>> Jen: Hey, faithful listeners. Welcome to the Bible Explained podcast. This morning. Today, we're going to be reading First Kings 16 and talking about two new dynasties that take place in Israel because of all the chaos and civil war that is happening in today's portion. Stay tuned for all that. I cannot believe it is already the week before Christmas. It just feels like this year, honestly, it really feels like this year flew by. I think I remember saying that last year around this time,
but I really mean it this year. Like, this year it's just been a blur. Like, that is how fast it moved for me. But I hope you guys are looking forward to Christmas. Don't forget that next week, every year on Christmas at Midnight, I do a candlelit Christmas podcast episode. And I'm really looking forward to this year's as well. And that's something festive I just really like to do for you guys on Christmas Day.
Let's go ahead and read 1st Kings 16, 1-20 I'll be reading out of the web as I always do, but this is talking about all of this crazy, just absolute chaos and destruction and civil war that is taking place in 1st Kings 16 because Israel was just not doing what they should be doing. And they were way far away from God, uh, you know, worshiping all of these other idols. So now God, uh is going to take his hand of protection off of a few people. So let's go ahead and read
about that. We'll be reading verses 1 through 20 today. Make sure to grab your Bible and read along with me out of the version that you prefer. Yahweh's word came to Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha, saying, because I exalted you out of dust and made you prince over my people Israel. And you have walked in the way of Jeroboam and have made my people Israel to sin, to provoke Me to anger with their sins. Behold, I will utterly sweep away Baasha and his house, and I will make your house like
the house of Jeroboam the son of Nabat. The dogs will eat Baasha's descendants who die in the city, and he who dies out in the field. The birds of the sky will eat. Now the rest of the acts of Baasha and what he did and his might, aren't they written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? Baasha slept with his fathers and was buried in Tirzah, and Elah
his son, reigned in his place. Moreover, Yahweh's word came by the prophet Jehu the son of Hanani, against Baasha and against his house, both because of all the evil that he did in Yahweh's sight, to provoke him to anger with the work of his hands, in being like the house of Jeroboam, and because he struck him. In the 26th year of ASA, king of Judah, Elah, the son of Baasha, uh, began to reign over Israel in Tirzah. For two years. His servant Zimri, captain of half of
his chariots, conspired against him. Now he was in Tirzah, drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, who was over the household in Tirzah. And Zimri went in and struck him and killed him in the 27th year of ASA, king of Judah, and reigned in his place. When he began to reign, as soon as he sat on his throne, he attacked all the house of Baasha. He didn't leave him a single one who urinates on a wall among all of his relatives or his friends.
Thus Zimri destroyed all the house of Baasha according to Yahweh's word, which he spoke against Baasha by Jehu the prophet. For all the sins of Baasha and the sins of Elah his son, in which they sinned, and in which they made Israel to sin, to provoke Yahweh, the God, uh of Israel, to anger with their vanities. Now, the rest of the acts of Elah and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the Chronicles
of the Kings of Israel? In the 27th year of Asa, the king of Judah, Zimri reigned seven days in Tirzah. Now the people were encamped against Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines. The people who were encamped heard that Zimri had conspired and had also killed the king. Therefore, all Israel made Omri the captain of the army, king over Israel. That day in the camp, Omri went up from Gibbethon and with all of Israel with him, and they
besieged Tirzah. When Zimri saw that the city was taken, he went into the fortified part of the king's house and burned the king's house over him with fire, and died for his sins, which he sinned in doing that which was evil in Yahweh's sight, in walking in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin, which he did to make Israel to sin. Now, the rest of the acts of Zimri and his treason that he committed, aren't they written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.
The thing I find the most funny about this chapter is the parts where it's like in Asa's 15th year, in Asa's 27th year, in Asa's 41st year. And the reason I find that so funny was because King Asa, the King of Judah was a very good king and his, his career as king was blessed by God, uh. And so Asa was going to be king for
a very long time. And meanwhile in Israel, all of this chaos is taking place and all these people are killing each other and all these mutinies m are happening and all these dynasties are taking place in Asa's lifetime. I want to say that Asa, in his lifetime there were three different dynasties of Israel. And meanwhile in Judah, there was only one dynasty the entire time, which was the line of of David.
So Israel, as you can see here, is falling into complete civil war and chaos pretty much just because they were not living the way that God, uh wanted them to live. They were on a path that leads far away from God, uh. And whenever a society does not follow God, uh, chaos ensues because God, uh is the source of peace, logic and sober mindedness. So any society that follows God, uh is going to
be a more peaceful society. And you might be like, well, Jen, what about like the Reformation, you know, all those years ago where the churches were killing each other? Well, they weren't following after God, uh. Just because somebody claims to be Christian doesn't mean that they are actually following God, uh. But if a society is truly following God, uh and doing what scripture tells them to do, that is going to be a very peaceful
society. Because not only is God, uh going to be on their side, but also just God's laws lead to peace. And anything that is opposite of God's laws just leads to destruction and chaos. So Israel is experiencing destruction and chaos. And meanwhile Judah and King Asa are experiencing peace and comfort for the most part down in
Judah. So it says that this prophet named Jehu, the son of Hanani, goes and talks to King Baasha of Israel and says to him, because I exalted you out of the dust and made you prince over my people Israel, but you have walked in the way of Jeroboam and have made my people Israel to sin, to provoke me to anger with their sins. Behold, I will utterly sweep away your house. I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nabat. The dogs
will eat your descendants who die in the city. And he who dies in the field, the birds of the sky will eat so this is a harsh punishment that this prophet Jehu brings against Baasha. Because if you remember how Baasha became king, he became king by killing Jeroboam's son. And honestly, Jeroboam's son is such a small name that I already forgot what his name was. Oh, it was Nadab. Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, if you look in the last
chapter. So Baasha became the next king of Israel by killing Nadab, and that was a sin against Yahweh. However, God, uh did exalt Baasha in spite of that murderous sin that he committed. He exalted him and allowed Baasha to become the king of Israel for something like 22 years. But Baasha did nothing different. In fact, he caused Israel to sin the same way that Jeroboam caused Israel to sin. He encouraged idol worship and possibly went and worshiped these idols himself.
So now, because Baasha is following in the footsteps of Jeroboam, Baasha and his family are going to die the same way that Jeroboam's family died. Almost exactly to a T. Actually, Baasha's family ended pretty much the exact same way that Jeroboam's family ended. And Baasha, um, he was king for something like 22 years. And Jeroboam was not king for much longer than that either. I want to say Jeroboam was king for like, 23 years, if I'm remembering
correctly. So they both had a very similar end because they both caused Israel to fall into spiritual darkness, and they caused Israel to go on a path that leads away from God, uh and leads toward destruction and chaos. And so because Baasha reaps what he sows, he is now going to reap the same punishment that Jeroboam got. So Baasha ended up dying. It says he was buried in Tirzah, and Elah, his son, reigned in his
place. Now, it's really interesting about Baasha is that there's not a lot of information on him in Scripture. He's really only mentioned a handful of times in the Kings and also in the Chronicles. The main story that Baasha is featured in is actually 2 Chronicles 16, which we did talk about the story when we talked about King Asa of Judah. And God, uh actually gets angry at Asa for being afraid of
Baasha. And the reason that God, uh got angry at Asa was because Baasha at the end was such an insignificant king, and yet Asa was terrified of him. Asa struggled with fear instead of trusting in Yahweh. So let's read 2 Chronicles 16 real quick and see why God, uh was angry at asa. Verse 7, it says, Hanani, the seer came to King Asa of Judah and said to him, because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the LORD your God, uh, the army of King Aram has escaped from your hand.
Were not the Cushites and the Libyans a mighty army with great numbers of chariots and horsemen? Yet when you relied on the LORD, he delivered them into your hand. For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the whole earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on, you will be at war. It says Asa was angry with the Seer because of this. In fact, he was so enraged
that he put him in prison. And at the same time, Asa brutally oppressed some of the people. So God, uh was angry at Asa because Asa's response to King Baasha of Israel was just wrong. Asa was scared of Baasha. And God's like, look, I helped you defeat huge armies. I helped you defeat the Ethiopians and the Libyans and their armies. I want to say they had 2 million men fighting men come out against Israel. And yet God, uh completely destroyed those armies for King Asa because Asa's
trust was in Yahweh. And so because Asa caved and became afraid of King Baasha in Israel, Asa actually sent money and gifts to a foreign king, the king of Aram. And not only did he send just like ordinary gifts, he actually sent temple gifts to Aram. So Asa went into God's temple, took things out of it to give to this king of Aram. And that made God, uh upset, disappointed, I want to say, in King Asa. And so God, uh ended up punishing King Asa with more war because
Asa clearly was afraid of war. So now Asa is going to get what he's, He's scared of, unfortunately, because he didn't trust in Yahweh. But going back to Baasha, the king of Israel, he was so insignificant as a king in Israel's history that he's barely even mentioned in scripture. So Asa shouldn't have been afraid of King Baasha. So now it says that Baasha dies and Elah, his son. In the 26th year of ASA, the king of Judah, Elah, Baasha's son, began to reign over Israel in Tirzah for two years.
His servant Zimri, captain of half of his chariots, conspired against him. So this is how it happened. Elah, the new king, the son of Baasha, was in Tirzah drinking himself drunk. So he was partying it up, and his servant Zimri comes in and kills him while he is drunk. And then Zimri makes himself a king in place of Elah. So that ends the second dynasty of Israel and onto the third, which was Zimri. And this dynasty, I don't even know if you can
consider it a dynasty. It only lasted seven days because Zimri was pretty well killed only a week after becoming the next king. So this now starts the third dynasty of Israel. It says that as soon as Zimri began to reign, he attacked the entire house of Baasha, and he didn't leave a single male among all of his relatives or friends. Thus, Zimri destroyed the entire house of Baasha according to Yahweh's word, which he spoke against Baasha by
Jehu the prophet. So Zimri, even though he was only king for a week, wasted no time going and killing literally all of Baasha's household. Zimri did it all. But Zimri, he was a wicked man. He was a very wicked man, and he died very quickly. It says that the 27th year of ASA, the king of Judah, Zimri reigned for seven days in Tirzah. Now the people were encamped against Gibbethon, which
belonged to the Philistines. So that's really interesting that it says that the Israelites were still encamped against Gibbethon. That shows that God, uh was not with Israel, because if you look in the last chapter in 1 Kings 15, the first dynasty of Israel, Jeroboam's son, went out to war against the Philistines in Gibbethon and was trying to take that city way back then, like 20 years, more, uh, than 20 years prior to this. And the Israelites still haven't taken Gibbethon after two decades.
That shows that God, uh is not on the side of the Israelites. The people who were encamped at Gibbethon heard that Zimri had conspired and had also killed the king. So therefore, all of Israel made Omri the captain of the army, king over Israel that day in the camp. So Israel rejected Zimri. And it looks like they were pretty upset that Zimri had conspired against the king and killed him and made himself the king. They
were very upset about this. So they decided to make Omri, who was the captain of the guard, king over Israel. That day. So Omri becomes the next king of Israel, and he goes up and he besieges Tirzah. So now there's a, uh, civil war taking place in Israel, because Tirzah is in Israel and Israel is besieging their own city. So while Asa, down in Judah, is pretty well living a very peaceful life, because that prophecy didn't actually happen until towards the end of
Asa's life. And he reigned for 40 years, 41 years in Israel, because this was King Asa's 27th year. He was actually in a very prolonged period of peace at this time, I believe, if I'm remembering correctly. So Asa and Judah are doing quite well down in Judah. And now Israel is in a civil war with themselves, besieging their own cities. And so Zimri, who is reigning in Tirzah, saw that the city was besieged. He went into the fortified part of the king's house and burned the king's house over him
with fire and died. So he goes into the most fortified part of the king's house and burns himself to death. So he commits suicide and the house falls over him. Basically, Zimri knew that he was done, that his reign was over, his week of fun was done. And so that's why he goes into the king's house and kills himself. And he took down the king's house with him. So literally nothing of Baasha's was left. Not a family member, not even his beautiful mansion was
left. Zimri destroyed everything. And God, uh, even though Zimri was a very wicked and evil man, God, uh used Zimri to destroy all of Baash's house. And you might wonder, why does God, uh use wicked people? Well, God, uh doesn't cause any person to sin. It says specifically in scripture that God, uh cannot sin. He does not cause people to sin, but he will sit back and allow sinful people to do sinful things. And
that's called free will. And of course, because God, uh can see the future and He can see the past and he can see everything, he knows what's going to take place. And God, uh will take His hand of protection off of somebody. And in the case of Baasha, He took His hand of protection off of Baasha's family because of the sins that they caused Israel to commit and the sins that
they caused themselves to commit. And Zimri fulfilled the prophecy against Baasha, probably not even realizing that he was actually fulfilling a prophecy. Zimri just wanted to become the next king. And he was going to fight and he was going to kill and destroy in order to get what he wanted. And it ended in his own death and his own demise. So he destroys everything of Baasha. He even takes down Baasha's house
while he dies. And it actually says that God, uh didn't protect Zimri either from this fiery death because of the sins that Zimri sinned in doing that which was evil in Yahweh's sight, in walking in the way of Jeroboam, and in the sin which he did to make Israel sin. So even though Zimri was only the king for seven
days, he was still a wicked king. And God, uh was going to hold him accountable for what he did to Israel because during his time as king, he didn't care if Israel was worshiping other gods, living in sin, or murdering people, or doing anything else that God, uh hates. In fact, he did it himself. He added to all the sins of Israel. He added to the chaos and the destruction and the idol worship. So God, uh took his hand of protection off of Zimri and did not allow
Zimri to become the next king. And God, uh was going to set Omri up to be the next king because of the sins that Zimri committed. So that just proves that no matter how short of a time Zimri was king, for in the eyes of God, uh, it doesn't matter. Zimri still sinned and God, uh was going to hold him accountable even though he was king for only one short week.
So in verse 20, it says the rest of the acts of Zimri and his treason that he committed, aren't they written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? And once again, the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel is a book that we don't know about that hasn't made it into Scripture. The Chronicles that we have in the Bible focus a lot more on the kings of Judah, not on the kings of Israel.
So I think the moral of the story is that God, uh does not wink at sin and He does hold leaders accountable for the sins that they commit because leaders cause other people to fall into sin. I mean, just look through the Judges. What was the consistent theme in the Book of Judges? When the judge died, Israel fell into sin. But when a good judge led Israel, the Israelites
would not sin as much. They would come back to God, uh and they would submit themselves to the leadership of the judge and actually worship and follow Yahweh again. But it was after the Judges died and Israel had no judge, that Israel would fall into these long periods of sin. And then later on in the Book of Judges.
As the judges started getting worse and worse and worse, kind of like these kings, God, uh started judging the judges very harshly as well, because they were leading Israel into sin. So God, uh judges leaders more harshly than he does the average person. And so what can we do as individuals? We can vote in good leaders. We can make sure that we vote according to scripture. We can also pray for our leaders,
which is one of the biggest things that we can do. We pray for peace for our nation and for good decisions being made by our political leaders. So though you and I are not political leaders, that is what we can do as individuals to, um, make sure that our country is going on the path that leads closer to God, uh and not like on the path that Israel was taking that led to chaos and murder and civil war and all these other crazy things.
So, faithful listeners, make sure to tune in tomorrow for an episode from First uh, Corinthians. And next week is Christmas week. And I'm only going to be doing two episodes next week. I'm going to do a typical podcast episode next Monday, and then on Tuesday, there won't technically be a podcast episode because it'll be at midnight on Wednesday
morning, or rather Tuesday night. I suppose it's the annual Candlelit Christmas episode that I do every single year, and I'm really excited about the one that we're going to be doing this year as well. So make sure to stay tuned for the fifth annual Candlelit Christmas podcast episode. I think it's the fifth one. All right, faithful listeners, have a fantastic and wonderful rest of your day. I'll see you guys tomorrow, 6am or whenever you
choose to wake up and listen. Happy listening and God, uh bless.