What Does I Kings 15:34 Mean?

He did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin by which he had made Israel sin. The verdict on Baasha is identical to the verdict on Nadab (verse 26): evil, the way of Jeroboam, the sin that contaminated the nation. The formula's repetition for a king who destroyed Jeroboam's dynasty is devastatingly ironic: Baasha exterminated the house of Jeroboam but preserved the religion of Jeroboam. He killed the sons but kept the calves. The dynasty died; the apostasy survived the dynasty's death.

The theological irony is complete: God used Baasha to punish Jeroboam's house for its idolatry (verse 29), and then Baasha perpetuated the same idolatry. The instrument of divine judgment against the sin committed the same sin that provoked the judgment. Baasha is both the executor of God's sentence against Jeroboam and the inheritor of Jeroboam's guilt, and the combination guarantees that Baasha's own house will receive the same verdict (16:1-4). The cycle of judgment and renewed apostasy will continue until there is no northern kingdom left to judge.

Jesus lamented, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!" (Matthew 23:37). Baasha killed the house of Jeroboam but ignored the message that Jeroboam's destruction carried: abandon the calves, return to Yahweh. The Son of David who laments Jerusalem's refusal to hear its prophets is the God who laments Baasha's refusal to learn from the judgment he himself administered. Christ's lament over Jerusalem reverberates through every northern king who saw the previous dynasty destroyed and drew no conclusions from the wreckage. The lesson of judgment is available; the willingness to learn it is not.