1 Kings 15:9

1 Kings 15:9 says, And in the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel reigned Asa over Judah.  Asa, the son of Abijah and the grandson of Rehoboam, became the king of Judah.  God was still fulfilling his promise to David and He will always fulfill His promises to us, no matter what is going on in the world.  Verse ten adds, And forty and one years reigned he in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom.  He ruled longer than either Rehoboam or Abijah, who had not followed God's guidance.  Matthew Henry says there seemed to be an alternation between good kings and bad kings and that the reign of the bad kings was generally shorter.  Of course, there is really only one good king, Jesus Christ, and He will reign forever, and no matter who may be in power in the world, their reign, whether good or bad in God's sight, will always be temporary.  Verse eleven continues, And Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, as did David his father.  We are told that Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as did David his father, but David was his father in the terms Asa being a descendant of his and not his immediate father.  Still, when we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, we become the sons or daughters of God, and we need to be obedient to Him as David was with God.  This does not mean that we become perfect, but that we never lose our faith in God and the salvation that He gives us.  Verse twelve states, And he took away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.  Asa began to remove the Sodomites, who were people that practiced acts performed in Sodom and not a group that were that by any fact of birth and he began to remove the idols that Abijah had made.  We cannot condemn a group of people simply by the fact of their birth, but we must condemn the sins of individuals instead.  Verse thirteen adds, And also Maachah his grandmother, even her he removed from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove; and Asa destroyed her idol, and burnt it by the brook Kidron.  Asa also removed his grandmother Maachah, even though she is referred to as his mother, from being queen because she had made an idol in the grove.  It was based on her actions and not just on the fact that she was Rehoboam's wife.  We will be held accountable for our sins only.  Asa also burned the idol she had made.  We need to totally destroy any idol that we have in our life if we are to effectively serve God.  Verse fourteen continues, But the high places were not removed: nevertheless Asa's heart was perfect with the Lord all his days.  Though Asa did not remove all the high places of worship that had been established, we are told that his heart was perfect with the Lord all his days.  Matthew Henry says that not destroying the altars in the high places was a fault in Asa's rule, just as not destroying everything that could come between God and us is a mistake today.  We cannot stop short of total obedience to God and that means removing everything associated with idols from our lives.  Verse fifteen concludes, And he brought in the things which his father had dedicated, and the things which himself had dedicated, into the house of the Lord, silver, and gold, and vessels. Asa also brought all the things dedicated to God by both his father and him into the house of God.  We today must likewise bring everything that we have dedicated to God, to be used as He sees fit.