Monday, May 28, 2012

Kings of North and South (2 Chronicles 16; 1 Kings 16)

Asa, king of the South (2 Chronicles 16)

Asa slips a bit.

Asa is not directly punished for bribing the king of Aram to attack Baasha's army. However, God sends a messenger to say that Asa missed an opportunity to destroy an enemy like the way the Ethiopian army was by God.

He dies of a foot disease and never seeks healing from God.



Kings of the North (1 Kings 16)

Baasha, Elah
Zimri (new dynasty)
Omri (new dynasty), Ahab


The kings of the north undergo a quick succession of bad rulers. Most of these get only quick mention in the text. It begins with Baasha, who actually gets a visit from the prophet Jehu. jeru says that God is mad at Baasha because God lifted him up, but hd was a sinful ruler and he killed all of Jeroboam's family. This is interesting because it was a prediction by God, but yet God is angry at Baasha for fulfilling the prediction. As a result, Baasha's family will be wiped out.

Baasha dies and is succeeded by Elah. Elah is drunk one day and killed by an officer in his army, Zimri. Zimri takes control of the capital (now Tirzah) kills the rest of Baasha and Elah'sa family.

This prompts a civil war led by a general, Omri, who lays siege to Tirzah. It sounds like maybe Zimri was junior to Omri in the army so Omri felt if anyone in the army became king, it should be him. Zimri sets the city on fire rather than surrender to Omri.

Omri dies and is succeeded by his son Ahab. Ahab gets the description that he did worse than all the other kings before. Uh oh.

Meanwhile, someone tries to rebuild Jericho and loses his oldest and youngest son. This fulfills Joshua's curse on the city when he attacked it.

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