1 Kings 16:33, commentary and pictures

Ahab's reign in Israel began two years before Asa's death and was marked from the start by strange and terrible apostasy surpassing his father Omri and all the kings of Israel before him. To walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat was to him a light thing, for he was not content with tolerating the forms of religious service at Bethel and Dan but boldly led the people into the grossest heathenism. He made a grove for idolatrous worship, adding consecrated groves and temples to Israel's idolatry, and by setting aside the worship of Jehovah for Baal worship he provoked the LORD God of Israel to anger more than all who had gone before him. His course did not merely continue the worship begun under Jeroboam but promoted heathen worship and turned the people from Jehovah to Baal.

This surpassing provocation reflected weak moral character and disregard for God's mercies and his duty as Israel's leader, so that his marriage to the idolatrous Jezebel left him readily shaped by her and giving her more power over him than God had. His was a blighting rule that, after many years of losing reverence and godly fear, led Israel far from the living God and corrupted their ways before Him into widespread, open worship of Baal and Ashtoreth. That apostasy dishonored God and drove the people from His protection. Its extent was seen in images of Baalim and Ashtoreth everywhere, in multiplied idolatrous temples and consecrated groves for the worship of the works of men's hands, in air polluted by the smoke of sacrifices offered to false gods, in hill and vale resounding with the drunken cries of a heathen priesthood sacrificing to the sun, moon, and stars, and in crediting false gods rather than God for the blessings of rain and harvest.

The apostasy spread a dark shadow over the whole land, until none dared expose their lives by openly standing against the prevailing blasphemy. Prophets and faithful servants were killed, and only severe judgments could fulfill God's purposes for Israel. God would have been with Ahab if he had walked in the counsel of heaven, but when Jezebel led him into idolatry he with her led the people into idolatry. God sent Elijah to Israel with messages of warning, but neither king nor people heeded him and they looked on him as a messenger of evil, and at last God sent drought upon the land as judgment, but the people did not discern its object or humble their hearts.

Jezebel charged that the prophets of Jehovah had brought the calamity and that there would be no rest or prosperity until they were put to death, and anger was aroused against the men God sent to call the people to repentance. Many holy men died for their testimony, while Elijah was preserved by a miracle of divine power to proclaim God's warnings and threatenings before the king and queen. This belongs to the dark and troublous time in which Elijah and Elisha did their work, when wickedness had reached a fearful pass in the idolatry of Ahab and Jezebel. Even then God sent His prophets to the nation with messages of warning, keeping men whom He used in fighting the battles of Zion, and He chose Elijah as a preacher of righteousness ruled and guided by the Holy Spirit to accomplish a grand and noble work under God's direction. The age had visible worship of Baal, while the same kind of idolatry can also take the form of serving wealth, fame, pleasure, or human ideas in place of God.