Read chapter in full: www.biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=1Kings+016

 

CHAPTER 16 (ESV)

 

1 And the word of the Lord came to Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha, saying, 2 “Since I exalted you out of the dust and made you leader over my people Israel, and you have walked in the way of Jeroboam and have made my people Israel to sin, provoking me to anger with their sins, 3 behold, I will utterly sweep away Baasha and his house, and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. 4 Anyone belonging to Baasha who dies in the city the dogs shall eat, and anyone of his who dies in the field the birds of the heavens shall eat.”

 

5 Now the rest of the acts of Baasha and what he did, and his might, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? 6 And Baasha slept with his fathers and was buried at Tirzah, and Elah his son reigned in his place. 7 Moreover, the word of the Lord came by the prophet Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha and his house, both because of all the evil that he did in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger with the work of his hands, in being like the house of Jeroboam, and also because he destroyed it.

 

REFLECTION

1. One of the best ways to learn is from other people’s mistakes. But this also seems to be the most difficult way for most of us to gain understanding.
2. God rejected Jeroboam’s line because of their commitment to evil, and announced that every male member of the family would be killed. Baasha was the instrument God used to carry out this judgment. Yet when Baasha had assassinated Nadab, Jeroboam’s son, Baasha himself then “walked in the ways of Jeroboam and in his sin”!
3. Baasha had learned nothing from the destruction of Jeroboam’s family. So, as the Prophet Jehu announced, Baasha and his house met the same fate. Baasha failed to learn from Jeroboam’s and Nadab’s mistakes. And it cost him his life.
4. How well do I pay attention to learn from other people’s mistakes? Or do I still think “it can’t happen to me”?

 

PRAYER

Use this verse as my prayer. Acknowledge to God that I am not any better than the others, I am also weak, and may fall and even fail.

“If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and His word is not in us.”(1 John 1:6, 8, 10)