Hope From the Word

Guest (Male): Whether you like giving or taking advice, be careful that the advice contains godly wisdom. That's next on Hope From the Word.

Calvary Chapel of Marlton is happy to welcome you to today's edition of Hope From the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann. Today, we begin the final study in our verse-by-verse series through the book of First Kings. It's been an exciting journey filled with wars, arguments, and some wonderful examples of godly lives.

Today, we'll look at the end of the life of Israel's King Ahab. He's ready to fight one last war, but first, he seeks the counsel of the prophets. As we'll see, asking for advice is fine, but be careful that the advice you get is inspired from God. Here's Bill Luebkemann with our study in First Kings chapters 21 and 22.

Bill Luebkemann: We're continuing to look at Ahab. It seems like we've spent more time looking at Ahab than Saul or David. I guess not really, but it just seems that way here. We're going to see that this guy just continues to set a record here for just being a sniveling, crybaby, malcontent disappointment in every possible way.

We saw at the end of the last chapter that he had let the King of Syria, Aram—his name was Ben-Hadad, the country was called Aram, which is also Syria—and he had let the king go at the end of the war there. He showed mercy to this king, and that's not what God wanted. God wanted him to take this king out, and Ahab instead made a treaty with him.

God won the war, and then Ahab made a treaty with the enemy. God paid the price, and Ahab spent God's money and did the wrong thing. That's the way it comes across there. So there was a prophecy against him at the end of chapter 20 against King Ahab: "You have set free a man I had determined should die, therefore it is your life for his life, your people for his people."

The King of Israel went back to his palace and he was sullen and angry. This is Ahab's normal style, so keep that in mind. Let's remember that because that's going to come up again. Now, some time passes and this king decides it's not enough to rule over 10 of the 12 tribes of the nation of Israel. He's ruling over the Northern Kingdom, that's 10 of the 12 tribes.

He decides that's just not enough. He doesn't have enough. He needs to get this vineyard off this poor guy, Naboth. He doesn't have enough already. He's king of this huge great country, and he's been given so much by God, and he needs this crummy little vineyard that this guy Naboth has. Now, maybe it wasn't a crummy little vineyard. Maybe it was Martha's vineyard, I don't know, but it wasn't as much as what he had already. He was the king, he had so much. He didn't need one more vineyard.

Some time later, there was an incident involving a vineyard belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite. The vineyard was in Jezreel, close to the palace of Ahab, King of Samaria. Some translations say it was next to the palace. We get the idea here that this is an incident of intrigue and suspense. There was an incident, as the way the NIV puts it here, and it has to do with this vineyard that's near the palace.

Ahab said to Naboth, "Let me have your vineyard to use for a vegetable garden, since it is close to my palace. In exchange, I will give you a better vineyard or, if you prefer, I will pay you whatever it is worth." But Naboth replied, "The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers." So Ahab went home, sullen and angry, because Naboth the Jezreelite had said, "I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers." He lay on his bed sulking and refused to eat.

This guy is a big sissy. He's a crybaby. I wouldn't be surprised if he's sucking his thumb also, mad here that he can't have this vineyard. He's probably calling for his mommy: "Mommy, he won't let me have my vineyard. I want the vineyard." He wants to ruin it too. He's got a good vineyard, and he wants to take this vineyard and plant vegetables in it. But that's not the point. The point is, first and foremost, it was not his vineyard. It belonged to Naboth.

Now, some people raise an interesting conjecture here that maybe they're related because the land is so close together. The land was portioned out by the tribes and the families were typically close together. The fact that they were neighbors may have meant that they were somehow related. It's been suggested that maybe this guy Naboth is actually Ahab's uncle. That's pure, absolute, complete conjecture. Who knows if that's true or not? Who knows if Ahab's palace is really on his family plot or not? I don't know that.

But in any event, what we do know is the vineyard is nearby, the king wants it, this guy has it, and he won't give it up. He doesn't want to give it up because it's his family's land. It wasn't even legal and proper in Israel to sell your family's land. It said in Leviticus 25, verse 23, "The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants." So the Lord is saying, "This is my land and I'm going to let you use it temporarily. You're my tenants here."

Throughout the country that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land. If one of your countrymen becomes poor and sells some of his property, his nearest relative is to come and redeem it, redeem what his countryman has sold. So if a guy is really poor and sells his land because he needs the money, one of his relatives must come and buy it back so that that land stays in the family.

Now, the most you could really do was rent it out for some period of time, but it had to revert back to the owner on the Year of Jubilee. You see, it says in verse 15 of Leviticus 25 about buying land, "You are to buy from your countryman on the basis of the number of years since the Jubilee, and he is to sell to you on the basis of the number of years left for harvesting crops. When the years are many, you are to increase the price, and when the years are few, you are to decrease the price, because what he is really selling you is the number of crops."

So if you had some land you wanted to sell, well you really would be renting it out to somebody else until the next Year of Jubilee when it would revert back to your family. So the Lord is saying here is how many years away from the next Year of Jubilee are you? The more years there are in between, the higher the price is, and the less years, the lower the price is. But then it would revert back to the family.

There was a tradition which was rooted in the law of God here that the land would stay within the family. So really, this wasn't even proper what the king was suggesting here, and besides which, Naboth didn't want to sell it. So he refused. Now, the king made him a fair offer. At this point, he wasn't trying to steal it, take it, or get it for a low price.

He wasn't using the rights of eminent domain, like is popular today in America where the government takes your land and sells it to someone else for less than you really want to sell it for because the other party couldn't get you to agree to sell it, so they steal it from you unconstitutionally and sell it to someone else for less than that. No, this is not that at this point. It starts out being less than eminent domain and winds up being worse than eminent domain because it winds up being murder.

But at this point, it was merely an offer. Somebody suggested real estate agents didn't do much business in the promised land here because the land couldn't be sold; it stayed in the family. The king wanted to buy it and he said, "Look, I'll make you a swap. This is close to my palace. I'll give you a better vineyard than what you have." So he's offering a fair deal there: a better vineyard, or you can set the price. "If you prefer, I'll pay whatever it's worth."

But no, that wasn't good enough. This guy Naboth just isn't going to sell it. This is so important to this king that he goes home, lays on his bed sulking and refusing to eat, and he's acting like a big crybaby over this stinking little vineyard. I've added a few things on there, but he is sulking and he's refusing to eat.

Now, what happens next? Well, his wife hears the crying and she comes in. His wife Jezebel came in and asked him, "Why are you so sullen? Why won't you eat?" He answered her, "Because I said to Naboth the Jezreelite, 'Sell me your vineyard, or if you prefer, I will give you another vineyard in its place.' But he said, 'I will not give you my vineyard.'"

Jezebel, his wife, said, "Is this how you act as king over Israel? Get up and eat, cheer up. I'll get you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite." So he tells her the story, and she says, "Man, you're the king. Is this what the king does? The king doesn't get what he wants, he cries? That's not the right behavior for the king." Well, she's right; it's not the right behavior for the king. She says, "I'll tell you what the right behavior is for the king. We're just going to get you the land. No problem, I'll take care of it."

That's not the right behavior for the king either. It wasn't right that the king would be sulking and crying over it, and it wasn't right that he steal the land either. But good old Jezebel comes up with a plot here, a plan, and she says, "I'll get it for you." Now, really she's doing it on his behalf. You don't see him objecting here. And you're going to see later on, he gets condemned by God for what happens here. You could read this and say, "Well, why is he condemned? Jezebel did it."

But you don't see him saying, "No, no, no, don't do it. He doesn't want to sell the land, let him have it." It all starts out with him doing the sulking, and that's how he draws his wife into it. So she wrote letters in Ahab's name, placed his seal on them, and sent them to the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth's city with him. In those letters, she wrote: "Proclaim a day of fasting and seat Naboth in a prominent place among the people. But seat two scoundrels opposite him and have them testify that he has cursed both God and the king. Then take him out and stone him to death."

So she comes up with this very simple plan. Again, with Ahab's agreement. He didn't say no, he didn't stop it, he allowed her to use his seal. You could read this and say she probably did it in the middle of the night, snuck the seal out. No. She did it with his full cooperation. She wrote the letters, it was her idea. He was just too dumb, he was a wimp. She was the one that had the guts, so to speak, and she was willing to do it, but he condoned it. He went along with it.

She wrote the letters, put his seal on it, and sent it out to the leaders in his town, the elders and the nobles in Naboth's town. She gave them this plan. "Look, proclaim a day of fasting." In effect, what she was saying was there's something wrong going on in your town, and we've got to find out what it is. So proclaim a day of fasting, that's going to send a message out to the people that we're praying and we're seeking God for what's wrong here.

Maybe the people felt like they weren't getting blessed by God properly. Maybe it was felt that God wasn't working in their midst. Whatever event, it was made to appear that they were seeking God for an answer. "Proclaim a day of fasting and act like, pretend like we're going to God to see what God's going to do because God's got a message here for us." This gets all the people in the town involved.

And when you do this, put Naboth in a prominent place among the people, but get these two scoundrels there to falsely accuse him and to say that he's cursed both God and the king. And then you can take him out and stone him to death. So in effect, they were setting up a scenario where they were pretending to seek after God. They proclaimed a day of fasting; that's seeking after God. But they weren't really seeking after God; they really were out there to do the devil's work, so to speak. They were there to do their own thing.

So she said, "Proclaim this day of fasting, it's going to get everybody feeling spiritual." And then Naboth is going to be there, you're going to put him in a prominent place so it's going to be a setup, and you're going to bring in these two scoundrels. Does this remind you of something to do with Jesus when he was falsely accused of all manner of things during his illegal trial? When they were also, in a way, pretending to seek God but weren't.

And then, when these false scoundrels come in and curse him, or accuse him of cursing God and the king, then take him out and stone him to death. So the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth's city did as Jezebel directed in the letters she had written to them. They proclaimed a fast and seated Naboth in a prominent place among the people. Then two scoundrels came and sat opposite him and brought charges against Naboth before the people, saying, "Naboth has cursed both God and the king."

So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death. Then they sent word to Jezebel: "Naboth has been stoned and is dead." The whole city would have thought Naboth was really guilty, aside from the leaders of the city, the elders and the nobles. The rest of the city would have thought the guy was guilty. I mean, "Hey, did you hear what happened in town today? I mean, everybody was fasting, and they were seeking God to see what God would say. And wow, God really spoke."

Every member of the community there that would have been watching that would have possibly been sucked into this charade, thinking that we're all seeking God, look what happened. False pretenses for seeking God, pretending to do it, putting on a big show. Does that sound familiar? "We're going to pretend to seek God, we're going to make it look like we're seeking God." We're not really doing it, but then the people that watch it, who don't know otherwise, are going to think that this is legitimate.

And only a few people knew what was really going on. These scoundrels, they knew. The elders and the nobles knew, and Jezebel and Ahab. God knew, of course. They just fail to account for God. Seems like that happens over and over again in this Scripture when the evildoer just fails to account that the Lord is watching. And they sent word to Jezebel: "Naboth has been stoned and is dead."

As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned to death, she said to Ahab, "Get up and take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite that he refused to sell you. He is no longer alive, but dead." When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, he got up and went down to take possession of Naboth's vineyard. Well, wait a minute. If he died, it would have passed on to his heirs. If his heirs died, it would have passed on to their heirs.

Now, there's some suggestion that maybe his sons were also killed. Over in Second Kings 9, verse 26, it says, "I saw the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons, declares the Lord, and I will surely make you pay for it on this plot of ground, declares the Lord." So it seems like Naboth's sons also might have gotten killed here in this incident. But the ground still did not belong to the king. What was his evidence here? What was his reasoning for taking this ground?

When Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned, she told Ahab, "Go take possession of the vineyard. This guy is dead." Ahab didn't say, "Well, how did he die? He died? What happened? That's funny, he was just alive yesterday. He was in good health." There's someone who might say, "Well, Jezebel planned this plot here, Ahab had nothing to do with it." Well, you don't see Ahab at any point objecting or refusing to go along with it.

Even when the guy's dead, Ahab, if he had any ounce of integrity in him at all—just an ounce of it—he would have refused to take it. He would have said, "I'm not going to take that ill-gotten gain." But no, he goes along with it. He heard that Naboth was dead, he got up and he went down and he took the vineyard which wasn't his and still wasn't his. He didn't have any right to it. It wasn't his land.

Now, this gets back to the argument that they were relatives, though. Some people have suggested that maybe if Naboth was killed and all his sons were killed, maybe Ahab was the closest relative and maybe it did belong to him. Again, pure speculation. In any event, it's irrelevant because the point here of the message is he had the guy killed, and he shouldn't have.

Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite: "Go down to meet Ahab, King of Israel, who rules in Samaria. He is now in Naboth's vineyard where he has gone to take possession of it. Say to him, 'This is what the Lord says: Have you not murdered a man and seized his property?' Then say to him, 'This is what the Lord says: In the place where dogs licked up Naboth's blood, dogs will lick up your blood—yes, yours.'" So God in this verse sends Elijah down to meet Ahab and says, "Go catch up with Ahab. You're going to find him in this vineyard."

And this is what you're going to tell him: "You've murdered this guy and you took his property. And this is what the Lord says: In the same place where dogs licked up his blood, they're going to lick up yours. You're doomed, pal. Your sentence is death for doing this." Ahab said to Elijah, "So you have found me, my enemy." You know, the entire life of Ahab, it seems like he's always treating Elijah like his enemy.

And Elijah was a prophet of God. Elijah could have been his friend. He could have been asking Elijah, "What does God want me to do?" And then he could have done it, and then he would have been blessed by God. It was really his wife who was his enemy and Elijah who was his friend, as was suggested by one person I read. And that's really the truth. Elijah should have been his best friend, and it wasn't Elijah that was keeping them separated. It was Ahab who was doing that by his own decision.

"So you have found me, my enemy." "I have found you," he answered, "because you have sold yourself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord. I am going to bring disaster on you. I will consume your descendants and cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel, slave or free. I will make your house like that of Jeroboam son of Nebat and that of Baasha son of Ahijah, because you have provoked me to anger and have caused Israel to sin."

And also concerning Jezebel, the Lord says, "Dogs will devour Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. Dogs will eat those belonging to Ahab who die in the city, and the birds of the air will feed on those who die in the country." There was never a man like Ahab who sold himself to do all these evil things, going after idols like the Amorites. The Amorites were there in the land before the Jews came in, and the Lord drove them out because they were into idol worship. And here was Ahab leading God's people in the same manner of idol worship.

When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and fasted. He lay in sackcloth and went around meekly. Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite: "Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself, I will not bring this disaster in his day, but I will bring it on his house in the days of his son."

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Hope From the Word. We're currently in the study of First Kings. You can hear this message or more Hope From the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann by going to ccmarlton.org. Pastor Bill's messages can also be found by downloading the Hope FM app on your smartphone or tablet. Or if you prefer to listen via podcast, you can find Hope From the Word wherever you find your podcasts.

We'd love to have you join us at Calvary Chapel of Marlton either in person or online. Our Sunday service begins at 10 a.m. and there's a Wednesday evening service at 7. To catch us online, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel of Marlton or just go to our website for the link: ccmarlton.org.

And if you would, take a moment to write to Pastor Bill. It would be such a blessing to us. We're thankful each and every time we hear what God is doing in our listeners' lives, and we want to pray for you too. Either email us through the website at ccmarlton.org or call 856-983-1662. We'll continue our study of First Kings next time on Hope From the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann, a presentation of Calvary Chapel of Marlton.