1 Kings 21.
IT was in Ahab that the iniquity of the kings of Israel reached its greatest degree; in his reign also, the ten tribed kingdom was most prosperous; after his death, the country grew weaker rapidly. God had met the daringly wicked Ahab and his consort Jezebel, who seems to have a worse character than himself, with the great prophet Elijah, but neither Elijah’s testimony, the three-year famine, or the remarkable display of divine power on Mount Carmel (chapter 18) moved the heart or conscience of this leader of Israel, for he had sold himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, as says verse 25. Utterly indifferent to the claims of a holy God, Ahab, with Jezebel’s help, now added a shocking crime to his many sins, as this chapter discloses.
Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard; Ahab wanted it. Naboth valued his little place, because it had been the possession of his forefathers, and would neither sell nor exchange it to please Ahab. The king was very angry at being refused, and in his displeasure went to bed, declining to eat. Jezebel then, learning what had happened, promised her husband the vineyard, and with the help of some men as evil of heart as herself who were prepared to bear false witness against Naboth, the vineyard owner was put to death under a fictious charge of having blasphemed God and the king.
Presently Ahab who lacked natural courage and daring, but was quite willing to profit by his wife’s misdeed, was on the way to take possession of the dead man’s property, and there the eyes of God rested upon him. Shall this bloody deed, coolly planned and executed with the authority of the king of Israel, pass unnoticed? Not so. The word of the Lord came to Elijah, telling him where to go to find Ahab, and the sentence, shortly to be executed, he was to deliver to him. He had killed and taken possession, but in the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, they should lick Ahab’s blood (see chapter 22:38). All of Ahab’s seventy sons, his family, his great men, his kinsfolk and his priests were afterward put to death (2 Kings 10, verse 11) according to the word of God now delivered by Elijah (verse 22). And more shocking than the end of Ahab was to be the close of his wife’s life: the dogs would eat her, —and so they did (2 Kings 9:18- 37).
God may and He frequently does, permit the wicked to go on in their evil ways. sometimes for many a long year, but He has told us that judgment will fall. In 2 Peter 2:3 is the word: “Whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not (or, for whom judgment of old is not idle), and their damnation (destruction) slumbereth not.”
Ahab might have repented of his sins, turning to God in full confession and seeking forgiveness, but of this, if it occurred at the last, we have not the slightest hint in the Word of God. He was alarmed frightened, at the prophecy of Elijah concerning himself and his family, and he humbled himself for a time, but that was all. God however took notice of his behavior, and delayed the full carrying out of the promised judgment. How merciful is our God!
Perhaps the reader has, like king Ahab, at times felt alarmed at the thought of the judgment of God, and again his conscience has gone to sleep, fear has vanished, and the old ways have been taken up again.
You may forget God, forget the offer of pardon, forget His great love, and the gift of His only begotten Son, but God will not forget you in the day of judgment. All that are in the graves shall hear the voice of His Son and shall come forth. (John 5:28, 29); in that solemn day, even the sea will give up the dead that are in its depths. (Rev. 20:13).
Receive Him as your Saviour, now; it is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation. (2 Cor. 6:2).
ML 09/11/1927