“O Lord thou hast searched me and known me.”
The words give us much to think about. Others may know us to some extent but they cannot search our heart. Man looks on the outward appearance but the Lord looks on the heart. Man can and should use righteous judgment based on what he can see and hear, but we must acknowledge that, at best, our judgment is very limited. We can easily be wrong, and therefore need always be slow to condemn, but quick to show mercy and forgiveness.
The Lord our God can look into our hearts, and we are exhorted to cleanse our hearts. It is out of the heart that evil comes. He that “Looketh on a woman”, if he harbor the thought is guilty before God. The Psalm continues “Thou knowest my down sitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.”
Our hymn says “Our thoughts before they are our own, are all to Thee distinctly known.”
And in Psalm 14:2 we are told “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.”
God is looking for hearts that desire Him — that desire to please Him. He is looking for those who are trying to love Him with all their heart — who yearn for Him and for His love and approval — men and women who trust in Him and not in themselves. One of the evils to fear and guard against is the natural mind’s tendency to turn from God, from a trust in God to trusting in oneself or in other men.
God wants us to trust in Him. He is to be our strength throughout eternity, if we please Him.
In Isaiah 57:15 He says : “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy ; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive (to lift up, to encourage, to strengthen) the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”
In the reading from 2 Chronicles we have an outstanding example of a man, a king in Israel, who was humble and trusted in God, until he became strong, and then he trusted in his own judgment and the help of others who did not know or fear God. Worse still, he resisted, refused and rebelled against the correction of the Lord.
From this short account of As we can take the following lessons :
- The blessing that can come to us from an attitude of humility and trust in God.
- We can see the evil that can come to us if we “lean unto our own understanding.”
- We can see the greater evil that can come from our turning for help to those who do not fear God, even though at present it seem successful. It may bring God’s displeasure upon us.
- We can see the still greater evil of resisting the correction of the Lord, when it would be far better to humble ourselves and accept His rebuke.
Let us look at the account of Asa in 2 Chronicles 14 to 16. In chapter 14 verses 9 to 11:
“And there came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian with an host of a thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots ; and came unto Mareshah.
Then Asa went out against him, and they set the battle in array in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah.
And Asa cried unto the Lord his God, and said, Lord it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power; help us, 0 Lord our God ; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude. O Lord, thou art our God ; let not man prevail against thee.”
Notice the size of the Ethiopian army—One million men and three hundred chariots. Asa had an army of five hundred and eighty thousand (verse 8) — about half as many, but still a large army. God had prospered Asa in return for having done what was “good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God.” (verse 2). But what pleased God was the attitude of Asa at the time, for Asa was not depending on his army nor on his own ability to direct his army. Asa’s heart was toward God, trusting in Him. Note his expression of trust and humility:
“Lord it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power.”
At the time this man could be trusted with a great army, for he would still give God the glory.
“Help us, O Lord our God ; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude.”
God gave them into his hand, and as we read in verse 13:
“The Ethiopians were overthrown, that they could not recover themselves ; for they were destroyed before the Lord, and before his host.”
It was God, and God’s people working together. God’s people trusting in God, and God, pleased with that trust gave them the victory.
“The Lord is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you ; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you.”
What a lesson for us. It is God’s way. It is reasonable. We have everything to gain. We can give Him nothing but our heart, our love. No wonder the first and greatest commandment is to “Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.” Everything depends on our attitude toward Him and toward others.
In Psalm 18 we are told that “with the merciful God will show himself merciful, with the upright God will show himself upright, with the pure God will show himself pure.” Then note the contrast “with the froward God will show himself froward.”
Asa was happy with the message of the prophet and set about to clear all idolatry from Judah and Benjamin, and for 21 years God gave him peace. But what happened during the 21 years ? What became of Asa’s trust in God ? Did peace and prosperity weaken his faith and increase his pride ? Or had he grown lukewarm toward the service of his God and no longer turned to Him — no longer prayed earnestly for His help and guidance — no longer looked upon Him for deliverance? Herein is the lesson for us.
Something had taken the place of God as Asa’s help. The counsel of God to us is to “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding.” Twenty one years before Asa had said “Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power.” Is that our attitude?
Another power (chapter 16:1) comes against Asa but Asa doesn’t turn to God for help. In fact (verse 2) he takes the silver and gold out of the treasures of the house of the Lord, and sends it to the king of Syria to hire help. God did not stop him. In fact it accomplished what Asa hoped for, and brought relief. But Asa had offended the Lord God, the strength of Israel, and again we see a lesson. We may be successful in whatever we have our heart set on, but if our desires are away from Him, if something else becomes our trust, or our heart’s desire, or our idol, we may lose His love and our salvation.
God had been pleased with Asa’s earlier life. He still was working with him as a father would with his child. God sent a prophet to admonish Asa, and to correct him, if he would be corrected. This was the message : 2 Chronicles 16:7-9
“And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria and not relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand. Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge host, with very many chariots and horsemen? yet because thou didst rely on the Lord he delivered them into thine hand.
“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.” God’s eyes are still running to and fro throughout the earth. This knowledge should comfort us. God will still “show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.” But He will not do so if He finds our heart has turned from Him. If it has, then, like Asa, “Herein we have done foolishly.” Let us examine our hearts and if it is not toward God, then let us accept the rebuke and repent and turn again: David did, and God continued to work with him. It would appear that Asa’s pride had overcome his fear of the Lord for instead of repenting, he became angry and imprisoned the prophet and oppressed some of the people of the Lord. He would not accept the rebuke from God.
The lesson is brought home forcibly in John 15. We can abide in Christ the true vine, and our Father will work with us and purge out the evil and help us develop more fruit.
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away :and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” John 15:1-2.
We can be pliable in the hands of the Potter by humbling our selves under the mighty hand of God. Or, like Asa, we can rebel against the counsel of God, and be cast forth as a branch that is withered.
Let us not do that. We have eternal life in our grasp. God has directed us in the way. We are in Christ. He exhorts us to “abide” in him.
“If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love.”
And while the thought may seem difficult to accept and believe at first, he says this, “As many as I love I rebuke and chasten.” Therefore let us heed the exhortation—”My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord ; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth : even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One