The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 204

pinnacle of excellence-of material strength and religious consolidation-as it did under the son of Abijnh, II. His DE-".TH, 1. The date of it. In the forty-first year of bis reign; most likely he was over sixty at the time of his dec~ase. 2. The cause of it. Twofold. (1) Disease, 'l'wo years before his end he became diseased exceedingly in his feet; probably with gout (Clarke, Jamieson). Whatever its nature, it was fatal. Disease a sure precursor of death, of which every ailment should be a monitor. (2) Unbelief. Had he consulted Jehovah about bis malady (the Chronicler suggests), he might have been cured ; but, as in repelling Ba.asha's attack he relied more on Benhadad than on Jehovah, so in his illness he repaired to the physicians instead of to Jehovah. To infer from this that Asa sinned in consulting a doctor, and that Christians should abstain from calling in medical advisers when out of health, is unreasonable, .Asa's error lay, not iu consulting the physicians, but in reposing trust in them to the exclnsion of the Lord; and, as Paul took Luke the physician witl1 him on his missionary journeys (Col. iv. 14; 2 Tim. iv. 11), it may be argued that he at least did not regard it as incon- sistent with religious principle to either give or accept medical advice, Still, what the doctors could not do for Asa, Jehovah could have done had he been consulted (Exod. xv. 26; Ps. ciii. 3); so that unbelief was a real cause of .Asa's death. Perhaps it is the cause of many deaths still. Without hinting that many practitioners are no better than those of whom the Gospels tell (Mark v. 26; Luke viii. 43), it is still true that physicians cannot cure without the Divine blessing; and, doubtless, in cases that is withheld, because it is not asked either by the physician or his patient. III. Bxs BUlLIAL. 1. The place of his sepulture. The city of David, where his fathers slept (1 Kings xv. 24), yet not in the general tomb of the kings, but in "his own sepulchres;" in a tomb he h&.d specially caused to be excavated for himself (ver. 14), Joseph of .ArimathlB3. hewed out a tomb for himself (Luke xxiii. 53). The first thing a Pharaoh of Egypt did on ascending tbe throne was to construct for himself and descendants a royal mausoleum (Harkness,' Egyptian Life and History,' p. 67). 2. Tl,e manner of hu entombment. (1) His corpse was embalmed. The bed on which it was laid was filled with sweet odours and spices of divers kinds, prepared by the apothecaries' art. Strictly speaking, this was only an imitation of the Egyptian pra,c- tice (Keil, • .A.rchaologie,' § 115; Riehm, art. "Begta.bnis "). Compare the embalmments of Jacob (Gen. L 2) and of Jesus (John xiL 39, 40). (2) .A very great burning was made for him. This burning was not of the body (.A.. Clarke), which, among the Hebrews, was commonly interred-the burning of the bodies of Saul and his sons (1 Sam. xx:xi. 12) being exceptional-but of the prepared spices. Other nations practised similar rites at the funerals of kings. Jehoram (eh. xxi. 19) and Jehoiakim (Jer. xxii. 18), on account of their wickedness, were denied such honours; Zedekiah was promised them (Jer. xxxiv. 5), perhaps, on account of his misfortunes. IV. Hxs CHARACTER. 1. A good man. His heart was perfect ( eh. xv. 7 ; 1 Kings xv. 14), if his life was not (eh. xvi.10). The general tenor of bis conduct was upright, though he erred somewhat towards the close of his career. "It was thought a high eulogy on Jehoshaphat hi.s son that he walked in all the way of his father" (Rawlinson); while the honours paid .A.sa on dying showed that his countrymen esteemed him to have been an honourable prince. His "faults and follies" may eu11:gest that no man is perfect, and that "in many things we all offend." 2. An ardent reformer. He removed the altars and the high places of the strange gods or foreign divinities (eh. xiv. 3), though he left standing those belonging to Jehovah (eh. xv. 17; _1 Kings xv. 14). He "commanded J ude.h to seek the Lord God of their fathers" ( eh. xiv. 4), and bound them by a solemn league and covenant so to do (eh. xv. 14), though he himself, in old age, declined a little from hie early faith (eh. xvi. 2, 12). 3. A valiant soldier. That with his piety he combined courage, his encounter with Zerah the Ethiopian evinced. If he was genuinely good, he was also conspicuously great.-W.  cu. xvn. 1-10.) THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 205