Ahab & Jezebel

Transcript

GRS 2-98
2/10/2008
Ahab and Jezebel
1 Kings 20-21
Gil Rugh

We will be in First Kings Chapter 20 in your Bibles; First Kings Chapter 20. If you don’t have a copy of the pink and green, as I am calling them, sheets of Israel’s kings and Judah’s kings. You could pick up a copy at the information center afterwards. Tonight, we are just dealing with Israel’s kings, as we are at the stage of First Kings by Israel, I mean the northern kingdom; the northern ten tribes and we are at king number eight, Ahab just to locate you.

In Chapter 20 or in Chapter 21; the southern king, king of the southern kingdom, Judah basically will not be in view here. You know some things don’t change. We are 850 years Before Christ, and Israel’s major enemy in First Kings Chapter 20 is Syria; they are called Aram in our Bibles. But it's the region of Syria, Damascus is the capital of this kingdom, and they are a major enemy of Israel.

Chapter 20 of First Kings is taken up with two wars that Ahab, king of Israel fought with Syria. And in both of these battles, Ahab and Israel will be victorious. In Chapter 22, Ahab will have another battle with Syria, and he won’t be victorious in that, it will conclude with his death in battle. Ahab is infamous for his wickedness along with his wife Jezebel, but for all his wickedness we had to recognize he was a very capable military commander and Israel was the strong force under his reign. Even when it comes to his last battle, he will show great courage in keeping it from becoming a total route of Israel, willing to die on the battlefield, if you will, rather than turn and flee.

But Chapter 20 is about Ahab’s wars with Syria and begins with Ben-Hadad King of Aram, which keep in mind is what we know as Syria, gathered his army. There were 32 kings with him, horses, chariots went up and besieged Samaria, which is the capital of the northern kingdom now, where Ahab has his focus and he fought against it. So this Ben-Hadad, remember we said this is a title like Pharaoh in Egypt, the son of Hadad, the God of the region. This Ben-Hadad would be the son of the man who has given the same name, who battled Israel a number of years earlier.

Just back up to Chapter 15; and this has to do with Asa, who was the king of Judah, who is in conflict with Ben-Hadad, the earlier Ben-Hadad. And you read in verse 18, he is not embattled, he is embattled with Baasha the king of Israel, he has having Ben-Hadad come to assist him. This is another case where the King of Syria is battling with the northern kingdom here he will go do it in support of the southern kingdom. Asa who is the king of Judah verse 18, took all the silver and gold which were left in the treasuries of the house of the Lord, the treasuries that kings house delivered them to the hands of his servant, king Asa sent them to Ben-Hadad and he lived in Damascus and said, let there be a treaty between us, I have sent you a present, go break your treaty with Baasha, King of Israel, so he withdraw from me, so Ben-Hadad does. Now that would have been the father of the Ben-Hadad that is before us now, still at war if you will, with Israel the northern ten tribes.

Back in First Kings Chapter 20, this Ben-Hadad that we have in First Kings Chapter 20, ruled Syria from 860 to 843. So he is ruling here during the time of Ahab and he will continue to reign for ten years after Ahab’s death, 32 kings align with him. Now obviously these aren’t kings of significant empires, but kings of the city states, if you will in the region, who can bring together an army of one degree or another, and when you pull them altogether, 32 of these you can have a significant army and he comes to lay siege to Samaria.

We are not told anything, why the battle, it just an ongoing conflict, because just like we have today above Jerusalem you have Syria, and there is constant battles back and forth for territory that’s going on in this region. He may have fought with the drought three and half year drought that Israel’s experienced, that it would be in a weaker condition, and with his alliance, he would be able assert his authority, expand his kingdom, demand tribute and he has large enough force that Ahab is intimidated enough to be willing to submit his demands initially.

So verse 2, Ben-Hadad send messengers to the city to Ahab King of Israel and said to him, thus says Ben-Hadad, your silver and your gold are mine, your most beautiful wives and children are also mine. The King of Israel replied it is according to your word my Lord, O king I am yours and all that I have. So you see Ahab thinks that, he doesn’t have a good chance of victory in this conflict with his mighty force that Ben-Hadad has been able to assemble; Ahab is willing to exceed to the demands of Ben-Hadad without a fight and that means, he will take the money from the royal treasury, the gold, the silver and so on also his most beautiful wives, his children and give them to Ben-Hadad. And obviously that will give Ben-Hadad leverage to continue to demand tribute from Ahab, and Israel in coming period of time as well.

Now the problem is when Ahab gives in so quickly like this Ben-Hadad says, maybe I ought to demand more. So he sends his messengers back and says in verse 5, thus says Ben-Hadad, surely I send you saying you shall give me your silver, your gold, your wives and your children, but about this time tomorrow I will send my servants to you and they will search through your house, and the houses of your servants and whatever is desirable in your eyes, they will take in their hand and carry away. Now I am not just going to ask you send out what I have required. I am going to send my messengers in and they will come through your palace, the houses of your servants, whatever they like we will take. Now we have gone to step, because now you are going to allow them to come in, not only to take what they want, but to observe things that may put you in a more vulnerable situation.

Ahab is reluctant to do this. So he calls the elders of the land verse 7, says please observe and see how this man is looking for trouble, he send to me for my wives, my children, my silver, my gold I didn’t refuse him. But now he has added this demand and so the elders counsel is do not listen or consent. So he said to the messengers, you go back and tell Ben-Hadad I will do all he said with his first request, but I can't do the second one.

The hope here obviously is Ben-Hadad would say, look I don’t have to get involved in a war here. So I will just take what I originally wanted and accept that and I will have him at least under my control and be able to get tribute from him. Ben-Hadad is enraged at this, so his responses may the God’s do so to me and more also, if the dust of Samaria will suffice for the handfuls of all the people who follow me, look around, look at dust fill it up you can't even count the number of people that I have assembled. You don’t have a chance.

And here you see something of Ahab’s military character. He gives a classic response the King of Israel replied tell him; let not him who girds on his armor, boast like him who takes it off, what a response, you ought to be bragging like someone who’s come back from a victory and taking of his armor. You are just putting on your armor; don’t be boasting about the victory you haven’t won yet.

When Ben-Hadad heard this message, he was drinking with the kings in the temporary shelters. He said to his servants, station yourselves; they station themselves against the city. The armies in those days traveled with entourage. So Ben-Hadad doesn’t think this is a big challenge, and he is drinking and enjoying himself, traveled with family and so on, you brought live stuff that’s why you only win to war at certain times a year, when there was feed for the cattle and so on, so you could feed the army and so on. Well he tells his people to station yourselves get ready for the battle, prepare for battle.

At this point we have an unnamed prophet enter the picture. Now you remember Elijah is the major prophet during this time, but there are other prophets around. And here we have a prophet who is not named. If it have been Elijah, he would have been named, because when he speaks we are always told Elijah received a word from the Lord and so on; behold a prophet approached Ahab King of Israel and said thus says the Lord, have you seen all this great multitude, behold I will deliver them into your hand today and you shall know that, I am the Lord.

Interesting; no indication that Ahab is gone before the Lord and asks him to do something to bring him deliverance from Ben-Hadad and his armies, but God sends a prophet to Ahab, and tells Ahab you know what, I am going to give you victory over all this overwhelming host, to demonstrate that I am the Lord. Now Ahab is a godless king, with a godless wife, his queen. They are promoting false worship throughout Israel, but Israel still belongs to the Lord. And so the Lord still acts on behalf of his people and here he is acting to bring deliverance.

So Ahab says by whom will he bring the deliverance verse 14, by the young man of the rulers of the provinces. And then Ahab says who shall take the initiative in the battle; the prophet tells him, you should. Ahab to his credit response and does it. Now he is in a position, he doesn’t have much choice. But here a prophet has come and you have a mixture going on in Israel, this will come up repeatedly.

We talk about the false worship that’s going on in Israel with worship of the calves in the north and the south of Israel. With the Baal worship that Jezebel has brought in. But you understand Israel has this mixture going on, and so there is still true prophets’ sprinkle through, many of them have been killed. There will still be recognition of the law in Israel, as we will see on the next Chapter with Jezebel. So you have this compromising mixture that has permeated Israel.

Verse 15, he muster the young man of the rulers of the provinces, there were 232 of them. Then he mastered all the people the sons of Israel 7000. So it's not a large number, but they are going out, the Lord is going to give them victory. They went out at noon, while Ben-Hadad was drinking himself, drunk in the temporary shelters with the 32 kings who helped him. I mean these are kings. I mean we are at war, but they don’t take this tremendously seriously. They were convinced that their forces are so overwhelming. So here it is noon and they are getting drunk in the tents that they have set up.

The young men went out and they bring message to Ben-Hadad, we see men coming out from Samaria. Ben-Hadad says, take him alive, whether he comes for peace or they have come out for war, take them alive doesn’t matter. So they have to go out and take this man and even they have come out with intends of fighting Ben-Hadad’s instructions are, you take him alive, probably ever they wants to find out more from them.

So verse 19, they went out from the city, the young men of the rulers of the provinces, the army which follow them they killed each his men and the Arameans fled and Israel pursued them Ben-Hadad king of Aram escaped on a horse with horsemen. The King of Israel went out struck the horses, chariots kill the Arameans with a great slaughter. So it's an overwhelming victory, where this small force comes out, and as each of these men coming out from Samaria killed their opponents. The Lord brings, if you will supernatural chaos, fear through the army allied with the Arameans and there was chaos and a great slaughter and a great victory.

Verse 22 then the prophet came near to the King of Israel and said to him, go strengthen yourself and observe and see what you have to do, for at the turn of the year the King of Aram will come up against you. So remember it's going to be at the time the kings go out the war, when it will be, there will be feed, the grass will be growing for the cattle, to feed on as they travel, and thus can have provisions for their armies and so on. So they are set time they know when.

Here the prophet tells him, the next cycle King of Aram is going to be back. So you have now the months are ahead of you to get yourself ready. Now here is what’s going on in Aram. The servants of the King of Aram said to him, their God’s referring to Israel’s God’s are the God’s of the mountains. Therefore they were stronger than we, but let’s fight against them in the plain; surely we will be stronger than they.

So you see the suppositious nature here. And the God’s; and there is God’s of the plains, there is God’s of the mountains. Israel’s God’s are strong in the mountains. We lost in the mountains. Next battle we will get them on the plains, and their God’s won’t be as strong as our God’s on the plains. Then they tell him, let’s replace the kings with captains. Let’s take the next battle more seriously than do any good to take 32 kings out there, you get drunken noon and there are tents we got to vitrify it.

So replace the kings with captains. In other words let’s take, again put our army together take this next battle more seriously. Muster an army verse 25, like the army that you have lost, horse for horse, and chariot for chariot then we will fight against them in the plain, surely we will be stronger than they. And he listened to their voice and did so.

So at the turn of the year Ben-Hadad mustered the Arameans and went up to Aphek the fight against Israel. The sons of Israel were mustered, were provisioned went out to meet them the sons Israel camped before them like two little flocks of goats. The Arameans filled the country, the Israelites had time for preparation, but their army doesn’t amount to anything, compared to the army that the Arameans have assembled.

Verse 28, here you have prophet come again; then a man of God came near and spoke to the King of Israel and said, thus says the Lord because the Arameans have said the Lord is a God of the mountains, but he is not a God of the valleys, therefore I will give all these great multitude into your hand and you shall know that I am the Lord. God has been offended that his powers limited to the mountains, and he is going to demonstrate to the Arameans that the God of Israel is God of the mountains, the God of the plains; he is the God, the only God.

So they encamped one over against the other, seven days, on the seventh day the battle was joined, the sons of Israel killed of the Arameans 100,000 foot soldiers in one day, and disastrous defeat, 100,000 soldiers fall in one day; that is a bloody, bloody battle. Then soldiers retreat into the city and the wall falls on them 27000 more die. Ben-Hadad flees to an inner sanctuary, and now got to decide what to do.

Verse 31, his servant said to him, behold now we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings, please let us put sackcloth on our loins, ropes on our heads, let’s go out to the king of Israel; perhaps he will save your life, let’s go out and plead for our lives. We will humble ourselves completely before the King of Israel, the army is destroyed. There is no hope or survival let’s throw ourselves on their mercy, and maybe they will spare us.

So they girded sackcloth on their loins, ropes on their heads came to the king of Israel and said, your servant Ben-Hadad says, please let me live, and Ahab said, is he still alive, he is my brother. Now the men took this is as an omen, quickly catching his word said, your brother Ben-Hadad, yes he is one we are talking about, your old brother Ben-Hadad. Then he said, go bring him. Ben-Hadad came out to him, he took up him into the chariot, Ben-Hadad send to him, the cities which my father took from your father I will restore, you shall make streets for yourself in Damascus says, my father made in Samaria. So you know what, come on to Samaria. You know you are welcome, we are brothers. And Ahab said I will let you go with this covenant. So he made a covenant with him and let him go.

Now Ahab is in serious trouble here. We wonder why would he do this, now why not destroy Ben-Hadad while he has the chance. But there is things going on, you know we always have reasons, why we don’t do the right thing, and we certainly often think our reasons are the best. There is a major power on the horizon that looms large in Israel’s history, it is the nation Assyria.

Shalmaneser the Third is in a long reign over Assyria, I mean Assyria had asterism authority a long time earlier, and then who gone into decline. Now under Shalmaneser the Third is becoming a dominant power and Nineveh is the capital of Assyria, as you are aware. Now what you have with Syria, Aram is buffer between Israel and Assyria, because Assyria if you go all the way up on your Bible map, you go up to the top just about of where the top of the Mediterranean would be where it bends and goes around, just go straight across to the east you would come to Nineveh and why the armies came into Israel because of the desert to the east is they always come across the top and down from the north.

So you know what happens the Assyrians now loom as a large enemy, it is to Ahab’s benefit to have Syria as a buffer between him and the looming potential Assyrian army. In fact three years after the events that we just have here, Ahab is going to move in alliance with Ben-Hadad and group of kings, 11 or 12 kings altogether, and they are going to go and do battles at Karkar with Shalmaneser the Third. Karkar is all way up almost to the top of the coast, where the Mediterranean, at the top of the Mediterranean there with the land goes around.

We don’t have that in the Bible. But it's interesting Shalmaneser the Third left an inscription of the battle of regarding the battle of Karkar, and you know who is there Ben-Hadad, called Hadadezer in the inscription, Ahab and he list how many chariots Ahab brought to the battle, how many infantry man Ahab King of Israel brought to the battle, and he has the list of these 11 or 12 kings, 11 on the inscription, there maybe a 12 that is not there.

So three years later this alliance of 11 perhaps 12 kings will meet Shalmaneser as he’s come across from the east and now starts down into Syria. This alliance move up to Karkar and they are successful in holding back Shalmaneser the Third. Now in Shalmaneser’s inscription he claims the victory, but he does return home. And so this alliance is strong enough to at least hold him to a standstill.

They say that because we wonder why would Ahab make such a disastrous agreement here with Ben-Hadad. But in his mind it may look like the smart and wise thing to do, and it might look like when you get three years down the road that it was a good thing to do, because if I didn’t have Ben-Hadad as my ally that covenant draw in the other nations with this and in that battle as Shalmaneser listed what each of these 11 or 12 kings brought, Ahab brought over half of the chariots. Now whole the other kings added together, didn’t add up to as many chariots as he brought to that battle and then Ben-Hadad, brought the second most.

So it looks like a smart alliance, but it's a disastrous alliance, and it will result in Ahab’s death. So here we are, we have the covenant that Ahab made with Ben-Hadad in verse 34. Then verse 35, a certain man of the sons of the prophets said to another by the word of the Lord. So one prophet of the Lord said to another prophet of the Lord, please strike me, hit me and he wanted to be hit in such a way that it would cause a wound, the prophet says, I am not going to hit you; then he said to him, because you have not listen to the voice of the Lord, behold as soon as you had departed from a lion will king you. As soon as he had departed from him a lion found him and killed him. You know, why is this even, I mean what’s -- it does tell you that Lord is serious about his word, right.

You have to understand all the details and the wise, the prophet of the Lord has a message from the Lord he says, you want to strike me and I am not going to strike you that’s not disobeying the brothers, disobeying the Lord, for that he gives his wife. He found another man he said; please strike me the man struck him wounding him. So what the prophet is going to do now, he gets a head wound; now he is going to bandage himself and that will become part of the scene.

The prophet departed verse 38 waited for the king by the way, Ahab is coming back from his time with Ben-Hadad. He disguised himself with a bandage over his eyes, the king pass by, he cry to the king and said, your servant went out to the midst of the battle; behold, a man turned aside and brought a man to me and said Guard this man; if for any reason he is missing, then your life shall be for his life, or else you shall pay a talent of silver and while your servant was busy here and there, he was gone. I mean I was in trusted this battle and it look like he was wounded in the battle with guarding a prisoner with the warning, if you let him escape you will have to give your life for his or pay a significant fine.

When he tells to King Ahab that, the King of Israel said to him, so shall your judgment be; you yourself has decided it, your penalty will be carried out, then he hastily unwraps the bandage the King of Israel recognized that he was of the prophets, he said to him, thus says the Lord, because you have let go out of your hand the man whom I had devoted to destruction, therefore your life shall go for his life, your people for his people. So the king of Israel went to his house sullen and vexed, and came to Samaria.

This war was a holy war; war with or just God’s war he said, his prophet to tell Ahab what would be done, how to conduct the war, the spoils of war belong to God. It wasn’t Ahab’s position to decide to let Ben-Hadad go free. He should have been executed. But Ahab used his own wisdom. This prophecy will be literally fulfilled in Chapter 22, Ahab will give his life, and it will be at the hands of the Syrians that he will die for his rebellion here.

Turn back to First Samuel; you may remember this, but I will refresh your mind. Similar event happened, remember to king Saul in First Samuel Chapter 15, Saul was send by the Lord to destroy the Amalekites. Verse 3 of First Samuel 15, Samuel told Saul go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, don’t spare him; put to death men, women, child animals. So they go out they have great victory. Verse 7 Saul defeater Amalekites. Verse 8, he captured Agag the king of the Amalekites alive. Verse 9, Saul and the people spared Agag in the best of the sheep, oxen, fatlings all that was good, they weren’t willing to destroy them.

Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel, I regret that I have made Saul king, he has turned back from following me, he has not carried out my commands. And then Samuel has to go and tell Saul what the punishment will be. He asked them the question verse 19, why did you not obey the voice of the Lord, Saul once argue Samuel I did look at all the people, all the animals everything I did execute. It's not what you did; it's what you didn’t do.

And so Samuel tells him verse 22, has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices and didn’t obeying the voice of the Lord, Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice to heed than the fat of rams for rebellion is as the sin of divination, insubordination it has and iniquity and idolatry, because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you from being king.

Verse 26, you have rejected the word of Lord; the Lord has rejected you from being king. So similar king of thing; Agag the king had to die. This was a holy war, the spoils of war where devoted to the Lord, they belong to him, all those enemies where to die. So back to First Kings Chapter 20, for that Ahab will give his life.

You know what’s interesting all the bad things Ahab does, and the Lord is like this one out that will bring him the ultimate punishment. I am not as hard for us to measure. I think why is that, maybe the Lord would have determined to kill Ahab, because of his wickedness with false worship or that just as bad as sparing Ahab the Lord decides. This won’t be as bad, that won’t be as bad, at least I can see the wisdom in Ahab decisions here, give him credit as a exceptional military commander, he is providing for the future of the nation Israel by establishing an alliance with the nation that will help him turn back the Assyrians, at least for a time it doesn’t matter, and what God requires is obedience to his word.

Alright we come to Chapter 21, and we have the very well known account of Naboth's vineyard; the action of Ahab, the action of Jezebel, the death of Naboth, and the punishment that will come to these two people. 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. So he has got a palace in Jezreel.

Ahab spoke to Naboth saying give me your vineyard that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it's close beside my house. I will give you a better vineyard than it in its place, and if you want I will give you the money. It sounds like a fair offer, doesn’t it? I mean your properties right next to mine I want to have a nice garden there. I will give you a better piece of property, and the king could do that. And if you don’t want other property, I will reimburse you, man he could reimburse him as the money is not the issue, I just want the land I am going to and to give you something better. I said well, that sounds like an alright deal.

The problem is Naboth response to Ahab, the Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers, no. And he realizes if he sold his land to Ahab that would be a violation of the law of God. Come back to Leviticus 25, so it's not about Naboth here is being a stubborn man. He has being a godly man. Leviticus Chapter 25 verse 23, God speaking, the land moreover shall not be sold permanently, for the land is mine, you are alien, sojourners with me, the land to be divided up among the 12 tribes, but you understand you have it on loan from me it's my land. Now as it’s been parceled out to you, is the way I want to parceled out, you are not allowed to change the boundaries. So you can't sell it off for whatever reason, even for a good deal, because it doesn’t belong to you, it's mine.

So the instruction here if there is something comes up then you owe money you can't pay back, then the land can be give, but it has to be able to be redeemed. And then and at the certain time the jubilee it would return to the original owner, if it hasn’t been redeemed by then, so there are boundaries. So Naboth saying, I can't sell you my father’s inheritance. This is the land that we have from the Lord and it's not a matter of whether I could do better, get better land, thus get better crops or make more money or whatever. I can't sell you my land.

So he is functioning as a godly man here. So Ahab does what a lot of men do, he went home insult. Ahab came to his house sullen and vex, because the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him, because he said I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers. He lay down on his bed turned away his face and eat no food, what a great king. I mean here is the man who is significant military commander; he can't have the land he wants for his garden, he goes home and gets in bed, puts his face to the wall and will need anything.

You know you might think you are three year old, this is Ahab. Jezebel his wife came to him and said, how is that your spirit is so sullen and you are not eating food, he said to her, because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him give me your vineyard for money or the places you I will give you vineyard in place; he said, I won’t give you my vineyard.

Now Jezebel said that’s alright honey, aren’t you the king, get up, eat, and be happy, I will make the arrangements. And so she does. She sent letters in Ahab’s name, sealed them with his seal sent letters to the elders and the nobles who were living with Naboth in his city. She said proclaim a fast set Naboth in the chief seat, have two worthless man come before him and say, we heard you curse God in the king, take him out and stone him, that’s a capital offense.

Now remember we said they do these things according to the law. Jezebel has brought Baal worship into Israel along now to adjoin to calf worship. But once you are going to have Naboth executed she is going to do it according to the law. The Law of Moses requires two or three witnesses for a man to be put to death. He can't be put to death on the testimony of one witness. You think when would Jezebel care, she just give the execution order no, she is going to do it according to the law.

So you see this mixture we have going on. The woman who has brought Baal worship into Israel set up worship senders’ rebel, now going to have Naboth executed. We are going to have him executed according to the Mosaic Law. Furthermore the crime of cursing God was a crime to be punished by death. Leviticus 24, 16, anyone heard to curse God, two witnesses say they heard him, he was to be executed. So all set up, so the men of his city the elders lived in the city did as Jezebel send word to them. And you see the corrupting influences gone on here, they all join Jezebel in this. And let’s face it among godless people, there is no love lost for a godly man.

And he goes through the motions of conforming to the law, but they will lie, they will execute an innocent man, they will go along with this renders crime. And all carrying it out to be sure that we be biblical in the doing of it; have two witnesses they have to say they have heard him curse God. And then he can be executed as the law would require. And they go along, they proclaim a fast, they do what has been said; the two worthless men came in verse 13, and testify against Naboth, being Naboth curse God and the king. So they took him outside the cities stoned him to death with stones. We are just told about Naboth here, but you know they also stone his sons, because you don’t want the land to pass on to his sons at his death.

Turn over to Second Kings Chapter 9 just to jump ahead in the story. Second Kings Chapter 9, verse 26; we are now in the reign of Jehu, he will be the 11th king of Israel, and he is bringing punishment on Ahab’s family. But verse 26, surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons, says the Lord, and I will repay you in this property, says the Lord. And you know what he says, I have seen the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons, and now I am going to repay. So even though the account says they took Naboth out and executed him. They also executed his sons with him, as partners in his crime. That way the land won’t be passed on. There is no heir; Ahab just takes it over if you will.

All right back to Kings; First Kings 21, here it's interesting how God intervenes and how he doesn’t, isn’t it. He’s intervened to spare Ahab in Israel on a couple of occasions by sending a prophet, and speaking to Ahab and telling him what he will do, and here is godly Naboth with simply attempting to do what the Lord says, he should do and must do and he is stoned to death; the hands of godless men and God doesn’t intervene to spare him.

Sometimes the ways of the Lord are different than the ways we would have. I would let Ahab get it and spare Naboth, but the Lord spares Ahab then allows Naboth to suffer, a terrible death along with his sons. With that taking care of verse 15, when Jezebel heard that Naboth have been stoned with death, Jezebel said to Ahab, alright take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money, for Naboth he is not alive he is dead. And now said here, but we read that now later in account, his son. So there is nobody to contest the land, it's yours go ahead.

He got it for free. He didn’t have to give many things, anyway. Ahab is probably thinking, wow what a wife I have. She just take care of everything for me. Ahab goes down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite to take possession of it, and just like a bolt of lightning makes worse, then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite: that’s not good for Ahab.

So he is going to meet Ahab at the vineyard of Naboth. The Lord said to Elijah, go down to meet Ahab King of Israel, who is in Samaria, behold he is in the vineyard of Naboth where he has gone to take possession of it, you shall speak to him saying, thus says the Lord, have you murdered and also taken possession, you shall speak to him saying, thus says the Lord, in the place where the dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, the dog will lick up your blood, even yours.

Though we saw in Chapter 20, Ahab is going to give his life for sparing the life of Ben-Hadad. Now we are told that his death is going to have some gruesome accompaniments, just like you stoned Ahab and the wild dogs that ran around, they would come and lick up the blood. They are going to be licking up your blood the same place. You will pay the price for what you have done, that’s what Elijah used to tell Ahab.

So Ahab comes and meets -- Elijah comes and meets Ahab, and we’ve heard these words before, have you found me, O my enemy. He said, I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do evil in the sight of the Lord. I am here and I am here, because you are wicked. I am here because of your sin. I am here to tell you what God has to say to you, behold, I will bring evil upon you, and will utterly sweep you away, I will cut off from Ahab every male, both bond and free in Israel; I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, because of the provocation which you have provoked me to anger, because you have made Israel sin, of Jezebel also has the Lord spoken, saying, the dogs will eat Jezebel in the district of Jezreel. They are not only going to lick up the blood of Jezebel, they are going to eat the body of Jezebel.

And as it's graphically told later in the account, Jezebel will be just dung dog dirt on the land. Now that will be the end of Jezebel. So both you and your godless wife are going to come to an end that no one would want to have, surely there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do evil in the sight of the Lord, because Jezebel his wife in sighted him or perhaps whom Jezebel his wife in sighted.

It doesn’t excuse Ahab in any sense of the word. There show the Jezebel played a key role in the wickedness of Ahab, and thus she becomes infamous down to our day a Jezebel, whoever says, you are going to have a daughter why you name her Jezebel, just not good idea, because it's a name of infamy if you will. This message has a strong impact on Ahab. He is a man of godless character.

Look at verse 26, we have read 25, he acted very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites had done, whom the Lord cast out before the sons of Israel. So God intents him to punish him for his idolatry, but the focal point of bringing disaster down on him and Jezebel will be what they did to Naboth. That will be the occasion for judgment to be pronounced upon these two people, the man and the women and their descendants.

So that when Jehu has done with the house of Ahab, there nobody left; there is a slaughter of the entire line in family. Ahab is devastated by this pronouncement. He came about when Ahab heard these words that he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and fasted in lay in sackcloth and went about despondently. He humbles himself before the Lord. He uses the signs of mourning and remarkably the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying you see how Ahab is humbled himself before me, because he is humbled himself before me I will not bring evil in his days, but I will bring the evil upon his house in his sons day.

Ahab is going to get the privilege, if I can put it that way of dying in battle, to that extent it's a heroes death, to be mortally wounded in his chariot, to be propped up in his chariot, as the leader of the armies of Israel bleeding to death in the chariot, and then dying as a result of his wounds. It won’t be so for Jezebel; it won’t be so for the rest of his family. Amazing how God has moved, by repentance.

There is no indication that this was saving repentance in Ahab’s life. It was remorse, but God honors this repentance of Ahab, he say, well how do you know it wasn’t genuine. Well we get to Chapter 22; we see that the character of Ahab didn’t change a bit. And he still has no time for the prophets of God, and will not be open to hear what they have to say. But God does expect the repentance for what has taken place with Naboth, and so Ahab is going to die and pay the price for his actions that God has pronounced. But not the same way that Jezebel will.

Well just a couple of things few things I have noted here, and then we are done. Now one in Chapter 20 verse 11, godless men can act admirably, nobly on occasion. Even Ahab wasn’t as bad he could be all the time. So the statement in verse 11, the King of Israel replied, tell him let him not let not him who girds on his armor, boast like him who takes it off. I mean that’s an admirable stands for a king who faces an overwhelming foul.

But he planned his defeat, so he will say, yeah that’s the admirable characteristic of a man, who is responsible for the military condition of Israel and the defense of Israel. If true God does act to vindicate his name, Ahab’s victories don’t vindicate Ahab, they vindicate the God of Israel. They declare and show that the God of Israel honors his word. He has a covenant with Israel; ultimately Israel will be defeated by enemies.

The Lord remained the sovereign God is in control; when he says not now, it's not now, it doesn’t matter what the numbers are, it doesn’t matter whether it's a 1000 to 1 or 100,000 to 1 it wouldn’t matter. God determines and he acts on behalf of his people to vindicate his name. That’s true always. God has covenant promises with Israel that’s why to this day those promises hold true. Now look at what Israel is done. Look at how unfaithful they have been, this is not about that, this is about the God of Israel, who vindicates his own character and honors his word, and he remains faithful even when he people are unfaithful.

So down in verse 13, the end of the verse I will deliver them into your hands a day, you shall know that I am the Lord. Same statement in verse 28, in the second battle, the end of the verse, I will give this great multitude into your hands, you shall know that I am the Lord. Now that’s everything I noted men’s wisdom never accomplishes God’s purposes. Verse 34, verse 42, where Ahab made an alliance with Ben-Hadad, humanly speaking, militarily speaking within three years of that alliance Ahab will be at war with Ben-Hadad as an ally against Shalmaneser the Third King of Assyria. And they will be successful in turning back the Assyrians. And we are not careful, we look at these kinds of things and they overruled the word of God. We think well, it's okay; God honored that.

Look at the victory God gave them, doesn’t change God’s word stands. I mean you need to be careful of that in all of our dealings. We become pragmatic and we think, well we can do the work of the Lord and look how at it turned out. So it must be okay, it's never okay to disobey the word of the Lord. Well what would have happen then to Israel if Syria wasn’t there friend, and the Assyrians had come, I guess God would have had to handle it. The fact remains it wasn’t what God said should be done, and so he is displeased.

A fourth thing I noted is that godliness can be very costly. You finally see a man like Naboth standing, and standing up to Ahab and Naboth has to know, I mean he knows the character, these are his next door neighbors, not only the king and his wife, but my next door neighbor, he knows the character of Ahab, but he stands, I couldn’t do that God forbid, I couldn’t sell you the inheritance my father’s. God says I can't do that, basically that’s the foundation. It's a costly thing.

Here is a man who is going to die for those convictions for that obedience and not only him, but his sons. When all set and done it looks like Ahab wins, what did Naboth get out of this; the lands gone, it was a worthless stands, when it's all over, Naboth is dead his sons are dead and Ahab has a garden, did it pay for Naboth to stand, it did. God honors it, does it help how would you like to, he had to stand be there with him and his sons all around him and died the death of stoning, a terrible way to die, just throw stones at the people till they stop breathing; one stone hit you, two stone hit you, ten stone, you got to watch your sons dying there with you, godliness can be costly. I am going to do what God says or not. Well I guess I will die and do what God says.

So don’t think as Vince mentioned earlier, just because we do the right things, you know we always think why we are doing this, God will protect him, put a hedge around Naboth, no he lets him die at the hands of the Jezebel, for standing true to God’s word. You think Naboth got the glory and said what was worth it, I don’t think so.

Number five, the ungodly will not go unpunished and that’s Chapter 21 verses 19 to 24. And we know that in our mind, but we think that we don’t see that it's not worth it. But Ahab didn’t get away with anything. Jezebel didn’t get away with anything. Remember it wasn’t Naboth’s position to decide these things, it was God’s. All Naboth had to do was what he did, here is what God says, here is what I must do #.

We complicate our lives, yes but if I obey the word then this might happen; might, I just can do what I can do. I have to say this is what the word says; this is what I must do. I am not in control of the circumstances, the consequences, the outcomes; that’s in God hands. All I can do is, do what I am told to do, and that means do what I am told to do. But God takes care of it. The ungodly won’t go unpunished; vengeance is mine I will repay.

Deuteronomy 32, 35 that still hold true today Hebrews10:30 repeats the same thing. So whether you are in the Old Testament, the New Testament you will understand God sovereign. And he is the judge; he meets out the punishment, vengeance his mind I will repay. Lastly God is merciful toward the greatest of sinners when they humble themselves and we saw that with Ahab in verses 25 to 29, he humbles himself God’s spares him, not to death that he has said he will have to have, but the kind of death that Jezebel will die, and all associated with that. Even an Ahab that there was no one like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the sight of the Lord; he have acted very abominably, but he could show repentance before the Lord, humble himself before the Lord and received at least to certain grace. Though even the worst of sinners, it can be called the humble themselves before the Lord.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord for the accounts of the history of Israel. Lord even the midst of the ugliness of it, the awfulness of sin, the apostasy of your people; Lord we see your hand it work, you are sovereign. The victories on the battle field are results of your actions. The actions of kings and armies all being use to accomplish your purposes. Lord even in the darkest time, we thank you for the prophets. We thank you for Elijah. We thank you for Naboth, his sons.

Lord what seems to us as a terrible tragedy at the time would have had to be so totally disheartening to mainly godly people, knew the injustice of it all and yet you are in total control, your sovereign purposes are accomplished. Lord we would take hearts and know in our day the affairs of the world, the actions of nations, the little details of our lives. Lord we may seem small and insignificant, as that Naboth would have, compared to an Ahab King, but Lord in at all we are under your care, your direction, your purposes are being accomplished, there are no accidents, there are no tragedies to cut you off God that we are in part of what you had planned for us.

Lord in at all may we walk confidently. Above all give us a heart and mind of commitment to your word, determined to be obedience, do not tie ourselves in not wondering what will be the outcome, what will be the consequences of this or that, but to focus our minds on doing that which is pleasing to you, being obedient to your word, willing to entrust our lives and the outcome of all the circumstances of life to you the God who loves us and cares for us in every way. We look forward to the days of the week ahead of us. Lord may we be faithful in our service to honor you in Christ’s name, amen.