And the people that were encamped heard say, Zimri has conspired, and has also smitten the king; and all Israel made Omri, the captain of the host, king over Israel that day in the camp.
Israel's army was camped outside Gibbethon when news came: an officer named Zimri had murdered king Elah and seized the throne. Within a day the soldiers crowned their own commander, Omri — so who really rules a nation once its people ignore God's will?
The troops made the choice, not the tribes. One writer sees the same pattern whenever a nation falls apart.
The people, encamped before Gibbethon on the day of Zimri's usurpation, choose Omri, the captain of the army, for their king. These facts always repeat themselves in the decline of empires. When the people are without God, His will counts for nothing. What He established at the beginning is done away with. Whoever has the power reigns. Since the power lies in the army, the empire is at the mercy of the military. Conspiracy on the one hand, soldierly revolution on the other.
The verse turns on what the camp heard. A report of conspiracy was enough to finish Zimri.
He appears to have had no support from the people, who knew his character and did not want his rule. News of his taking the crown had no sooner reached the army at Gibbethon than they rejected his claims by proclaiming their commander-in-chief, Omri, king.
Because the man they crowned already held the nation's fighting strength, the contest was over before it began.
By his treason Zimri gained the doubtful honour of reigning for seven days (v. 15). But he had little following. When the people of Israel heard that Zimri had killed Elah, they chose to make Omri king (v. 16). He was the commander of the army, so there was little chance that Zimri could survive.
The verse says all Israel made Omri king. Yet the next verses show a divided nation.
"All Israel made Omri, the commander of the army, king over Israel that day in the camp," it says. That means the army camped against Gibbethon. But part of the tribes backed Tibni. So for the four years of the contest Omri held the position of a military dictator. With the soldiers behind him, he was almost certain to beat his rival in the end. His rival's death probably ended the conflict.
Nothing here looks governed. Yet these murders fulfilled a prophet's word, and a short reign gave no man an excuse.
So the word of Jehu the prophet begins to be fulfilled, for "as soon as he had seated himself on his throne, he struck down all the house of Baasha. He did not leave him a single male relative or friend" (v. 11). Zimri finished this work of extermination in a few days, for he reigned only seven days at Tirzah (v. 15). Those seven days were enough for him to do "evil in the sight of the LORD, walking in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin which he committed, making Israel to sin" (v. 19). When a man's heart is far from God, every one of his deeds bears the mark of it. That is how a mass of sins can pile up in such a short time.
Another writer follows that judgment down the line, from Jeroboam to Omri.
So then in this very next chapter (1 Kings 16) we find what I have already referred to — the judgment following. The sovereignty passes out of the hand of Jeroboam. Zimri his captain rises up against him. Omri kills Zimri. So family after family takes possession of Israel, but God did not leave Himself without a warning.
The soldiers crowned Omri in a single day. What he set up outlasted him by two centuries.
He seems to have drawn up laws that made Jeroboam's calf-worship, or other forms of idolatry, binding throughout his realm. Those laws stayed in force until the end of the kingdom, more than two hundred years later. "For you have kept the statutes of Omri, and all the works of the house of Ahab" (Micah 6:16). Here "statutes" means a firmly-established system. Men willingly carry such yokes, and even cling to them, so ready is the human heart for idolatry. Omri founded the fourth and most powerful of Israel's dynasties. He combined real ability with setting up the most degraded idolatry.
- Vacuum. When a people count God's will as nothing, only force decides the throne — and in Israel force meant the army.
- Conspiracy. Zimri's seven-day reign collapsed. The people knew his character and wanted no part of his rule.
- Camp. The "all Israel" that crowned Omri was the army at Gibbethon. The rest of the tribes backed Tibni, and a four-year contest followed.
- Government. Behind the coups, a prophet's word was coming true. Zimri's few days were still long enough to fill up his own sin.
- Cost. The army's choice gave Israel its most powerful dynasty and fixed idolatry into law for two centuries. Strength came at the price of true worship.
And Omri went up from Gibbethon, and all Israel with him, and they besieged Tirzah.
Israel's army was camped against the Philistine town of Gibbethon. It now turns and marches on its own capital, led by a general the troops have just crowned, with a week-old king shut inside the walls. Two questions drive the chapter: who makes a king in Israel, and what happens to a throne seized by murder?
Israel had been fighting the Philistines. The moment a crown was at stake, that fight stopped and the weapons turned inward. One writer sees the same habit among Christians:
How tragic to see Israelites fighting their fellow Israelites! The war against the Philistines, the real enemies of God's people, now stopped. Instead the people of Israel followed leaders they chose for themselves. Nothing is said of any effort to find out the will of God in the matter. Sad to say, don't we often see similar things among God's people today? The highly gifted Corinthians were choosing sides among those whom God was using in that day. "I follow Paul," or "I follow Apollos," or "I follow Cephas," or "I follow Christ," were their battle cries (1 Cor. 1:12). Our real battle is abandoned while we fight one another!
Omri did not go up to Tirzah as God's anointed. He went up because the troops had shouted for him, and because he commanded them. One commentator traces this pattern wherever empires decline:
The people were camped before Gibbethon on the day Zimri seized the crown. They choose Omri, the captain of the army, for their king. These facts always repeat themselves in the decline of empires. When a nation is without God, His will counts for nothing. The nation does away with what He established at the beginning. Whoever has power reigns. Power lies in the army, so the empire is at the mercy of the military. Conspiracy on one side, a soldiers' revolution on the other.
A later writer compares Israel's long line of usurpers with the kings of Judah:
Many men, one after another, overturned the kingdom in Israel. It is remarkable that Jehu is the only one of them who was anointed. In Judah the Lord Himself approved the anointing... but not so in Israel.
Zimri had killed his master and taken the crown, but he had taken nothing else. The siege exposes how empty his position was from the start:
By his treason Zimri gained the doubtful honour of reigning for seven days (v.15). But he had little following. When the people of Israel heard that Zimri had killed Elah, they chose to make Omri king (v.16). He was the commander of the army, so there was little chance that Zimri could survive. Omri, with the armies of Israel, came and besieged Tirzah, where Zimri had established himself (v.17). Zimri knew his case was hopeless, so he killed himself by setting fire to his house with himself inside.
Zimri's crime outlived him by years:
Zimri's treachery became a byword in Israel. The infamous Jezebel could point to him and say, "Is it peace, you Zimri, murderer of your master?" As someone has said, "Treason gets treason as its punishment, and the slayer is slain."
Another writer compares Zimri's end with the ends of the kings before him:
His death was also repayment from the Lord for his own sin. He walked in the way of Jeroboam, who caused Israel to sin against God. But the judgment in his case was more swift and abrupt than that of those who went before him. Yet, whether the time is short or long, those who sow the wind will reap the whirlwind. This history of the kings declares that God is not mocked. Whatever one sows he will also reap (Gal. 6:7).
Tirzah fell fast. Omri drew a practical lesson from that, and it shaped the rest of his reign:
He was a man of military skill. He wanted a capital with more strategic value than Tirzah, which had failed when Zimri tried to hold it. Tirzah could not survive even a week's siege! (1 Kings 16:18)... Firm rule and a new, modern capital may look desirable in men's eyes. But it is the moral and spiritual condition that counts with God. Omri became a more wicked ruler than even the bad kings before him.
- Abandoned. Israel drops the siege of Gibbethon to besiege Israel. The real enemy goes free while God's people fight each other.
- Unasked. No one asks what God wants. Where His will counts for nothing, the man with the army takes the crown.
- Unsupported. Zimri's seven days collapse. A throne taken by murder rests on nothing, and the people who knew him wanted none of him.
- Repaid. Treason gets treason as its punishment. Whether judgment comes fast or slow, what a man sows he reaps.
- Unlearned. Omri's answer to a fallen capital was a stronger capital, not a changed heart — and he ruled worse than all before him.
And it came to pass when Zimri saw that the city was taken, that he went into the citadel of the king's house, and burned the king's house over him with fire;
Zimri seized Israel's throne by murder and held it for one week. When Omri's army broke into Tirzah, he set fire to the royal palace and died inside it. His end raises two hard questions. Why did the collapse come so fast? And does a short reign of evil mean a lighter account with God?
Commentators read the burning palace as the last move of a man with no way out. Zimri had the crown, but he never had the country.
By his treason Zimri gained the dubious honour of reigning for seven days (v.15). But he had little following. Omri came with the armies of Israel and besieged Tirzah. Zimri had established himself there (v.17). Zimri knew his case was hopeless, so he committed suicide by burning down his house while he was inside.
Seven days is not a reign; it is a verdict on his reputation. Zimri's own people refused him before Omri's siege ever started.
"The triumphing of the wicked is short." Zimri's case showed it sharply — just one week. He appears to have had no support from the people, who knew his character and did not want his rule. News of his taking the crown reached the army at Gibbethon. At once they rejected his claims and proclaimed their commander-in-chief, Omri, king.
Tirzah itself proved as weak as his position. Its failure under siege later pushed Omri to move the capital.
Omri was a man of military genius. He wanted a seat of government with greater strategic value than Tirzah. Tirzah had not proved strong when Zimri tried to hold it. It could not survive even a week's siege! (1 Kings 16:18).
A brief reign did not mean a small record.
Zimri carried out this work of extermination in a few days, for he reigned seven days at Tirzah (v. 15). And these seven days were enough for him to do "evil in the sight of Jehovah, in walking in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin which he did, making Israel to sin" (v. 19). When a man's heart is estranged from God, every one of his deeds carries the mark of it. That is how a mass of wrongdoing can pile up in so short a time.
Writers see spite in the act. If the palace could not be his, it would be nobody's.
Zimri was besieged in his capital city, Tirzah. When it fell, he took his own life, burning the citadel of the palace over his own head. If he could not have it, no one else could have it either! What a frightful end to the life of this rash, impulsive man! But the flames he lit, which brought his life to its fiery end, were nothing compared to those in which he will suffer forever in the torments of hell.
The pattern runs deeper than one bad week. Violence that runs out of other targets turns on the one who carries it.
Murderers are usually desperate characters. When it is no longer in their power to destroy the lives of others, they often destroy their own, as wretched Zimri did. Satan "was a murderer from the beginning," and he knows how to drive them on to their destruction — body and soul.
Zimri did not vanish from memory. His name turned into an insult for traitors.
Zimri's treachery became a byword in Israel. The infamous Jezebel could point to him and say, "Is it peace, you Zimri, murderer of your master?" Someone has said, "Treason is punished by treason, and the slayer is slain." … Let Zimri's end warn deliberate king-killers and traitors.
The speed of Zimri's fall is not an argument against God's fairness. What settled his case was what God had already seen.
The heart-knowing God knew Zimri's heart well. He owes us no apologies. Zimri "died for his sins which he sinned in doing evil in the sight of Jehovah." God had seen them all. The Judge of all the earth will always do right. Whether He allows a man to go on in his sins for many years or only a week, as in Zimri's case, makes no difference. All His ways are right and not to be questioned. Thankfully, today His offer of salvation is still open. Accept it while you can. Tomorrow may well be too late.
- Seven days. Zimri murdered his way to a throne and kept it one week — a short triumph that showed how little the people wanted him.
- No following. The army crowned Omri as soon as the news reached them; a crown taken by treachery had nothing under it to hold it up.
- Full account. A brief reign was still long enough to pile up evil, because a heart estranged from God marks every deed it does.
- Own fire. Cornered, the man who had destroyed others destroyed himself. Spite and desperation lit the palace over his own head.
- Right verdict. Fast or slow, God's judgment is just, because He has already seen the heart. And today His offer of salvation still stands open.
and he died for his sins which he sinned in doing evil in the sight of Jehovah, in walking in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin which he did, making Israel to sin.
Zimri's reign lasted one week, and the record of it closes with God's own verdict on why he died. It does not blame the army or bad timing. It names sin — and traces that sin back to a king who had died long before.
A week was all Zimri had. One writer traces how he seized the throne, and how much evil a man can pack into seven days once his heart has turned away:
Zimri, who held high rank in the army, killed King Elah at Tirzah while Elah was drinking himself drunk. Then he wiped out the whole house of Baasha, and it took only a few days, for Zimri reigned seven days at Tirzah. And those seven days were enough for him to do "evil in the sight of the LORD, walking in the way of Jeroboam, and for his sin which he committed, making Israel to sin." When a man's heart is far from God, every one of his deeds carries the mark of it. So a mass of wrongdoing can pile up in a very short space of time.
The verse dates Zimri's guilt by a road someone else built. Jeroboam ruled the ten tribes in the north. He feared Jerusalem. If his people kept going there to worship, he could lose them to the king in the south:
He was afraid that if he let his subjects go up to Jerusalem they would think again of their old king. They would think again of the great purposes of God tied to Jerusalem. So what does he do? He invents a religion out of his own head. "So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, 'You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.'" He put it on the ground of bringing religion to their doors, of helping his people to a religion that would not be too costly or too difficult. In fact he was only seeking to make religion serve his policy.
That is "the way of Jeroboam": worship redesigned to keep a king's throne.
Why did king after king keep this worship going? One writer points to the politics behind it:
The golden calves were a political religion, and it suited the policy of the ten tribes to keep it going. If the ten tribes had no calves of gold, they would have gone back to their loyalty to the LORD in Jerusalem. The calves were the great means of having another centre. Suppose Jerusalem had been the one centre for the ten tribes as well as for the two. Then the twelve tribes of Israel would have united. And if they had united in the worship of God, they would have united under the same king.
This is why the verse adds "making Israel to sin." Zimri did not only walk the road — he kept it open for everyone behind him.
The chapter has already told us how Zimri died: besieged in Tirzah, he burned the palace down over himself. But verse 19 gives the real cause of death:
His death was repayment from the Lord for his own sin in walking in the way of Jeroboam, who caused Israel to sin against God. But the judgment in his case was swifter and more abrupt than for those before him. Yet whether the time is short or long, those who sow the wind will reap the whirlwind. This history of the kings declares that God is not mocked. Whatever one sows, he will also reap (Gal. 6:7).
Another writer sees a grim logic in how he ended:
Most murderers are desperate characters. When they can no longer destroy the lives of others, they often destroy their own — as wretched Zimri did. Satan "was a murderer from the beginning," and he knows how to drive them on to their destruction — body and soul.
Zimri took the throne by murdering his master. Long after his death, people still threw his name at other traitors:
Zimri's treachery became a byword in Israel. The infamous Jezebel could point back to him and say, "Is it peace, you Zimri, murderer of your master?" As one writer said, "Treason punishes treason, and the slayer is slain." Let Zimri's end be a warning to anyone who deliberately murders a king, and to traitors.
- Seven days. A week was long enough for a full record of evil. A heart turned from God marks every deed it produces.
- Borrowed road. Zimri walked "in the way of Jeroboam" — a religion one king invented to keep his people from going up to Jerusalem.
- Cheap religion. Jeroboam sold the calves as worship made easy and close to home. It was really worship made to serve his policy, and it kept the kingdom split.
- His own sins. He did not die for Jeroboam's sin, but "for his sins that he committed" — whatever a man sows, he reaps.
- A byword. Zimri killed his master and then died himself. His name became a warning against the next traitor.
And the rest of the acts of Zimri, and his conspiracy which he wrought, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
Zimri reigned seven days. When his record closes, the one thing named beside "the rest of his acts" is the conspiracy that put him on the throne. It points to a national record book that no longer exists. So what record of a life does survive, and who writes it?
Zimri held power for a shorter time than any other king here. Even so, the verse sums up his "acts." One writer traces how much wrong a man can pack into a single week.
Elah, the son of Baasha, reigns two years. Zimri, who had a high rank in the army, kills him at Tirzah while Elah was drinking himself drunk… Zimri wiped out the whole house of Baasha in a few days, for he reigned seven days at Tirzah. And these seven days were enough for him to do "evil in the sight of the LORD, in walking in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin which he did, making Israel to sin." When a man's heart is far from God, every deed he does carries that mark. So a mass of wrongdoing can pile up in a very short time.
The verse does not soften what Zimri did. It puts his treason on his public record, and Israel did not forget it.
Zimri's treachery became a byword in Israel. The infamous Jezebel could point at him and ask, "Was there peace for Zimri, who killed his master?" As someone has said, "Treason is punished by treason, and the slayer is slain."… Let Zimri's end be a warning to anyone who plans to kill a king or betray his ruler.
His plot did not happen in a vacuum. In the same chapter the army puts its own commander on the throne. One writer reads the whole sequence as a symptom.
On the day Zimri seized power, the people were camped outside the town of Gibbethon. They chose Omri, the captain of the army, as their king. These facts always repeat themselves in the decline of empires. When a people is without God, they count His will as nothing. They sweep away what He set up at the beginning. Whoever has power reigns, and since power lies in the army, the empire is at the mercy of the military. Conspiracy on one side, a soldiers' revolution on the other.
The book named here is not the Bible's own Chronicles. One writer explains what these royal record books were, and why their loss costs the reader nothing.
These books refer quite often to the chronicles of the kings of Israel, or to those of the kings of Judah. Men wrote these chronicles during the reign of every ruler of those times… They have nothing to do with the Word of God. They contain what the Lord did not choose to record or explain. These chronicles have been lost… The believer has no need of any of them; he has God's Word. There in God's account he finds everything necessary for him, as well as the divine assessment of people, events, and things. Writings that are not inspired may record certain deeds, even with great accuracy. But those deeds never carry anything more than a human verdict.
Those state records are gone. That loss says something about the book that mentions them.
Now that they have disappeared, they have no other witness than the mention of them in the sacred writings. Amid the ruin and disappearance of these things the Word of God remains, the only monument, the only document that cannot be shaken!
This closing question repeats at the death of king after king. One writer, meeting it again, gives it a direct answer.
Yes, and they, along with the wicked acts recorded here, are written in God's books above. Those books are not merely "the chronicles of the kings of Israel." They hold the deeds and doings of every man's life, whether good or evil. Solemn facts for us all!
Zimri's rule ended almost as soon as it began. Does that short run change God's verdict?
God, who knows the heart, knew Zimri's heart well. He owes us no apologies. Zimri "died for his sins which he sinned in doing evil in the sight of the LORD." God had seen them all. The Judge of all the earth will always do right. Whether He allows a man to go on in his sins for many years or only a week, as in Zimri's case, makes no difference. All His ways are right and not to be questioned. Thankfully, today His offer of salvation is still open. Accept it while you can. Tomorrow may well be too late.
- Deed — Seven days on the throne were enough for a full record of evil. A heart turned from God stamps every action, so wrongdoing piles up fast.
- Treason — Scripture keeps his conspiracy on the record. His treachery became a byword, and the slayer was slain.
- Decline — A plot in the palace and a coup in the army mark a nation that no longer counts God's will for anything. Whoever holds power takes the throne.
- Register — The royal chronicles were a human record, and they are lost. Only Scripture carries God's own assessment of people and events. Only Scripture cannot be shaken.
- Verdict — God keeps His own record, and every life is in it. Decades or one week makes no difference: the Judge of all the earth does right. His offer of salvation is open today.
Then were the people of Israel divided into two parts half of the people followed Tibni the son of Ginath, to make him king; and half followed Omri.
Israel's northern kingdom had already broken away from Judah, and now it splits again behind two rival leaders. The four-year civil war that follows raises one question: what happens to God's people when His will no longer decides anything?
Tibni is the last name in a long run of murders and army takeovers — and all of it happened among God's own people:
Jeroboam's son Nadab reigned only two years. One of his captains — Baasha — then murdered him, during the war with the Philistines at the siege of Gibbethon. Baasha occupied his bloodstained throne twenty-four years... Baasha's son Elah succeeded his father, but an officer named Zimri murdered him two years later. This man hoped to establish himself in Tirzah — the capital of the ten-tribe kingdom. But another captain — Omri — wanted the throne. Within a week he captured Tirzah. Zimri died in the flames of the royal palace, which he himself set on fire when he saw that his cause was hopeless. But even this did not settle the country. Yet another man reaching for the throne appeared — Tibni the son of Ginath... We are speaking, not of pagan nations, but of God's chosen people. He had done great things for them from Egypt onward, and He had made His holy will known to them. Israel had the Scriptures; no other nation was so privileged... A downward course is always slippery. Let us all beware of the first small step away from the revealed will of God.
In this verse "the people of Israel" means the ten northern tribes. That half of the nation now splits again:
Another feature marks the decline of the kingdom. Israel is divided against itself: how shall it stand?
Older people alive at the time could remember something very different:
Only a few years before — probably within living memory — the twelve tribes of Israel were one people. God's goodness had set them high among the nations, and all the kings around paid homage to their king. The country was wealthy and peaceful... Now — they were divided into two nations hostile to each other. Two ruthless military leaders were fighting for control in the Northern State.
The people picked their own king. Where God's will no longer decides, something else does:
The people, camped before Gibbethon on the day of Zimri's grab for power, choose Omri, the captain of the army, for their king. These facts always repeat themselves in the decline of empires. When a people is without God, His will is counted as nothing. What He established at the beginning is set aside. The one who has might reigns. Since might lies in the army, the empire is at the mercy of the military power. Conspiracy on one side, a soldiers' revolution on the other.
The two halves were not evenly matched. One side had the army behind it:
Civil war — the most terrible of all forms of armed conflict — followed Omri's taking of the throne of Israel... "All Israel made Omri, the commander of the army, king over Israel that day in the camp," it says — that is, the army camped against Gibbethon. But part of the tribes took up Tibni's cause. During the four-year contest Omri would be in the position of a military dictator. With the soldiers behind him, he was almost sure to win in the end against his rival. His rival's death probably ended the conflict.
Whichever man won, the deeper problem stayed. The ten tribes had walked away from the centre God had chosen:
Confusion marked the whole history of Israel from Jeroboam on. Kings fell from power, and evil men fought over the throne. Tibni, the son of Ginath, challenged Omri, and both of them had large followings (v. 21). Omri's side prevailed, however, and Tibni died... Of course this was in opposition to God's decree that Jerusalem was the centre of the nation Israel. Judah recognised this, but the ten tribes had given themselves up to accept any substitute.
Israel is not the only people who lined up behind rival leaders:
In the history of Israel the people failed. In their low condition they insisted on a king, and then the kings led them astray. So in the history of the Church. In 1 Corinthians 3 and 4, the Apostle Paul traces all division back to the low, fleshly condition of the people. That condition led them to line up under certain leaders. Paul also foresees that after his death leaders would arise who would bring about open division.
- Drift — for generations the throne had changed hands by murder. Tibni and Omri are the next step down.
- Divide — a nation once united and honoured is split in two, then split again, as rival leaders fight for control.
- Vacuum — where God's will counts for nothing, people set aside what He established, and the strongest man reigns.
- Force — Omri held the army, so the four-year contest could only end one way. Strength, not righteousness, decided who wore the crown.
- Substitute — the real loss was not Tibni's life. It was the centre God appointed in Jerusalem, traded for any substitute — the same low condition that later split the Church behind rival leaders.
But the people that followed Omri overcame the people that followed Tibni the son of Ginath; and Tibni died, and Omri reigned.
Israel's northern kingdom is falling apart. Two men claim the throne, the people split behind them, and this verse records who won — though the deeper question is what happens to a nation that has stopped asking God who should rule.
The contest started in an army camp. Soldiers made their commander king, and part of the nation backed a rival instead.
Civil war — the most terrible of all forms of armed conflict — followed Omri's taking of Israel's throne... The record says that all Israel made Omri, the commander of the army, king over Israel that day in the camp — that is, the army camped against Gibbethon. But part of the tribes backed Tibni. So during the four-year contest Omri held the place of a military dictator. With the soldiers behind him, he was almost certain to beat his rival in the end. His rival's death probably ended the conflict.
The verse turns on the word "overcame." Right did not settle this. Force did — and one writer sees the same pattern wherever empires fall.
The same things always happen again when empires decline. When a people is without God, they count His will as nothing. They do away with what He set up at the beginning. Whoever has the power rules, and since the power lies with the army, the empire is at the mercy of the military. Conspiracy on one side, revolt by the soldiers on the other.
The fight between these two men was not the start of the trouble. It grew out of a long history of confusion and of turning from the place God chose.
Confusion marked Israel's whole history from Jeroboam on. People pushed kings off the throne, and evil men fought over it. Tibni, the son of Ginath, challenged Omri, and both had large followings... All of this went against God's decree that Jerusalem was the centre of the nation Israel. Judah accepted that, but the ten tribes had given themselves up to taking any substitute.
The split itself is one more mark of a kingdom going down.
Another feature marks the decline of the kingdom. Israel is divided against itself — how can it stand?
The cost shows up when you compare Israel now with Israel a few years earlier.
Only a few years earlier — still within living memory — the twelve tribes of Israel were one people. By God's goodness they stood high among the nations, and all the kings around them paid honour to their king. The country was rich and at peace... Now they were split into two nations that hated each other, and two ruthless military leaders were fighting for control of the northern one... Turning away from God and His Word brings disaster. Let us take warning!
By the world's measure, the winner did very well.
Omri, a powerful and ambitious man, bought a hill and built a new capital city on it, Samaria. This city plays a large part in the later history of the northern kingdom, and the prophets often call that kingdom Samaria. Omri must have made quite an impression on the nations around him. In their records, Israel's enemies the Assyrians called Israel the house of Omri, even after his family had lost power.
But God measures a ruler by another standard.
Firm rule and a modern new capital may look desirable in men's eyes. But what counts with God is a person's moral and spiritual condition. Omri became a more wicked ruler than even the bad kings before him. "Omri did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did more evil than all who were before him."
- Drift. The ten tribes had already left the centre God chose. A people that will take any substitute ends up with no settled authority at all.
- Division. A kingdom split in half cannot stand. Two rival kings and four years of civil war were the symptom, not the disease.
- Force. Where God's will counts for nothing, the strongest arm rules — the throne falls to whoever commands the army.
- Victory. Omri won and Tibni died. The winner built a famous capital, and foreign records still called Israel by his name.
- Verdict. God measures a ruler by his moral and spiritual condition, not by what he builds. By that measure the winner was worse than every king before him.
In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri began to reign over Israel, -- twelve years; he reigned six years in Tirzah.
This verse gives two numbers: twelve years for Omri, six of them in Tirzah. Behind them stands a general who won a civil war, moved his capital, and founded the strongest and most corrupt dynasty the ten tribes would know.
This reign began with the nation split in two behind rival captains.
Civil war, that most deplorable of all forms of armed conflict, followed Omri's taking of the throne of Israel. "Then the people of Israel were divided into two parts: half of the people followed Tibni the son of Ginath, to make him king, and half followed Omri. … So Tibni died, and Omri reigned." … Omri would be, during the four years' contest, in the position of military dictator. And with the soldiers behind him, he could hardly fail to prevail in the end against his rival, whose death probably ended the conflict. Then Omri as king begins a new dynasty.
Omri left Tirzah halfway through his reign. The reason lay in Tirzah itself.
In the middle of his reign Omri decided to move his capital from Tirzah to a better site that had caught his attention. Being a man of military genius, he wanted for his seat of government a place of greater strategic value than Tirzah had proved to be when Zimri tried to hold it. It could not survive even a week's siege! … Firm rule and a new up-to-date capital may seem desirable in men's eyes. But it is the moral and spiritual condition that counts with God, and Omri became a more wicked ruler than even his bad predecessors.
Omri's new capital was more than town planning.
Two things marked out Omri. He built a city as Israel's centre in opposition to God's centre, Jerusalem, and his evil ways were worse than all the kings before him. … He seized control of Israel for twelve years, but what of eternity?
The same writer traces the six remaining years and draws a parallel for today:
He bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer and built a city there, calling it Samaria, where he apparently reigned for the remaining six years of his life. This is similar to the energy of many people today in professing Christendom. They think up a plausible centre of gathering that is not Christ. It may be baptism, pentecostalism, presbyterianism, catholicism or any other name that seems suitable for their purpose. But if Christ is not our Centre, we shall be exposed to dangers of the worst kind, and especially so if we are proud of a sectarian name.
A short reign is not the same as a small one.
He seems to have drawn up laws making Jeroboam's calf-worship, or other forms of idolatry, compulsory throughout his kingdom. These laws stayed in force until the end of the kingdom, more than two hundred years later. "For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab." Such yokes men willingly bear, and even cling to — so prone is the human heart to idolatry. Omri was founder of the fourth and most powerful of the Israelite dynasties, combining ability with the setting up of the lowest kind of idolatry.
Preferring human rules to God's Word did not stop with Omri:
It is no uncommon thing for the professing people of God to prefer human rules and regulations to the plain teaching of His blessed Word. The Lord Jesus told the religious leaders of His own time: "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition … making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down." Since then the Scriptures have been completed. The whole revelation of God is in our hands. Yet the great majority of souls in Christendom are far more subject to church regulations and human dictation than to the wholesome Word of God!
Omri's own name reads like a verdict on his reign.
His name means heaping. By his wickedness he helped to heap up wrath against his dynasty. That wrath fell thirty-six years later on his great-grandson Joram, and wiped out the guilty house completely.
Yet these are the very days when God steps in:
In such days God is provoked to anger. He goes out to show His power in testimony against the evil. He also goes out to deliver this miserable people who were deliberately serving demons. What a God is ours! He chooses the moment when man has completely rejected Him to show that He is God, He alone.
- Twelve years — won by force. Omri's reign started with Israel split in two and settled by the army.
- Twelve years — measured by God. Able rule and a fine new capital impressed men. God weighed the moral and spiritual condition.
- Twelve years — built off-centre. Omri set Samaria up against God's centre, Jerusalem. Any rallying point that is not Christ repeats the mistake.
- Twelve years — that hardened into law. The "statutes of Omri" made idolatry compulsory and outlasted him by more than two centuries. Human rules still compete with the plain Word of God.
- Twelve years — heaping up wrath. His name means heaping, and the wrath he piled up fell on his house. Yet God chose this moment of man's rejection to show that He alone is God.
And he bought the hill Samaria of Shemer for two talents of silver; and built on the hill, and called the name of the city that he built, after the name of Shemer, owner of the hill, Samaria.
Omri moved Israel's capital. He bought a hill, built a city on it, and gave the nation a center of its own — set against the center God had chosen.
Omri chose his new capital as a soldier and as a proud king would. God measures a reign by something else.
He was a man of military genius. He wanted a seat of government with more strategic value than Tirzah. Tirzah had proved weak when Zimri tried to hold it. It could not survive even a week's siege! ... Such a memorial of his reign would suit Omri's vanity, as well as making for greater security in wartime. Men may prize firm rule and a new, modern capital. But it is the moral and spiritual condition that counts with God.
The hill was a fine site by every human measure. The greater thing in that region happened at a well by the old capital.
It lay about six miles northwest of Shechem, the old capital. According to Josephus, the site combined strength, fertility, and beauty. The hill stood six hundred feet above the country around it... But the site of the old capital, Shechem, is more attractive to the Christian heart. There our Lord, "wearied as He was from His journey, was sitting beside the well." And there He spoke to Jacob's erring daughter. He told her of the free-giving God, and of that living water — whoever drinks of it will never thirst again.
Omri chose his own center. One writer finds the same instinct in Christians who gather around a name that is not Christ.
Omri had another place in mind, so he bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer. There he built a city and called it Samaria... This is like the energy of many people today in professing Christendom. They think up a plausible center of gathering that is not Christ. It may be baptism, pentecostalism, presbyterianism, catholicism, or any other name that seems to suit their purpose. But if Christ is not our Center, we face dangers of the worst kind. The danger is greater still if we are proud of a sectarian name.
Two capitals meant two rival centers of worship. One of them had no authority from God at all.
A good king of Israel was impossible. Otherwise there would have been two central cities, Jerusalem and Samaria. Both were centers of religion and worship, yet they stood opposed to each other and were sometimes at war. Samaria was always the rebel city. It had no trace of authority from God, and no symbol or type from Him, for carrying out the ordinances of His worship... Two opposing testimonies would destroy each other. There could be only one center of worship, only one hill of Zion, as there is only one Calvary.
The verse calls the hill Samaria, yet says the city took its name from Shemer. One writer shows how both can be true.
The hill was called Samaria, and the city on it was called Samaria, after Shemer. Perhaps the hill got its name from its position, which suited it for a watch-tower. The city then got its name from Shemer. So the hill may have carried the name Samaria before Omri built on it. The historian only tells us why the city was so named.
The city outlasted him, and so did his religious policy. His name became a label for both.
He seems to have drawn up laws that made Jeroboam's calf-worship, or other forms of idolatry, binding across his kingdom. Those laws stayed in force until the kingdom ended, more than two hundred years later. "For you have kept the statutes of Omri, and all the works of the house of Ahab" (Micah 6:16). Men willingly carry such yokes, and even cling to them — so prone is the human heart to idolatry... Samaria is called on the Assyrian monuments "Beth Omri" (house of Omri).
Omri's whole reign comes down to two things — and one question that outlasts them both.
Two things marked Omri. He built a city as Israel's center in opposition to God's center, Jerusalem, and his evil ways were worse than all the kings before him. He died and was buried in Samaria. He seized control of Israel for twelve years — but what of eternity?
- Purchase. Omri bought a strong, beautiful hill. It was a sound military choice, and a new capital also flattered his vanity.
- Substitute. His city became Israel's center, set against God's center, Jerusalem. Writers see the same pattern in any gathering-point that is not Christ.
- Rivalry. Two competing centers of worship cancel each other out; there is only one hill of Zion, as there is only one Calvary.
- Legacy. His name outlived him in the worst way — "the statutes of Omri" bound idolatry on the nation for over two hundred years, and Assyrian records still called Samaria "house of Omri."
- Reckoning. Twelve years of seized power, a city, a grave inside it. What was any of it worth for eternity?
And Omri wrought evil in the sight of Jehovah, and did worse than all that were before him.
Omri ruled Israel for twelve years, founded a dynasty, and built a new capital. God's one verdict on him is that he outdid every earlier king in evil — so what does God count when He weighs a life?
The verse measures Omri against the kings before him, and that line was already heading down. Jeroboam had started Israel's calf-worship; Omri inherited it and pushed it further.
Omri not only followed the wicked ways of Jeroboam, but did worse than all the kings who were before him (v.25). Jeroboam began the wickedness of idol worship in the ten tribes, but evil does not stand still: it progresses from bad to worse. 2 Timothy 3:13 tells us, "Evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." A man who deceives others will find himself deceived too.
Omri did not just sin. He appears to have written his sin into the nation's law, where it outlasted him by centuries. The prophet Micah later names it.
He seems to have drawn up laws that made Jeroboam's calf-worship, or other forms of idolatry, compulsory throughout his kingdom. Those laws stayed in force till the end of the kingdom, more than two hundred years later. "For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab" (Micah 6:16). Such yokes men willingly bear, and even cling to, so prone is the human heart to idolatry.
One writer turns that old complaint on his own readers. Rules made by men can push aside the plain word of God.
It is not unusual for the professing people of God to prefer human rules and regulations to the plain teaching of His blessed Word. The Lord Jesus said to the religious leaders of His own time: "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition… making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down" (Mark 7:9-13).
By any political measure Omri succeeded. He ruled firmly, built a new capital, and founded a royal house. None of it registers in God's summary.
Firm rule and a smart new capital may look desirable in men's eyes. But it is the moral and spiritual condition that counts with God, and Omri became a more wicked ruler than even his bad predecessors… He continued the worship of Jeroboam's golden calves, and added fresh evils of his own devising. When he died, he was buried in the new city which he had created on the hill of Shemer. But "there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust" (Acts 24:15).
Outside records agree that Omri was powerful. The Bible weighs him by something else.
Omri founded the fourth and most powerful of the Israelite dynasties. He combined ability with the setting up of the vilest idolatry… Samaria is called on the Assyrian monuments "Beth Omri" (house of Omri), in agreement with 1 Kings 16:24.
The city he founded was Samaria. One writer sees it as a rival to the place God had chosen, and then measures the whole reign against eternity.
He built a city as Israel's centre in opposition to God's centre, Jerusalem… He seized control of Israel for 12 years, but what of eternity?
Omri's record is not the bottom. His son Ahab took the same road further, and Scripture keeps returning to it.
Israel's kings rapidly went from bad to worse. Omri "did more evil than all who were before him" (ch. 16:25). Now Ahab does still worse. As God sets Ahab's history before us, He keeps coming back to this sad theme… "There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the LORD like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited. He acted very abominably in going after idols, as the Amorites had done, whom the LORD cast out before the people of Israel" (1 Ki. 21:25-26).
Israel's kings kept sinking lower. One writer looks at days like these and finds a reason for hope.
And it is in such days that God, provoked to anger, goes out to show His power in testimony against the evil. He goes out also to deliver this miserable people, who were deliberately serving demons. What a God is ours! He chooses the moment when man has completely rejected Him to show that He is God, He alone.
- Worse. Sin never holds still. Omri took Jeroboam's idolatry and passed on something worse.
- Worse, legislated. He wrote that evil into national law. Israel still carried "the statutes of Omri" two hundred years later.
- Worse, though successful. He ruled firmly and built a new capital. God's one verdict passes over all of it and names his moral condition.
- Worse, inherited. Ahab took the next step down, further than his father ever went.
- Worst, then grace. At the point where man had gone as low as he could, God came out in testimony and in mercy to show that He alone is God.
And he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sins wherewith he made Israel to sin, provoking Jehovah the God of Israel to anger with their vanities.
Omri ruled Israel for twelve years and built it a new capital. Scripture judges him by one thing only: he took up Jeroboam's religion, pressed it on the nation, and turned worship into the thing that provoked God.
Omri did not just sin. He outdid every king before him. One writer explains why that happens:
Omri not only followed the wicked ways of Jeroboam, but did worse than all the kings who were before him. Jeroboam began the wickedness of idol worship in the ten tribes. But evil does not stand still: it goes from bad to worse. 2 Timothy 3:13 tells us, "while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived." A man who is a deceiver will find himself deceived also.
The verse names Omri's path "the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat." That way began as a political calculation:
He judged by human wisdom and forgot the fear of Jehovah. So he made two golden calves. His aim was to break the strong links of a shared worship, so that they would no longer tie his subjects to Judah and Jerusalem. He had to set up a new priesthood. He invented everything to do with worship out of his own heart. Israel's sin became an established rule, and the phrase, "Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin," became the sad title of their first king.
One man's plan became a whole nation's sin, and it stayed fixed to his name.
Omri did not invent this worship. What he added was the force of law:
He seems to have made laws that required Jeroboam's calf-worship, or other forms of idolatry, throughout his kingdom. These laws stayed in force until the kingdom ended, more than two hundred years later. "For you have kept the statutes of Omri, and all the works of the house of Ahab" (Micah 6:16). Such yokes men willingly bear, and even cling to — so prone is the human heart to idolatry. Omri founded the fourth and strongest of Israel's ruling families. He had real ability, and he joined it to the lowest kind of idolatry.
The verse calls the idols theirs: the people took the yoke as their own. One writer weighs what such idols are worth:
Their idols are worthless, mere "wind and emptiness."
This warning reaches far past Israel. Carved images are not the only way to push God's Word aside:
It is no uncommon thing for the professing people of God to prefer human rules and regulations to the plain teaching of His blessed Word. The Lord Jesus told the religious leaders of His own time: "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition." Their tradition was "making void the word of God" (Mark 7:9-13). Since the Lord said that, God has completed the Scriptures. We hold His whole revelation in our hands. Yet most people in the Christian world obey church rules and human orders far more than they obey God's healthy Word.
Omri was an able man, and he held power until he died. One writer weighs what that was worth in the end:
Two things marked out Omri. He built a city as Israel's centre in opposition to God's centre, Jerusalem, and his evil ways were worse than all the kings before him. He died and was buried in Samaria. He seized control of Israel for twelve years — but what of eternity?
Even so, God had not given up on this nation. There is an order in the way He deals with a people who leave Him:
Israel, at that time, was hurrying toward its doom. But whatever their sin may be, God does not strike a people who have forsaken His ways until He has sent them a testimony. He may chastise them beforehand, but He will not carry out His final judgment upon them.
- Inherited — Omri walked a path already laid down. Jeroboam invented this worship out of his own heart to keep the people away from Jerusalem.
- Worsened — He did not just copy the sin. He outdid every king before him, because evil never stands still.
- Established — He made that idolatry binding by law. Long after, God still called it "the statutes of Omri."
- Repeated — The same habit lives on wherever people hold human rules tighter than the plain teaching of God's Word.
- Answered — These empty idols provoked God. Even so, He sent His testimony before He brought His final judgment.
And the rest of the acts of Omri, what he did, and his might which he shewed, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
Two records close Omri's reign: the state chronicle of his deeds, and Scripture's verdict that he did worse than every king before him. What was all that "might" spent on?
Scripture does not deny his strength. It shows where that strength went.
He used this "might" of his not to rescue Israel, but to spread and establish idolatry, to Israel's ruin.
By the world's measure he was a success.
By the world's way of speaking, Omri looks like an able man. He brought order out of chaos, and after twelve years of reign he handed the throne of the ten tribes to his son unchallenged.
His laws outlasted him. Long after his death, God's complaint against the nation still carried his name.
He seems to have drawn up laws that made Jeroboam's calf-worship, or other forms of idolatry, compulsory throughout his kingdom. Those laws stayed in force until the kingdom ended, more than two hundred years later. "For you have kept the statutes [a firmly-established system] of Omri, and all the works of the house of Ahab" [Baal-worship] (Micah 6:16). Such yokes men willingly bear, and even cling to, so prone is the human heart to idolatry.
Fereday applies this to anyone who puts man-made rules above what God has said:
It is common for people who profess to be God's people to prefer human rules and regulations to the plain teaching of His blessed Word. The Lord Jesus told the religious leaders of His own time that they set aside the commandment of God in order to keep their own tradition, and so made the word of God of no effect (Mark 7:9-13). Since the Lord said that, the Scriptures have been completed. The whole revelation of God is in our hands. Yet most people in the Christian world are far more subject to church rules and human dictation than to the wholesome Word of God!
The record named here is a lost chronicle, not a book of the Bible. One writer notes what such a record left out in the case of a later king of Israel, Jehu:
If the chronicles of the kings of Israel were ever found, they would contain the acts and all the might of Jehu. But they would not contain what he was before God, nor the judgment of God on his conduct as king.
The Bible's own record works on another principle. One writer contrasts the two Bible books that cover these kings:
Kings is the book of responsibility; Chronicles is the book of God's providence… Kings everywhere presents the responsibility of the kings. The focus is not so much on the people, but on the kings.
His power left traces outside Israel too.
Omri was the founder of the fourth and most powerful of Israel's ruling families — combining ability with the setting up of the basest idolatry… Samaria is called on the Assyrian monuments "Beth Omri" (house of Omri), in agreement with 1 Kings 16:24… His name appears on the Dibon stone, where Mesha states that Omri subjected and oppressed Moab, until he, Mesha, delivered them out of his hand.
Yet Scripture applies a different test.
Men may count firm rule and a new, modern capital as desirable things. But what counts with God is the moral and spiritual condition; and Omri became a more wicked ruler than even his bad predecessors.
The chapter sums up his life in a few lines: his deeds, his death, his burial. One writer ends it with a question.
He built a city as Israel's center in opposition to God's center, Jerusalem. His evil ways were worse than all the kings before him. He died and was buried in Samaria. He seized control of Israel for 12 years, but what of eternity?
- Might — Omri had genuine strength and ability. The trouble is where it went: into idolatry, not Israel's rescue.
- Monument — He left Samaria and a body of "statutes" that held the nation for two centuries. Bad influence outlives the man who starts it.
- Missing — The state chronicle could hold his acts and his power. It could not hold what he was before God, or God's judgment on his reign.
- Measure — Kings is the book of responsibility. Firm rule and a fine capital impress men; moral and spiritual condition is what counts with God.
- Moment — Twelve years of control, then a grave in Samaria. The question the chapter leaves hanging is not about his reign but about eternity.
And Omri slept with his fathers, and was buried in Samaria; and Ahab his son reigned in his stead.
Omri's reign ends in one short line: death, a grave in the capital he founded, and a son on his throne. The verse reads like a formality. Yet commentators find in it the measure of a whole life: what a man leaves behind, and what he takes with him.
The phrase sounds peaceful, and that is the trap in it. Scripture uses it of good kings and bad alike. One writer, weighing the same words at the death of King Asa, warns against reading comfort into them:
"Asa slept with his fathers" — the same words used of Jeroboam, of Rehoboam, and of so many others. It may be a special favour, for Scripture says the opposite of certain wicked kings and of their descendants. But this favour is far from showing that the Lord took pleasure in them. Nor does it show that beyond the grave they found the happiness their hearts had looked for in vain in the world. It is still the same everywhere here below. Sons go to the grave beside their fathers. They die, one might say, a natural death. That lets us draw no comforting conclusion about their eternal future.
A quiet death and a proper grave settle nothing. The record still says Omri did more evil than all who came before him.
Omri built a new capital for Israel, and that city became his grave. God measured him by something else:
Men may count firm rule and a new, up-to-date capital as desirable things. But with God it is the moral and spiritual condition that counts. Omri became a more wicked ruler than even his bad predecessors. "Omri did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did more evil than all who were before him." He kept up the worship of Jeroboam's golden calves, and added fresh evils of his own inventing. When he died, they buried him in the new city he had built on the hill of Shemer. But "there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust" (Acts 24:15).
The grave in Samaria is not the end of Omri's story.
Omri picked his own site and built his own centre on it. One writer draws that straight into the present:
Omri had another place in mind, so he bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer. There he built a city and called it Samaria, where he evidently reigned for the remaining six years of his life. This is similar to the energy of many people today who profess the name of Christ. They think up a plausible centre of gathering that is not Christ... But if Christ is not our Centre, we will face dangers of the worst kind, and especially so if we are proud of a name that divides.
Omri did not just sin himself. He wrote his sin into the law of the land:
He appears to have drawn up laws that made Jeroboam's calf-worship, or other forms of idolatry, binding throughout his kingdom. Those laws stayed in force until the kingdom ended, more than two hundred years later. "For you have kept the statutes of Omri, and all the works of the house of Ahab" (Micah 6:16). Such yokes men willingly carry, and even cling to — so ready is the human heart for idolatry. Omri founded the fourth and most powerful of Israel's ruling houses. He combined ability with setting up the lowest kind of idolatry.
The verse closes by naming Omri's successor. He went further down the same road:
"Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years." The new king went further than his father and all the rest in sin against the Lord. "Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him." Things were ripening fast. Through Elijah a heavy blow fell on the nation, with devastating effects.
Omri's name itself reads like a comment on his reign:
His name means heaping. By his wrongdoing he helped to heap up wrath against his dynasty. That wrath fell at last, thirty-six years later, on his great-grandson Joram, and wiped out the guilty house completely.
- Heaping. Omri's name means heaping. What he heaped up was wrath against his own house, and it fell thirty-six years later on his great-grandson.
- Heaping laws. He made idolatry the law of the land. People still kept "the statutes of Omri" more than two hundred years later.
- Heaping a centre. Samaria was a centre of his own making — a warning wherever Christ is not the centre.
- Heaping a successor. Ahab took the throne. He out-did his father in provoking the Lord, and ripened the nation for the blow that came through Elijah.
- Heaped in a grave. He slept with his fathers in the city he built. But a peaceful death proves nothing: there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.
And Ahab the son of Omri began to reign over Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah; and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years.
One verse hands Israel's throne to Ahab, dates his reign by Judah's kings, and counts out twenty-two years. Why does Scripture give so much room to Israel's worst king?
The verse dates Ahab's start by a king of Judah. His length of reign then stands out beside the kings just before him:
Ahab, the son of Omri, begins to reign while Asa is still alive, for all the disasters mentioned in 1 Kings 15 and 1 Kings 16 take place during Asa's reign. Apart from Omri, the reigns of Ahab's predecessors were short: Nadab a year, Elah two years, Zimri seven days. Ahab's reign, by contrast, stretches on for twenty-two years. Ahab has time ahead of him for doing nothing but evil.
The verse names Ahab as Omri's son twice over, and his name points the same way. The chapters before this are a tangle of evil where nothing new is born:
In the chapters before this, it is hard to find your way among the clashing shapes of evil that fill the page. Here the son is only spiritually the "brother of his father," as Ahab's name means. What is born of the flesh is only flesh again.
The amount Scripture writes about a king is no measure of his worth:
Ahab reigned over the ten tribes for 22 years, and more is written about him than about any of the previous kings of the ten tribes. Not that he did anything commendable.
Israel had known bad kings before. Ahab outdid the whole line:
The reign of Ahab, the son of Omri, was a dark and dreary time for the house of Israel. Wickedness had risen to a frightening height. The sins of Jeroboam were small compared with the black list of Ahab's offences. He took the wicked Jezebel, daughter of the uncircumcised king of the Zidonians, to share his heart and his throne. That alone was enough to secure the oppression of Israel and the complete overthrow of their ancient worship. In a word, the Spirit sums the whole matter up: "Ahab did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him." That said enough about him. The whole line of kings from Jeroboam down had done evil in the sight of the LORD; but to do more than all of them marked out guilt of no ordinary kind.
Why did God let such a reign run so long? One answer: the worst moment is the one He picks to show who He is:
In days like these God is provoked to anger. He goes out to show His power in testimony against the evil. He goes out also to deliver this wretched people, who were serving demons by their own will. What a God is ours! He chooses the moment when man has completely rejected Him to show that He is God, He alone, as we shall see in what follows. But as for us Christians, have we not seen what God is at the cross of Christ?
Ahab's reign is the setting for Elijah. Dark times do not hide a man of God; they make him stand out:
The character of a man of God only stands out more clearly as the times grow harder… it makes the reality of a man of God stand out; it makes him shine in the darkness. John the Baptist took up Elijah's mission in his day, and it is said of him, "He was a burning and shining lamp." Not merely a shining lamp, notice, as dead and decaying wood may shine, but a burning one as well… God's lights are made for the darkness. The darkness does not hide them or put them out; it shows them up. Such a light, in the very darkest days in Israel, was Elijah the Tishbite.
- Dated — Asa's thirty-eighth year fixes the start of Ahab's reign, tying the north's story to Judah's calendar.
- Inherited — The verse names him twice as the son of Omri, and his name means "brother of his father". The evil came down to him; he did not invent it.
- Prolonged — His predecessors lasted days, or a year or two. Ahab gets twenty-two years, and spends them doing only evil.
- Recorded — Scripture gives him more room than any earlier king of the ten tribes, and none of it is to his credit.
- Answered — God waits until man's rejection is complete, then acts. Darkness does not hide His light; it displays it. Elijah is that light.
And Ahab the son of Omri wrought evil in the sight of Jehovah more than all that were before him.
Ahab's reign opens with a verdict no king before him received. What made his evil worse than theirs, and why did God pick that hour to act?
How far had the nation sunk under him? One writer sets it out.
Never, in the course of Israel's history, had the moral condition of the nation been so low as in the reign of king Ahab. Of this weak and wicked man we read that he "did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him." The law was broken. The worship of idols was almost universal: men bowed down to the golden calves at Bethel and Dan. False prophets conducted their idolatrous rites in the Lord's land. The king and his idol-worshipping wife led the way. The nation turned away from the Lord and proved itself ripe for judgment.
Ahab's evil also had time to grow. Compare his reign with the ones just before it.
The kings before Ahab reigned only a short time — Nadab one year, Elah two years, Zimri seven days — apart from Omri. Ahab's reign, by contrast, is a long one: twenty-two years. Ahab has time before him for doing only evil. He follows the idol worship of Jeroboam, but does worse still. He marries Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians. He bows down before Baal, and builds him an altar and a temple at Samaria.
One writer names a single decision as Ahab's great sin, and traces what it cost him.
His great sin was that he took as his wife the daughter of Ethbaal, King of the Zidonians. By entering this worldly alliance he lost his place and authority as king. He allowed this wicked woman to rule. She even wrote letters in his name and signed them with his seal. Under her rule she led the whole country into idolatry. She protected the false prophets of Baal, and she persecuted the prophets of the Lord.
What does evil "in the sight of the Lord" look like day by day? Ahab's own orders to his servants show it.
There is not so much as a word about God in Ahab's orders to his servants. Not a word about the sin that had brought God's heavy displeasure and judgment down on the land. No; the word is, "Go to all fountains and brooks." Such was Ahab's thought — his poor, low thought. His heart did not turn to the Lord in true humility. He did not cry to Him in the hour of his need. So his word is, "perhaps we may find grass." God is shut out, and self is the all-absorbing object. As long as he could find grass, he did not care about finding God.
The nation's darkest hour is where God chooses to act.
It is in such days that God, provoked to anger, goes out to show His power in testimony against the evil. He also goes out to deliver this miserable people, who were deliberately serving demons. What a God is ours! He chooses the moment when man has completely rejected Him to show that He is God, He alone.
Not everyone in Ahab's Israel bowed to Baal. But not everyone stood clear of him either.
1 Kings 16:29-33 shows us what kind of man Ahab was. Ahab, Jezebel, and the four hundred and fifty prophets led those in Israel who had abandoned God and worshipped Baal at that time. Obadiah and the seven thousand mixed in with the people (1 Kings 18). They did not serve the idol, but they were friends of Ahab. Elijah was the friend of God. He kept completely apart from this falling away, and he was the only witness of the truth while all the evil went on.
The verdict on Ahab reaches beyond his own reign. One writer looks back at Jehoshaphat, who made peace with him.
How sad for Jehoshaphat and his descendants that he ever agreed to this unholy alliance! He made peace with the man "who did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him." But such is man, even at his best.
- Worse — Ahab did not start Israel's idolatry. He took over Jeroboam's, then went further: an altar and temple for Baal in Samaria.
- Why worse — the marriage to Jezebel was the hinge. That worldly alliance cost him his own authority and handed the nation to her.
- What "evil" looks like — God shut out. In his hour of need Ahab hunted for grass, not for God.
- God's answer — when man has completely rejected Him, He chooses that moment to show that He alone is God.
- Where you stand — one dark hour held three kinds of people. Baal's worshippers, Ahab's friends who never bowed to the idol, and one man kept apart: the friend of God.