was for Asa to exclude God altogether not even including Him in his quest for healing. 

Regardless whether we conclude that Asa forsook God in only two big moves, or whether there was a slower digression of other events not recorded in the Bible, the final result was the same: Asa completely forsook his faith in God in the end.

Asa's two steps away from God stand in indicting and damning contrast to an earlier event where Asa's own words tell the story of a time of his undivided faith in God alone:

Then Asa cried out to the LORD his God, “O LORD, no one but you can help the powerless against the mighty! Help us, O LORD our God, for we trust in you alone. It is in your name that we have come against this vast horde. O LORD, you are our God; do not let mere men prevail against you!” [2 Chronicles 14.11]

Asa's request above for God alone to help Judah against the Ethiopians resulted in the Ethiopians being soundly defeated. However, when Asa later sought Ben-hadad's help in response to King Baasha's invasion, he obtained a temporary fix, but the prophet Hanani rebuked Asa severely:

The eyes of the LORD search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. What a fool you have been! From now on you will be at war.” [2 Chronicles 16.9]

The key words of the verse above are fully committed. If Asa, within himself had, with reasonable doubt, concluded that God uses other kings to deliver Judah, all that reasonable doubt was rebuked by Hanani because no matter how reasonable it seems, doubt is faithlessness to God. 

Ready for this? Asa's reasonable doubt is absolutely no different than our reasonable doubt today when we reasonably conclude that God uses debt, insurance, medicine and technology to protect and care for our lives. Yes, we exercise great reason in our dependence upon these things (after all, God gave man the wisdom to develop them and the money to pay for them!), however our great reason still only amounts to reasonable doubt. It is full-blown faithlessness to God, and God alone.

Does this make you mad? Be cautious, because it made Asa mad too:

Asa became so angry with Hanani for saying this that he threw him into prison and put him in stocks. At that time Asa also began to oppress some of his people. [2 Chronicles 16.10]

Father, may the truth of Your Word penetrate our lives inspiring us to undivided faith in You ALONE. May Your Word reveal the idols in our lives that we might repent of our faithlessness and forsake them in order to be fully committed to You. So be it!