1 Kings 15:9-15: What It Means to Follow the Lord

"And Asa did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, as David his father had done. He put away the male cult prostitutes out of the land and removed all the idols that his fathers had made." 1 Kings 14:11-12

There are many evil kings that plague the stories of 1 and 2 Kings. However, there are some righteous ones as well. Although all of the evil kings were not "wholly true the Lord God," the righteous kings "did what was right in the eyes of the Lord." King Asa, the 3rd king of Judah (the southern kingdom), was one of these rightoeus kings. As we look at his life today, we are going to find out that truly following the Lord means to remove all idols from our lives.

The narrative of King Asa starts out by showing how he "did right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father David had done." Although both King Rehoboam and King Abijam who went before him did not follow after the Lord, Asa was set apart, and the Bible gives a great picture of why this was so. Scripture tells us that Asa removed all of the prostitutes and idols that had been set up in the reign of Rehoboam. These things were unrighteous in the sight of the Lord, and they had to be removed, and Asa took up that obligation, and he was thus called a righteous king.

Likewise, if we seek to be righteous, we must remove all idols in our lives. Idols permeate. In other words, idols are not idle. Rather, they influence our lives greater than we could ever imagine. Although the idols are often hidden, their effects are not. They will soon corrupt us, and we must get rid of them, just as Asa did, as soon as possible.

Yet we see in Christ that the casting out of idols from our lives is not only a commandment given in these verses. Throughout all of scripture, we see the importance of giving worship to God alone, and no vain idol. Just as Jesus cleansed the temple of its idolatry in John 2, so ought we to cleanse our lives of all that steals our worship from the Lord.

So, what idols need to be removed from your life? A desire? A relationship? A habit? A lifestyle? In other words, what is keeping you from fully-devoted worship and fully-satiating joy in God? Whatever it is, cast it out of your life. That idol will destroy you, just as it did Judah. There is no room for idolatry in the kingdom of God. Live as if this were so.