I lifted you up from the dust and appointed you ruler over my people Israel, but you followed the ways of Jeroboam and caused my people Israel to sin and to arouse my anger by their sins. So I am about to wipe out Baasha and his house, and I will make your house like that of Jeroboam son of Nebat. – 1 Kings 16:2-3

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 22, 2019): 1 Kings 16

President Donald Trump ran on the promise to “Drain the Swamp.” He intended to inject new life into American Politics. Whether he was successful or not probably depends on your political point of view. And to be honest, we need to recognize that Trump was not the first prospective President to make the commitment. The problem seems to be that no matter how much we want political change, politics has the potential to make all of us, well, “swampy.” We can bring new, clean water into the situation, but it just ends up being more of a swamp.

In American politics, I think there have been a couple of Presidents during my lifetime that have honestly tried to do politics differently. President Carter at the end of the 1970s and President H. W. Bush at least made an effort to drain the swamp and do things a little differently. Both were voted out after a single term. So maybe, when it comes down to it, we kind of like the swamp.

God raised up Baasha to erase the evil reign of Jeroboam. We mentioned earlier in this blog that Baasha’s job was to remove the descendants of Jeroboam, and not necessarily that Baasha would be a better king. But Baasha was given the opportunity to “drain the swamp” and do things differently. He failed. Baasha erased the mark of Jeroboam on Israel, but then became a king who looked just like Jeroboam. Baasha’s swamp remained “swampy.”

And so God tells Baasha that since he was determined to echo the leadership of Jeroboam, he would also share the fate of Jeroboam. Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, served as King of Israel for two years before Baasha killed him (1 Kings 15:28). The same script awaited the son of Baasha. Elah, the son of Baasha, reigned for two years after the death of Baasha (1 Kings 16:8). And then Elah was assassinated by Zimri, who took the place of the son of Baasha on the throne of Egypt. The story of Jeroboam had repeated itself in the reign of Baasha from beginning to end. And after the reign of Elah, the houses of two kings had been swept away, but Jeroboam’s swamp still remained.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 15