Daily Lesson for June 23, 2020

Today's Daily Lesson comes from 1 Kings chapter 16 verses 15 through 23:

15 In the twenty-seventh year of King Asa of Judah, Zimri reigned seven days in Tirzah. Now the troops were encamped against Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines, 16 and the troops who were encamped heard it said, “Zimri has conspired, and he has killed the king”; therefore all Israel made Omri, the commander of the army, king over Israel that day in the camp. 17 So Omri went up from Gibbethon, and all Israel with him, and they besieged Tirzah. 18 When Zimri saw that the city was taken, he went into the citadel of the king’s house; he burned down the king’s house over himself with fire, and died— 19 because of the sins that he committed, doing evil in the sight of the Lord, walking in the way of Jeroboam, and for the sin that he committed, causing Israel to sin. 20 Now the rest of the acts of Zimri, and the conspiracy that he made, are they not written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?

21 Then the people of Israel were divided into two parts; half of the people followed Tibni son of Ginath, to make him king, and half followed Omri. 22 But the people who followed Omri overcame the people who followed Tibni son of Ginath; so Tibni died, and Omri became king. 23 In the thirty-first year of King Asa of Judah, Omri began to reign over Israel; he reigned for twelve years, six of them in Tirzah.

As we make our way through the Bible, now begins the wild ride of wars and rumors of wars, and coups, and counter-coups, accompanied by the writer's summary judgement on so many of the reigns of so many of the kings: "He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD".

Omri has now come to power in the North.  The Bible will tell us he will do "more evil than all who were before him".

The "before him" part is important.  For as evil as Omri himself is, there is a whole House of Omri to contend with, the bottom of which knows no end.

It is indeed going to be a wild ride to come. And the spirit of evil will appear untamable.

But we should not lose heart.  For as Walter Brueggemann says, "the poet" -- meaning the one with prophetic word --  shall "finally come". And with him the end of the house of evil also.

NOTE: We are reading the Bible through this year.  Tomorrow's Lesson comes from 1 Kings 17-19.