Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Today we read two chapters, the first focused on the northern kingdom of Israel, and the second focused on the southern kingdom of Judah.

Let's go up north first.

When we open with First King 16 today, Basha is still king in Israel, but a prophet named Jehu shows up to speak

a word against him. Jehu's dad is the prophet Hanani, the same prophet we met yesterday, who called

out Asa for his sin and then got thrown into prison. Things go considerably better for

Jayhu in his confrontation. He prophesied that Basha's people will be wiped out, and they are,

starting with Basha himself. Next. Enter King Basha's son, Ila, who only reigns for two years before

his servant Zimri murders him while he's drunk. Then Zimri takes over the throne.

But if you think two years is a short reign, Zimri's like, watch this, and wraps up his reign

in seven days. I've had leftovers last longer. He does accomplish something important, though.

He fulfills Jihu's prophecy against the house of Basha by wiping them all out.

There's an interesting Hebrew word that shows up in 1613 regarding the sins of Basha and his family.

It says, they sinned and made Israel to sin, provoking the Lord God of Israel to anger with their idols.

The word idol here is the Hebrew word Hevel, which is the same word we saw over and over

again in the book of Ecclesiastes. There, it was translated as vanity. It's the idea of something

being worthless and fleeting. The text is ultimately pointing out that Basha leads people to

chase after worthless things, to spin their wheels, worshiping

something that won't last. That is terrible leadership. As Zimri is in the early and late

stages of his short reign, so like day five or so, word gets back to the Israeli army that he has

killed their king. They're none too pleased about it, so they chase him down.

He realizes the jig is up, and he sets his own house on fire while he's inside.

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