"And Abijah rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David. Asa his son succeeded him as king, and in his days the country was at peace for ten years." (1 Chronicles 14:1) "In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa became king of Judah, and he reigned in Jerusalem forty-one years. His grandmother's name was Maakah daughter of Abishalom." (1 Kings 15:9-10) King Jeroboam is nearing the end of his life; he will reign for only two more years.
Asa is a man with a heart for the Lord. "Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father David had done. He expelled the male shrine prostitutes from the land and got rid of all the idols his ancestors had made. He even deposed his grandmother Maakah from her position as queen mother, because she had made a repulsive image for the worship of Asherah. Asa cut it down and burned it in the Kidron Valley. Although he did not remove the high places, Asa's heart was fully committed to the Lord all his life. He brought into the temple of the Lord the silver and gold and the articles that he and his father had dedicated." (1 Kings 15:11-14) The author of 1 Kings compares Asa's faith to that of his great-great-grandfather David by referring to David as "his father". Asa is much more like his great-great grandfather David than like his father Abijah or like his grandfather Rehoboam or like his great-grandfather Solomon. Asa is nothing like his grandmother Maakah either, who kept her pagan religion when she married into the royal family, and who likely served as some type of priestess in one of the heathen temples that her husband Rehoboam allowed in the land of Judah. Asa removed her title of "queen mother" and did not allow her in his royal court due to her idolatrous lifestyle.
The chronicler speaks of Asa's faith like this: "Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God. He removed the foreign altars and the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah Poles. He commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and to obey His laws and commands. He removed the high places and incense altars in every town in Judah, and the kingdom was at peace under him. He built up the fortified cities of Judah, since the land was at peace. No one was at war with him during those years, for the Lord gave him rest." (2 Chronicles 14:2-6)
You'll notice that the passage from 1 Kings states that Asa did not remove the high places but the passage from 2 Chronicles states that Asa "removed the foreign altars and the high places". Scholars have interpreted these discrepancies to mean that Asa removed only the foreign religious sites but that he left the high places that had been used for sacrifices and offerings to the Lord. He really should have removed them all since the Lord commanded that the people are to bring their sacrifices and offerings to the temple now, but at least he removed the heathen centers of worship and pointed the people's worship back to the one true God.
For the first ten years of Asa's reign, no enemy from any side troubled the nation of Judah. This allowed the people time to fortify and build up their cities against any enemy attacks in the future. "'Let us build up these towns,' he said to Judah, 'and put walls around them, with towers, gates and bars. The land is still ours, because we have sought the Lord our God; we sought Him and He has given us rest on every side.'" (2 Chronicles 14:7) Asa is being a good steward of his blessings from the Lord. We could compare his building up and maintaining of the cities of Judah to the maintaining of the homes the Lord has blessed us with. It's important to not only be thankful for our blessings but to take care of and protect them. If we said, "Thank you Lord!" when He provides us with a home but we never clean the home, mow the lawn, or do general maintenance as needed, we'd eventually have leaky roofs, clogged gutters, and a buildup of dirt and grime inside and outside. If we truly are thankful for what the Lord has given us, we'll be good stewards of it so that it will continue to be a blessing to us.
Asa's reign won't always be peaceful, for there are nations surrounding Judah who would like to conquer and subjugate his people, but the Lord mercifully provides him with ten years of peace in which to be a godly influence on the citizens of Judah and in which to fortify the nation against invasion and to build up its infrastructure. This puts him and his people in a stronger position (both spiritually and militarily) to repel enemies when they come. When such hardships do come, the king and the citizens of Judah will stand firm in the Lord.
It's vital for our spiritual health to work on our relationship with the Lord during times of prosperity so that when troubles come (and they will come because we live in a fallen world where people do evil things and where natural disasters, illnesses, and injuries take place) we will be able to stand firm in the Lord. We will be able to repel the spiritual attacks of that old lying serpent, the devil. We will be able to fight the attacks of human enemies as well, for there are those in this world who either don't believe in the Lord or who don't believe He will help us, and they may speak words of discouragement to us. If we work on building up the infrastructure of our faith and if we fortify our hearts against doubts and fears by immersing ourselves in the truth of God's word, we will be in a position to defend ourselves from falling into despair and listening to the lying words of anyone who would love to shipwreck our faith.
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