When he began to reign, 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 of his relatives or his friends.
Zimri has just killed King Elah and seized the throne, and his first act is to destroy Baasha's whole family. The chapter treats the bloodbath as a prophecy coming true — so how can one man's brutality and God's word run along the same track?
A prophecy carried out to the letter
Years earlier the prophet Jehu had told Baasha that his house would end like Jeroboam's. Zimri's massacre is where that word lands.
C KnappHis murderer Zimri at once began to massacre "all the house of Baasha," sparing none, "neither his relatives nor his friends." It was complete extermination, exactly as God had ordained it should be. "Thus Zimri destroyed all the house of Baasha, according to the word of the LORD, which He spoke against Baasha by Jehu the prophet."
Baasha reaps what he sowed
Baasha had climbed to the throne by killing Nadab and destroying Jeroboam's family. What falls on his own house now matches what he once handed out.
Eugene P. Vedder Jr.Baasha, God's instrument of judgment to wipe out the house of Jeroboam, was now to face the same judgment he had dealt out. It is easy, we find, to condemn others and treat them harshly for their sins. How serious it is when we then go on and repeat the same sins ourselves! This is no small matter before God.
Jehu's message named the reason: Baasha had copied the very sins he once punished.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinHe sinned as Jeroboam did, though he had been the one who carried out God's judgment on the descendants of the wicked king. He had not heard the LORD's voice speaking in the events of the past... "I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat." Such is divine justice.
The killer's motives were entirely his own
Zimri did not set out to serve God. His hand carried out the sentence while his heart pursued a throne.
Leslie M. GrantZimri followed Baasha's example by killing both Elah and all the male descendants of Baasha. More than this, he killed the friends of Baasha. The motives of Zimri were selfish and evil, but the Lord used Zimri's wickedness to accomplish the prophecy He had sent Baasha by Jehu.
Commentators draw the same line about a different Jehu — the man who destroyed the house of Ahab:
James BoydGod takes into account not only what men do, but their aim in doing it. Jehu carried out the judgment of the Lord on the house of Ahab, and on all his guilty partners, until not one of them remained alive... But the harshness with which he carried out the Lord's just judgments, and his own selfish reasons for that harshness, were far from acceptable.
Seven days were enough to condemn him
Zimri held the throne for a week. Even so, the record of his reign says he did evil in the sight of the Lord — and the speed is the point.
H. L. RossierZimri finished this work of extermination in a few days, for he reigned only seven days at Tirzah. 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 that stamp. So a mass of sins can pile up in a very short time.
A warning left standing on the page
Two royal families vanished inside fifty years. God left their end on record as a lesson for later readers.
C KnappIn less than fifty years the first two dynasties of Israel's kings had come to an end and every member of their families had been wiped out. God meant their doom to be an example to those who would afterwards live ungodly lives. They stand in these records as warning lights, to steer all rulers and subjects clear of the rocks on which they wrecked themselves for ever. "Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them; for the ways of the LORD are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them" (Hosea 14:9).
Summary
- Word — Jehu's prophecy against Baasha's house was no empty threat. Zimri's massacre carried it out to the letter.
- Measure — Baasha destroyed Jeroboam's family, then copied Jeroboam's sins. The judgment he once carried out came back on his own house.
- Motive — Zimri's aims were selfish and evil. God used his wickedness without excusing it, because He weighs why men act, not only what they do.
- Speed — seven days on the throne were enough to mark Zimri as a man who did evil. A heart far from God stamps every deed.
- Warning — two dynasties fell within fifty years. Their record stands as a warning light, steering later readers clear of the rocks that wrecked them.