Baasha, Elah And Zimri Reigns in Israel

Topic: Sinfulness
Passage: 1 Kings 16:1–20

March 20, 2022

Commentary

Chapter sixteen deals withe the sinfulness of a nation. The kings of this chapter were Spiritually dead, and as a consequence the people followed their leaders into a cesspool of sin. Their behavior was so treacherous that they provoked God to anger. God destroyed Jeroboam’s descendants just as He announced beforehand through Abijah but He still held Baasha responsible. Baasha had not acted under God’s direction but only to gain his own ends.  He did not learn from those who went before him but repeated the same mistakes as Jeroboam.

Baasha died a tragic death, as Jehu prophesied, and his son, Elath, assumed the throne. He continued his father’s policies and paid no attention to the warning of Hainan, the prophet. His reign only lasted two years when he became a victim of conspiracy. While in a drunken stupor he was murdered by Zimri who was a powerful military officer in Elath’s army. In order to avoid retaliation against his coup d’etat he wiped out Baasha’s entire household.

Zimri declared himself king but his reign only lasted seven days which proved to be the shortest of any Israelite king. The Israelite army was encamped at Gibbethon when Zimri took over. When the troops heard about this they declared Omni the commander of the army (v. l6) as the new king. He and his men marched back to Tirzah, the capital. When Zimri realized what was happening he retired to the palace and committed suicide by setting it on fire.

Application

I need to make sure that I learn from the past, the experiences of others and especially from the lives of people in the Bible and never repeat these same sinful mistakes.

1 Kings 16:1– 20 (NET)

1 The Lord’s message against Baasha came to Jehu son of Hanani: 2 “I raised you up from the dust and made you ruler over my people Israel. Yet you followed in Jeroboam’s footsteps and encouraged my people Israel to sin; their sins have made me angry. 3 So I am ready to burn up Baasha and his family, and make your family like the family of Jeroboam son of Nebat. 4 Dogs will eat the members of Baasha’s family who die in the city, and the birds of the sky will eat the ones who die in the country.”

5 The rest of the events of Baasha’s reign, including his accomplishments and successes, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Israel. 6 Baasha passed away and was buried in Tirzah. His son Elah replaced him as king. 7 And so it was the Lord’s message came through the prophet Jehu son of Hanani against Baasha and his family. This was because of all the evil he had done in the Lord’s view, by angering him with his deeds and becoming like Jeroboam’s dynasty, and because of how he had destroyed Jeroboam’s dynasty.

8 In the twenty-sixth year of Asa’s reign over Judah, Baasha’s son Elah became king over Israel; he ruled in Tirzah for two years. 9 His servant Zimri, a commander of half of his chariot force, conspired against him. While Elah was in Tirzah drinking heavily at the house of Arza, who supervised the palace in Tirzah, 10 Zimri came in and struck him dead. (This happened in the twenty-seventh year of Asa’s reign over Judah.) Zimri replaced Elah as king. 11 When he became king and occupied the throne, he killed Baasha’s entire family. He did not spare any male belonging to him; he killed his relatives and his friends. 12 Zimri destroyed Baasha’s entire family, in keeping with the Lord’s message which he had spoken against Baasha through Jehu the prophet. 13 This happened because of all the sins which Baasha and his son Elah committed and which they made Israel commit. They angered the Lord God of Israel with their worthless idols.

14 The rest of the events of Elah’s reign, including all his accomplishments, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Israel.

15 In the twenty-seventh year of Asa’s reign over Judah, Zimri became king over Israel; he ruled for seven days in Tirzah. Zimri’s revolt took place while the army was deployed in Gibbethon, which was in Philistine territory. 16 While deployed there, the army received this report: “Zimri has conspired against the king and assassinated him.” So all Israel made Omri, the commander of the army, king over Israel that very day in the camp. 17 Omri and all Israel went up from Gibbethon and besieged Tirzah. 18 When Zimri saw that the city was captured, he went into the fortified area of the royal palace. He set the palace on fire and died in the flames. 19 This happened because of the sins he committed. He did evil in the sight of the Lord and followed in Jeroboam’s footsteps and encouraged Israel to continue sinning.

20 The rest of the events of Zimri’s reign, including the details of his revolt, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Israel.

Baasha, Elah And Zimri Reigns in Israel

Topic: Sinfulness
Passage: 1 Kings 16:1–20

June 15, 2019

Commentary

Chapter sixteen deals withe the sinfulness of a nation. The kings of this chapter were Spiritually dead, and as a consequence the people followed their leaders into a cesspool of sin. Their behavior was so treacherous that they provoked God to anger. God destroyed Jeroboam’s descendants just as He announced beforehand through Abijah but He still held Baasha responsible. Baasha had not acted under God’s direction but only to gain his own ends.  He did not learn from those who went before him but repeated the same mistakes as Jeroboam.

Baasha died a tragic death, as Jehu prophesied, and his son, Elath, assumed the throne. He continued his father’s policies and paid no attention to the warning of Hainan, the prophet. His reign only lasted two years when he became a victim of conspiracy. While in a drunken stupor he was murdered by Zimri who was a powerful military officer in Elath’s army. In order to avoid retaliation against his coup d’etat he wiped out Baasha’s entire household.

Zimri declared himself king but his reign only lasted seven days which proved to be the shortest of any Israelite king. The Israelite army was encamped at Gibbethon when Zimri took over. When the troops heard about this they declared Omni the commander of the army (v. l6) as the new king. He and his men marched back to Tirzah, the capital. When Zimri realized what was happening he retired to the palace and committed suicide by setting it on fire.

Application

I need to make sure that I learn from the past, the experiences of others and especially from the lives of people in the Bible and never repeat these same sinful mistakes.

1 Kings 16:1– 20 (NET)

1 The Lord’s message against Baasha came to Jehu son of Hanani: 2 “I raised you up from the dust and made you ruler over my people Israel. Yet you followed in Jeroboam’s footsteps and encouraged my people Israel to sin; their sins have made me angry. 3 So I am ready to burn up Baasha and his family, and make your family like the family of Jeroboam son of Nebat. 4 Dogs will eat the members of Baasha’s family who die in the city, and the birds of the sky will eat the ones who die in the country.”

5 The rest of the events of Baasha’s reign, including his accomplishments and successes, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Israel. 6 Baasha passed away and was buried in Tirzah. His son Elah replaced him as king. 7 And so it was the Lord’s message came through the prophet Jehu son of Hanani against Baasha and his family. This was because of all the evil he had done in the Lord’s view, by angering him with his deeds and becoming like Jeroboam’s dynasty, and because of how he had destroyed Jeroboam’s dynasty.

8 In the twenty-sixth year of Asa’s reign over Judah, Baasha’s son Elah became king over Israel; he ruled in Tirzah for two years. 9 His servant Zimri, a commander of half of his chariot force, conspired against him. While Elah was in Tirzah drinking heavily at the house of Arza, who supervised the palace in Tirzah, 10 Zimri came in and struck him dead. (This happened in the twenty-seventh year of Asa’s reign over Judah.) Zimri replaced Elah as king. 11 When he became king and occupied the throne, he killed Baasha’s entire family. He did not spare any male belonging to him; he killed his relatives and his friends. 12 Zimri destroyed Baasha’s entire family, in keeping with the Lord’s message which he had spoken against Baasha through Jehu the prophet. 13 This happened because of all the sins which Baasha and his son Elah committed and which they made Israel commit. They angered the Lord God of Israel with their worthless idols.

14 The rest of the events of Elah’s reign, including all his accomplishments, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Israel.

15 In the twenty-seventh year of Asa’s reign over Judah, Zimri became king over Israel; he ruled for seven days in Tirzah. Zimri’s revolt took place while the army was deployed in Gibbethon, which was in Philistine territory. 16 While deployed there, the army received this report: “Zimri has conspired against the king and assassinated him.” So all Israel made Omri, the commander of the army, king over Israel that very day in the camp. 17 Omri and all Israel went up from Gibbethon and besieged Tirzah. 18 When Zimri saw that the city was captured, he went into the fortified area of the royal palace. He set the palace on fire and died in the flames. 19 This happened because of the sins he committed. He did evil in the sight of the Lord and followed in Jeroboam’s footsteps and encouraged Israel to continue sinning.

20 The rest of the events of Zimri’s reign, including the details of his revolt, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Israel.