You have done more evil than all who lived before you. You have made for yourself other gods, idols made of metal; you have aroused my anger and turned your back on me. – 1 Kings 14:9

Today's Scripture Reading (December 29, 2022): 1 Kings 14

Who was the evilest character in history? In some ways, such a pursuit seems to be an impossible task; after all, there comes a point when evil is simply evil. Is there a major difference between someone like Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), whose beliefs and policies caused the deaths of six million Jews during the Holocaust and is responsible for another seventy million who died in his war, and Albert Fish (1870-1936) who preyed on children and the mentally ill during his murder spree during the 1920s? After Fish's execution, his lawyer, James Dempsey, made it known that Fish had written down a final statement. The reporters wanted a copy of the message, but Dempsey refused, saying, "I will never show it to anyone. It was the most filthy string of obscenities that I have ever read." I realize that Hitler killed more, but that was more of a function of power, not of the amount of evil in his life. If Albert Fish had possessed the capacity and stature of the leader of Germany, things might have been different, but definitely not for the better.

But then again, where would you put someone like Vlad the Impaler (1428-1476)? Vlad loved to impale his enemies. And he would do it while they were still alive. He liked to impale them from the bottom up so that the spike emerged through the mouth, but he would also impale them through the stomach, sometimes putting many victims on a single stake. Rumor has it that Vlad once had 20,000 people impaled on the same day.

There are others, but sometimes evil is just evil. Sometimes, I wonder what exactly God is talking about in this verse. Was Jeroboam worse than literally everyone who had ever lived? Was Jeroboam worse than any of the Pharaohs who had reigned in Egypt? Was he worse than any of the boogeymen that walked the streets of the ancient cities or more evil than Cain, who committed the first recorded murder? And did any of this really matter because sometimes evil is just evil?

Or was this just a comparison of the Kings of Israel? Up until this moment, the nation had crowned five people King; Saul, David, Solomon, and then in the divided kingdom, Rehoboam and Jeroboam. It's a short list, but God only approved of one of the five, David. Saul was a horrible King and a bad man, while Solomon was a good King but a terrible man. Rehoboam was easily led down the wrong paths. Maybe we can sympathize with him because he just didn't seem all that smart. But God says that Jeroboam was the worst of them all because he had made his people bow down before fictional gods and turned his back on the God of Israel. And now, he would bear the penalty for his failure.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 1 Kings 15