1 Kings 16:29–33

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ahab was not the first to introduce Baal-worship in Israel. The people had known it since they entered the land. But under his rule, and the strong influence of his wife Jezebel, it became the established form of idolatry. Jeroboam had done the same earlier with calf-worship. Baal was the sun-god of the earlier inhabitants of the land, and of the Phoenicians too. His worship came with the most obscene rites and impurities.

One of Ahab's many sins was his marriage to the idolatrous Jezebel... The Israelites were expressly forbidden to inter-marry with the corrupt nations of Canaan: "You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and He would destroy you quickly" (Deut. 7:3-4). There is no hint here that a God-fearing husband or wife might win an ungodly partner for the truth. The opposite result is certain. A woman has great influence over a man. So it matters greatly that everyone who knows God should be matched by God. A marriage contract made in defiance of the Word has ruined many a man besides Ahab.

Ahab introduced Baal-worship in Israel. This was the result of his marriage to Jezebel (dunghill), the daughter of Ethbaal (with Baal), king of the Zidonians.

Ahab did worse than his father: he married the vile and idolatrous Jezebel and became the leader in apostasy. In his day all trace of the public worship of the Lord vanished from the land. Idolatry was universal. People worshipped the golden calves at Bethel and Dan. The house of Baal stood in Samaria. Groves of Baal were on every side, and prophets of Baal carried out their idolatrous rites in the open. Apparently Baal lived and the Lord had ceased to be.

God's Spirit often shows His power most clearly in times of the darkest spiritual corruption. It was so with Elijah... Ahab did not merely continue in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin. He also married a heathen wife, and then took up the worship of Baal. Full-blown apostasy is therefore seen in Ahab.

Ahab, Jezebel, and the four hundred and fifty prophets led the people of Israel who had turned away from God and worshipped Baal at that time... Elijah was the friend of God. He kept completely separate from that turning away. While all this evil went on, he was the only witness of the truth.

Jezebel, as everyone knew, added violence to corruption. She advised bloodshed. She hated all God's witnesses and worked against them. In private and in public she backed the idolatrous priests and prophets of Baal. And now in Thyatira something appeared that showed the Lord's eye a dark and cruel idolatry to come. An authority claiming to be infallible would teach it and impose it inside the professing church.

Ahab was not content with following the wicked course of Jeroboam. He married an evil wife, Jezebel, who encouraged him in greater evil still, including the worship of Baal. Samaria was the centre supposedly built for the worship of God, but there Ahab built a temple for Baal and an altar to go with it (v. 32). Added to this, he made a wooden image, deliberately and willfully provoking the Lord to anger (v. 33).

The name means "master, possessor." Whether singular or plural, it always takes the article. Baal was the chief male god of the Phoenicians and the Canaanites, as Ashtoreth was the chief female goddess. When the Israelites came into the land, they surely found temples, groves, altars and high places set apart to Baal. There the people offered incense, burned offerings, and sacrificed children to him. A great company of prophets and priests served him.

Ahab was not the first to bring Baal-worship into Israel. Israel had known it ever since they entered the land. But under his rule, and the powerful influence of his wife Jezebel, it became the established form of idolatry, just as Jeroboam had made calf-worship the established form. Baal was the sun-god of the older peoples of the land, and of the Phoenicians. His worship went together with the most obscene rites and impurities.

One of Ahab's many sins was his marriage with idolatrous Jezebel... God plainly forbade the Israelites to marry into the corrupt nations of Canaan: "You shall not give your daughters to their sons, neither shall you take their daughters for your sons." God Himself said what disobedience would surely bring: "for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly" (Deut. 7:3-4). There is no hint here that a God-fearing husband or wife might win an ungodly partner for the truth. The opposite result is sure. The influence of a woman over a man is great. So it is of the greatest importance that everyone who knows God should be matched by God's own direction. A marriage made in defiance of the Word has ruined many a man besides Ahab.

Ahab added the worship of Baal, the god of his idolatrous wife, to the sin of the kings before him. His offences against Jehovah were so great that he went beyond all the kings of Israel who came before him.

In his day all trace of the public worship of Jehovah vanished from the land. Idolatry was universal. People worshipped the golden calves at Bethel and Dan. The house of Baal stood in Samaria. Groves of Baal were on every side, and prophets of Baal carried out their idolatrous rites in the open. Apparently Baal lived and Jehovah had ceased to be.

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 discipline them beforehand, but He will not carry out His final judgment on them.

Elijah stood for Jehovah. He put the question to Israel: was Jehovah God, or was Baal? He established the rights of Jehovah by fire from heaven. This led to the destruction of all the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:17-40). But this idolatrous worship continued until the days of Jehu. He killed its worshippers and destroyed its house and images (2 Kings 10:18-28).

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 a guilt of no ordinary kind. Yet such was Ahab. Such was the man who sat on the throne of God's ancient people when Elijah the Tishbite began his prophetic testimony.

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 details his history before us, He keeps returning 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" (1 Kings 21:25).

Tyrian historians mention an Eithobalus of Ahab's time, who was priest of Ashtoreth, the goddess paired with Baal. This was, in all probability, Jezebel's father. Her zeal for spreading and keeping up the worship of Baal and Ashtoreth, or Astarte, is therefore easy to explain. So is her deep hatred of the holy worship of Jehovah, and her murderous plans against His prophets. Behind it all, we may be sure, Satan was seeking by this new move to completely corrupt and destroy God's people and His truth from the earth… "And Ahab made a grove" — Asherah — an image, or pavilion, to Astarte.

The "groves" so often mentioned in the history of Ahab and Elijah were really statues of Ashtoreth. Baal seems to have represented the sun, and Ashtoreth the moon. God's charge against the Northern Kingdom came when Assyria carried the people away captive. It reads: "And they abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God and made for themselves metal images of two calves; and they made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal" (2 Kings 17:16). From Job 31:26-27 we gather that worship of the sun and moon was the earliest form of idolatry.

Not only did he continue in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, but he also went and married a heathen wife; and on that he adopted the worship of Baal. Full-blown apostasy is therefore seen in Ahab.

Ahab was not the first to bring Baal worship into Israel. It had been known among them since they entered the land. But under his rule, and the powerful influence of his wife Jezebel, it became the established form of idolatry, just as Jeroboam had established calf worship. Baal was the sun-god of the earlier inhabitants of the land, and his worship came with the most obscene rites and impurities.

The reign of Ahab was the occasion for the testimony of the prophet Elijah. Israel at that time was hastening to its doom. But whatever their sin may be, God does not strike a people who have forsaken His ways without first sending them a testimony. He may chastise them beforehand, but He will not carry out His judgment on them in a final way.

And it is in such days that God, provoked to anger, goes out to show His power. He testifies against the evil. He also comes to deliver this miserable people, who were willingly 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.

Every light had gone out. Every voice of testimony had fallen silent… Then at last God, in His mercy to His poor oppressed and misguided people, raised up a bright and powerful witness for Himself in our prophet. But it is just at such a time that a real witness for God is likely to have the most powerful effect. His influence reaches the widest. It is after a long drought that a shower brings its full refreshing power.