1 Kings 16:29

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.