The word of the LORD condemns/ judges. "THUS SAYS THE LORD"Untitled Sermon (4)
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1 Kings 21:19, 1-29
Introduction:
- Contrary to what so many naively affirm, there is no such thing as private sin that impacts only those who are consenting and involved.
- Everything created or conceived propagates itself after its kind – Gen 1:11, 21, 25.
- “Nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything hidden that will not come to light.” – Lk 8:17 – “Be sure your sins will find you out.” – Nu 32:23
- The Bible is unwavering. The greatest consequence of private, personal sin is our own mortal soul. “The soul who sins shall die.” – Ezek 18:4 – “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Rom 6:23.
When believers explain that according to the word of God certain behaviour is right or wrong, acceptable, or unacceptable, sin, they are countered by those who vehemently accuse them of being narrow, judgmental, discriminating and needing to be culturally sensitive. Although an increasing number of people would disagree, there is an unchanging measure of what is right and wrong, the word of the LORD.
Eventually, we must all come to terms with, “Thus says the LORD.” Even as I say that, I am very aware that there are some believers who even as they affirm, “Thus says the LORD/the word of the LORD/the word of God/the Scriptures/the Bible need not be taken literally. I am sure that we all understand that when Isaiah the prophet spoke of the trees of the field clapping their hands, he was speaking figuratively.
“For you shall go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
But while some portions of Scripture must be understood figuratively or poetically, as when Jesus Christ called the religious leaders, whited sepuchres, the portion itself usually explains why the expression must be taken figuratively. Jesus explained the figure of speach. The scribes, Pharisees to whom He spoke were hypocrtites. They were beautiful on the outside, but within they were not only dead and unclean but their spiritual death had impacted many others.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.
We need to handle the word of God very and as best we are able allow Scripture to explain Scripture. One of foundational course at most Bible Colleges and Seminaries is Hermeneutics.
“Biblical hermeneutics is the study of the principles and methods of interpreting the text of the Bible. Second Timothy 2:15 commands this”
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
“The thesis of the book is that we ought to interpret the Scriptures in the same way that the apostles and prophets did, because they always honored the authorial intent of prior revelation (p. 22). They never attempted to alter the original and fixed meaning of Scripture, therefore Christians can and should imitate their hermeneutic. The apostles and prophets did not play fast and loose with the OT—they handled it contextually. Put another way, the authors of Scripture used grammatical-historical hermeneutics: “Literal-grammatical-historical hermeneutics is not a modern formulation but how the biblical writers read Scripture” (p. 23). Expressed as an equation: the prophetic hermeneutic = the apostolic hermeneutic = the Christian hermeneutic. Chou says, “my thesis resonates with Beale, Kaiser, Carson, Hamilton, Caneday, and Bock” (p. 23).”
I mention Hermeneutics for a reason.
Naboth believed and was committed to obeying the word of God and the commands contained therein. Ahab and Jezebel did not believe, respect, obey the word of God.
Not only did they not believe the word of God, they felt that they could sin with inpunity.
Inpunity - exempt from punishment, freedom from penalty from the consequences of actions that harm others.
Ahab and Jezebel felt that their subversive corrupt means of taking possession of Naboth’s vineyard, would remain unnoted and without consequences. They felt that they could lie and remove Naboth with impunity. That was until the word of the LORD came to Elijah commanding him to confront Ahab who had “sold himself to do what we evil in the sight of the LORD.” – 1 Kings 21:20.
Here we see:
1. Ahab’s covetousness & Jezebel’s deceptive complicity exposed – 21:1-19.
o Occasional tension of pleasing both man and God – 21:1-4
In the account before us, Naboth the Jezreelite, became a victim of King Ahab’s covetousness and Queen Jezebel’s lacking of any moral compass. She was willing to do anything and have others do anything so that Ahab and her had what they wanted.
Naboth - Jezreelite - resident of Jezreel - had a vineyard that had been passed along through many generations from father to father.
Ahab who had a primary residence in the city of Samaria (built by his father Omri - 1 Kings 16:23-24- , he built his own palace - Hebrew word = fortification rather than palace - in Jezreel, next to Naboth’s vineyard.
Naboth’s vineyard was well established family treasure and means of liveilihood that been developed over generations. That probably meant tearing out and replanting segments of the vineyard every 30 to 40 years. Naboth might very well have worked with both his father ,and grandfather, and perhaps even his children.
Looking next door at we expect was a well established profitable vineyard, Ahab looked and said, “Give me your vineyard, that I might have a vegetable garden , because it’s near my house, and I will give you a better vineyard for it; or, if it seems good to you its value in money.”
At first glance, Ahab’s offer of an exchange or market value payment might seem better than expropriation except for two facts:
Tearing out/destroying a well established vineyard would have been a huge waste! Naboth would not be tending his own garden or doing the work. If Ahab owned another vineyard, or property, that could be used to grow fresh vegetables.
The LORD forbid that I should you the inheritance of my fathers.
“The LORD forbid” that he was a worshipper of Jehovah and that he could not disregard the law of God re property that had been apportioned to each tribe and family. The property entrusted to each family
“could not, even by marriage, go into other hands, and which, even if it were sold on account of impoverishment or otherwise on account of distress, would revert to it again, without price, the the year of Jubilee.” (Lang’s Commentary)
John Peter Lange et al., A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: 1 Kings (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2008), 243.
So no inheritance shall be transferred from one tribe to another, for each of the tribes of the people of Israel shall hold on to its own inheritance.’ ”
These are the commandments and the rules that the Lord commanded through Moses to the people of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.
“The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the country you possess, you shall allow a redemption of the land.
“If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, then his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his brother has sold. If a man has no one to redeem it and then himself becomes prosperous and finds sufficient means to redeem it, let him calculate the years since he sold it and pay back the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and then return to his property. But if he does not have sufficient means to recover it, then what he sold shall remain in the hand of the buyer until the year of jubilee. In the jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his property.
Ahab’s request was also demonstrated his disregard for God’s commands.
So I poured out my wrath upon them for the blood that they had shed in the land, for the idols with which they had defiled it.
Like Joseph, who denied/rejected the request of Potiphar’s wife, Naboth was faced with a request that would have meant disobeying God.
He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?”
There will be times when in order to honour we deny the requests of others, even those inauthority.
Folllowing the example of Christ and the disciples who it meant disobeying the Lord, refused to bow their knees to religious and political authorities.
So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”
Ahab’s pouting response - 21:4
o The repercussions of “BUT JEZEBEL”:
- Rebuke of Ahab – 21:5-7
“Why is your spirit so vexed that you eat no food?”
“Are you now govern Israel”
“I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”
With what the word of God tells and Ahab would have known first hand, Jezebel had no moral scrupples and had qualms or conscience about killing/having murdered those who stood in her way.
By not stopping Jezebel at that point, Ahab became complicite and as guilty as Jezebel. Ahab knew better. Elijah and had told him and shown him the word of God way. Naboth had declared that he was committed to the word of God way.
Not doing the word of God way is sin.
So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
Christ emphasized that in His parable of the faithfil and wise manager.
And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating.
- Counterfeit letters & false charges – 21:8-14
Jezebel wrote letters on Ahab’s behalf and sealed them with his seal that would have been entrusted to her by Ahab.
“Proclaim a fast and set Naboth at the head of the people.
Set two worthless men opposite him, and let them bring a charge against him saying, ‘You have cursed God and the King.’
Worthless mean - literally sons of Belial - utterly wicked men.
Hebrew way of saying base and wicked
Used re sons of Eli.
Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the Lord.
It was ironic that Eli had considered Hannah a wicked woman - 1 Sam 1:16 - but refused to or chose not to see that his sons were wicked.
Beliah was used of Satan in the NT
What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?
ALL CONCERNED KNEW THE LIES INVOLVED BUT SOMEHOW SAW THEMSELVES AS THE LAW AND LAW UNTO THEMSELVES.
Throughout history there have been and always will those who as in the days of the judges of Israel,
In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
This was sadly ironic, the reason being they had been warned not to do that.
“You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes,
“The idea that everyone should get to define for himself what is right and true is a recipe for disorder and disaster. It is the very definition of moral anarchy.
But it is also the defining principle of postmodernism—the value system that rules the current generation. Truth is regarded as a matter of personal perspective. People today believe nothing can be known with settled certainty. This is not a new phenomenon. Pontius Pilate cynically asked Jesus, “What is truth?” (John 18:38). Today’s society collectively answers that question in the most skeptical yet arrogant way possible—namely, with the disastrous false notion that the only truth that ultimately matters is whatever seems right in your own eyes.”
(Dr John MacArthur as quoted in Decision Magazine )
Then take him out and stone him.
Cursing/reviling God, even religious and the king was punishable by death. Paul referenced that.
Those who stood by said, “Would you revile God’s high priest?” And Paul said, “I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest, for it is written, ‘You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.’ ”
“You shall not revile God, nor curse a ruler of your people.
The elders and the noble would constituted the city tribunal that would have affimed the death penalty.
“You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.
“Bring out of the camp the one who cursed, and let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him.
The elders & the leaders were also complicit in this.
Outside the city:
“They hypocritically climaxed their violent murder by killing the innocent Naboth in a place that was in accordance with the Mosaic law. He was stoned to death in the open fields and his sons were killed with him - 2 Kings 9:26.” (MacArthur Study Bible note)
And the Lord said to Moses, “The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.” And all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, as the Lord commanded Moses.
Those who stoned Naboth were also complicit in murdering him and his sons.
- Jezebel’s announcement & Ahab’s naïve response – 21:15-16
Jezebel had formulated the plan and left the elders and leaders in Jezreel, to carry it out.
Jezebel might have thought the only the elders and knew that she was behind the false accucations, mock trial and henous bloody execution of Naboth and his innocent sons. Although the elders, leaders would not divulged the details. To divulge the details would have put their lives in jeopardy.
Ahab never questioned how Naboth died. Hissupposed naivity is unbelievable.
o Condemnation - thus says the LORD, - 21:17-19
Again the word of the LORD came to Elijah as it had when he first approached Ahab or when he approached re gather gathering the people of Israel and the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel.
The word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite - 17:1,2
The word of the LORD directed Elijah step by step and told him what to say.
HOW GRACIOUS THE LORD WAS TO ALLOW ELIJAH TO FINISH WHAT HE HAD INITIALLY CALLED HIM TO DO, CONFRONT AHAB WITH HIS SIN AND EVIL IN THE SIGHT OF GOD.
Arise, go down to meet Ahab, king of Israel - “Samaria , vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone to take possession
Because Ahab had gone to take possession, either Naboth had no sons or they had also been stoned.
‘As surely as I saw yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons—declares the Lord—I will repay you on this plot of ground.’ Now therefore take him up and throw him on the plot of ground, in accordance with the word of the Lord.”
Go down - from some mountain district.
· “Have you killed and taken possession?”
Ahab’s crime was presented as a question. In some situations this might have stirred his conscience more than a question.
Ahab is charged withvthe crime, not Jezebel.
Similar to the Lord calling Adam re what Eve did.
But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
· THUS SAYS THE LORD - “In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick your own blood.”
Later, the prophet Micaiah prophecied that in the course of battle, all Israel would be scattered without a shepherd.
And he said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. And the Lord said, ‘These have no master; let each return to his home in peace.’ ”
2. The LORD’s judgment explained – 21:20-24.
o Ahab’s question, “Have you found me, O my enemy?”
o Elijah’s answer/the LORD’s answer:
- “I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the LORD.
- I will bring disaster upon you.
- I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam.
- The dogs shall eat Jezebel within the walls of Jezebel.”
3. Ahab’s short-term repentance/humbling of himself & the LORD’s delay in bringing disaster on his house – 19:25-29.
o Assessments of Ahab:
- “None who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the LORD, like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited.”
- Acted very abominably in going after idol, … whom the LORD cast out before the people of Israel.”
o Repentance of Ahab Expressions of repentance
- The word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, “Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me.?”
- Because he has humbled himself before me:
- I will not bring the disaster in his days, but in his son’s days.
Amid the overwhelming pain and deception that continue unabated in today’s segment of the ministry of Elijah, the Bible reminds us that:
1. Pleasing and obeying the LORD sometimes creates tensions and misunderstandings.
2. The LORD sees and holds us accountable for all that we do or allow others accountable to us to do.
3. The LORD perfectly balances justice and mercy.
Nov 5/23