In 1 Kings chapters 15 and 16, we go through two kings of Judah, Nadab (bad) and Asa (good) and six kings of Israel in four different families, and we introduce the seventh, Ahab:

• Nadab of Israel, son of Jeroboam. The end of Jeroboam’s dynasty.
• Baasha of Israel, killed Nadab and everyone in Jeroboam’s family.
• Elah of Israel, son of Baasha. The end of Baasha’s dynasty.
• Zimri of Israel killed Elah and the rest of Baasha’s family, was king for seven days! The army appointed Omri king, and they attacked and killed Zimri. Does a guy have a “dynasty” if he reigns only seven days?
• Omri of Israel, establishes Samaria as the capital of Israel
• Ahab of Israel, son of Omri

Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah. Ahab son of Omri was king over Israel for twenty-two years. He ruled from Samaria. Ahab son of Omri did even more open evil before GOD than anyone yet—a new champion in evil! It wasn’t enough for him to copy the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat; no, he went all out, first by marrying Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and then by serving and worshiping the god Baal. He built a temple for Baal in Samaria, and then furnished it with an altar for Baal. Worse, he went on and built a shrine to the sacred whore Asherah. He made the GOD of Israel angrier than all the previous kings of Israel put together. (1 Kings 16.29 – 33, MSG)

But Ahab doesn’t get just a summary; he gets six chapters, killed in battle toward the end of 1 Kings, in chapter 22. Jezebel doesn’t meet her demise until 2 Kings 9.

Why all the press? Maybe because of his antagonist, Elijah, the prophet:

And then this happened: Elijah the Tishbite, from among the settlers of Gilead, confronted Ahab: “As surely as GOD lives, the God of Israel before whom I stand in obedient service, the next years are going to see a total drought—not a drop of dew or rain unless I say otherwise.” (1 Kings 17.1, MSG)

Elijah, a powerful guy, prototype for John the Baptist:

But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” (Luke 1.13 – 17, ESV)

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. (James 5.17, ESV)