Omri was an idolater who followed the state-sponsored religion put in place by King Jeroboam who set up golden calves at Dan and Bethel so the people would not go up to Jerusalem to worship God at the temple. Omri's son Ahab was raised in an idolatrous household but he takes idolatry many steps further than anyone before him ever did. Jeroboam introduced the golden calves as "symbols" of the One who brought the Israelites out of Egypt; he didn't dare introduce a complete "replacement" for the one true God. It was too soon in the nation's history for the people to have fully accepted such a thing, I believe. Instead he encouraged worship activities to take place at Dan and at Bethel as a convenient alternative to leaving the kingdom of Israel and going into the kingdom of Judah to the temple. He regularly made sacrifices at the altar in Bethel himself to set the example he wanted the people to follow. Not only were these religious practices in violation of the Lord's commandments regarding how and where He was to be worshiped, but these practices paved the way for people to abandon the Lord completely in favor of serving pagan gods.
King Ahab will have no interest in bringing sacrifices and offerings to the altars his predecessors used. He won't even make a pretense of using these altars as a substitute for the altar at the temple in Jerusalem. He's going to introduce a new god to Israel: Baal, the god of the ancient Canaanites and Phoenicians. He will introduce Baal worship because this is the god of the woman he marries. Ahab, one of the most wicked kings of the Bible, marries the most wicked woman of the Bible.
"In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab son of Omri became king in Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years. Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than did all the kings of Israel before him." (1 Kings 16:29-33)
The marriage between King Ahab and Jezebel, who is the daughter of a king, is probably more of a political alliance than a love match. The kingdom of Syria was becoming a great threat to the Israelites and the Phoenicians; a political alliance between an Israelite king and a Phoenician king would have been regarded as advantageous against this enemy. Jezebel is often portrayed as a beautiful, seductive woman whose physical charms and forceful personality made her the true power behind the throne. There may be a great deal of truth in that, for Ahab will give us the impression that he is a weak man who enthusiastically adopts the religion of his wife and then gives her free reign to persecute the Lord's prophets. Whether he begins worshiping Baal to please his wife, to please his powerful father-in-law to guarantee his help against the Syrians, or because one god is the same as any other god to him, we cannot say for certain.
What we can say for certain is that the sinful deeds of the wicked King Ahab and Queen Jezebel influence the people to be just as wicked as they want to be. The worship of Baal is a religion of depravity. It is a religion that appeals to those who delight in opposing the Lord in the most extreme ways possible. In this atmosphere we find a man doing something the Lord said must never be done. "In Ahab's time, Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho." (1 Kings 16:34a) After the Israelites destroyed the sinful city of Jericho, the Lord said through Joshua, "Cursed before the Lord is the one who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho: 'At the cost of his firstborn son he will lay its foundations; at the cost of his youngest he will set up its gates.'" (1 Joshua 6:26) Hiel doesn't believe he has to obey the word of the Lord. The king and queen are openly defying the Lord by building a temple to Baal and worshiping this false god. Nothing has happened so far to Ahab and Jezebel for rejecting the Lord and Hiel doesn't believe anything will happen to him if he rebuilds Jericho. This is what happens as a result: "He laid its foundations at the cost of his firstborn son Abiram, and he set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub, in accordance with the word of the Lord spoken by Joshua son of Nun." (1 Kings 16:34b)
There are two theories about what happened in the case of Hiel. One is that his eldest son died of natural causes when he laid the foundations of Jericho. If that is so, then Hiel didn't take it to heart, because he continued building and his youngest son died of natural causes when he set the gates in place at the city entrance. The other theory is that Hiel made what is known as "foundation sacrifices" of his sons. The first theory paints us the portrait of an uncaring man without normal affection for his children. The second theory paints us the portrait of a man willing to commit the ultimate abomination. If you are not familiar with what a foundation sacrifice is, it was an ancient heathen practice that involved a person killing one of his offspring and placing the body in the foundation of a building or within a wall. Archaeological evidence of foundation sacrifices has been found in the excavations of ancient cities in which the remains of persons had been encapsulated in foundations and walls. It cannot be determined by the state of the remains whether or not these persons were killed beforehand or buried alive, but either prospect is horrifying.
The story of Hiel and his sons may seem like an odd thing to suddenly insert within the text we're studying today but I believe it was inserted by the author as an example of the depravity taking place in Israel while the government was under the control of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. Most of the remainder of the book of 1 Kings will have to do with Israel's adoption of Baal worship and the widespread effect this had on the populace. But all is not lost. During an era when wickedness abounds, the Lord calls a prophet to speak out against the wickedness that's running rampant throughout the land. The study of the remainder of the book of 1 Kings includes many deplorable deeds but it also includes the messages spoken and the miracles performed by the prophet Elijah.
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