When anyone gets on the incline of backsliding, he soon finds himself in the road of departure from God. Thus it was with Asa; one step in the wrong direction prompted him to take another.
1. Asa sought help in the wrong quarter (2Ch 16:2). Instead of going to the King of Syria for help, he should have gone to the King of Heaven. The man who looks to man for assistance is cursed (Jer 17:5), but he who looks to the Lord is helped indeed (Psa 121:2). The help of man, like water in a leaky vessel, is sure to run away, whereas the help of the Lord is like a mighty tornado, before which nothing can stand.
2. Asa relied on the wrong person for aid (2Ch 16:7). The king was but as a broken reed for Asa to lean upon; no wonder, therefore, that he came to the ground to his hurt. To rely on the Lord is to have the arm of the Living God to uphold us, as Asa had experienced when he trusted in the Lord on a previous occasion (2Ch 16:8). To trust in the Lord is the secret of a holy life (Gal 2:20); the spur to a separate life (Hbr 11:8-9); the stimulus to a useful life (Hbr 11:7); the stay of a suffering life (Hbr 11:24-25); the staple to a tempted life (1Jo 5:4); the success of a courageous life (Gideon: Hbr 11:32); and the safe-guard of an active life (Paul: 1Ti 4:10).
3. Asa was angry with the wrong man (2Ch 16:10). He should have been angry with himself; instead of that, he was wroth with the prophet. They that are wrong are the first to do wrong.
4. Asa's oppression was in the wrong place (2Ch 16:10). He should have oppressed himself by heartfelt penitence and confession; instead of that he acted the part of a tyrant in crushing some of the people.
5. Asa consulted the wrong physician (2Ch 16:12). "He sought not the Lord" is a sad sentence to have against one's name. It tells out a life of self-will and self-reliance.