1 Kings 15:1-6, 11-15

In the eighteenth year of the rule of Jeroboam son of Nebat, Abijah took over the throne of Judah. He ruled in Jerusalem three years. His mother was Maacah daughter of Absalom. He continued to sin just like his father before him. He was not truehearted to GOD as his great-grandfather David had been. But despite that, out of respect for David, his GOD graciously gave him a lamp, a son to follow him and keep Jerusalem secure. For David had lived an exemplary life before GOD all his days, not going off on his own in willful defiance of GOD’s clear directions (except for that time with Uriah the Hittite). But war continued between Abijah and Jeroboam the whole time.

Asa conducted himself well before GOD, reviving the ways of his ancestor David. He cleaned house: He got rid of the sacred prostitutes and threw out all the idols his predecessors had made. Asa spared nothing and no one; he went so far as to remove Queen Maacah from her position because she had built a shockingly obscene memorial to the whore goddess Asherah. Asa tore it down and burned it up in the Kidron Valley. Unfortunately, he didn’t get rid of the local sex-and-religion shrines. But he was well-intentioned—his heart was in the right place, in tune with GOD. All the gold and silver vessels and artifacts that he and his father had consecrated for holy use he installed in The Temple.