I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Kings 15-17.

The writer of this passage tells us that Rehoboam’s grandson Asa was the king of Judah after David to do what was pleasing in God’s sight.  The passage lets us know what he did right, and how he fell short of ideal.  King Asa got rid of the shrine prostitutes throughout the entire territory which he controlled and destroyed the idols made by his predecessors.  He even deposed his grandmother from the role of Queen Mother and tore down the Asherah pole she had built (which Asa subsequently destroyed).  King Asa is considered to have done what is right in God’s sight despite taking the silver and gold out of the Temple treasuries to buy an alliance with the king of Aram against the king of Israel.  A later king of Judah did something similar and was condemned by a prophet for doing so.  King Asa’s heart remained faithful to the Lord his entire life…the passage says “completely faithful”.

Meanwhile, Israel was ruled by a succession of kings who each did what “was evil in the Lord’s sight.”  Until we get to Omri, and then his son Ahab, about each of whom we are told that they did more evil than any of their predecessors.  King Ahab went so far as to introduce Baal worship.  This suggests that before Ahab the kings encouraged worship practices similar to those practiced in the Temple in Jerusalem, but before the golden calves which Jeroboam had made.  Ahab’s actions resulted in God sending Elijah to him to announce a famine, which gives rise in tomorrow’s passage to one of my favorite stories in the Bible.