1 Kings 15:24

15:9-24 Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. That is right indeed which is so in God's eyes. Asa's times were times of reformation. He removed that which was evil; there reformation begins, and a great deal he found to do. When Asa found idolatry in the court, he rooted it out thence. Reformation must begin at home. Asa honours and respects his mother; he loves her well, but he loves God better. Those that have power are happy when thus they have hearts to use it well. We must not only cease to do evil, but learn to do well; not only cast away the idols of our iniquity, but dedicate ourselves and our all to God's honour and glory. Asa was cordially devoted to the service of God, his sins not arising from presumption. But his league with Benhadad arose from unbelief. Even true believers find it hard, in times of urgent danger, to trust in the Lord with all their heart. Unbelief makes way for carnal policy, and thus for one sin after another. Unbelief has often led Christians to call in the help of the Lord's enemies in their contests with their brethren; and some who once shone brightly, have thus been covered with a dark cloud towards the end of their days.

And Asa slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father,.... In a sepulchre there he himself had made, and in great pomp and solemnity, being laid on a bed filled with sweet odours and spices, prepared according to art, and which were burned for him, 2 Chronicles 16:14 , and Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his stead; a very pious and worthy prince.

24 . and was buried with his fathers ] There is much more detail concerning the burial in 2 Chronicles 16:14 , ‘They buried him in his own sepulchres, which he had made for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odours and divers kinds of spices prepared by the apothecaries’ art, and they made a very great burning for him.’ At the funerals of the great it was the custom to burn beds and clothes, spices and other things (see Jeremiah 24:5 ). In T. B. Abodah Zarah 11 a it is said: ‘when Rabban Gamaliel the elder died, Onkelos the proselyte burned in his honour the worth of 70 minæ of Tyrian money.’

Verse 24. - And Asa slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers ["in his own sepulchre which he had made for himself" ( 2 Chronicles 16:14 , which also notices "the bed filled with sweet odours," in which he was laid and the "very great burning" made for him)] in the city of David his father: and Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his stead. CHAPTER 15:25-16:28. THE REIGNS OF NADAB, BAASHA, ELAH, ZIMRI, AND OMRI, KINGS OF ISRAEL. - After bringing up the history of the kings of Judah, which has engaged his pen since 1 Kings 14:21 , to the date of the death of Asa, our author goes back some forty years to record the contemporary history of the kingdom of Israel, with which the rest of this book, the last thirteen verses alone excepted, is occupied. On the other hand, none of these reigns are even noticed by the chronicler, who only refers to the history of Israel, so far as it is inextricably connected with the object of his work; in other words, so far as is necessary to explain or illustrate the reigns of the kings of Judah. 1 Kings 15:24

Of the other acts of Asa, the building of cities refers to the building of fortifications mentioned in 2 Chronicles 14:5-6 . The disease in his feet in the time of his old age commenced, according to 2 Chronicles 16:12 , in the thirty-ninth year of his reign; and he sought help from the physicians, but not from the Lord; from which we may see, that the longer he lived the more he turned his heart away from the Lord (compare 2 Chronicles 16:10 ).

1 Kings 15:19 . There is a league between me and thee — In the latter end of Solomon’s reign, the Syrians were enemies to him, 1 Kings 11:24-25 : but when he was dead, and the kingdom was divided, both Judah and Israel made peace with the Syrians; having enough to do to settle themselves in their own dominions. Behold, I have sent thee a present, come, break thy league with Baasha — It is strange that Asa’s conscience would suffer him, or that he, a professor of the true religion, was not ashamed to be guilty of such a wicked piece of policy as to tempt with money even a heathen to break his word, or league rather, which, no doubt, he had sworn to observe. This certainly was not the way to recommend the worship and service of Jehovah to the heathen nations around.