1
ST
KINGS
Week 26, chapter 15 and 16

In our last lesson in 1
st
Kings we ended by focusing on the meaning of the word “whole-
hearted” (lebab shalem) as used in chapter 15 verse 3. There the Scriptural complaint is that
the newest king over Judah, Aviyam, was just like his predecessor and father Rechav’am
(Rehoboam) in that he was NOT whole-hearted towards Yehoveh; and this was unlike King
David who was whole-hearted.

We spent some time with this because it doesn’t take much reading on the resume of King
David’s life before we see this damning list of some of the worst possible sins a human can
commit against another human: sexual immorality and murder. So how is it that despite these
grievous trespasses, and the consequential divine punishments promised to him, that David is
seen by the Lord as “whole-hearted” towards Him? And the answer seems to be that God’s
definition of whole-hearted revolves around the lack of idolatry in one’s heart and actions. That
David did things that even in our day and age might earn him the death sentence, these were
things that were violations of commandments that regarded human to human interaction.
Idolatry is on the other hand a direct human to God interaction. And the implication is that
idolatry is the Old Testament name for the so-called “unforgivable” sin that in the New
Testament is called blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

We’ll not review today all that we discussed in the last lesson in this regard; but suffice it to
say that while Christianity has struggled mightily with defining “blasphemy of the Holy Spirit”,
so did the ancient Hebrews struggle with defining idolatry otherwise they wouldn’t have done it
so much and then expressed shock when accused of it by God’s prophets. It must be,
however, that even if we can’t fully define it we know that in some way this particular sin is so
serious as to cause the Lord to doom the idolater (who has crossed over some divinely defined
line) to eternal death; thus we’re going to approach this matter of idolatry from another angle
today.

In modern church-speak idolatry is usually said to mean anything that a Believer puts ahead of
God in importance. And then countless sermons are spoken usually centered on our wallets
1 / 9

and our income with the suggestion that we have made our money or job that idolatrous god.
And while I can see in some respects the good intent of such a suggestion and its application,
it really is but hyperbole and allegory and it doesn’t match with the biblical definition and
examples of idolatry. Thus while sounding satisfying such a dubious definition leads us away
from actual spiritual truth and reality.

Throughout the Bible idolatry was visibly and tangibly expressed as the overt worshipping of
idols and images, and particularly those idols and images of named gods and goddesses who
were obviously not Yehoveh. Idolatry was not accidental; such outward expressions must
necessarily begin with a conscious decision of the human mind and soul to redefine just who
God is, and thus to reject in part or in whole what the Torah and all the Holy Scriptures say that
He is. In other words, if the Scriptures say that God is One (echad) and that there are no other
gods, and that God is not human-like or animal-like then to worship an idol of another god, or
to make an image of a golden calf or a bull or any other creature is to declare that God is either
wrong or He is not telling the truth. Or perhaps another option is a belief that the Holy
Scriptures are incorrect in their pronouncements of God’s inherent attributes.

Generally speaking in modern Judeo-Christian societies, and even in modern Western secular
societies, we don’t see people making, buying and worshipping little idols of false gods. I’ve
never witnessed a Christian or Jew or even an “enlightened” secular person have a shrine to a
false god or have a shelf full of idols and images of false gods to whom they burn incense or
pray to as superior beings. That seems to be a relic of the ancient past, or it belongs to some
primitive voodoo culture or in some of the oriental religions of the Far East. So does that mean
that idolatry is actually just a thing of the past within Judeo-Christianity and therefore likely
none of us would ever be tempted to commit it anyway? In my opinion idolatry is alive and well
among Jews and Christians; it’s only that we outwardly express it differently in modern times
than the way we usually see it in the cultures of the Bible.

Since the source of idolatry is formed by a determination in our minds and souls to redefine
God, then whenever we pick and choose those characteristics and purposes of Yehoveh that
are attractive to us and we reject others of His attributes and purposes, that is a form of idolatry
as surely as if we set up an Asherah and prayed to it. And it happens today for the same
reason it happened for the ancient Israelites; we do this to have a god who serves us better
and often helps us fit in better with our local society. So we worship a god of our own making;
we worship the one we want rather than the one that is.

When we worship whoever it is that we worship, what else is it that we worship in our minds
and hearts other than the characteristics that we attribute to that being? The attributes of a god
2 / 9

define that god for us. Therefore I can’t assign to the God of the Bible the attributes of Buddha
or Allah and then expect the God of the Bible to see my worship as acceptable to Him or even
as pertaining to Him. It is the Scripturally declared attributes of Yehoveh that makes Him who
He is; intentionally dismiss some of His attributes or add some that aren’t there, and you no
longer have Yehoveh you have some other god; a false god. It doesn’t matter what we might
think to call him.

So (for instance) if we think in our worship that God’s greatest purpose in His relationship with
His people is to fulfill all of our human dreams and goals, that is idolatry because that is not
what the Bible says about Him. If we think in our worship that God has become our buddy
instead of our Creator, King and Redeemer, that is idolatry (for the same reason). If we make
God merely a super-human instead of an entirely separate and unique being that is far above
and unlike any other being, that is idolatry. If we make God to be only vengeful and wrathful,
that is idolatry because we refuse to acknowledge His other attributes. If we make God to be
only love and mercy, that is idolatry (for the same reason). If we make God to be only a God
of war or only a God of peace, that is idolatry.

When taken as a body of work we see in King David’s many Psalms his balanced and
insightful understanding of Yehoveh that He is all of those attributes I just mentioned and far
more. David tells us that God is severe and He is kind; God will destroy and He will save; God
will forgive whom He will, and He will NOT forgive whom He will not; God will punish and He
will reward; God will curse and He will bless; God is the Creator of all things, not the substance
of all of things. And most importantly God is One, not many. And He is all of these attributes
simultaneously. The ancients expressed their erroneous understanding of the way gods
worked by picking and choosing characteristics and attributes, and then assigning a certain
characteristic to one god and a different attribute to another (a god who creates, another who
is a god of war, another who is a god of peace, a separate goddess of fertility, a specialized
god of the harvest, etc). We do no differently when we embrace the characteristics of the Lord
that suits us as individuals and thus we define Him in that way, and at the same time we deny
or reject His other characteristics that are less desirable to us.

Therefore the Scriptural message is: be whole-hearted towards God and be seen by God as
He saw David. Or be half-hearted towards God and be seen by God as He saw Jeroboam,
Rehoboam, Aviyam, and the many others who followed them.

Let’s re-read chapter 15 starting at verse 6.

3 / 9

RE-READ 1
ST
KINGS 15:6 – end


The war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam was eventually taken up by Rehoboam’s
son Aviyam. The Rabbis say that even during Rehoboam’s lifetime as King it was his
son Aviyam who at times led the war effort of Judah. Of course we are not to understand that
there was one long continuous battle over these years but rather there was a state of hostility
between the two kingdoms that on occasion broke out into open warfare. Then we’re told
that Aviyam died and was buried in the City of David. Aviyam reigned for only 3 years and
must have died at a relatively young age.

Verse 9 begins with the story of Asa, Aviyam’s son, who became King of Judah upon
Aviyam’s death. He would be regarded as one of the more righteous kings of the Davidic
dynasty. Notice again how the reigns of the kings of the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel are
synchronized by the passages explaining that Asa became king of Judah at the time that
Jeroboam had attained his 20
th
year of rulership over Israel. Asa ruled for a long time, about
41 years and did what was right in the Lord’s eyes. In fact, what he did that was “right” is
favorably compared to his forefather David and this is in reference to working to eliminate
idolatry from God’s Kingdom.

Verse 12 says that King Asa rid the land of Judah of qadesh and removed the gillulim (the
idols) that his fathers (meaning Aviyam, Rehoboam and Solomon) had established. The
qadesh are often translated into English as cult-prostitutes, male prostitutes or sodomites; but
in reality the word qadesh literally means those who are set-apart for a holy purpose. It is from
the same root word as kadosh (qadosh) that means holy. But in this context it is referring to
some kind of immoral sexual behavior that was attached to the Jerusalem Temple and
apparently was actually desired and sanctioned by the priesthood as a good thing. Exactly
what it was can only be speculated upon; most scholars and historians think it was Temple
sanctioned prostitution done for the sake of raising money for the Temple treasury and
operation (that was a rather standard pagan temple practice in that era). As you sit cringing a
bit about this don’t think that this sort of mindset has passed away; today we see sanctioned
gambling done at churches in order to raise money for ministry. We see Halloween pumpkin
sales at churches complete with sales people in full witches costumes, done for the purpose of
raising money for the church. The point is that so much of the time in the Bible that we see the
Hebrews doing evil in God’s eyes, they certainly didn’t see it that way; they were doing good
in their own eyes. The Hebrews frequently seemed to find a way to rationalize wrong behavior
as long as they did it in Yehoveh’s name or for what they deemed as a pious purpose. I’m
4 / 9

sorry to say that Christianity has not learned from this and instead has at times adopted the
same attitude.

It has to be the irony of ironies that institutional Christianity long ago decided it simply must
avoid all things Jewish or we would be committing a sin called judaizing; however at the same
time it was deemed to be fine and dandy to adopt blatantly pagan worship practices and
observances, attach Christian meaning to them, and then fight to the death to hang on to them
and declare anyone who won’t go along with it as a heretic. The Puritans who fled across the
Atlantic to a New World did so primarily because they sought to escape religious persecution
as they refused to observe those standard practices and observances, choosing instead to
follow the teachings and observances ordained in the Bible.

King Asa was so zealous to do what was right before the Lord that he even deposed his own
grandmother, Ma’acah, from her position as gevirah (Queen Mother). That had to have been
a politically risky move and one that probably wasn’t popular either inside or outside the royal
court. The stated reason for her removal was that she was the patron of Ashtoreth and so had
erected an Asherah in her honor. Asa had this disgusting thing cut down and burned in the
Kidron Valley that ran along one side of the City of David. Grandma couldn’t have been happy
about this but Asa’s goal was to please Yehoveh, not his family.

However Asa didn’t do everything right; verse 14 explains that he wrongly left the bamot in
place. These bamot (high places) are to be understood NOT as places of worship to pagan
gods but rather as places of worship to Yehoveh. What was wrong in allowing them to remain?
There was to be but ONE authorized place of worship and sacrifice, Solomon’s Temple. There
was but ONE place where God would put His holy name, Jerusalem. But people thought it the
height of personal piousness if they were to spend the money to build heir own high place,
complete with altar, where their family would worship and sacrifice privately. Again, these
Hebrews never thought they were doing something wrong in God’s eyes; but that is what
happens when we either stop reading God’s Word, or we stop taking it seriously and taking it
for what it says, and kind of build our own personal religion that seems to validate whatever it
is that we want to do. We think if we call our activity a ministry, or we say that the Lord gave us
permission to do it, or that it may be sin for you but it’s not for me, we can do what the Bible
says not to do and somehow it’s OK. In fact we tend to feel pretty good about it. That’s often
the case with Believers today just as it was with Biblical Hebrews in times past.

At the end of verse 14 we are reunited with the words that we all ought to strive to hear
someday when we face the Lord as we enter eternity: “he was wholehearted with the Lord”. In
other words the hurdle to jump over into a state of God-declared righteousness was not
5 / 9

perfection of behavior. Rather it was the avoidance of idolatry as evidence of faithfulness to
Yehoveh; and Asa showed himself faithful in that regard. As a further demonstration of his
loyalty to the God of Israel Asa brought the spoils of war that his father Aviyam had won, as
well as the treasures that Asa had accumulated, and dedicated them to the Temple.

But now we see another side of Asa emerge. The next several verses explain that Asa, King
of Judah, warred with Ba’sha King of Israel. A little later we’ll get a brief account of
how Ba’sha replaced Jeroboam’s dynasty as king of the northern tribes. But for the moment
his kingship is just stated as historical fact. Let me take a moment to set up a bit of a historical
timeline for you in this regard (most of this information is recorded in 2
nd
Chronicles 13, 14 and
15). After a tremendous victory over Yerov’am by Aviyam, the Kingdom of Judah had an
extended period of relative peace that lasted about a decade. As it is for any national leader,
war with a foreign enemy gets all of his attention because the primary issue for him is national
survival. However in peacetime it is domestic issues that can be addressed.

Thus it was during this 10 year lull in hostilities with Israel that Asa set about uprooting pagan
idols and Asherah, building up his fortresses and defenses, and upgrading his army. At the
end of this peaceful period the Cushite ruler from northern Africa named Zerah invaded Judah
with an overwhelming army. But Asa cried out to the Lord, and placed his faith in Yehoveh for
deliverance and Zerah was defeated. After this battle Asa renewed his campaign to rid Judah
of idol worship, re-consecrated the Altar outside the Temple, and held a great festival of
thanksgiving to give the Lord credit and glory for all that had happened.

But in the 16
th
year of Asa’s reign the latest King of Israel, Ba’sha, decided to invade Judah
and quickly gained control over the strategic city of Ramah in the territory of Benjamin that was
only a couple of hours from Jerusalem and Asa’s palace. It is clear that Ba’sha’s intent was to
isolate Judah from any communication or traffic to the north at the same time he could control
his own people from journeying south to the Temple in Jerusalem to worship and sacrifice
under the supervision of the Levites.

With Ba’sha almost on his doorstep Asa panicked. So in verse 18 the King of Judah decided
to purchase an ally to help him against Ba’sha and Israel. Only a few years earlier Asa had
dedicated his father’s and his own gold and silver to the Temple treasury; but now Asa uses
the Temple like a bank and plunders it; he sends the precious metals to the pagan Ben-Hadad,
King of Damascus, Syria as a bribe. It is indeed sad that the great God-given victory over the
Cushite King Zerah failed to persuade Asa to once again follow the same pattern, under
similar circumstances, by seeking the Lord for deliverance; but instead he would try the way of
the flesh that most rulers of that day would have taken.
6 / 9

The idea was that Asa figured that the only way that Ba’sha could ultimately overrun Judah
was with Ben-Hadad’s help. And apparently there was a treaty in place between Israel and
Damascus. So Asa didn’t necessarily ask Ben-Hadad to attack his ally Israel but merely not to
help Ba’sha in his exploit to capture Judah. Nonetheless Ben-Hadad did attack a handful of
cities in the northern part of Israel and this had the effect of forcing Ba’sha to withdraw his
troops from Ramah in order to reinforce his defenses against Ben-Hadad. He retreated to
Tirtzah, his capital city, and never again tried to attack Judah.

Verse 22 explains that as quickly as Ba’sha’s men left Ramah Asa required every able bodied
man in Judah (without exception) to report to Ramah to help carry off all of the cut stones and
usable building materials that Ba’sha had left behind. Asa used those materials to fortify his
own strategic defensive positions at the cities of Geva and Mitzpah.

This is the end of Asa’s story except to say that in his old age he was stricken with a
debilitating disease in his feet (the Sages say it was Gout); 2
nd
Chronicles 16 says that he was
stricken in the 39
th
year of his reign. Not long afterward he died and was buried with other
members of David’s household in the City of David. He was succeeded by his
son Yehoshaphat.

Using the standard way of synchronizing reigns used by the editors of the Book of Kings, verse
25 now backtracks significantly to fill in some blanks and explains that Asa was in only his 2
nd
year as king over Judah when Nadav began to rule over Israel, taking over from his father
Jeroboam. But he ruled only 2 years and was as sinful and full of idolatry as was his father.
Remember that according to Biblical Regnal chronology saying that he ruled 2 years in no way
means that he was on the throne for 730 days. It merely means that he was king for parts of 2
calendar years, and it could have amounted to as little as a few days (although it likely was for
several months at the least).

Now we find out how Ba’sha came to be King of Israel. Ba’sha was not a member of
Jeroboam’s dynasty; rather he was from the insignificant northern tribe of Yissakhar. It
happened that Nadav was leading his troops in battle against the Philistines at a place called
Gib’ton. Gib’ton was a named Levitical city in Dan’s territory, but Dan had long ago
abandoned the territory and moved north to near the border of Lebanon so the Philistines
occupied it. Fulfilling the prophecy as spoken by Achiyah of Shiloh that the House of
Jeroboam would be entirely terminated because of Jeroboam’s idolatry, Ba’sha conspired to
treacherously murder Jeroboam’s son Nadav at Gib’ton, and once accomplished he set about
7 / 9

to kill every male family member that remained from Jeroboam’s line so that the former royal
line would have no one left to seek revenge.

It must be made clear that the final few words of this chapter want one and all to know that
while Ba’sha was not innocent, he was essentially carrying out Yehoveh’s will in killing all of
Jeroboam’s family. Over and over in the Bible we’ll see this theme of the Lord using evil men
to bring about punishment over His own people. What we don’t see is the Lord turning good
men into bad men and then using them for that purpose.

Let’s move on to chapter 16.


READ 1
ST
KINGS CHAPTER 16 all


Ba’sha was a complete failure as a king and so the Lord set about to punish him for his
wickedness. God sent the prophet Yehu, who was the son of another prophet named Hanani,
to bring the bad news to Ba’sha. The very same curse that the Lord laid upon Jeroboam would
now happen to Ba’sha. We will see that this same prophet Yehu who criticized Ba’sha would
also criticize the new king of the southern kingdom, Jehoshaphat.

In verse 2 the Lord through Yehu tells Ba’sha that rather than realize that it was wholly
impossible for a man who was not of aristocratic blood, and who came from such common
stock of a small tribe (Issachar), to rise up and become a king over so formidable a people as
the 10 northern tribes could not have happened unless the Lord God made it happen. And so
rather than Ba’sha understanding that he was only an instrument to bring about God’s
wrathful prophecy on the House of Jeroboam, and instead of responding by drawing near to
God and serving Him, Ba’sha became the most idolatrous and evil king over Israel to that
point in history. Thus the Lord says that He will completely wipe out Ba’sha’s line (just as
Ba’sha completely wiped out Jeroboam’s line) and there will be no dynasty of Ba’sha.

I think it might be a good time to remark about something that some of you may already be
8 / 9

puzzling about. It seems that there was something very strange in the nature and character of
the kings of Israel in that they were consciously well aware of God overthrowing the previous
Israelite kings due to their perverse worship of golden calves and of other gods and idols,
because each successive new king had a direct hand in ending the reign of the previous
regime. It was made clear to them by God’s prophets, in advance, that the reason that the
Lord was allowing them to even commit murder of the sitting king was in order to bring about
prophetic fulfillment of God’s judgment on that evil king for his idolatry. And yet, these new
kings responded by worshipping the same false gods, golden calves, and Asherah that the
kings they had just deposed were worshipping.

It is utterly irrational. But it has that same aura of determined self-destruction that the true
master of these evil kings, Satan, seems to have. Satan knows that his ultimate destiny is
destruction in the Lake of Fire. He knows that he is going to lose his ages-long battle with God.
So why doesn’t he repent, accept the forgiveness that Messiah offers, and end this suicidal
war that he can’t win? We could ask that question of each of these successive generations of
Israel’s kings; and we could ask it of some of our present world’s worst homicidal despots and
perhaps we could ask it of some of our closest family members and dearest friends. Why do
they think they can defeat God? Why do they think that they will be the first ones to do evil in
God’s eyes and escape his punishment and wrath? It can only be a spiritual blindness that
that has deprived one and all of these of their senses.

Why do we as God’s followers (of all people) think that we can disobey Him and suffer no
consequences? Why do we think that (for us) our sins and trespasses will arouse little more
than a grandfatherly wink and chuckle from God Almighty? Why do we think we can forsake
Yehoveh’s laws and commands, His festivals and His ordained observances, and replace
them with observances and doctrines of our own creation and that He will bless it and even
congratulate us for it? Why do we think we can disagree with or overturn His prophetic decree
that Israel will once again be His chosen people and precious treasure, be restored and
returned to their own land that He promised them, and that anyone who tries to harm His
people will be themselves harmed? It is because of that same kind of irrational spiritual
blindness that infected the long list of Israel’s wicked kings, and the source of that irrational
blindness is also the same as theirs was: the Evil One.
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
9 / 9