God's Messengers to the Northern Kingdom

And Ahab went to meet Elijah. When he saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?” “I have not made trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the LORD’s commands and have followed the Baals. Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.” So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people said nothing. (1 Kings 18:16-21 NIV)

God allowed the Northern Kingdom of Israel to go off into idolatry. Their unfaithfulness sparked a division. The kings of the Northern Kingdom increasingly led Israel into worship of Baal, Asherah, Ashtoreth and Molech - the gods of the Canaanites. That led them to practice wicked things like temple prostitution (to seek fertility of crops and pregnancies) and child sacrifice (to appease the gods when they were angry).

The point of raising up a nation to call His own was for God to reveal His character and reality to all the nations through His holy people. By practicing idolatry, Israel was misrepresenting their God to the nations around them, blending in with the practices of pagan culture. On the other side of the division of the nation, God proved He only needed one tribe, Judah, to keep His promises to Abraham and Moses and David.

But God never stopped trying to call His people back to faithfulness. God sent nine prophets to Israel during the reigns of her 19 kings. But people only listened to and repented in response to one of them: Jonah. And the crazy thing is, the people who repented at the preaching of Jonah were not God's people, the Israelites. That would be the pagan Ninevites, who were Assyrians.

Perhaps the most famous and powerful prophet God sent to the Northern Kingdom was Elijah, whom God sent to confront Israel's most wicked king, Ahab. Scripture says this of king Ahab:

Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab also made an Asherah pole and did more to arouse the anger of the LORD, the God of Israel, than did all the kings of Israel before him. (1 Kings 16:30-33 NIV)

At Yahweh's command and Elijah's word, there was no rain in Israel for three years. This is a sign that Yahweh had sent Elijah. It was also a sign that Yahweh was more powerful than Baal. You see, Baal was the storm god, and the Canaanites believed it was Baal who sent the rain to give fertility to their crops. Yahweh said there would be no rain, and Baal couldn't do anything about it. And king Ahab hated Elijah for it.

Elijah comes in the third year of the drought and confronts Ahab, calling for a contest between Yahweh and the prophets of Baal and Asherah. it wasn't a fair fight. It was Elijah against 450 prophets of Baal. Each built and altar. Each laid wood on the altar and put a bull on the wood. Each called on their God to send fire to consume the sacrifice. Baal did not answer. Yahweh sent fire. And the response of the people?

When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The LORD—He is God! The LORD—He is God!” (1 Kings 18:39 NIV)

The 450 prophets of Baal were rounded up and executed. Elijah announced that rain would come, and Yahweh sent the rain that Baal was powerless to send. The point of the contest was to prove that Yahweh was the one, true God. And it worked, for the moment. But the idolatrous Northern Kingdom returned to their idolatry.

A second notable prophet that God sent to Israel during the reign of Jeroboam II was Hosea. As an object lesson to Israel, God calls Hosea to take as a wife an adulterous woman - likely a prostitute. He marries Gomer, which symbolizes the spiritual marriage between God, who is faithful, and His unfaithful wife, Israel. Gomer leaves Hosea and returns to her adultery, and God calls Hosea to go purchase her back and bring her home and love her, just as He loves His people in spite of their adultery.

The LORD said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes. ” So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will behave the same way toward you.” (Hosea 3:1-3 NIV)

Through Hosea, God demonstrates by deed and by Word that He deeply loves Israel. He desires that they turn from idols and come back to Him. But the Northern Kingdom continues to ignore God's prophets until they are conquered and taken into exile by the Assyrians.

God is still calling His people to faithfulness. He speaks today through His Word and His Holy Spirit. The question is: will I listen to His call and turn from worldliness and the idolatries of my culture to pursue Him with a faithful heart? It is worth a prayerful examination of the heart to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal any area where I have fallen into trusting money or pleasure or fame or power to satisfy my soul, instead of fully trusting Jesus. And if the Spirit reveals such places, the proper response is the humble myself, turn from my sin, and come back home to the Lord who loves me.

God is calling. Will we listen?