God’s Word for You
2 Chronicles 15:16-19 Crushed and burned
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Wednesday, December 4, 2024
16 King Asa even deposed his grandmother Maacah from being queen mother because she had made an abomination, an Asherah pole. Asa cut down her image, crushed it, and burned it in the Kidron valley. 17 But the high places were not removed from Israel. Nevertheless, the heart of Asa was wholly committed all his days. 18 And he brought silver and gold articles into the House of God, the sacred gifts dedicated by his father and him.
For the judgment of whether Maacah was Asa’s mother or grandmother, see 2 Chronicles 11:20. We assume that this was the same woman who had been the granddaughter of Absalom and the favored wife of King Rehoboam. She was therefore a constant figure from Solomon’s time all the way to the present reign of Asa. She undoubtedly felt that she had a privileged position as such, taking the title of “Queen Mother,” and doing whatever she felt like with regard to her religion. Solomon’s heart had been led astray by his many pagan wives, and this granddaughter of Solomon’s son Absalom felt no remorse about her grotesque statue of the goddess Asherah. But Asa removed her from her title and destroyed the image. Perhaps he loved his grandmother; perhaps she was especially dear to him. We can’t say anything about that. But his heart belonged to the Lord, and she was spared from what could have been and perhaps should have been her fate. For wasn’t it just three or four verses before this that the whole nation took an oath, that “whoever would not seek the LORD, the God of Israel, should be put to death, whether young or old, man or woman” (15:13)? We are not told that old Maacah was put to death. This was a leap of mercy on the part of the king. He may have been concerned that, oath or not, the people would not stand for the execution of the Queen Mother they had known all their lives. But Asa’s heart was true to the Lord—except for an incident we will hear about in the next chapter.
19 And there was no war until the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Asa.
This verse, along with the first verse of chapter 16 that follows, throws a wrench into our understanding of the chronology of the divided kingdom. If the verse should be translated “until the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Asa,” that would be thirty-five years after Asa began his reign. This would be 875 BC. Why is this a problem?
1, If there was no war until Asa’s thirty-fifth year, what about the war with Zerah the Cushite that happened in his fifteenth year (2 Chronicles 15:1-10)?
2, Some translations suggest “no more war” until the 35th year (NIV, RSV), but this isn’t part of the Hebrew text.
3, Could “thirty-fifth year” be an error for “fifteenth year”? But if so, must there be a duplicate error in 16:1, “thirty-sixth year”?
4, If 16:1 means the 36th year of Asa, then there is a serious problem, because the king in that verse, Baasha, died before the 36th year of Asa, but he was very much alive in the 16th year of Asa. Baasha died in 886 BC (see 1 Kings 15:33).
Edwin Thiele has suggested that “thirty-fifth year” means the thirty-fifth year from the beginning of the nation of Judah, which happens to correspond to the fifteenth year of Asa (that is, 895 BC).
Some are inclined to shrug and say that the numbers must be correct, and they do not even try to match the text with the rest of Scripture. Another issue here is that however we take the text, this will reveal something about how we take the word of God.
No solution here seems ideal. Thiele’s idea is remarkable, but it would be the only instance of its kind in Scripture. Thiele himself laments that it would have been helpful if the author had continued this practice, but of course the recording of these things took centuries; that is the very nature of a chronicle. For the moment, Thiele’s proposal seems like the better choice. We naturally want to allow the text to stand as it is rather than assume an error by a scribe, especially since the very next verse continues the chronological sequence by mentioning the thirty-sixth year. But there is always the chance that someone in our future will come up with a better solution that will also leave the text unmolested. May God bless that person!
Our main concern is with Christ and our place in his kingdom. “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes” (Psalm 118:9); and again: “Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground” (Psalm 146:3-4). This is what happens to us all. But when the last day comes, we will be raised to life. “For as death, which is the loss of life, is opposed to life, so also the resurrection is opposed to death. It is the restoration to life of that which has first fallen dead; its rising or resuscitation” (Gerhard).
The law of God crushes our sinfulness, and leads us to crush and demolish the little idols that are scattered around our lives. And the big ones, too. The gospel assures us that we still have a place in God’s kingdom; that we will not be destroyed. We have a place with our Savior forever.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.