Introduction to Elijah: Part 2

In Part 1 of the introduction we focused on the religious background and cultural context relevant for the study of Elijah. In this second part of the introduction, we’re going to focus more on the relevant political history of Israel.

Towards the end of Part 1, we looked at one of Moses’ final instructions, regarding the future kings of Israel:

“When you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ You may indeed set a king over you whom the Lord your God will choose. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never return that way again.’ And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold.” (Deut 17:14-17)

Keep the statement, “I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me” in your short-term memory, as that will come up again shortly. The Hebrews were not to select a foreign ruler to be king over them. The king was to be an Israelite. However, recall that the Lord frequently brought in foreign rulers to punish wayward Israel, only to raise up a leader from within Israel once they returned to Him.

Specific to the Israelite kings, they were given three explicit prohibitions:

1. Do not acquire many horses, and do not return to Egypt to acquire many horses.
2. Do not acquire many wives.
3. Do not acquire excessive silver and gold.

What is the meaning behind these three “do not acquire” prohibitions? Horses meant two things to the early nations: 1) military strength and 2) the best horses were from Egypt. A nation with a significant number of horses and chariots would be considerably stronger than an army largely dependent upon infantry. However, the Lord had already clearly demonstrated His power to destroy a superior chariot army, from Egypt no less (Ex 14-15). The Israelites and their kings were to rely upon Yahweh, the God of Israel to be their strength and shield, not in horses and chariots:

“Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” (Psa 20:7)

Furthermore, if horses were what their kings wanted, then an alliance with Egypt would be necessary. The domestication of horses, particularly with chariots, proliferated in the time of the Hyksos influence (1730–1580 B.C.), with Egypt considered to be the masters of horsemanship and charioteers. Such an alliance was strictly to be avoided, whether in terms of horses or in wives.

Early monarchs frequently had multiple wives, with many of these marriages being expedient for political alliances and peace treaties. However if the Israelites followed the Lord their God, they would have no need for treaties to keep them secure. Their protector was not to be another nation, but the sovereign Creator of the universe.

The prohibition against having many wives was also to avoid the idolatrous influences of the nations around the Israelites. Foreign wives meant foreign religions, which, by extension for the Israelites, translated into idolatry. Wives from these pagan nations would only lead Israel to idolatry.

Finally, history has repeatedly shown what can happen when vast sums of wealth are accumulated. The kings of Israel were not to fall victim to a false sense of security in gold and silver, nor were they to develop a lust for material wealth. Again, they were to have their security in the Lord, with the passion to follow Him, not mammon. So in essence, all three of these “do not acquire” prohibitions were intended to keep the future kings of Israel reliant upon the Lord, not on the conventional, worldly pillars of support and security.

Add to the Mosaic instructions the following admonition from Samuel, when he attempted to talk the elders of the Israelites out of wanting a king to reign over them, “that we also may be like all the nations.” (1 Sam 8:20), just as Moses had indicated they would. [Recall we discussed in Part 1, all the cultures and nations were steeped in idolatry. Literally, “everybody else was doing it.” Ironically, we expect that type of excuse from children. Here, it was the elders saying, “everyone else is doing it.”]

“So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking for a king from him. He said, ‘These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.” (1 Sam 8:10-18)

Had the elders fully thought out their request to have a king over them? This was far more than simply having one person from their nation promoted to the top position in the land. Having a king would usher in a whole new way of government, the establishment of multiple layers of administration, paving the way for a bureaucratic institution consisting of thousands or tens of thousands of self-aggrandizing bureaucrats, and utterly eliminating any checks and balances to the power and authority of one person, regardless whether he was good or evil. This new way of rule would not be without enormous costs, as the burden of such an entrenched and entitled government would fall on the people.

Did the people truly want to voluntarily give up vast quantities of their personal resources, wealth, land, and freedom, just to be like the other nations and have a king? Samuel paints an accurate and bleak picture for them, pointing out to them such a heavy burden would have an effect such that “you shall be his slaves.” They would be giving up far more than possessions, as the king would require many of them to serve in the military, work as laborers, and be servants to the entire ranks of the pampered royalty and officials, most of whom would likely be family and close friends of the king. Samuel’s words of wisdom fell on the deaf and the blind.

Keeping in mind the words spoken by Moses and Samuel, let’s take a look at what transpired during the reign of Israel’s third king:

“Now Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen; and he had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, and he stationed them in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem …Also Solomon's import of horses was from Egypt and Kue, and the king's merchants procured them from Kue for a price. A chariot was imported from Egypt for 600 shekels of silver, and a horse for 150; and by the same means they exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and to the kings of the Arameans. (1 Kings 10:26,28-29)

In accumulating “many horses” and going back to Egypt to do so, Solomon clearly went counter to the first prohibition for kings. Let’s continue:

“Then Solomon formed a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter and brought her to the city of David.” (1 Kings 3:1)

Solomon's principal wife at the start of his reign appears to have been the daughter of Pharaoh, as it was for her that he had a palace built (3:1; 7:8; 9:16, 24). According to Jewish tradition, she adopted the Jewish faith. However, this apparently was not his first wife, as his firstborn son and successor to the throne, Rehoboam, had an Ammonite mother by the name of Naamah. Solomon must have married her before ascending to the throne of Israel, as he reigned for forty years, and Rehoboam was 41 when he succeeded Solomon as king (11:42-43; 14:21).

In addition to these two wives, Solomon also established marriage relations with the neighboring peoples: “Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women.” According to the Arabian story Bilqis, the Queen of Sheba who visited Solomon (10:1ff), was also married to him. According to legend, she returned to Sheba impregnated by him, and bore a son, starting a royal Jewish line in the Africas. For all the wives he had, there is no mention of his ever marrying an Israelite woman.

What was the result of having all of these wives, a violation of the second prohibition, and especially from nations into which the Israelites had been strictly forbidden by the Lord to marry?

“Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the sons of Israel, ‘You shall not associate with them, nor shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods.’ Solomon held fast to these in love. He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites. Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not follow the LORD fully, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon. Thus also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.” (11:1-8)

How incredibly sad and sickening is the above-italicized sentence: “his heart was not wholly devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been.”

Let’s keep going:

“Now the weight of gold which came in to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold, besides that from the traders and the wares of the merchants and all the kings of the Arabs and the governors of the country. King Solomon made 200 large shields of beaten gold, using 600 shekels of gold on each large shield. He made 300 shields of beaten gold, using three minas of gold on each shield, and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon. Moreover, the king made a great throne of ivory and overlaid it with refined gold. There were six steps to the throne and a round top to the throne at its rear, and arms on each side of the seat, and two lions standing beside the arms. Twelve lions were standing there on the six steps on the one side and on the other; nothing like it was made for any other kingdom. All King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. None was of silver; it was not considered valuable in the days of Solomon [“The king made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem.” (vs. 27)]. For the king had at sea the ships of Tarshish with the ships of Hiram; once every three years the ships of Tarshish came bringing gold and silver, ivory and apes and peacocks. So King Solomon became greater than all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. All the earth was seeking the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart. They brought every man his gift, articles of silver and gold, garments, weapons, spices, horses, and mules, so much year by year.” (10:14-25)

One talent of gold is equal to approximately 140 pounds troy (the gold standard). There are 14 ounces in one pound troy, therefore 140 x 14 = 1,960 ounces of gold per talent. In terms of equivalency, with the price of gold mid-November at $741 per ounce, one talent equates to roughly $1.5 million. So multiply that by the 666 talents per year that Solomon received, he collected nearly $1 billion a year ($967 million) just from tributes and levies, not counting the vast wealth of gold, precious stones, spices and other valuables that he gained in terms of trade and innumerable gifts from foreign rulers and royal visitors. An example of the royal gifts is given by the Queen of Sheba:

“She gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold [$174 million], and a very great amount of spices and precious stones. Never again did such abundance of spices come in as that which the queen of Sheba gave King Solomon. Also the ships of Hiram, which brought gold from Ophir [the finest gold], brought in from Ophir a very great number of almug trees and precious stones.” (10:10-12)

Consider an almost “aside comment” regarding Solomon’s trade ships:

“They went to Ophir and took four hundred and twenty talents of gold [$610 million] from there, and brought it to King Solomon.” (9:28)

In addition to this vast wealth that was accumulated, violating the third prohibition, consider the following in light of Samuel’s warnings:

“Solomon's provision for one day was thirty cors of fine flour and sixty cors of meal, ten fat oxen, and twenty pasture-fed cattle, a hundred sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl.” (4:22-23)

One cors approximates six bushels, with a total of 90 cors translating to roughly 28,000 pounds of bread baked each day. There was also 21,000 pounds of meat each day, in addition to the wild game of “deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened fowl.” This was the daily food allotment required to maintain Solomon’s harem and administration.

“King Solomon drafted forced labor out of all Israel, and the draft numbered 30,000 men. And he sent them to Lebanon, 10,000 a month in shifts. They would be a month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the draft. Solomon also had 70,000 burden-bearers and 80,000 stonecutters in the hill country, besides Solomon's 3,300 chief officers who were over the work, who had charge of the people who carried on the work.” (5:13-16)

This was Solomon’s army of corvée laborers and slaves from conquered nations. Corvée is unpaid labor that persons in power compel their subjects to perform.

Solomon proves Samuel to be in the right in how heavy-handed kings would be to their subjects. While he reigned over the golden era of the Hebrew nation, his policies and administration clearly took a heavy toll on his subjects. What was the result of his heart being turned away and this enormous burden placed upon his people?

“Now the LORD was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not observe what the LORD had commanded. So the LORD said to Solomon, ‘Because you have done this, and you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant. Nevertheless I will not do it in your days for the sake of your father David, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son. However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen.” (11:9-13)

Solomon failed to abide by all three of the prohibitions given by Moses, as well as the repeated warnings from the Lord regarding idolatry and foreign marriages, resulting in the tearing apart of the nation of Israel. That all of this came to pass does not indicate Moses was uttering a prophecy or that his instructions were written post-facto. Rather, this is evidence of the Lord’s profound insight into the human condition, fully knowing the pride and actions of those who would rule in ignorance, arrogance or defiance of His instructions and commandments.

The words of the Lord, with a particular focus on the heart of Solomon, are reminiscent of a similar conversation that Samuel had with Saul:

“But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.” (1 Sam 13:14)

David was given a kingdom because his heart was right with God. This same kingdom was now to be irreparably torn in two, the first tragic step on the long and torturous road to exile and foreign occupation, because the heart of his son did not stay true to the Lord.

The golden era of Israel, which had seen heights beyond all expectations, was on the brink of crashing to the ground, the lies and sins of idolatry the cancer that would ultimately destroy and claim yet one more nation. Solomon’s idolatry led his heart away from the Lord, cracking open the doors for idolatry to lead the people blindly and willfully down the path to exile, while the idolatry of future kings would blast the doors off the hinges. Again, had the elders fully considered what they were wishing for when they insisted to Samuel for a king? They got what they wished for, but was this really what they wanted?

Unfortunately, the story doesn’t get any easier to read:

“Now the man Jeroboam was a valiant warrior, and when Solomon saw that the young man was industrious, he appointed him over all the forced labor of the house of Joseph. It came about at that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him on the road. Now Ahijah had clothed himself with a new cloak; and both of them were alone in the field. Then Ahijah took hold of the new cloak which was on him and tore it into twelve pieces. He said to Jeroboam, ‘Take for yourself ten pieces; for thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and give you ten tribes’…Solomon sought therefore to put Jeroboam to death; but Jeroboam arose and fled to Egypt to Shishak king of Egypt, and he was in Egypt until the death of Solomon.” (11:28-31,40)

When was the last time the sitting king of Israel sought to kill the new appointed king, causing that individual to flee for their lives to another country?

Shishak’s protection of Jeroboam is obviously a function of a change on Egypt’s throne. This was not the same Pharaoh who was Solomon’s father-in-law, Siamon, the last of the 21st dynasty of Egypt. Shishak, or Sheshonk I, founder of the Libyan Dynasty (22nd), was a warlike Pharaoh with empire-building aspirations. This protection of Jeroboam spells out great trouble for the Davidic line, as clearly Solomon wasn’t able to pursue Jeroboam into Egypt, and it was this same Shishak that would overrun and plunder Jerusalem in the fifth year of Rehoboam’s reign (14:25-26), Solomon’s son and Jeroboam’s enemy, with an overwhelming army that not so coincidentally included 1,200 chariots and 60,000 horsemen.

Touching on Rehoboam:

“Now Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD had chosen from all the tribes of Israel to put His name there. And his mother's name was Naamah the Ammonitess.” (14:21)

“Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. Now when Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it, he was living in Egypt (for he was yet in Egypt, where he had fled from the presence of King Solomon). Then they sent and called him, and Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam, saying, ‘Your father made our yoke hard; now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you.’ Then he said to them, ‘Depart for three days, then return to me.’ So the people departed.” (12:1-5)

“King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon while he was still alive, saying, ‘How do you counsel me to answer this people?’ Then they spoke to him, saying, ‘If you will be a servant to this people today, and will serve them and grant them their petition, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever.’ But he forsook the counsel of the elders which they had given him, and consulted with the young men who grew up with him and served him. So he said to them, ‘What counsel do you give that we may answer this people who have spoken to me, saying, 'Lighten the yoke which your father put on us'?’ The young men who grew up with him spoke to him, saying, ‘Thus you shall say to this people who spoke to you, saying, 'Your father made our yoke heavy, now you make it lighter for us!' But you shall speak to them, 'My little finger is thicker than my father's loins! 'Whereas my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions’.” (12:6-11)

This is the tale of two counsels for two new kings, both resulting in dire consequences for the Hebrew nation. Here Rehoboam takes heed to bad counsel, and thus the door is flung wide open for the prophesy from the Lord regarding the nation of Israel being split to come to fruition:

“When all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying, ‘What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse; to your tents, O Israel! Now look after your own house, David!’ So Israel departed to their tents…So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day. It came about when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, that they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. None but the tribe of Judah followed the house of David.” (12:16,19-20)

So ends the golden era of the nation of Israel, and sadly, Israel has never seen peace since then. What extreme devastation and tragedy was wrought by idolatry! Recall that in Part 1 we discussed that there was one key, consistent theme behind all of the 11 points of instruction. What was this one critical point? The Lord is God, and there cannot be anything: idols, pleasures, relationships, possessions, wealth – nothing that could lead the people away from the Lord, their one and only true God. Consider how this tragic break-up of an entire nation was brought about by idols, pleasures, relationships, possessions, and wealth. The exact same temptations that turn into idolatry for us today. Our idols today may not be figurines or statues to which we bow down, but do we struggle any less with ensuring that nothing gets in the way of our relationship with the Lord?

The Jewish nation was now been rent in two. Ten of the twelve tribes of Israel seceded from Rehoboam’s rule and formed a new nation which was called Israel (also “Ephraim” after one of its tribes and the initial location of the capital, and then “Samaria” after the future capital city was built). Only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin stayed loyal to Rehoboam, and they formed the southern kingdom called Judah. Our focus will remain on the northern kingdom of Israel throughout the entire series on Elijah. So at this point we will bid a very sad and reluctant adieu to the southern kingdom of Judah.

The northern kingdom of Israel had a total of 19 rulers during its split from the southern tribes, and tragically, all 19 of them were evil men. Nineteen monarchs in-a-row, covering a period of over 200 years, with each king’s only claim to fame being they were more wicked and evil than their predecessors. This continuous downward spiral prevailed in Israel until the Assyrians invaded in 722 B.C.

It didn’t have to be that way. Look again to the call of Jeroboam, and consider the promise that the Lord had held out for him:

“I will take you, and you shall reign over whatever you desire, and you shall be king over Israel. Then it will be, that if you listen to all that I command you and walk in My ways, and do what is right in My sight by observing My statutes and My commandments, as My servant David did, then I will be with you and build you an enduring house as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you. Thus I will afflict the descendants of David for this, but not always.” (11:37-39)

Can we even begin to fathom the steadfast, loyal love the Lord has for us? How many times has He reach out to mankind, even after one miserable failure after another, continually offering His mercy, grace and promises, if we would only follow Him? How many times has He reached out in just this same way to you and to me?

Once established as the new king of Israel, Jeroboam quickly brushed aside the word of the Lord that Ahijah the prophet had delivered to him, and considered what he needed to do in terms of political expediency. This reliance on strengthening his position and interests politically, rather than trusting in the promises of Yahweh (who had elevated him from being a servant of a king, to being the king himself), resulted in his leading the people spiritually down a path from which they would never return:

“Jeroboam said in his heart, ‘Now the kingdom will return to the house of David. If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will return to their lord, even to Rehoboam king of Judah; and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah’.” (12:26-27)

The Lord had specifically said, “I will give Israel to you” and “build you an enduring house” in the earlier message through Ahijah. We can see those promises were disregarded once he had the throne. Rather than relying on the Lord, Jeroboam, like Rehoboam, made the grave mistake of following bad counsel:

“So the king consulted, and made two golden calves, and he said to them, ‘It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt’.” (12:28)

Consider how many of the key 11 points of instruction Jeroboam violated in just that one verse. Not content with this, he went on to institute his own brand of religion, as the king and self-appointed priest anointer:

“He set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan. And he made houses on high places, and made priests from among all the people who were not of the sons of Levi. Jeroboam instituted a feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast which is in Judah, and he went up to the altar; thus he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves which he had made. And he stationed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made. Then he went up to the altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised in his own heart; and he instituted a feast for the sons of Israel and went up to the altar to burn incense.” (12:29-33)

While Solomon set up idolatry for his wives and followed them in their idol worship, Jeroboam here officially sanctions idolatry as the institutional religion of the land. Though Jeroboam was specifically told by the prophet Ahijah that he was to be given 10 nations of Israel to rule, as a divine judgment for the idolatrous sins of Solomon, here we see that Jeroboam purposefully and knowingly went far beyond the sins of the very king he replaced. For 22 years he reigned as king over Israel, defiantly biting the very hand that had given him his throne, and ignoring the warnings of another prophet sent from the Lord (13:1-10):

“Even after this event Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but made priests for the high places again from among all the people; any who wanted to be priests he consecrated for the high places. This matter became sin to the house of Jeroboam, so as to cut it off and to destroy it from the face of the earth.” (13:33-34)

Note the prophetic end that would come to Jeroboam’s line. Shortly before he died, Ahijah, the same prophet who first told him of the Lord’s plan to make him king, gave him this future obituary:

“You also have done more evil than all who were before you, and have gone and made for yourself other gods and molten images to provoke Me to anger, and have cast Me behind your back…[the Lord] will give up Israel on account of the sins of Jeroboam, which he committed and with which he made Israel to sin.” (14:9,16)

Look at his epitaph: “Jeroboam, who did sin, and who made Israel to sin.” No less than 25 times the condemnatory phrase, “made Israel to sin,” is said of him in the Bible. Moreover, he would be the yardstick against which future kings would be measured:

“For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat and in his sins which he made Israel sin, provoking the LORD God of Israel with their idols.” (16:26)

Upon his death, Jeroboam’s son Nadab assumed the throne. How was his reign characterized?

“[Nadab] walked in the way of his father and in his sin which he made Israel to sin.” (15:26).

Nadab ruled for only two years, and “while Nadab and all Israel were laying siege to Gibbethon” (a Philistine town), he was assassinated by Baasha, who promptly seized the throne (15:27-28). What was Baasha’s first act as king?

“It came about as soon as he was king, he struck down all the household of Jeroboam. He did not leave to Jeroboam any persons alive, until he had destroyed them, according to the word of the LORD, which He spoke by His servant Ahijah the Shilonite, because of the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned, and which he made Israel sin, because of his provocation with which he provoked the LORD God of Israel to anger.” 15:29-30

Baasha ruled for 24 years and his obituary:

“He did evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin which he made Israel sin.” (15:34)

Baasha was succeeded by his son, Elah. Two years into his reign, Elah sent the Israelite army to besiege Gibbethon. He didn’t accompany the army himself to Gibbethon. Perhaps he remembered what happened to the last king that went to besiege that city? Instead, he sent the army off and retained some of his chariot force to remain with him. One night while his army was away, he went to a dinner party and commenced “drinking himself drunk.” While in his drunken stupor, one of his chariot officers, Zimri, assassinated him and seized the throne (16:9-10). What was Zimri’s first official act?

“It came about when he became king, as soon as he sat on his throne, that he killed all the household of Baasha; he did not leave a single male, neither of his relatives nor of his friends.” (16:11)

While Baasha had killed all of Jeroboam’s family, here Zimri wipes out both Baasha’s family and friends.

When word reached the Israelite army, which was busy besieging Gibbethon, that Zimri had assassinated Elah and declared himself to be king, the Israelite army promptly appointed their commander, Omri, as the new king. Omri immediately went after Zimri, laying siege to the capital city of Tirzah, whereupon Zimri barricaded himself in the palace, and burned it down over his head, killing himself after just seven days on the throne. Upon Zimri’s suicide, Omri named himself king, and while for a period of four years part of Israel followed a rival to the throne by the name of Tibni, Omri eventually won out to be the sole ruler of Israel (16:21-22).

Idolatry, assassinations, mass murders, suicide – just in the first five kings! It couldn’t possibly get any worse, could it?

“Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD, and acted more wickedly than all who were before him. For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat and in his sins which he made Israel sin, provoking the LORD God of Israel with their idols.” 16:25-26

The Bible doesn’t give a whole lot of specifics as to why he was the most wicked king thus far, but evidently he kept Israel on the path of idolatry that Jeroboam instituted as the national religion. During his 12-year reign, he was able to stabilize the turbulent political climate of the northern kingdom, such that he was able to establish a dynasty that lasted 45 years until 842 B.C. A capable military leader, he was able to hold his borders securely; made foreign alliances through marriage; stopped the inter-Jewish wars with Judah, such that his granddaughter would eventually marry Jethoram, king of Judah; and likely his most impressive achievement – he built the new capital city of Samaria.

A strategic and centrally-located hill overlooking key commercial trade routes, Samaria was a strongly fortified city that was easy to defend and accessible to the merchants and traders crossing the plains below it. Samaria was the new capital city for the northern kingdom, a strong rival to Jerusalem until 722 B.C., when it was finally plundered by the Assyrians.

Samaria became a key battleground for hundreds of years, being rebuilt and refortified a number of times, most notably by Alexander the Great in 331 B.C. and Herod the Great, who renamed it Sebaste, in honor of his patron, the emperor Caesar Augustus (whose name is Sebaste in Greek). This name lives on in the modern name of Sebastiyeh, and archeologists have recently uncovered the foundations of Omri’s palace, in addition to the great architectural buildings of Herod.

Six hundred columns lined a half-mile street of Herodian Sebaste. Herod also built a large stadium on the northern slope of the city. The Roman forum was a large open area where people assembled for commerce and governmental activity. On the edge of the forum, archaeologists excavated a Roman basilica. On the acropolis of Samaria, and on top of the location of earlier administrative buildings of the Israelites, Herod the Great constructed a monumental temple dedicated to Sebaste. In the process, he destroyed much of the earlier remains from the Israelite period.

Consider the tale of the two capital cities: Jerusalem and Samaria, and the very long history between them. David fortified the hilltop city of Jerusalem and named it his capital, and soon to be the location of the temple to Yahweh, the God of Israel. David’s son would rule his entire kingdom from this location, during the golden era of Hebrew history.

Omri fortified the hilltop city of Samaria and named it his capital, the center of “the land of Omri.” His son would rule his entire kingdom from this location, during the golden era of Israel’s history. However, this would be forever a rival city to Jerusalem in terms of spiritual heritage, as this was to be the seat of idolatry, the false gods of Israel.

This conflict between Jerusalem and Samaria reached its peak during the period of the Maccabees, but settled down to a simmer during the Roman occupation and in the time of Christ. After the witness of Philip in this region (Acts 8), Christianity spread throughout the area, and the city of Samaria became the seat of a bishopric and was represented in the councils of Nicea, Constantinople and Chalcedon. Today, the Church of John, a Crusading structure beside the modern village, is now a Moslem mosque. It is the traditional burying-place of John the Baptist's body.

By secular standards Omri was an accomplished ruler and garnered considerable respect from the surrounding nations. Moabite and Assyrian inscriptions and cuneiform acknowledged his prominence, referring to Israel as “the land of Omri” (Adadnirari IV and Tiglath-pileser III) as late as 732 B.C. – 141 years after his death.

His civil code was in force long after his 45-year dynasty was wiped out, and it was adopted in the southern kingdom of Judah, though this resulted in the Lord’s judgment, giving further evidence to the wicked reign of Omri:

“The statutes of Omri and all the works of the house of Ahab are observed; and in their devices you walk. Therefore I will give you up for destruction and your inhabitants for derision, and you will bear the reproach of My people.” (Micah 6:16)

Thus concludes the historical and political background and context as an introduction to the study of Elijah. The next lesson will focus on the entrance of the main characters onto the center stage: Ahab, Jezebel, Baal, and finally, Elijah.