Now What?

Ahab Admonitions Part IV:  A Vineyard and A Legacy

            I’ve been thinking about legacies lately.  It’s a term we hear when watching documentaries about our favorite heroes from history.  It’s also a term we hear during election years, especially in regards to the outgoing president.  The definition of legacy is basically an inheritance – something left to others, presumably of value.  Unfortunately, as in history and the presidency, what gets left behind might not be worth having.  In fact, it might be downright dangerous. 

            In the case of Ahab and Jezebel, their kids turned out just like them and embraced their parent’s legacy with their whole hearts.  One could only hope that those of us with something truly valuable to pass on would have recipients as zealous to receive it!  But alas, that is not always the case.  Bad parents can yield good kids; good parents can yield bad kids, but often the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. 

            Last we saw Ahab, he had just been rebuked by the prophet for letting the king of Aram go free (1 Kings 21:42-43).  Ahab showed King Ben-hadad, mercy that he would never have shown Ahab or the people of Israel.  Ahab was told by the prophet that he would receive the punishment God had meant for his enemy.  Naturally, this bummed him out, so he went home ‘sullen and vexed.’  Ahab was willing to receive victory from God’s hand, but not direction - blessing, but no instruction.  What Ahab thought was right always prevailed over what God thought was right, and Ahab wasn’t exactly a careful thinker.  To get his mind off his troubles he decided he needed to do a little gardening.

Now it came about after these things that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard which was in Jezreel beside the palace of Ahab king of Samaria.  Ahab spoke to Naboth saying, “Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden because it is close beside my house, and I will give you a better vineyard than it in its place; if you like, I will give you the price of it in money.”  But Naboth said to Ahab, “The Lord forbid me that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.”  So Ahab came into his house sullen and vexed because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him; “I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.”  And he lay down on his bed and turned away his face and ate no food.  (1 Kings 21:1-4)

Now not everyone in Israel was like Ahab.  Here he runs into a man of integrity.  Not only did Naboth honor God, he had taught his sons to do the same.  He was not interested in money or favor from the king.  He meant to keep the ordinances of the Lord. 

God had instructed His people not to sell the land of their inheritance, and Naboth would heed the word of the Lord.

“The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me” (Leviticus 25:23). 

God viewed the property as His and on loan to His people.  Tribes and families got certain parcels, and those parcels were to stay within the families that received them.  

Ahab didn’t care about the Law or God’s view.  Naboth’s vineyard was next door.  It was convenient, and it looked like a good place for a garden.  When Naboth refused him, Ahab became ‘sullen and vexed’ not just because his whim was thwarted, but because Naboth’s virtue shined a light on Ahab’s moral weakness. 

Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law strive with them.  (Proverbs 28:5)

Just being righteous, upright, or law-abiding bothers certain kinds of people.  The contrast between a wicked person’s behavior and a righteous person’s shines a spotlight on the wicked’s lack of character, and the wicked do not like it. 

But Jezebel his wife came to him and said to him, “How is it that your spirit is so sullen that you are not eating food?”  So he said to her, “Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him, ‘Give me your vineyard for money; or else, if it pleases you, I will give you a vineyard in its place.’  But he said, ’I will not give you my vineyard.’”  Jezebel his wife said to him, “Do you not reign over Israel?  Arise, eat bread and let your heart be joyful; I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”

Integrity and principal meant nothing to Jezebel.  To her logic, if you’re in charge you get what you want regardless of who gets hurt. 

So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name and sealed them with his seal, and sent letters to the elders and to the nobles who were living with Naboth in his city.  Now she wrote in the letters, saying, “Proclaim a fast and seat Naboth at the head of the people; and seat two worthless men before him, and let them testify against him, saying, ‘You cursed God and the king.’  Then take him out and stone him to death.”  (1 Kings 21:5-10)

Jezebel set up a situation demanding the town elders to call a fast symbolizing repentance and humility before God.  An act seemingly performed to divert His judgment.  She sets up a trial where two witnesses would accuse Naboth of a crime punishable by death as prescribed in God’s law.  These two witnesses would be the lowest scum of the earth the elders could find and would be lying about Naboth.  The elders would rule against Naboth as commanded, and in the most pious way murder him and his sons (2 Kings 9:26) outside of the city gates.  Since there would be no heirs, there would be no one in Ahab’s way when he took possession.  Jezebel had a precise knowledge of God’s law, but no respect for it.

The Pharisees did the same thing to Jesus.

Now the chief priests and the whole Council kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus to put him to death, and they were not finding any.  For many were giving were giving false testimony against Him, but their testimony was not consistent.  (Mark 14:55)

Truth never gets in the way of the wicked.

When Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, Jezebel said to Ahab, “Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth, the Jezreelite, which he refused to give to you for money; for Naboth is not alive, but dead.”  When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, Ahab arose to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it.  (1 Kings 21:15-16)

Jezebel’s actions don’t seem to bother Ahab at all.  He had to be accustomed to them.  She murdered the Lord’s prophets (1 Kings 18:13), she terrorized Elijah (1 Kings 19:2), and here she arranges the murder of a man and his family just so he can raise some vegatables.  He knows and condones what she does. 

Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, “Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who is in Samaria, behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth where he has gone down to take possession of it.  You shall speak to him, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Have you murdered and also taken possession?”’  And you shall speak to him, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord, “In the place where the dogs licked up the blood of Naboth the dogs will lick up your blood, even yours.’”

Evil can seem to win and rule for a time, but judgment does come.

 

Ahab said to Elijah, “Have you found me, O my enemy?”  And he answered, “I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do evil in the sight of the Lord.  Behold, I will bring evil upon you, and will utterly sweep you away, and will cut off from Ahab every male both bound and free in Israel; and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, because of the provocation with which you have provoked Me to anger, and because you have made Israel sin.  Of Jezebel also has the Lord spoken, saying, ‘The dogs will eat Jezebel in the district of Jezreel.  The one belonging to Ahab, who dies in the city the dogs will eat, and the one who dies in the field the birds of heaven will eat.”  (1 Kings 21:20-24)

Ahab and Jezebel were truly the worst pair that ruled recorded in the Scriptures.  Their oldest son died young (2 Kings 1), another was assassinated (2 Kings 9).  Their daughter married Jehoshaphat’s son in Judah, and oversaw the slaughter of her own grandchildren after her son was assassinated (2 Kings 11).  Jezebel was indeed eaten by dogs after being thrown out a window (2 Kings 9:33-37).  Every last one of Ahab’s progeny suffered a violent death just as prophesied.  They not only destroyed Israel with idolatry, but because of a good man’s compromise (2 Chronicles 18) they negatively influenced Judah as well.

Surely Ahab got what he deserved, right?

It came about when Ahab heard these words, that he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and fasted, and he lay in sackcloth and went about despondently.  Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, “Do you see how Ahab has humbled himself before Me?  Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the evil in his days, but I will bring the evil upon his house in his son’s days.”

When I read those verses, I am stunned.  The Lord was anxious to see Ahab’s repentance.  He loves us that much – there is no reason for it.

We have a merciful, just, and holy God.  Justice would be done, but Ahab received mercy for truly humbling himself before the Lord.  When Ahab tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and fasted, he was acknowledging that God was right in His judgment against him.  He was despondent, but not sullen and vexed.  There’s no intervention from Jezebel – Ahab didn’t seek it.

Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you, and therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you.  For the Lord is a God of justice; how blessed are all those who long for Him.  (Isaiah 30:18)

God longs to show mercy to people who don’t deserve it.

For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.  Oh, the depth of the riches both of wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!  For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor?  Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to Him again?

For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.  To Him be the glory forever.  Amen.  (Romans 11:32-36)