Yesterday, we saw how Rehoboam and the people of Israel repented, how they turned back to God in a time of great distress (II Chronicles 12:6). But wouldn’t it be better to learn from the sins of our ancestors instead of repeating them? Wouldn’t it be better to devote ourselves more completely, more consistently to God in the first place, instead of suffering the consequences of rebelling against Him?

That’s what Rehoboam’s grandson Asa decided to do. Responding to the prophet Azariah’s encouragement, he began to purge the land of any sort of idolatrous worship, tearing down numerous statues of false gods (II Chronicles 15:8). But this wasn’t the sort of mindless iconoclasm recently practiced in so many large American cities, in which mobs indiscriminately deface statues of Lincoln and Grant along with Lee and Jackson, all in the name of racial harmony. For that sort of erratic destruction leaves only a naked public square in its wake – after all, the mob has no heroes of its own to venerate.

No, Asa only removed the statues of false gods in order to urge his people to be more consistent about the worship of the One True God. And so, the most important thing was that “they entered into the covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and soul” (II Chronicles 15:12). Thus, the critical part of Asa’s reforms was what he tried to institute, not what he tried to tear down.

And that’s still the most important question for us Americans today: not what we are against, but what we are for. After all, once we have a positive direction in which to go, the question of who our leaders and heroes should be will become obvious. But as long as we continue to define ourselves only in opposition to one another, we will never get much farther than the irrational Charlotte mob which, in the name of opposing racism, defaced a memorial to World War II soldiers, the same soldiers who risked and sacrificed their lives to destroy the most vicious racist regime the world has ever seen. What sort of sense does that make?

Instead, let’s follow Asa’s example. Let’s tear down whatever false idols we are worshipping, but only so that we can draw ever nearer to the One Who created all human beings in His own image, the One Who gave up His only Son so that people from every tribe and tongue and nation might be adopted into His family, the One Who shed His blood so that all who trust in Him might become part of His body, connected just as tightly to one another as we are to Him. For it’s only such a God Who can truly help us love one another.

II Chronicles 15:1-17 (NASB)

Now the Spirit of God came on Azariah the son of Oded,
2 and he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: the LORD is with you when you are with Him. And if you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.
3 “And for many days Israel was without the true God and without a teaching priest and without law.
4 “But in their distress they turned to the LORD God of Israel, and they sought Him, and He let them find Him.
5 “And in those times there was no peace to him who went out or to him who came in, for many disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of the lands.
6 “And nation was crushed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every kind of distress.
7 “But you, be strong and do not lose courage, for there is reward for your work.”
8 Now when Asa heard these words and the prophecy which Azariah the son of Oded the prophet spoke, he took courage and removed the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities which he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim. He then restored the altar of the LORD which was in front of the porch of the LORD.
9 And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin and those from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who resided with them, for many defected to him from Israel when they saw that the LORD his God was with him.
10 So they assembled at Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign.
11 And they sacrificed to the LORD that day 700 oxen and 7,000 sheep from the spoil they had brought.
12 And they entered into the covenant to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all their heart and soul;
13 and whoever would not seek the LORD God of Israel should be put to death, whether small or great, man or woman.
14 Moreover, they made an oath to the LORD with a loud voice, with shouting, with trumpets, and with horns.
15 And all Judah rejoiced concerning the oath, for they had sworn with their whole heart and had sought Him earnestly, and He let them find Him. So the LORD gave them rest on every side.
16 And he also removed Maacah, the mother of King Asa, from the position of queen mother, because she had made a horrid image as an Asherah, and Asa cut down her horrid image, crushed it and burned it at the brook Kidron.
17 But the high places were not removed from Israel; nevertheless Asa’s heart was blameless all his days.