Slides: Rotten Rulers

1 Kings 16:29-33

²⁹ In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years. ³⁰ Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those before him. ³¹ He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. ³² He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. ³³ Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than did all the kings of Israel before him.

^21:25 There was never anyone like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, urged on by Jezebel his wife. ²⁶ He behaved in the vilest manner by going after idols, like the Amorites the Lord drove out before Israel.

^22:39 As for the other events of Ahab’s reign, including all he did, the palace he built and adorned with ivory, and the cities he fortified, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?

Rotten Rulers

• What is the standard?
• What are the problems?
• What do they listen to?
• What happens to them?

Standard
Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin condemns any people. (Prov 14:34)

• God’s law is the standard for rulers.
• Ahab and Jezebel sold out to sin.
• Political deals, palace, ivory, cities, and military don’t impress God.

Rotten Rulers

• What is the standard?
• What are the problems?
• What do they listen to?
• What happens to them?

Jezebel religion

• Depict Yahweh as golden calf
• Worship Baal and Asherah, vile gods of sex and prosperity

How can there be peace as long as all the idolatry and witchcraft of Jezebel abound? (2 Kings 9:22)

Jezebel religion
You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. (Revelation 2:20)

Rotten Rulers

• What is the standard?
• What are the problems?
• What do they listen to?
• What happens to them?

Rebuke
He who listens to a life-giving rebuke will be at home among the wise. (Proverbs 15:31).
It is better to heed a wise man’s rebuke than to listen to the song of fools. (Ecclesiastes 7:5)

Stubborn folly
A man’s own folly ruins his life, yet his heart rages against the LORD.
A man who remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed—without remedy. (Proverbs 19:3; 29:1).

Rotten Rulers

• What is the standard?
• What are the problems?
• What do they listen to?
• What happens to them?

Day of disaster
The LORD works out everything for his own ends—even the wicked for a day of disaster… There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD. (Proverbs 16:4; 21:30)