Sin Within Families

2 Chronicles 15:16-17
Also he removed Maachah, the mother of Asa the king, from being queen mother, because she had made an obscene image of Asherah; and Asa cut down her obscene image, then crushed and burned it by the Brook Kidron. But the high places were not removed from Israel. Nevertheless the heart of Asa was loyal all his days.

Asa was a pretty good king. He wasn't David good, or Solomon good, and he didn't get rid of all the idolatry in the kingdom, but he took a stand for God. Here's one of them.

He demoted the queen. So what, right? The queen was his mother (or grandmother, by some translations). He removed her from being queen. Why did he do this? She was worshipping idols. She was basically saying to God that He didn't matter to her, and she would rather make her own god and her own rules. Asa knew that a slap in God's face was also a slap in his face, so demoted her.

He didn't get rid of every bit of sin at the time, but he certainly took a stand against it. So what can we learn from this event?

We're supposed to stand up against sin. Not force people to make the right choices necessarily, and definately not to judge others, but we're supposed to help others in their walk with God. But this doesn't stop at our classmates, this goes home to our families and to our close friends!

Sometimes speaking up to our families is the hardest thing to do. Asa didn't disown his mother/grandmother, and he didn't rant and scream at her for being a bad Jew. He just demoted her from a place of power, so that she wouldn't infect others.

Just because sin takes place within our families doesn't mean that we can't stick up to it.

In His Service,
Joyce