The 11th, 15th, 36th, 39th years

"Having begun with the Spirit, would you now finish through the flesh ?" Galatians 3. 3

The first ten years of the reign of the young King Asa are peaceful : "He did that which was good and right in the sight of the Lord" (2 Chronicles 14: 2). With his people, he seeks God and strengthens the security of his kingdom.

Then comes the great test of the eleventh year. A neighboring nation attacks it with an army of a million men ; but Asa leans firmly on her God and utters a magnificent prayer of faith (2 Chronicles 14:11).

In the years that follow, his life with God relaxes. So God speaks to him through the prophet Azariah. Asa is sensitive to the words of the prophet. He recovers himself and with him a true awakening occurs in all the people during the fifteenth year of his reign (2 Chronicles 15).

Subsequently, the spiritual state of Asa seems to have deteriorated again. The test of the thirty-sixth year will, alas, reveal it. Baasha, king of Israel, attacks him. Asa does not invoke God as in his eleventh year of reign. He tries to appease Baasha with gold and silver and relies on the king of Syria (2 Chronicles 16). But God speaks to him as in the fifteenth year by Hananiah, another prophet (2 Chronicles 16: 7-9). Asa does not accept the rebuke of God and throws the Prophet into prison. God does not want to leave Asa in this state; he still speaks to him through sickness in the thirty-ninth year of his reign (2 Chronicles 16:12). He died two years later.

All this is written for our instruction. At the time of the balance sheets, questions arise for us :

- Are we in the first years, doing what is right and right, taking away idols, seeking God, strengthening us in the Lord ? So persevere !

- Are we in the "eleventh year", the year of the great trial ? We can cry out as Asa : "Help us, O LORD our God ! for we rely on you" (2 Chronicles 14:11).

- Are we in the "fifteenth year" and do we experience a spiritual weakening ? Courage ! We will know an awakening if we listen when God speaks to us.

- Are we in the "thirty-sixth year", relying on ourselves or the resources of men to get out of our difficulties, refusing to listen to God ? So what a loss !

- Are we in the "thirty-ninth" year ... ? Do not persist in our refusal to repent and listen to God's call.

May we mature in the presence of God and grow spiritually until the last day !

Source (Pleasing the Lord)