Would You Like a Little Cheese with Your Whine?
Poor King Ahab. He was having a bad year. Let me walk you through the story that begins back in Chapter 20. King Ahab had spent several months fighting a war to protect his capitol city of Samaria. His father, King Omri, had acquired that city and turned it into the capitol of Israel. With grit and tenacity… and with the help of God… King Ahab had managed to win the war, defeating King Ben-Hadad of Aram and the 32 other kings who fought with King Ben Hadad, slaughtering 127,000 men in the process. Then, in a show of great magnanimity, King Ahab spared the life of this king. Unfortunately, this was not the right thing to do. You see, God had instructed King Ahab to kill King Ben-Hadad. This king had been a thorn in his side for his entire reign and, as a result of this fiasco, he remained a thorn in King Ahab’s side for the rest of his reign. The eastern border of the nation of Israel remained unstable for all twenty-two years of King Ahab’s reign… for, you see, King Ben-Hadad outlived King Ahab. In fact, it was King Ben-Hadad, in fact, who was responsible for the devastating siege of Samaria a few years later. So, Rule # 1 is: Obey God.
Now, at the end of Chapter 20, as King Ahab was triumphantly making his way home to his summer palace in Jezreel for rest and relaxation, he was stopped on the road and chastised by some unknown prophet in disguise for not obeying God and killing King Ben-Hadad. So, King Ahab was not in a good mood when he got home. In fact, the text says that he was “sullen and angry.” He was met by his wife, Jezebel. Now, Queen Jezebel was a city girl from the north who was not known for her sensitivity. In fact, from what little we do know of her, I can imagine that her response to King Ahab’s whining was to look at him from the doorway on her way to yet another party and say simply, “Get over it.” I would say that Rule # 2 is: If your father recommends a woman for you to marry, make sure she’s a sweet and sensitive girl, not the “Wicked Witch of the North.”
So, this is where our story begins today… with King Ahab sulking. I don’t know how many of you have ever been around someone who is in a bad mood, but it’s generally not a pleasant experience. Almost universally, the opinion of the person who is in a bad mood is that everyone else should share it. These people usually go looking for trouble. So, it doesn’t surprise me that, when King Ahab was sitting in his recliner with his feet up, enjoying the first good glass of wine he’d had in a long time, and his eyes fell on his neighbor’s plot of land, that he decided that he wanted that land, whatever the cost.
So, he put down his glass of wine, strolled out the back door to his fence and called his neighbor over for a chat. Never having met him, King Ahab quite humbly introduced himself, knowing that Naboth, like all peasants, would be overwhelmed that his king had spoken to him. Then, King Ahab offered Naboth his choice of a better vineyard or the value of the land in cash, whichever he preferred, for his property. Now imagine, if you will, his utter humiliation when Naboth not only is not impressed that his king is speaking to him, but that he actually turns down the king’s wonderful offer! Is it any surprise that King Ahab storms back to the palace more angry than when he left?
Why was Naboth so reluctant to part with his property… even for the promise of still more valuable land or a huge wad of cold cash? Well, it turns out that this particular piece of property was more than just a little vineyard that Naboth’s great-grandfather had purchased some years before. When Naboth responded to King Ahab’s offer, he stated that this land was his ancestral inheritance. According to the Mosaic laws in Leviticus, the Israelites were not allowed to sell the property that had been given to them by God, because technically the property still belonged to God. The Israelites, in God’s eyes, were just the caretakers of God’s property. In fact, if for any reason, an Israelite was forced to sell his property out of sheer economic need, his relatives were bound, by the law of Moses, to redeem that land as soon as possible. So, Naboth couldn’t sell the land to King Ahab even if he wanted to do so.
But, back to King Ahab, who is back in the palace, sulking once again. Once again, he whines to Jezebel and, this time, she loses all patience with him. Now, remember that Jezebel had been raised as the daughter of the King of Phoenicia, a prosperous kingdom on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. All her life, she had been given everything she ever wanted. All the riches of Phoenicia, as well as treasures that came through Tyre and Sidon from the Orient and other distant lands, had been part of her life from infancy. She had married Ahab because, at the time, it was a good political alliance for her father and his father. And, after all, he was the crown prince of the Omride Dynasty, which was a very strong monarchy.
Jezebel was used to getting her own way and was not a woman who would easily sympathize with a whiner. In fact, you might get a better understanding of Jezebel when you learn that her name, in her native Phoenician, means “Where’s the prince?”… you know, someone worthy of this princess. Well, it was certainly obvious to Jezebel on this particular day that this man was not the prince she had been waiting for. So, she lashed out at King Ahab: “Why are you in such a bad mood? Is this how you act as a king of Israel? Quit whining. Get up and eat. And don’t worry about this Naboth character. I’ll take care of him.”
At this point, I would say that Rule # 3 might be: If your spouse tells you that she will take care of your problem, you might want to ask a few questions about the details. You see, while King Ahab ate a meal with a few hundred of his closest friends, his wife took care of his “problem.” Basically, she used the king’s computer to email a few people, telling them to arrest Naboth on trumped up charges of blasphemy and treason. She signed King Ahab’s name to that message. Then, she wired some money to these folks so they could pay the informants who would testify against Naboth, and greased the palm of the local judge to guarantee that Naboth would get the death sentence. Not surprisingly, the wheels of “justice” moved swiftly and Naboth quickly tried and executed. So, the next day, while King Ahab was sleeping off his hangover, Jezebel popped in to report to him that his nemesis, Naboth, was dead.
King Ahab, surprised and pleased that his problem was gone, didn’t bother to ask Jezebel for any details. He got dressed and ran down to see the property that is now his. And while he was there, strolling in the place where he planned to plant his new vegetable garden, the prophet Elijah stopped by for a chat. Now, somehow, Ahab figured out that this would not be a friendly visit. After all, this was the prophet who killed off the 450 priests of Baal, which made King Ahab’s wife, Jezebel, furious. So, King Ahab greeted Elijah with the words, “So, you’ve found me, my enemy.” And, sure enough, Elijah proceeded to prophesy disaster for King Ahab because he had been an accomplice in the murder of an innocent man. And all this because he wanted a small piece of property that did not belong to him… property, in fact, that did not even belong to Naboth. It was a gift from God. The prophesy that Elijah gave, which later came to pass, was that, for his greed, all of Ahab’s descendents would be wiped out… not a small matter, considering that King Ahab had 70 sons. So, once again, King Ahab went back to the palace humiliated and depressed.
You know, apart from the names of the parties involved, this could be a modern made-for-TV movie. Actually, with a few minor changes, this could be a story of power and corruption anywhere in our world today. But, I’m not really concerned about kings and queens and kingdoms and vineyards. What I am concerned about is you and me and the message that God is bringing to us through this story.
This story is a message about the gifts and responsibilities that God has entrusted to us. King Ahab was chosen and appointed by God to be the leader and the protector of the people of Israel… God’s chosen people. In his role as king, he was to represent God and to act as God directed him to act. Did he do that? No. Instead of leading and protecting the people under his care, he attempted to steal God’s own property from one of God’s own people. And, when that didn’t work, he had that person… a person under his care… killed.
Now, some of you might argue that it was not King Ahab that had Naboth killed… it was Queen Jezebel who did that. Yes, it was Queen Jezebel who actually put the wheels in motion to make that happen, but it could not have happened without the power of the king behind her. This woman… who was a stranger from a strange land… a non-believer in Israel’s God… a woman who not only worshipped other gods, but brought those other gods and their priests with her to Israel and led King Ahab to worship those other gods in temples that King Ahab built for those gods with money belonging to the people of Israel… this woman had somehow become the power behind the throne in Israel. How? I would argue that it was because God was no longer the center of King Ahab’s life. King Ahab had turned his back on God and abused the power God had given him.
So, my question to you today is this: What is it that God has entrusted to your care? And have you been a faithful steward of all that God has entrusted to you? You see, Naboth could have been a very wealthy man and made his king happy by simply selling his vineyard. Instead, Naboth chose to risk his king’s anger to be a faithful steward of the gift that God entrusted to him. In the end, it cost him his life. What has God entrusted to you? What are you willing to do to demonstrate that you are worthy of that trust?
I believe that there are many things… many gifts… that God has entrusted to you … and to me… and that we have a responsibility to be good stewards of these things. For example, if you are a member of this church, then this church and its work and worship have been entrusted to your care. It is not just the elders who are responsible… although they represent you at meetings of the Session… but every member is entrusted with the work and worship of this church. If you have a spouse, then that person… that relationship… is something that God has entrusted to you. If you have children, then those children… those relationships… are gifts that God has given to you. If you have a home… a car… money in the bank… food on the table… or a job… these are also gifts that have been entrusted to you. (P)
And yet, how many of us, in those quiet moments, spend time gazing out of our windows at our neighbor’s church… our neighbor’s house… our neighbor’s children… our neighbor’s spouse… and wishing that those things belonged to us… coveting the gifts that others have worked so hard for… or that they have been blessed with… instead of being focused on the things that God has given to us? Are we so different from King Ahab? Have we been good stewards of God’s gifts? Can we claim that we have done all that God has asked us to do? Can we say that we have led… nourished… protected… or been good stewards of all that God has entrusted to us? Or have we allowed something or someone to distract us… to come between us and God, as King Ahab did?
Oh, it is so easy for that to happen… to get distracted from God. It is not just evil that can separate us from God. We can be distracted from God by the people…and the things… that fill up our lives. And it can all start with something very small: a glance out of a window… a brief conversation…a bad mood. But, it’s a funny thing about evil: just a little of it in our lives colors everything… just like a tiny drop of food coloring can change the color of a whole pitcher of water. Each choice seems so small. Each one seems harmless on the surface. But pretty soon, we’re thoroughly distracted and, unfortunately, we quickly get used to the new “color” of our lives… we get used to all those distractions. With each decision to allow evil into our lives, little changes happen… each change taking us further away from this great God who loves us. And that separation can be devastating to our life and the lives of those around us.
So, Rule # 4 is for us to: Maintain a close relationship with God. Now, maintaining a close relationship with God is not easy. It is also not a fair-weather phenomenon. It isn’t something that we can do just when the Spirit moves us. It is a total commitment of our lives to God every day. If we allow evil into our lives, as King Ahab did, and let it to take root in our souls, that evil will spread like a cancer… destroying our souls and separating us from God. If we let the things of this world come between us and God, those things can separate us from God’s love. There is only one solution: that is a life of faith… faith in God. For, as Bruce shared with us in our reading from Galatians this morning, we are not saved by the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. We, in fact, died to the law so that we might live to God… so that, in faith, it is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us. And it is Christ in whom, with whom, and through whom we are promised the strength to combat evil… and keep us in relationship with God.
But, this is not something that comes to us once for all time. It is a challenge that we, as Christians, face every day of our lives. Every day, we are faced with the distractions of life. Every day, we are faced with temptation… corruption… and evil… and we are called upon to make choices… choices that will bring us closer to God… or take us further away.
A relationship with God is something that we each need every day. It is not something to put off until the things start heading south. We need to seek God’s presence in our lives every day. For it is in our daily time with God that we will hear God’s voice speaking to us… feel God’s arms wrapped around us… and taste the wonders of God’s grace and God’s bounty in our lives. Let’s not kid ourselves: Listening to God… obeying God… and being a good steward of all that God has entrusted to us will not be easy. We must prepare ourselves for the challenges that life will bring. We must get rid of everything that that distracts us… or distances us… from God. Then, when the dark days come… as we all know they will … we, like Naboth, will know God’s will and have the strength to obey, despite the temptations of the world around us. May God bless each one of us as we seek that relationship with him. Amen.
1 Kings 21:1-21; Galatians 2:15-21; Psalm 5:1-8