Abijah dies, and his son Asa now becomes king of Judah, 2 Chronicles 14:1 / 1 Kings 15:8, and we are told that there was peace for ten years, 2 Chronicles 14:1. In the twentieth year of Jeroboam, king of Israel, Asa reigned as king of Judah from 911-870 B.C. 1 Kings 15:9-10 / 2 Chronicles 14:1-16:14.
Maakah was the grandmother of Asa, 2 Chronicles 13:2 / 1 Kings 15:2 / 2 Chronicles 15:16 / 2 Kings 15:10 / 2 Kings 15:13. She was the favourite wife of Rehoboam, 2 Chronicles 11:21, and, as may be inferred from the statement in 1 Kings 15:9-10, she held the important post of queen-mother, a very distinctive office in the Jewish government.
The name Abishalom, 1 Kings 15:10, is the same as the name Absalom, but as Absalom only had one daughter, Tamar, 2 Samuel 14:27, Maacah was probably his granddaughter. It’s important to note that the Jews called any female ancestor mother and any male ancestor father.
Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, 2 Chronicles 14:2 / 1 Kings 15:11, he was obedient to God because he rejected the idolatrous practices and everything related to those practices, 2 Chronicles 14:3 / 1 Kings 15:12 / 1 Kings 14:24.
Maakah as may be inferred from the statement here, she held the important post of queen-mother, 1 Kings 15:13, a very distinctive office in the Jewish government.
He removed his mother from her political position, 1 Kings 15:11-15, because she had the audacity of making an image of the Canaanite goddess Asherah. Asa destroyed all these images as God commanded, 2 Chronicles 14:4-5 / Deuteronomy 16:21-22 / Deuteronomy 7:5 / Deuteronomy 12:3.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘2 Chronicles 14:3, would seem at first sight to imply that he entirely put down the worship. But idolatry, if at one time put down, crept back afterward; or while Asa endeavoured to sweep it wholly away, his subjects would not be controlled, but found a means of maintaining it in some places, not perhaps in the cities, 2 Chronicles 14:5, but in remote country districts, where the royal authority was weaker, and secrecy more practicable.’
He removed his grandmother from her political position because she had the audacity of making an image of the Canaanite goddess Asherah, Exodus 34:13, and placing it in the Kidron Valley near Jerusalem, 1 Kings 15:13. Although he didn’t remove the high places, Asa’s heart was fully committed to God all his life, 1 Kings 15:14.
It appears that the reforms that Asa made at the beginning of his reign weren’t effective in ridding Judah of all the places of worship where people went to pay homage to false gods, 2 Chronicles 15:17.
When Asa initially reigned, it was a time of prosperity for Judah, and because it was a time of peace they could easily develop economically, 2 Chronicles 14:5-7 / 1 Kings 15:14.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The great blow struck by Abijah, 2 Chronicles 13:15-19, his alliance with Syria, 1 Kings 15:19, and the rapid succession of sovereigns in Israel during the earlier part of Asa’s reign, 1 Kings 15:25-33, would naturally prevent disturbance on the part of the northern kingdom. The tender age of Asa himself would be a bar to warlike enterprises on the part of Judah.’
The men of Judah served as heavy-armed troops, while the Benjamites were light-armed, 2 Chronicles 14:8. Their numbers accord well with those of 2 Chronicles 13:3.
As the boundaries of Judah had been enlarged, 2 Chronicles 13:19, and as for ten years at least there had been no war, 2 Chronicles 14:1, the effective force had naturally increased.
Cook, in his commentary, says the following, the vast number in the army.
‘This is the largest collected army of which we read in Scripture, but it does not exceed the known numbers of other Oriental armies of ancient times. Darius Codomannus brought into the field of Abela a force of 1,040,000, and Xerxes crossed the Hellespont with more than a million combatants.’
He brought into the temple the silver and gold and the articles that he and his father had dedicated, 1 Kings 15:15. Asa’s dedications were probably those which he pledged following his victory over the Cushites in the eleventh year of his reign, 2 Chronicles 14:9 / 2 Chronicles 15:10 / 2 Chronicles 15:18. Sadly, because Judah felt politically insecure, he made an unwise coalition with Syria, 2 Chronicles 16:7-12.
Asa’s faith was put to the test when his army of five-hundred and eighty thousand men, 2 Chronicles 14:8, came face to face with thousands upon thousands of Ethiopians and their three-hundred chariots, 2 Chronicles 14:9. Some suggest there were one million Ethiopians.
Mareshah, 2 Chronicles 14:10, was in the valley that marks the entrance into the hills, halfway between Gaza and Jerusalem. This was one of the cities that Rehoboam had fortified in anticipation of just such an attack.
Notice that after Asa’s men took their position, Asa prayed to God, 2 Chronicles 14:10-11. In his prayer, Asa knows the power of God; he knows the battle belongs to the LORD and so, he calls upon God to defend His honour, 2 Chronicles 14:11.
After Asa prays, God then strikes down the Cushites before Asa and Judah, and the Cushites flee, and were pursued as far as Gerar, 2 Chronicles 14:12. We are told that such a great number of Cushites fell that they could not recover; they were crushed before the LORD and his forces, 2 Chronicles 14:13.
The men of Judah carried off a large amount of plunder, and they destroyed all the villages around Gerar, for the terror of the LORD had fallen on them, 2 Chronicles 14:13-14.
They looted all these villages, since there was much plunder there, and they attacked the camps of the herders and carried off droves of sheep and goats and camels, and then they returned to Jerusalem, 2 Chronicles 14:14-15.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The spoil was immense because the multitude was prodigious, indeed almost incredible, a million of men in one place is almost too much for the mind to conceive, but there may be some mistake in the numerals, it is evident from the whole account that the number was vast and the spoil great.’
Their battle against the Cushites is probably the greatest battle of all battles that Israel fought throughout her history. The battle of five hundred and eighty thousand men against one million would certainly have resulted in a great carnage for humanity.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The defeat of Zerah is one of the most remarkable events in the history of the Jews. On no other occasion did they meet in the field and overcome the forces of either of the two great monarchies between which they were placed. It was seldom that they ventured to resist, unless behind walls. Shishak, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon, and Nebuchadnezzar were either unopposed or only opposed in this way. On the one other occasion on which they took the field, under Josiah against Necho, their boldness issued in a most disastrous defeat, 2 Chronicles 35:20-24. Now, however, under Asa, they appear to have gained a complete victory over Egypt. The results which followed were nicest striking. The Southern power could not rally from the blow, and, for above three centuries, made no further effort in this direction. Assyria, growing in strength, finally, under Sargon and Sennacherib, penetrated to Egypt itself. All fear of Egypt as an aggressive power ceased, and the Israelites learned instead to lean upon the Pharaohs for support, 2 Kings 17:4 / 2 Kings 18:21 / Isaiah 30:2-4, etc. Friendly ties alone connected the two countries, and it was not until 609 B.C. that an Egyptian force again entered Palestine with a hostile intention.’