“Now Ahab the son of Omri became king of Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him.

“It came about, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went to serve Baal and worshiped him. So he erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal which he built in Samaria. Ahab also made the Asherah. Thus Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him” (1 Kings 16:29-33).

Ahab was one of the more infamous kings in the Bible. In the passage above, he is said to have done “more to provoke the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him” (1 Kings 16:33). When studying the history of Israel, this statement becomes even more remarkable. While there were some good kings of Judah, all of the kings of Israel “did evil in the sight of the Lord” as Ahab did; but Ahab was worse than the rest of them.

One of the points made in the text above is that Ahab had departed so far from God’s will that it became “a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat” (1 Kings 16:31). Sin was seen as “trivial” because it was viewed as unimportant or unconcerning.

Sin is always a problem, but it is particularly dangerous when sin becomes trivial. We need to understand why this is. By looking at the example of Ahab, we can also see what factors in his life led him to view sin in this way so that we can guard against this as much as possible.Continue Reading