Palestine Invaded by Zerah

Zerah the Ethiopian. As yet we have not been able to identify Zerah from contemporary records. Since there were Cushites in western Arabia and eastern Africa bordering on the Red Sea (see Gen. 10:6), Zerah may have been from that region. He may have had Libyan auxiliary forces in his army, from Egypt, where a Libyan dynasty ruled. Asa had done what he could to build up the national defenses and train an army (2 Chron. 14:6—8). So when Zerah struck, Judah was ready.

Asa had prepared cities of defense and he had a large and well—equipped army. But his trust was not alone in arms or men, but in God. As he faced the enemy, he did so in the name of the Lord and as a representative of God. Facing Zerah in the name of the Lord, Asa felt that his own defeat would be a defeat for the Lord. The Lord enabled Asa to gain an amazing victory. Judah had powerful enemies, both to the north and to the south.

Left to herself she would quickly have succumbed before the superior might of the forces arrayed against her. But with God's help she was invincible. The attack of Zerah was the last serious threat that Judah was to meet from the south. Henceforth her enemies were from the north—first, Assyria under Sennacherib, and then Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar, who brought the nation down in ruin.