“And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him. And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him.” (1 Kings 16:30–31 ESV).
The northern kingdom of Israel had no godly kings. From its beginning under Jeroboam, the nation was built on a corrupt foundation. Jeroboam introduced false worship to keep his people from going to Jerusalem. This idolatry was never removed and became the spiritual baseline for every king after him. Ahab, however, exceeded even that evil. He did more to provoke the Lord than any king before him. The text says it was a “light thing” for him to follow Jeroboam’s sin. In other words, what had once been shocking now seemed normal. Ahab not only tolerated idolatry, he institutionalized it. By marrying Jezebel and worshiping Baal, he led Israel even further from the Lord.
This passage warns us about the danger of tolerating sin until it no longer seems serious. What begins as compromise can become corruption. Like Israel, we may be tempted to build our lives on something other than God’s Word. But when the foundation is faulty, everything that follows is unstable. We must examine the roots of our thinking and the patterns we follow. Are we walking in the sins of others because they seem acceptable? Are we treating rebellion against God as a light thing? Let us take heed, lest we drift far from the Lord and not even realize it.
PRAYER: Dear Father, forgive us for the ways we have treated sin lightly. We confess that we have often built on faulty foundations, following the patterns of this world rather than the truth of Your Word. Please cleanse our hearts and renew our minds. Help us to recognize compromise before it becomes corruption. Give us the courage to tear down any false altars we have erected in our hearts. We want to worship You alone. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.