Dogs will eat those belonging to Baasha who die in the city, and birds will feed on those who die in the country.” – 1 Kings 16:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 17, 2026): 1 Kings 16

Auschwitz. Just the name conjures up images of the horrors of World War II. It was not the only camp that housed the Jews and enemies of Nazi Germany; many others existed, but it is often Auschwitz that lives in our nightmares. Or maybe more precisely, it is Auschwitz that lives in my nightmares.

The extermination program of Nazi Germany was a growth industry for Adolf Hitler. At first, it seems that the prisoners were likely just shot and placed into mass graves. Then the Nazis graduated to killing enemies of the state with carbon monoxide. But the gas was inefficient. And so more experiments were conducted, and finally the Nazi’s adopted the use of Zyklon B, a cyanide-based insecticide, to kill the Jews and political enemies of the Nazi Regime.

In the aftermath of these executions, there was a change in how the bodies were dealt with. At first, they were simply buried in mass graves, but the smell was bad. Lye was then added to the process, and then the bodies were burned just outside the concentration camp. However, at each stage, the terrible smell remained a significant obstacle. And so, the Nazi’s began to build crematoriums to burn the bodies and control the smell.  

However, the reality was that the Nazi’s didn’t see their enemies as people. They could do whatever they wanted to the bodies because they were subhuman. This wasn’t the first time the bodies of enemies have been treated this way, and it won’t be the last. One way we deal with people who oppose us is to make them seem less than human in our minds. They are criminals, evil, and violent; they are not like us, and so they don’t deserve the things that we have or the protections of the law that are given to proper members of society. And their bodies can be disposed of in any way that we see fit. They deserve less honor in their deaths than we would give to a beloved pet.

A prophecy is proclaimed over the house of Baasha. The house of Baasha was going to come to an end because of their sin. Because they had followed in the steps of Jeroboam, they would receive the same fate.  The prophecy over the house of Jeroboam had been that ^“Dogs will eat those belonging to Jeroboam who die in the city, and the birds will feed on those who die in the country. The Lord has spoken” (1 Kings 14:11)! And now, those same words have been spoken over the House of Baasha. We shouldn’t see this as a right or wrong moment, but rather as a description of how the people would react to the demise of the House of Baasha.

The House of Baasha would be destroyed so that no one would be around to take over the rule of the nation. And their bodies would not be given any honor in death. If they died in the city, their bodies would be left to the dogs; if they died in the country, then the birds would pick at them until there was nothing left, and maybe then the House of Baasha could be forgotten. But in all likelihood, they would continue to live in the nightmares of the people.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Chronicles 15