If you have a copy of the scriptures, let me invite you once again to turn to the Old Testament book of 1 Kings, 1 Kings. And today we are in 1 Kings and chapter 21. 1 Kings and chapter 21. We're gonna be looking in this message at the entirety of this chapter, but for now we're gonna read just a portion of it from verses 17 through verse 21. Let me invite you as you're able, let's stand together in honor of the reading and hearing of God's word. Again, I'm reading from 1 Kings 21, beginning in verse 17 and I think I said 21 but it's actually going to be through verse 20 wherein the inspired historian writes and the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite saying arise go down to meet Ahab king of Israel which is in Samaria Behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, whither he is gone down to possess it. And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord. Hast thou killed and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord. In the place where dogs lick the blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine. And Ahab said to Elijah, hast thou found me, O mine enemy? And he answered, I have found thee, because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord. May God bless today once more the reading and the hearing of his word, and let's join together in prayer. Let us pray. Gracious and loving God, we give you thanks for the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, which brings to our remembrance all the things spoken by Christ, even the things spoken in the Old Testament, the things that point in shadows and types toward Christ. Give us today eyes to see, give us ears to hear, give us open minds and open hearts to receive your word, and then strengthen our wills to obey. and to humble ourselves before your word. We ask this in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen. And you may be seated. Well, we are continuing today our exposition of the book of 1 Kings. And in these final chapters, we're in the next to the last chapter, We have seen in particular an account of the reign of a man who was considered perhaps the most wicked king in Israel. And that man was Ahab. If you go back to 1 Kings chapter 16, where Ahab was first introduced, there were some very daunting things said about this man. In chapter 16 verse 30 it said, and Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him. And likewise in verse 33 it says that he provoked the Lord God of Israel to anger more than all the kings of Israel that were before him. And so we're listening to this narrative this account of this man and 1st Kings chapter 21 reveals one of the most wicked or the wickedest and I looked that up in the comparative for wicked can be most wicked or wickedest. This gives us in chapter 21 one of the most wicked acts of one of the most wicked Kings. And that most wicked act is the unjust murder of a righteous man and the unjust taking of his vineyard. But one might say in the end that this chapter is not at bottom really about the wickedness of Ahab, but one might say it is instead about the prophet Elijah, who was sent before Ahab to proclaim, thus saith the Lord, to bring a word of judgment. One might add, though in the end, that perhaps it's not about Ahab, it's not about his wicked wife Jezebel, and it's not even about God's prophet Elijah, But one might say in the end, after reading through this chapter, that really it is about the Lord. It is about a God who is the definition and standard of justice. And it is about a God who is the definition and standard of goodness and mercy. And by the end of this chapter, I think you'll agree with me that this God shows kindness even to the wickedest of men. And if he shows kindness and mercy to the most wicked, a man like Ahab, and a man who I'm going to suggest I think is unconverted, never really repents, but the Lord shows temporal kindness to him, if we use this as a contrast in comparison, how much more Will he show compassion and mercy to the saints of God who are also wicked, who have also rejected him, but have been redeemed by the grace of God through Christ? And that's the spiritual lesson that I hope we will come to by the end of chapter 21. For now, let's turn and see if we can together walk through this chapter and exposit it and learn from it. I've noted that probably this account of Naboth's Vineyard is one of the best known narratives in the entire Old Testament. And it's an account that's kind of a touchstone, and it may be familiar to some of you if you've been in church. If that's the case, maybe we can make what is familiar seem strange. You may be someone who didn't grow up in church or new to the faith. It may not be an old story to you, and it may seem strange. Hopefully we'll make it sound familiar to you. It's a compelling story. It's an interesting story. And by using the word story, I don't mean fiction. This doesn't begin once upon a time. This is not a fairy tale. This is a historical narrative. This really happened just the way it is described here. And yet the inspired penman was guided by the spirit, not just to tell this as a matter of recording history, but to reveal to us spiritual truth. And that inspired Pidman was guided by the spirit and his own natural abilities to give us this account in a compelling manner. We can divide the text before us in chapter 21, I believe, into four scenes. It is a dramatic story, and we might liken it to an inspired script relaying an inspired drama, again, as it's unveiled in these four scenes. The first scene, in verses one through four, I would describe as Ahab's frustration with Naboth. The second scene, verses 5 through 16, I would describe as Jezebel's wicked plot against Naboth. The third scene, verses 17 through 24, I would describe as Elijah confronts Ahab. And then the fourth and concluding scene, from verse 25 to the end of this chapter, I would describe as the Lord's strange kindness toward Ahab. And so let's see if we can walk through these four scenes together. And so we begin looking at the opening four verses, which I described as Ahab's frustration with Naboth. And so, The narrative begins in verse 1, and it came to pass after these things that Naboth, the Jezreelite, had a vineyard which was in Jezreel, hard by the palace of Ahab, king of Samaria. And so we have this man, Naboth, living peacefully. He has a vineyard. The king, Ahab, unfortunately is his neighbor. And he's the king ruling in Samaria, a nearby town is Jezreel, where Ahab had his palace. And this is the setting for Ahab's desire to take over this neighboring vineyard. We're reminded of what James wrote in James 1, 14 and 15. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. And sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. So there was an enticement for Ahab to take over. that vineyard and he makes an offer to him if you look at verse 2 it says and Ahab spake unto Naboth saying give me thy vineyard that I may have it for a garden of herbs because it is near unto my house and I will give thee for it a better vineyard than it or if it seemed good to thee I will give thee the worth of it in money and so we have Ahab expressing his desire to take over Naboth's vineyard. And he offers an exchange for it, either to give him a better vineyard or to give him its worth in money. But, and this is the conflict, Naboth refuses. And so in verse 3, Naboth responds to King Ahab and he says, The LORD forbid it me that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee. He does so, he refuses this offer because he says it would violate the Lord's command. And why did he think it would be a violation of the Lord's command? Well, when the Israelites had come into the land of their possession, the promised land, the Lord had allotted land to the various tribes of Israel. And there were instructions that were given in the law of God that they were not to transfer those lands from one tribe unto another. There are places like Numbers 36, verse 7, which says, so shall not the inheritance of the children of Israel remove from tribe to tribe. For every one of the children of Israel shall keep himself to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers. This was part of the wisdom of God. There was wisdom in this decree in order to treat each tribe, whether it was large or small, equitably to maintain the existence of each of those tribes within Israel. This was the command of God. And Naboth and Ahab were apparently not from the same tribe. So this deal, however good it might have looked in secular eyes, would have violated God's law. the world offers lots of deals that may seem right in the eyes of man but are not right in the eyes of God and this tells us this little short verse with typical discretion and brevity of the inspired Old Testament narrative, it tells us something about Naboth as a man. It tells us that he wanted to be a God-pleaser rather than a man-pleaser. He wanted to be a God-pleaser even more than he wanted to be a king-pleaser. He was a righteous man. He was a God-fearing man. He was a man who wanted to obey the scriptures. He was a man who wanted to obey the command of God. That's a term, God-fearing man, that is heard very often today. It seems like people would think it's an embarrassment, but it's not an embarrassing term. And every believer should want to fear God and want to obey his commands. Well, in verse four, we get the response of Ahab. It says, And Ahab came into his house heavy and displeased because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him. For he had said, I will not give thee the inheritance of my fathers. And so he goes to his house heavy and displeased. This is much like the description given of Ahab right at the end of chapter 20. Remember when God's prophet had rebuked him for sparing the life of Ben-Hadad. Also in chapter 20 verse 43 it says the king of Israel went to his house heavy and displeased. If you look at the remainder of the description in verse four, it's really pathetic for a man, any man, and particularly a man in authority, the way that Ahab behaves. Look at verse four. He laid him down upon his bed and turned away his face and would eat no bread. Basically, he starts pouting and sulking. Well, let's be honest. Have we ever done this when we didn't get our way? Well, we probably would all have to confess we've acted like this a time or two. And we get some insight into the character of Ahab. He is grieved in the face of Naboth's godly obedience. He knows that what Naboth said is right, but he doesn't like it. And so he begins to act like a little toddler, a two-year-old. Lay down in my bed. I'm going to turn away. I'm not going to eat. This is an adult temper tantrum that Ahab sinks into. So this leads us to the second scene, verses 5 through 16, Jezebel's wicked plot against Naboth. Now, we remember that Ahab had a wife. And his wife was a pagan woman, an unbeliever. It's not just that she didn't worship the one true God, Jehovah. but she was a worshipper of foreign deities. She was a worshipper of Baal and Ahab's union with Jezebel has already been depicted by the inspired historian as the height of his wickedness. Go back again to chapter 16 when we first met Ahab and if you look at chapter 16 And verse 31, it says, and it came to pass as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Naboth, that he took to wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ephbaal, king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him. And he reared up an altar to Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And so like Solomon before him, He was enticed by a foreign wife to compromise his spiritual integrity and to worship foreign gods and Jezebel had been at the center of this idolatry. You remember that in chapter 18, verse 4, we were told that she, Jezebel, had cut off the prophets of the Lord. And in chapter 18, verse 13, more explicitly it says that she had slain the prophets of the Lord. And instead she had promoted the prophets of Baal. She had probably been the one who had torn down the altar to the one true God at Carmel, which Elijah had repaired. according to chapter 18 and verse 30. And she had threatened to remember the life of Elijah, swearing by her false gods to punish him for slaying the prophets of Baal. And we remember that from the account that is given in chapter 19 and verse 2 when she sent a messenger to Elijah saying, so let the gods do to me and more also if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. And so she had threatened the life of the prophet Elijah. So it's this woman who comes to her husband and finds him in bed and makes inquiries about why he is in the midst of this temper tantrum. And so look at verse five, but Jezebel his wife came to him and said unto him, why is thy spirit so sad that thou eatest no bread? Even wicked women can on occasion show kindnesses to their husbands, even as wicked men can show kindnesses to their wives. And Ahab begins to explain to Jezebel the reasons for his distress. Verse six, and he said unto her, because I spake unto Naboth the Jezreelite, and said unto him, give me thy vineyard for money, or else if it please thee, I will give thee another vineyard for it, And he answered, I will not give thee my vineyard. Now, even in that response, I want you to notice how he left something out. What did he leave out? The reason Naboth said that he would not give up the vineyard, because it was the inheritance of his fathers, referring to God's command. But you see how Ahab was shifting, shaping the information. You ever done that? We all would confess that we've done that. And there's Ahab doing that. By the way, when you read an account like this, the person to compare yourself to is going to be Ahab, right? Have we acted in this way? And so we have, again, this sort of therapy session that takes place between wicked Jezebel and her distraught husband, Ahab. Now, this is a key point. If she had been a godly woman at this point, she might have gently rebuked Ahab. She might have, if she had known the word of God, she might have reminded him that Naboth was right and this was God's law and he should submit himself to it and not continue to sulk in despondency like a spoiled child. There's a kind of a side message here, isn't there? We have a reminder here that men need wives who will not always agree with them. Men need wives who will not always confirm them in selfish or destructive behavior. A good wife is like a mirror. A good wife is like a sounding board for a man. She can aid him by correcting him and exhorting him when he goes astray. And by the way, those things can be flipped around. A good husband can exhort and encourage a wife so that she doesn't fall into ungodly behavior. And we see, don't we, that there's a problem for Ahab, which at the center comes out of the fact that he has been unequally yoked to this vile woman. She does not know serve and honor the Lord. And so rather than giving wise counsel to her husband, instead, she affirms him in that which is evil. So she says to him, as it is recorded here in verse six, Verse 7, it says, And Jezebel, his wife, said unto him, Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? Arise, and eat bread, and let thine heart be merry. And so basically the first part of that is she's saying, listen, aren't you the king? Shouldn't your servants obey you? And remember, she was the daughter of a king herself. She had seen her daddy. And he was a pagan king. He was the king of Zydonians, a worshiper of Baal. This is the way my daddy acted. Well, your daddy acted like that because he didn't know the God of the Bible. He didn't know the one true God. This is not the way godly kings act. Godly kings obey God's law. They're not a law unto themselves. And she said, oh, just let your heart be merry. Don't worry about it. And then there comes an ironic thing after that, at the end of verse seven, she says, I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth, the Jezreelite. Why do I say that's ironic? Because she's just told him that he's the king. But what is she doing? She's usurping his role as the king. And she's saying, I'm in charge now. I'll be in control. I'll be in control. I'll take care of things for you. I've sometimes met women, even self-described Christian women, who will say that they believe very much in biblical roles within the family, and they even will say that they affirm benevolent biblical headship of men, but often when push comes to shove, it is they who want to call the shots. They tell their husbands, make your heart merry, and I will take care of things. This is a disastrous combination when you have a passive man and an overreaching woman. And this is the disastrous combination that is mixed together like gasoline in a match that's going to set off an explosion of destruction. And so she concocts a plot to settle the matter. Look at verse 8. So she wrote letters in Ahab's name. She took his letterhead. whatever it was in those days, his seal and sealed them with his seal and sent letters under the elders and to the nobles that were in his city dwelling with Naboth. And she instructed them in those letters to perform what she desired to work out this plot and we See the instructions in verse 9, and she wrote in the letter saying, proclaim a fast and set Naboth on high among the people. As you read this verse, you may wonder if one of the sub-level criticisms against Jezebel was that she was violating the regulative principle of worship. Make up a fast. Make up a holy day. create a religious invention and use this as the pretext for enticing Naboth so that you can destroy him. And so she gives this instruction. Then furthermore, she's a detailed woman. She's very competent. There's no doubt about it. Wicked is all get out, but very competent. And so she gives instructions because these numbskulls might not be able to carry it out unless she's very exact. And so she says in verse 10, And set two men, sons of Belial, sons of the devil, before him to bear witness against him, saying, Thou didst blaspheme God and the king, and then carry him out and stone him that he may die. Now this verse and these very specific instructions I think are particularly perverse because they are so hypocritical. What she says here, she knows enough of the law of God to be very dangerous. What she says here is in some ways technically according to the law. The law said in places like Deuteronomy 19.15 that every matter was to be established by two or more witnesses and so she says make sure you get two false witnesses But they're false witnesses, right? And then part of the instructions are, you know, these witnesses are to say that Naboth has blasphemed God and King. Well, according to the law, in places like Leviticus 24, 13 through 16, blasphemy against God was to be punished by stoning. In Leviticus 24, 16, it begins, and he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. And within context, it says that one of the ways they could be put to death is by stoning. But Naboth had not blasphemed God. He wanted to obey God. And he had not ill-treated the king. He had been respectful toward the king. And so this makes her instructions all the more perverse. Shows us some of the perversity of the human art, doesn't it? No end to the creative inventions of the wickedness of the human heart apart from God's grace. And then we read in verse 11 that the men of the city unfortunately followed these instructions. Look at verse 11. And the men of his city, even the elders and the nobles who were the inhabitants in the city, did as Jezebel had sent unto them. And as it was written in the letters which she had sent unto them. And so she's not the only person who is responsible for this injustice. The men of Jezreel who obeyed her ungodly demands were also guilty. There's a saying attributed to Edmund Burke, the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. But here the men of Jezreel did not just do nothing, they actually participated with the evil. And so we're told in verse 12, they proclaimed a fast and set Naboth on high among the people. And then we're told in verse 13 about the false witnesses. They follow her plan to the letter, verse 13. And there came in two men, children of Belial, and sat before him. And the men of Belial witnessed against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth did blaspheme God and the king. Then it says they carried him forth out of the city and stoned him with stones, that he died. The false witnesses. and their false accusations are breaking the moral law of God. You know, when we think about the ninth commandment, you shall not bear false witness, and it does mean you should always tell the truth, and it's about honesty, but in context, it was in particular about honesty in the law courts. It's the basis for a just society, that people are truthful, that they give fair and accurate accounts of what happens without spin, without lies or without deceit. And they're violating the moral law of God. We should not wink at the sin of bearing false witness. The Puritan Thomas Watson in addressing false witness bearing observed, the scorpion carries his poison in his tail, the slanderer carries his poison in his tongue. And Watson added, you may kill a man in his name as well as in his person. See, they had to kill Naboth's name before they dragged him out and stoned him and killed his body. And also consider that there were other persons at that gathering. There were other people there. There were people there who knew Naboth. And they knew him to be a man of good character and a man of righteousness. But they were all too willing to receive these malicious and false reports. Have you ever seen a situation like this? person of good character and all it takes is somebody spreading some slander and all it takes are people who are gullible enough to receive it. Thomas Watson again observed, as it is a sin to raise a false report of another, so it is to receive a false report of another before we have examined it. He says, also, we must not only not raise a false report, but not take it up. He that raises a slander carries the devil in his tongue, and he that receives it carries the devil in his ear. Finally, Watson says, a man may wrong another as well by silence as by slander, when he knows him to be wrongfully accused, yet speaks not on his behalf. And so Jezebel was guilty, but so were those men who heard these slanders against righteous Naboth and said nothing. When we were living in Eastern Europe, in Hungary, just after the collapse of communism, One of the interesting things about living there was that there were a lot of rumors. There was a lot of gossip. And these people had lived for 45 years under communism. You couldn't trust the news. You couldn't trust what you were told. And it was just a very much, there was a lot of, this was also pre-internet age. Only about 10% of the households had phones. They didn't want people to have phones. They didn't want people to communicate. There was just a lot of, person-to-person, word-of-mouth gossip. And I remember one of the things when we were there, there were a lot of Western businesses and products that were being pushed on the Hungarian market. And there was a Western European shampoo that was being promoted. It was on billboards. It was on television and radio ads. And somehow the rumor got going around that that shampoo would make your hair fall out. And I kept running into people who would say, oh, don't buy that shampoo. That'll make your hair fall out. I would also have people come to me and they would say, our Coke doesn't taste like your Coke, does it? They're giving us, they really thought that the Coke, the bottles of Coke, that there was like an off-brand, cheap Coke that they were being given in Hungary, but it was better, the Coke that we had in the West was better than the Coke that was being sold. I was like, guys, it's the same. Sorry. The Western Coke isn't better. But there were these crazy rumors. And all it takes is sometimes for people to say things that are not true to bear false witness. In the case of the shampoo and the Coke, okay, it could hurt their business share, but it could hurt a man's reputation. It could hurt a man's life. And we see this taking place here in the experience of Naboth. Of course, here the experience is much worse. Naboth is carried out and he is stoned to death. And Jezebel's henchmen send word back that the foul mission was accomplished in verse 14. Then they sent to Jezebel saying, Naboth is stoned and he is dead. Jezebel then brings this good news to her husband in verse 15 she were told comes came to pass Jezebel heard that Naboth was done and was dead and that Jezebel said to Ahab arise Take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give thee for money." Again, see how she's twisting? He didn't refuse to give it for money. He didn't say, the price you're offering me isn't enough. He had said, I will not sell it because it's the inheritance of my fathers. See, wickedness always twists, always twists the reasoning, godly reasoning. and then she tells him this is her good news. Hey, wonderful! He's dead! He's not alive but dead, she says at the end of verse 15. Wicked is perverse in that it celebrates death and not life. And we get more insight here into the character of Ahab because we see in verse 16 that when he gets this news, all of a sudden the temper tantrum is over. He rose up and we're told he went down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite to take possession of it. We might observe here that there are many things in this account thus far that could remind us of the account of King David. Remember King David when he entered into that adulterous relationship with Bathsheba, and remember how he arranged the murder of Uriah the Hittite, the husband of Bathsheba, and how did he do that? He hatched a plot. He sent secret instructions to his commanders to carry out the execution of an upright man so that he could take possession of that which was the man's, in the case of David, his wife, but now in the case of Ahab, the vineyard. And remember, if you remember that account of David's sin, as it's told in the book of 2 Samuel, you remember that just after David had arranged the murder of Uriah the Hittite, he tried to just go about business as usual. He took Bathsheba to be his wife. He just, you know, nothing happened here, nothing to look at, let's just go on. No one's observing, no one is noticing, but then there's this striking verse in 2 Samuel 11, 27 that says, but the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. And in that case, the Lord sent the prophet Nathan to confront David. Now, within this account, we don't have a verse like 2 Samuel 11, 27, but the thing that David had done displeased the Lord, but we know that the Lord was displeased. As the author of Hebrews puts it in Hebrews 4, 13, neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, meaning God's sight, but all things are naked and opened under the eyes of him with whom we have to do. See, the Lord is not ignorant of anything that goes on. And the Lord, just as he sent Nathan to confront David, he will send now to King Ahab his prophet Elijah. And this takes us to the third of the four scenes that we're looking at. And in this scene, verses 17 through 24, Elijah confronts Ahab. And so it begins, in verse 17, and the word of the Lord came to Elijah, the Tishbite saying. Notice here that the prophet moves not at his own impulse, but at the direction of the Lord. And in verse 18, what is it that the word of the Lord says to the prophet Elijah? Arise, go down to meet Ahab, king of Israel, which is in Samaria. Behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, whither he is gone down to possess it." And so, imagine you're Elijah. Elijah's been asked to do a lot. Go to Ahab and confront him with his hand in the cookie jar. Catch him red-handed. He has gone down to that vineyard to take possession of it. Go and get him while he's holding in his hands his ill-gotten gain. And then Elijah is given also the commission of what he is to say, because the prophets exercise their ministry through words, through the power of their words. Isn't that something to think about? The Lord uses his words. We might think that what will really hurt a person is violence, but it's God's word that he uses. And so in verse 19, the Lord tells him, and thou shalt speak unto him saying, thus sayeth the Lord. Remember that's what prophets, when they're told something direct from God. Komar Yahweh, thus saith the Lord, hast thou killed and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord. In the place where dogs lick the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine." It's a very grisly condemnation that is given. That he is going to receive justice Now it's interesting here, remember when the Lord sent Nathan to confront David, Nathan did so with a parable, but here the prophet Elijah is to come with just an outright, direct, confrontational word. You know, the Lord gives different words for different circumstances. Sometimes he'll speak to us through a parable. And sometimes he'll speak in a graphic and grisly and direct way as he did right here through this commissioning of the words that were to be given to Ahab through Elijah. And then notice, we jump directly now to that confrontation. Again, it's told with great brevity. Look at verse 20. And Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? You know, when God's word comes to us and we're in sin, it often feels like it's coming as an enemy. It's coming to hurt us. But in truth, it's not coming to hurt us, is it? It's coming to help us. Just like sometimes a physician will have to treat a patient and it'll cause pain to the patient, but it's for what? It's for his good, it's for his healing. But at this point, Ahab certainly always is an unconverted man. He only sees God's word as punishment. And so he sees God's prophet as his enemy. And this also is consistent with other things that we have seen throughout. the inspired account of the interactions that King Ahab has had with the prophet Elijah. If you were to go back and look at chapter 18 and verse 17, during the drought, remember the Lord had sent Elijah to Ahab. And when Ahab saw Elijah, he said, aren't thou he that troubleth Israel? And Elijah had shot back in chapter 18, verse 18. I have not troubled Israel, but thou. And here he answers similarly, when Ahab says, have you found me, O mine enemy? Elijah shoots back, no doubt with the aid of the spirit. In chapter 21, in verse 20, he says, I have found thee because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord. Ahab's kind of like a criminal who says to the policeman, why have you found me? And the policeman says, I found you because you've committed a crime. Don't blame the policeman for arresting you when you commit a crime. And that's what the prophet is saying to Ahab. Don't blame God or God's messenger when he confronts you for your wickedness. If you had not done evil, you would not have been condemned. And that image is powerful. Elijah says to Ahab, I have found thee because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord. Ahab had sold himself to work evil. He had become a slave to sin. The Apostle Paul uses the same image in Romans 6 when he talks about men who make themselves servants or slaves of sin. So in Romans 6.16, the Apostle Paul writes, know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness. Sin promises you freedom, and what does it give you? Slavery. Sin promises, oh, you can be free. Throw out the shackles of that religious intolerance and be free. And look at the people who are supposedly free. They're slaves to their sin and their lusts. Real freedom only comes through Christ. Elijah then announces the Lord's just condemnation Verse 21, Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and will take away thy posterity, and will cut off from Ahab him that, here's the colorful expression in the King James Version, which a lot of modern translations clean up, but it's actually exactly what it says in the Hebrew. I will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall. In other words, every man. And him that is shut up and left in Israel. Verse 22, and will make thine house like the house of Jeroboam, the son of Naboth, and like the house of Basha, the son of Ahijah. For the provocation wherewith thou hast provoked me to anger and made Israel to sin. And not only there, but he announces judgment upon Jezebel. Verse 23, and of Jezebel also spake the Lord, saying, the dog shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. And he also prophesies that all those connected with Ahab will come to an ungodly end. The Hebrews of old reverence the body. They buried the body as opposed to the pagans who burned bodies. And one of the signs of shame would be to have your body desecrated after death. And here's a judgment that would have set heavy on the ears of Ahab and all who heard it. Him that dieth of Ahab in the city, the dogs shall eat. And him that dieth in the field shall the fowl of the air eat. And so this is God's word of condemnation. The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 12, 19, vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord. In Hebrews 12, 29, it says, for our God is a consuming fire. And the Lord is so kind that he will express his just anger and condemnation upon us. These words of Elijah to Ahab remind me of the famed sermon that was preached on July the 8th of 1741 in Enfield, Connecticut. And that sermon was preached by a man named Jonathan Edwards. his most famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. A lot of times high school students will be the one Puritan work that sends some anthology of literature and often moderns will point to it as outdated, mean-spirited, Calvinism, ugh, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. But why did Edwards preach that sermon? Is it because he had a mean spirit and wanted to bash people? No, he wanted to display the holiness and righteousness of God and show God's wrath towards sin because he's holy. And what was sparked by sinners in the hands of an angry God wasn't people leaving the church angry with the preacher because he had preached this message, but what resulted was an outpouring of God's grace and mercy as people were converted, as they understood their sin, turned from it in repentance and turned toward Christ in faith. And that mean sermon resulted in the great awakening that has affected this nation for generations. We're still living on the afterglow in many ways of godly preaching that happened even before this nation was formed. Now, we would like to say that the outcome was similar for King Ahab, that perhaps in the face of this, that he was converted, and indeed, we can think about David. David was humbled with godly sorrow when he was confronted with his sin. Sadly, there is no evidence of Ahab's conversion. This brings us to the fourth scene, however, which is an account of the Lord's strange kindness toward Ahab. The fact that this condemnation did not provoke salvation is indicated by the description of King Ahab in verses 25 and 26. But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. and he did very abominably in following idols according to all things as did the Amorites whom the Lord cast out before the children of Israel." So the final verdict on Ahab is not good. Nevertheless, there's this strange account in these last few verses which tell us that Ahab did give an outward display of repentance. Verse 27, and it came to pass when Ahab heard those words that he rent his clothes and put sackcloth upon his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went softly. People who are repenting walk softly. because the Lord is pressing on their consciences, the wickedness of their deeds or their words. And then we get this, well, let's pause here for another moment. This sort of muddies the waters, doesn't it, about Ahab? We're just told he's the most wicked king ever. But now the waters get a bit muddy. We're beginning to wonder about what happened to this man. But I think, again, the best explanation is to say that Ahab, there's no sign he was ever converted, but that at least, at the least, he expressed worldly sorrow, even if it was not godly sorrow. He gave carnal repentance, even if it wasn't evangelical repentance. And that's something because some people don't even give carnal repentance. There's not even worldly sorrow. We're seeing this more and more. People are just blatant in blasphemous words and blasphemous living. At the least Ahab gave some carnal signs of repentance. But then look at verse 28. And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite saying, here's what the Lord says. Seest thou how Ahab humbled himself before me? What an interesting picture of the Lord. What does this tell us about the Lord? Oh, he's looking for, he's looking for any signs, any signs of repentance, any signs of godliness. He's scanning the horizon, looking for the prodigal son. Is there any, he's like a physician where the patient is coded. And he's looking for any sign of life, any hope. Of course, it's an anthropomorphic, inspired anthropomorphic presentation of God. But it tells us something about his heart, his heart of compassion. And because of this, the Lord says, I will not bring the evil in his days, but in his son's days will I bring the evil upon his house. And so the Lord, he doesn't wipe away the judgment upon Ahab, but he postpones it. And he says he won't have his blood licked up by the dogs. but he's still gonna die and he's not converted. So there's a blessing here in that Ahab will not suffer immediate temporal punishment. Again though, it's that phrase right there at the end. See us how Ahab humbleth himself before me. It's an amazing picture of God's mercy. It recalls the Lord saying in Psalm 145 verse nine, the Lord is good to all. It recalls the Lord saying through the prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel 33 11. As I live, sayeth the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. It recalls the Lord saying to Jonah in Jonah 4 11, and should not I spare Nineveh, that great city? It recalls the Lord Jesus Christ himself saying in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 45, For he maketh his son to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain to fall on the just and the unjust. In the case of Ahab, the Lord would spare his life And he would not undergo the sufferings that were warned about, but God's justice would be satisfied on the house of Ahab in due time. God's wrath, his justice might be deferred, but it will be satisfied. Friends, we've worked through the passage, we've gone through this drama, including all four of these scenes, and hopefully we've drawn some spiritual points along the way. that you've connected your own dots and the Holy Spirit has helped apply it. But in the end, I think the most salient spiritual truth that comes to us comes in these final words. Again, in the end, this chapter isn't really about Ahab, it's not about Jezebel, it's not about Elijah, it's about God. And we're shown right here at the end the heart of a good, kind, compassionate, and merciful God. If he showed mercy, even temporal mercy, to such an ungodly man, what will his mercy be towards those who are born again by his grace? We might also consider how Naboth is presented to us in this chapter as a type or a shadow of Christ. Who was Christ but a righteous man who perfectly kept the law of God? Still, wicked men plotted against him. In fact, false witnesses were assembled to slander him. Read Matthew's account in Matthew 26, 59 through 61 of the two false witnesses who rose up against Christ. Christ was accused of blasphemy, making himself equal with God. And he was also accused of making himself a king. He was deserted, Christ was, even by His closest disciples. No one stood up to defend Him when He was accused. In fact, Peter denied Him three times. And whereas Naboth was taken out to be stoned, Christ was taken out to be nailed to the cross. But Naboth is just a shadow. Christ is the greater fulfillment. Unlike Naboth, Christ did not remain in the grave, but he was gloriously raised. And what has God done now? He has taken those who killed his own dear son and rather than condemn them, he has given them grace, mercy, and truth. Ahab was spared punishment merely in this life. Those redeemed by Christ have something greater. We escape the second death. So then, brethren, in light of such great grace given to us in Christ, Let us not be slaves to sin, sold to work evil in the sight of the Lord, but let us be slaves of Christ and slaves of righteousness. Amen? We invite you to stand together. Let's pray. Gracious and loving God, we give you thanks for these inspired accounts that were given to us for our learning, for our admonition, and help us, oh God, to learn from what we have heard, let it find a resting place in our hearts, and let the Spirit apply it to our lives. We ask this in Christ's name, amen.