And Jezebel his wife came to him, and said to him, Why is thy spirit sullen, and thou eatest no bread?
Ahab is sulking on his bed and refusing food, because Naboth would not give him his vineyard. Then his wife comes in with one question — and she already knows how she will get her husband what he wants.
One writer traces the vexed spirit Jezebel asks about to a greed that cannot get what it wants.
Verse 4 shows what a greed that can never be satisfied does to the heart of a man without God: "And Ahab came into his house sullen and vexed." Oh, the poor heart of man, weighed down with sorrow and swollen with vexation! That is all it can hold — unless Satan, to keep his hold on him, comes and whispers of new deceptive desires. Ahab is sullen because what he wants is out of his reach. He is vexed at a will that blocks him and will not give way, because in the end it is the will of God.
Ahab had come home in this same mood once before. One commentator names the two faults that met in him, and who stands ready when a heart is set on evil.
Weakness and wickedness are often joined together. In both cases the king was angry because the will of God stood against his own and got in the way of his plans. But notice the lesson: whenever the heart is set on evil, Satan is always close at hand to open the way for the deed. Covetousness had mastered the soul of Ahab, but he was lacking in courage; he feared to take what he longed to have.
Jezebel's question sounds like concern. The same writer describes the woman asking it, and the resolve her husband lacked.
Jezebel was of another spirit; she had neither conscience nor fear. Daughter of a heathen king, she owned no law but that of her own wicked will. Like the unjust judge, she feared not God nor regarded man; and, determining that her husband should gratify the desire of his heart, she said, "I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite."
Once Ahab answers, Jezebel works on his pride and then on his appetite. Rossier hears the tempter's own words in her promise.
She rouses all the evil instincts of her husband's heart. She appeals to his pride: "Do you now govern Israel?" She adds, "I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite." When a man has sold his soul to Satan, as Ahab had, Satan does not fail to make him all sorts of promises. He is the tempter. What God does not want to give you, I'll give you. Leave it to me; I shall give you the vineyard. And now, Ahab, "arise and eat bread and let your heart be cheerful." That is always the goal of the flesh: health, a good time, doing as you please, and getting what you want.
The murder that follows is easy to blame on Jezebel alone. Another commentator points to the king's own seal in her hand.
When he told Jezebel the reason for his sulking, she knew at once what to do, and told him she would give him the vineyard of Naboth. She had no hesitation in using Ahab's name in her heartless abuse of authority. She wrote letters in his name and sealed them with his seal. Why was Ahab's seal available to her? But he made no objection, therefore he was just as guilty as she.
All of this grew from a wish for another man's vineyard. One writer defines that desire and names what it turns into.
Covetousness means giving the desire for something God has not given us the first place in our hearts. So it takes the place in our affections that belongs only to God, and it becomes an idol. We may want things in this life that we think would be good for us. But to covet them leads us to give up everything to get them, and then they become idols.
Jezebel's name did not die with her. One writer explains what it recalls when it reappears in the message to the church at Thyatira.
Thyatira is marked by putting up with a woman who calls herself a prophetess — that is, who claims divine inspiration for herself. By her name, Jezebel, she carries us back to the idolatry of the worst days of Israel. She carries us back to the bitter persecution of the saints and servants of God by a woman who, foreigner though she was, held royal power among the people who claimed to be the Lord's.
- Desire — Ahab sulks because his craving hit a will that would not bend: the will of God.
- Weakness — He wanted the vineyard but was afraid to take it; weakness and wickedness met in him.
- Voice — When a heart is set on evil, Satan is always at hand, and Jezebel offers what God withheld: I will give you the vineyard.
- Seal — She used his name and his seal, and he raised no objection; silence made him as guilty as the one who acted.
- Name — Jezebel's name outlived her as a byword for idolatry and for the persecution of God's servants.
And he said to her, Because I spoke to Naboth the Jizreelite and said to him, Give me thy vineyard for money; or else, if it please thee, I will give thee a vineyard for it; and he said, I will not give thee my vineyard.
Verse 6 is Ahab's own account of what happened, told to his wife Jezebel. He reports the refusal, but not the reason Naboth gave for it.
Ahab's answer begins with "because." One writer traces the sulking past Naboth to a will Ahab could not bend.
Here we see the effect produced by covetousness that cannot be satisfied in the heart of a man without God. Ahab is sullen at seeing the object of his desire placed out of his reach. He is vexed at a will that puts an obstacle in his way, a will he cannot make give way — because, in the end, it is the will of God.
So why would Naboth not sell? Commentators say he was not just being difficult.
This was not stubbornness on Naboth's part, as some have supposed. He was not just refusing to give up his legal rights when his king asked a favour. He was not standing up for his own rights. That hardly suits someone who owes everything to God's free grace. He was standing up for God's rights, and for the rights of those who would come after him. … His firm refusal to sell to his royal neighbour was a matter of conscience.
Ahab's report highlights his own generosity: cash, or a better vineyard. The terms were the problem, not the price.
The king saw and coveted it for himself. It was near to his house, and he wanted it for a vegetable garden. So he tried to get it from Naboth, either by trading for it or by buying it. On the surface this was fair and honest. But Ahab knew, or should have known, that he could only get it by making Naboth break the law of God.
The exchange was no small favour to ask. God's own law closed that door to Naboth.
Ahab's proposal to Naboth means far more than it seems at first glance. It would mean giving away this godly Israelite's inheritance for good. An exchange, or even payment in money, would mean that Ahab took full and final possession of his neighbour's vineyard. An Israelite who feared God could not accept such terms. In reality the land itself did not belong to the people, but to the Lord: "The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me" (Lev. 25:23).
Ahab wanted the vineyard, but he did not take it himself.
Covetousness had mastered the soul of Ahab, but he lacked courage. He feared to take what he longed to have.
So the complaint went to his wife instead. What follows in the chapter comes out of that conversation.
When he told Jezebel the reason for his sulking, she knew at once what to do, and told him she would give him the vineyard of Naboth. She had no hesitation in using Ahab's name in her heartless abuse of authority. She wrote letters in his name and sealed them with his seal. Why was Ahab's seal available to her? But he made no objection, so he was just as guilty as she was.
Notice how the wording changes hands. Ahab reports a refusal to give; Jezebel answers with a promise to give.
When a man has sold his soul to Satan, as Ahab had, Satan never fails to make him all kinds of promises. He is the tempter. What God does not want to give you, I'll give you. Leave it to me; I shall give you the vineyard. Ahab leaves it to her, because he sees that this way he will get what he wants. … Naboth had said, "I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers." Jezebel comes and says, "I will give you the vineyard of Naboth."
A vegetable garden cost a man his life. Where does a desire like that come from?
As far as I understand it, covetousness means letting the desire for something God has not given us take first place in our hearts. So it takes the place in our affections that belongs only to God, and becomes an idol. Whatever displaces God in our affections is an idol. We may want certain things in this life that we think would be good for us. But to covet them leads to surrendering everything to get them, and then they become idols.
- "Give me" — Ahab's offer of money or a better vineyard looked fair. But it could only work if Naboth broke God's law.
- "I cannot give" — Naboth was not being difficult. He was guarding God's rights and the rights of his children, against a sale that could never be undone.
- Nothing given — the sullenness Ahab explains here is anger at a will he could not bend, and that will was God's.
- "I will give you" — Jezebel answered his complaint with a promise of the very thing God had withheld. She sealed it with Ahab's own seal, and he raised no objection.
- Given over — let a desire take first place in the heart and it becomes an idol. A man will then surrender everything to get it.
And Jezebel his wife said to him, Dost thou now exercise sovereignty over Israel? arise, eat bread, and let thy heart be glad I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jizreelite.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And she wrote a letter in Ahab's name, and sealed it with his seal, and sent the letter to the elders and to the nobles that were in his city, dwelling with Naboth.
Ahab has failed to buy Naboth's vineyard. He has gone home to sulk. Now his wife picks up the pen he would not use. This verse is about borrowed authority. A letter goes out under the king's name and seal — to the neighbours of the man it condemns.
A seal was not decoration. It told the readers that the order came from the throne and carried its full force.
The people who received the letters read them as Ahab's commands. The seal showed that Ahab's power and authority stood behind the sealed orders.
How did Ahab's seal come to be in her hand at all? One commentator presses that question.
She had no hesitation in using Ahab's name in her heartless abuse of authority. She wrote letters in his name and sealed them with his seal. Why was Ahab's seal available to her? But he made no objection, so he was just as guilty as she was.
Her promise to hand him the vineyard costs him more than he notices.
She takes Ahab by the hand and leads him down her own path, a path of lying and murder, while pretending she is doing him a kindness. She "will give him" the vineyard. But in the meantime she takes possession of his authority, of his royal privilege: "She wrote letters in Ahab's name and sealed them with his seal" (v. 8). Ahab has turned into her slave.
The letters did not order a murder outright. They ordered a religious ceremony, with the murder hidden inside it.
She wrote letters to the town council, using the king's name and the royal seal. Her orders were especially devilish. The elders and nobles were to proclaim a fast and seat Naboth at the head of the gathering. They were to bring in two worthless men to charge him with cursing God and the king… The whole business seems too horrible to believe. Yet such was the moral state of Israel that queen and elders did all of this in God's name!
The double charge — against God and against the king — was not carelessness. It was calculated, and one writer explains why Jezebel needed both.
She knew the penalty for blasphemy against the Lord was death (Lev. 24:16)… But according to Jewish teachers, a charge of blasphemy alone would leave his property to his heirs, just as if he had died naturally. To secure the vineyard, a further charge of treason had to be invented against him. In such a case the condemned man's estate went to the royal treasury. So Naboth was accused of blasphemy against both "God and the king."
The letters went to Naboth's own neighbours. They obeyed, and one writer does not excuse them.
The elders and nobles of Jezreel do it knowing the reason. The letters sent to them told them to choose two wicked men, worthless men, who should lie under oath to get rid of Naboth. They have almost no scruples, because it is in their interest to please the king and win his good will.
They kept every legal form. The signature was the king's, two witnesses testified, the sentence was lawful. When Elijah meets Ahab in the vineyard, he mentions none of it.
"Have you killed and also taken possession?" — in other words, have you committed murder and robbery? God deals with realities. In His estimation, people and things get their proper place and value. There is no gloss, no pretence, no posing — everything is real.
Notice where the charge lands. Jezebel wrote the letter, but Ahab's name stood at the bottom. God holds him to his own signature.
"Have you [not Jezebel, but you, have you] killed and also taken possession? … Thus says the Lord, 'In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick your own blood.'"
Jezebel's name appears again in Revelation 2. One writer ties that back to what she does here.
She has been well described as "the wife of responsible Ahab." So the height of his offence was that he allowed her to take his place and to act by his authority. We learn this from the use of Jezebel's name in Revelation 2.
- Seal. The seal put the king's power behind the page; whoever holds it speaks as the king, whatever the king intends.
- Surrender. Ahab never wrote a word. But he lent his name and raised no objection, so commentators count him as guilty as Jezebel.
- Slavery. Jezebel offered him a vineyard and took his authority. What looked like a favour made him her slave.
- Cover. A fast, two witnesses, a lawful verdict: religion supplied the forms. The double charge of blasphemy and treason moved the land to the crown.
- Reality. God's verdict skipped the paperwork and the wife alike: "Have you killed and also taken possession?" He weighs the deed, not the excuse behind the signature.
And she wrote in the letter saying, Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth at the head of the people;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
and set two men, sons of Belial, before him, and they shall bear witness against him saying, Thou didst curse God and the king; and carry him out, and stone him, that he may die.
Jezebel's letter does not tell the elders of Jezreel to seize Naboth or to kill him in secret. It tells them to call a religious ceremony, seat him at the top of it, and then destroy him by sworn testimony. So murder here wears the forms of God's own law — and this verse asks who answers for that.
One writer walks through the scene the elders were told to stage:
She wrote letters to the Town Council, using the king's name and the royal seal. Her orders were especially devilish. The elders and nobles were to proclaim a fast and set Naboth at the head of the gathering. Then they were to bring in two sons of Belial (that is, sons of worthlessness) to charge him with cursing God and the king. We understand this to mean that they were to pretend there was some divine displeasure against their city. At the fast they were to look into the cause, with Naboth presiding. They were to denounce the man they pretended to honour as the "Achan" of the place, and hurry him off to execution... yet such was the moral degradation of Israel that queen and elders did all this in God's Name!
The charge names God and the king together. Older translations read "blaspheme" where the ESV has "cursed." The pairing was deliberate, and it was about the land:
She knew the penalty for blasphemy against Jehovah was death (Lev. 24:16). She would find associates to prove Naboth guilty of this. So she would take revenge on the man who had dared to say No to the desire of power. But Jewish teachers taught this. If he were found guilty of blasphemy alone, his property would pass to his heirs, just as if he had died naturally. To secure the vineyard, a further charge had to be trumped up against him: treason. In such a case the estate of the condemned man went to the royal treasury. So Naboth was accused of blasphemy against both "God and the king."
The plan needed more than two hired liars. It needed a whole town council willing to read the letter and obey it:
Ahab lets the evil be done and the wrong completed so that he may profit by it. The men of Jezreel, the elders and nobles, do it knowing the reason for it. The letters sent to them told them to choose two wicked men, sons of Belial, who should commit perjury to get rid of Naboth. They have hardly any scruples, for it is in their interest to please the king and to win his good will.
Two witnesses, not one — the number gave the killing the look of careful obedience to Scripture. The same show of care marked other deaths:
The Bible's own history gives us more than one case of a man condemned with a show of attention to Deuteronomy 17:6-7. Look at Naboth here, at Stephen in Acts 6 and 7, and above all at the only perfect Man who ever walked this earth. Men can, at times, put on the appearance of wonderful attention to the letter of scripture when it suits their own ungodly ends. They can quote its sacred words in defence of the most flagrant unrighteousness and shocking immorality. Two witnesses accused Naboth of blaspheming God and the king. That faithful Israelite was robbed of his inheritance and of his life on the testimony of two liars, hired at the direction of a godless, cruel woman. Stephen, a man full of the Holy Spirit, was stoned to death for blasphemy. The great religious leaders of the day received the testimony of false witnesses and acted on it.
Stoning was the sentence attached to this charge, and that is what makes the act so ugly:
Stoning was a punishment commanded by the law for Jews guilty of idolatry, blasphemy, or other forms of ungodly rebellion against Jehovah. This is why the death of Naboth and of Zechariah was so appalling. The wickedness lay wholly with those in high authority, who twisted the law to injure saints. We can hardly imagine a worse or more daring wrong than this: that godly people should suffer the death of the ungodly at the hands of ungodly rulers.
The elders obeyed, and Naboth died. The same method reappears long after Israel, and God keeps the account:
Jezebel's action in the case of Naboth was a dark foreshadowing of what Christendom's Jezebel has often been guilty of. Rulers and governors who wanted to stay in favour have been all too willing to put choice saints of God to a cruel death. They did it at the bidding of the so-called "Church." But in the coming day of repayment God will remember everything done in Israel and in Christendom. Innocent blood will yet be avenged.
- Covetousness — a king's wish for his neighbour's vineyard sets the whole plot moving.
- Cloak — a fast, a seat of honour and a sacred charge dress murder up as justice done in God's Name.
- Calculation — blasphemy alone would have left the land to Naboth's heirs. Adding treason sent the estate to the crown.
- Complicity — the elders knew why the letters came, and obeyed. Pleasing the king served their own interests.
- Court — the staged trial fooled Jezreel, not God. Innocent blood will yet be avenged.
And the men of his city, the elders and the nobles that dwelt in his city, did as Jezebel had sent to them, as it was written in the letter that she had sent to them
The men who killed Naboth were not strangers or soldiers, but his own neighbours and the leaders of his town, acting on a letter. Here a queen's private plot turns into a public, legal-looking procedure, and one question presses: why did no one refuse?
The letters carried a seal, and the seal is what gave them their force.
In 1 Kings 21:8, Jezebel wrote letters in Ahab's name and sealed them with his seal. She sent them to the elders and the nobles in his city, the men who lived alongside Naboth. Those men read the letters as Ahab's own commands, and the seal showed that Ahab's power and authority stood behind them.
They were not fooled. The letters told them the plan, and they weighed what obeying would gain them.
Ahab lets the evil happen and lets the wickedness run its full course so that he can profit by it. The men of Jezreel, the elders and nobles, do it knowing the reason for it. The letters sent to them told them to choose two wicked men, sons of Belial, who would lie under oath to get rid of Naboth. They have hardly any scruples, for it is in their interests to please the king and to win his good will.
Silence, in this account, is not innocence.
The elders of the city were just as guilty as Jezebel and Ahab. They knew the charge against Naboth was false, yet no one would protest. Jezebel had already decided that Naboth must die by stoning, and that horrible injustice soon followed.
The letters ordered a religious ceremony, with Naboth in the seat of honour.
The elders and nobles were to proclaim a fast and set Naboth at the head of the gathering. Then they were to bring in two sons of Belial (that is, sons of worthlessness) to charge him with having cursed God and the king. We understand this to mean that they were to pretend that God was displeased with their city. At the fast they would look into the cause, with Naboth presiding. Then they would denounce the man they pretended to honour as the "Achan" of the place, and hurry him off to execution. The whole business seems too horrible to believe. Yet Israel had sunk so low that queen and elders did all this in God's Name!
Achan was the Israelite whose hidden sin brought defeat on the nation, and he was stoned for it.
The wording was calculated. One charge would kill Naboth; only a second charge could take his land.
Jezebel knew the penalty for blasphemy against Jehovah was death (Lev. 24:16). So she would find helpers to prove Naboth guilty of it, and take revenge on the man who had dared to say No to power. But according to Jewish teachers, a man found guilty of blasphemy alone still left his property to his heirs, just as if he had died naturally. So to secure the vineyard, they had to invent a second charge: treason. In that case the estate of the condemned man went to the royal treasury. That is why they accused Naboth of blasphemy both against "God and the king."
The whole ceremony existed to produce evidence that everyone involved knew was false.
The ninth commandment reads, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." To bear false witness is cruel and gross evil. Yet too many Israelites coldly ignored this commandment. Jezebel deliberately bribed wicked men to falsely accuse Naboth to have him put to death. Even the chief priests of Israel sought false witnesses to testify against the Lord Jesus, the Son of God.
Everyone here acted as if the paperwork settled the matter. But one person had been left out, and He sent a prophet to the vineyard.
So far all concerned, except Naboth, had left God out of their calculations, and it seemed as if sin had triumphed. Naboth had been stoned, and Ahab was now free to take possession. He went down, and his feet at last stood in the vineyard of Naboth. But at the very moment he was about to lay his hand on the possession he had coveted, Elijah the Tishbite confronted him. The prophet's terrible words terrified his soul and taught him that there really is a God who judges the earth. "Have you [not Jezebel, but you, have you] killed and also taken possession?"
- Written — Jezebel's letters spelled out the whole plan, so the men who obeyed knew exactly what they were doing.
- Sealed — the king's seal, not the justice of the demand, is what made the town's leaders move at once.
- Silent — they knew the charge was false and said nothing. That left them as guilty as the queen who wrote.
- Sacred — they turned a fast held in God's Name into the cover for a legal murder. Two charges made sure the land fell to the crown.
- Seen — everyone left God out of the calculation. Elijah met Ahab in that very vineyard and charged him with the killing.
they proclaimed a fast, and set Naboth at the head of the people.
Naboth has refused to sell his vineyard, so Jezebel writes to the leaders of Jezreel under the king's seal. Their first move is not violence but worship — which raises the question of the chapter: why did murder need a religious ceremony?
Commentators read the fast as a staged inquiry: the town pretends God is angry with it, and the man it seats in the place of honour will be named the cause.
The elders and nobles were to proclaim a fast, set Naboth at the head of the gathering, and bring in two sons of Belial (that is, sons of worthlessness) to charge him with having cursed God and the king. We understand this to mean that they were to pretend God was displeased with their city. At the fast they would look into the cause, with Naboth presiding. Then they would denounce the man they claimed to honour as the "Achan" of the place — the one blamed for bringing God's anger on the town — and hurry him off to execution (Joshua 7:25). The whole business seems too horrible to believe. Yet Israel had sunk so low morally that queen and elders did all this in God's Name!
The fast was not decoration. A naked killing would have shocked the nation, so the crime needed a respectable face.
How base could such men be, to make themselves willing tools of her treacherous plan and carry out her instructions to the letter! Yet public conscience might rebel at open murder, so she had to give her act some appearance of justice. Besides, what had happened on Mount Carmel had probably not yet lost its moral effect on the nation, and this wicked patron of Baal had to move with some caution in her wickedness.
Jezebel drafted the charge with care. She needed two accusations, not one, because she wanted more than Naboth's death. She wanted his land.
Jezebel had got her way. But how dreadful it is to use something God set up to serve the will of the flesh! She knew the penalty for blasphemy against Jehovah was death (Lev. 24:16). She would find helpers to prove Naboth guilty of this... But, according to Jewish teachers, if he were found guilty of blasphemy alone, his property would still pass to his heirs, just as if he had died a natural death. So to secure the vineyard, they had to invent a further charge against him — treason. In such a case the condemned man's estate went to the royal treasury.
Jezebel gave the order. Naboth's own neighbours carried it out, and they had their reasons.
Surely there would be conscience, we might think, in some of Jezreel's elders! Alas! The men of Naboth's city, "the elders and the nobles," were fellow-citizens of this faithful man. Yet they hurried to obey the queen's command. They brought in false witnesses, as happened to our blessed Lord and to Stephen, and got him condemned.
They have hardly any scruples, for it is in their interests to please the king and to gain his good will.
The plot worked because it looked lawful. That danger did not end with Naboth.
At times men can look wonderfully careful about the letter of Scripture when it suits their own ungodly ends. They can quote its sacred words to defend blatant wrongdoing and shocking immorality. Two witnesses accused Naboth of blaspheming God and the king. That faithful Israelite lost his inheritance and his life on the word of two liars, hired at the direction of a godless, cruel woman.
The fast changed nothing about how God saw the event.
Jezebel would gladly put a fair cloak on her shocking wickedness... But how did the Lord view it? "Thus says the Lord, Have you killed, and also taken possession?" (in other words, Have you committed murder and robbery?) God deals with realities. In His estimation, men and things get their proper place and value; there is no gilding, no pretence, no assumption — all is real.
- Cover made. The elders staged a day of seeking God so that a murder could pass as justice done in His Name.
- Cover needed. Open murder would have stirred the nation's conscience, so Jezebel dressed her cruelty as justice and moved with care.
- Cover drafted. Even the wording was cover: the blasphemy charge took his life, the treason charge took his vineyard for the royal treasury.
- Cover shared. The cover needed accomplices, and Naboth's own neighbours supplied it for nothing more than the king's good will.
- Cover stripped. God tore the cover off in one question — murder and robbery — because He deals with realities, not appearances.
And there came the two men, sons of Belial, and sat before him; and the men of Belial witnessed against him, against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth blasphemed God and the king. And they carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him with stones, that he died.
The town holds a fast, two hired men tell their lie, and the leaders drag Naboth outside and stone him — all in good religious order. So how could murder look like piety, and where was God while it happened?
The whole scene was staged. Orders under the royal seal turned a day of fasting into a place of execution.
Her orders were especially devilish. The elders and nobles were to proclaim a fast, set Naboth at the head of the gathering, and bring in two sons of Belial (that is, sons of worthlessness) to charge him with having cursed God and the king. We understand this to mean that they were to claim that God was displeased with their city. At the fast they would look into the cause, with Naboth presiding. The man they pretended to honour would then be named the "Achan" of the place — the one whose sin had brought God's anger on everyone — and hurried off to execution. The whole business seems too horrible to believe. Yet Israel had sunk so low morally that the queen and the elders did all this in God's Name!
The charge named God and the king. That second half was not extra spite. It was the legal path to the vineyard.
Jezebel had had her will, but oh, the dreadfulness of using God's institution to carry out the will of the flesh! She knew the penalty for blasphemy against Jehovah was death (Lev. 24:16). She would find helpers to prove Naboth guilty of this. That way she would take revenge on the man who had dared to say No to the desire of power. But according to Jewish teachers, a man guilty of blasphemy alone still left his property to his heirs, just as if he had died in the usual way. So to secure the vineyard, they had to invent a second charge: treason. In such a case the estate of the condemned man went to the royal treasury.
Jezebel wrote the letters, but other hands picked up the stones. The men of the city knew exactly what they were doing.
Of course the evil men were paid for their lies. The elders of the city were just as guilty as Jezebel and Ahab. They knew the charge against Naboth was false, yet no one would protest. Jezebel had already decided that Naboth must die by stoning, and the city carried out this horrible injustice at once.
Their motive was not fear alone but advantage:
They have hardly any scruples, for it is in their interests to please the king and to gain his good will.
The refusal that cost him his life was not stubbornness over property values. He was holding to a command about the land.
But the land was God's and He had forbidden His people to sell it permanently. Moreover, the land was to remain within the tribe to which God had assigned it. So Naboth's refusal to give up his inheritance was a matter of simple obedience to God. His faithfulness cost him his life through Jezebel's scheming.
Naboth was not the last man killed this way. Others kept the words of Scripture and used them to cover the same crime.
Alas! When it suits their own ungodly ends, men can at times look remarkably careful about the letter of Scripture. They can quote its sacred words to defend the most flagrant unrighteousness and shocking immorality. Two witnesses accused Naboth of blaspheming God and the king. That faithful Israelite lost his inheritance and his life on the word of two liars, hired at the direction of a godless, cruel woman. Stephen, a man full of the Holy Spirit, was stoned to death for blasphemy. The great religious leaders of the day took the word of false witnesses and acted on it.
Some writers go further. They see in Naboth's death a picture of Christ's own death — the rightful Heir killed so that others could seize His inheritance.
Our blessed Lord was the righteous one in Israel in His day, as Naboth had been. He was properly the Heir of all the nation's greatness... The vineyard, the inheritance was His; but the wicked tenants, though admitting His title, refused Him possession, and said, "This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance." And they did so.
Everyone in the room had left God out of the reckoning. That was the one mistake that undid all the others.
Ahab lay on his bed, irritated by Naboth's refusal to sell his vineyard. The wicked Jezebel worked out how to destroy Naboth. All the while, God was watching. If He is not in all the thoughts of the sinner, the day of reckoning will come just the same.
- Blood — two paid lies killed Naboth. The elders knew better and said nothing. Silence made them guilty too.
- Cloak — a fast, a seat of honour, a charge, two witnesses. They dressed murder up as religion and did it in God's own Name.
- Motive — the double charge killed the man and handed his field to the crown. Greed wrote the script.
- Cost — Naboth died refusing to sell what God had given his fathers. Obedience on one point can cost everything.
- Reckoning — the one guest they never invited was God. He watched it all. Innocent blood is never forgotten.
And they sent to Jezebel saying, Naboth is stoned, and is dead.
A short message reaches the palace, and it reports a murder as if it were ordinary city business. Behind those few words lie a fast, two hired witnesses, and city elders who did just what the queen's letters told them.
This was no back-alley crime. Jezebel planned the murder as an act of worship.
Her orders were especially evil. The elders and nobles were to proclaim a fast, set Naboth at the head of the gathering, and bring in two sons of Belial (that is, sons of worthlessness) to charge him with having cursed God and the king. We understand this to mean that they were to pretend God was angry with their city. At the fast they would ask what had caused His anger, with Naboth presiding. Then they would denounce the man they claimed to honour as the "Achan" of the place, and hurry him off to execution (Joshua 7:25). The whole business seems too horrible to believe. Yet Israel had sunk so low morally that queen and elders did all this in God's Name!
Jezebel chose the charges with care. One of them decided who would own the vineyard.
She knew the penalty for blasphemy against Jehovah was death (Lev. 24:16). She would find helpers to prove Naboth guilty of this. So she would take revenge on the man who had dared to say No to the desire of power. But Jewish teachers tell us that if he were found guilty of blasphemy alone, his property would pass to his heirs, just as if he had died a natural death. To secure the vineyard, she had to invent a further charge of treason. In such a case the estate of the condemned man went to the royal treasury. So Naboth was accused of blasphemy against both "God and the king." See Ex. 22:28.
Jezebel wrote the letters. The men of Jezreel threw the stones, and they knew why.
Ahab lets the evil go on and the sin be carried through, so that he can profit from it. The men of Jezreel, the elders and nobles, act knowing the reason for it. The letters told them to choose two wicked men, sons of Belial, to lie under oath and so get rid of Naboth. They have few scruples, because it is in their interests to please the king and to gain his good will.
They did not stop with one man.
Not only was Naboth murdered, but his sons with him (2 Kings 9:26). The wicked elders would make certain that no heirs should arise to challenge what they had done.
The form was legal. The substance was murder, and Naboth was not the last to suffer it.
At times men can look wonderfully careful about the letter of Scripture when it suits their own evil ends. They can quote its sacred words in defence of blatant unrighteousness and shocking immorality. Two witnesses accused Naboth of blaspheming God and the king. That faithful Israelite lost his inheritance and his life on the word of two liars, hired at the direction of a godless, cruel woman. Stephen, a man full of the Holy Spirit, was stoned to death for blasphemy. The great religious leaders of the day believed and acted on false witnesses, and they could no doubt quote Deuteronomy 17 as their authority.
The report cleared the way for Ahab to take the land. It did not close the case.
Notice this: Jezebel brought about the death of Naboth, yet Ahab is held responsible for the crime. He let another act under his authority, and he was willing to profit by her wickedness. So Jehovah charges him with the murder. The guilt of the act was traced home to Ahab, to the lust of his own heart. He had let that desire draw him on to covet his neighbour's possession... Innocent blood had been shed without cause. God looked upon it, and required it from the guilty king.
Naboth lost his vineyard and his life. He did not lose his name.
Naboth refused to let his fathers' inheritance become "a garden of herbs" (1 Kings 21). He died rather than lower the standard. But his name lives on, written in the divine records!
- Covetousness starts it: Ahab wants a neighbour's field for a vegetable garden, and a man dies for saying no.
- Religion covers it: Jezebel orders a fast, two hired witnesses lie, and the killing goes ahead in God's Name.
- Law is twisted to complete it: the charge names God and the king. Blasphemy alone would leave the land to Naboth's heirs; treason sends it to the crown.
- Consent spreads it: the elders of Jezreel obey without protest. They kill Naboth's sons so no heir can object, then report it as ordinary business.
- God answers it: He charges Ahab with a murder he did not commit, requires the innocent blood from him, and keeps Naboth's name in the divine record.
And it came to pass when Jezebel heard that Naboth was stoned and was dead, that Jezebel said to Ahab, Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jizreelite, which he refused to give thee for money; for Naboth is not alive, but dead.
Jezebel returns to Ahab with news and an order: the man who refused him is dead, so the vineyard is his for the taking. Her message never mentions how Naboth died. It raises the question the rest of the chapter answers: when one person plots a murder and another profits from it, whom does God hold responsible?
Jezebel's words assume the vineyard is now legally available. Commentators point out how carefully that was arranged. A charge of blasphemy alone would have left the land with Naboth's family.
She knew the penalty for blasphemy against Jehovah was death (Lev. 24:16). She would find helpers to prove Naboth guilty of it. That way she would take revenge on the man who had dared to say No to what power wanted. But Jewish teachers held that a guilty verdict for blasphemy alone would leave his property to his heirs, just as if he had died an ordinary, natural death. So, to secure the vineyard, they had to invent a further charge of treason against him. In such a case the estate of the condemned man went to the royal treasury. That is why they accused Naboth of blasphemy against both "God and the king." And when the dark deed was done, the one who had planned it could coolly send word to her husband, saying, "Naboth is not alive, but dead."
Her message mentions the refusal, the money and the death — but nothing that sounds criminal.
Notice how divine truth exposed what Ahab and Jezebel had done. Jezebel wanted to throw a respectable cloak over her shocking wickedness. "Arise," she said, "and take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite … for Naboth is not alive, but dead." That was her way of putting the matter. But how did the Lord view it? "Thus says the Lord, 'Have you killed and also taken possession?'" In other words: have you committed murder and robbery? God deals with realities. In His estimation men and things get their proper place and value. There is no gilding, no pretence, no posturing. Everything is real.
Jezebel gives the order and Ahab obeys. So who carries the blame — the queen who acted, or the king whose authority she used?
Jezebel now appears on the scene again. She has been well described as "the wife of responsible Ahab." So the height of his offence was in letting her take his place and act by his authority. We learn this from the use of Jezebel's name in Rev. 2. She was more wicked, if possible, than her husband, and as determined as he was timid. No scruples troubled her. She neither feared God nor respected man, and she would soon get Ahab the vineyard he wanted.
Ahab does not ask what happened. Commentators call that silence the clearest exposure of his heart.
Nothing shows the wicked perversity of Ahab's heart more clearly than this. He obeyed his wife's command and went straight down to take possession of the vineyard. He never asked one question about how or why Naboth had died. At last his desire could be satisfied! Many a sinner thinks the same as he picks the fruit he has longed for and lifts it to his lips. But he forgets that he cannot escape the eye of God. Ahab lay on his bed, irritated by Naboth's refusal to sell. Jezebel worked out how to destroy Naboth. All that time, God was watching.
Jezebel had told him to eat and be glad. This is the moment that promise should have paid off.
Ahab goes down. Is he going to be happy now? He has reached his goal. This is the moment for that cheerful time Jezebel had promised him. He has hardly begun to take possession when Elijah meets him there, at the new estate he had come to look over. God had told Elijah where to find him. His enjoyment and his happiness disappear. Satan always lures us on. Then he betrays us, drags us into the mud, and leaves us facing God. Ahab says to Elijah, "Have you found me, O my enemy?" Yes, his enemy! He had taken Satan as his friend; now he finds God to be his enemy. Others had done the killing; God holds Ahab accountable.
Jezebel's message treats Naboth as an obstacle now removed. Commentators describe him very differently.
Naboth was therefore a man of faith. His father valued what the Lord had given him, and Naboth valued it too. He would die rather than surrender what really belonged to God. The Naboth spirit seems rare in our day.
- Coveted. Ahab wanted a vineyard Naboth held as God's gift, and sulked when Naboth refused to sell.
- Contrived. The false charge added treason to blasphemy. Only treason sent the dead man's land to the crown.
- Claimed. Told the owner was dead, Ahab asked no questions and went down to take what he wanted.
- Confronted. Jezebel's tidy wording hid murder and robbery. God named both, met Ahab in the vineyard, and held him accountable though others did the killing.
- Costly. Naboth lost his life rather than give up what belonged to God. Ahab's stolen pleasure vanished the moment Elijah arrived.
And it came to pass when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, that Ahab rose up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jizreelite, to take possession of it.
Naboth is dead, and Ahab hears of it at once. He goes straight down to claim the plot of ground he had sulked over. It looks like the moment his scheme succeeds. But what does his haste reveal about him? And who does God hold answerable for the blood already spilled?
Ahab does not ask how Naboth died. One writer says that silence reveals his heart more than the plot itself. And it all happened under the eye of God.
Nothing reveals the wicked perversity of Ahab's heart more fully than this. He obeyed his wife's command and went down at once to take possession of the vineyard. He never asked what caused Naboth's death, or how he died. At last he could have what he wanted! Many a sinner thinks the same as he picks the fruit he has craved and puts it to his lips. But he forgets that he cannot escape the eye of God. Ahab lay on his bed, annoyed that Naboth would not sell his vineyard. The wicked Jezebel planned how to destroy him. All that time God was watching.
Ahab already worshipped Baal. One writer traces this whole chapter back to a second appetite, and gives it the same name:
Fresh circumstances show us the king's moral condition. Covetousness overruns his heart, eager greed for something God had not given him. Now this is idolatry, just as much as the worship of Baal is (Col. 3:5). Ahab, dominated by the enemy, has simply passed from one form of idolatry to another.
Jezebel described the act in respectable words: the owner is dead, so take the vineyard. God used different words.
Jezebel would gladly put a fair cloak on her shocking wickedness: "Arise," she said, "take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money, for Naboth is not alive, but dead." That was her way of putting the matter. But how did the Lord view it? "Thus says the Lord, 'Have you killed and also taken possession?'" (in other words, Have you committed murder and robbery?) God deals with realities. In His sight men and things get their proper place and value. There is no gilding, no pretence, no posing — all is real.
Ahab kept his hands clean. Jezebel brought about the death. That makes no difference to the verdict, because he was glad to gain by what she did in his name.
Notice that though Jezebel had brought about the death of Naboth, Ahab is held responsible for the crime. He let another act under his authority, and he was willing to profit by her wrongdoing. So the Lord charges him with the murder. The guilt of the act was traced home to Ahab — to the lust of his own heart, which he had let draw him on to covet his neighbour's property.
He reaches the vineyard, but not the satisfaction. He finds a prophet standing in it.
Ahab goes down. Is he going to be happy now? His goal has been reached. This is the moment to enjoy that good time Jezebel had promised him. He has barely begun to take possession when Elijah, told by God, meets him where he had come to look over his new estate. His enjoyment, his happiness disappear. Satan always entices us and leaves us facing God after having betrayed us and plunged us into the mire.
Yet judgment was not the last word. God answered even a small turning of Ahab's heart:
At Jezebel's urging, Ahab adds sin to sin, and an act of flagrant injustice completes the apostasy of the king of Israel. He enjoys the fruit of a crime he had not the courage to commit himself. reason: cuts repeat of Rossier quote; splits 49-word sentence
One writer sees the same story on a far larger scale: a righteous heir removed so others could seize his inheritance.
Our blessed Lord was the righteous one in Israel in His day, as Naboth had been. He was the rightful Heir of all the nation's greatness. The vineyard, the inheritance, was His. But the wicked tenants admitted His title and still refused Him possession. They said, "This is the Heir. Come, let us kill Him and have His inheritance" (Matt. 21).
And the man who lost the land lost nothing that lasts:
Naboth refused to allow the inheritance of his fathers to be reduced to "a garden of herbs" (1 Kings 21) and died rather than lower the standard, but his name lives inscribed in the divine records!
- Coveted. It starts with wanting something God had not given. One writer calls that craving idolatry — no better than the Baal worship Ahab already practised.
- Cloaked. Jezebel dressed the seizure in lawful-sounding words. God called it murder and robbery. He deals in realities.
- Claimed. Ahab asked no question about how Naboth died. He went down and took the land. He forgot that God had watched both the sulking and the scheme.
- Charged. Others did the killing. God charged the man who profited, because he let another act in his name and was glad to gain by it.
- Confronted — and spared. He gained the ground and lost the joy. Elijah met him in the vineyard. Yet when his heart bowed, God put the sentence off to his son's days. He responds to any movement of the heart toward Him.
And the word of Jehovah came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,
Ahab has his vineyard at last. Naboth is dead, and the king goes down to take the land that cost a man his life. Then the word of the LORD reaches Elijah, and God Himself opens the case.
Until this moment, no one in the story had God in their plans.
So far all concerned, except Naboth, had left God out of their calculations, and it seemed as if sin had triumphed. Naboth had been stoned, and Ahab was now free to take possession. He went down, and his feet at last stood in the vineyard of Naboth. But at the very moment he was about to lay his hand on the possession he had coveted, Elijah the Tishbite confronted him. The prophet's terrible words frightened his soul, and Ahab had to learn that there is indeed a God who judges the earth.
God needed no one to report the murder to Him.
As soon as the innocent blood was spilt, Jehovah acted. He saw and knew the foul deed, and He sent Elijah with the final message of doom and judgment for the guilty pair. Ahab was still in the vineyard. His eyes were still feasting on the beautiful scene before him. His thoughts were occupied with the pleasures of sin when suddenly Elijah appeared. "I have found you," were the prophet's first words. "Be sure your sin will find you out."
Ahab had kept his own hands clean.
Yes, his enemy! He had taken Satan as his friend; he finds God to be his enemy. In the very place of promised satisfaction he finds nothing of what he had hoped for. Instead God stands up before him, represented by His prophet, and says to him, "Have you killed and also taken possession?" Others had done the killing. God holds Ahab accountable.
God's word comes to a man who had once run for his life.
What could Ahab say? His royal dignity could not intimidate Elijah, and the moral force of Elijah's words forced Ahab to listen. More than this, Elijah also told Ahab, "The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel." Elijah had earlier run away from Jezebel because of her vicious threat. Yet he delivers the announcement of her end with no fear at all. So God had recovered him from his fear.
Ahab now had what he wanted. The next few minutes showed what it was worth.
He has only just begun to take possession when Elijah meets him there. God had informed the prophet, and Ahab had come to look over his new estate. His enjoyment, his happiness vanish. Satan always lures us on and then leaves us standing before God, after betraying us and dragging us into the mud.
The sentence is not the end of the story.
At Jezebel's urging, Ahab adds sin to sin. One act of blatant injustice completes the apostasy of the king of Israel. He enjoys the fruit of a crime he had not the courage to commit himself. His enjoyment was short-lived. Sent by God to meet the king, Elijah goes ahead of him into the vineyard that Ahab went down to take. The king's heart bows before the word of Jehovah, and God puts off the judgment until the days of his son. This is fresh proof of the patience of a God always ready to accept and respond to any movement of man's heart towards Himself.
- Seen — no one in Jezreel told God what had happened. He saw and knew the murder, and the first word about it comes from heaven.
- Sent — God answers the crime by sending a man. Elijah once ran from Jezebel; now he faces the king and speaks without fear.
- Charged — Ahab did not throw the stones, yet God sends the message to him. Others did the killing, and God still holds him accountable.
- Stripped — Ahab reaches the vineyard and loses its joy in the same hour. Satan lures a man on and then leaves him standing before God.
- Spared — the sentence stands, yet Ahab's bowed heart moves God to delay it. He answers even the smallest turning toward Himself.
Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who is in Samaria behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, whither he is gone down to take possession of it.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And thou shalt speak unto him saying, Thus saith Jehovah Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him saying, Thus saith Jehovah In the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall the dogs lick thy blood, even thine.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, mine enemy? And he said, I have found [thee]; because thou hast sold thyself to do evil in the sight of Jehovah.
Elijah meets Ahab in the vineyard the king has just seized. Ahab's greeting shows what he thinks the trouble is: a man. The prophet's reply names the real problem — a king who had handed himself over to evil.
Ahab's question sees only the man in front of him. One writer looks past the prophet to the One who sent him:
So far everyone involved, except Naboth, had left God out of their calculations, and it seemed as if sin had won. Naboth had been stoned, and Ahab was now free to take possession. He went down, and his feet at last stood in Naboth's vineyard. But just as he was about to lay his hand on the possession he had coveted, Elijah the Tishbite confronted him... Miserable king! His view is still limited to the earth, so he could only say, "Have you found me, O my enemy?" It was the Lord who had found him, and who sent His servant to pronounce judgment on Ahab, his house, and on the wicked Jezebel.
Ahab went to the vineyard to enjoy his prize. God sent Elijah to meet him there:
Ahab goes down. Is he going to be happy now? This is the moment for him, now that his goal is reached, to have the good time Jezebel had promised him. He has hardly begun to take possession when Elijah meets him. God had sent the prophet to the new estate he had come to look over. His enjoyment, his happiness, disappear. Satan always lures us on. Then he betrays us, drags us into the mire, and leaves us standing before God.
Ahab never picked up a stone. Yet the charge lands on him:
Notice that although Jezebel arranged Naboth's death, the Lord holds Ahab responsible for the crime. He let another act under his authority. He was willing to profit from her wrongdoing, so the Lord charges him with the murder. The guilt went home to Ahab, to the craving of his own heart. He had let it draw him on to covet his neighbour's property... Who can hide himself or his sins from the all-searching eye of God?
This is not the first time Ahab has blamed Elijah for his own ruin. Earlier he called him the man who troubles Israel; now the accusation narrows:
Ahab took correction the way most wicked men do. He looked on the fearless messenger of God as an enemy. "Have you found me, O my enemy?" he asks. "Is it you, you troubler of Israel?" he had asked the faithful prophet on an earlier occasion. This time he cannot tie the nation into his guilt with him. So he admits that the prophet's ministry is personal, and calls the prophet his enemy — not the nation's.
Ahab had already chosen his friend, and that choice decided who his enemy was:
Ahab says to Elijah: "Have you found me, O my enemy?" Yes, his enemy! He had taken Satan as his friend; he finds God to be his enemy.
"Sold yourself" is slave-market language, and the New Testament picks it up:
In Romans 7:14 the "wretched man" cries out, "I am of the flesh, sold under sin." The Greek word here for "sold" is piprasko. Used of a person, it means "to sell into slavery." The Greek Old Testament uses it figuratively for selling oneself to sin: of Ahab in 1 Kings 21:20, 25... So Paul may have had these in mind when he cried in desperation, "I am sold under sin." But this is not only the apostle Paul's experience. It is the condition of us all, though we may only discover it when the light of the gospel shines on our fallen state.
The sentence comes in three parts, and Ahab's reaction is a surprise:
Ahab then had to listen to as terrible a sentence as was ever passed on a sinner. It came in three parts. (1) "Behold, I will bring disaster upon you." He personally must suffer... (2) His whole family must perish, like the families of his evil predecessors Jeroboam and Baasha. He had wiped out Naboth's family; God would wipe out his. (3) Jezebel was to be eaten by dogs... Ahab was a hardened sinner, yet the words overwhelmed him as he listened. He tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his body, and went about quietly... The God of all grace responded to Ahab's humbling of himself, and postponed most of the sentence.
- Sold. The verb is slave-market language. Ahab did not drift into evil; he handed himself over to it. Romans uses the same word for the condition we are all in.
- Found. Sin arranges privacy, but there is no hiding place. Ahab thought a prophet had tracked him down; it was God.
- Charged. He let someone else do the murder and kept the profit, so the guilt went home to the craving in his own heart.
- Enemy. Ahab called God's servant his enemy, but he had already chosen Satan as his friend — and so he found God to be his enemy.
- Spared. Even a hardened sinner bows, and God postpones most of the sentence — grace reaches further than we expect.
Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and will take away thy posterity, and will cut off from Ahab every male, and him that is shut up and left in Israel;
Elijah meets Ahab in the vineyard the king has just taken over, and the message he brings reaches past Ahab to every male in his family. It raises hard questions: why Ahab and not Jezebel, why the whole household, and why the delay?
One writer explains why the sentence names Ahab and not only his wife.
Notice that although Jezebel had brought about Naboth's death, Ahab is held responsible for the crime. Because he allowed another to act under his authority, and was willing to profit from her wrongdoing, the Lord charges him with the murder. So the guilt of the act was tracked home to Ahab, to the desire of his own heart, which he had let draw him on to covet his neighbour's property.
To sell yourself is to hand over ownership of your life. One writer shows what that ownership looked like in Ahab's own choices.
He could have enjoyed himself among Jezebel's idolatrous prophets, if the horrors of famine had not driven him out. Then he did not search out the cause of the famine in real self-judgement and humility. He did not seek pardon and restoration from God. Instead he went out in unrepentant selfishness to look for grass. He had sold himself to do wickedness; he had become the slave of Jezebel.
One commentator sets out the three parts of the sentence, and the fit between the crime and the penalty.
Ahab then had to listen to as terrible a sentence as was ever passed on a sinner. It was in three parts. (1) "Behold, I will bring disaster upon you." He personally must suffer. He came to a miserable end, as we know. (2) His whole family was to be destroyed, like the families of his evil predecessors Jeroboam and Baasha. He had wiped out Naboth's family: God would wipe out his. (3) Jezebel was to be eaten by dogs.
Those two names carried a history. What happened to Baasha's house shows what Ahab now faced.
His murderer Zimri at once began to massacre "all the house of Baasha." He spared none, "neither his relatives nor his friends." It was complete extermination, exactly as God had determined it should be.
The account pauses right after the sentence to explain itself.
The murder of Naboth was the occasion of it; but even this foul crime was only the completion of a long guilty course. There was none like Ahab. He sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the Lord, with Jezebel his wife stirring him up. He even matched the Amorites in his wicked excesses — those whom the Lord drove out before the children of Israel. In this way the Lord, for our instruction, will stoop to justify His dealings with Ahab and his house.
God answered a movement in the king's heart by moving the date of the judgment, not by cancelling it.
Sent by God to meet the king, Elijah goes ahead of him into the vineyard which Ahab went down to take possession of. The king's heart bows before the word of the Lord. God puts off the judgment until the days of his son. Here is fresh proof of the patience of a God who is always ready to accept and respond to any movement of man's heart towards Himself.
Delayed, but not dropped. Years later the words came true on the very ground where Naboth died.
For this deed the Lord, through His prophet, pronounces judgment on Ahab and his house. Blow after blow, He makes a full end of them. The blood of Ahab, the blood of Joram his son, and the blood of Jezebel are shed in the plot of Jezreel. Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, is called out to finish this judgment. He is to be the avenger of blood, and to cleanse the land that the blood had polluted.
- Charged. Jezebel brought about Naboth's death, but the Lord charged Ahab: he let her act under his authority and was ready to profit from it.
- Sold. The ground of the sentence is not one murder but a whole life handed over. Ahab had become the slave of the woman who stirred him up.
- Threefold. The judgment falls on the man, on his whole family line, and on Jezebel; he had wiped out Naboth's family, and God would wipe out his.
- Delayed. The king's heart bowed before the word, and God pushed the blow into his son's days — proof that He responds to any movement of the heart towards Him.
- Fulfilled. Postponement was not pardon: blow after blow, in the same plot of ground at Jezreel, God carried out the word to the letter.
and I will make thy house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, for the provocation wherewith thou hast provoked me to anger, and made Israel to sin.
Elijah meets Ahab in the vineyard he has just stolen. The sentence does not stop at the king: it reaches his whole family. God names two earlier royal houses as the measure of what is coming, and He gives two reasons. Ahab had provoked Him, and Ahab had dragged the nation into sin.
One writer sets out the three parts of Ahab's sentence. He also shows how the punishment matched the crime.
Ahab then had to listen to as fearful a sentence as was ever passed on a sinner. It was in three parts. (1) "Behold, I will bring disaster on you." He personally must suffer. He came to a miserable end, as we know. (2) His whole family was to be destroyed, like the families of his evil predecessors Jeroboam and Baasha. He had wiped out Naboth's family: God would wipe out his. (3) Jezebel was to be eaten by dogs.
Ahab did not have to guess what the comparison meant. Within living memory, a man named Zimri had wiped out Baasha's whole line.
His murderer Zimri at once began to massacre "all the house of Baasha." He spared none, "neither of his relatives nor of his friends." It was complete extermination, just as God had ordained it should be.
What Jeroboam did at the start of his reign explains the phrase. He wanted to stop his people travelling to Jerusalem to worship, so he built them a religion of his own.
Judging by human wisdom and forgetting the fear of Jehovah, he made two golden calves. His aim was to break the strong links of a worship held in common, so that they would no longer tie his subjects to Judah and Jerusalem. He had to set up a new priesthood. He invented everything to do with worship out of his own heart. Israel's sin became an established rule. The phrase "Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin" became the sad title of their first king.
Baasha's house had already fallen under such a sentence. One writer names what lay behind it.
The record adds an extra verse to emphasize that God judged Baasha and his family because of his idolatries and his murder of the house of Jeroboam. God, who looks on the heart, sees him only as an assassin serving his own ambition, killing king Nadab and the whole house of Jeroboam.
Jezebel arranged Naboth's death, not Ahab. One writer explains why God still charges the murder to the king.
Though Jezebel had procured the death of Naboth, Ahab is held responsible for the crime. He let another act under his authority, and he was willing to profit by her wrongdoing, so the Lord charges him with the murder. The murder of Naboth was the occasion of the sentence; but even this foul crime was only the completion of a long guilty course. There was no one like Ahab, who sold himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. He even matched the Amorites in his wicked excesses — those whom the Lord drove out before the children of Israel. In this way the Lord, for our instruction, will condescend to justify His dealings with Ahab and his house.
Ahab's heart bowed at what he heard, and God answered that. He did not cancel the sentence on the house; He moved it back a generation.
The king's heart bows before the word of Jehovah, and the judgment is put off until the days of his son. This is a new proof of God's longsuffering. He is ever ready to accept and respond to any movement of man's heart towards Himself.
The sentence did not fall for years. One writer measures the gap.
At last, after more than fifteen years' delay, the blood of Naboth, crying, like Abel's, for vengeance from the ground, was about to be repaid. God, when judging men, is never in haste. He allowed Jezebel to outlive, not only her husband, but his two successors.
- The pattern. God wiped out two earlier royal houses, Jeroboam's and Baasha's. He tells Ahab his own house will go the same way.
- The phrase. "Made Israel to sin" became Jeroboam's lasting title. He invented a worship out of his own heart to keep people away from Jerusalem.
- The provocation. The same two charges sank Baasha: his idolatries and his murder. Ahab repeats both, and takes Naboth's vineyard on top.
- The pause. Ahab's heart bowed, and God delayed the blow to his son's days. He responds to any turning of the heart toward Him.
- The payment. Fifteen years later the blood of Naboth was repaid. God is never in a hurry when He judges.
And of Jezebel also spoke Jehovah saying, The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the moat of Jizreel.
Elijah meets Ahab in the vineyard he stole from Naboth, and God's sentence falls on the whole house. One line of it belongs to Queen Jezebel alone — so why is she named, and what becomes of a judgment that waits years to fall?
This is not just about a murder. It is about the inheritance God gave to every Israelite, and Elijah is the man He sends to say so.
In 1 Kings 21:17 and following, Elijah meets Ahab at Naboth's vineyard. Without fear he denounces him, and declares the judgment of God against him and against Jezebel also. The blessed God uses him to say how grievous it is in His sight when anyone — and even more a prominent person — deprives any of His people of their divine portion and inheritance. Such an act will draw down the severest judgment.
God's sentence has three parts. The words about Jezebel come last, after the king himself and his family.
Ahab then had to listen to as fearful a sentence as was ever passed on a sinner. It was in three parts. (1) "Behold, I will bring disaster upon you." He personally must suffer. He came to a miserable end, as we know. (2) His whole family was to be destroyed, like the families of his evil predecessors Jeroboam and Baasha. He had wiped out Naboth's family: God would wipe out his. (3) Jezebel was to be eaten by dogs.
Ahab was the king, but not the stronger of the two. That explains his ruin; it does not excuse it.
Ahab was a weak character; Jezebel was strong and energetic. A most unfortunate combination! … When Elijah announced God's sentence on him after the murder of Naboth, we read that he "tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went about dejectedly." This was excellent, and the LORD so far relented towards him that the judgment was at least deferred. No man's weakness of character excuses his wickedness; still, God in His pity does take account of the influences that surround us all. "There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the LORD like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited." But he should never have married the woman!
God put Jezebel's judgment off for years, as He had put off Ahab's. The delay changes nothing about the outcome.
The joy he longed for gives way to that horrible curse, which sounds again and again through this sad history of Israel. … And Jezebel is not forgotten: "The dogs shall eat Jezebel within the walls of Jezreel." The judgment foretold waits for her (2 Kings 9), but it is no less certain.
Years later Jehu ordered her buried as royalty. The order failed, and that failure proved the word spoken here.
The will of man has little to do with the accomplishment of the word of God. Jehu, now at the height of his power, softens a little towards this wicked woman Jezebel. He even says, "See now to this cursed woman and bury her, for she is a king's daughter." But what had God said? The prophet had said, "The dogs shall eat Jezebel in the territory of Jezreel, and none shall bury her." … They went to bury her. Their purpose was to obey him. In vain. They found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands.
The name does not die with her. The last book of the Bible picks it up again and applies it to something wider than one queen.
Jezebel! One of the most sinister figures in the Word of God! This wicked woman did incalculable damage among God's chosen earthly people in the days of Elijah's testimony. That is not all. The Holy Spirit also uses her name in Revelation 2:20 as the symbol of a frightful system of evil, and that system has forced its way into a more sacred circle than Israel ever was.
The same writer traces her end to the end of the system that carries her name:
Ahab's Jezebel had a gruesome end. That which has reproduced her outrages, and practised them in the name of "the holy one, the true one," will have a fearful end also. Meanwhile God wants all who love His truth to stand in firm separation from everything that even hints at Jezebel and Babylon.
- Cause. Ahab robbed Naboth of the inheritance God gave him. God brings the severest judgment on anyone who strips His people of their divine portion.
- Named. Ahab sold himself, but Jezebel incited him. Weakness excuses no one, and the stronger partner gets a sentence of her own.
- Delayed. Ahab humbled himself, so God deferred the blow — for him and for her. A delay never means the word has failed.
- Fulfilled. Jehu ordered her buried as a king's daughter. Almost nothing was left to bury: man's will cannot undo God's word.
- Repeated. The name reappears in Revelation as a symbol. Its end is just as certain, so stand clear of everything like her.
Him that dieth of Ahab in the city shall the dogs eat, and him that dieth in the field shall the fowl of the heavens eat.
Elijah meets Ahab in the vineyard he has just seized. The prophet's closing words reach past the king to every male in his family: dogs in the city, birds in the open country. Two questions follow. Why was the penalty so severe, and would God's word really come true?
The verse splits Ahab's family by where they die. What matters is what happens to the body next.
As to Ahab's family, he is told that the dogs would eat any of those who died in the city and the birds would eat any who died in the field (v.24). None of them would be allowed the dignity of a burial. What a message for a king of Israel to receive!
This was not a fresh form of words invented for Ahab. The same sentence had fallen twice before on ruling families in Israel.
That horrible curse takes the place of the joy he longed for. The curse sounds again and again all through this sad history of Israel. This was the judgment of Jeroboam, and the judgment of Baasha, in the very same words (v. 24; compare 1 Kings 14:11; 1 Kings 16:4). And Jezebel is not forgotten: "The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the moat of Jezreel" (v. 23). Her own judgment waits until later (2 Kings 9), but it is no less certain.
The story stops right after the sentence. One writer reads that pause as God explaining why.
Sentence on Ahab had already gone out (v. 19). Now Elijah speaks the doom of his house (vv. 21, 22, 24), and the special judgment of Jezebel. Right after describing the stroke of justice about to fall on Ahab, his house, and Jezebel, the Spirit of God breaks off the story with a short aside (vv. 25, 26). There He gives a brief summary of the grounds for the sentence. The murder of Naboth was the occasion of it; but even this foul crime was only the finish of a long guilty course… In such a way the Lord, for our instruction, will stoop to justify His dealings with Ahab and his house.
The same writer explains why the sentence fell on the king, and why it was so harsh.
Notice this. Jezebel had arranged the death of Naboth, yet God holds Ahab responsible for the crime. He let another act under his authority, and he was glad to profit by her wrongdoing. So the Lord charges him with the murder. In this way the guilt tracks home to Ahab. It tracks to the desire of his own heart, which he had let draw him on to covet his neighbour's property. This is why the sentence Elijah was sent to pronounce was so severe. Innocent blood had been shed without cause. God looked on it, and required it from the guilty king.
Dogs appear in the sentence because dogs had already appeared in the crime. One writer treats this as a pattern running through Scripture.
A favourite sin must be put away, or in the end it will bring grief and shame. The punishment is often of the same kind as the wrongdoing that caused it. Scripture gives many examples. Jacob deceived his father when the old man could not see. Later, in the darkness, the crafty father of Leah deceived Jacob… In the place where the dogs licked the blood of the murdered Naboth, the dogs licked the blood of Ahab, his murderer. As we sow, so we reap, and we see this general principle of God's government.
Ahab humbled himself, and God took notice. One writer marks carefully what that changed and what it did not.
Who can measure the depths of the patience and mercy of the Lord! … Ahab's humbling was only passing, yet for that reason God put off the judgment on Ahab's house until his son's days. (We are here in the sphere of God's government on earth.) The personal judgment on Ahab himself and on Jezebel He carried out to the letter. So there was a day of grace even for Ahab.
Years later Jehu stood over the bodies of Ahab's sons and pointed back to this prophecy.
"Know then that there shall fall to the earth nothing of the word of the Lord, which the Lord spoke concerning the house of Ahab, for the Lord has done what He said by His servant Elijah." So Jehu killed all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel… So the word of the Lord was most fully accomplished.
- Word spoken. The same sentence had already fallen on Jeroboam and on Baasha. Ahab's house joins a list; it does not get a new penalty.
- Word justified. God pauses the story to give His grounds. Jezebel arranged the murder, but Ahab's own desire drove it, and the crime crowned a long guilty course.
- Word matched. Where dogs licked Naboth's blood, dogs would lick Ahab's; the punishment takes the shape of the sin.
- Word delayed. Ahab humbled himself, and God noticed: the blow on his house waited until his son's days.
- Word fulfilled. Nothing of it fell to the ground. Delay was mercy; it was never cancellation.
(Surely there was none like to Ahab, who did sell himself to do evil in the sight of Jehovah, Jezebel his wife urging him on.
This verse steps out of the story to give God's own verdict on Ahab. It comes just after Elijah announced the sentence for Naboth's murder. Two things stand out: Ahab sold himself, and his wife pushed him into it.
Here the seller and the goods are the same man. One writer traces the word through the Greek Old Testament and into Paul's cry in Romans 7.
In Romans 7:14 the "wretched man" exclaims, "I am of the flesh, sold under sin." The Greek word used here for "sold" is piprasko. Used of a person, it means "to sell into slavery." The Greek Old Testament uses it as a picture of selling oneself to sin: of Ahab in 1 Kings 21:20, 25, and in 2 Kings 17:17. So Paul may have had these in mind when he cried in desperation, "I am sold under sin." But this is not the experience of the apostle Paul only. It is the condition of us all, though we may discover it only when the light of the gospel shines upon our fallen state.
The story pauses here to sum up the man himself. One writer weighs that summary and explains the Hebrew behind "incited".
His moral character, as given in the parenthetical passage of 1 Kings 21:25-26, is a terribly dark one… "whom Jezebel his wife stirred up" (urged on, in Hebrew). In his extreme wickedness he was a true brother — or friend — of his father Omri.
Ahab's idolatry did not stop at Baal. He also craved a piece of land next door, and one writer gives that craving its real name.
Fresh circumstances show us the king's moral condition. Covetousness overruns his heart, an eager greed for something God had not given him. Now this is idolatry just as much as the worship of Baal is (Colossians 3:5). Ahab, dominated by the enemy, has simply passed from one form of idolatry to another.
Naming his wife does not shift the guilt off Ahab — the verse says he sold himself. Yet God records her part too. One writer weighs her influence against Ahab's own guilt.
Ahab was a weak character; Jezebel was strong and energetic. A most unfortunate combination! 1 Kings 21:27 suggests that his whole life might have run differently if his wife had been an Abigail instead of Jezebel… No man's weak character excuses his wickedness. Still, God in His pity does take account of the influences that surround us all… But he should never have married the woman!
Ahab met Elijah in the vineyard he had just taken, and called him an enemy. One writer shows whose friend Ahab had really become.
Ahab says to Elijah: "Have you found me, O my enemy?" Yes, his enemy! He had taken Satan as his friend; he finds God to be his enemy. In the very place where he expected satisfaction, he finds nothing he had hoped for. Instead God stands before him, represented by His prophet, and says: "Have you killed and also taken possession?" Others had done the killing; God holds Ahab accountable.
The verdict is crushing, yet the chapter does not end there. One writer traces what happened in Ahab after Elijah spoke.
The words of the prophet rang in his soul like a funeral bell. They reached at least his natural conscience, and produced a passing repentance (v. 27). Who can fathom the depths of the patience and mercy of the Lord!… And because of this, though it was only a passing humiliation, God put off the judgment on Ahab's house until his son's days. So there was a day of grace even for Ahab.
- Sold. The word pictures a man selling himself into slavery. It is the same word behind "sold under sin" — a state one writer applies to every one of us.
- Seller. Ahab set his own price: a neighbour's vineyard. Greed for what God had not given him was idolatry just as much as Baal worship.
- Stirrer. Jezebel urged him on, and God records it. But influence is never an excuse — the verse says he sold himself.
- Snared. He called the prophet his enemy after making Satan his friend. God met him in the very place he had schemed to enjoy.
- Spared. Even this king repented for a moment, and God took note. He put off the judgment on Ahab's house. There was a day of grace even for Ahab.
And he did very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites did, whom Jehovah had dispossessed before the children of Israel.)
Ahab's story pauses here for a verdict. One line sums up his whole reign. The measure is not other kings of Israel but the Amorites — the people God had already driven out of that same land for the same sin.
Verses 25 and 26 interrupt the story on purpose. One commentator explains why the break comes at this point.
Right after describing the stroke of justice about to fall on Ahab, his house, and Jezebel, the Spirit of God breaks off the story with a short parenthesis (verses 25, 26). It gives a brief summary of the grounds for the sentence. The murder of Naboth was the occasion of it; but even this foul crime was only the completion of a long guilty course. There was none like Ahab, who sold himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. He even matched the Amorites in his wicked excesses — and the Lord had cast those nations out before the children of Israel. In this way the Lord, for our instruction, will stoop to justify His dealings with Ahab and his house.
Going after idols left Ahab serving another master. One writer traces the bargain: Jezebel offered him what God would not give, and then took his authority.
When a man has sold his soul to Satan, as Ahab had, Satan does not fail to make him all sorts of promises. He is the tempter. What God does not want to give you, I'll give you. Leave it to me; I shall give you the vineyard. Ahab leaves it to her, because he sees that he will get what he wants. Jezebel says she "will give him," but meanwhile she takes his authority, his royal right: "She wrote a letter in Ahab's name, and sealed it with his seal." Ahab has turned into her slave.
The verse before names the person who pushed him. That does not clear Ahab. One writer traces the trouble back to a decision he made long before the vineyard.
Ahab was a weak character; Jezebel was strong and energetic. A most unfortunate combination! 1 Kings 21:27 suggests that his whole course might have been different if his wife had been an Abigail instead of Jezebel… No man's weakness of character excuses his wickedness. Still, God in His pity does take account of the influences that surround us all… But he should never have married the woman!
Why compare a king of Israel to the Amorites? One writer cites this verse when he explains why God emptied Canaan of its nations.
He had told Abraham years before, "The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete" (Gen. 15:16). But now the time had come when it was complete. Idolatry and demon worship had risen to such a height that there was no hope of recovery (1 Kings 21:26).
God warned Israel that the land itself reacts to these sins. Being His own people would make the offence heavier, not lighter.
Israel must not make themselves unclean in any of these things, as all the nations of Canaan did — the nations He cast out before them. How much guiltier, then, would Israel be! The very land became unclean, and so He brought judgment on it. The earth vomited out its inhabitants. Israel must beware… lest the land should vomit them out, as it had the nations that lived there before Israel. Such evil was intolerable in His eyes, and more offensive in His own people than in anyone else.
Even a man described this way was not beyond God's reach. One writer notes what happened to the sentence once Ahab bowed before God's word.
The king's heart bows before the word of Jehovah, and God puts off the judgment until the days of his son. Here is new proof of the patience of a God who is always ready to accept and answer any movement of man's heart towards Himself.
- Sold. Ahab's evil was not a slip but a sale. He sold himself, and ended up a slave to Jezebel.
- Stirred. Jezebel stirred him up, and God takes account of it. Still, weakness of character never excuses wickedness.
- Standard. God measured him against the Amorites, whose idolatry had reached the point of no recovery.
- Sentence. The land had already vomited out nations for these sins. Israel copying them was guiltier, not safer.
- Space. Even to the worst of kings God gave room — judgment postponed the moment Ahab bowed.
And it came to pass when Ahab heard these words, that he rent his garments, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly.
Elijah has just told Ahab God's sentence for the murder of Naboth, and the king answers with sackcloth and fasting. Is this real repentance, and what does God do with a sorrow that may be only skin-deep?
Every detail in the verse paints mourning. Older translations say Ahab "went softly" where the ESV has "went about dejectedly." One writer takes that slow walk as the step of a man in a house of grief:
What does Ahab do? He humbles himself. He goes about afflicted, mourning, and fasting (vv. 27-29). He lies down in the sackcloth he has put on his flesh. He "went softly," as one does in a funeral home. Where is his pride and his merry heart, and even his sadness of the wrong kind and his bad temper? Nothing remains but endless mourning as he faces a fate he cannot escape.
What startles the reader is not Ahab's sackcloth but God's answer to it. Even Elijah may have thought less of it than God did:
God knows the end from the beginning. What is most striking in this story is that He was not indifferent to Ahab's humbling of himself. That humbling was only brief and shallow, but God, as far as is righteous, took account of it. Elijah was, perhaps, not inclined to think much of it... How much the grace of God surpasses our thoughts!
The same readiness shows in what God then did with the sentence:
The king's heart bows before the word of the Lord, and God puts off the judgment until the days of his son. Here is new proof of His patience. He is always ready to accept and respond to any movement of man's heart towards Himself.
It is easy to read God's answer as full forgiveness. One writer draws a sharp line:
This had nothing to do with the saving of his soul. As far as this history tells us, he died in his sins. But God forgave him as to that particular judgment on the earth.
The judgment itself was not cancelled. It would fall on Ahab's house in his son's days.
So how deep did this sorrow go? One writer draws the line between the look of repentance and the real thing:
There may be a semblance of repentance which is not, after all, a real work of the Spirit of God. Fear of coming judgment often moves the natural man to dress himself in sackcloth and ashes for a season. But if the conscience is not reached, and if there is no repentance towards God, all such feelings soon pass away. They are like the morning dew when the sun rises. God is never deceived.
Worse, mercy can harden instead of soften:
Nature can take warnings and steer its course to escape the worst of judgment, without being softened into true repentance at all... An Ahab might walk softly for many years and put off the evil day of reckoning about his murder of Naboth. But Ahab with all his soft walking was Ahab still, unrepentant and hardened. The very goodness of God in sparing him did not melt him to repentance. It only encouraged him to go on in his turning away from God.
Commentators differ on the value of Ahab's act. Another writer weighs it more kindly, and blames much on Ahab's marriage:
This verse suggests that his whole course might have been different if his wife had been an Abigail instead of Jezebel... This was excellent, and the Lord so far relented towards him that He at least put the judgment off. No man's weakness of character excuses his wickedness. Still, God in His pity does take account of the influences that surround us all.
- Sentence. Elijah's word shook Ahab into sorrow. He tore his clothes, fasted, and walked like a mourner.
- Notice. God did not overlook it. He takes account of the smallest turn of a man's heart towards Himself.
- Mercy. God put off the judgment. It would fall on Ahab's house in his son's days instead.
- Limit. This forgiveness touched God's rule over the earth, not the saving of Ahab's soul. So far as the record shows, he died in his sins.
- Warning. Fear of judgment can dress a man in sackcloth for a season. But where the conscience is untouched, the feeling fades and the spared time only hardens.
And the word of Jehovah came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me? because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days in his son's days will I bring the evil upon his house.
Elijah had already brought Ahab God's sentence on him and on his family. Then the king tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and fasted. This verse is God's reply. It raises two questions. How real was Ahab's humbling? And what did God agree to hold back?
Look first at what Ahab did, and then at what God made of it.
What does Ahab do? He humbles himself. He goes about afflicted, mourning, and fasting (vv. 27-29). He lies down in the sackcloth he has put on his body. He "went softly," as one does in a funeral home. Where is his pride and his merry heart, and even his sadness of the wrong kind and his frustration? Nothing remains but unbounded mourning in the face of his inevitable fate. Is this conversion? The next chapter will give us the answer, but in the meantime, what a merciful God is our God! If He uncovers the evil, He also notices the slightest return of a soul to what is good. He takes account of the least sign of repentance… Not one bit of His Word will fall to the ground. But the judgment will wait until the days of his heir.
The chapter that follows settles the question Ahab's sackcloth raised. His sorrow lasted as long as the fright did.
Unexpectedly, this man bowed before the announcement of divine judgment… Would this good action be followed up? Would there be an attitude that showed repentance? Sadly, we have to note that there was not. In chapter 22 it was he again who hated and persecuted the prophet of Jehovah. God made him die by an arrow fired at random, which pierced him through a weak point in his armour. The fear of judgment seemed for a moment to have brought about the conversion of this man. But Satan managed to trap his prey and erase the effect of the Word of God. He died rejected by God.
Even so, God did not treat that shallow sorrow as nothing.
God lets human wickedness run its full course before the judgment falls… If He sees even an Ahab putting on sackcloth and walking softly before Him, He holds back from judgment. With Ahab it was mere fear, of course — nothing that God could really accept. Yet it was enough to turn aside, for the moment, the wrath that was ready to fall.
The concession is limited. It touches the family, not the man. It moves the timing, not the sentence.
How it ended proves that this was not genuine repentance towards God. Yet nothing could more strikingly reveal the tender grace of the heart of God than the notice He took of these signs of Ahab's sorrow. "Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before Me?" He said to Elijah. Then He revealed to the prophet that because Ahab had humbled himself, the sentence on his house would be postponed until after Ahab's death — until his son's days. That was not the sentence on Ahab or Jezebel, but the sentence on the king's house and descendants. What could prove more conclusively the longing of God's heart over the wickedest of men? or that He does not desire the death of a sinner?
The delay says nothing about where Ahab stood before God for eternity.
When God had pronounced a terrible judgment on Ahab for his wickedness, Ahab humbled himself. God then said to Elijah, who had carried the message to him, "Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before Me?…" This had nothing to do with the saving of his soul. As far as this history tells us, he died in his sins. But God forgave him as far as that particular judgment on the earth was concerned.
A postponed sentence is still a sentence. The blow fell later, on the family named.
Still, Ahab humbled himself. As a result the judgment waits. The word of the Lord meets his trembling heart as he humbled himself and walked softly. The blow was only to fall in the days of his sons. Ahab reigns; his next son reigns too. On Jehoram it falls. The word of the Lord never fails.
- Sentence. God pronounced a terrible judgment on Ahab for his wickedness. Elijah carried the message to him.
- Sackcloth. Ahab tore his clothes, fasted and went softly. It was real distress, but fear produced it, not repentance. He later persecuted the same prophet and died in his sins.
- Seen. God pointed the change out to Elijah. He notices the slightest turn of a soul towards good, even when that turn is not real repentance.
- Stayed. God moved the disaster on Ahab's house and descendants past his own lifetime. The sentences on Ahab and Jezebel stood. His soul was not in view: this was forgiveness about a judgment on the earth.
- Settled. The delay was not a cancellation. The blow fell on his son, and the word of the Lord never fails.