Asa was Solomon’s great-grandson. God gave him three whole chapters of 2 Chronicles for a reason. I happen to think his biography is one of the most important in all of Scripture, especially for today.
Asa was not brought up to be a spiritual person. Solomon, as everyone knows, had wandered from God near the end of his life. Rehoboam, who came next, and then Abijah, Asa’s father, let idol worship come right into the midst of what was supposed to be a godly society.
In such an unspiritual climate, who was it who got through to young Asa and convinced him to seek the Lord? Second Chronicles 14:2-4 tells us only that early in his reign Asa "did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. He removed the foreign altars and the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, and to obey his laws and commands.”
In essence, Asa was saying, "Time out! We have a mess on our hands. The foreign altars and immorality must go. We’re going to clean house throughout this entire kingdom. We’re going to start obeying the Lord’s commands and call out to Him with all our hearts. We must have Him near us in order to receive His blessing.”
The first step in any spiritual awakening is demolition. We cannot make headway in seeking God without first tearing down the accumulated junk in our souls. Anytime people get hungry to truly know the Lord, the Holy Spirit quickly puts a shovel and broom into their hands. Husbands and wives begin to deal with long-buried issues hurting their marriages. Adults take a closer look at their choice of TV programs and movies. Church members begin to see the damage wreaked by their gossip, their racial attitudes, their criticism.
Asa’a early years were marked by a national housecleaning and God’s blessing flowed upon the king and his people in response.