Elijah confront Ahab (Again!)

INTRO

Good morning everyone, if you have your Bible today you can turn it to 1 Kings 21 where we have quite an interesting story along with a somewhat renewed Elijah. I say a renewed Elijah because if you have not been with us the past couple weeks, Elijah has been in a hole, a dark night of the soul, a depression. After a death threat from Jezebel, King Ahab’s wife, he flees for his life and becomes self righteous, stubborn, and a pouting prophet rather than the supernatural one that was having fire come down from heaven and seeing miraculous things happen. But today, as I said already, we have an obedient Elijah, a renewed Elijah wanting to do the Lord’s work, not just his own.

But before we get to him, we need to read about this sad and wicked story involving Ahab, Jezebel and a man named Naboth which has a wild ending.

And as we journey through this story this morning I will be pointing out some ways that we can continue to be supernaturally people in a complacent culture that, some may be reminders, some may be new, but hopefully they will be helpful and stir us up to love and good works.

BODY

1 Now Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel, beside the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. 2 And after this Ahab said to Naboth, “Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near my house, and I will give you a better vineyard for it; or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its value in money.” 3 But Naboth said to Ahab, “The LORD forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.”

Now before you think Naboth is being a little intense here with his little garden, we need to remember what has happened in the past with God’s people. God promised to them, specifically through Abraham, that they would be a mighty nation, that he would be their God, and that God would give them the promised land. We see that fulfilled through Moses/Joshua and when the rules about the land were being formed, each tribe of the people of Israel were given a certain spot. And when the laws of God were being made, specifically in Number 36:7-9 that no tribe should trade with the other. This was your spot, not switching. So, Naboth is obeying God’s word in Number 36:7-9. He is not being stubborn in a selfish way, or mean hearted, he is being biblical in saying not to the king. And the king was supposed to follow these rules, he wasn’t to be like the kings around him who just did whatever they wanted to. So we have Ahab, coveting which was one of the 10 commandments, and we have Ahab, a king who should be copying the law of God once a year, breaking one of the more well known commands of God. This is already a messy situation and we havn’t even gotten to the worst part yet. But I do want to pause here remind ourselves of something that is happening here so we can live supernaturally in a complacent culture.

TO LIVE SUPERNATURALLY IN A COMPLACENT CULTURE WE NEED TO LIVE BIBLICALLY

Now it may not seem like a supernatural thing for Naboth to not sell his land, but it is showing him to being obedient to God more than man. Yes, he is not raising the dead or having fire come down from heaven, but he is being obedient to God even more than to a king! And this is during a time of God’s word not being esteemed. Even the king is not reading the Bible of their day yet this Naboth knows his stuff and is sticking to it.

Now, this is once again, a crazy statement, but I will once again tell you you should be reading your Bible. Some of you are like, how long is he going to keep saying this? Until Jesus comes back, or I die man. I wholeheartedly believe that we as believers need to continue to get into the word so that we don’t end up like Ahab, a king of God’s people (a title of Christian) yet living in covetousness even while he probably has more than enough!

We won’t sit here long today because we still have a lot of text to get through, but here is a little thought for you to ponder, maybe even write it down to think about later today.

Where am I not living Biblically in my life?

Where am I bowing down to man’s opinion, money, or comfort more than what God says? Where am I not realizing the side affects of not getting into the word, like Ahab, where covetousness or some other sin, is rearing its ugly head. How can I get back into the Word so I can be obedient to the one who loved me first. Something to ponder but let’s keep reading because there is a lot more to this story.

4 And Ahab went into his house vexed and sullen because of what Naboth the Jezreelite had said to him, for he had said, “I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.” And he lay down on his bed and turned away his face and would eat no food.

5 But Jezebel his wife came to him and said to him, “Why is your spirit so vexed that you eat no food?” 6 And he said to her, “Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him, ‘Give me your vineyard for money, or else, if it please you, I will give you another vineyard for it.’ And he answered, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.’ ” 7 And Jezebel his wife said to him, “Do you now govern Israel? Arise and eat bread and let your heart be cheerful; I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”

Wow, what a cry baby. Not eating just because someone rejected him. He can’t get what he wants so he whines and cries about it to his wife. And she, being the sweetheart that she is, tells him essentially “Hey you are the king, you get whatever you want! But since I know you are a whiny baby and not able to do anything for yourself, I will do it. Go eat something and I will take care of it for you. So off goes spineless Ahab and this is what Jezebel does to control the situation.

8 So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name and sealed them with his seal, and she sent the letters to the elders and the leaders who lived with Naboth in his city. 9 And she wrote in the letters, “Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth at the head of the people. 10 And set two worthless men opposite him, and let them bring a charge against him, saying, ‘You have cursed God and the king.’ Then take him out and stone him to death.” 11 And the men of his city, the elders and the leaders who lived in his city, did as Jezebel had sent word to them. As it was written in the letters that she had sent to them, 12 they proclaimed a fast and set Naboth at the head of the people. 13 And the two worthless men came in and sat opposite him. And the worthless men brought a charge against Naboth in the presence of the people, saying, “Naboth cursed God and the king.” So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death with stones. 14 Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, “Naboth has been stoned; he is dead.”

15 As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, Jezebel said to Ahab, “Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money, for Naboth is not alive, but dead.” 16 And as soon as Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, Ahab arose to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it.

Good grief, right? This women is evil. Writes a letter in Ahab’s place to kill a guy. Doesn’t even flinch about it and says, “Hey sweetie, ya that guy is dead now, go get your vineyard.” It is evil, deceitful, sinful and wicked. But we have to remember this is a dark time spiritually for the people of Israel. Those who obeyed the Word of God were not esteemed but persecuted or killed. Which leads me to my next reminder for us today.

TO LIVE SUPERNATURALLY IN A COMPLACENT CULTURE WE WILL BE PERSECUTED FOR OBEYING GOD

Yea! Now before all of you run away or get freaked out by this, let me explain. Jesus tells us that no servant is greater than his master. And if they persecuted him, even to the point of death, why would they treat us differently. I am thankful that we do live in a country where this is not a constant threat, and no, I don’t think people yelling at you on social media for posting a Bible verse is persecution. However, we cringe at what Jezebel does here because it is evil. And that same evil is still prevalent today. There is talk in the christian culture of a Jezebel sprit, but ultimately, it is just a control freak willing to do any kind of evil. It the culture of this age, along with a devil mindset. So, this goes back to last week when we talked about being wholehearted. It makes us check our motives for following Jesus. Are we doing this for our benefit and gain, or will we be like Naboth who obeyed God’s word even if it costs him his life. Yes, I know that is intense, but as your pastor I think it is helpful to lay this before you so that, if the day comes, where that is a possibility, you already have your mind made up on what you will do.

So that is the ACT 1 of the story and now enters in Elijah for Act 2, it should make us almost gasp, as if he is back from the dead or something. Where has he been? We don’t know. What has he been doing? We have not idea. But there are twelve amazing words that should refresh us and see, okay he is back in this thing. Are you ready to hear the 12 amazing words?

17 Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 18 “Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who is in Samaria; behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone to take possession. 19 And you shall say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Have you killed and also taken possession?” ’ And you shall say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD: “In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick your own blood.” ’ ” 20 Ahab said to Elijah, “Have you found me, O my enemy?” He answered, “I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the LORD. 21 Behold, I will bring disaster upon you. I will utterly burn you up, and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel. 22 And I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, for the anger to which you have provoked me, and because you have made Israel to sin. 23 And of Jezebel the LORD also said, ‘The dogs shall eat Jezebel within the walls of Jezreel.’ 24 Anyone belonging to Ahab who dies in the city the dogs shall eat, and anyone of his who dies in the open country the birds of the heavens shall eat.”

So the Word of God is speaking to Elijah again, and it is not an easy word is it. He is going to confront Ahab and his wife (the one who gave the death threat) and tell them their death. Not exactly an exciting and powerful time of seeing fire fall. He could be going into this thinking this is it. I’m going to say this and then they will get me. But he is faithful, and he delivers this just judgment on both Ahab and Jezebel about how they both will die. And, spoiler alert, this is exactly how they die. We won’t get into that right now, but their deaths are a fulfillment of this prophecy. Which, in a weird way, are we not all cheering on Elijah here? Like they just a terrible crime! And here is Elijah, the one that they want dead telling them the way they are doing to die. This would make a great ending to this story, but there is more. And it is a surprise ending for sure. Let’s read it.

25 (There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the LORD like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited. 26 He acted very abominably in going after idols, as the Amorites had done, whom the LORD cast out before the people of Israel.)

27 And when Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about dejectedly. 28 And the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 29 “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 I will bring the disaster upon his house.”

Wait, what? No! The bad guys is supposed to die! This guys is terrible, we just read that in verse 25 that he is the worst! But God is showing him mercy? Well how do we know if this repentance is sincere? How do we know he is not faking? Doesn’t matter. God has shown mercy.

How is that sitting with everyone? Kind of wild, right?

I’m curious what Elijah’s response was. Was it like Jonah where after preaching judgment and God showed mercy there was this contemptment? Did he just shrug his shoulders like, yup that’s God, being merciful. We don’t know, but I think our response to this could be an indication of a couple things in our own lives. Because the mercy of God is pretty radical when we think about who and how he saves people.

ClOSING

GOD’S MERCY SHOULD CAUSE US TO…

1. Be faithful to speak God’s word.

We don’t know Elijah’s motives in going to Ahab and speaking those harsh words. We could speculate, but what we do see is that he was faithful even with a hard message. I don’t think he was doing it in a place of anger. But as I said, I can’t tell you His motivation. But I believe when it comes to us, the mercy of God can cause us to speak God’s word faithfully wherever we go. Now you may think, I am not a preacher Josh, I don’t know what you are talking about being faithful to speak God’s word. But you are a believer, that hopefully is engaging others with the hope you have inside of you about God. And if a hard question comes up, will we shrink back or will we remember the mercy of God? Will we say the hard things because we know it is God’s mercy to confront that person and tell them the truth. I get it, we don’t like this. We want the likes and shares by everyone and the applause from people. But God is not looking for superstars, he is looking for people to speak his word faithfully to others. The hard things like about sin, hell, judgment, and that we are called to repent. These are not cheered on, but it is also part of the Gospel to share with others so they know what God has done what he has done for them.

Are you speaking faithfully God’s word to you children? To your neighbors? To your coworkers? Because God is merciful and is able to us the wildest stuff to catch peoples attention to draw them to himself.

2. We leave the results to God.

God’s response to Elijah is so interesting to him. He is like, hey, did you see how he responded to that rebuke? He really has some remorse and repentance. And you can criticize Ahab all day on whether it was an authentic repentance or not, but God sees it and believes it is authentic, so I’m willing to think it was.

I think as we as believers need to continue to remind ourselves of this. You’re preaching of the Word, your ministry to others, is in the hands of God. We are the the planters and waterers and God brings the increase. We share words of encouragement, words of advice, and we trust God to work in the heart. Will we remember the mercy of God even in our weaknesses and our mess ups?

3.Receive His mercy to give mercy to others