“The eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.”
The seer Hanani was confronting King Asa of Judah with these words…don’t they sound like words of blessing??? When King Asa (great-grandson of Solomon) first started his reign he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God. He took away the idols and commanded Judah to seek the LORD and obey the law and the commandments. The land was blessed with peace for ten years…but there came a time of testing as a million man army from Ethiopia came against Judah. Asa cried to the LORD and said,”LORD, there is none besides You to help, and it makes no difference to you whether the one you help is mighty or powerless. Help us , O LORD our God! For we rely on You, and we go against this multitude in Your name. O LORD, You are our God; let no man prevail against You!” 2 Chronicles 14:11 The LORD struck the Ethiopians and they fled before Asa and Judah. After this great victory the Spirit of God came upon Azariah and he came out to meet Asa with a promise and a warning: “The LORD is with you while you are with Him. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, He will forsake you.” The prophet then encouraged Asa to be strong and not let his hands be weak, for his work would be rewarded. Asa heeded the words of Azariah and made a renewed effort to purge the land of Judah and Benjamin of abominable idols and he gathered the people together to renew their covenant to seek the LORD with all their heart and with all their soul. There was a great time of rejoicing as peace from the Lord was given again to Asa for twenty more years…but in the 36th year of Asa’s reign the Kingdom of Israel led by King Baasha, “came up against Judah”. Asa would once again turn to the LORD for help…sorry…wrong answer. He thought of his own solution and took silver and gold to Ben- Hadad, King of Syria, seeking an alliance. God is now sending a rebuke to Asa for relying on the king of Syria instead of the LORD. Hanani reminded Asa that the massive army of the Ethiopians was delivered into his hand because he had sought the LORD and relied on Him….”For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. In this (buying a favor from the king of Syria) you have done foolishly; therefore from now on you shall have wars.” 2 Chronicles 16:9
Asa now has an opportunity to confess his sin and repent but he gets mad instead and begins to oppress some of the people. Three years later he gets diseased in his feet, and even though his malady was severe he did not seek the LORD. He died under his physicians care two years later. Let’s learn a lesson from King Asa and ask ourselves if we look for our own solutions to life’s problem, seek help from “the world” or our awesome God !
Cut on the line right above the eyebrow shape. This will separate your main page from the “eyes”. I left the verse off so your older kids can write it in. The worksheet with verse features a pale eye that can be colored! Cut out the eye shape leaving the lid. Fold this page in half and slip the eye balls behind it. You will glue the bottom inch down leaving a space for the eyes to slide back and forth. ( Glue or tape a tab on one side to help you move them) I left the shape of the eyebrow for you to make a template. Cut out two eyebrows in black paper for each lesson. The small rectangle is the template for the eyelashes. You will need two of these as well. Do not cut them from this page…I put everything on one page to make it easy to match proportions. When you fold this page in half after cutting off the top portion, the template patterns will be on the back so just ignore them. Cut tiny lashes and curl them with a pencil. Glue down the brows and then glue and slip the lashes under the top eyelids. Use a glue stick for this project.