>> Jen: Hello and good morning, friends and faithful listeners, and welcome to the Bible Explained podcast. Today we're going to be talking about the Israelites introducing BAAL into their culture and why the BAAL cult was a very egregious religion to follow, even more so than some of the other pagan religions at the time. We'll be talking about all that today. I hope you guys have been having a wonderful day so far and a wonderful
week as well. I gotta be honest with you guys, I am so excited to talk about today's episode because my eyes have been opened about BAAL worship, more so than ever before, because I discovered something today that is both hilarious and also super disgusting about BAAL worship. And we will talk about all of that. So let's go ahead and read 1st Kings 16:21 through 34. I will be reading out of, uh, the web version as usual.
Then the people of Israel were divided into two parts. Half the people followed Tibni the son of Ginath to make him king, and half followed Omri. But the people who followed Omri prevailed against the people who followed Tibni the son of Ginath. So Tibni died and Omri reigned. In the 31st year of ASA, the king of Judah, Omri began to reign over Israel for 12 years. He reigned six years in Tirzah.
He bought the hill Samaria of Shamr for two talents of silver, and he built on the hill and called the name of the city which he built Samaria, after the name Shamar, the owner of the hill. Omri did that which was evil in Yahweh's sight, and dealt wickedly above all who were before him. For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nabat. And in his sins, with which he made Israel to sin, to provoke Yahweh, the God, uh of Israel, to anger with their vanities.
Now, the rest of the acts of Omri which he did and his might that he showed, aren't they written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? So Omri slept with his fathers and was buried in Samaria. And Ahab his son, reigned in his place. In the 38th year of ASA, the king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri began to reign over Israel. Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel and Samaria
22 years. Ahab the son of Omri did that which was evil in Yahweh's sight above all that were before him, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nabat. He took as wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians, and went and served BAAL and worshiped him. He raised up an altar for BAAL in the house of BAAL which he built in Samaria.
Ahab made the Asherah. And Ahab did more yet to provoke Yahweh, the God, uh of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him in his days Hail The Bethelite built Jericho. He laid its foundation with the loss of Abiram, his firstborn, and set up its gates with the loss of his youngest son, Segub, according to Yahweh's word, which He spoke by Joshua, the son of Nun.
When I was reading this in verse 29, I kind of started cracking up a little bit, because once again, it mentioned Asa, the king of Judah, just being prosperous and living this very long life and being king for a very long period of time. Meanwhile, Israel is just in complete and total chaos, and they have king after king and dynasty after dynasty. But it mentions Omri here, and it mentions that Omri became the king during the 31st year of ASA, the king of Judah. Now,
earlier it talked about Zimri. We talked about Zimri last week. He was a guy that killed Elah of the second dynasty of Israel. And because Zimri killed Elah, he became the king for about a week. And then Omri, who's mentioned here today, went and defeated Zimri. So Zimri actually killed himself by destroying the king's palace. He set it on fire, went in there, shut the door, and the palace fell on his body, and he killed himself in that way. So the
third dynasty of Israel only lasted for a week. And so now the fourth dynasty starts taking place. It says after Zimri, the people of Israel were divided into two parts. Half the people followed Tibni, the son of Gennath to make him king, and half followed Omri. So now Israel is in a complete civil war, because half of Israel really likes this guy named Tibni, and we know nothing about him other than the fact that he's the son of Gnath. And then the other half of Israel followed after Omri.
However, Omri's people were stronger than Tibni's people. And it says that Omri prevailed against the people who followed Tibni, the son of Gnath. So Tibni died and Omri reigned. So most likely Omri went and killed Tibni. And so Omri now is officially the king. It took Omri four whole years, actually, to track down Tibni and kill
Tibni. Because if you look earlier in the chapter, back when Zimri was still alive, before he killed himself with fire, it mentioned that all of that took place during ASA's 27th year. And then when Omri became king, it was the 31st year of ASA, the King of Judah. So that means that, yes, four years took place before Omri officially became the next king. So it says in the 31st year of ASA, the king of Judah, Omri began to reign over Israel for 12 years. He reigned six years in Tirzah.
So Tirzah was the original capital of Israel, but the city of Tirzah actually got destroyed and burnt down because of the rebellion of Zimri. So Tirzah was no longer a good place for a king to live, according to Omri. So what he does is he decides to make a different capital city altogether. It says he bought the hill of Samaria of Shamer for two talents of silver. Now, two talents of silver would be absolutely nothing. It would come out to about 66 pounds of silver.
And quite honestly, probably the average American could accrue 66 pounds of silver if they wanted to in, like, a year. In fact, I looked up how much 66 pounds of silver is worth in American money. It says that the price of silver right now is $30.51 per ounce. This means that 66 pounds of silver is worth approximately $27,258. That is far less than what the average American makes. So, yeah, I mean, Shamer basically sold this land to Omri for pretty much
nothing. And this was not a small piece of land. It was a very strategic location that Omri was looking at because it was a hill. And obviously, for defense purposes, being on a hill is much better than not being on a hill, because obviously the people at the top of the hill have gravity on their side. So, um, it's just better to be on top of a hill in order to defend yourself from invaders. So this was not a junky piece of
land that Omri was buying. This was a nice piece of land in a good location, in a strategic location that was also big enough for Omri to build an entire city on the city of Samaria, which we're going to find out a lot more about Samaria in coming chapters. And in fact, we've already learned quite a bit about Samaria in the New Testament. So the Hill of Samaria was a very good piece of land worth far more than just 66 pounds of silver.
So some commentaries when I was looking this up suggested that the reason Shamr sold it for so cheap was because he wanted Omri to name this city after him, the city of Samaria. But what I wonder is why didn't Shamer build a city himself? It sounds like he was probably a wealthier individual because not only did he have a very good piece of land that a king wanted, but also he was able to basically give it away. So that's my question. Why didn't he do more with this land
himself? So that's why I don't think that that's the reason why Shamer gave this land away for so cheap. Personally, I think it was either because Omri forced him into it, because, as it's about to say, Omri was not a very good king. And maybe he forced Shamer into this, or Shamer wanted to do it. He wanted to give it away because he liked King Omri, he liked what Omri was going to do with the land and just wanted to do something nice for Israel and decided to
give it away for almost nothing. And that's personally the one, I think, because Omri does name the city after Shamr, which kind of implies that Omri and Shamer had good relations. So Shamr sells the land of Samaria for two talents of silver, or 66 pounds, and Omri built on the hill, and he called the name of the city which he built, Samaria, after the name of Shamr, the owner of the hill. So that is one notable thing that Omri did during his time as king. However, in verse 25, Omri
was a terrible spiritual leader. It says Omri did that which was evil in Yahweh's sight, and he dealt wickedly above all who were before him. For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam, the son of Nabat, in his sins, with which he made Israel to sin, to provoke Yahweh, the God, uh of Israel, to anger for their vanities. So Omri was the worst of all the kings, even worse than Jeroboam and Jeroboam's, uh, sons, and even Baasha.
Omri was the most wicked king. And scripture doesn't specifically say why Omri was worse than the other kings, but he was. And one of the ways he could have been a very bad king was because he encouraged sexual immorality in
Israel. It says here that Omri provoked Yahweh, the God, uh of Israel, to anger because of the vanities so it just sounds like Israel was very vain, very selfish, only looking out for themselves, and possibly very sexually promiscuous, uh, as well, because a lot of times we know that sexual promiscuity goes hand in hand with vanity. So the rest of the acts that Omri did and his might that he showed, aren't they written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
So this is basically all that's mentioned about Omri. Omri doesn't get any recognition at all from Scripture because, as we know, God, uh cares the most about people's souls. And Omri did so much evil and caused spiritual darkness for Israel. And God, uh hates spiritual darkness because spiritual darkness affects the soul. It says that after Omri dies, Ahab his son, reigned in his place. Then verse
29, which is the verse that kind of makes me chuckle. In the 38th year of ASA, king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri began to reign over Israel. So, yeah, Asa down in Judah is very secure, living a pretty decent life as king has had a very long reign because Asa did the opposite of what Omri did. Asa actually led Israel into worship of Yahweh. So Asa was going to have a blessed
reign down in Judah. And so Asa is seeing many kings come and go in Israel throughout his entire 41 years of being king in Judah. So now the next king of Israel pops up, and this guy is named Ahab the son of Omri. Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria for 22 years. It mentions first and foremost, before anything else, that Ahab did.
Ahab the son of Omri did that which was evil in Yahweh's sight above all that were before him, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nabat. He took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbol, king of the Sidonians, and went and served BAAL and worshiped him. Not only this, he raised up an altar for BAAL in the house of BAAL which he built in Samaria. And
Ahab also made an Asherah. And Ahab did more yet to provoke Yahweh, the God, uh of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. So Ahab was even worse than his father, Omri. He was even worse than Jeroboam, because Jeroboam, yes, he caused Israel to sin by making up a religion of convenience for the Israelites so the Israelites didn't have to travel down to Judah. And Jeroboam did all of that so that
he could remain in power. But Ahab went even further than Jeroboam's religion of convenience because he introduced BAAL into Israel's culture. It says that he actually raised up an altar for BAAL and a temple for BAAL that he built in Samaria. And it says that Ahab also made an Asherah pol. So we know that the cult of Asherah. I've talked about this quite a bit. That was a sex cult and an Asherah pole, as we know. And I will keep saying it because it's just funny and I am a middle schooler
sometimes. And Asherah pol was basically just a giant phallus that the people would worship. And it was a sex culture. So not only do they have the religion that Jeroboam made up, but now Ahab is introducing these terrible pagan religions that God, uh just absolutely hated. But before we get into why BAAL was even worse of a religion than what Jeroboam did, let's talk about what verse 34 says. It says, In Ahab's days, Haal the
Bethelite built Jericho. He laid its foundation with the loss of Abiram, his firstborn, and set up its gates with the loss of his youngest son, Segub, according to Yahweh's Word, which he spoke by Joshua, the son of Nun. And that prophecy is m mentioned way back in the book of Joshua, if you guys remember it. Through God's power, the Israelites miraculously
destroyed Jericho without even lifting a finger. All they had to do was march around the walls seven times and then shout, and the walls of Jericho came falling down. So then Israel was able to go into Jericho and completely conquer the city. But God, uh was so sickened by Jericho that he actually told Joshua at that time to curse anybody that actually tries to rebuild Jericho. So let's read Joshua, chapter 6, verse 26 and 27. This is right
after Israel defeats Jericho. At that time, Joshua pronounced this solemn oath curse before The LORD is the one who undertakes to rebuild the city Jericho. At the cost of his firstborn son, he will lay his foundations. At the cost of his youngest, he will set up its gates. So the LORD was with Joshua and his fame spread throughout the land. So Joshua pronounced a curse on the rubble of
Jericho. Basically said, anybody who builds up these walls of Jericho once again is going to be under this curse. So basically, once they start the construction of Jericho, the firstborn son would die. And as they finish the construction of Jericho, the youngest son would die. And that is exactly what happens in First Kings, chapter 16:34. It says, this guy, Haal the Bethelite, rebuilt Jericho, and he laid its foundation with the loss of Abiram, his
firstborn. And then he set up its gates with the loss of his youngest son, Segub, according to Yahweh's word, which he spoke by Joshua, the son of Nun. So that prophecy ended up coming true after Joshua pronounced the curse on the rubble of Jericho. But the overarching story here is not that Hail lost his sons.
The overarching story is that Ahab was so blatantly against God, uh and could care less about any of the laws of God, uh, any of the prophecies of God, uh, that he actually, um, told this Hail guy to rebuild Jericho. And Hail listened. And somehow his two sons ended up dying, as the prophecy stated. So more than anything, this just shows how far Israel just fell away from God, uh, not caring about anything that God, uh had to say. And clearly
Ahab didn't care either. So not only did Ahab introduce BAAL and Asherah into Israel's culture, but he also rebuilt Jericho the way God, uh told him not to. But what is so bad about BAAL as compared to the religion of Jeroboam? Once again, the religion of Jeroboam was a religion of convenience and political
strategy. Jeroboam made these two calves and put them on the southern part of Israel and the northern part of Israel so that the Israelites wouldn't have to go down to Judah in Jerusalem to worship at Yahweh's temple. So Jeroboam says, you can worship at these calf idol things that I made. This will be so much more convenient for you. You don't have to make that long trip down to Jerusalem. You don't have to do any of that. In
fact, you don't even have to worship the calves. You can worship God, uh right here at these calf idols. But then, of course, Jeroboam didn't follow any of the laws of God, uh. He was just appointing whatever person he wanted to as priests. And of course, we know from God's laws that God, uh specifically said that only Levites could be priests. So actually, all the Levites left Israel and went down to Judah. So of course, Jeroboam's religion of convenience just kept getting worse and
worse. And as the kings kept getting worse and worse, they started, um, you know, really encouraging the worship of these calves and maybe of other idols. But BAAL was on a whole different level of egregious. And here's why BAAL was a very common deity back in the days of the Israelites. His name keeps popping up. In fact, he existed way back in the wilderness. And the first time we see the Israelites worshiping
BAAL was back in the wilderness. They were in an area of the wilderness called Shittim before they go into the Promised Land. And they started partaking in the rituals of, uh, BAAL having sex with the Moabite women that were nearby. And God, uh got very angry because these BAAL worshipers were causing the camp of Israel to sin. But the thing that makes BAAL worship actually so much worse than other religions of the time period was that, uh, BAAL worship included a lot of indecent
exposure. It included orgies and sex out in public. And it also included ritual sex that had to happen if you wanted to worship baal. So, yes, BAAL was also considered a fertility God, uh, same as Asherah. In fact, Asherah and BAAL were considered to be married. And so the worship of both of them kind of just went hand in hand. And so people would do all of these sexual things in
order to worship baal. You might be like, well, yeah, that's, That's pretty commonplace with a lot of the idol worship back in the days of the Jews. But BAAL worship gets worse. Not only was there a lot of public indecency and people exposing themselves in public and doing all sorts of grotesque and weird sex things in order to worship BAAL and Asherah, BAAL worship also included excrement worship. In fact, the altar to BAAL would look like a toilet. People would expose their backsides
and poop on the toilet. And then the excrement would be used as fertilizer for the crops of the Israelite nation. Now, this does make sense, because BAAL was considered to be the God, uh of fertility, but also the God, uh of good crops. But some people would actually also worship the excrement that they give to BAAL as a way to ask for healing for
digestive issues. So there's a book called Dictionnaire Infernal, and this is an 1863 edition that claimed that Baal Phagor was worshiped on a toilet, with offerings being the residue of one's digestion. There's also a story in the Talmud, which is a collection of rabbinical stories that tells of a Jew named Sabta who hated BAAL so much that he decided to show contempt for baal. So here's. Here's what the Talmud says.
He then entered, uncovering himself before it, and wiped himself on the idol's nose, whilst the acolytes praised him, saying, no man has ever served this idol. Thus. So the priests of, uh, BAAL were enthralled that somebody was paying so much homage to BAAL by defecating right in front of the statue and then wiping his butt on the nose of the statue. Now, this is very funny because the first time the Israelites ever started worshiping BAAL was when they were in the wilderness in an area called
Shittim. I mean, that's just gold. I mean, come on. Anybody that says that God, uh doesn't have a sense of humor, He absolutely does. Now, later on in 2 Kings chapter one, something kind of funny happens. So if you read the first two verses of 2 Kings 1, it says, Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of King Ahab. Ahaziah, uh, the next king fell down through the lattice in his upper room that was in Samaria and was
sick. So he sent messengers and said to them, go inquire of BAAL Zebub, the God, uh of Ekron, whether or not I will recover of this sickness. Notice that King Ahaziah calls BAAL BAAL Zebub. Zebub or Zebul in Hebrew actually means crap. So, yes, the BAAL worshippers renamed BAAL BAAL Zabul, which means the god, uh of crap. BAAL over time, became known as the god, uh of dung. And you can see now why BAAL worship was especially disgusting. It was disgusting because it was
degrading to people. God, uh doesn't want to see His people treat themselves like that. His Israelite nation, God, uh doesn't want to see his people lifting up their skirts and pooping in public for worship. God, uh doesn't want to see that because it's disgusting and it's degrading to one's
body. Not to mention, can you imagine how filthy that was back in a time period when people didn't have hand sanitizer or running water and people are all pooping on the same altar to worship this excrement to baal, can you imagine? God, uh wanted his people to be clean and healthy and spiritually healthy as well. There is nothing spiritually healthy about pooping in public. If somebody does that nowadays, we think that there is something
seriously mentally wrong with them. In fact, my husband traveled to, um, San Diego like, a year ago, and there was a man, like a homeless man on the side of the freeway pooping in public. There is nothing nice about that. We would want to help that individual, and that individual needs help. So you can see now, why BAAL worship was especially disgusting and egregious and why God, uh hated it so much, because not only does it spread disease, but people are using their
own excrement on their crops. We know now how unsafe it is to use raw human waste on crops, because there are pathogens in human waste, there are diseases in human waste, and all of those diseases leach right in to the soil and into the leaves of the crop and then into the fruit, the crop. So it's very dangerous to use human excrement on crops. But that is what these people were doing with
this BAAL worship. And like I said, not even to mention all of the sexual degradation that was also going on with BAAL worship as well. So it's just a very, very sad circumstance. And this is why King Ahab was far worse than any of the kings before him, because he introduced this type of worship into Israel's culture. Israel was supposed to be holy and set apart. They were not supposed to be partaking in anything that was filthy or degrading of their
bodies. They are supposed to be a special possession of YHWH And yet this is the level of filth that they have come to in the days of King Ahab. So I hope you can see now why BAAL worship was especially disgusting and why God, uh hated it so much, and why God, uh hated it way back in the wilderness as well, when the people were in shittim, which is truly one of the funniest jokes in, um, the Bible. Faithful listeners, I will see you all tomorrow as we discuss first, um,
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