I. HIS LIFE.

1. The length of his reign. Forty-one years. His father, whose "heart was not perfect" towards God (1 Kings 15:3), reigned only three years (2 Chronicles 13:3). The Old Testament promised long life as a reward to piety (Psalm 34:12-14). But, even without a special promise, a religious life is calculated to prolong days. "Fear God, and keep his commandments," is the first rule of health.

2. The incidents of his reign.

(1) The reformation of religion (2 Chronicles 14:3).

(2) The building of fortresses (2 Chronicles 14:6).

(3) The preparation of an army (2 Chronicles 14:8).

(4) The defeat of Zerah the Ethiopian (2 Chronicles 14:9).

(5) The formation of a grand national covenant (2 Chronicles 15:8).

(6) The making of a league with Benhadad (2 Chronicles 16:1).

(7) The oppression of his people (2 Chronicles 16:10).

3. The character of his reign.

(1) Peaceful. It began with ten years of quiet (2 Chronicles 14:1); and, with the two exceptions above specified, it had no more hostile invasions to repel.

(2) Prosperous. Since the days of Solomon the kingdom had not attained to such a pinnacle of excellence - of material strength and religious consolidation - as it did under the son of Abijah.

II. HIS DEATH.

1. The date of it. In the forty-first year of his reign; most likely he was over sixty at the time of his decease.

2. The cause of it. Twofold.

(1) Disease, Two years before his end he became diseased exceedingly in his feet; probably with gout (Clarke, Jamiesen). Whatever its nature, it was fatal. Disease a sure precursor of death, of which every ailment should be a monitor.

(2) Unbelief. Had he consulted Jehovah about his malady (the Chronicler suggests), he might have been cured; but, as in repelling Baasha's attack he relied more on Benhadad than on Jehovah, so in his illness he repaired to the physicians instead of to Jehovah. To infer from this that Asa sinned in consulting a doctor, and that Christians should abstain from calling in medical advisers when out of health, is unreasonable. Asa's error lay, not in consulting the physicians, but in reposing trust in them to the exclusion of the Lord; and, as Paul took Luke the physician with him on his missionary journeys (Colossians 4:14; 2 Timothy 4:11), it may be argued that he at least did not regard it as inconsistent with religious principle to either give or accept medical advice. Still, what the doctors could not do for Asa, Jehovah could have done had he been consulted (Exodus 15:26; Psalm 103:3); so that unbelief was a real cause of Asa's death. Perhaps it is the cause of many deaths still. Without hinting that many practitioners are no better than those of whom the Gospels tell (Mark 5:26; Luke 8:43), it is still true that physicians cannot cure without the Divine blessing; and, doubtless, in cases that is withheld, because it is not asked either by the physician or his patient.

III. HIS BURIAL.

1. The place of his sepulture. The city of David, where his fathers slept (1 Kings 15:24), yet not in the general tomb of the kings, but in "his own sepulchres;" in a tomb he had specially caused to be excavated for himself (ver. 14). Joseph of Arimathaea hewed out a tomb for himself (Luke 23:53). The first thing a Pharaoh of Egypt did on ascending the throne was to construct for himself and descendants a royal mausoleum (Harkness, 'Egyptian Life and History.' p. 57).

2. The manner of his entombment.

(1) His corpse was embalmed. The bed on which it was laid was filled with sweet odours and spices of divers kinds, prepared by the apothecaries' art. Strictly speaking, this was only an imitation of the Egyptian practice (Keil, 'Archaologie,' §115; Riehm, art. "Begrianis"). Compare the embalmments of Jacob (Genesis 50:2) and of Jesus (John 19:39, 40).

(2) A very great burning was made for him. This burning was not of the body (A. Clarke), which, among the Hebrews, was commonly interred - the burning of the bodies of Saul and his sons (1 Samuel 31:12) being exceptional - but of the prepared spices. Other nations practised similar rites at the funerals of kings. Jehoram (2 Chronicles 21:19) and Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 22:18), on account of their wickedness, were denied such honours; Zedekiah was promised them (Jeremiah 34:5), perhaps, on account of his misfortunes.

IV. HIS CHARACTER.

1. A good man. His heart was perfect (2 Chronicles 15:7; 1 Kings 15:14), if his life was not (2 Chronicles 16:10). The general tenor of his conduct was upright, though he erred somewhat towards the close of his career. "It was thought a high eulogy on Jehoshaphat his son that he walked in all the way of his father" (Rawlinson); while the honours paid Asa on dying showed that his countrymen esteemed him to have been an honourable prince. His "faults and follies" may suggest that no man is perfect, and that "in many things we all offend."

2. An ardent reformer. He removed the altars and the high places of the strange gods or foreign divinities (2 Chronicles 14:3), though he left standing those belonging to Jehovah (2 Chronicles 15:17; 1 Kings 15:14). He "commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers" (2 Chronicles 14:4), and bound mere by a solemn league and covenant so to do (2 Chronicles 15:14), though he himself, in old age, declined a little from his early faith (2 Chronicles 16:2, 12).

3. A valiant soldier. That with his piety he combined courage, his encounter with Zerah the Ethiopian evinced. If he was genuinely good, he was also conspicuously great. - W.

Asa's case is a Scriptural declaration, that one who has begun well, who has even done much for God, may fall miserably, may fail at last. What were the causes of his fall?

I. HE WAS TRIED BY GREAT SUCCESS. Nothing is more liable than success to produce self-confidence, and neglect of Him who bestoweth on the wise their wisdom and on the strong their strength. Unless s man watches himself very narrowly, pride will insinuate itself even into the midst of his thanksgivings; complacent thoughts of his own foresight underlie his recognition of God's providence; confessions of his own good desert qualify his confessions of sin.

II. HE WAS PLACED IN THE PERILOUS POSITION OF HAVING TO GUIDE AND INSTRUCT OTHERS. This is a great snare to any one. The mother who teaches her child to pray; the father who watches over his son's moral progress; the master who is a strict censor of the behaviour of his servants; the Scripture-reader, the district visitor, the nurse of the sick, the almoner of the poor; yea, even the minister of God who has professionally to bring before his people the means of grace and hope of glory; these persons are all in danger of neglecting themselves — of placing themselves, as it were, ab extra, to the duties which they have to inculcate. They are tempted to forget themselves, to abate their self-discipline, and when the novelty of their employment has passed away, to fall back on other things; it may be, to end with languor, disgust, or carelessness, if not with utter faithlessness and sin.

(D. Hessey.)