Who was King Baasha in the Bible?

Son of Ahijah of the house of Issachar: he conspired against Nadab king of Israel, killed him and all the seed royal, and reigned in his stead, B.C. 953-930. It was according to the word of the Lord by the prophet Ahijah, that the seed of Jeroboam should be entirely destroyed, because of his wickedness; but Baasha was no better, and his posterity fell under a like judgement. 1 Kings 15:16-33; 1 Kings 16:1-13; 1 Kings 21:22; 2 Kings 9:9; 2 Chr. 16:1-6; Jer. 41:9.

Another man, Baasha, of the tribe of Issachar, conspired against Nadab and killed him at Gibbethon, a Philistine city which Nadab was besieging (v.27). Baasha was on the side of the besiegers, but used the occasion to murder his own king! Then he took Nadab's place as king. In all of this the weakness of the people of Israelis apparent. They accept the authority of a murderer. Perhaps they thought his authority was better than that of Nadab, but both were rebellious against the authority of God.

THE REIGN OF BAASHA (vs.29-16:7)

Baasha made sure that none of Jereboam's descendants would challenge him. He killed them all. On his part this was vicious cruelty, but by killing them he fulfilled the Word of the Lord by Abijah the prophet (v.29), who had given the message of judgment to Jereboam's wife (ch.14:10-11) to be conveyed to Jereboam. Verse 30 is a reminder that this judgment was because of Jereboam's many sins by which he made Israel sin, provoking the Lord God of Israel to anger.

And Asa succeeds, who reigns a long while in Jerusalem, and he does what was right in the eyes of Jehovah as did David his father. He took away the sodomites out of the land. "Asa's heart was perfect," or, undivided, "with Jehovah all his days. And he brought in the things which his father had dedicated, and the things which himself had dedicated, into the house of Jehovah, silver, and gold, and vessels." We find the war continued, and Baasha king of Israel builds Ramah that he might not suffer any one to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah. But it was in vain. Benhadad, the king of Syria, hearkens to king Asa. A sad descent in his latter days — that the king of Judah finds his refuge in the king of Israel instead of in the Lord. Nevertheless, all goes, apparently, well for the moment, for God does not judge all at once. "It came to pass when Baasha heard thereof that he left off building." The house of Asa is concluded here. "In the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet. And Asa slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father."

Nadab comes to his end, and Baasha conspires against him and "smote him at Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines: for Nadab and all Israel laid siege to Gibbethon. Even in the third year of Asa king of Judah did Baasha slay him, and reigned in his stead. And it came to pass, when he reigned, that he smote all the house of Jeroboam; he left not to Jeroboam any that breathed, until he had destroyed him, according to the saying of Jehovah which he spake by his servant Ahijah the Shilonite: because of the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned, and which he made Israel sin, by his provocation wherewith he provoked Jehovah God of Israel to anger. Now the rest of the acts of Nadab, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel."

Six kings of Israel are now mentioned. Asa saw them all ascending the throne of Israel. The first mentioned is Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, who followed in his father's footsteps. His reign was cut short by an uprising of one of the house of Issachar, Baasha. He smote Nadab at Gibbethon (Josh. 19:44; 21:23). Baasha then smote all the house of Jeroboam. Thus was the prediction of Ahijah, the prophet of Shiloh, fulfilled. "Because of the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned, and which he made Israel sin, by his provocation wherewith he provoked the LORD God of Israel to anger." God's predicted judgments never fail in the end. The judgments written over against our own age, this evil age, will some day be executed by the Lord as all other judgments which were threatened against Israel.

The new dynasty headed by Baasha began in the third year of Asa's reign. Baasha reigned twenty-four years. He sinned as Jeroboam did, though he had been the executer of God's judgment upon the descendants of the wicked king. He had not heard Jehovah's voice speaking in the events of the past. Then came the message of the Lord to Baasha through Jehu, the son of Hanani (2 Chronicles 19:2; 20:34). He reminds him that the Lord had raised him out of the dust (his family was unknown) and He had made him prince over Israel. He followed Jeroboam and Rehoboam's fate, and the fate of his house would now also be the fate of Baasha, who had executed the divine sentence. "I will make thy house like the house of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat." Such is divine justice.

Elah his son followed. His rule lasted not quite two years. He was in Tirzah. While the army was away fighting the Philistines, Elah in the house of his steward Arza ("earthliness") became drunk and was killed by his captain, Zimri, who at once began to reign in his place. He only reigned seven days and the only deed mentioned, besides his awful death, is the slaying of all the house of Baasha "according to the Word of the LORD, which He spake against Baasha by Jehu the prophet." Omri was made king by all Israel and with him began another dynasty. His first act was to besiege Tirzah where Zimri was, who set the king's palace on fire and perished in the flames. A division followed, but Omri prevailed. In all these sad records the fruits of the departure from God and from His Word are seen. They can easily be traced in the history of other nations down to our own times, the days which have brought the most awful bloodshed in the world's blood drenched history. It is all the result of sin. And Omri was worse than all that were before him, and his son Ahab was the climax of all wickedness in the Kingdom of Israel. There was no improvement, but a steady decline till God's hand smote them in judgment. Ahab introduced Baal-worship in Israel. This was the result of his marriage to Jezebel (dunghill), the daughter of Ethbaal (with Baal), King of Zidonians. "Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the Kings of Israel that were before him." The last verse of this chapter records a presumptuous action. Hiel (God liveth) built Jericho. He found out that the word of God spoken 500 years before (Josh. 6:26) was true.

"In the third year of Asa king of Judah began Baasha the son of Ahijah to reign over all Israel in Tirzah, twenty and four years." With the beginning of a new dynasty, and the sad history of that which had been before him, one might hope that Baasha would have taken a different course, and turned to Jehovah. Alas, we read: "And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin."

He was of Issachar, and had the tribal characteristic — an eye for what appeared "pleasant" (Gen. 49:15). So he made beautiful Tirzah (which some derive from ratzah, "pleasant"; see Song of Sol. 6:4) the royal residence during his reign. Whatever he may have known of God's purpose in the cutting off of Jeroboam's house, his motive was not one of righteousness (like Jehu's, later), for he was no better than those he murdered, and continued to walk in their sin.

"Then the word of the Lord came to Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha, saying, Forasmuch as I exalted thee out of the dust, and made thee prince over My people Israel; and thou hast walked in the way of Jeroboam, and hast made My people Israel to sin, to provoke Me to anger with their sins; behold, I will take away the posterity of Baasha, and the posterity of his house" — a terrible thought to an Israelite! — "and will make thy house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. Him that dieth of Baasha in the city shall the dogs eat; and him that dieth of his in the fields shall the fowls of the air eat." His doom, and that of all his house, is here solemnly pronounced. "Out of the dust" implies his lowly origin. How often do revolutionists imagine that because the obnoxious ruler is of noble birth, or royal lineage, the remedy is to put in the place of power one of their own class and rank! And how soon are they made to learn that "a servant when he ruleth" is the very worst type of tyrant known! No, it is not a question of natural birth, whether high or low, but of new birth and "ruling in the fear of God" which gives to any favored land such sovereigns as "Victoria the Good." Baasha was of plebeian stock, yet his name, he who lays waste, tells only too accurately what kind of a ruler he proved himself to be.

There was war between Baasha and Asa king of Judah all their days. He made a league with Benhadad king of Syria, and built, or fortified, Ramah on his southern border, to prevent, if possible, the influx of his subjects to Judah, whither they were attracted by the prosperity enjoyed under Asa. (See ASA.)

"Now the rest of the acts of Baasha, and what he did, and his might, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? So Baasha slept with his fathers, and was buried in Tirzah: and Elah his son reigned in his stead." And then a supplementary verse is added, to emphasize the fact that it was because of his idolatries and murder of the house of Jeroboam that God judged him and his family: "And also by the hand of the prophet Jehu the son of Hanani came the word of the Lord against Baasha, and against his house, even for all the evil that he did in the sight of the Lord, in provoking Him to anger with the work of his hands [his idols], in being like the house of Jeroboam; and because he killed him." God, who looks upon the heart, sees him but as an assassin for the accomplishment of his ambitious designs, slaying king Nadab and the entire house of Jeroboam.

The Lord had another servant to bring a solemn message to Baasha. Jehu, the son of Hanani, was the messenger at this time (v.1). Though the history records that Baasha had murdered his master to take his place as king, yet God tells Baasha that He (God) had lifted him out of the dust to make him ruler over Israel. We may be sure Baasha had not considered God at all in his taking the kingdom, but now he is faced with the fact that God required something of him because God had given him the place of rule. But Baasha had walked in the same way that Jereboam had walked, the man whose descendants he killed.

Jehu then tells Baasha the Word of the Lord, that God had lifted Baasha out of the dust to make him ruler over Israel, but Baasha had followed Jereboam in his evil and idolatrous course, causing Israel to sin just as Jereboam did (v.2). Therefore God would take away the posterity of Baasha, reducing his house to the same solemn judgment as the house of Jereboam. Instead of proper burials, Baasha's descendants who died in the city would be eaten by dogs and those who died in the fields would be eaten by ravenous birds (vs.3A).

War between Asa and Baasha (Judah and Israel) is a sad testimony to the weakness of both peoples, for they were brothers (v.32). Why was their time not spent rather in fighting the common enemies of Israel?

In spite of the evil life of Baasha, the Lord allowed him to reign 24 years (v.33). Thus, he was given much time to repent and change his ways, but he followed the ways of Jereboam who made Israel sin (v.34).

"In the third year of Asa king of Judah did Baasha slay him, and reigned in his stead." Once on the throne, he began to execute the judgment of Jehovah against the remaining members of the house of Jeroboam, according to the aged Ahijah's word. "And it came to pass, when he reigned, that he smote all the house of Jeroboam; he left not to Jeroboam any that breathed, until he had destroyed him, according unto the saying of the Lord, which He spake by His servant Ahijah the Shilonite: because of the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned, and which he made Israel sin, by his provocation wherewith he provoked the Lord God of Israel to anger."

In order not to interrupt the account of the events of Asa's reign, Baasha's attack, though much later, had been mentioned in verse 17. The Word turns back in verse 25 and tells us of Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, who began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa. His reign lasted two years; this short period of time was sufficient to prove his iniquity. The Lord's word against Jeroboam is fulfilled with regard to his son and all his family (cf. 1 Kings 14:14). Baasha conspires against him, smites him, and slays him at Gibbethon and reigns in his stead in the third year of Asa, king of Judah. "And it came to pass when he was king, he smote all the house of Jeroboam; he left to Jeroboam none that breathed; until he had destroyed him, according to the word of Jehovah which he spoke by his servant Ahijah the Shilonite, because of the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned, and wherewith he made Israel to sin; by his provocation with which he provoked Jehovah the God of Israel to anger" (vv. 29-30). Baasha reigned twenty-four years and did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.

This whole account, filled with wars and cruelty, follows Solomon's reign of peace which ended so quickly on account of the unfaithfulness of the king and of his people. "And there had been war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life" (v. 6). "And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days" (v. 16), and verse 32 repeats the very same thing. This is one of the principal symptoms of decline. War is declared, implacable war between people of the same race. Rehoboam had been at the point of attempting war, but, warned by the Lord, he had desisted. Next the kings of Israel are authors of warfare, for they feel their position jeopardized by the maintenance of God's testimony in Judah. A nation which has turned idolatrous after having known the true God cannot endure God's testimony so near by. It hates this and wages desperate warfare against it.

A lthough God had dealt with the house of Jeroboam in severest judgment, this did not change the hearts of the people. Baasha of the tribe of Issachar had been God's instrument to smite "all the house of Jeroboam; he left to Jeroboam none that breathed; until he had destroyed him.because of the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned, and wherewith he made Israel to sin" (1 Ki. 15:29-30).

Israel had turned away from the Lord. But the Lord did not write them off. Though rebellious and wayward, they were still His people. Many years later He uses the prophet Hosea to express His feelings and detail His dealings with them in touching manner. "How shall I give thee over, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee up, Israel," He laments (Hos. 11:8). He goes back to Israel's earliest history, to Jacob's struggling with Esau in their mother's womb and his wrestling with God at Peniel (Hos. 12:3-4). Again and again He had been provoked to anger with His people's sins. Yet they were His people. He still loved them.

Baasha, God's instrument of judgment to exterminate the house of Jeroboam, was now to face the same judgment he had meted out. It is easy, we find, to condemn others and deal harshly with them for their sins. How solemn when we then go ahead and repeat the same sins ourselves! This is no trifling matter before God.