TREASURES OF THE BIBLE, Week of April 24 to 30, 2023, "Lean on Jehovah always", Prepared Speech.

TREASURES OF THE BIBLE, April 24-30, 2023, "Lean on Jehovah always" (10 min.), Prepared Speech. 

“Lean on Jehovah Always” (10 min.)

A peculiarity that children have is that when they see something new they fight and fight against their parents to get it. Sometimes the parents give in, other times they don't. But in the situation that parents do please their child, giving him what he wants so insistently that he asks for it, they have noticed that after a short time they lose interest in that product and throw it away. It is as if the enthusiasm for having that something new has already passed.

That is what we are going to talk about in this section of Treasures of the Bible “Lean on Jehovah always”. What does this situation that I mention to you have to do with this issue of always leaning on Jehovah? Because as human beings, adults, we can also manifest that characteristic, to get excited about something in the service of Jehovah, but then little by little lose interest.

And to prove it, we are going to talk about King Asa and the situation he had to face as King was not easy because in such a short time apostasy had already saturated Judah and Benjamin. So it was time to show zeal for pure worship like David, his ancestor. And that made him make very strong decisions at the family level, such as burning a horrible idol that his grandmother Maaca had made in honor of the sacred pole. And for that reason he even removed her from the position of first lady that she held.

 So we are talking about someone very zealous in the service of Jehovah and who fully trusted his God. And a demonstration of that confidence was shown when he faced a possible million man attack by the Ethiopians. Let's see what the account of 2 Chronicles 14:9-12 says, the text says:

WE ARE GOING TO READ 2 CHRONICLES 14:9-12.

Some time later Zerah the Ethiopian came to attack them with an army of 1,000,000 men and 300 chariots.a When he came to Maresa, 10 Asa came out to meet him, and they formed up in battle formation in the valley of Zefata, near to Maresa. 11 Asa then pleaded with Jehovah his Godc and said to him: “O Jehovah, with you there is no difference between helping those who are strong* and helping those who are weak.d Help us, Jehovah our God, for we trust* in you, and it is in your name that we came to face this crowd. Jehovah, you are our God. Do not let mere mortal men defeat you.”12 So Jehovah defeated the Ethiopians before Asa and Judah, and the Ethiopians fled.

What beautiful words from a young king who showed complete trust in Jehovah by saying, "We trust in you." So that was a clear demonstration that in his youth, this King really relied on Jehovah always. Do you think that when we began our activity in knowing Jehovah, we were like that young King?

We started trying to do things very carefully. We were excited about the truth. Sometimes we even wanted to tell others how wrong they were, but we were helped to correct that we make contact so as not to offend others. We were like children excited about something new. Just as Asa said to Jehovah "We trust in you." And Jehovah reciprocated to show him that he too was pleased with those words and actions.

But what happened next? Later Asa faced another rather smaller army, which did not represent much difficulty in defeating him. What did Asa do? What happened to the enthusiasm he had before in leaning on Jehovah? Let's see in 2 Chronicles chapter 16 verses 1 to 3 where he placed his trust on this occasion. He says like this:

WE ARE GOING TO READ 2 CHRONICLES 16:1-3.

In the 36th year of the reign of Asa, King Baashaa of Israel went against Judah and began to fortify* Ramah so that no one would leave or enter the territory of King Asa of Judah. 2 At that Asa brought out silver and gold from the treasury chambers of the house of Jehovahd and the king's house* and sent them to King Ben-Hadad of Syria, who was living in Damascus. He said to him: 3 “There is an agreement * between you and me, and between your father and my father. Here I send you silver and gold. Come on, break your agreement with King Baasha of Israel to get him away from me."

Asa had already ruled 36 years on the throne of Judah. He lacked five more to conclude his reign because he ruled for 41 years. Now he is facing King Baasa here. It couldn't be compared to the previous problem that he faced with a million soldiers. But instead of turning to Jehovah again, instead of showing that enthusiasm for leaning on Jehovah again, he decided to make a pact with the king of Syria.

And you can look at verse 2 how far Asa dared to take silver and gold out of the treasury chambers of the house of Jehovah. Things that were considered sacred a short time before by his great-grandfather Solomon, now he was giving them to the king of Syria to protect him, to help this king Baasha. What happened to Asa's enthusiasm?

Why did you stop leaning on Jehovah all the time? Was it custom? Was it carelessness? Like when children get their toy that they insist so much that they buy it, shortly after they get tired, they get bored, they don't like it anymore, and they go for something else. So it was with Asa. Something like this can happen to us. With the enthusiasm of being able to serve Jehovah with all the desire and with all the interest.

As we see here in the combined photographs in our Activity Guide When one comes to take the step, the Baptism is there, but with all enthusiasm, we have made so much effort, we have overcome many obstacles to be there, being a dedicated and baptized servant of Jehovah. But what happens later as we get used to the fact that we have already achieved a relationship with Jehovah, perhaps we even think that we already have eternal life assured and we begin to relax and as seen in the other photograph and begin to observe things that we used to see as inappropriate, and yet we begin to think that we can handle this situation. When one does that stop leaning on Jehovah, there are consequences. If we see here in 2 Chronicles chapter 16 verse 7 to 9 what happened to Asa.

WE ARE GOING TO READ 2 CHRONICLES 16:7-9.

At that time Hanani the seer came to King Asa of Judah and said to him: “By trusting* the king of Syria and not trusting in Jehovah your God, the army of the king of Syria has slipped out of your hands 8 Wasn't it true that the Ethiopians and the Libyans were a huge army with many chariots and horsemen? But you trusted in Jehovah, and he delivered them into your hands. 9 For the eyes of Jehovah are watching over the whole earth to show his strength in behalf of those who serve him with a complete heart. But this time you were a fool; from now on there will be wars against you.”

And so it was in the following five years, there was war after war, showing that he, having lost trust in Jehovah, lost everything. We do not want to be like Asa who at first was very enthusiastic about trusting in Jehovah, and then he lost his support as Proverbs 3:5:6 says Trust in Jehovah with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding, take it into account in all your ways and he will make your paths straight.

May each of us continue to demonstrate that we take Jehovah into account. We should always check our enthusiasm. How it has gone through the days, weeks, months or years and if something needs to be corrected, let's do it, we don't want to be like children who get excited at first and then lose that enthusiasm, let's make the adjustments, let's continue to lean on Jehovah always because his is the victory both now and in the future.