And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him.
Here Israel's long drift becomes open apostasy: the nation abandons the Lord outright. Ahab marries a foreign princess, serves her god, and the whole land follows.
A step beyond Jeroboam
The phrase "as if it had been a light thing" measures Ahab against the kings before him. Jeroboam had set up golden calves. Ahab treated that as a small matter and went further. Baal was already known in the land, but Ahab's reign made that worship official.
C KnappAhab 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.
The marriage God had forbidden
The verse names Ahab's wife with her father and her nation. Israel had a standing command against such marriages, and God gave the reason.
W. W. FeredayOne 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.
Commentators differ on whether Ahab first brought Baal into Israel. Either way, the names in the verse tell their own story.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinAhab 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.
The end of public worship
Ahab "served Baal" as king, in the open. Nothing of the Lord's worship was left in sight.
Hamilton SmithAhab 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 answer to the darkest hour
The chapter closes with this collapse. The next opens with a prophet.
The Christian's FriendGod'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.
Against the whole system of Baal, God's witness rested on one separated man.
J. N. DarbyAhab, 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.
Why her name is still a warning
Jezebel does not stay in this chapter. Her name becomes a label the Lord Himself uses in His message to the church at Thyatira in Revelation 2.
William KellyJezebel, 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.
Summary
- Step. Ahab counted Jeroboam's sin a light thing, and a sin treated lightly is never the last one.
- Yoke. The forbidden marriage was the doorway. Hoping to win an ungodly partner runs the opposite way here.
- Altar. One man's household choice became the nation's official worship. Public worship of the Lord then vanished.
- Witness. Right there God raised up Elijah. His Spirit works most visibly in the darkest times, through one separated man.
- Warning. Revelation uses Jezebel's name for corrupt teaching allowed inside a professing people.