Baasha, Elah And Zimri Reigns in Israel

I Kings 16:1–20
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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.