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KingsSurvey of the Old Testament: The ProphetsFall 2005 |
Table of Contents |
Ahijah's prophecy comes true, and Jeroboam's son, Nadab is assassinated by Baasha, who becomes king. Baasha slaughters all the household of Jeroboam. However, Baasha was no better than Jeroboam, so the prophet Jehu declared to Baasha that his family would also loose the kingdom. Baasha was also assassinated and there was a period where a number of people vied for the throne.
Finally, Omri, the commander of the army, was able to consolidate his power by defeating his enemies. Omri built the city of Samaria, which then became the capitol of Israel going forward. After the death of Omri, who reigned for 12 years, his son Ahab became king.
Up to this point, each of the kings of Israel is said to have done evil in the sight of the Lord, having walked in the sins of Jeroboam. But with Ahab, the text deviates from this standard assessment, and states that Ahab was more evil than all the kings which came before him. Ahab did not just follow after the corrupted worship of Yahweh, but he promoted the worship of Baal in place of the worship of Yahweh.
It came about, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went to serve Baal and worshiped him. So he erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal which he built in Samaria. (1 Kings 16:31-32 NASB)
Baal was the ancient Canaanite god of fertility. The fertility of the land, however, depended not upon the loyalty of the people to Baal, nor the keeping some moral law. Instead, Baal worshippers would practice sexual rites and temple prostitution in the hopes that these actions would excite Baal and he would then engage in sexual relations with his consort, the goddess Asherah. When Baal engaged in sexual relations with Asherah, the earth gave forth a bountiful harvest.
The sexual nature of this cult made it particularly evil in God's sight, for it violated those basic moral and ethic underpinnings of Judaism and attacked the boundaries of familial relationships. But more than that, the worship of Baal was an attempt to manipulate the gods to the will of the people. However the worship of Yahweh is not an attempt to mold Him to our will, but to conform ourselves to His will.
Because of the extreme evil of King Ahab, God raised up one of the greatest prophets in the history of Israel. In the beginning of chapter 17 we are introduced to Elijah the Tishbite who proclaims to Ahab that Yawheh, the God of Israel would cause no rain to fall on Israel.
This was a direct insult to the god Baal. First, Ahab was trying to establish Baal as the god of Israel, and by declaring Yawheh as the God of Israel, Elijah was rejecting Ahab's religious agenda. Secondly, Baal was the god of fertility, in control of the bounty of the crops and the fertility of the animals. By preventing rain from falling, Elijah was demonstrating that it was Yahweh, not Baal who controlled the harvest and the fertility of the land.
Needless to say, this angered Ahab. So, Elijah fled and camped out by the brook Cherith east of the Jordan. There God provided water from the brook and food from ravens. After awhile the brook dried up, so God sent Elijah to Sidon, where he stayed with the widow of Zerphath. In exchange for her hospitality, God provided that her bowl of flour was always full and her jar of oil never became empty.
While staying with the widow, her son became sick and died. Elijah took her son, prayed to the Lord, and the son was revived. Upon seeing this profound miracle, the widow said, “Now I know that you are a man of God and the that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth. (1 Kings 17:24).
After three years of drought, God told Elijah to reveal himself to Ahab. So Elijah appeared to Obadiah. Obadiah was head of the king's household, and was a follower of Yahweh. Obadiah, in fact, had hid over 100 prophets of God when Ahab's wife, Jezebel had called for the death of all the prophets of Yahweh. When Elijah appeared to Obadiah, he became understandably afraid, because Ahab had been seeking Elijah to kill him for years. But Elijah assures Obadiah that he will be safe and that he wants to speak to the king.
Elijah met with Ahab and challenged the prophets of Baal to a contest. This contest would once and for all determine who would be the God of Israel: Yahweh or Baal. Elijah would meet with 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah on Mount Carmel to see which god would respond.
So all of Israel came to Mount Carmel to witness the contest. Each would set up an altar and offer a sacrifice. However, the prophet would not light the fire under the sacrifice, but would pray and ask their god to provide the fire.
The prophets of Baal went first. After placing the animal on the altar, the prophets went through their rituals, praying, dancing around the altar, and cutting themselves. But Baal does not respond. Elijah ridicules the prophets, taunting them to shout louder for maybe Baal has gone on vacation or is asleep, or is busy going to the bathroom. But Baal never responds.
Then it is Elijah's turn. He asks that the altar be drenched in water three times so as to make it more difficult for fire to start. Then Elijah prays, “O Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, today let it be known that you are the God of Israel (1 Kings 18:36).” With that, fire comes down from heaven and consumes the sacrifice, the wood, and even the stones on the altar so that there is nothing left. Yahweh has proven that He is the God of Israel.
The people admit that Yahweh is their God, and with Elijah they rise up and slaughter the prophets of Baal. Then Elijah allows the rain to fall on Israel.
Ahab returns to Samaria, and tells Queen Jezebel what happened on Mount Carmel. She becomes furious that the prophets of Baal have been destroyed and she immediately calls for Elijah's life. Elijah, then flees to Mount Horeb to live in exile.
A man named Naboth had a vineyard which was adjacent to the king's palace in Samaria. Ahab wanted to purchase the vineyard from Naboth to build a vegetable garden there. However Naboth wouldn't sell, for that was part of his family's inheritance since the time of Joshua. Ahab sulks because Naboth won't sell him the land.
Jezebel is a princess who just can't understand why her husband doesn't just use his power as king to do what he wants. In Sidon, the king's rule is law and the king would not tolerate the insolence of a prophet like Elijah. In Sidon, the king would just take whatever property he wanted. Ahab, in her eyes, was weak. However, Ahab, for as evil as he was, understood that in Israel the king was not above the law. He understood that the prophets and the priests could call him on his disobedience to the law. So he hesitated to take the vineyard.
But Jezebel has no such hesitation. She has Naboth killed and she seizes the land and gives it to Ahab. Elijah gets word of this atrocity and goes and confronts Ahab and Jezebel. He prophecies that Jezebel will die a horrible death and that God will take the kingdom from Ahab.
Ahab, however, repents of his sin, humbling himself before the Lord. As a result, even though Ahab has done such evil, God decides not to take his kingdom from him, but from his son.
The Israelite city of Ramoth-Gilead had been over run by the king of Aram. So Ahab and Jehosophat, the king of Judah decide to go and recapture the city. But first they inquire of the Lord through the prophet, Micaiah as to how the battle will go. Now Ahab hated Micaiah, because he always said bad things about Ahab. Again, Micaiah was predicted bad things for Ahab, saying that he would die in battle, but that Ramoth-Gildead would be delivered. Ahab disregarded the prophecy because Micaiah was always prophesying against him. But sure enough, the battle went just as had been prophesied. And so, Ahab was killed after ruling for 22 years.
After the death of Ahab, his son Ahaziah became the king of Israel. However, he fell through the balcony railing and injured himself greatly. Wondering if he was going to die, he sent messengers to Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron to ask if he was to die or not. Elijah intercepted Ahaziah's messenger and asked them,
Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron?' (2 Kings 1:4)
For this reason, Elijah told the messengers that Ahaziah would indeed die. This did not please the king, so he sent 50 troops to kill Elijah. But Elijah called fire down from heaven and the troops were destroyed. Ahaziah sent 50 more men, but with the same result. Finally a third troop of 50 was sent, but their commander had learned the lesson and humbly begged Elijah to go with him to the king. Elijah went, but the message was the same. Ahaziah was to die.
The theme of Kings continues. Those who obey the Lord find success. Those who do evil in the sight of the Lord are destroyed.
In 1 Kings 19:19, God had told Elijah to anoint Elisha as a prophet to replace him. Now as Elijah nears the time when he will be taken up by God, the focus of Kings seems to be to establish Elisha as Elijah's successor. Elijah and Elisha head from Bethel to Jericho to across the Jordan. As they cross the Jordan, Elijah miraculously opens a path in the water to cross the river.
Elijah and Elisha stopped in Bethel and Jericho to visit a company of prophets, who must have been told by Elijah that he was soon to be taken up by the Lord. This company appears to have been some sort of prophet school where Elijah was training them to become prophets of the Lord.
Before Elijah is taken up he asks Elisha what he can do for him. Elisha says to give him a double portion of his Spirit. This is a term of inheritance. The Israel, the eldest son would typically receive two times the inheritance of the rest of the sons. Elisha was asking to be seen as the eldest son, or the successor of Elijah. Elijah agrees to the request.
Elijah is then surrounded by a chariot of fire from heaven and is caught up in heaven in a whirlwind. Elijah, therefore, doesn't die but is directly taken to heaven while alive. Only one other person in scripture is taken to heaven directly: Enoch (Genesis 5:24)
After Elijah is taken up, Elisha is shown to be the successor to Elijah through a series of events where he performs the same miracles as Elijah. First, to get back across the Jordan River, he miraculously causes the river to part. Then Elisha comes to a widow who is being hounded by creditors. He provides her with a jar that never runs out of oil, as Elijah did with the widow of Zerphath. The widow's son dies, and Elisha raises her from the dead, as Elijah did with the widow of Zerphath. Elisha has clearly received the double portion of Elijah's inheritance.
Aram (modern day Syria) was the arch enemy of the nation of Israel in the time of Elijah and Elisha. Nonetheless, both prophets had an extensive ministry to this nation, including being called on by God to anoint the king of Aram. Needless to say, such ministry did not win the favor of the Israelite king.
The captain of the Aramean army, Naaman, had been suffering from leprosy. Within his household was a slave girl taken captive from Israel. She told Naaman of Elisha and his ability to perform miracles. So Naaman goes to see Elisha, who tells him to wash seven times in the Jordan River. This seems ridiculous to Naaman. Why can't he go wash in the rivers back in Aram? But Naaman's servants convince him that if he has traveled this far, it is not a big deal to just follow through on these instructions. Naaman does go to the Jordan River, and after his seventh dip, he is washed clean. Naaman then proclaims, “Behold now, I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel.”
The king of Aram was preparing to go to war with Israel. Elisha had been warned by the Lord of this attack and told the King of Israel. When Aram saw Israel preparing its army, he was certain that there was a leak amongst his generals. But soon he discovered that Elisha had warned the king of Israel. So the King of Aram sought to have Elisha seized. However, when the Aramean troops arrived at the house of Elisha, he prayed to the Lord, and in their eyes they saw Elisha surrounded by a chariots of fire. He prayed a second time and they became completely blind. Elisha then led them as captives of war to the king of Israel, who offered them up a banquet before sending them home.
After this, Aram did end up going to war with Israel, and was laying siege to the capitol city, Samaria. As in all great sieges, the people of the city soon ran out of food. The famine within the city was so great that the people started resorting to cannibalism. The king of Israel became so concerned about this, that he went to Elisha and was ready to kill him. However, Elisha assured him that the next day the famine would be over.
The next day four lepers decided to surrender to the Arameans, thinking that if they stayed they would die of starvation, so they had nothing to loose. As they walked into the camp of the Arameans, however, they discovered that the army had abandoned their camp. They stayed for awhile, eating the food the army had left behind. Finally they decided it was immoral for them to enjoy the plunder while the city was starving, so they returned to the city and told everyone that the army had fled, thus ending the famine as Elisha had predicted.
King Ahaziah of Israel did not have a son, so his brother Jehoram became king. Nonetheless, the sins of Ahab demanded that his family would be cut off from the throne. So Elisha sent a company of prophets to a man named Jehu from Ramoth-Gilead to anoint him as the new king of Israel.
King Jehoram had been wounded in a battle against Aram and was recuperating in the city of Jezreel. King Ahaziah of Judah had come to visit Jehoram in Jezreel, when Jehu arrived outside the city with an army. Both kings went out to meet Jehu and ask him if he had come in peace. Jehu's response was “what peace, so long as Jezebel continues in her evil.” It seems that Jezebel was still calling the shots in Israel, and now with her daughter having married King Ahaziah of Judah, she had strong influence in Judah as well.
Jehu then shot both the kings with arrows, killing them. Jehu then went to Samaria and had Jezebel killed as well. Ahab's family had been destroyed by Jehu in accordance with Elisha's prophecy.
Not all of Ahab's family was destroyed by Jehu, however, for Ahab's daughter, Athaliah, had been given to King Ahaziah of Judah as a wife. With her influence, she led Judah into the worship of Baal as well. Now with the death of Ahaziah by Jehu, Athaliah seized the throne by having all the royal family in Judah hunted down and killed. Athaliah ruled as queen in Judah for seven years.
However, a young princess grabbed the infant prince, Joash, and hid him in the temple of the Lord. There he was raised by the priest Jehoida. After seven years Jehoida plotted with the army and they killed Athaliah and put Joash on the throne. Joash ruled Judah for 40 years.
Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, although he did not remove the altars from the high places.He did levy a tax to have the temple restored, for it had fallen into disrepair over the years. There was a brief scandal where the priests had not used the money earmarked for the temple repairs to actually fix the temple. But Joash confronted the priests and the temple was repaired.
Jehu then proceeded to clean Israel of the idolatry of Baal, slaughtering the worshipers of Baal and destroying the sacred pillars and temples to Baal. Because of this, God preserved Jehu's family in the royal line of Israel for four generations. However, Jehu never abandoned the sin of Jeroboam and the cult of the golden calf continued. Because of this, Aram continued to invade and steal territory from Israel.
During the dynasty of Jehu, Israel suffered under the oppression of Aram for many years. But the Lord was not ready to destroy Israel yet, so he sent his prophet Jonah to King Jeroboam III of Israel and told him that the Lord under him the Lord would restore the nation's borders.
Although Jeroboam II continued in the sins of his name sake, he was able to throw off the oppression of Aram and the borders of Israel expanded northward and Israel had a short lived time of peace and prosperity. Aram had been loosing power and this was before the rise of Assria. So Jeroboam II reigned in peace for 41 years.
The book of Kings is an historical and spiritual explanation of the downfall of the Jewish kingdoms. Under the kings, the nations were led through a slow but steady decline as they fell away from the worship of the true God. There were moments where kings would arise to reclaim the glory of Solomon, but the trend would soon continue. The prophets were there to warn and hold the kings accountable. They served as the mouthpieces of God, proclaiming that the true God of Israel was Yahweh and that there was no God but Yahweh.
Today, in our pluralistic society there is great pressure on Christians to meld our faith into a generic spirituality. Christianity is acceptable to our society so long as it agrees that it is just one of many paths to God. But if we accept such a premise, we become like the kings of Israel and fall into the sin of Jeroboam, who mixed the worship of Yahweh with the religions of his neighbors. We must remember as King Solomon proclaimed at the building of the temple, and as Elijah proved on Mt. Carmel: there is not God but Yahweh. Furthermore, we must remember what Jesus said of himself:
No one comes to the Father but through Me. (John 14:6b)
Austel, Hermann J. “1 & 2 Kings.” Expositor's Bible Commentary . Frank E. Gaebelein, ed. Grand Rapids MI: Zondervan, 1998.
Constable, Thomas. “1 & 2 Kings.” The Bible Knowledge Commentary. John F. Walvoord & Roy B. Zuck, ed. (Victor Books, 1997). Electronic edition STEP file.
Fee, Gordon D. and Douglas Stuart. How to Read the Bible Book by Book. Grand Rapids MI: Zondervan, 2002.
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