1 Kings 16:15-17:24 "The Antichrist of Israel" Introduction: Seven Days of Glory (16:15-20) How would you like to be king for a week? What sorts of changes would you make? How would you rule your kingdom? We sometimes think "if I were king for a day, I'd . . ." What would you do? Well, if you think about it, if you were king for a week, your story would be pretty similar to Zimri. Because pretty much the only way to be king for a week is to die 7 days after you are crowned king! In which case you really wouldn't accomplish very much. Real changes take longer than a week, right? Zimri reigned 7 days. Did you notice the conclusion to his reign? Why did Zimri die after seven days? Because of his sins that he committed, doing evil in the sight of the LORD, walking the way of Jeroboam, and for his sin which he committed, making Israel to sin. He was king for seven days. And he made Israel sin? Most of Israel probably never even heard that he was king! And yet he made them sin? Plainly, Zimri was just like Jeroboam and all the kings of Israel. He had no intention of reforming Israel's worship, so God brought judgment on him. And rather than wait to fall into the hands of his enemies, Zimri went into the citadel of the king's house and burned the king's house over him with fire and died. Like Saul, he committed suicide rather than be captured. Some idolatrous kings last for decades, others for only a week. The point is that sooner or later, God's judgment will come. You may have time to repent or maybe you don't. So let's not take our chances! 1. The Anti-David (16:21-28) Now, Zimri's successor, Omri, demonstrates the principle that God often uses the wicked to judge the wicked. Omri is best described as the Antichrist of Israel. He is a parody of David a counterfeit Messiah or "anointed one." Notice that author of Kings only tells us a few things about Omri but all of them parallel something in David's life. 1) Omri was commander of the armies of Israel, fighting against the Philistines. The Baasha dynasty had begun at Gibbethon, fighting the Philistines. The Baasha dynasty ended at Gibbethon, fighting the Philistines. Even as Saul had made little progress against the Philistines when David came, so also Baasha and Elah made little progress against the Philistines when Omri came. 2) After the suicide of the previous king, Israel is divided as to whom to follow. Just as Israel was divided between David and Ish-bosheth, so now it is divided between Omri and Tibni (16:21-22). 3) Omri reigned six years in Tirzah before building his new capital at Samaria, just as David reigned seven years at Hebron before moving his new capital to Jerusalem. 4) Omri bought the hill of Samaria, just as David bought the threshing floor of Araunah. So Omri sounds just like David, right? All except one thing: Omri did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did more evil than all who were before him. He walks in the ways of Jeroboam, and worse, because he worships idols (1 Kings 16:26). Jeroboam had tried to worship Yahweh through the golden calves, but Omri adds explicit idolatry. The Omride dynasty is the most important dynasty in the history of the northern kingdom of Israel. They dominate 1 Kings 16 - 2 Kings 13. That is 20 chapters or about 40% of the book of Kings all devoted to a period of less than 100 years. Solomon gets 11 chapters; the Omrides get 20 that leaves only 16 chapters for everyone else! In other words, the center of the book of Kings is all about Omri and his descendants. Omri is a counterfeit David an Antichrist and his dynasty is also a counterfeit dynasty. If you want to understand what is going on in the book of Kings, you need to see that Omri and Ahab are being set up in parallel to David and Solomon, but as an inverse parallel. The Omrides are the Antichrist. Peter Leithart points out that several themes dominate the account of the Omride dynasty. 1) Omri and his son Ahab are returning Israel to Canaanite worship. Ahab's son even marries into the house of David in an attempt to reunite the kingdom under an Omride king. (And it nearly works under Athaliah!) 2) Because the Omrides are essentially Canaanite, there needs to be a new Exodus and Conquest (under Elijah and Elisha, the new Moses and Joshua-- Elisha's name is even parallel to Joshua). 3) God is provoking Israel to jealousy by sending his prophets to the Gentiles. Deuteronomy 32 had warned that if Israel rebelled, God would reject his people, "They have made me jealous with what is no god; they have provoked me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are no people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation." (32:21) So no sooner does Israel provoke God with their idols, then he sends the prophets to provoke them to jealousy with the Gentiles! Before we move on, it might be worth pointing out what happens at the end of the Omride dynasty. Jehu is appointed by Elisha to destroy the house of Omri (Ahab). He destroys the royal house, and then destroys the temple of Baal. At the end of the book of Kings, the Chaldeans slaughter the sons of David, and then destroy the temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem. Indeed, Jehu even kills Ahaziah, the king of Judah, because he is a descendent of Ahab, thus leaving even the southern kingdom of Judah without a son of David on the throne. The house of Omri is a parody of the house of David and just as Antichrist attempts to take over the house of Christ, so also the Omrides try to take over the house of David; and just as Antichrist will go down in flames, so also the Omrides. (And as we saw when we looked at Jeroboam, the northern kingdom as a whole is a parody of the southern kingdom. Jeroboam also had many similarities to David, and the fall of the northern kingdom will have many parallels to the fall of the southern kingdom. The final king falls, his dynasty is ended, the people are exiled, and the place of worship is destroyed. The story of the Omrides, the story of the northern Kingdom of Israel, and the story of the house of David, all have a similar shape. They all end in death. So the book of Kings could be seen as a pessimistic book except for one thing: the story of David has the same shape as the stories of Israel and Omri. Why is that a good thing? Because the book of Kings ends with the death of the Davidic dynasty. What should we expect to come next? How doe we know what God will do in the future? Well, if the story of David's house forms the framework for the story of Omri and Israel, then perhaps we should look at what happens after the death of Omri's house, or after the death of the northern kingdom! After the Omrides are destroyed, what happens? Yahweh preserves Joash from Athaliah, and Joash restores the Davidic line and revives the worship of Yahweh. After Israel is destroyed, what happens? Yahweh delivers Israel from the Assyrians, and Hezekiah leads a revival of Yahweh worship. Kings ends with Jehoiachin, the son of David, being brought out of prison in Babylon, and being given a place at the table of the Babylonian king. There is hope. There is a future. After death comes revival and life. There is hope beyond the grave. 2. The Anti-Solomon (16:29-34) Well, if Omri is a counterfeit David, then who is Ahab? Verses 29-34 portray Ahab as a counterfeit Solomon. What information do we learn about Ahab in these verses: 1) he married the daughter of the king of Sidon like Solomon he marries a foreign woman who leads him into idolatry. 2) not only that, but Sidon is the twin city of Tyre just as Solomon had allied with Tyre, so Ahab allies with Sidon but this time to the detriment of Israel! 3) and like Solomon, Ahab is a temple-builder! But his temple is a temple to Baal. The final parallel is more complicated. In 1 Kings 5:4 we hear that God had given Israel rest from all their enemies. In Solomon's day, Israel entered God's rest. The glory of the nations streamed into Jerusalem. All that God had promised to Abraham has come true. Israel possesses the whole land. The Seed of Abraham has become a blessing to the nations. In other words, all the blessings of Abraham, Moses and Joshua have come to pass. But in verse 34, we hear that in Ahab's day the curse of Joshua has come to pass. Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho (something a private citizen could only do with the permission of the king especially since it is so near the border of Judah) Jericho was the first city conquered in the days of Joshua. To rebuild Jericho is to attempt to undo the Conquest. It is an explicit movement towards "re-Canaanitization." It is like going back to Egypt. And as Joshua had prophesied, he laid its foundations at the cost of his firstborn, and set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son. Whether this was human sacrifice or "natural" disaster is not clear from the text. The point is that whereas in Solomon's day covenant blessings were abundantly seen, in Ahab's day the covenant curses are beginning to fall against Israel. And it will only get worse. Because Ahab considered it a "light thing" to walk in the sins of Jeroboam. Jeroboam's sin of worshiping Yahweh through the golden calves was only a start. That was just the minor leagues. Now it's time for some serious idolatry! So he marries a Baal worshiper, promotes Baal worship in Israel, and persecutes the few who object. This is the way sin works. One little lie is no big deal, right? But then in order to cover the little lie, you have to tell another. And before you know it, lying has become a habit. Parents speaks harshly to their children. What results? The children imitate their parents, and then take it the next step. The 1950s saw people hiding their problems with a glass of whisky and a cigarette, and sneaking around to commit adultery in hiding. In the '60s their children took it to the next level with sex and drugs and rock 'n roll. But how does God deal with sin? Does he "get used to it"? Sometimes we are surprised or even horrified at God's fury against sin, but that says more about us than about God. He is holy. He truly hates sin. If we are honest with ourselves, we don't really think that sin is all that bad. And that needs to change. Leithart says it well: God "instinctively and completely hates sin with all of His being. If we are to be His children, we need to cultivate the same hatred and hostility to sin. We must never permit the thought, It's a trivial thing. Because it never is." 3. Elijah and the Drought (17:1-7) God deals with the sin of Israel by sending his prophet, Elijah. Like Moses, Elijah will single-handedly lead Israel to renew the covenant. Then Elisha, like Joshua, will lead a reconquest of the land. In 17:1 we hear Elijah proclaim the Word of the LORD: As the LORD the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word. This is a direct challenge to Baal, who was the Canaanite storm god, believed to control the weather. This confrontation between Yahweh and Baal will be at the center of chapters 17-18. And God told Elijah to go to the brook Cherith, east of the Jordan, where he was fed by ravens. By sending him east of the Jordan, Elijah is sent out of the land, exiled into the wilderness and yet preserved in the wilderness, even as Israel was preserved in the days of Moses, being fed by God in the wilderness with bread from heaven. He was fed with "bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening." This morning and evening language sounds very much like sacrificial language the morning and evening sacrifice. 4. The Sidonian Widow (17:8-24) But when the brook dries up, the LORD tells him to go to Zarephath in Sidon, the very place where Jezebel was from. For, Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you. (v9) When he came to the gate of the city he found a widow gathering sticks. And he asked her, Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. When she agrees (remember Abraham's servant, Jacob or Moses meeting women at wells?), he asks her for bread. She replies, As Yahweh your God lives (notice that this Sidonian woman takes an oath in the name of Yahweh!), I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die. The famine lies heavy on the land. Even families that are still intact would be tightening their belts. But a widow has no future. There is nowhere for this woman to turn. This will be her last meal. She will now have to watch her son starve to death. Do you realize how many women have watched their children starve to death? How many hundreds of thousands of parents have had to stand by helplessly as their little children die before their very eyes? Well, that is what is about to happen one more time! But Elijah says, Do not fear; go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake of it and bringit to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son. What woman in her right mind would do such a thing?! Either a woman of great faith or at least a woman of great desperation! Because the prophet has said, For thus says the LORD the God of Israel,(to a Sidonian widow, no less!), The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the LORD sends rain upon the earth. And so she did as Elijah said. And the flour and oil did not run out. Elijah does not marry the widow, but as representative of the divine bridegroom, he serves as a husband to this Gentile woman, providing for her and her household in her desperation. As Jesus asks, Were there no widows in Israel? Why does Elijah go to this Gentile? Deuteronomy 32 had said that when Israel provokes Yahweh to jealousy, then he will provoke them to jealousy by caring for the Gentiles. Jezebel the Sidonian has introduced Baal worship into Israel. So now Yahweh responds by sending his prophet to care for a Sidonian widow. After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill. This is just fun! Kings could have said "widow" or just "woman" but the author insists on saying "mistress" ba-al-at. the feminine form of "Ba-al" The masculine form means either lord or master (and is the name of a Canaanite god). The feminine form means mistress (or can mean "medium" Saul went to a Baalat in 2 Sam 28) In fact, in every other usage in the OT, it either means medium or prostitute. But when used in the phrase the "baalat of the house" it can only mean "mistress." So just as Jezebel (and even her name includes "baal") the Sidonian princess introduces Baal worship in Israel, so now this Sidonian baalat receives the mercy of Yahweh. The irony is delicious! But now her son is ill and there was no breath left in him. And the woman said to Elijah, What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son! And Elijah took her son to the upper chamber, and laid him on his own bed, and cried out, O LORD my god, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son? (v20) Then he stretched himself on the child three times. This is a strange method, but it communicates the life-giving power that resides in Elijah. His words are even more powerful: O LORD my God, let this child's life come into him again. And the LORD listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. Indeed, the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much! (And the one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet, receives a prophet's reward this Gentile received Elijah and was blessed Mt 10:41). This is the first literal death and resurrection in the Bible. And it comes not to an Israelite, but to a Gentile. God is intent on provoking Israel to jealousy, and so he works his wonders for the Gentiles so as to prompt Israel to repent. 1 Kings 17-18 portray Elijah as a replacement for the temple. Jeroboam had substituted the golden calves at Bethel and Dan for the temple in Jerusalem. Now Ahab has instituted Baal worship. Elijah comes to overthrow the corruption of Israel's worship. He is, in some sense, a walking temple. The grain offering and the peace offering came to Elijah by the brook Cherith morning and evening (just like the morning and evening sacrifice). Elijah requests (in effect) a grain offering from the widow in 17:13, and his presence brings the very presence of God to that household. In 1 Kings 8-9, God had said that he would hear the prayers prayed toward his house. Elijah's prayers are effectual without any reference to the temple. Elijah never says anything about going to Jerusalem and worshiping there. And in the next chapter, Elijah will offer sacrifices on Mt Carmel. And rather than be struck dead by God for his insolence in worshiping apart from the temple, God will send fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice the very thing that God had done when Moses consecrated the tabernacle and the very thing God had done when Solomon dedicated the temple. Elijah is the new temple in human form. Therefore his touch brings life. God's presence in Israel now dwells in a Gentile's house in Sidon. The sick sons of Israel's kings are dying right and left. But the sick son of this Sidonian baalat is raised from the dead. Her house is doing much better than the houses of the kings of Israel! At the beginning of the passage, the woman confesses her sin before Elijah, perhaps believing that God's mercy was too good to be true. She is an unclean Gentile how could the God of Israel be merciful to her? At the end of the passage, she will confess her faith in Elijah and Elijah's God. She is assured of forgiveness and that assurance comes through the resurrection. God has cast her sins "as far from Him as east is from west, as far as Samaria is from Zarephath." (Leithart) In Luke 24 Jesus says, "So it is written that the Christ should suffer, die, and rise again on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached to the Gentiles." Where is that written? It is written in 1 Kings 17. When the antichrist is ruling over the people of God, leading them into false worship, rest assured that the Word of the LORD will indeed go forth, calling sinners to repentance and provoking the apostate to return.