From the good old kings of Israel and Judah to emperors of superpowers, we’ve covered a lot of kings here. That leaves an area of glaring neglect, how about the overwhelming number of evil ones?
Those evil kings of Israel and Judah shared some common traits and faults, among which God’s primary concern was idolatry of all kinds. Most of them not only worshipped idols but also led the whole nation astray. A few went as far as sacrificing their children to the pagan gods.
A notable member of that “community” was King Ahab [EH-hab] 亞哈王 {ya3-ha1-wang2}, not because he was the evilest (apparently that’s the word), not by a long stretch, but because he occupied one of the richest storylines of any kings and embodied a variety of counterexamples for us to learn from.
On top of his predecessors’ idolatry, Ahab introduced and popularized Baal worship in the kingdom, so much so there were hundreds of false prophets for Prophet Elijah to battle with. As a consequence, the kingdom suffered drought, famine, and war.
Speaking of that war with the Arameans, it was a doozy. Facing Ben-Hada plus 32 other kings and all their armies, Israel was vastly outnumbered. In such a dire moment, God told King Ahab through a prophet that He would personally deliver the Israelites from these enemies. However, Ahab himself would need to lead the charge, along with only junior officers and regular infantry to win the battle. So, not exactly the cream of the crop.
Surprisingly, Ahab didn’t shy away from this test of faith, and as a result experienced God’s promised deliverance, TWICE. You would think that by having such an intimate and close encounter with God, he might repent and change his ways, but no. Upon defeating Ben-Hadad, he allied with these enemies instead of destroying them. Worse yet, he went straight back to his old wicked ways, which brings us to…
Queen Jezebel [JE-zuh-bel] 耶洗別 {ye1-xi3-bie2}. She was as famous (or infamous) as Ahab himself and had as much part in the corruption of the kingdom as the king. The dynamic duo’s wickedness was thoroughly demonstrated in their encounter with Naboth 拿伯. Without repeating the story, I would just say that the king’s pettiness, sulkiness, and childishness, coupled with the queen’s scheming, manipulative, and treacherous ways, got an innocent man defamed and killed, all for a vineyard, which I’m sure the king had many already!
Jezebel’s evil didn’t end there. She was the very one who enticed the king to worship Baal. She culled the number of God’s prophets and raised up false ones of her own. She also threatened to kill God’s servant, Elijah. The sum of her wickedness rivaled if not surpassed that of Ahab, which was a rare scene to behold throughout the entire Bible.
Simultaneously, Jezebel’s unrestrained and outrageous evil reflected even more poorly on Ahab’s leadership, character, and maturity. Nevertheless, when Ahab was confronted by God for his wrongdoings, he eventually repented before God, the single redeeming incident of his life on record.
Ahab lost his life when he allied with Jehoshaphat in the misguided campaign against Aram. Even after his death, his evil permeated throughout Israel and Judah through intermarriage, corrupting King Jehoram and Ahaziah of Judah as well as many from his own nation for years to come. It wasn’t until 16 chapters after Ahab’s debut that Jehu fully extinguished all remnants of Ahab and Jezebel. Phew.
What do we make of Ahab’s life then? We see that greed is insatiable, that we are prone to faults even while riding on the exhilaration of victory, that it is equally dangerous to shirk our responsibility as to fail it, that not even our evil can forbid God’s overwhelming salvation and sovereignty, and lastly perhaps, don’t be that guy.
By Thomas Matthews Rooke, Credit: Southwark Art Collection