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

⁸ In the twenty-sixth year of Asa king of Judah, Elah son of Baasha became king of Israel, and he reigned in Tirzah two years.

⁹ Zimri, one of his officials, who had command of half his chariots, plotted against him. Elah was in Tirzah at the time, getting drunk in the home of Arza, the palace administrator at Tirzah. ¹⁰ Zimri came in, struck him down and killed him in the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah. Then he succeeded him as king.

¹¹ As soon as he began to reign and was seated on the throne, he killed off Baasha’s whole family. He did not spare a single male, whether relative or friend. ¹² So Zimri destroyed the whole family of Baasha, in accordance with the word of the Lord spoken against Baasha through the prophet Jehu— ¹³ because of all the sins Baasha and his son Elah had committed and had caused Israel to commit, so that they aroused the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, by their worthless idols.

¹⁴ As for the other events of Elah’s reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?

¹⁵ In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, Zimri reigned in Tirzah seven days. The army was encamped near Gibbethon, a Philistine town. ¹⁶ When the Israelites in the camp heard that Zimri had plotted against the king and murdered him, they proclaimed Omri, the commander of the army, king over Israel that very day there in the camp. ¹⁷ Then Omri and all the Israelites with him withdrew from Gibbethon and laid siege to Tirzah. ¹⁸ When Zimri saw that the city was taken, he went into the citadel of the royal palace and set the palace on fire around him. So he died, ¹⁹ because of the sins he had committed, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord and following the ways of Jeroboam and committing the same sin Jeroboam had caused Israel to commit.

²⁰ As for the other events of Zimri’s reign, and the rebellion he carried out, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?

A. Find Out:

1. Who was the next king of Israel ? v.8
2. What happened to him? v.9,10
3. What did Zimri then do? v.11-14
4. How long did he reign and why? v.15-17
5. How did Zimri die? v.18
6. Why did all this happen? v.19

B. Think:

1. What sort of man did Elah seem to be?
2. What sort of man was Zimri?
3. 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:

1. Leaders always have a greater responsibility towards God.
2. The Lord will not sit back and ignore ongoing sin.

Passage: 1 Kings 16:21-34

²¹ Then the people of Israel were split into two factions; half supported Tibni son of Ginath for king, and the other half supported Omri. ²² But Omri’s followers proved stronger than those of Tibni son of Ginath. So Tibni died and Omri became king.

²³ In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned twelve years, six of them in Tirzah. ²⁴ He bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents^[a] of silver and built a city on the hill, calling it Samaria, after Shemer, the name of the former owner of the hill.

²⁵ But Omri did evil in the eyes of the Lord and sinned more than all those before him. ²⁶ He followed completely the ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat, committing the same sin Jeroboam had caused Israel to commit, so that they aroused the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, by their worthless idols.

²⁷ As for the other events of Omri’s reign, what he did and the things he achieved, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel? ²⁸ Omri rested with his ancestors and was buried in Samaria. And Ahab his son succeeded him as king.

²⁹ In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years. ³⁰ Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. ³¹ He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. ³² He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. ³³ Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than did all the kings of Israel before him.

³⁴ In Ahab’s time, Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho. He laid its foundations at the cost of his firstborn son Abiram, and he set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub, in accordance with the word of the Lord spoken by Joshua son of Nun.

A. Find Out:

1. How did Omri become king? v.21-23
2. What sort of king was he? v.25,26
3. Who followed Omri & how was he described? v.29,30
4. How was he worse than previous kings? v.31
5. How did he establish this? v.32,33

B. Think:

1. 1ow is the situation in Israel getting worse with both kings?
2. How are they now far from the people God called them to be?
3. 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:

1. Making representations of the Lord opens the way for idolatry.
2. Idolatry is superstitious believing in man-made ‘gods’