King Asa also deposed his grandmother Maakah from her position as queen mother, because she had made a repulsive image for the worship of Asherah. Asa cut it down, broke it up and burned it in the Kidron Valley. – 2 Chronicles 15:16

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 23, 2019): 2 Chronicles 15

Priapus was a minor Roman god of fertility. He is the god of your home garden, and of the farmer and rancher. He protects the fruit trees and the bees and the flowers. And he is the protector of male genitalia. Priapus is depicted as a man with a permanent erection, which gives rise to the modern medical term priapism. Priapus became a vital character in Roman erotic art and the subject of a series of short Latin poems intended to be both humorous and obscene.

King Asa Grandmother had constructed a repulsive image. She had likely placed the idol in a grove of trees and had begun worshiping the image. The NIV calls the image “repulsive.” It has also been called “obscene” or maybe even better it was a horrible image that violated the sensibilities of the King and those who strove to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We don’t have an actual description of the image, but most scholars believe that it was some sort of phallic symbol. Adam Clark, writing in the early nineteenth century, imagines the image of Maakah this way:

“From the whole, it is pretty evident that the image was a mere Priapus, or something of the same nature, and that Maachah had an assembly in the grove where the image was set up, and doubtless worshipped it with the most impure rites. What the Roman Priapus was I need not tell the learned reader; and as to the unlearned, it would not profit him to know.”      

Asa was offended both by the image and with the religious rites that were being celebrated in worship of Maakah’s idol. And just because Maakah happened to be the Grandmother of the King, did not mean that she was above the retribution of the king. Asa deposed her; he suddenly removed her from her position as the Queen Mother. She would no longer hold a position of influence in the Royal Court. And this decision and the reason for it was made public. If the King was not going to tolerate this kind of behavior in his own family, then he would not accept it from those to whom he was not related. The standard had been set. Asherah and the other local gods would not be worshiped in Asa’s Judah. And the message was clear, even your relationship with the king will not save you from the consequences of your actions.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles