Baasha… plotted against Nadab and killed him… And so Baasha succeeded Nadab as king of Israel. At once he began killing all the members of Jeroboam’s family.
Ugly. Barbaric. How far they have descended from David’s time in power!
The Lord spoke to the prophet Jehu son of Hanani and gave him this message for Baasha: “You were a nobody, but I made you the leader of my people Israel.
The Lord made him a leader via a conspiracy and an assassination?! Wow, ça alors…
…Elah son of Baasha became king of Israel… Zimri, one of his officers… assassinated Elah, and succeeded him as king. …As soon as Zimri became king he killed off all the members of Baasha’s family. …Zimri ruled in Tirzah over Israel for seven days. The Israelite troops…heard that Zimri had plotted against the king and assassinated him, then and there they all proclaimed their commander Omri king of Israel. Omri and his troops… went and besieged Tirzah. When Zimri saw that the city had fallen, he went into the palace’s inner fortress, set the palace on fire, and died in the flames.
All that in seven days! Scorched earth policy…
The people of Israel were divided: some of them wanted to make Tibni son of Ginath king, and the others were in favor of Omri. In the end, those in favor of Omri won out; Tibni died and Omri became king.
Tibni dying was a consequence of not being in favor. Game of Thrones.
Omri became king of Israel… he bought the hill of Samaria… Omri fortified the hill, built a town there, and named it Samaria… Omri sinned against the Lord more than any of his predecessors. …he aroused the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, by his sins and by leading the people into sin and idolatry. Everything else that Omri did and all his accomplishments are recorded in The History of the Kings of Israel.
Everything that Omri did and all his accomplishments – to what end? If it doesn’t figure into God’s plan (1 Corinthiens 3:9-15), it’s all useless (Ecclesiastes 1:2-4). May what I do endure, Father (Psalm 90:17). The beginning of the Samaritans (John 4:7).
Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he ruled in Samaria for twenty-two years.
Here we are really hitting the bottom of the well…
It was not enough for him to sin like King Jeroboam; he went further and married Jezebel, the daughter of King Ethbaal of Sidon, and worshiped Baal.
Jezebel tops it off: the icing on the cake…