Lesson 8 – 43 Years and 7 Kings
1After the death of Rehoboam, his son Abijam took the throne. 1 Kings tells us that Maacah the daughter of Abishalom was his mother. We know very little about his reign, because he didn’t rule very long. He only lasted three years on the throne. The one characteristic of his reign was that the entire time, he warred against Jeroboam of Israel.
2The text says that Abijam walked in all the same sins as his father. That means he did not honor or worship God, but ran after idols. God permitted him to reign for the sake of his great-great grandfather David. God remembered the promise He had made to David to install his dynasty on the the throne forever.
The relationship between Abijam (in 2 Chronicles he is called Abijah) and Asa is an interesting one. 1 Kings reports that both men had the same mother. However 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles both refer to Asa as Abijam’s son. There are multiple possibilities surrounding this, but it seems that Maacah may have actually been Asa’s grandmother, and as the Queen Mother, had a significant role in raising him. It’s possible his own mother had died, and Maacah had taken him into her household.
4As a king, Asa did not follow in the footsteps of his father. He feared the Lord similar to David. The court in Jerusalem seemed to have accepted idol worship, and all of Jerusalem had been led into idolatry by 2 generations of wicked kings. Asa cracked down on that, and removed the cult prostitutes that participated in the worship of idols. He also eliminated the idols that his father had established. The most striking thing, however, was that he removed Maacah, who was serving as the Queen Mother, because she constructed an idol to Asherah. This disqualified her from exercising a position of influence in his court.
5Asa, however, did not go all the way to follow God as much as David. He held back in that he did not remove the high places where people worshipped. Despite that, his heart was true to God as long as he lived.
6Even though Asa had ten years of peace at the beginning of his reign, he eventually came into conflict with the norther ten tribes. When Baasha (who we will see followed Jeroboam in Israel) started building military forts along the border, Asa didn’t want to fight him directly. Instead, he negotiated with Ben Hadad of Aram (Syria) to the north of Israel to break the treaty they had and attack Israel. This mostly took the form of Asa paying enough gold and silver that Ben Hadad was willing to ally with Judah over Israel. Because of this, Baasha had to direct his military attention away from the southern border with Judah and pivot to his northern border with Syria.
This seemed like an effective strategy in that it worked. Asa achieved the desired outcome. But he had to take all the treasure from the House of the Lord (the temple) to get enough money to convince Ben Hadad to switch allegiance. In this he did not rely upon God to protect him, but instead chose a policy of relying on the wealth he could direct toward the problem. A better path would have been to consult with God and place his faith in God’s ability to protect him.
8Now we switch back to the northern kingdom of Israel. Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, began to reign in the 2nd year of Asa’s rule in Judah. He did not last very long – only two years, summarized in only three verses. And for that entire time, he was wicked just like his father.
Nadab’s final demise came at the hands of his own people. Baasha son of Ahijah assassinated him while out on campaign against the Philistines. Then after killing Ahijah, Baasha went on to kill all of the descendants of Jeroboam – Ahihjah’s brothers and sisters and their children. 1 Kings 15 says that not one member of Jeroboam’s family or descendants was left alive.
9On one hand, this was a calculated move by Baasha to ensure that none of Jeroboam’s descendants would be able to come back and challenge his rule. By killing everyone he eliminated any chance that a claimant to the throne would arise saying “I am descended from the royal family. On the other hand, God had promised Jeroboam that for his wickedness, his entire family would be destroyed. Baasha became the instrument of God’s promise. Jeroboam’s sin demanded punishment. And while Jeroboam didn’t see the death of his family, God ensured it would happen.
11After killing Nadab, Baasha took the throne of Israel. Even though he acted as the hand of God in destroying Jeroboam’s line, he did not follow God. He acted wickedly, and moreover he caused all of Israel to sin with him. This shows how God can use a wicked person to carry out His perfect plan. All rulers and authorities are subject to His power.
12The word of God came to the prophet Jehu to speak to Baasha. God made the point that He had raised Baasha to his place of authority and prominence, but Baasha did not honor Him. In fact, Baasha had done the exact opposite and actively led the people astray into wickedness and idolatry. Therefore, God would visit a punishment upon Baasha and his family. In fact, it was the same punishment that Baasha had brought to Jeroboam’s family. 1 Kings 16:4 and 14:11 are nearly identical pronouncements, only being applied to different families.
14While Baasha reigned for a relatively long period of time, 24 years, his son Elah only reigned for two years. We don’t get much detail about Elah’s reign. But it is clear that he worshipped idols like his father and led Israel astray into this practice of idolatry. Elah was assassinated by one of his military commanders. Zimri, who commanded half of the chariots of the army of Israel killed Elah when he was in the city of Tirzah. Elah was apparently having a party and was drunk. This probably did not make it difficult for Zimri to kill him.
15Just like Baasha, Zimri killed the entire royal family. In doing so, he fulfilled the prophecy of Jehu which said that all of Baasha’s family would be killed because of Baasha’s wickedness. Baasha didn’t see it himself. He had died already. But God was true to His word and delivered on the promise through Zimri.
17Zimri had the shortest reign of any king we’ve seen so far. He sat on the throne of Israel for only seven days. He claimed the throne for himself after killing Elah. But when the word got out, the rest of the army proclaimed Omri to be king. So Omri marched back to Tirzah to deal with Zimri. Since Omri had an army with him, he was able to besiege the city. It didn’t take long for everyone to recognize that Zimri couldn’t hold out, and the city would soon be taken. Rather than be captured by Omri, Zimri retreated to the citadel and burned it down around himself.
19In the 27th year of Asa’s reign in Judah, Zimri took the throne. He only lasted seven days before he died. In the 31st year of Asa’s reign, Omri took the throne. The time in between describes a time of civil war in Israel where Omri and Tibni battled for control over the kingdom. Some scholars maintain that Tibni effectively ruled during this time, but if so, it was clearly a disputed rule. All of Israel was waiting to see who would come out on top. Since scripture does not say that Tibni was king, we will consider this an interregnum, a time between kings, and resume the line of kings with the reign of Omri.
20For the first half of his reign, Omri ruled in Tirzah, the city where he defeated Zimri. Presumably during these six years, he was working on building a new city, called Samaria. Omri moved his court to Samaria for the second half of his reign. The city became the royal seat of the kingdom of Israel thereafter.
21Scripture does not hold back in calling Omri a wicked king. In the face of two dynasties which were so wicked God promised to wipe them out, Omri was described as more wicked than any who came before him. Clearly he continued in the idolatry of his predecessors and caused all of Israel to follow him deeper into rebellion against God.