After Elijah the prophet pronounced God’s punishment upon Ahab, king of Israel (see 1 Kings 21:17-24), the book of 1 Kings records what appears to be a little “side comment” about the sin of Ahab. He earns a title in the Bible, but it’s not a good one.
(There was never anyone like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the LORD, urged on by Jezebel his wife. He behaved in the vilest manner by going after idols, like the Amorites the LORD drove out before Israel.)
1 Kings 21:25-26 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/1ki.21.25-26.NIV
In a line of evil kings of Israel (of which there seem to have been quite a few), Ahab was apparently the worst of the worst, and this “achievement” has both a source and a cause. Let’s look at the source today, and the cause in the next article.
The source (or perhaps “instigation”) was his wife Jezebel (who herself was the daughter of the king of the Sidonians, per 1 Kings 16:31). She prompted Ahab to follow idols.
While she might have been a source of motivation, though, Ahab still had to pay for his choice to go along with her bad ideas. After all, just because a friend or family member suggests an activity or asks us to follow along with something they are currently into, doesn’t mean we need to follow them if it’s a bad idea. It is still incumbent upon us to make our own choices, and to evaluate what others are trying to get us to do, in light of what God teaches us.
Having said that, from 1 Kings 16:30, it sounds like Ahab may have already been going down a bad path, and Jezebel just helped him on his doomed way. Still, this is a good time to remember that bad company and bad leadership hurt people.
We might remember the phrase, “Bad company corrupts good character”, quoted by Paul (see 1 Corinthians 15:33). Although that was actually a quote from a “secular” source in Paul’s day, even non-Christian philosophers can discover some truths about God and His creation on their own, so we sometimes find elements of truth outside of God’s word, too. We must be discerning, though, and compare what we hear – as well as what we read and watch – against what God has said to us.
A pastor at my church likes to remind us that our close friends today illustrate what we will be like in the future. In Ahab’s case, I don’t know if he personally loved Jezebel or if the marriage to her was just a political one, but when he allowed her to take him even further down a bad path, it didn’t just cost him dearly, it hurt the entire nation of Israel.
And, with Jezebel as the queen, she apparently had enough sway over the leaders of Jezreel to get them to arrange for false accusations and stoning of a man who was – as far as we know – innocent of those charges (see 1 Kings 21:1-16). She was the same queen who had prophets of the true God put to death (see 1 Kings 18:13, for instance). In ancient Israel, evil leaders didn’t just hurt themselves: they brought harm upon others in the process.
Today, where we have some input into leaders (governmental and otherwise, and not just at the national level, but all the way down to our cities, communities, and organizations), I think that involvement is good: voting, campaigning, etc.
However, there’s only so much that we can do, and we should serve God above any earthly leaders (since He rules over them: see Acts 17:24-27ff and Romans 13:1-7). Sometimes, a people whose majority has wandered away from God gets what they ask for (remember Saul, king of Israel?), and then ends up remembering that things were better with God in the first place.
So, let’s do what we can to support good leaders. That might mean praying for those who follow Jesus to be in charge (or for people who are currently in charge to encounter Him, allowing Jesus to change their lives for the better). It might mean voting for candidates whose leadership takes people closer to God, rather than further away. Maybe God wants you to be a leader who will lead people towards Him, so that they can enjoy the blessings that this yields. Or, our role in ensuring God-honoring leadership might be inviting others around us to follow Jesus, turning away from society-destroying habits and towards the ultimate King of Kings who loves His people and is better for them than anything else. Sometimes, God-honoring citizens are rewarded (by God, Himself) with God-honoring leaders.
From Sunday School lesson prepared for May 25, 2025
References:
- Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
- The College Press NIV Commentary – 1 & 2 Kings, by Jesse C. Long, Jr. © 2002 College Press Publishing Co.
Those Who Sin Differently 