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CHAPTER 14 - ASA AND JEHOSHAPHAT (3RD AND 4TH) KINGS OF
JUDAH -AHAB : THE KING OF ISRAEL.
Accession of Ahab — further religious decline in Israel — political relations between
Israel and Judah — accession of Jehoshaphat — Ahab’s marriage with Jezebel — the
worship of Baal and Astarte established in Israel — character of Ahab — religious
reforms in Judah — Jehoshaphat joins affinity with Ahab — marriage of Jehoram with
Athaliah, and its consequences.
1 KINGS 16:29-33, 22:41-44; 2 CHRONICLES 17; 18:1, 2
OMRI was succeeded on the throne of Israel by his son Ahab, in the thirty-eighth year
of the reign of Asa, king of Judah. With the accession of Ahab a new period may be
said to commence in the history of Israel, and this alike religiously and politically. In
regard to the former, Omri had already prepared the way for further terrible
progression in Israel's apostasy. In the language of Holy Scripture (1 Kings 16:25), he
"did worse than all that were before him." Whatever the special "statutes" or
ordinances in this respect which he introduced, they marked an era in the history of
Israel's religious decline (Micah 6:16). But Ahab far out-distanced even his father's
wickedness, first by entering into a matrimonial alliance with the vile dynasty of
Ethbaal, and then by formally making the worship of Baal the established religion of
Israel, with all of vileness and of persecution which this implied. In these
circumstances, surely, we may look for extraordinary interposition on the part of
Jehovah. For, with such a king and queen, and with a people, not only deprived of the
Temple-services and the Levitical priesthood, but among whom the infamous rites of
Baal and Astarte had become the established worship, ordinary means would
manifestly have been in vain. Again and again had messengers sent from God spoken
His Word and announced His judgments, without producing even a passing effect. It
needed more than this, if the worship of Baal was to be effectually checked.
Accordingly, this period of Israel's history is also marked by a great extension of the
Prophetic order and mission. It was theirs to keep alive the knowledge of Jehovah in
the land; theirs also to meet the gross and daring idolatry of king and people by a
display of power which could neither be resisted nor gainsaid. Hence the unparalleled
frequency of miracles, mostly intended to prove the vainness of idols as against the
power of the Living God, the reality of the prophets' mission, and of the authority
which the LORD had delegated to His messengers. Only thus could any effect be
produced. It was an extraordinary period - and God raised up in it an extraordinary
agency. We have already indicated that, in general, considering the notions and
expectations of the times, miracles might almost be said to have been God's ordinary
mode of teaching the men of that age. This holds specially true of the period now under
consideration. Hence the unusual accumulation of the miraculous - and that chiefly in
(^)