1 Kings Chapter 16 – Allegiance or Enmity with God?
“For God will bring every work into judgement, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.”
~ Ecclesiastes 12: 14 ~
Key events in the lives of five successive kings of the northern kingdom of Israel form the bulk of content in this chapter. Through them all, we see God’s keen eye and silent (the voice of His swift and exact judgement heard through that of prophets) hand upon (or against) each of the kings, never ceasing to work behind-the-scenes.
The subsequent paragraphs are a summary of the deeds of the five kings in this chapter, followed by a breakdown of lessons learned; how the way in which their lives panned out can be both encouragements and stern warnings for us in this present day.
- Baasha (1 Kings 15: 16 – 16: 7)
He was a violent, power-hungry man, as evidenced by the first record of him in the Bible. He was a man of war, who took advantage of king Asa’s precarious military position for personal gain (perhaps to expand the size of his kingdom or exert military prowess). Although his actions, including seizing the throne with force and in bloodshed, fulfilled the prophesy of the destruction of the house of Jeroboam, Baasha ended up being a king who was no different from Jeroboam. The same prophesy of the house of Jeroboam was then passed on to his.
- Elah (1 Kings 16: 8 – 14)
He made no effort to right the wrongs of his father and paid the heavy price.
- Zimri (1 Kings 16: 9 – 20)
His rise to the throne could not have been more similar to that of Baasha’s. He too conspired against the throne, striking the moment the king let his guard down in drunken stupor. Just like Baasha, he fulfilled the prophesy of the destruction of the house of Baasha.
The difference in their rule was in the way they died. Baasha remained in power for life while Zimri died prematurely (with the shortest reign of seven days), possibly refusing to be subject to the same end as Elah, choosing to take his own life before he could be assassinated by the next king.
- Omri (1 Kings 16: 16 – 28)
He was a commander of the army made king by the people of the kingdom of Israel (could have been chosen because the people assumed his position meant that he stood the best chance at defeating all their enemies).
Unfortunately, he did more evil than the kings before him, sowing discord among the people of Israel and causing them to sin time and again.
- Ahab (1 Kings 16: 29 – 34)
Just like Elah, he followed in his father’s footsteps and grew to be even more wicked. He looked lightly upon, maybe even completely disregarded or refused to acknowledge God’s utmost authority and judgement, seeing it as a trivial thing to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, provoking God to more anger than all the kings before him, marrying a foreign woman, wilfully turning to and embracing total idol worship.
Lessons and Life Applications:
Such extreme Biblical examples might be difficult to relate to in today’s context. However, precisely because of how extreme they are, the underlying teachings of these examples are all the more apparent. [*Note: numbering of lessons and life applications does not correspond with the order of the kings.]
- Serving as a backdrop or recurring timeframe of this chapter is the consistent mention of king Asa’s (1 Kings 15: 9 – 24, mentioned throughout 1 Kings 16) comparatively extensive, oddly unshaken 41-year reign over the southern kingdom of Judah as he witnessed from a distance the rise and fall of seven consecutive kings of Israel.
A kingdom under the rule of an unrighteous king is one knee-deep in political and social turmoil while a kingdom ruled by a righteous king after the heart of God attains rest and peace.
Here we see the power of God’s preservation of good over evil, over those who do what is right in His eyes as compared to those who do evil and provoke Him to anger. God is quick to execute judgement on the evil and unjust but for all who have been found upright, for all who only call upon His name, He will bless throughout generations. (Psalm 28: 3 – 5; 94: 20 – 23, Proverbs 14: 11, etc.)
- “Inasmuch as I lifted you out of the dust and made you ruler over My people Israel, and you have walked in the way of Jeroboam, and have made My people Israel sin, to provoke Me to anger with their sins, surely I will take away the posterity of Baasha and the posterity of his house, and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. The dogs shall eat whoever belongs to Baasha and dies in the city, and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the fields.” (1 Kings 16: 2 – 5)
Our God is King over all, our God is above all. Whatever our God gives, including our lives, He has every right to take away. In the same way that He sets kings up for His chosen people, He can dethrone them just as easily. All that we have seemingly gathered up for ourselves belongs to God.
Thus, our lives are not ours to take for God is the One in control – the One whose eyes saw our substance, being yet unformed, who has written in His book all the days fashioned for us, when as yet there were none of them. (Psalm 139)
Unlike the unfaithfulness and forgetfulness of man, God’s sovereign will prevails, all His promises He will never forget, His word He continues to fulfil irrespective of man’s sinful nature. If we desire to partake of His promises, we must flee from sin because where God is, there is not a remnant of sin that has not been wiped away.
- Elah’s death emphasises the importance of being sober-minded, reverent, temperate, self-controlled and watchful at all times. Otherwise, we are only making room for sin to enter, giving in to temptation, allowing our souls to be won over by the devil, who waits intently for any opportune time to pounce and pull us closer and closer towards our own destruction.
- In this chapter, chaos and violence are met only with more chaos and violence. Although our God is just, He is first merciful. (James 2: 13) With men, we mean for evil, but God always means for good.
It is in God’s nature to be merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abound in mercy (Psalm 103: 8), and bear with us in longsuffering. Just as He gave (most of) the kings years of reign to turn back to Him and keep His laws, our Lord is not slack concerning His promises.
He is longsuffering towards us, not willing that any should perish but adds to the time we have to come to repentance (2 Peter 3: 9), to walk in the pattern of those who believe unto eternal life.
God has proven that He is indeed God, that we should never fail to let God be God. He has never been unclear about what He requires of us; there are no grey areas for speculation – if we love Him, we are to fear Him and keep His word (in any relationship, we’d do anything and everything to prove our love).
Knowing all too well the need for repetition, God explicitly highlights this principle throughout the Bible. Scattered throughout 1 Kings, we already see a pattern (just in different permutations) – the clear distinction between the judgement of good versus evil, their deeds pitted against that of those who came before them:
“…did what was right in the eyes/sight of the LORD, as did his father…”
“…all the evil that he did in the eyes/sight of the LORD in provoking Him to anger with the work of his hands, in being like the…”
Therefore, let us not turn a blind eye to these grim cautionary tales, lest we too become stumbling blocks, causes to fall in each other’s ways, only to find ourselves too far gone.
May God’s mercy and truth endure forever.
