1 Kings 16:29-34 – Hold fast and fervently serve God

Every king of Israel that came to the throne had proven to be worse than the one that preceded him. This was also true in the reign of Ahab who succeeded his father Omri.  First Kings 16: 29 said that he became king of Israel in the 28^th year of the reign of King Asa of Judah and ruled Israel for 22 years. He did even more wickedly than his father Omri.

Of all the rotten kings of Israel, Ahab was the worst of all. As if following in the footsteps of Jeroboam was not terrible enough, he even married Jezebel the Sidonian princess, the daughter of King Ethbaal and took idolatry to the next level. We are told in 1 Kings 16:31 that he not only worshiped Baal the pagan god, but also served him. Verse 32 said that he erected an altar in the house of Baal which he had built in Bethel. Baal as we know was a fertility god who was believed to control fertility. Ahab even made an Asherah, the female counter part of Baal. This rotten king did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him. He virtually institutionalized idolatry in Israel. Idolatry took root even more deeply than the past.

In Joshua 6 we read of the account of how Jericho was conquered. After conquering Jericho, to destroy the polytheistic and idolatrous culture of that city, Joshua proclaimed a curse over that city.  In Joshua 6:26, he said, “Cursed before the Lord is the man who rises up and builds this city Jericho; with the loss of his firstborn he shall lay its foundation, and with the loss of his youngest son he shall set up its gates.” Apparently, the building of Jericho reveals the level of rebellion against the Lord during Ahab’s time. Hiel, the Bethelite’s willingness to sacrifice his first born Abiram to lay the foundation, and the establishment of the gate at the loss of Segub, his other son, just to go against the Lord to build the city of Jericho, shows us how deplorable the condition of Israel had become.  

Ahab had brought idolatry to its peak. If he could show such  fervency to Baal, a false and cursed god, why can’t we who serve the true and living God show even greater fervency to Him? If Ahab would stop at nothing to please his Baal, shouldn’t we who have the true and living God, serve Him with even greater enthusiasm? Let us never lose sight of who the true God is, and set our hearts willingly to go with Him all the way. Give Him our top priority!