Human Tradition - What is it and why it is a fatal mistake.

I think it's very important for me to present the scripture to you first in this post, as when I was reading it, I completely missed the lesson the first time through - due to human tradition.

A quick set of background details:
After Israel asked for their first real-life king (instead of continuing to call God their king) and received King David they began learning why the difference was between following God as their king and following a human being as their king. Shortly thereafter, Israel split away from Judah (formerly part of Israel's collection of territories and the line of Kings I am discussing is the line of kings for Judah). King David was a great king. And God promised that Israel would always remain under a ruler from the house and line of David, so as each king passed on, their son would follow suit and take the throne as ruler. This continued on down the line. It went - King David, then Solomon his son, then Rehoboam (this is where Judah and Israel started to be ruled by different kings) his son, then Abijah his son and then Asa who was Abijah's son. I learned a very important life lesson when reading, for the second time, about King Asa. Here's what I was reading

2 Chronicles 15

¹ The Spirit of God came on Azariah son of Oded. ² 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. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you. ³ For a long time Israel was without the true God, without a priest to teach and without the law. ⁴ But in their distress they turned to the LORD, the God of Israel, and sought him, and he was found by them. ...⁸ When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Azariah son of^[a] Oded the prophet, he took courage. ...¹⁴ They took an oath to the LORD with loud acclamation, with shouting and with trumpets and horns. ¹⁵ All Judah rejoiced about the oath because they had sworn it wholeheartedly. They sought God eagerly, and he was found by them. So the LORD gave them rest on every side. ...¹⁷ Although he did not remove the high places from Israel, Asa’s heart was fully committed to the LORD all his life.

¹⁹ There was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign.  

Why the 35th year?

Well, Asa lost his way; don't we all?

2 Chronicles 16

¹ In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah and fortified Ramah to prevent anyone from leaving or entering the territory of Asa king of Judah. [Asa was being threatened by King Baasha of Israel.]

So he took matters into his own hands:  ² Asa then took the silver and gold out of the treasuries of the LORD’s temple and of his own palace and sent it to Ben-Hadad king of Aram, who was ruling in Damascus. ³ “Let there be a treaty between me and you,” he said, “as there was between my father and your father. See, I am sending you silver and gold. Now break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel so he will withdraw from me.”

 ⁴ Ben-Hadad agreed with King Asa and sent the commanders of his forces against the towns of Israel. They conquered Ijon, Dan, Abel Maim^[a] and all the store cities of Naphtali. ⁵ When Baasha heard this, he stopped building Ramah and abandoned his work. ^{So his bribe worked and the threat was removed - good right? If you had the means wouldn't you have done the same thing?}

^{This is what I missed...}

⁷ At that time Hanani the seer [prophet] came to Asa king of Judah and said to him: “Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the LORD your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand. ⁸ Were not the Cushites^[b] and Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen^[c]? Yet when you relied on the LORD, he delivered them into your hand. ⁹ For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war.”

 ¹⁰ Asa was angry with the seer because of this; he was so enraged that he put him in prison. At the same time Asa brutally oppressed some of the people.[Typical pride-laden reaction, ever seen something similar?]

I know that's a lot of scripture on a topic, most likely only I am into. I've been reading the bible from Genesis since the beginning of the year. Not as a challenge to read from the start, but because I was curious as to how the bloodlines began forming after the flood of Noah's day. It's a great gift from God to have the curiosity and then the understanding to follow it through like this. So here's why I love this story of Asa.

He is a good king. Fully committed to the Lord, doing good by removing idols and idol-worshipping and trying to recommit the people of Judah to following the Lord after they've taken a slight detour. Sounds like a good path, right? Lasted 35 years. But then God tested him with a challenge in the way of King Baasha. So Asa, thought his only option was to do a little name-dropping - our fathers got along so we should too - and took care of the matter himself. Sounds like an easy solution and it worked; Baasha backed off by way of a break in treaty and some threatening forward action by the King of Aram and all was well again for Asa and his people. 

I read this and thought, great, problem solved, nice work Asa.  See, even I, who is committed in a very big way to God (only he knows how fully), subscribed readily to this human tradition -  

Step #1: Brainstorm how I can solve this matter myself and quickly. Aren't we supposed to be Independent, Problem-Solvers, Self-Reliant, Self-Sufficient, Resourceful human beings; that's what we learn in school.

WRONG, wrong, wrong, wrong wrong!!!!!!

^{2 Chron 16:7} At that time Hanani the seer [prophet] came to Asa king of Judah and said to him: “Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the LORD your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand.

There was not going to be piece in his 36th year because he handled matters himself instead of seeking out God's will FIRST, before anything else. He relied on himself and his resources instead of relying on the Lord. And because of that, the King who just bought him his peace, was now out of his hand, and my guess would be, at some point, this is going to come back and bite him in the bum!

Let's see if it does:

2 Chron 16:9b You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war.” 

Yep, 'from now on you will be at war.' And then God chose to afflict Asa with a disease in his feet.  

^{2 Chron 16:12a} In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet.

But Asa was too full of pride and too angry now to have learned his lesson...

2 Chron 16:12b Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the LORD, but only from the physicians. ¹³ Then in the forty-first year of his reign Asa died and rested with his ancestors. 

To make this all very clear, as it was made clear to me:

God wants us to rely on him. To DEPEND on him, for our lives to be contingent on him. And we do not rely on God when we first choose to consult a physician, seek a counselor, brainstorm our options in despair, or even simply brainstorming options when not in desperate need of an answer or solution, mybe we're simply looking for a next step or next option. 

We rely on God by coming to him in praying, being with him, seeking him, as our FIRST step. 

The LORD is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.

He will be found and then we let God use physicians, counselors, his own strength, his own mercy, his own power to transform, whatever he chooses to use to lead us to our next step - but we have sought him and given him the lead. We let go of the reigns, hand over the control and ALLOW ourselves to be GUIDED by him. And if we don't seek him, he will forsake us. He will allow us to feel the consequences of attempting to control our own lives or our own situations that we think need fixing. 

So remember, when searching for a next step/solution/fix to a big or small moment in life, bend down first and seek him, pray, tell him what you're facing and give him the space to do what he needs to, let him take the lead. Human tradition will always fail but God's will will always prevail.

One final piece of wisdom: 

^{Colossians 2:8} See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces^[a] of this world rather than on Christ. ...²⁰ Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: ²¹ “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? ²² These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. ²³ Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining the indulgence of the flesh.

Depend on Christ! Be fully committed to him, not this world.

When this truth was revealed to me a few days ago, I had been seeking worldly solutions for a problem God can be trusted with and relied on to work out. The miracle of The Truth found in The Word.