National Apostasy Brings National Ruin

From Jeroboam’s death to Elijah’s appearance before Ahab, Israel experienced a steady spiritual decline. The majority of the people rapidly lost sight of their duty to serve the living God and adopted practices of idol worship.RR 39.1

Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, who occupied the throne of Israel for a few months, was suddenly killed with all his relatives in the line of succession, “according to the word of the Lord which He had spoken by His servant Ahijah the Shilonite, because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he had sinned and by which he had made Israel sin.” 1 Kings 15:29, 30.RR 39.2

The idolatrous worship that Jeroboam had introduced brought the judgments of Heaven, and yet the rulers who followed—Baasha, Elah, Zimri, and Omri—continued the same fatal course of evildoing.RR 39.3