Canter Bridge

The story of the Judahite kings Abijah and Asa is perforated with observations about two human endeavors towards YHWH: leaning upon him and seeking him.

Neither one of these activities is transparent to the modern reader.

Leaning, or relying, is too easily understood as a kind of political or military quietism. Such reductionism for a moment seems to fit the narrative of Abijah, for when confronted with the superior forces of neighboring Israel he cries out to YHWH, his priests-in-the-field sound their trumpets, and an important military victory is snatched from the jaws of defeat without his doing much at all in the way of swordsmanship.

But this approach falls flat in the case of his son Asa, for that king seems to do his leaning upon YHWH in the midst of a vigorous fight for his life (this time against the Ethiopians), not instead of it.

The business of seeking YHWH is similarly opaque. The prophet exhorts Judah and her king to do so, indeed those who will not seek YHWH are put to death. Here too a reductionism lurks: perhaps it is merely a poetic description of some cultic function’s fulfillment. But there are easier ways of speaking about the simple performance of a religious duty; in fact, this narrative itself employs one or two of them. Offering incense, for example.

No, the phrase to seek YHWH seems to demand something in addition to the mechanics involved, some matter of the heart, some attention to the deity’s presence in the midst that goes beyond conventional religious performance.

In both cases Judah is summoned to a high calling. It is difficult to be precise about its nature. Yet the outlines are passably clear. Judah is to recognize, articulate, and prioritize her reliance upon YHWH above all other means of support. And she is to refine her attentiveness to his rescuing and demanding presence in her midst in a way that makes competing recourse to, say, the Asherah pole or the religious ‘high place’ seem in contrast like decadent, impersonal magic.

YHWH is personal, present, and eager for relationship. In such a climate, one leans and seeks. The prophet and some kings with the smoke of near destruction still lingering on their clothing find him both sturdy and discoverable.