And we’ll begin this evening with our New Testament reading, and that’s found in the gospel according to Matthew chapter 20. Matthew 20, and our reading will be verses 25 through 34.
Matthew 20, 25 through 34. Listen to this. This is the very Word of God. But Jesus called them to him and said, You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
And as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed him. And behold, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside. And when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, Lord, have mercy on us, son of David. The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silent. But they cried out all the more, Lord, have mercy on us, son of David. And stopping, Jesus called them and said, what do you want me to do for you? They said to him, Lord, let our eyes be opened. And in pity, Jesus touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him.
” And then our Old Testament reading and the text for the sermon tonight will come from 1 Kings chapter 16. Picking up where we left off the last time we were in 1 Kings, the reading then will be verses 29 through 34. A brief passage that introduces us to a notorious king. 1 Kings 16, verses 29 through 34.
In the 38th year of Asa, king of Judah, Ahab, the son of Omri, began to reign over Israel. And Ahab, the son of Omri, reigned over Israel in Samaria 22 years. And Ahab, the son of Omri, 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, the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbael, king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him. He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. And Ahab made an Asherah. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. In his days, Heel of Bethel built Jericho. He laid his foundation at the cost of Abiram, his firstborn, and set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son, Zegub, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by Joshua, the son of Nun.
Thus far, the reading of God’s word. Let’s ask the Lord to bless his word to us now.
Father in heaven, this is admittedly a dark passage. speaks of and gives an account of a very dark period in the history of your people and of the nation of Israel. Yet, Lord, we pray that we would see light in it, that we might see Christ. Lord, we pray that you’ll help us to hear good news tonight. We pray that you’ll use your word to instruct us, because the scriptures were written for our instruction. So let them instruct us, and may your Holy Spirit himself be our instructor this evening. We pray this for the glory and the honor of our Savior, your Son, Jesus Christ, and in his name, amen.
I wonder if any of you have had the experience in the workplace of working for a difficult boss, a bad boss, and then you find out the bad boss is moving on, and you’re hopeful that the next person will be better and easier to work for, more pleasant to work for and to work with. And then you only go on to discover that the new guy is even worse than the guy before him, such that the bad boss that left seemed good by comparison, and you’re wishing he’d come back. I suppose many of us have had such experiences, or if not, in the workplace and in some other context. But that’s what we have here. We had a bad king. His name was Omri. And in fact, if you’re open to 1 Kings 16, you just have to glance back In the brief account of Omri, and look at verse 25, where it says, Omri did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did more evil than all who were before him. He was, up to that point, the most evil king that the northern kingdom of Israel had ever had, at least until his son took the throne.
And then the old expression about the apple doesn’t fall from the tree was fulfilled in Ahab. But you see, Ahab had a very bad example to live according to in his father, and he just simply carried on with the wickedness of his father and surpassed it. The apple not only didn’t fall far from the tree, but it took even deeper root in the soil of wickedness and grew taller in heights of offense to the Lord God Almighty. And that’s why I titled the sermon, The Son of Omri. You’re gonna hear Ahab’s name again and again and again in the next chapters of 1 Kings. In fact, Ahab occupies center stage to some extent throughout the rest of this book of 1 Kings. He gets a lot of air time in the Bible, and we’ll see part of the reason for that before long.
But Ahab goes on to become even more wicked than his father, who was more wicked than all the ones who preceded him. So these are dark and tragic times in Israel. But this passage, especially when we consider the conclusion of it, with the rebuilding of Jericho, shows us so clearly that the word of God abides forever, despite the prevailing and increasing wickedness of man. God’s word abides forever, despite the prevailing and increasing wickedness of man.
Now you may read the headlines, look at the news and consider what’s going on in our nation and what’s going on in the world and might be inclined to ask the question, are we in a time of prevailing and increasing wickedness? Well, if it feels that way, if you get the sense that that’s the case, consider what we have here in our text from 1 Kings.
First of all, we’re gonna see the most wicked king of Israel. And secondly, we’re going to look at the list of citations against him. And then finally, the corruption of society that flows out of the wicked practices of this king.
So first of all, the most wicked king of Israel. In the sporting world, it’s not unusual for people to argue and debate about who was or who is the greatest of all time. You’ve heard the expression. They come to be called the GOAT, the G-O-A-T, greatest of all time. Who is it in any given sport? Who is the greatest NFL quarterback ever? In soccer, many have said that Lionel Messi is the greatest ever. Others might come along and say, no, no, no, Ronaldo, he’s the greatest. And then people with a little bit of sense of historical perspectives might say, wait, you need to back up a generation or two, because there’s this player named Pele, and you’ve got to put him in the mix. He may have been the greatest of all time. Or in the NBA, some still believe that Michael Jordan was the greatest player to ever play in the National Basketball Association. Who’s the goat? Everybody wants to know and everybody’s got an opinion, at least most people do. But then we play the opposite game too. We get a little cynical, we start talking about who’s the worst or what’s the worst in some category or another, you know, and people will even post memes or Facebook posts or posts on Twitter or X saying, such and such is the worst, fill in the blank, ever. Worst ever. And in that case, especially in statements like that, people have a pretty strong tendency to show their lack of perspective.
I remember seeing a sticker on a car years ago with a big W and underneath, or alongside it said, worst president ever. You know, some people liked George W. Bush, some people didn’t like him at all, but I think you’d be hard pressed to make the case that he is the worst president ever. But it shows our subjectivity in such things. It’s almost always, there’s almost always a measure of subjectivity when we make evaluations like that.
But we have an evaluation of a king tonight, and it’s in God’s holy word. This is spirit breathed in God himself, who is not subjective, whose word is true. And the word of God tells us that Ahab was the worst king ever. Verse 30. Ahab, the son of Omri, did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him. There was never a more wicked king in Israel than Ahab. And that’s not just opinion, that’s God’s word.
Scripture said this of previous kings. You may remember, if you’ve been paying attention or going back and reviewing, or maybe if you’ve read through the book of Kings on your own recently, you see statements like this made about other kings, kings who preceded Ahab, but it never says this about another king after Ahab. I went and checked. Many of them, all of them, really, in the Northern Kingdom, continue to walk in the sins of their forefathers, but none was so evil as Ahab.
The most recent indictment of that kind, that he did more evil in the sight of the Lord than anyone who’s before him, was of Ahab’s own father, Omri. But Israel’s monarchy had been in this steady, consistent, and deplorable decline for generations. And the nadir, you know what a nadir is, right? If the height of something is the apex or The zenith, the nadir, is the opposite. It’s the low point. The nadir of the downward spiral in terms of morality and in terms of bad leadership, in terms of offending the Lord God Almighty, the low point was this man that we’re considering now, Ahab.
Verse 31 makes reference to the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. As if it had been a light thing for him to walk in those, So what were the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat? Because there’s reference to them over and over again, and there will continue to be after Ahab. Simply put, if we were to summarize the offenses of Jeroboam, son of Nebat, it was that he set these golden calves up.
Remember when the kingdom split? Jeroboam was worried that if people continued to go down to Jerusalem and worship the Lord their God as they were supposed to do, that eventually their hearts would be drawn back to the kings of Judah, the sons of David, and that he’d lose his grip on this kingdom that God had given him. And so he made an alternative. He set up these golden calves, one way up in the north at Dan and one down in Bethel. And he provided for the people of his kingdom a substitute, a substitute for God’s ordained place and manner of worship.
The Lord God Almighty had made it very clear to his people how he was to be worshiped and where. They were to bring their sacrifices to the place that he had appointed, and that appointed place was Jerusalem. And Jeroboam said, let me give you an alternative. It’s too far to go to Jerusalem, come worship here.
Not only did he make a substitute for God’s ordained place of worship and God’s ordained manner of worship, he created his own class of priests to serve in Israel and ultimately anybody who wanted to could come to him and be ordained as a priest and to serve at these high places that he had set up. And in the history of the Northern Kingdom, Israel never fully repented, never fully recovered from those sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat.
But what Ahab did, is he took the sins of Israel to a new low. He took them to even more egregious offenses than ever before, and that’s why the text says, as if that had been a light thing, that he continued to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, as if that weren’t enough, in other words. And then we’ll look in a moment at the things that he did that go beyond the pale in that sense, and yet, We’ve seen examples of kings who were wicked and God cut short their reigns. We’ve seen a man reign for as little as seven days on the throne of Israel. But this wicked king, the worst ever, reigned for 22 years, which is a remarkable sign of God’s patience and mercy. And he occupies the spotlight in 1 Kings pretty much for the remainder of the book.
But, you know, especially at Christmastime, we read those wonderfully encouraging words from the Gospel of John that tell us that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. Those are some wonderfully comforting words in Scripture for us. And we see that to be the case here. And there’s some light here for us, even as we reflect on the most wicked king ever, the most wicked king of Israel, because part of the reason Scripture gives so much attention to Ahab is because it was during Ahab’s reign that God raised up this remarkable prophet named Elijah. And as Scripture focuses on the ministry and the words and the works of Elijah, Ahab is the one that Elijah is confronting. It was during Ahab’s reign. that Elijah comes onto the scene during the reign of the most wicked king of Israel.
Well, what made Ahab’s reign so wicked? Or to put it as the catechism might put it, wherein consisteth the evil of Ahab? The evil of Ahab consisteth in the following four things. First of all, he took a heathen wife. These things are delineated for us in the text. And it starts with Jezebel. Jezebel was an idolatrous, pagan, foreign woman. She was daughter of a foreign king. So it’s beyond much doubt that this marriage was a political one. Jezebel was the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians. Sidonians lived up to the north, and perhaps just to promote security and peace at his border. Ahab marries Jezebel. And Jezebel was a very, very wicked woman, such that her name becomes something of a byword in Israel. We see that once we get to the book of Revelation, where some wicked woman is called Jezebel. And everybody understood why that name was given her by the Holy Spirit, because she corresponds to the evil of this woman that Ahab married.
I don’t know if you’ve known anyone who named their daughter Jezebel. I’ve never met any. Well, actually, I have and you have too, you just don’t realize it. But you know, people don’t name their little boys Judas. And people don’t name their little girls Jezebel, but really Jezebel is Isabel. So if you’ve known someone with a daughter named Isabel, it’s the same name. You might not want to tell them that, but that’s what the name is. But anyway, Jezebel becomes a byword, kind of a poster child for wickedness. And she exercised significant negative influence on her husband Ahab, and therefore on the kingdom. She promoted Baal worship, she suppressed the worship of Yahweh, and Ahab let it happen. So that’s number one. The wickedness of Ahab consisteth in taking Jezebel for his wife.
Secondly, Ahab himself worshipped Baal under the influence, no doubt, of Jezebel. Jeroboam’s sin, this one that keeps being dredged up, we might say, by scriptures. Scripture keeps hearkening back to Jeroboam and the sin of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, that he caused Israel to sin. Jeroboam’s sin was presuming to worship the true God in a false way. Do you follow? Jeroboam said when he set up those calves, he said, these are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. He’s saying you can keep worshiping the true God, but just do it here instead. Do it before these calves that I’ve made. So he taught the people and he encouraged the people to worship Yahweh, but in a false way. To do it in a way other than what God had ordained.
Ahab, on the other hand, in contrast to Jeroboam, Ahab gave himself over to the worship of a foreign god. There’s a summary, so I’ll give you a preview of how the Holy Spirit himself summarizes the reign of Ahab. If you want to flip over a couple pages to 1 Kings 21, This is something like scripture’s own epitaph of Ahab and his reign. 1 Kings 21 verses 25 and 26. There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited. He acted very abominably in going after idols as the Amorites had done, whom the Lord had cast out before the people of Israel.
So Ahab himself worshipped Baal. It wasn’t just that his wife did it and he allowed it to happen, but he himself worshipped this foreign god. Number three on the list of citations against Ahab is that he not only worshiped Baal himself, but he promoted the worship of Baal in Israel. The text tells us that he built an altar to Baal. Oh, and where did he build it? He built it in the house of Baal. Where did that come from? Ahab built it. He built a house for Baal. Built an altar to put in that house. And when the text says, this house of Baal was built by Ahab in Samaria, you see what a stark contrast that is to Solomon. When it says a house for Baal, it’s just talking about a temple, a place to worship this pagan god, this terrible pagan fertility god. And he uses the word house in the text, which is the same word that is frequently used to describe what David in his heart desired to do. He wanted to build a house for the Lord, his God. And David wasn’t allowed to do it, but Solomon did. He built this great temple in Jerusalem, a house for the true and living God. Ahab built a house for Baal.
Now, none of this is to say that idol worship wasn’t taking place in Israel prior to this time. It surely was. People were worshiping false gods. So this wasn’t necessarily new, but Ahab institutionalized it. He sanctioned it from the throne. And then finally, it might seem like just sort of a subscript to worshiping Baal, but he made an Asherah. That’s number four. He made an Asherah. There were these Asherah poles that people would build for pagan worship. Asherah was a false goddess. She was like the female consort goddess to Baal. And by making an Asherah, Ahab was essentially doubling down on Baal worship. So all these things, marrying Jezebel, worshiping Baal, promoting the worship of Baal, and even building an Asherah, an image to this horrific Canaanite goddess, these constitute Ahab’s rap sheet. These constitute the list of major offenses that he committed in the eyes of the living God.
Scripture contains a summary of his reign, We looked at one several chapters later, but it’s summed up in our text at the end of verse 33. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. In a survey of the following chapters, the remaining chapters of 1 Kings, and then on into 2 Kings, you see repeated reference with every single one of these kings of Israel, because there was never a good king. There was never a good king in the northern kingdom. But in all the ones that follow Ahab, you see reference to the fact that they continued to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, but no one did more evil than Ahab.
It always proves true that when you have corrupt leadership, it leads to corruption in society. And that brings us to our final point, the corruption of society. Ahab corrupted society deliberately and actively when he built a house for Baal, built an altar to him, led the people in the worship of Baal. But then when you have wicked leadership, the hearts of the people are encouraged to pursue wickedness as well. And we see just one example, sort of an anecdotal reference to how that played out in the days of Ahab.
We see that in verse 34, the last verse of the chapter. A man by the name of Hiel of Bethel, he rebuilt Jericho. And as the text suggests, this makes reference to a curse that was uttered by Joshua as the people were first taking possession of the land generations, centuries ago. And after the people of Israel famously destroyed Jericho, Joshua said, In chapter 6 of Joshua, verse 26, it says, Joshua laid an oath on them, on the people of Israel that is, Joshua laid an oath on them at that time saying, cursed before the Lord be the man who rises up and rebuilds this city Jericho. At the cost of his firstborn shall he lay its foundation, and at the cost of his youngest son shall he set up its gates.
And he all rose up and rebuilt Jericho. He paid the price. For centuries, people feared that curse. And as the word of God was read in their meeting places throughout the land, as they would read the book of Joshua, amongst the other former prophets, they would hear the words of that curse that Joshua pronounced. The people would have been aware of it. And for centuries, they feared to violate that prohibition. But Israel over the generations had become apostate. They’d become sacrilegious people. In terms of true religion, they had become atheists. They worshiped Baal, they worshiped the other gods of the peoples, but they didn’t worship the true and living God. They became like the fool who says in his heart, there is no God. And if there is no God, then there’s no potency to this curse of which they’ve heard.
So Hiel sought to defy the curse. And he paid the price, it says, just exactly as Joshua pronounced it. He laid his foundation at the cost of Abiram, his firstborn, and set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son, Segub. So this passage illustrates for us the extent, the tragic extent of Israel’s moral decay. But again, there’s light in the darkness here because this passage also shows us that God’s word abides and it ultimately prevails. We could think of the words of Galatians 6, where the Apostle Paul wrote, do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever one sows, that will he also reap. The one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
Metaphors to sowing and reaping are apropos because these aren’t things necessarily that happen instantaneously. You don’t reap consequences necessarily of sin immediately, or the day after, or the week after. Sometimes people sow seeds of wickedness, and then they reap what they’ve sown years later, or at the end of life, or maybe not until the judgment. But we can be sure that whatever a person sows, that will he also reap. Heel discovered that at the cost of two of his sons, his firstborn and his youngest.
Well, despite the darkness of this passage, this last word is encouragement for us. There’s good news here. There’s light shining in the darkness. Because we live in times that are, in some respects, dark. We look around. Again, you watch the news. You read the headlines. And there is tangible, observable moral decay in our own day. And when we see it, what we’re seeing are the outward invisible signs of spiritual warfare that’s taking place. in the heavenly realms.
But this passage shows us that even in the worst of times, God’s Word prevails. God’s Word abides. Even when it appears that the powers of darkness are getting the upper hand, we can be certain that our Father in heaven is sovereign. We can take comfort from the words of that hymn we opened our worship with this morning. Oh, Father, you are sovereign. Even when Ahab was on the throne of Israel, the Lord God Almighty was on the throne in heaven. He always has been, and he always will be. Even when our Savior was arrested and delivered over to the Gentiles, when he’s delivered over to be crucified, even then, God was working out the defeat of sin, the defeat of the devil, and even the defeat of death itself. in that dark hour.
And so one takeaway for us one encouragement that we can take from from this sad passages that in times of great evil, we could have gone one verse further, you know, because in the next verse, first verse of 17, then Elijah appears. And it’s just a reminder to us. But even in times of great evil, God often raises up servants whom he uses for great good. So again, why does Ahab, this wicked king, get so much airtime in the book of 1 Kings? Because in his days, God raised up none other than Elijah. The chapters to follow show us much about Elijah’s ministry and how God’s word prevailed over Ahab.
If we look at our lives in the here and now, things are pretty good for us on the whole in this place at this time. Things are pretty bad for some of our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world. My thoughts and my heart continually runs to North Korea. We’ve heard of the atrocities being committed against Christians in Nigeria, There are Muslim nations where Christians are cruelly abused. And we may live to see difficult times. But King Jesus, the incarnate word is on his throne. He reigns and he shall reign forever and ever.
So brothers and sisters, may we be resolved to remain faithful to him and to put our confidence in him because the victory will be his. And in him, the victory will be ours as well.
Let’s pray.
Father in heaven, we thank you. We take such comfort in knowing that you reign and you are enthroned forever. We take such comfort in knowing that Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords. And in the end, everyone will answer to him. Lord, may we be found secure in him. We pray, oh God, that you’ll give us peace in times of trouble. That you’ll give us humility in times of peace. And we pray that the Lord Jesus Christ will be glorified in all that we do and say. We commit this coming week to you. Help us to trust you even in the difficulties of life. And we thank you for the encouragement that you give us even in a passage like this one we’ve looked at this evening. We thank you for our Savior Jesus and we pray all these things in his name, amen.