And Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. He took away the foreign altars and the high places and broke down the pillars and cut down the Asherim and commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, and to keep the law and the commandment.
2 Chronicles 14:2-4
Asa led a renewal in Judah in two ways. The return of the people to the worship of the Lord required both positive and negative change. The hardest work was leading the negative change. Altars to idols and places of foreign idolatry had to be torn up. Phallic pillars to fertility gods and goddesses were broken down and destroyed. It was demolition meant to rebuild hearts.
The postive renewal could only come once these idols were smashed. Then he could command Judah to seek God and keep the Law. It made no sense to do so amid a plethora of false gods. The best way to have no god before the Lord is to destroy idols. And then Asa led Judah to return to loving God with whole hearts.
And so it is with any idol that captures my heart. I cannot worship God and something else. The idol must die so that my heart can live in the love of God.
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