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1 Kings 16 Bible study: Out of the dust
The LORD's word to Baasha opens with almost the words he had sent to Jeroboam (14:7): "I exalted you… and made you prince over my people Israel" (16:2), and Baasha's house fell as Jeroboam's had (16:12). And when Hiel built Jericho, it was "according to the LORD’s word, which he spoke by Joshua the son of Nun" (16:34).
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“Because I exalted you out of the dust and made you prince over my people Israel, and you have walked in the way of Jeroboam and have made my people Israel to sin, to provoke me to anger with their sins,”
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“In 1 Kings 16, the LORD says he exalted Baasha out of the dust and made him prince over Israel.”
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What's really going on
The same words Jeroboam heard
"The LORD’s word came to Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha" (16:1). Its first words sound like an earlier word: "Because I exalted you out of the dust and made you prince over my people Israel" (16:2) (tap exalted). The LORD had sent word to Jeroboam, "Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you prince over my people Israel" (14:7). In Hebrew the two clauses are the same words, except for out of the dust and from among the people. And Baasha had done what Jeroboam did: "you have walked in the way of Jeroboam and have made my people Israel to sin" (16:2). So his sentence is Jeroboam's too: "I will utterly sweep away Baasha and his house; and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat" (16:3), with the dogs in the city and the birds in the field (16:4), as Ahijah had said of Jeroboam's house (14:10-11). Baasha had come to the throne by striking down Jeroboam's son Nadab (15:27-28). Still the LORD says, "I exalted you" (16:2).
Where it leads to Jesus
Given from above
1 Kings 16:2leads toJohn 19:11
The LORD's word that came to Jehu against Baasha (16:1) said, "I exalted you out of the dust and made you prince over my people Israel" (16:2), though Baasha had come to the throne by striking down Nadab (15:27-28); and because he walked in the way of Jeroboam, "I will utterly sweep away Baasha and his house" (16:3). When Pilate said to Jesus, "Don’t you know that I have power to release you and have power to crucify you?" (John 19:10), Jesus answered, "You would have no power at all against me, unless it were given to you from above. Therefore he who delivered me to you has greater sin" (John 19:11). Jesus doesn't cite 1 Kings 16, so setting the two side by side is a reading, resting on a shared subject, the power a ruler holds and where it comes from, not on a shared word. Some hear in Jesus' answer what the LORD said to Baasha: the power a ruler holds was given, and he answers to the one who gave it (16:2-3). Others read John 19:11 in its own setting, Jesus' answer to Pilate about Pilate's power over him (John 19:10), and draw no rule about Israel's kings from it.
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Questions people ask about 1 Kings 16
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The rest of 1 Kings 16 is waiting in Favor
- Two years, then seven days
- Worse than all before him
- Joshua's word, in Joshua's words
- Names that come back
- 14 questions as you read
- 13 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
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The Hebrew word behind it
כָּעַסka'assay ka-AS
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "be vexed, angry", and for the form here, "provoke to anger". Strong's: "to trouble; by implication, to grieve, rage, be indignant". It is the chapter's refrain, five times. Baasha made Israel sin "to provoke me to anger with their sins" (16:2); his evil was "to provoke him to anger with the work of his hands" (16:7); Baasha and Elah (16:13) and Omri (16:26) sinned "to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger with their vanities"; and "Ahab did more yet to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him" (16:33). The verb comes in ten verses of 1 Kings, and half of them are in this chapter. Moses' song has it beside vanities, as 16:13 and 16:26 do: "They have provoked me to anger with their vanities" (Deuteronomy 32:21).
For your group
1 Kings 16 Bible study questions
- 1The LORD's word against Baasha began, "I exalted you out of the dust" (16:2), yet Baasha had "walked in the way of Jeroboam" (16:2). What has God lifted you out of, and what helps you not slide back into the old ways?
- 2Ahab went further "as if it had been a light thing" to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat (16:31). What wrong things are easiest for you to treat as light, and what helps you take them seriously?
- 3Joshua's word about Jericho (Joshua 6:26) was kept in Ahab's days (16:34). What does it mean to you that God's word doesn't wear out with time?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads 1 Kings 16 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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