Also he removed Maachah his grandmother from being queen mother, because she had made an obscene image of Asherah. And Asa cut down her obscene image and burned it by the Brook Kidron. – 1 Kings 15:13

1 Kings 15 contains the history of Asa, King of Judah. The Bible says that when Asa became King, he made some changes. When he came to a place where he had authority, he made some changes to right some wrongs. He made some changes to remove some things and some people that were not pleasing to God and harming the nation.

Some of these changes were not pleasant. The one in verse 13 was the queen mother—his grandmother, Maachah, whom He removed because quite frankly, she was evil. There’s not much mentioned about her besides what we have here in 1 Kings 15 and 2 Chronicles 11 and 15.  Notice though that when Asa had the power to do the right thing, he did it, even though it hurt him personally. Can you imagine the drama that would come from removing your grandmother from such a position?

The Queen mother was a title of the mother (or grandmother in this case) of the King. The Queen mother was the most influential and important woman in the royal court. She was part of the king’s inner circle. So it was a quite important role. So when Asa removed her, he was causing quite a stir. It was a big decision. It was one of the highest, most influential offices in the nation. It was his family. And it was a woman. So you know there was a whole lot of strife, drama, and hell to put up with because of his decision.

Notice that it was his grandmother too. She had already been “Queen Mother” under his father’s reign. So her idolatry and position was a problem that he didn’t create. He just inherited it. But even though he knew (how could you not) how much of a mess it was going to be to remove her, he still did it. He knew it would be a bigger mess to leave her in that position. He knew it would not be pleasing to God and it would cause more trouble than removing her.

He put God first, even above his family. He wasn’t perfect, but He did what was right in the eyes of God. He was willing to pay the price to deal with a situation because he understood the price was even greater if he didn’t deal with it. There may be things in our lives that we don’t want to deal with, but we know we should. If we don’t deal with them, it will be far worse when we are forced to deal with them. It will be far worse when the time comes when we regret not dealing with them.

When Asa had the authority, he dealt with the problem. For us, Jesus has given us the authority to deal with the problem. Many of us don’t deal with our problems though, we just live with them. We’ve grown accustomed to them. They’re just like family. Then again, maybe the problem is family. Whatever the problem may be, ask yourself, “Is it pleasing to God that this problem is in my life?” If the answer is no, then you know what you should do, even though it may cause a stir. Even though you may have to walk through hell, it’s better than allowing the problem to drag you to hell. Jesus is the answer. He’s given you the authority, the power, and the wisdom to know what to do. So since you have the answer, isn’t it time we deal with the problem?