Chapter 37 Omri is king

Asa was better than the two kings before him.He tore down all pagan altars in the country, and the status of the temple priests was elevated. Forty-one years in his reign, life was very difficult.First of all, he has to resist the attack of several tribes in Ethiopia and defend the country.After driving them back, the war with Israel began again.Baasha frequently imposed blockades on Judah.He fortified the city of Rama, which controlled the north-south avenues.This meant that communications between Judah, Damascus, and Phoenicia were cut off. Asa feared that Israel's economic policies would suffocate his country, so he sought foreign aid.He sent a diplomatic mission to Ben-hadad, king of Syria, who ruled from the mountains of Lebanon to the banks of the Euphrates.

The Jews sent generous gifts to the king of Syria and asked him to attack Israel from behind. Ben Hada agreed to the plan. True, he had just concluded a treaty of friendship with Basha, but people didn't take the treaty too seriously then. Ben Hadad assembled his troops and marched south from the capital Damascus. He captured the northern citadels of Israel and occupied the land of Israel as far as the Sea of ​​Galilee.Basha was forced to sue for peace.Judah was delivered, and the road to Damascus was once again open to Jews. Asa undoubtedly did good for his own country.But he and his followers would soon regret it.For the first time, they introduced foreign powers into Jewish internal disputes.From then on, whenever the monarchs of the East were short of money, they would try to get Israel and Judea to invite one or several of his countries to help.Then plunder the aided country to compensate for its "rescue operations" expenses.

As for Baasha, he spent most of his twenty-nine years in power fighting with the prophet Jehu. The cause of the quarrel was the question of pagan idols. Judah was a single nation, while Israel was home to many foreign tribes.Some tribes worshiped Baal, the sun god.Others worship the Taurus, which represents strength and dignity in Asia and Africa. Israel's successive kings could not resolve this regrettable state of affairs.After many centuries, the Israelites remained a minority in the country Joshua conquered.They dare not interfere with the religious beliefs of the aborigines, otherwise they will lead to rebellion.

Basha encountered the same difficulties.But in his country, there are a dozen restless fanatics who mistake tolerance for weakness.They called on him (and successive kings) to destroy pagan idols, pagan priests and all who do not recognize Yahweh as the only God.When rulers (for practical reasons) reject such political suicide, these fanatics denounce them as enemies of a just cause and unworthy of the throne. Basha came to the throne by assassinating the previous monarch, and he dared not take any chances.He showed mercy to those who worshiped the bull, as long as they promised to help him against his enemies.Whenever the prophet Jehu wanted to convey the will of God, he always listened, but never took action against the despised pagans.When he died, there were more temples of Baal in Israel than ever before.Jehu was outraged and repeatedly prophesied that the Baasha dynasty would be punished for their indifference to religion and that all sorts of terrible things would happen.

These prophecies were fulfilled with astonishing speed. Shortly after Baasha's death, his son Elah was murdered.The young man was much like his father.At a notorious feast at Tirzah, he quarreled with Zimri, his chariot master, and Zimri drew his dagger, stabbing Ira to death.Then he made himself king and lived in the palace. Although people are used to such bloody incidents, they still find it intolerable for this naked murder.They sent word to Omri, the commander of the army who was besieging Gibbidon, to come back and restore order.When Zimri heard that the army was marching towards Tirzah, he immediately lost his fighting spirit.He set fire to the city and palace, and then died by setting himself on fire.He has been on the throne for less than a week.

Since all of Elah's brothers were killed by Zimri, Omri was elected king as the only legal successor.He decided to leave the ruins of Tirzah and find another suitable place to build his capital. He found a suitable mountain in the west, which belonged to a farmer named Sama.Darkly bought the mountain with two talents (about 600 pounds), built a city, and named it the city of Samar, or Samaria. Of Israel's rapidly changing rulers, Omri was by far the most important.Whatever his mistakes, at least he can still fight.During the twelve years of his reign he was at war with Ben-hadad.There was a huge disparity in strength between the two sides, but Omri not only withstood it, but even expanded some territories.

When he died, he bequeathed to his son Ahab an enlarged kingdom. Starting with Ahab, Israel was in real trouble. Ahab was weak, but his wife Jezebel was strong. It was not long before everyone knew that this woman was the real ruler of Israel. Jezebel was the daughter of Jebaal, king of the Phoenician city of Sidon, and like all the Philistines, Jezebel was a faithful follower of the sun god.According to general practice, the queen should convert to the religion of her husband's country.However, Jezebel refused.When she came to Samaria, she took her priests with her.And when she established power in Ahab's court, she built a temple to the sun in the center of the capital of Israel.

The people were shocked, and the prophets begged upwards.But Jezebel didn't take it seriously, and soon began to persecute Jehovah's followers and practiced a reign of religious terror until she was overthrown by Jehu's uprising. Fortunately for the persecuted followers of Jehovah, the southern kingdom happened to be ruled by a very wise and able king.His name was Jehoshaphat, the son of Asa.He had received a rigorous court education and had outstanding diplomatic and military talents. Jehoshaphat understood that his kingdom was inferior to Israel in terms of force. Therefore, he managed to maintain peace between the two countries.First, he married Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, and then made an offensive and defensive alliance with his father-in-law.Having secured the northern frontier, he began attacking the Ammonites and Moabites who lived across the Dead Sea and took their territories.Jehoshaphat became famous.However, this did not appease the anger of the old prophet Jehu, who accused him of being friendly with the wicked Jezebel and accused him of making a treaty with Israel an insult to Yahweh.

Despite these accusations of being unsteady in his faith, Jehoshaphat was doing well.When he died in 850 BC, the people mourned greatly.He was buried in the city of David with his fathers and their fathers.