KINGS AND KINGDOMS
	Bible Reading: 1 Kings 16:15-22
V. 15: In the twenty- seventh year of Judah's King Asa, Zimri became king for seven days in Tirzah. (HCSB)

King for a Week

Zimri had helped himself to the throne quickly and easily. Elah had been drinking himself into a comatose state, and thereby made it very easy for Zimri to assassinate him.

Furthermore, Zimri had an agenda that he immediately put into effect. He made sure that everyone connected to the previous mini-dynasty of Baasha was executed. So, you can't say that Zimri did nothing while he was king; he fulfilled the Lord's prophecy over Baasha. However he did not have much time to do anything else.

As it turns out, neither Elah nor Zimri had any business hanging out in the palace at Tirzah. There was military activity going on. Remember how Nabat had tried to take the town of Gibbethon back from the Philistines a while earlier? That was when Baasha had killed him and taken the throne for himself. Now, here we are, twenty-six years later, and they're still trying to do the same thing.

At first, the soldiers and officers around Gibbethon knew nothing of what had just transpired in Tirzah. But when word of Zimri's insurrection came to them, they immediately reacted in what strikes me as a very sound way. Elah, the former king, obviously did not much care since he had been in the palace imbibing while they were fighting. Who knows why Zimri was there? He obviously wasn't with his troops. However, the man who would have meant something to the army would have been the one under whom they had been serving. Omri was a general of apparently great competence. Consequently, when they heard of Zimri's coup the immediately acclaimed Omri as king and took a break from the siege so as to pay Zimri a visit in Tirzah. They easily conquered the city, and Zimri made his concession speech. Only he said it with fire, by burning the palace down over himself.

Now, there is an obvious lesson here: Never make yourself king when the people don't like you. In our present system that would translate more into: Don't delude yourself that, just because people voted you into office, they will approve of your decisions. They voted for you because they trusted you to be the right person to lead the decision-making process, but we haven't had a king since 1776.

But I also see a non-political application here. If you are a leader anywhere in Christianity, don't run ahead of the people whom you are supposed to serve. Whether we're talking about pastors, college presidents, leaders of various para-church organizations, or Sunday School teachers. Your plans for the group are not necessarily the group's plans. A good leader does not motivate his group to run behind him, but empowers them to walk with their leader.