1 Kings 16 – Study
For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.
Passage: 1 Kings 16:8-20
A. Find Out:
- Who was the next king of Israel ? v.8
- What happened to him? v.9,10
- What did Zimri then do? v.11-14
- How long did he reign and why? v.15-17
- How did Zimri die? v.18
- Why did all this happen? v.19
B. Think:
- What sort of man did Elah seem to be?
- What sort of man was Zimri?
- Why were all these things happening?
C. Comment:
Let’s take the order of the questions. First, Elah. Elah is king simply because he is the son of Baasha who had reigned for 24 years. Little is said about him. In fact he is considered so inconsequential that he’s not even given the usual description of not having followed the ways of the Lord. All we know if that he got drunk with another official and it was while he was like that that he was assassinated. What could be your epitaph if you died today?
Then there is Zimri. He lasted even less time! He’s an official of the king so this is a palace coup when he kills Elah. Immediately he wipes out all the remaining men of Baasha’s family to prevent any comeback, and fulfilling God’s word to Baasha (v.3,4). His problem is that he hasn’t got the army on his side and so the army commander is proclaimed king and the army besieges the town where he is and he commits suicide rather than fall into their hands, which now leaves Omri – see next study.
Why were all these things happening? TWO reasons! First the sin and stupidity of these kings and second because they are answerable to the Lord. When sin prevails sometimes the Lord intervenes directly and sometimes He just withdraws His hand of protection or restraint and so the sin of others acts as judgement on the main perpetrators – as here!
D. Application:
- Leaders always have a greater responsibility towards God.
- The Lord will not sit back and ignore ongoing sin.
Passage: 1 Kings 16:21-34
A. Find Out:
- How did Omri become king? v.21-23
- What sort of king was he? v.25,26
- Who followed Omri & how was he described? v.29,30
- How was he worse than previous kings? v.31
- How did he establish this? v.32,33
B. Think:
- 1ow is the situation in Israel getting worse with both kings?
- How are they now far from the people God called them to be?
- How was Ahab even worse than those before him?
C. Comment:
What is amazing about this area of the Bible is that the Lord doesn’t step in and intervene with major judgement utterly destroying the northern kingdom. Perhaps the reason is explained by Peter (2 Pet 3:9), God is wanting to give time and space for repentance.
Jeroboam had set up two idols for Israel to worship. Subsequent kings had perpetuated their use. When we come to Omri we find a description previously not seen: “Omri…. sinned more than all those who went before him.” (v.25) Now if the king did, it probably means the people did as well, so this takes Israel to new depths.
Then comes Ahab and a bad situation turns worse. His description says he, “did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him.” (v.30) This must surely bring Israel to an all-time low. Not only did he not worry about the people worshipping the two idols set up by Jeroboam, but he also married a foreign woman and took on board what were probably her worshipping practices. He begins to worship the idol Baal, setting up an altar for this ‘god’ in the capital, Samaria, and established an Asherah pole for false worship as well. (Asherah was considered to be the consort goddess of Baal and Asherah poles were possibly like totem poles, carved with images of the goddess who was being worshipped.) We thus have an alien false, substitute religion replacing the relationship with the Lord. What darkness!
D. Application:
- Making representations of the Lord opens the way for idolatry.
- Idolatry is superstitious believing in man-made ‘gods’