Naboths Vinyard
Notes
Transcript
Everyone here has seen toy story right?
Well if not let me give a quick summery because Woody is the cowboy toy and he has been Andys favortite toy for years and he has a pretty good life.
But Buzz light year comes along and Buzz is this new flashy toy and he is now Andys favorite toy.
And you start to see all of the woody stuff in Andys room like sheets, posters, decorations, start to turn to buzz lightyear.
And it leads us to this little clip we just watched where we see Woody give it back to buzz the issue is it goes way further then what he thought it would and not Woody is being called a murderer.
(and spoiler alert) Buzz ends up being okay.
But you know this clip is a little bit of a reminder that often times when we get jelous it has the potential to take us to a place we never thought we would end up at.
And really today we are looking at a story where a king wants something, and when he can’t get it, his jelousy pushes him to a bad place.
And so we will be in 1 Kings 21 and if you have not been with us let me just catch you up really quick.
Because this book has a focus on two guys, the first is a king called Ahab who was this evil king over the nation of Israel, but the second was this prophet named Elijah who would speak out against him.
And we keep seeing these exchanges where Elijah is trying to get Ahab to turn back to God, and turn away from all the evil things he is doing.
And today we finally see Elijah make an impact.
But we will just start in the first 4 verses. It says this:
1 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. 2 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.” 3 But Naboth replied, “The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my ancestors.” 4 So Ahab went home, sullen and angry because Naboth the Jezreelite had said, “I will not give you the inheritance of my ancestors.” He lay on his bed sulking and refused to eat.
So this passage seems a little odd, because everything leading up to this point has been these big battles and showdowns, and verse 1 talks about this vinyard that belonged to this man Naboth.
And we do not know aa ton about Naboth’s Vineyard, other then it is close to the palace.
And so Ahab see this and he comes to Naboth and he goes wow thats aa nice plot of land you have there! I would love to have it, because I have all these vegetables that I want to grow.
And so far its a pretty normal exchange isn’t it?
I mean Israel just came out of this drought they are probably pretty low on food and Ahab is going we need to start growing stuff so we can stock up.
But there are two issues here, because the first is in the Old Testement there was a law on selling land and it was hard to sell land, because of these restrictions, and there were only a handful of ways to sell it and this was not one.
The second issue that some scholors mention, is that Ahab is saying he is going to grow vegitables.
Let me explain, because I like vegitables and planting vegtibles is fine, but you might remember when Israel was living in Eygpt God told them in Egypt you will grow vegetables, but then in the land that God was leading them to they would grow vinyards.
And obviously they grew vegetables to, but the fact that the author here focuses in on most likey means that he is communicating that Ahab is intentionally undoing what God is wanting.
And so Naboth, hears this offer and Ahab has told him I will pay you for it or even give you something better, and not just that but if he accepts this he could earn the kings favor.
And if he says no, well Naboth, knows that he would not earn the kings favor, and this evil king could do somthing bad.
But Naboth goes I can’t do that, because God forbids it.
Basically this is something that God says I cannot sell, regardless of how tempting the offer is.
I mean you have to love Naboths courage here, because Naboth pursues whats right, even when it would be so easy to do whats wrong.
And so he goes no, I cant do that….
And lets read together what Ahabs response is:
“He lay on his bed sulking and refused to eat”
So Ahab has all this stuff, he lives in a palace, has servants, power wealth, and he can’t get this little vinyard by his palace and he is wrecked.
He is not eating, he is laying in his bed pouting about it,
And he is really messed up from this.
But I think this shows how jealousy has the ability to mess with us. because we can have everything, we can have the perfect family, perfect situation, but then the one thing we do not have is the thing that will rob us of all our joy.
If you want to see this first hand come to our house. Because Liam, Finn and Eden will all be playing peacefully, when all of the sudden one kid has a toy and everyone wants it.
And they might have access to every other toy, but because they can’t have this one specific toy that they have not touched in a year, all of the sudden their lives are ruined.
And something I am convinced of the more I live is a lot of times these traits stay with us as we get older, but whens its with a toddler they can’t hide it and its obvius.
And when its with us we are good at burying it down and saying I don’t have a problem.
It may even be us getting this feeling of its not fair, because I am doing what God’s called me to do, and it seems like this person is to, but man they make more, or wow they seem a lot happier, or whatever it is.
And what happens is we catch ourselves in this place where Jealousy not only steals our joy, but it begins to inform our desicions.
And this is where things get dangerous.
Because look at he next part of this story. because we see this begin to happen with Ahab
Look at verses 5-16 (and its a little bit of a long stretch of sscripture so stick with me)
5 His wife Jezebel came in and asked him, “Why are you so sullen? Why won’t you eat?” 6 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.’ ” 7 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.” 8 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. 9 In those letters she wrote: “Proclaim a day of fasting and seat Naboth in a prominent place among the people. 10 But seat two scoundrels opposite him and have them bring charges that he has cursed both God and the king. Then take him out and stone him to death.” 11 So the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth’s city did as Jezebel directed in the letters she had written to them. 12 They proclaimed a fast and seated Naboth in a prominent place among the people. 13 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. 14 Then they sent word to Jezebel: “Naboth has been stoned to death.” 15 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.” 16 When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, he got up and went down to take possession of Naboth’s vineyard.
So Ahab’s wife Jezebel comes and Jezebel is bad news right?
And so she comes and go’s whats wrong with you!
Get up and Ill get you this vinyard.
And so Jezebel writes a letter and she basically devises this plan for two men to come and make accusations against Naboth that he has cursed God and the king
And the reason she did this was because she knew that the Jewish law required that if you cursed the king or God and their were two people testifying that it happened then the law said that this person would get stoned.
And not just that but the king could take the land of someone who was but to death.
And so there are a few things happening here but first isn’t it interesting how Jezebel is known to be the worse queen in the Bible and yet she knows these Old Testement laws so well.
And essentially what we see is Jezebell using God’s word for something so far from what it was intended.
Its kind of like maybe you have heard the phrase Its “elementry my dear watson”
You know thats from where?
But whats interesting is thats never in the original books, and but people began to say it and now everyone changes its meaning.
And heres the thing, because so often we do something simaler with scripture, where instead of saying God I want you to speak to me.
We hear scripture and we use it to further our agenda.
We see it in our lives individually where we will find scripture and use it to justify a sin in our lives
We see it on a large scale where we will see political parties using the same passages to justify why they are right.
And I think whats hard about it is most of us sitting here are going I am glad I don’t do that…
But I think we do it more often then we think.
And I think our challenge is coming to God and having the discipline for scripture to be rooted in the Bible
But in his story we see Jezebel doing it intentionally and really trying to murder Naboth, over his vineyard.
I mean jealousy has really made an impact.
And they send it to the elders (who were the leaders right?) and you think they would say “this is wrong”
“How could we ever do something like this?”
But we do not even see them question it.
Can I just pause here and say we need less elders like in this story and more Naaboths,
Because Naboth has this little vinyard and has things to gain by not taking a stand but he is rooted in God and stands up and then the Elders who have power are afraid to stand up.
You know we need people who are willing to stand up and not just stand up, but stand up in a way that God has called us to because that is hard.
What would it look like to have a church that stands up for the person that has no power?
What would it look like for the church to have the bravery to stand up for the unborn baby?
What does it look like for the church to stand up for the refugee or immigrant that lost everything?
What does it look like to even stand up for the person that you disagree with but take a stand saying this person is not an animal or a monster but they are aa person created in the image of God.
And yes we have differences and they matter, but we are going to take a stand and not dehuminize them.
And so look whaat happens because Naboth is stoned (which shows when we don’t stand up the consequences are real)
And we are told God tells Elijah to go to Ahab, and look at verse 20-
20 Ahab said to Elijah, “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. 21 He says, ‘I am going to bring disaster on you. I will wipe out your descendants and cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel—slave or free. 22 I will make your house like that of Jeroboam son of Nebat and that of Baasha son of Ahijah, because you have aroused my anger and have caused Israel to sin.’
Gotta love how Ahab goes you found me my enemy.
Its almost like Batman and the Joker type of relationship
And Elijah goes I have found you! And you can picture him going “you think I want to be here!”
I have dealt with all your stuff and you almost always try to kill me!
But Elijah says this phrase where he says “You have sold yourself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord”
You know Ahab got his vegitable feild
But at what cost?
And I believe this is the only place where Ahab repents, because I think he realized that the cost he has payed is so much more then what he ever thought. Will you just close your eyes for me for a minute.
You know I think each of us catch ourselves doing things differently then what we are called.
And maybe this morning its jealousy, maybe its we are not courageously standing up the way we should, Maybe something else
Can I ask you whats the cost?
And maybe its effecting your life, maybe its effecting another persons life like Naboths
What if today is the day that we finally turn to God?
And can I just say this takes some courage…
Lets pray
