First Kings Chapter 21, I believe that it will be helpful
to remind ourselves of how First Kings chapter 20 ended in order
for us to capture the essence of this new chapter that we are
going to delve into together. And so though you are going to
1st Kings 21, I want to read the last two verses of our previous
study, and then we will open up chapter 21 together.
So look at verse 42 of First Kings chapter 20.
And he said to him being the prophet, speaking to Ahab.
And he said to him, thus says the Lord, because you have let
go out of your hand the man whom I had devoted to destruction.
Therefore your life shall be for his life and your people, for
his people. And the king of Israel went to
his house, vexed and sullen, and came to Samaria.
Remember, Ahab was called by God to completely destroy Ben Haddad
and the Syrian Army. He disobeyed by making a
covenant with Ben Haddad. A prophet comes on the scene and
says you disobeyed God. So it's going to be your life.
Your life is going to be the price for this disobedience.
Your people are going to feel the pain of your rebellion.
And the response to that was Ahab being frustrated, annoyed,
gloomy. He makes his way, dragging his
feet back into his home, and you would think that such a
declaration of certain judgement would drive him into his knees.
That though perhaps at first you were ruffled a little bit.
Because that's not the most pleasant news to get for your
future. You would at least sober up by
the time you got into your living room and got right with
God, or at least sought God for clarity, for mercy.
That's what you would think would follow this.
That's what you would think the sequence would be to this
profound judgement looming over a man who deserved it far before
this time. And instead, when you honor the
flow of thought, this is what you discover about Ahab.
Keeping this in mind as the backdrop in verse one of chapter
21, look at this with me now, Nabeth the Jezreelite had a
vineyard in Jezreel beside the palace of Ahab, king of Samaria.
And after this, Ahab said to Nabeth, 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.
Now, if you looked at this as as an isolated scenario, you may
make different judgements. You may think that some time has
lapsed and now Ahab is thinking about other things.
But it's placement is confirming something very concerning about
this man's character. Again, what's the backdrop?
He received news that death is imminent, that he he's going to
pay a high price for turning his back on a clear command from
God. And what you read here is that
though judgement was pronounced against him, the very next thing
you discover is that he's preoccupied about a garden.
What's this man thinking about real estate.
What's this man thinking about? How to enlarge his estate, how
to advance in his personal projects.
I know you're tempted to do something, because I was tempted
to do the same. And let's jeer at this man.
What a fool. What an imbecile, what a
careless man. Your soul is hanging by a
thread. It's a damnation.
And what are you caught up by? How to make your little land a
little prettier? How to make your possessions a
little bit more glamorous? How to add glory to your house.
And again, you might be tempted to mock such a thing, but you
must be aware, as I am, that this demonstration of misplaced
priorities is not uncommon. How many millions today are
doing the same this very hour? Hopefully not you that they're
so concerned about these earthbound pursuits.
And even after being confronted by gospel truth, maybe even week
after week. Oh sure, they might get stirred
emotionally. They might have a an afternoon
of sobriety, of clarity. But it doesn't take much time
before they go back to their default.
And that is to make their little brief existence about little
trivial things while completely ignoring the confrontation of
truth that demands a decision. So Ahab here is not an anomaly.
Ahab here is a reflection of a universal human symptom that we
are easily distracted, that our concern for matters that are
eternal lasting a very short, very brief.
And Ahab here is proving something that is happening
across the world and throughout generations.
But now he's thinking about this and we read the offer that he
makes to this introductory man, Nabith, right?
We'd never heard of him before. You're not going to hear much
about him. I mean, he appears and he's
going to disappear in the same chapter, less than a chapter.
But he makes this offer. He extends this this invitation
for an exchange. And it's a pretty good one.
So here's this vineyard on the same St. as the palace, and he
just says, hey, look, I'll take your vineyard and I'm going to
even give you a better one. And if you don't want another
vineyard, name the price and I'll give it to you.
There's nothing dishonest about this offer.
There's nothing aggressive about it.
This is essentially profitable for Nabeth.
At least this is something that's sensible.
This is a good thing. Even his tone, it's admirable.
It's it's just somebody who wants to make a deal and you,
you and I might see it that way, but Nabith quickly is going to
show us that he does not see it that way.
In fact, he doesn't even entertain it.
He doesn't counteroffer. He doesn't do anything.
He just shuts it down right away.
So we read here in verse three, look at it with me.
But Nabith said to Ahab, the Lord forbid that I should give
you the inheritance of my father's full stop.
I'm not looking to have a conversation about this.
I'm not looking to discuss this. I'm not looking to hear, you
know, you would think that if he was, if he was unimpressed, that
he would again kind of go back and forth and bargain.
He doesn't do any of that. He squashes it right there and
then. And the question that we have to
ask is why there's nothing inherently sinful about this.
Or is there? This is why you and I need to
know the Old Testament. And we get a clue from Nabith's
answer. What does he say in verse three,
the Lord forbid? Is he just invoking the name of
the Lord carelessly? No.
He is aware of what God's law has to say about this very
matter. So if you want to know what
God's law has to say about this, here's one verse among many.
Numbers 36, verse seven. And this reveals something about
this precious man named Nabith. Numbers 36, verse 7, This is
what the Lord says. This is what He established for
the people of Israel even before they entered into the Promised
land. It says here.
Numbers 36, seven, The inheritance of the people of
Israel shall not be transferred from one tribe to another, for
every one of the people of Israel shall hold on to the
inheritance of the tribe of his Father's.
They can't get any more clear than that God had designated
that whatever land belonged to tribes were supposed to remain
among those tribes. You're not supposed to transfer,
make sales. It's supposed to remain among
your specific clan. And this prohibition applies to
Ahab and Nabith. Nabith understood that what this
suggests is illegal, and he's not going to entertain it.
He's going to immediately shut this thing down.
And instead of expanding more about this law and the wisdom
behind it and how we can apply it, we, we did a whole study in
Joshua. There's a lot of conversation
about real estate and how that applies spiritually, at least in
the new covenant. I want to take the time to
explore what this reveals about Nabeth.
Again, you don't get his lineage.
All you get is his name, the area of his residence, the first
words recorded words at least in Scripture, and his strong stance
against illegitimate allurement to disobey God.
Do you remember what the Lord told Elijah when Elijah felt
like he was the only prophet standing for the truth?
He already learned that there were other prophets being hidden
by Obadiah, but then the Lord decided to highlight even a
greater truth, that there is a remnant of how many who have not
bowed their knee to bail, nor have given their mouths to kiss
him. Here's one of the 7000.
And what's so impressive about this man's faithfulness is when
you consider the wider context that Israel was an apostate
nation. Yes, they got a little taste of
revival through Elijah's ministry there in First Kings
18, but what makes it even more impressive is where this
faithful man demonstrated his loyalty to the true and living
God. He's in Jezreel.
We learned that that's where the palace of the apostate king and
queen was placed. And not only that, I mean, it's
one thing to live in Jezreel, but you're living on the same
St. as the guy, the same St. of the guy who made it very clear
and known on a national level that he does not.
He does not like people who are exclusive to worship the true
and living God. In fact, they've demonstrated
that by killing prophets. And yet this man, without
blinking, without hesitation, has the audacity to invoke the
name of the Lord before this king.
But this man's faithfulness stands out not just in his
willingness to be faithful in times of persecution, but to
remain steadfast in a time of potential prosperity and
opportunity. Yeah, because Ahab doesn't show
up to his front door threatening to take off his head if he
doesn't surrender his vineyard. He offers him a better one.
I mean, think about it. Can you imagine?
I mean, these days, people don't make much of national leaders.
I get it. But but pretend even with even
with leaders. OK, let's just talk about a
renowned person, like a internationally known figure
showing up at your door, showing up personally at your door with
a little entourage and you possessing something that they
are interested in and them making a deal with you is on the
table for something. They might feel the pressure of
that they they might feel just the natural pressure to budget
in because of this affluent individual or this prestigious
man. But more than that, it's the the
the offer. I mean, again, he doesn't
threaten him. He says, I'm willing to give you
something even better than what you have.
You can enhance your life. Whatever you're enjoying now,
you can enjoy it even more. I can make it happen.
I just want this one because it's near to my backyard.
So you have a lot here on the table.
But you know what I see about Nabin?
He refused. Still, you know why?
Because he understood that to be materially wealthy at the cost
of spiritual blessing is absolutely foolish.
I wish most people would think that way, that to be materially
wealthy at the price of spiritual loss is not even in
the conversation. It's absolutely foolish to this
man. And guess what?
It's not just foolish to Nebith. It's foolish to somebody else
who's much more important than this man.
You remember when Jesus gave a sermon and somebody responded to
it? And this gives me great comfort
because it shows me that even when Jesus preached, people were
not listening sometimes. Let me prove that to you in Luke
chapter 12. Go to Luke 12, and I want you to
see this with your own eyes. Luke 12.
I was going to originally read just a couple of verses from
this text, but it's Friday night.
Where do we have to go? Matthew, Mark, Luke 12, Luke 12
and look here at verse 13. Now Jesus talks about hell
before this. He talks about not fearing for
your life. He talks about God taking care
of you. He talks about persecution and
trusting yourself to the Holy Spirit who will teach you in the
very hour what you have to say. Brilliant eternal truths are
being offered here and here's what you read in verse 13.
Someone in the crowd said to him, teacher, tell my brother to
divide the inheritance with me. Jesus isn't teaching about
inheritances and the Lord of glory discerns exactly where
this question is coming from. So look how the Lord responds in
verse 14. But he said to man who made me a
judge or arbitrary over you, and he said to them, So now he's
using this moment now as a lesson for the whole crowd.
Take care and be on your guard against all covetousness.
For one's life does not consist in the abundance of his
possessions. How many people make their lives
just about that? Not just about possessions, but
abundance of possessions, expansion of possessions,
updated possessions. Jesus is saying clearly to you
and I hey, be on guard for that kind of ambition being your
reason for life. Then he gives a lesson, verse 16
And he told them a parable saying the land of a rich man
produced plentifully. And he thought to himself, what
shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my
crops. And he said, I will do this.
I will tear down my barns and build larger ones and there I
will store all my grain and my goods.
Sounds like Ahab a little bit right wanted to expand his his
crops and his garden. Verse 19 and I will say to my
soul, so you have ample goods laid up for many years.
Relax, eat, drink and be merry. Look what God says about that
kind of an attitude. But God said to him, fool this
night your soul is required of you and the things you have
prepared whose will they be now pause.
Is there anything inherently wrong with projects like this
and advancing in business and promotions?
Not necessarily, but revisit the way this man spoke and realize
that God is excluded from his thinking.
Go back again to verse 18 and he said, I will do this.
I will tear down my barns and build large ones, and there I
will store all my grain in my goods.
And I will say to my soul, I, I, I, I, I just me, myself, and I,
that's what my life is all about.
And the Lord interjects and he says, you're a fool.
Oh yeah. In people's eyes, you might be
successful, you might be clever, you might be well off, but
you're a fool because this very night your soul is required of
you. But look what he says here in
verse 21. It's not just this man in this
parable. So is the one.
So anybody. So is the one who lays up
treasure for himself and is not rich toward God profound?
I know people. I know a lot of people who
believe in God. I know a lot of people who serve
God. Who do you know that is rich
toward God? I think that's a category in
itself. Rich toward God.
Implying what? That you can be poor in your
relationship with God. You can be just giving the
bottom of the barrel toward God. You know, if my heart is moved
to any kind of action, if anything grabs my attention, it
should for you as well is a person who's not rich in this
life but rich spiritually. You know what I mean?
What does it mean for someone to be rich toward God?
I think it means a lot of things.
I think it includes people who are rich with testimonies
because they've invested in prayer.
I believe it's in part Colossians 316 where we're told
there, let the word of Christ dwell in you.
How richly, richly. There's some people that I
talked to when they talk about the Scriptures, it's, it's like
John Bunyan. They said to John Bunyan, if you
cut him, he would believe the Bible.
He'd believe the Bible. And so I look at this and I
think there are so many people in this, in this life who are
stimulated and inspired by those.
You know, you see it on YouTube, these guys who are motivational
speakers and knock you over the head to get disciplined so you
can get rich or die trying. That doesn't move me an inch.
In fact, most of it is cringe actually.
You know what does move me though?
When a man in humility, when a man without advertising himself
is so rich toward God, he just oozes.
He oozes the fragrance of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I want that. I want my life to be about that.
I want to be as close to him as possible.
And here you have Nabith, who has an opportunity to get
richer, but at the expense of disobeying God.
And he says I'd rather keep my smaller vineyard if it means
that I'm going to bless my Lord. And unfortunately, Ahab thought
the exact opposite. So let's come back to our main
text in first Kings 21. And what do we read here?
The reaction of Ahab. You and I are inspired by
Nabith, but not this king we read in verse four.
And Ahab went into his house, vexed and sullen because of what
Nabeth the Jezreelite had said to him.
For he had said, I will not give you the inheritance of my
father's. And he laid down on his bed and
turned away his face and would eat no food.
Is this a king? Sounds like a child, right?
This is a temper tantrum here. So this man again drags his feet
back into his palace. He curls up in a little ball in
his royal bedroom. And when his servants called for
dinner, he says, no, I'm not eating dinner.
And this is the ruler of a nation.
And when we consider it, meditate on it, as funny as it
may be, it's actually revealing about something deeper.
Don't you find it strange that somebody who has so much feels
so strongly about not receiving something so little?
This man is way advanced in comparison to Nabeth in terms of
possessions, prestige, power, and yet he's not content.
You know what you learn from this verse 4?
Contentment ultimately is not found in sustaining stuff.
Is it because you can have. You can be a king and still not
be satisfied. You can be royalty and still
pout. You can still feel that vacuum
in your heart sucking any pleasure you think it's lasting
and the next day it's gone. Because contentment was not
designed to be unlocked in the physical.
And then you look at this and you compare it to what Nabeth
and what he is totally content to remain as he is, to keep what
he has. Why?
Because he has something Ahab doesn't have, a relationship
with the Lord and enjoyment of the truth.
He has his roots established in something that Ahab had a
opportunity to but refused. And So what we have here is
again, a man who teaches us that if you pursue things apart from
God being primary, you're never going to be settled.
Never. And so we've seen Ahab do this
before, have we not? We read it in the beginning of
this study. Go back to the last verse of
chapter 20, verse 43. And the king of Israel went to
his house vexed and sullen and came to Samaria.
And are you seeing him doing the same thing in verse 4, vexed and
sullen. What's what's the similarities
between these two responses that a have had in a short amount of
time? Yes, vexed and sullen, but as a
reaction to what the will of the Lord being known to him.
So back in the end of chapter 20, a prophet said thus says the
Lord, and then you have Nabeth saying what the Lord forbid it.
So both times Ahab's reflex is to God's wishes being known to
him and him being disappointed by it because it didn't honor
his wishes. And this is the lesson about
Ahab at this point. He shows us frustration with
what God revealed. And that's a dangerous place for
your heart to remain in. Listen very carefully, my
precious brother and sister. Offence is a breeding ground for
the seed of temptation to flourish.
Offence is the breeding ground for the seed of temptation to
flourish. If you're not careful.
Aggravation, bitterness, unforgiveness.
Towards people, sure, but towards the Lord?
Mainly when you're unpleased with how Providence has LED you
thus far. If you do not challenge that, it
can eventually impair so much about you, especially your
judgment, which will leave you more attracted to sinful
suggestions to try to solve and to heal your disappointment.
Do you know what I mean by that? When you live long enough
serving the Lord and something happens maybe once, maybe more
than once, and it doesn't line up with your blueprint.
Temptation becomes stronger when you allow your heart to remain
in that place of unmet expectations or God's will
seeming to make life more difficult for you.
If you harbor that you're creating unknowingly, but I'm
making it known now a foothold for Satan saying what do you
mean? Here's what I mean, because in a
moment you're about to read, Nabeth is going to have his life
taken from him unjustly by the order of royalty.
But it's not going to come from Ahab's thinking.
It's going to come from his wife, Jezebel.
When does Jezebel appear on the scene?
We haven't seen her in a bed. She appears on the scene when we
find Ahab with his heart prepared for her scheme, a
scheme that will apparently provide the remedy to medicate
his disappointment. So what do we read in verse
five? Look at it with me, please.
But Jezebel, here she is. But Jezebel, his wife came to
him and said to him, why is your spirit so vexed that you eat no
food? And he said to her, because I
spoke to Nabeth 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. Let's just pause there for a
moment. What about Ahab's explanation
stands out to you look at it again compare it to the actual
conversation that he had with the man and you're going to
notice a difference. Yes, very good.
He omits the Lord from the whole thing.
Look at it again. Look at verse seven.
It says here verse six rather than he said it because I spoke
to name of the Jesuit and said to him give me your vineyard for
money or else if it please I'll give you another vineyard for
any answered. I will not give you my vineyard.
Is that what Nabith said to him? The Lord forbid, the Lord forbid
that I give you what belongs to my father's.
So what do you have here? You have a man who is righteous,
who stands for righteousness, who vocalizes his righteous
conviction. And you have a wicked king who
does what Something you should expect as the righteous
misrepresent him, misrepresents him.
Settle it in your mind today, please, that if you're going to
live for the Lord, if you want to live with the conviction of
truth driving every part of your life, not everybody is going to
agree with it. Not everybody's going to praise
it. In fact, people won't see it at
all and will mischaracterize you.
You're doing the right thing. You're saying the right thing,
You're standing for the right thing.
But what we see here is a reminder that there are people
who don't care. They don't, they don't care that
you serve God. They don't care that you're
living a consecrated life. They don't care that you are
trying to honor the Lord and honor holiness.
They could care less. And I'm reminded with what
happened here to what happened with the Lord Jesus.
Here's what I'm trying to prepare you for.
Serve God long enough and you can expect to be misunderstood.
You can expect to be slandered. You can expect to be lied about.
Happened to Nabeth. More importantly, happened to
the Lord Jesus. Answer this for me please.
When Jesus was cornered in question about giving taxes to
Caesar, Caesar, what was his answer?
Get to Caesar. What belongs to Caesar and who
God? What belongs to God?
Now many people know by heart, virtually every Christian or
churchgoer knows that answer. Even the world knows that famous
phrase. But what many people don't
remember is what people did when Jesus said that down the line
when he was on trial. Let me remind you from Luke 23
verses one and two, we've touched on this before in our
study of Mark when we touched on that very passage, but maybe
you've never seen this before. But again, just because you're a
part of Club Jesus, I want you to be prepared for every
potential attack let down. Shocking things may be shocking
to you, but it shouldn't if you're familiar with the truth.
Look at Luke 23 one and two. Jesus said that so clearly.
And notice what happens when He stands before Pilate.
Then the whole company of them arose and brought him before
Pilate, and they began to accuse him, saying we found this man
misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to
Caesar. Did Jesus forbid them from doing
that? Give to Caesar what belongs to
Caesar. How did they misrepresent him?
He's actually telling us and he's forbidding us to give
tribute to Caesar. So even the righteous, even the
Son of God himself have had his words taken out of context,
misrepresented, lied about. It's part of the package.
And if you're not going to
soothe your heart, your soul, and knowing that there's one day
coming where the Lord Jesus is going to vindicate everything,
these kind of things will weigh you down in your joy, in your
service. So, so be prepared.
Be prepared for that and when it happens, learn how to take that
and bring it before the Lord, saying, Lord, you know me.
One famous minister said it this way.
I left my reputation where I left my soul in the hands of
God. Navith was misrepresented.
Jezebel asked this question about her husband who was
throwing a little temper tantrum gives us this honest answer, at
least an incomplete one. How does she respond to that?
Look at verse seven. You would think that if Jezebel
was a Good Wife, which she isn't far from it.
You would think if she was a helpmate, the way God designed
wives to be, that her response would be something like, well, I
just sat back today and thought if she was a holy woman, if she
was an if she was godly, she had just a, a, a hint of the fear of
the Lord. Perhaps her answer would have
been Ahab. You know what the the law of the
Lord says concerning one tribe giving their land to another.
This doesn't apply to you. I know you want it, but this is
prohibited. You have to trust God's wisdom
above your desires. He would think that she might
add to that by saying and besides that, Ahab, you already
have so much. Instead of focusing on the
things that you don't have, look at all the things that you've
been lavished with. Look at your robe, look at your
throne. Look at this position that God's
elevated you to. You would think that she would
help him in this way. Instead, she adds gasoline to
the fire of greed and covetousness.
Verse 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
Nabeth, the Jezreelite. God says it doesn't belong, but
you know what she's saying. I'm going to give it to you.
It doesn't matter what God said. God's not even in that
conversation, but indirectly she is saying that, you know, I was
reading this and I thought to myself, there are many ways to
categorize relationships there, There are many ways for you to
be able to frame your relationships in life.
One of my favorite filters to apply, I brought up over the
years because I think it's one of the most helpful ones, puts
language to how you know what to invest in and what to be aware
of and what to cut off completely.
One of my favorite filters that I apply is this.
Does this person help me fight my temptation or do they fuel my
temptation? I ask that question all the
time. Like when I spend more time with
this person, do I leave that meeting?
Do I leave that time? Do I leave that outing with my
spirit strengthened or with my flesh more flared up than when I
than when I came? Yeah, that's just one filter
among many. Does this person, do they help
me fight for my sanctification? Do they inspire me to be more
godly? Do they do they help me?
Not even directly, just just their presence and the way they
think? Do they help me look to and rely
on the Word or do I get more carnal?
Do I feel my old man resurrecting the more I linger
and engage with them? Have you ever thought about that
with your relationships, your friendships, the potential
spouse that you're talking to? Have you ever thought about
that? If you don't apply such filters
in life that are derived from the Word of God, then I promise
you problems down the road. Problems that you could have
avoided because such a question will help you again.
Know what to cut off know. Know what to limit.
Know what to embrace and invest in in terms of horizontal
relationships. Because you know what's going to
happen to Ahab. Ahab is about to fall off the
same Cliff that many kings before him have and that is
receiving the wrong counsel. This is going to be the turn
around for Ahab's life right here.
We're going to see it in the rest of the chapter.
We're not going to cover that today, but Ahab is going to fall
in the same trap that many notable kings of Israel have by
what? Receiving wrong advice to make a
decision that will be detrimental.
So it just keeps appearing over and over again, and it's no
different here. And unfortunately, the person he
is hearing this from is his wife.
So she's pretty inescapable, right?
Some people jokingly say that back in chapter 20, Jezebel must
have been on vacation because for Ahab to obey those two
instructions from the prophets means that she must have been
out of town. Because here she is again.
It doesn't take her very long to meddle in his affairs and to
cause more problems for him. So his wife.
Here's a realistic picture. Really.
I know their royalty. I know they have to make
decisions that you, I might not have to make, but you're going
to make decisions in life. Here's a realistic picture of
what it means to be unequally yoked.
You have a man who knows better, and he marries a Phoenician
Pagan Princess. Remember, she's not a Jew.
He marries her. And she grew up as royalty,
observing the way her father and her family did things governing
a nation. And when she hears that Ahab
doesn't enforce his authority, it's it's strange to her, like
she has a different way of thinking about things.
So Ahab, though he asked and though he doesn't get it, he has
enough sense to be like, I don't have any authority to demand
this. So I'm just going to go back and
pout about it for a few days. Just about hears this.
And she goes, don't you govern Israel?
Come on, you're the king here. Do something about it.
Where did she get that idea from?
Surely her upbringing, where she came from, Do you now govern
Israel? In other words, why are you
letting this happen since you are the ruler of this people?
Remember Jesus spoke about how Gentiles rule over their people,
right? They lorded over them and he
tells the people who belong to his Kingdom.
That's not how you lead. But here's you have a perfect
example of a Gentile woman who can't fathom a king letting
somebody determine what he desires.
So that's just another, again, one of many examples of what
happens when you get linked up with the wrong lady, brothers,
when you get linked up with the wrong guy, ladies.
So what happens? She says, I'm going to take care
of it. You know, it's not going to be
good. I mean disastrous.
This woman's wicked. You're going about to find out
how wicked she is. Look at verse eight of our main
text. 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 live
with Nabeth in his city. And she wrote in the letters,
proclaim a fast and set neighbor at the head of the people 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.
What's concerning about that? There are many, many things.
I mean, this is diabolical. This is absolutely horrible, but
the most horrific thing about it is, if you read carefully,
Jezebel, this hater of God, this hater of the truth, is
implementing the law of God to accomplish her murderous plot.
How do we know that? What clues in here do we do we
see are linked to God's truth, at least in the old covenant?
Any ideas? OK, when you blasphemy against
God, according to Leviticus 2416, it's punishable by death.
It's a capital crime in the old covenant.
Yes. Anything else?
Two witnesses, right. So she she even goes to the
extent of honoring the protocol of making a legitimate
accusation by saying make sure there are two of you worthless,
but at least there's two of you one more.
It's a it's a little bit more difficult.
Yes, yes. So even that, and that's what we
find in Leviticus. Absolutely.
So even the way that the capital crime should be punished is
biblical. The fast, absolutely.
The fast. So what you have here is her
calling for a fast in this specific region for the purpose
of disclosing or receiving divine clarity about supposedly
a sin issue in the area. And so she implements a fast.
She calls for these two witnesses and she, she wants to
do all of that so she can get to this, this punishable thing
where she can execute this man unjustly.
It's wicked. And here's what you and I have
to remember. Evil people, evil people feel
very comfortable enacting their iniquity by weaponizing the word
of God, by implementing the Word of God, by applying the word of
God, by quoting the word of God. Evil people are very, very
comfortable taking God's truth and using it in a way to
manipulate others so that they can receive something at your
expense. Listen to this.
If it was true in ancient times, do you think that Satan's
strategy has changed in modern times?
No. There are too many gullible
Christians even today who are disarmed just because somebody
is quoting the Bible. It's it's not enough for
somebody to quote the Bible. It's not enough.
For somebody to hold the Bible. It's not enough.
What are they saying about the Bible?
How are they interpreting the Bible?
How are they applying the Bible? How are they honoring the
context of the Bible? And so this is what we see here.
We see a woman, Jezebel, giving us a warning that there will
always be those who interpret and apply Scripture wrongly to
harm God's people. Nabeth is a servant of God.
And if you think that this is an isolated thing, if you think,
brother, you're kind of you're kind of drawing too much out of
this, let me remind you that this is not the final place
where Jezebel is mentioned. She's not she's not going to
just end here in first and 2nd Kings.
Did you show up somewhere else? Tell me where she shows up.
Revelation. So in the final book of of
divine Scripture, Jezebel shows up not reincarnated.
Let me show you what I mean. Revelation chapter 2.
This is one of the seven churches that were addressed by
the Lord Jesus Christ. This church, Church of Thyatira,
the Lord Jesus, says something quite interesting to this one
particular local assembly, and it goes to show that our study
of Jezebel is much more applicable and relevant than we
might have imagined. Look at verse.
Let's read from the beginning. Why not?
Verse 18 of chapter 2? And to the Angel of the church
in Thyatira, write the words of the Son of God, who has eyes
like a flame of fire, and who has feet, and whose feet are
like burnished bronze. Verse 19.
I know your works, your love and your faith and service and
patient endurance and that your latter works exceed the first
positive. That's, that's quite a
commendation. Like I recognize that you're a
loving church. I recognize that you're faithful
in some ways. I recognize that you're, you're
busy, like there's ministry happening and, and not that your
works are actually exceeding, You're actually growing in your
efforts. You're actually growing in your
ministry. You're actually growing in your
impact. That's a good church.
Many people would love to pass their church like that, but
notice verse 20. But I have this against you.
Scary words, but I have this against you that you tolerate
that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is
teaching and seducing my service servants to practice sexual
morality and to eat food, sacrifice to idol.
It's very unlikely that somebody, even at this time,
decided to call their daughter Jezebel.
It's very, very unlikely that this is her literal name.
It's more likely that this is symbolic, that Jezebel had
developed such a reputation for being evil and being an agent
for the Kingdom of darkness and affecting the Kingdom of God,
that whoever this woman was, a real woman in the church
resembles Jezebel in her tactics, in her attitude, and in
her influence. So she's one like Jezebel and
Jezebel, this woman here, notice she calls herself a prophetess.
She's not a true prophetess. Self appointed, self-proclaimed,
self-made prophetess. And what is she doing?
Manipulating the people of God through teaching.
She's in a teaching position, which is a problem on its own,
right, isn't it? It is because God has called for
the teaching role in the church to be for men.
And so you have a woman who's being tolerated as a teacher in
a local church already a flag and more of a flag is that she
is teaching the people through her teaching, whatever her
doctrine is, it's encouraging people to practice sexual
immorality and to eat food, sacrifice idols.
It's very likely that her doctrine was this form of free
grace. Just do what you want.
God will forgive it. It's very, very likely that's
something along those lines. But notice what her teaching is
doing. It's not impacting the world.
It's not giving people false assurance of salvation.
Notice again, and it's teaching and seducing who?
My servants, The Lord is very intentional in the way He
speaks. My servants, my people are being
duped by this woman. So that same spirit that, that
that persuasive, intimidating, authoritative spirit that you
find in First Kings chapter 21 and throughout many chapters is
found here in Revelation chapter 2.
And so this is what you and I have to be mindful of, that
there will be people who will take God's word.
And if you're not discerning, if you, if you don't use this as a
filter, if you don't, if you do not like the brains who even
tested Paul after his sermon, then even God's servants can be
tricked. That's a dangerous reality.
But let's come back to First Kings.
We're not going to cover this whole chapter, in case you were
wondering, but we come back to First Kings.
We notice that after the scheme was conjured up, it is executed
and there's something quite insightful about the way the
Holy Spirit words it. First Kings 21 let's go to verse
11. And the men of his city, the
elders and the leaders who lived in his city did as Jezebel sent
word to them as it was written in the letters that she had sent
to them. They proclaimed the fast and sat
neighbor that the as the head of the people and two worthless men
came in and sat opposite him and the worthless men brought his
charge against Nabeth and the presence of the people saying
Nabeth curse God and the king. So they took him outside the
city and stoned him to death with stones.
Then they sent to Jezebel saying Nabeth has been stoned he is
dead. I'm not sure if you see it, but
when I read these set of verses over and over again, a certain
word surfaced for me at least. I don't know if you see it as
well, other actors in this story, Nameless, but very
important still. Who are they worthless?
And it's a second word. Who worthless?
Who men, Men. And not just the two worthless
men that we find here in verse 13, but the men of verse 11.
Look at the beginning of verse 11 again.
And the men of his city, the men of his city, the elders and the
leaders, assuming they're all men.
We've been talking a lot about the wickedness of Jezebel, and
rightfully so. But Jezebel's wickedness is not
the only problem in this whole predicament.
I argue that you have to consider the combination.
Jezebel's wickedness is one thing, but you also have the
weakness of men, the weakness of men, these men here, and the
main guy, Ahab, who is equally weak.
So you have a weak husband, a weak king, a weak leadership in
this particular city, weak men in that city, weak men.
Can I tell you something about a wicked society?
If society is prevailing in wickedness, in great part it's
the outcome of weak men in that society.
If if wickedness is prevailing in a culture, I can tell you
that that's a symptom of something more significant in
that culture. You have weak men.
Weak men, He's saying, what's the connection?
Because when a man does not honor their God-given role as a
gatekeeper and the spheres that he's been called to lead, namely
the local church in the house, you should expect nothing less
than problems to ensue. And overtime, the issues that
arise in those areas will bleed into the wider culture.
So I want to think about it. This whole thing, this whole
idea of chaos, chaos as a result of roles that got designated for
men and women not being honored, goes back to the beginning.
How did this whole thing even start?
What am I speaking about? The mess that we're in, this
universe being impacted by sin. How did this all start?
You had a woman who was being spiritually seduced by Satan,
and not just her being seduced by Satan, but you had her
husband standing idly by and letting it happen.
People forget that part of the whole story.
Is that any wonder why over and over in the New Testament, we're
told about Adam being held responsible, Adam being the
federal head. So as as Satan is having a
conversation with Eve, we read that Adam is there passively.
And this is something for you and I to consider.
Because the chaos that entered into the garden and overall our
world is in great part the fruit of a man and a woman who did not
recognize and honor what God had called them to do separately and
together as men and women. That's why feminism is so
destructive, because the message of feminism, supposedly it's
uplifting woman, right? It's not uplifting women.
It's demeaning woman one and two, it's demonizing men because
in the pursuit of trying to exalt and champion women, what,
what are they doing? They're trying to erase the
gender roles. And now what you have is not men
being encouraged to lead and to protect and provide, but to step
aside and that woman take what God called to be for men to
honor and observe. So whether you delete the idea
of a role or you replace it and you switch the the actors, both
are going to result in the same thing.
And no matter how much the culture might push it and
advertise it and make psycho analytical arguments for it, God
has. God has put in the fabric of the
world a law. So no matter what we do, what
switcheroos we make, what clever ideas, no matter how progressive
we want to be, if we don't honor what God says, we're never going
to know the blessings and you're only going to have issues.
So what are men called to do? They're called to be exemplary
leaders, models. They're called to be sacrificial
providers. They're called to be ready for
this word, strong protectors. Yes, men are supposed to have
backbones. Men are supposed to, at the
right time, wisely protest evil when it knocks on the door of
your house, when it tries to creep into the church, and we're
supposed to give our voices when we see it happening in society.
But you don't have these men protesting Jezebel.
They roll over. Jezebel says that we'll do it.
Sure. What would have happened if they
sided with Nabeth? Because, you see, it doesn't
take all men. All it takes is for a majority
of men, and this is something for you and I to consider
because this is what we're seeing under attack in our day.
More and more are we seeing it attack and we're seeing it in
the church, this blurring of distinctives.
All in the name of what equality?
All in the name of what justice? All in the name of what love.
Call it what you want. If it doesn't line up with God's
Word, I'm not interested in it. I'm going to trust God's wisdom,
and that's what Nabeth did. He trusted God's wisdom, not
knowing that this was planned against him.
So what do we read? These men come, these weak,
worthless men. Verse 15, As soon as Jezebel
heard that Nabeth had been stoned and was dead, Jezebel
said to Ahab, Arise, take possession of the vineyard of
Nabeth, the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money.
For Nabeth is not alive, but dead.
You know, I couldn't help but think to myself, if Nabeth had
just complied, if if he had just said, you know, I know what
God's word says about this, but you're the king.
Yeah, I know you're supposed to have a copy of God's law and
read it every day, but I do love my vineyard.
OK, let's do it. He could have just, you know
what could have happened? He probably could have saved his
life. Not just saved his life.
He could have known a better life, bigger vineyard, maybe
open up a business and sell some of those grapes.
He could have done something for himself, but he doesn't.
And what makes this so heartbreaking is when you
actually continue to read in your Bibles, which you're
supposed to do unless you miss out on greater revelations and
you discover that it wasn't just Nabith who who faced capital
punishment. Go to 2nd Kings.
And I want you to see this with your own eyes in Chapter 9,
verse 26 of Second Kings, Second Kings 926 as surely as I saw
yesterday, the blood of Nabeth 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 Lord.
You see that in verse 26 in the beginning, Who else blood was
spilled? Not just Nabeth, the blood of
his sons. So it makes you wonder what
happened. It makes you wonder that in this
trial, Nabeth was falsely accused and his sons were in
attendance, said that that's not true and decided to shut him up.
And even if they didn't protest, even if they were at home while
Nabeth was was there being accused, I'm fully convinced
that Jezebel called for those sons to be to be murdered as
well. Why?
Why do you think? Yeah, because they would be the
the heirs to the land. So being pre emptive and wanting
to avoid potential challenge and protest, check.
Let's get rid of the competition and let's just get straight to
it. Kill the sons, kill the heirs.
So Neva didn't just pay a price for his righteous stance for the
truth. His sons did.
His family did tragedy right? Actually, I can think of a worse
tragedy. Tell me what's worse than this.
You might disagree with me, but I believe that if Nabith had
compromised, what kind of precedent that would have set
for his sons, huh? Assuming that these sons even
died as righteous men, what what kind of temptation would you
have opened them up to Nabith if you had just given yourself over
to disobeying the Lord for just temporary gain?
And your kids witness when they go to the vineyard and they
realize that there's a for sale sign and there's a sold sign on
it. Dad, where did the vineyard go?
The king asked for. But Dad, this is for our tribe
alone. I know.
But guys, come on, It's we're going to get a better vineyard.
What kind of example, what kind of spiritual corruption would
have Navis compromise caused his children?
That to me is greater tragedy than them dying early.
And so I see a man who made a stance and listen, if I was one
of the sons of Navis, as heartbreaking as it would have
been to see my father, OK, if my life would have been taken,
that's another thing. But the witness, my father died.
But to know that he died because he stood for the truth, I'll
take that over him getting a better vineyard, a better car,
better house and the pursuit that he compromised the God that
he claimed to laugh. I know you don't hear that much
these days like that. That's true consecration when
there's a price attached to it. So Jezebel gets the news.
She goes to her husband and says, honey, Nabeth's dead.
How does how does Ahab respond to this verse 16 in our final
verse of our study. And as soon as Ahab heard that
Nabeth was dead, Ahab arose to go down to the vineyard of
Nabeth the Jezreelite to take possession of it.
What a pathetic man. Like if you had any hint of
dignity, any pulse of love left, you would at least maybe ask how
did he die? Or this is revealing that he Co
signed on the whole thing to begin with and he wasn't taken
by surprise. He knew exactly what his wife
was going to do. Either way, pathetic.
And somebody made this observation, and it's a really
good one. When it came to Ahab killing a
man he was supposed to kill Ben Haddad, was he not?
And what does he do? He preserves his life.
And the one man he was not supposed to kill, but to
preserve and protect, he kills. Woe to those who call good evil
and evil good. Ahab is yet another example to
us in a in a long series of studies, another illustration
within the man himself, just him, of how corrupt we can be,
of how corrupt government can be, of how corrupt leadership
can be. But you know what I'm wondering?
Here's the cliffhanger. Where is God and all of this?
Where's God's intervention? Why didn't God step in?
He's going to step in, but you have to come to church to find
out when and how. Let's pray, shall we?
You have a new historical character to add to your list of
inspirational men and women of God.
Nabeth the Jezreelite. Yeah, I love the way he answered
Ahab. I just wonder what it looked
like. Here's this royal knock on the
door and Nabeth answers as yes. How can I help you, knowing what
this man has caused concerning compromise in the nation?
Nabeth, I'm willing to buy your land, give you a better one and
whatever price. And you can just imagine the
entourage and the whole spiel and the impressive presentation.
And he was like, the Lord forbid that I do any business with you.
More importantly, because this belongs to my father's and this
is according to his law. It just slams that door.
I love it. I love it.
I wish he lived a little longer, but the Holy Spirit honor this
man by placing him in the word. Though he had a brief
appearance, it's enough for us to be stirred to realize that
God is worthy to be honored even in what we might consider
obscure commands. So, Lord, we ask you tonight
that you would give us such hearts that whether we are aware
of the price of our obedience or not, that we would give it to
you anyway. And we do ask, Lord, that you
would in this house, raise up strong holy men that will bless
their homes, bless their churches, bless their
businesses, bless any context that they come into contact
with. Strengthen our fathers,
strengthen the new fathers husbands.
And Lord, we do ask that this church would also know strong
helpmates to help their husbands.
We don't want Jezebel's that only fuel the flesh, Lord.
Not just in the context of marriage, but in all our
relationships. We've seen enough kings throw
themselves headlong because of the wrong counsel.
Give us discerning ears. Oh God, make us careful, Lord.
May we take the commands of our fathers and bind them on our
hearts and the commands of our mothers and tie them around our
necks. May we be men and women who know
your words so that even if somebody tries to manipulate us
with the Scriptures, we can smell it from a mile away.
So protect Maranatha Bible Church, protect every church
represented here. May we not tolerate that which
you hate. So Lord, we want to give you
worship because you've spoken to us even from a scene in the
Bible that deals with a vineyard, a king, and a faithful
man. Lord, we love you.
Your word is your voice, and now we give you our voices and song
as we rejoice in your truth in Jesus name, Amen.
Is he worthy? He's worthy.
Let's stand and worship him. So, so good to see you on a
Friday night to gather around the truth of God's Word.
Let's praise Him for a faithful house and praise Him for all the
things that He's going to do through our lives.