High-Handed Rejection of the Word of God
Since Jeroboam’s seccession from the house of David, the Kings of Israel had all “done evil in the sight of the LORD”, by countenancing Jeroboam’s corrupt Erastian self-imposed worship (1 Kings 12:25-33). However, as if that was not bad enough, things got much worse when Ahab came to the throne; we are told that “he did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before him” (1 Kings 16:30).
He was such a wicked idolater that it was “as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam” because he “went and served Baal and worshipped him…Ahab did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him” (1 Kings 16:31-33). Baalism in Ahab’s day was the religion “countenanced and maintained by the civil magistrate” as Ahab had “erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria” (1 Kings 16:32). So evidently these were days of gross apostasy in Israel when the attitude of highandedly rejecting the word of God prevailed in the land.
Further evidence of the sheer contempt which the Lord’s word was held in is seen in one particular incident which tells us a lot about the prevailing attitude in Ahab’s Israel. We read: “In his days Hiel of Bethel built Jericho. He laid its foundation at the cost of Abiriam his firstborn, and set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke by Joshua the son of Nun” (1 Kings 16:34). After the fall of Jericho, the Israelites had been specifically forbidden from rebuilding the city. Joshua told them “Cursed before the LORD be the man who rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho. ‘At the cost of his firstborn shall he lay its foundation, and at the cost of his youngest son shall he set up its gates’ ” (Josh. 6:26).
But such was the declension in the days of Ahab that this clear command of God was high-handedly rejected by Hiel of Bethel – who paid a high price for his extreme disobedience. Yet, believers may find consolation in this incident. Because even though men, in their apostasy from the living God, high-handedly reject His word, yet, nevertheless, “every word of God proved true” (Prov. 30:5); as Hiel found out bt losing his firstborn and youngest sons, just as God said would happen to the man who rebuilt Jericho. So, even when the men of this world scorn and despise it, the word of the Lord proves faithful.
