I awakened early this morning with 2Chronicles 16:9 running through my head:
For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.
These words were spoken to King Asa (king of Judah) by the “seer” Hanani after Asa had paid the king of Syria to come to his aid against the king of Israel who was attacking him—rather than seeking help from God as he had done when being assaulted by a million Ethiopians (2Chronicles 14:9-13). Asa is being reprimanded for not relying on God.
Because I had recently written the contemplations Perfect in One and How We Experience God, I particularly took note of the word “perfect.” I began reading the account of Asa’s reign. I read his prayer to God when faced with those Ethiopians. He understood that nothing was too hard for God (2Chronicles 14:11;Genesis 18:14; Jeremiah 32:27) and that the battle was not his, but the Lord’s (2Chronicles 14:11; 20:15). I read that he led his people into “a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul” (2Chronicles 14:12) and “that whosoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman” (v 13).
Well, that was interesting! That would mean that Asa himself should be “put to death” for relying upon the king of Syria.
Not only that, he had also failed to take down the “high places” when he removed his idolatrous mother from being queen. Yet it is said of him, “Nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect all his days” (2Chronicles 15:16-17).
I read that those “days” ended when Asa became “diseased in his feet,” “yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians” (2Chronicles 16:12).
Was Asa “condemned” by his own words (Matthew 12:37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned) as Jesus said we would be? He had said that those who didn’t seek the Lord would be put to death (14:13).
Is Asa an illustration of how we are “cursed” when we are living under the law and fail to do what it says (Galatians 3:10-13)?
Cursed though he may have been, and though he didn’t measure up in so many ways, it is still said of him that his heart was “perfect” “all his days.”
As I was pondering these seeming contradictions, I remembered that Paul had said that God “calleth those things which be not as though they were” (Romans 4:17). Maybe Asa is an example of this. (See Calling Things that Be not as Though They Were).
So I began to read the book of Romans where Paul makes this statement when he is talking about the faith of Abraham.
I began to understand what Paul was saying as I had never understood it before. I felt this Scripture was being fulfilled as I read:
Jeremiah 33:3 Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.
There is no way I can even begin to put into one contemplation all that I am seeing. I just want to show how what Paul is saying pertains to the statement made of Asa—that his heart “was perfect all his days” (2Chronicles 15:17).
Most simply put, Paul is setting forth the “gospel” as it was revealed to him, a gospel of God’s grace coming to man, not by works of the law but as a free gift to ALL mankind. It is God’s righteousness available to be experienced by anyone who can just believe it without attempting to work for it.
Paul shows over and over again that every man is in need of God’s righteousness because he can never by keeping the laws of any covenant establish a righteousness of his own. Everyone is guilty of “sin” (a sense of separation from God and from one another) and cannot get free from that sense of separation that makes him feel “naked” and “afraid” of God (Genesis 3:10) by any “good” thing that he attempts to do. He just feels judged and condemned by the realization that he is incapable of “performing that which is good” (Romans 7:15-19).
The only solution is to stop attempting to earn God’s love and acceptance and just accept that which has never been taken from us, except in our own “darkened” minds which makes us FEEL alienated from God (Colossians 1:21).
Now back to Asa’s “perfect” heart. We saw in an earlier contemplation that both Noah and Job were called “perfect,” in spite of their shortcomings (see How We Experience God).
Job’s three “friends” were sure that Job was being “chastened” by God (Job 5:17) because of his unrighteousness. Job didn’t know why he was suffering and he was sure that this “evil” came from God (Job 2:10); but he, like David, knew that God was the only one he could trust (Job 13:15 Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him), knowing that even if God did “slay” him (as he prayed God would), he would never be separated from God:
Job 19:26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
Job knew that he was of value to God, that man is not a “worm” as his friends believed (Job 25:6). God said that Job had spoken “the thing which is right” while his “friends” had not (Job 42:7-8).
Having a “perfect” heart has nothing to do with my behavior. It has to do with my knowing that I remain inextricably connected to God from whence I came and to whom I shall return, no matter what I do or don’t do, whether I live or die. I know that God loves me, talks and listens to me (has “fellowship” with me—1John 1:3), and that I can never be separated from His love (Romans 8:35-39).
I see it now. When the million Ethiopians came against Judah, King Asa, realizing the hopelessness of the situation, immediately sought the Lord to do what he could not; and all his enemies “were destroyed before the Lord” (2Chronicles 14:13). “The fear of the Lord came upon” “all the cities round about” so that Asa was victorious over them also.
As soon as Asa saw that his victory came after seeking the Lord, he made a sacrifice and a covenant to always seek the Lord, and the punishment for not doing so was death. He made a law out of seeking the Lord, a law which of course he could not keep, that he was “cursed” for even attempting to keep. For had he been able to keep it, his victories would have been dependent upon his success in keeping the law, not upon the free gift of God’s goodness.
That’s what Paul is attempting to make us understand in the book of Romans. God’s salvation can never come to us by our keeping any “covenant” or law; it has to come by grace. Even though Asa desired with all his heart to do the right thing (his heart was “perfect”), as soon as he made a law out of doing the right thing (the law is “holy”—Romans 7:12), he was incapable of doing it—as was Paul and as are we all.
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Romans 4:2 For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.
I wish to return to
2Chronicles 16:9 where we started
For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.
This sounds like God is looking for people with a perfect heart so He can “show himself strong in behalf of them.” If that were the case, Asa would have defeated the Israelites also, for his heart was still “perfect.” No, “God is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34); He makes His rain to fall on “the just and the unjust” (Matthew 5:45).
The “perfect” heart doesn’t CAUSE God to “show himself strong” on behalf of man; the “perfect” heart is what enables the man to receive that which is given because he is aware of his indissoluble union with God which allows him to trust God’s goodness toward him.
But, as in the case of Asa, having a “perfect” heart cannot guarantee one’s receiving from God. On the contrary, I guarantee that I don’t receive when I attempt to get from God what I need or desire on the basis of what I do or don’t do (by the works of the law).
We all have wondered why bad things happen to “good” people—particularly when that “good” person is me. Job certainly did. (Other people’s lives are not our concern—as Jesus was quick to tell Peter (John 21:21-22)). One common explanation is:
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Galatians 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse.
This is a spiritual law at work, not God sovereignly punishing people for attempting to earn righteousness by being “good.”
This is a bitter pill to swallow, so bitter that we cry out, “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” The natural man, even the one with the “perfect” heart (the heart that knows its connection to God and wants to “serve” God) must “die daily” (1Corinthians 15:31) to the ego that desires to “do” something (anything) to earn God’s grace.
God has recently shown me how this is operating in my own life. Whenever I receive anything from God, my tendency is to try to duplicate that experience the next time I want to receive. For example, if I receive revelation at 4:00 in the morning, I will try to get up at 4:00 again in order to receive. It is very subtle and very insidious. It is making a law out of the experience, thereby guaranteeing that I won’t receive—because I am “under the curse” of the law that I have made for myself.
We can observe this about ourselves without being condemned
2Chronicles 16:9 For the eyes of the Lord [still] run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.
That has not changed. When we again see our total dependence upon God’s grace for all we receive, we can, like Job, receive “twice as much as we had before” (Job 42:10)
—twice as much righteousness, peace and joy because we have “ceased from our own works” and “entered into His rest” (Hebrews 4:10).`