True Reform

When Asa became king, he removed the idols, the high places, and the Asherah poles left by his grandfather and father, and commanded the people of Judah to serve only Yahweh. Even when the Ethiopians invaded with an army of a million, Asa led a force less than half that size and cried out to God, and God struck them.

Even after the war was over, Asa did not settle into ease; he renewed the covenant once again and burned the idols. Yet even his grandmother, Queen Mother Maacah, was serving a wooden Asherah image. Asa did not overlook idolatry, even in the person closest to him, and deposed her on the spot.

True reform means cutting out first not the sin of others, but the sin beside oneself and within oneself. If one truly seeks the good of a loved one’s soul, there are times when the resolve to cut off that relationship is needed. Only when one’s own faith first stands upright before God does one gain the strength to rescue the soul one loves as well.