Bible Commentaries
1 Kings 16

Verses 16-30

VII

THE HOUSE OF OMRI

There were three dynasties only in Israel which were makers of history. First, the dynasty of Jeroboam; second, the dynasty of the house of Omri, which we are now to discuss; third, the dynasty of the house of Jehu. All of the rest of them we might put in a parenthesis – no history in them.

Only two of all the kings of Israel were appointed by Jehovah, viz.: Jeroboam and Jehu. The rest of them came to the throne, usually as the Praetorian Guard at Rome elected the Caesars – the army elected the king of Israel, and as soon as one was so declared by the army, he killed off all the family of his predecessor – that is the record of it. Only two of them had a dynasty that extended beyond a second generation.

The scriptural sources for a sketch of Omri, the sixth king of Israel are very short: 1 Kings 16:15-28, and half of a sentence in the prophecy of Micah (Micah 6:16) – two paragraphs in history and half of a sentence in prophecy. From this brief history we see that he was in command of the army of Israel besieging a Philistine city, when the news was brought that his fellow commander, Zimri, at Tirzah, had murdered the king, slain all of his family and usurped the throne. That is the news that came to Omri’s camp, whereupon his army instantly proclaimed Omri king. He gave up the siege and marched hastily to Tirzah, one of the capitals of the nation, took that city, and then one week from the time that Zimri murdered the king he committed suicide by retiring into the palace and setting it on fire – the palace became his funeral pyre. Half of the people made Tibni king, and after four years of civil war between Tibni and Omri, Tibni perished and Omri became sole ruler of the ten tribes.

His personal reign was only twelve years, but in that time he achieved these momentous things: First, he established a dynasty that held the throne of Israel for about forty-five years, and controlled the foreign policy of the house of Judah for the same length of time, and dominated the throne of Judah for fourteen years, and attracted more attention among the foreign nations than any other man since Solomon’s time. Second, he built the city of Samaria which, in one way or another, became the rival of Jerusalem for a thousand years, even up to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem. Every visiting traveler has been impressed by it. All books on the Holy Land have much to say about Samaria.

Third, he enacted statutes of idolatry that corrupted Israel unto the downfall of the kingdom, a period of 200 years. Micah 6:16 tells us about that.

Fourth, by marrying his son Ahab to Jezebel, the princess of Tyre (or Sidon, as it is indifferently called, Tyre and Sidon being close together in the Phoenician kingdom), he prepared the way for Baal worship in both kingdoms, and for bringing the true religion to the lowest ebb since the flood.

Fifth, he inaugurated the unusual policy of alliance, instead of war, with the house of Judah, and that policy prevailed throughout his dynasty, Israel and Judah never being at war during the several reigns of the dynasty of Omri, and in this way he controlled the foreign policy of Judah, brought that nation into sin continually, and into conflicts with its prophets. There was no king of Judah that reigned during the dynasty of Omri that did not fall into some sin through this policy of alliance inaugurated by Omri.

There are other sources of material for a sketch of this remarkable man, about whom our Bible says so little, viz.: The Syrian, Assyrian, Moabite, and Tyrian records, inscribed on tablets and obelisks, all of which speak of Omri, and have more to say about him than the Bible does. Travelers in the Holy Land verify every geographical and topographical allusion in the history of his life. Two noted Greek historians give the history of Ethbaal, king of Tyre, as father-in-law of Ahab, and the date of their history perfectly harmonizes with the days of Omri and Ahab. Moreover, the Tyrian historians throw a very valuable sidelight on the Bible history. They show that Ethbaal, the father of Jezebel, was the high priest of the Ashtoreth (or Astarte, or Venus) and his daughter being raised in that temple, in that atmosphere, it is easy to account for her religious fanaticism in favor of Baal worship. In Vergil, Dido recounts to Aeneas her migration from Tyre, and how it led to the founding of Carthage. That Dido of Vergil was a very close kinswoman to Jezebel. I think Jezebel was the great-aunt of Dido.

Now, there is a piece of history, which I have referred to before, that is about as remarkable as any in the world. About nine hundred years before Christ a contemporary of the Omri dynasty inscribed on a stone references to Omri and Ahab, and after it had been buried more than 2,500 years it was recently dug up. I give here a translation from the first part of it, and the very man that wrote it will appear in the next chapter. Indeed we have already considered him in the life of Jehoshaphat. He is Mesha, king of Moab, that invaded Judah – he is the man that wrote it. I shall never forget the interest stirred up by the discovery of the Moabite Stone. Infidels had been confidently trusting the spade to overturn the Bible, and lo! this stone confirmed it. Mesha set up that stone about twenty-five years after Omri died. Here is a part of the inscription, following the translation of Ginsburg, the archeologist as quoted by Rawlinson:

"I, Mesha, am son of Chemoshgad, king of Moab, the Dibonite. My father reigned over Moab thirty years, and I reigned after my father. And erected this stone at Karcha, a stone of salvation, for he saved me from all dispoilers, and let me see my desire on all mine enemies. And Omri, king of Israel, oppressed Moab many days, for Chemosh was angry with his land. His son succeeded him, and he also said, I will oppress Moab. In my days he said, Let us go and I will see my desire on him and his house: and Israel said I will destroy it forever.

Now, Omri took the land of Medeba and occupied it, he and his son, and his son’s son, forty years. And Chemosh had mercy on it in my days."

Now, when Ahab was killed in the battle of Ramoth-gilead, Moab rebelled and sustained their rebellion permanently against Israel. We have already seen somewhat of this, and will see more. I often wonder as I read of the various excavations at Nineveh and Babylon, and on the Nile, and among the Canaanite states, what a marvelous providence that God permitted these buried inscriptions to come to light just at the time assault was being made upon the integrity of his Book. When I was a young fellow I heard a great infidel say, "Books? Moses write books? Why, there were no books in the times of Moses." Not a very great while after his lecture the spade turned up Canaanite library cities older than Moses. The books were only clay tablets, of course, piled up there in public libraries. One of these remarkable archeological monuments, now familiar to all students, is called the Black Obelisk, inscribed by an Assyrian. It names particularly the house of Omri. The obelisk makes interesting reading for a sidelight on this section.

The character of Omri is described in 1 Kings 16:25-26: "And Omri did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, and dealt wickedly above all that were before him." We will find soon that his son surpasses in wickedness, but just now he is more wicked than any previous one, "For he walked in all the ways of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sins wherewith he made Israel to sin, to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger with their vanities." Here I raise the question as to the scriptural meaning of "vanities." We find many times in the Old Testament the word, "vanities," and it nearly always refers to vain objects of worship. It is not the vanity in female attire, nor in the apparel of dudes, but it is vain objects of worship.

He sought affinity with the Phoenicians by marrying his son Ahab to Jezebel because he was a great politician. He had little conscience, and no religion, but the kingdom that he dreaded was Syria, lying just north of him. Later in the history the dread shifts to Assyria ’with its capital at Nineveh on the Tigris river. But in Omri’s time the foe to dread was Syria with its capital at Damascus. Now, he could not afford to have a strong enemy south of him, and another enemy west of him, all the time dreading that great enemy north of him, and so, as a shrewd politician, he secured peace effectively with the Phoenicians on the west and of Judah on the south, both ratified by marriages.

The character of Ahab, his son who succeeded him, is described in 1 Kings 16:30-33; 1 Kings 21:25-26, as follows: "And Ahab the son of Omri did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord above all that went before him. And he went and served Baal, and worshipped him. And he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made Asherah; and Ahab did yet more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him." They were getting worse, and the next passage says, "But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to do that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. And he did very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites did, whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel."

Now, there is a remarkable sentence: "Whom Jezebel stirred up." Ahab could have been a moderately good man with a good wife, for he was a notoriously weak man. But his wife was a strong woman, a woman of as strong character as is known to history. She wound him round her little finger: She was the boss of that house; an exceedingly imperious woman, raised as the proud princess, the daughter of the high priest of Astarte, and she determined that her religion should be the religion of Ahab and of Judah. She was utterly unscrupulous. A weak man if bossed by a good wife, may become passably good, but if the wife be both strong and evil, he will do more harm than if the evil came from himself. As Bismarck once said to a young diplomat who extenuated a mistake because it was not a crime: "You have done worse than commit a crime; you have blundered."

Another incident bears relation to his irreverent character. This we find in 1 Kings 16:34: "In his days did Hiel the Bethelite build Jericho; he laid the foundation thereof with the loss of Abiram his firstborn, and set up the gates thereof with the loss of his youngest son Segub; according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by the hand of Joshua the son of Nun." Now, in the history of Joshua we find that when he destroyed Jericho, he pronounced this curse on it: "Whoever shall rebuild Jericho shall lay its foundation in the blood of his firstborn." Ahab and Omri were builders; they built cities. So this Hiel in his day, that lived at Bethel, one of the cities of calf worship, concluded to rebuild the city of Jericho, which commanded the fords of Jordan, and was an exceedingly strong place. The Bible does not tell how, but in some way, God fulfilled the prophecy on him. Maybe in laying the foundation a stone crushed his first-born. Anyhow, before he got through with the building, all of his sons were dead.

The following lessons may be deducted from this incident: First, never embark on an enterprise that will cost you your dearest. I put my finger on that passage once and said to a church member who was keeping a retail liquor store, "You will lay the foundation of your financial success in the blood of your children." Not more than a week after that two drunken men in that saloon got to fighting and his son was killed, accidentally shot in the fight. Be careful that you do nothing that will entail a curse on your boy or the sweet little girl to come after you. I think it is a great lesson.

Another great lesson is to note how remarkable is the word of God. Ages had passed away since the blowing of rams’ horns when the walls of Jericho fell down, and Joshua lifted up his hands and pronounced that curse on the man who should rebuild it. And that word of God lay there quiescent in ambush, but rose up to life and smote to death the children of a man that many centuries after tried to fight Jehovah’s dictum. Julian, the apostate Roman emperor, read the prophecy about the walls of Jerusalem. He sneeringly put his finger on the passage in the prophecy, and said, "I will show you that this prophecy is a liar." He sent a vast number of men to go and rebuild the wall – am simply quoting Gibbon the infidel historian – and fire came out and devoured the men so that they left off the building of the wall. And consequently, when Julian was dying he used this language: "Thou Galilean, hast conquered," referring to Jesus. That reminds us of the passage in Acts: Herod slew James and imprisoned Peter, and put on a robe and made himself out to be God. The record says that the worms ate up Herod, but the word of God prevailed and multiplied. So we do not need to be very uneasy, fearing the destruction of the word of God.

The next wicked act of Ahab belongs to the history here, but is recorded elsewhere. It is found in 1 Kings 19: "And Elijah said, And the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, torn down thine altars, and have slain thy prophets with a sword. And I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life to take it away." That was one of the bitterest religious persecutions known in the history of the world.

I close this chapter with a touching incident of this great persecution. It is found in 1 Kings 18: "Now Obadiah, the master of the household of Ahab, feared the Lord greatly, for it was so that when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord that Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave, and fed them with bread and water." That verse is like an oasis in the desert, that little incident, and when we read the history of the Albigenses, the Waldenses, the Hugenots, the Dutch, and the Scotch, and of any other people, suffering religious persecution, we find some brave, bold man or woman that harbors these fugitives from the vengeance of the persecuting power; that opens the door to them; feeds them and takes care of them, though done under the penalty of death. It was the custom of the popes, when persecuting a people, to put a curse on any who sheltered them: "No man shall shelter him, no man shall give him a loaf of bread to eat, or even a drop of cold water." But this Obadiah, the master of the household of Ahab, in his heart, loved Jehovah. Now, when it comes to secreting men in two caves, fifty in each, and secretly getting food to them, knowing that everything he did put his life in hazard – say, it is better to know of a man of that sort than to know of the conquests of military heroes – his record is worthy of going into history. There are many things in history we could afford to leave out, but we want everything of that kind on record.

In this great extremity, a mighty instrument of protest and reformation did the Lord raise up. He is the hero of the next chapter: "Elijah the Tishbite."

QUESTIONS

1. What three dynasties only of Israel were makers of history?

2. How many of all the kings of Israel were appointed by Jehovah?

3. How did the rest of them come to the throne?

4. What are the scriptural sources for a sketch of Omri, the sixth king of Israel, and how did his house arise?

5. What other sources of material for a sketch of Omri, and what is the additional information?

6. What was the character of Omri?

7. What is the meaning of "vanities" as used here and most everywhere else in the Old Testament?

8. Why did Omri seek affinity with Phoenicia and Judah by marriage and how was it affected?

9. What was the character of Ahab, his son, and what the greatest influence in his life for evil?

10. What other incident bears relation to his irreverent character?

11. What lessons may be deduced from this incident?

12. What was the next wicked act of Ahab?

13. Relate a touching incident of this great persecution?

14. In this great extremity what mighty instrument of protest?