1 Kings 16:32

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).