Tag Archive | jezebel

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 177

Jun26

Day 177.  Reading 1 Kings 16 and 2 Chronicles 17.

 
Read the Scriptures.
What are you discovering about the Kings of Israel/Judah?
How can you pray for your own country with these sins?

1 Kings 16.

I skipped a brief reign of Nadab, Jeroboam’s son in 1 Kings 15 yesterday. In the second year of King Asa in Judah (south), Nadab reigned in Israel (north). He did EVIL in the sight of God, just like Jeroboam had.  A man named Basha (house of Issachar), conspired against him and killed him in Philistine territory where they’d been fighting.

Basha then reigned in his place. And, as per prophecy (1 Kings14:9-11), he killed all the house of Jeroboam, leaving “none that breathed.”

King Basha (north) then reigned 24 years, and did EVIL in God’s sight.

Now, to chapter 16.

Because of his evilness, King Basha (north) also had a prophecy of utter destruction against him.  And so, King Basha died, and Elah his son reigned in his place.  In the 26th hear of the southern King Asa’s reign, King Elah (north) began to reign.  He made it two years,  But the Zimri, commander of half of his chariots, conspired against him.  When Elah was at a friend’s house, drunk as a skunk, Zimri came in and killed him.  Zimri then became the new (northern) king.  He also then killed all the remaining relatives of the house of Basha – as prophesied because of Basha’s and Elah’s sin.

King Zimri (north) reigned seven DAYS.  The troops still down in Philistine territory heard this, and made Omri  their “commander-in-chief.  When Zimri heard about it he went into the king’s house, set aflame and died inside.  WHOA!

So, after a power struggle with one Tibni, Omri became the new northern King. (King Asa still was reigning in Judah (south).)  King Omri reigned in the north for twelve years.  Halfway through his reign, he moved the capital to Samaria.  He also “did what was EVIL” in God’s sight.  He died and …. AHAB, his son, reigned in his place in the northern kingdom.

King Ahab reigned 22 years, and did “evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before him. And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, he took his wife, JEZEBEL, the daughter of the Sidonian king (and priest of Baal) and worshiped him. Ahab erected an altar to Baal in Samaria, and made an Asherah (female version of Baal).  HE DID THOSE THINGS TO PROVOKE THE LORD, THE GOD OF ISRAEL TO ANGER, more than all the kings of Israel before him.

And, interestingly, during Ahab’s reign, a man named Hiel REBUILT JERICHO. If you remember in Joshua 6:29, Joshua cursed anyone who rebuilt that city, saying that it would be at the cost of the man’s first born and youngest sons.  That prophecy was fulfilled, but Jericho was rebuilt.

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2 Chronicles 17.

Meanwhile in the south, remember the long-reigning King Asa of Judah finally died from that stinky feet disease.  His son, Jehoshaphat reigned in his place.  The LORD was with King Jehoshaphat because he walked in the earlier ways of his father David.  He did not seek Baals, but sought the God of his father and walked in his commandments.  THEREFORE, God established the kingdom in his hand.

He fortified the cities along the Judah-Israel boarder in Ephraim that his father had captured.

More significantly, in his third year of reign, he sent his officials, and with them the Levites, into the cities of Judah to teach them the Book of the Law of the LORD.  And the fear of the LORD fell upon all the kingdoms of the land – that were AROUND Judah – and they made no war against King Jehoshaphat.

Some of the Philistines even came to King Jehoshaphat with gifts of silver, and the Arabians brought rams and goats as tribute. 

(This reminds me of Proverbs 16:7, that says, “If a man’s ways please the LORD, even his enemies are at peace with him.”)

Jehoshaphat built garrisons and store cities. His army was great and full of mighty men of valor.

(Why, oh why, don’t we always seek to please and honor and glorify the LORD.  What benefits!)

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(Jehoshaphat DOES make a major mistake, however, which we’ll cover on Sunday.)

 

List of north/south kings:

 

 

2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 185

Jul3

    Day 185—We are NOW in the seventh month of Bible reading with the history of Israel and its prophets.

    Day 185 – 2 Kings 9 – 11. (the prophesied bloody vengeance on the house of Ahab)

In Chapter 9, Elisha sends a younger prophet to anoint Jehu as the northern kingdom’s king and instruct him to destroy all the remaining men of the house of Ahab and Queen Jezebel. Jehu quickly gathers an army and rides furiously in his chariot to Jezreel.

King Jehoram was healing from a battle wound, and Ahaziah, king of Judah (a son of a marriage alliance with Ahab), was visiting him. These two kings set out to meet Jehu, but seeing he wasn’t coming in peace, they turned their chariots and fled. Jehu drew his bow and shot Jehoram in the back, clear to the heart.  They threw his body on the plot (vineyard) previously owned by Naboth, as prophesied. Then Jehu went after the southern king and shot him also.  He died at Megiddo. They buried him in the City of David. 

Then Jehu went after Jezebel, who put on her makeup to greet him. A couple servants tossed her out the window, and she was trampled to pieces by Jehu’s men’s horses. The remaining pieces of her were scattered abroad like dung. 

In Chapter 10, Jehu also makes sure the seventy other sons of Ahab, who were being schooled by elders and guardians, are all killed. On his way out of Jezreel, Jehu meets relatives of Ahaziah, the southern king with Ahab’s blood, and kills all of them. Then, arriving at Samaria, “Jehu struck down all who remained to Ahab, till he had wiped them out, according to the word of the LORD that He spoke to Elijah.” 1 Kings 21:21

Next, Jehu gathers all the prophets, worshipers, and priests of Baal into the house of Baal. He surrounds the place with his soldiers, then tells these mighty men to go in and slaughter them all. They burn the pillar of Baal and demolish the building….. making it a latrine (outhouse) to this day.

Jehu wiped out Baal from Israel….. but he did nothing to the golden calf idols at Bethel and Dan.  However, since he did well in his commission to eliminate Ahab, God promised he would have a relative on the throne of Israel for four generations.  He was king for 28 years and died. His son, Jehoahaz, became the new northern king.

Chapter 11 describes how the baby, Joash, who had escaped the murderous actions of his grandmother Athaliah (Ahab’s daughter) and was hidden for six years, is brought out at age 7 by the godly priest, Jehoiada, and anointed King of Judah. The guards are summoned and told to kill Athaliah.  Then, Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and people that they should be the LORD’s people. Then, all the people went to the house of Baal, tore it down, and broke it into pieces, as they did with all the altars of Baal. 

Then, all the people of the land (Judah) rejoiced, and the city was quiet after Athaliah had been put to death with the sword in the king’s house. 

Dead and done, all you of Ahab.  Thank God!