2 Chronicles 16:1-14
V. 11 distinguishes between the acts of Asa, "the first" which were pleasing to God, and "the last" which sadly were totally different.
Baasha, the king of Israel, is jealous at seeing many of his subjects going over to the land of Judah (2 Chronicles 15:9), so he builds a town in order to stop them from doing so. Then Asa, instead of looking to the LORD to stop Baasha’s work, forms an alliance with heathen Syria. This was a clever policy on the face of it as it began by producing the desired effect! However, God does not see things in the same way and reprimands the king via the prophet. His lack of faith – and short memory (v. 8) – are going to deprive him of victory against the Syrians. Annoyed at having let a good chance slip and his pride being hurt, Asa imprisons the man of God and oppresses some of the people. God disciplines him with a painful illness, but to no avail. He continues to rely on men rather than God and dies sadly without having learnt this last lesson. For thirty-five years out of forty Asa had walked with God. He was only a few years short of finishing his life well. Let us ask the Lord to keep us right up to the last day of our lives (2 Timothy 1:12; 2 Timothy 4:18).