Exalted you out of the dust
refers to Baasha’s ordinary ancestry. He was not a king’s son, but a man of the people. Then it is striking that the Lord says about this man, who came to power by a coup d'état and regicide, here: I have made you prince over my people Israel. As is often the case, we find here an inextricable intertwining between violent human acts and divine guidance, just like the appearance of pharaoh in Egypt long ago, prior to the Exodus. Pharaoh resisted God and his people with all his might, but at the same time it was God himself who made him stubborn.
Twice the Lord calls Israel my people.
The political split has not changed God’s involvement with the entire nation—Judah and Israel.
The words Jehu must say to Baasha sound familiar. They correspond almost word for word with what the prophet Ahijah had said to Jeroboam (see 1 Kings 15:29–30). The same sin, the same threat and punishment. It is even worse now because all these things have happened before. The Lord holds repentance in high regard. He is not mocked. Provoking him—that will end badly one day.
The prophecy spoken here is later alluded to in the anointing of army chief Jehu as king over Israel (2 Kings 9:9): of Baasha the son of Ahijah.
The past events surrounding the house of Jeroboam and the house of Baasha keep coming back.
2 “Since I exalted you out of the dust and made you leader over my people Israel, and you have walked in the way of Jeroboam and have made my people Israel to sin, provoking me to anger with their sins,