When the Lord pronounces judgment on the wicked, he often begins by pointing out the benefits that he has given to the one to be judged. The formula is like this: I have done this for you, and you have returned evil for my good.
This procedure is exactly followed in this prophetic announcement.
God says he raised up Baasha from the dust
to become the king of Israel. What does the phrase from the dust
mean? It could simply be how Baasha’s lowly origins are expressed as compared to the royal station that he was given. He was not a king’s son, but a man of the people. There is, however, another possibility to consider. The Bible tells us that Adam was formed from the dust of the ground,
and here is a sense in which that description is true of humanity as a whole that descends from him by ordinary generation.
If this is the case, the reference here is not to a lowly social station as compared to others in Israel. Instead, it would be a reference to the fact that Baasha was raised to his high position from the state of non-being. God’s creative act brought Baasha into existence, and God's providential governance set him as the king of Israel. The Lord says about this man, who came to power by a coup d'état and regicide, I...made you prince over my people Israel.
As is often the case, we find here an inextricable intertwining between violent human acts and divine guidance, just like the appearance of the pharaoh in Egypt long ago, before the exodus. Pharaoh resisted God and his people with all his might, but at the same time it was God himself who made him stubborn.
Twice the Lord calls Israel my people.
The political split has not changed God’s involvement with the entire nation—Judah and Israel.
There are two charges brought against Baasha, and they sound familiar. They correspond almost word for word with what the prophet Ahijah had said to Jeroboam (see 1 Kings 15:29–30). The same sin, threat, and punishment. Baasha is charged with following the evil practices of Jeroboam. Jeroboam was guilty of building sites of idolatrous worship in Bethel and Dan, whose purpose was to keep the Israelites from travelling to the Lord's temple in Jerusalem. This made the nation of Israel sin in two ways. First, they engaged in the violation of the second commandment by the worship of graven images, that is, the golden calves that had been set up in those places. Second, they failed to engage in the true worship of the Lord in his true temple. These two categories of spiritual rebellion had a severe consequence and response from God. He was provoked by Israel’s sin.
What does it mean that the Lord was provoked? People can be said to be provoked when the actions of another create a very negative internal or external response. The Hebrew root word in all of its forms is predominantly used, as in our verse, to indicate human sin bringing forth God’s anger. In at least one occurrence, however, it refers to a human being who is provoked. This occurred when Samuel’s mother Hannah was provoked by her rival Peninnah as Peninnah mocked Hannah for her barrenness (1 Samuel 1:6). The word, therefore, is something of an anthropopathism: it attributes a human emotion to the Lord. The Lord holds repentance in high regard. He is not mocked. Provoking him—that will end badly one day.
The Lord regards human sin as he regards all things: from his dwelling place in eternity. His response to sin, therefore, is not a momentary reaction that suddenly takes hold of the divine character. In that sense, God does not have emotions; he is always longsuffering. Nevertheless, human language has no words to describe the internal operation of the incomprehensible deity. What the Bible says here, however, is analogous to the divine reality, and we are not to conclude that the Lord is somehow impersonal and unconcerned with the behaviour of his rational creatures.
As a result of Baasha’s leading Israel to continue in the evil ways of Jeroboam, the Lord pronounced upon Baasha the same judgment that he had levelled against the former king. The members of Baasha’s house
who die in the city, God says, will be eaten by the dogs, and the ones who die outside of the city (in the field), the birds will eat. We should understand that this does not mean that these dogs and birds will kill these individuals, but they will dispose of the bodies.
This is a particular judgment as God’s people placed great importance upon burial. There are at least two reasons for this attitude, one associated with the demands of the law and the other having to do with family honour. First, the law stated that an unburied body, because it was ritually unclean, defiled the land that the Lord had given his covenant people. Second, it was considered dishonourable not to be buried with one’s extended family, and it was considered to be a mark of God’s disfavour.
2 “Since I exalted you out of the dust and made you leader over my people Israel, and you have walked in the way of Jeroboam and have made my people Israel to sin, provoking me to anger with their sins,