1 Kings 16:15-20: a reflection

15In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, Zimri reigned seven days in Tirzah. Now the people were encamped against Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines. 16The people who were encamped heard that Zimri had conspired, and had also killed the king. Therefore all Israel made Omri, the captain of the army, king over Israel that day in the camp. 17Omri went up from Gibbethon, and all Israel with him, and they besieged Tirzah. 18When Zimri saw that the city was taken, he went into the fortified part of the king’s house and burned the king’s house over him with fire, and died, 19for his sins which he sinned in doing that which was evil in the LORD’s sight, in walking in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin which he did to make Israel to sin. 20Now the rest of the acts of Zimri, and his treason that he committed, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

The reign of Zimri is one of the shortest and most disastrous in Israel's history. He seized the throne by murdering the king, but his reign lasted only seven days. When the army made a rival king and besieged him, Zimri, seeing that all was lost, burned the palace down over himself and died. Seven days of power, grasped by treachery, ending in self-destruction. His grasping for the throne by murder gained him almost nothing but a swift and terrible end.

Notice the trajectory: power seized by wrong means, and how quickly it collapsed. Zimri murdered his way to the throne, and within a week it was over; the power he grasped by treachery brought him no lasting good, only a disastrous, self-destructive end. What he seized by evil means could not stand; it slipped away almost as soon as he grasped it, leaving him with ruin.

That is a warning about grasping for power, position, or advantage by wrong means. We may be tempted to gain what we want, a position, an advantage, a success, by ways that are wrong, treacherous, dishonest, harmful to others, imagining it will secure us what we want. But what is grasped by wrong means has a way of not lasting, and even of turning to our own destruction. Zimri's seven days are a warning: ill-gotten power does not stand. Do not grasp for what you want by wrong means. What is gained by treachery or dishonesty may collapse as quickly as it was seized, and bring ruin rather than the good you sought. Seek what you desire, if it is right, by right means, and leave to God what you cannot gain honestly, rather than grasping it by ways that will not last.

Lord, Zimri seized the throne by murder, but his reign lasted only seven days before it collapsed in his own destruction; the power he grasped by treachery could not stand. Warn me by his example. I may be tempted to gain what I want, a position, an advantage, a success, by ways that are wrong, dishonest, or harmful to others, imagining it will secure what I desire. But what is grasped by wrong means has a way of not lasting, and even of turning to ruin. Keep me from grasping for what I want by treachery or dishonesty. Help me seek what I desire, if it is right, by right means, and to leave to you what I cannot gain honestly, rather than grasping it by ways that will not stand. Let me trust you rather than seizing by wrong means what will only collapse.