Today, Asa fails in a way that doesn’t seem like it’s too bad. When threatened by Israel, he hires another nation to turn against Israel so they will be distracted from attacking Judah. On the surface, it sounds like a pretty clever strategy, but God views it as a lack of trust in him. Part of it may have been that Asa used objects that had been dedicated to God to buy his alliance. God wanted Asa to be dependent on him, not his own, human schemes and alliances.
In a sense, we depend on alliances all the time. Insurance policies, business contracts and even savings or investment accounts are ways we protect our futures. There is wisdom in planning, but not when it gets to the point where we forget God is our ultimate protector and turn against him.