15 God’s Spirit came to Azariah, son of Oded. ² Azariah went to Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa and all you men from Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you will dedicate your lives to serving him, he will accept you. But if you abandon him, he will abandon you. ³ For a long time Israel was without the true God, without a priest who taught ⌞correctly⌟, and without Moses’ Teachings. ⁴ But when they were in trouble, they turned to the Lord God of Israel. When they searched for him, he let them find him. ⁵ At those times no one could come and go in peace, because everyone living in the land had a lot of turmoil. ⁶ One nation crushed another nation; one city crushed another. God had tormented them with every kind of trouble. ⁷ But you must remain strong and not become discouraged. Your actions will be rewarded.”

⁸ When Asa heard the prophet Oded’s words of prophecy, he was encouraged and put away the detestable idols from all of Judah, Benjamin, and the cities he had captured in the mountains of Ephraim. He also repaired the Lord’s altar in front of the Lord’s entrance hall.

⁹ Then Asa gathered all the people from Judah and Benjamin and the foreigners who had come from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon. (Many of them had come to him from Israel when they saw that Asa’s God, the Lord, was with him.) ¹⁰ In the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign, they gathered in Jerusalem. ¹¹ On that day they sacrificed to the Lord a part of the loot they had brought with them: 700 cattle and 7,000 sheep. ¹² They made an agreement with one another to dedicate their lives to serving the Lord God of their ancestors with all their heart and soul. ¹³ All people (young or old, male or female) who refused to dedicate their lives to the Lord God of Israel were to be killed. ¹⁴ Asa and the people swore their oath to the Lord with shouts, singing, and the blowing of trumpets and rams’ horns. ¹⁵ All the people of Judah were overjoyed because of the oath, since they took the oath wholeheartedly. They took great pleasure in looking for the Lord, and he let them find him. So the Lord surrounded them with peace.

¹⁶ King Asa also removed his grandmother Maacah from the position of queen mother because she made a statue of the repulsive goddess Asherah. Asa cut the statue down, crushed it, and burned it in the Kidron Valley. ¹⁷ Although the illegal worship sites in Israel were not taken down, Asa remained committed ⌞to the Lord⌟ his entire life. ¹⁸ He brought into God’s temple the silver, the gold, and the utensils he and his father had set apart as holy.

King Asa’s War with King Baasha^(A)

¹⁹ There was no war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign.

16 In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign, King Baasha of Israel invaded Judah and fortified Ramah to keep anyone from going to or coming from King Asa of Judah.

² Then Asa brought out all the silver and gold that was left in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and the royal palace. He sent them to Damascus to Aram’s King Benhadad. ³ He said, “There’s a treaty between you and me ⌞as⌟ there was between your father and my father. I’m sending you silver and gold. Now break your treaty with King Baasha of Israel so that he will leave me alone.”

⁴ Benhadad did what King Asa requested. He sent his generals and their armies to attack the cities of Israel. He conquered Ijon, Dan, Abel Maim, and all the storage cities in the territory of Naphtali. ⁵ When Baasha heard the news, he stopped fortifying Ramah and abandoned his work on it.

⁶ Then King Asa took everyone in Judah ⌞to Ramah⌟. He made them carry the stones and lumber from Ramah. Baasha had been using those to fortify the city. Asa used the materials to fortify Geba in Benjamin and Mizpah.

⁷ At that time the seer ^[a] Hanani came to King Asa of Judah and said to him, “Because you depended on the king of Syria and did not depend on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped your grasp. ⁸ Weren’t the Sudanese and Libyans a large army with many chariots and drivers? But when you depended on the Lord, he handed them over to you. ⁹ The Lord’s eyes scan the whole world to find those whose hearts are committed to him and to strengthen them. You acted foolishly in this matter. So from now on, you will have to fight wars.”

¹⁰ Asa was furious at the seer. He was so angry with Hanani that he put Hanani in prison. Asa also oppressed some of the people at that time in his reign.

¹¹ Everything about Asa from first to last is written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.

¹² In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa got a foot disease that became progressively worse. Instead of asking the Lord for help, he went to doctors.

¹³ Asa lay down in death with his ancestors. He died in the forty-first year of his reign. ¹⁴ They buried him in the tomb that he had prepared for himself in the City of David. They laid him on a bed full of spices and blended perfumes. And they burned a bonfire in his honor.

²⁷ “I am too deeply troubled now to know how to express my feelings. Should I say, ‘Father, save me from this time ⌞of suffering⌟’? No! I came for this time of suffering. ²⁸ Father, give glory to your name.”

A voice from heaven said, “I have given it glory, and I will give it glory again.”

²⁹ The crowd standing there heard the voice and said that it had thundered. Others in the crowd said that an angel had talked to him. ³⁰ Jesus replied, “That voice wasn’t for my benefit but for yours.

³¹ “This world is being judged now. The ruler of this world will be thrown out now. ³² When I have been lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people toward me.” ³³ By saying this, he indicated how he was going to die.

³⁴ The crowd responded to him, “We have heard from the Scriptures that the Messiah will remain here forever. So how can you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up from the earth’? Who is this ‘Son of Man’?”

³⁵ Jesus answered the crowd, “The light will still be with you for a little while. Walk while you have light so that darkness won’t defeat you. Those who walk in the dark don’t know where they’re going. ³⁶ While you have the light, believe in the light so that you will become people whose lives show the light.”

After Jesus had said this, he was concealed as he left. ³⁷ Although they had seen Jesus perform so many miracles, they wouldn’t believe in him. ³⁸ In this way the words of the prophet Isaiah came true:

³⁹ So the people couldn’t believe because, as Isaiah also said,

⁴¹ Isaiah said this because he had seen Jesus’ glory and had spoken about him.

⁴² Many rulers believed in Jesus. However, they wouldn’t admit it publicly because the Pharisees would have thrown them out of the synagogue. ⁴³ They were more concerned about what people thought of them than about what God thought of them.

⁴⁴ Then Jesus said loudly, “Whoever believes in me believes not only in me but also in the one who sent me. ⁴⁵ Whoever sees me sees the one who sent me. ⁴⁶ I am the light that has come into the world so that everyone who believes in me will not live in the dark. ⁴⁷ If anyone hears my words and doesn’t follow them, I don’t condemn them. I didn’t come to condemn the world but to save the world. ⁴⁸ Those who reject me by not accepting what I say have a judge appointed for them. The words that I have spoken will judge them on the last day. ⁴⁹ I have not spoken on my own. Instead, the Father who sent me told me what I should say and how I should say it. ⁵⁰ I know that what he commands is eternal life. Whatever I say is what the Father told me to say.”