As I read through II Chronicles it occurs to me that when a king of Israel or Judah chose to seek the Lord he first removed the false altars to pagan gods and he torn down the Asherah poles. The false altars and Asherah poles had crept back into the culture of God’s people by the time the next godly king came along. Apparently, it is our nature to satisfy ourselves with substitutes for the real thing! Seeking the Lord will always involve the painful work of removing the false substitutes for God to which we have become addicted.
Adrian Timmons 