1 Kings 16:29 - 17:1 - 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
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1 Kings 16:29 - 17:1 - 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 provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger 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. NIV 1 Kings 17:1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, "As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word."
This morning I’m beginning a new series on the life of Elijah. Elijah was an incredible man of courage and conviction, a man who stood up for God in the midst of one of the darkest times in the history of the people of God. Elijah is a central, but rarely looked at, man of the Bible – he’s so important that at Jesus’ transfiguration in Matthew 17, Elijah shows up with Moses. He’s so important that when Jesus asks his disciples who men say that he is, they answer that some think Jesus is the second coming of Elijah. And Elijah is so important that he does not die but is taken to heaven by God. But James 5:17 says that Elijah was also a man “just like us.” He faced incredible difficulties, he dealt with loneliness, fear, doubt, and depression that was so bad that he wanted to die. Elijah gives us a great example of what it means to know and follow God, especially in the midst of a culture that was not very friendly to the worship of God.
I’ll admit up front that this series has not been easy for me to prepare. It is harder to read, understand, and apply the Old Testament, especially historical books. So why do it? Why teach from 1 Kings? Let me give you three reasons:
1) The Bible is the Word of God, written by men but inspired by God.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 - All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
If all Scripture is inspired by God and useful, then that includes 1 Kings.
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2) Read the whole of Scripture so that you don’t end up with a lopsided view of God and what it means to know and follow Him.
If you only read portions of the Bible, you miss out on the full picture of who God is.
3) And knowing the history gives you a deeper understanding of the rest of the Bible. It’s a story, not a collection of sayings or advice on how to live
Here is the historical background of 1 Kings:
After mankind has fallen into sin, God decides to bring the world back to him through Abraham and his family. Abraham has Isaac, Isaac has Jacob, and Jacob has 12 sons who become the 12 tribes of Israel. The people of God live in Egypt during a famine and eventually become slaves to the Pharaoh there. But God brings them out in the Exodus, and God sets up the covenant with them – you will be my people, I will be your God, and this is what it means to be the people of God. As they move into the promised land, they are led by judges, a combination of spiritual leader and military leader, but the people clamor for a king so that they might be like the other nations.
God gives them Saul as the first king, then David, and then Solomon. Solomon married many foreign women, and the nation falls into idolatry and worship of false gods. Solomon dies, civil war breaks out, and the kingdom splits into the northern kingdom (Israel) and the southern kingdom (Judah). Over the next 200 years, there were 19 kings in the northern kingdom until the Assyrians invaded in 722 BC, and all the kings were wicked. In the Southern kingdom, there were 17 rulers for 300 years until the Babylonian captivity in 586 BC.
1 Kings 16:29-33 - 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.
Ahab is a king in the northern kingdom. As we read, Ahab was more evil than any of the others 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. 3
What were the sins of Jeroboam? Jeroboam and Rehoboam were two of the son of Solomon, the son of David. Rehoboam became king, but Jeroboam was a contender, and 10 tribes followed Jeroboam, while the tribes of Judah and Benjamin followed Rehoboam. Jeroboam was afraid of losing power if the people continued to go to the temple in Jerusalem to worship, and so he set up two golden calves, proclaiming “here are your gods who brought you out of Egypt.”
1 Kings 12:26-33 - Jeroboam thought to himself, "The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David. 27 If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam." 28 After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." 29 One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. 30 And this thing became a sin; the people went even as far as Dan to worship the one there. 31 Jeroboam built shrines on high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people, even though they were not Levites. 32 He instituted a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival held in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. This he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made. And at Bethel he also installed priests at the high places he had made. 33 On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a month of his own choosing, he offered sacrifices on the altar he had built at Bethel. So he instituted the festival for the Israelites and went up to the altar to make offerings.
Jeroboam changed the place of worship, set up idols, appointed false priests, set up new festivals, and set the example of sacrificing on the altar.
Ahab, however, goes one step further. At least Jeroboam was saying these are your gods who brought you out of Egypt. Ahab replaced worship of the true God with Baal and Ashtaroth worship. All because of Jezebel:
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 provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him.
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Phoenicia was Israel’s rich neighbor to the west, and Ahab wanted to align himself with them. The way to do that was through marriage, and so he took Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, the king of the Sidonians, as his wife. And Jezebel brought her gods – most significantly, Baal & Asherah (goddess of fertility). God had already spoke clearly about the danger of intermarrying with foreigners:
Deuteronomy 7:1-6 - When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations-- the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you-- 2 and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. 3 Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4 for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the LORD's anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. 5 This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire. 6 For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
Ahab married Jezebel, one of the most infamous woman in the Bible. She was the dominant partner, and she initiated Baal worship in Israel. She set up a Baal worship site at Jezreel, Israel’s summer capital, supporting 450 priests out of her own purse. With Ahab, they built a huge temple in Samaria for worship. Many writings exist from Phoenician Baal worship, and it is basically hard core pornography with an emphasis on lewd sensuality, deviant eroticism, and group sex. Baal was the God of rain and fertility, controlling the seasons, crops, and land. The priests and priestesses mated to insure fertility, and Baal worshipers engaged in sexual deviancy to please the gods.
And, in 1 Kings 18:4, we find that Jezebel has also been killing off the Lord’s priests. The nation has been overrun by rampant idolatry and immorality, and the priests of God are being systematically killed off.
Certainly, while this is thousands of years ago, these concepts are not so foreign. Our land is also overrun by idolatry and immorality, with people forgetting about God and turning to other things. We are not so different.
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The people of God are at another low point, falling away from God. This is a danger for anyone at any time. How can we fall away from God? Three things I notice from this passage:
1) Not knowing His Word – God said don’t marry foreign women. God said don’t worship idols. God said that He was the one who brought them out of Egypt. And they had forgotten what was true. They rejected it. If you don’t know what is true, you will easily fall away. 2) Lusting after power and love and any other idol – It causes compromise when we pursue money power and love. The desire for power causes a compromise of morality, because God is not often on the side of the powerful. And the desire for love. If you are single, be so very careful dating someone who is not a believer. Idolatry is looking to anything other than God for your significance. Romans 1:25 - They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator 3) Shortcuts, taking the easy way – Remember Jeroboam, who told them that they didn’t need to go to the temple, but could worship the calves instead. Following God is not easy, and the temptation to take shortcuts is real.
The nation has totally gone astray. And onto that scene walks Elijah.
1 Kings 17:1 - Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, "As the LORD the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word."
Few things we learn from v.1:
1) His name: Elijah – My God is Yahweh; The Lord is my God. This will be a great descriptor as he stands against the idolatry in the land. 2) His background: He is from Tishbe – no one has located Tishbe on a map. He is a hero out of nowhere; this is not about him personally 3) Tishbe is in Gilead, we are told. Gilead is a place of solitude and outdoor life – Elijah would have been a rugged man, living in rude villages and living the open-air life, a man of solitude and strength.
From the get-go, he’s in the king’s face, proclaiming that it will not rain. This is to fulfill what God has already spoken in Deuteronomy:
Deuteronomy 11:16-17 - Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. 17 Then the LORD's anger will burn 6 against you, and he will shut the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the LORD is giving you.
Elijah is a prophet, a covenant mediator, calling the people back to the covenant God has made with them. Elijah lays hold of the Word of God, pleads it before him, and says “do as you have said.” There will be no rain until Elijah says so.
James 5:17 - Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.
The king has gone astray. The land is given to idolatry. And Elijah, this man out of nowhere, stands up and says “Do as you have said, Lord.” Over the next few weeks we’ll see where the story goes from here.
In the midst of rampant immorality and idolatry, God is looking for men and women who will stand upon His word and stand for what is right, even if they stand alone. Following God often requires standing alone at work, in your family, in your school. It takes knowing His Word, breaking down idols. He was a man just like us.
I believe God wants to use this series to build us into people of conviction and courage, men and women who are willing to stand for Him, even when we are standing alone. Pray for conviction and courage. The conviction to know what we believe and the courage to stand on conviction.