Faith Reformed Church Stevensville, Ontario January 9, 2011 Evening Service. Text: I Kings 21 Sermon: Naboth s Vineyard

Transcription

1 Faith Reformed Church Stevensville, Ontario January 9, 2011 Evening Service Text: I Kings 21 Sermon: Naboth s Vineyard

2 In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; AMEN. In the sermon last week I mentioned that I Kings 20, 21 and 22 form a unit. In this section of Kings we find God s grace being lavishly poured out upon Ahab. Ahab responds to this grace by repeatedly despising it. He does not receive it with thanksgiving, praise, obedience or devotion to the Lord. He receives it as if it were his due as if it were something owed to him and so he goes right on living his life according to his own devices and desires, his own will and priorities. In pondering this I thought of Deuteronomy 6. It is the central confession of the Israelite people. Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. That is the confession. And this is what the Israelites were to do with that confession: These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Impress them on your children. Make sure the commandments of God leave their mark. The commandments were like a die or a mould and the Israelites were to be shaped and formed by the grace of God and by following the path of his commandments. His commandments are, after all, a reflection of his holy character. This is how it is to be done. 2

3 Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. This is essentially an Old Testament way of saying what Paul says in Romans 12: Therefore I urge you brothers, in view of God s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God s will is his good, pleasing and perfect will. Here s the point. The grace of God had left no impression upon Ahab. It was lavished upon him but there was no obedience to God s command and so no renewing of his mind or transformation of his life. Ahab remained conformed to the pattern of this world; his heart remained as cold and as hard as it ever had been. This is nowhere seen more clearly than in tonight s lesson. Let s turn to it. Some time later there was an incident involving a vineyard belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite. The vineyard was in Jezreel, close to the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. Ahab said to Naboth, Let me have your vineyard to use for a vegetable garden, since it is close to my palace. In exchange I will give you a better vineyard or, if you prefer, I will pay you whatever it is worth. But Naboth replied, The Lord forbid that I should give you thin inheritance of my fathers. 3

4 Ahab had, as most kings could, a second residence in Jezreel, a town about twenty miles north-northeast of Samaria. Naboth owned a plot of land beside the royal estate. Ahab came to the conclusion that Naboth s vineyard would make a wonderful plot for a vegetable garden and so he decided he would purchase it. He entered into negotiations with Naboth and strove to be fair. He would pay the going price or even furnish another plot of land an even better one in return. What could be fairer than that? Naboth wasn t interested. He essentially swore on oath that he would never give up his land. Now why did Naboth refuse? After all, Ahab s offer seems fair to us. Naboth refused because of the special relationship between the land, the Israelites and the Lord God. The land had been provided to Naboth s ancestors and through them to Naboth by God himself. The land hadn t come to Naboth by way of a real estate deal; it was his by virtue of being an inheritance from the Lord. Because it came from God, land was not to be taken from an Israelite or sold by an Israelite. It was to remain in the family, in the clan, in the tribe. Now there were provisions in the law that allowed an Israelite to lease his land if he were in financial difficulties. But such leases were to be temporary and when the financial situation of the person 4

5 involved improved, he was to be allowed to redeem his property to get it back. And if it didn t improve, he was still to get his property back in the year of Jubilee. Naboth was not suffering from poverty and as he did not need to sell he knew that he ought not to sell. And so he refused. He could have made a very advantageous deal but he was a man who thought covenantally rather than pragmatically. Grace had left its mark on Naboth. Ahab didn t take the news well. He was not a man used to being denied whatever he wanted. He went home sullen and angry and in a great snit. He lay on his bed sulking and refused to eat (v. 4). Jezebel came to him, wondering why he hadn t come down for supper. He recounted his tale of woe. Because I said to Naboth the Jezreelite, Sell me your vineyard; or if you prefer, I will give you another vineyard in its place. But he said, I will not give you my vineyard. Not very attractive. Jezebel could hardly believe what she was hearing. She knew that she would have to take matters into her own hands or live with a king acting like a sullen 14 year old. Jezebel his wife said, Is this how you act as king over Israel? [Note: NJB translation: Some king of Israel you make! ] Get up and eat! Cheer up. I ll get you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite. Dale Davis puts it this way: 5

6 Ahab, are you a king or are you a wimp? No local-yokel grape picker is going to stand in the way of this regime! Your problem, Ahab, is that you still think of a king as subject to law; you must get it through your head that what the king wants is the law. This was the Phoenician world-view. Ahab s conduct simply baffled Jezebel. She d never seen her daddy put up with such resistance from a mere subject. If folks resist your will you simply run them over So Ahab orders lunch and Jezebel strides over to the executive suite. Jezebel wrote letters in Ahab s name, using his stationery and his seal. She gave explicit instructions to the local leaders. Proclaim a day of fasting and seat Naboth in a prominent place among the people. But seat two scoundrels opposite him and have them testify that he has cursed both God and the king. Then take him out and stone him to death. It was simple. The plan was laid out. The locals cooperated. The day of fasting was proclaimed. They were going to perpetrate an injustice, but at least it would be a religious injustice. The two witnesses were brought forth. They were going to perpetrate an injustice, but at least it would be done according to the rules. Two witnesses were required and so two witnesses were provided. And Naboth was taken out of the city for execution as the law required and stoned to death as the law required. And although it doesn t say so here, we know from II Kings 9:26 that Naboth s sons were also killed. It was a way of making sure that the land wasn t going to be encumbered by sons as obstructive as their father had been. 6

7 It was cold, calculated and brutal. The writer of I Kings gets that across in a chilling way by mentioning Naboth s death five times in verses 13 though 16. Listen to it: Then two scoundrels came and sat opposite him and brought charges against Naboth before the people, saying, Naboth has cursed both God and the king. So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death. Then they sent word to Jezebel, Naboth has been stoned and is dead. As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned to death, she said to Ahab, Get up and take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite that he refused to sell you. He is no longer alive, but dead. When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, he got up and went down to take possession of Naboth s vineyard. There are a number of lessons we need to take from this bleak picture. The first is this. We find here a true picture of the lot of the people of God in this world. The story is about Naboth and Ahab and Jezebel, but it is not merely about them. It is a representative lesson and it says, This is the sort of treatment that believers can expect from the rulers of this age. Peter puts it this way in his First Letter: Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you (4:12). Jesus himself puts it this way in Mark 13:9-13: You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. And the gospel must first be preached to all nations. Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to 7

8 say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit. Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. Now it is difficult for Christians in the west to grasp this even though more and more opposition to the faith is arising. A pastor in Canada was hauled before a human rights tribunal and fined because he said things that were taken to be disparaging of homosexuals. Attempts are being made to refuse certification to teachers if they have come from Christian colleges. Laws have been drawn up, though not yet passed, which would deny medical licenses to doctors or nurses who refuse to participate in abortions. The Roman Catholic Church in Massachusetts had to shut down its adoption agency because it would not promise to give children in its care to homosexual couples. But to see the sort of deadly opposition that we find in our lesson we need to look further afield. Twenty-one Christians were murdered by Moslem terrorist as they were coming out of church on New Year s Day in Alexandria, Egypt. Christmas Eve saw dozens of Christians murdered by Moslems in the Nigerian cities of Mos and Maiduguri. Christians in Iraq have been under constant attack by local Al Qaeda supporters and on October 31 fifty-eight were killed as Moslem gunmen entered a church and opened fire on the worshipers with machine guns. 8

9 These are but recent examples; they could be multiplied time and time again in China, Burma, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, the Sudan and elsewhere. The Bible s assessment of the believers lot in this world is utterly realistic. The next time somebody tells you that as a believer health, wealth and prosperity must be yours or you are doing something wrong, ask them about Naboth. The next thing to note is this: This sort of injustice will often be inflicted by the government or its courts. In our lesson it comes through a weak king and a strong queen. In Daniel 3 it comes from the king. In Daniel 6 it comes from the civil service. In Revelation 2 and 3 it comes from Roman officials enforcing emperor worship. In his book The Vanishing Conscience John MacArthur tells the story of oppression coming from the hands of a so-called human rights tribunal. Two young women in Wisconsin advertised for a room mate to share their private residence. They rejected one applicant who told them she was a lesbian. Because of that they were forced by the state Human Rights Commission to pay the rejected applicant $1,500 for causing her distress. They were also ordered to issue a public letter of apology and required to attend a re-education class taught by homosexual activists. Ordinarily we are to subject ourselves to the 9

10 governments that have been placed over us. Paul tells us so in Romans 13. But we need to be careful; we are only to submit ourselves to the authorities when their requirements do not contravene the laws of God. When a choice has to be made, we are to obey God and not men. Third, we must be prepared to pay the price of obedience. Jezebel s scheme went like clockwork. It was as smooth as silk. Why? Because the local officials went along with her scheme. Not one of them said, Wait a minute. You are counselling murder. We can t go along with that. The local officials had a duty to God and to Naboth stand their ground. Now I know that is easy to say. Jezebel was not a queen who was used to being refused. Had they defended Naboth they would have put at risk their livelihoods, their lives and even their families. Who knows what might have happened if they had stuck their necks out? Usually when you stick your neck out you get your head chopped off. But their situation being dire does not justify their judicial murder of Naboth. Our lesson is telling us that injustice flourishes not only by wickedness but by weakness, by a lack of goodness coupled with a lack of guts. 10

11 The basic problem with their response was the fear of man had taken hold of them. Our Lord commands his people to put aside that fear. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10:28). Our priority is to fear God. The smallest sin is a much greater danger than the greatest suffering. That is a lesson that the church in the west in our day needs to relearn and take to heart. Let me get at it this way. One of the forerunners of Martin Luther and the Reformation was a Dominican monk from Florence, Italy named Girolamo Savonarola. He was born in 1452, a generation before Luther. He was appalled by the indifference of the church s hierarchy to Christian life and thought, and so preached a message of repentance in his native city. Now for all of his reforming zeal Savonarola he was somewhat of a fluke. He didn t know that the miracle of predictive prophecy had come to and end with the apostolic age and so he prophesied that divine judgement would come upon his city through an attack by Charles, the king of France. God, who at sometimes will allow the deceived to remain deceived, was pleased to allow this attack to happen. Charles did attack. The French did take over the city. The people saw this as a divine confirmation of Savonarola and 11

12 they repented wholesale. Almost overnight Florence became a city noted for its zeal in the things of the Lord. Pope Alexander became alarmed at these events. He knew that if the Florentines could be impressed by one false claim they might be even more impressed by another. He put the city under an interdict. There would be no more sacraments no more baptisms, no more confirmations, no more communions, no more marriages, no more last rites, until Savonarola, by now excommunicated, had been arrested and burned at the stake. The people immediately abandoned Savonarola and the mini-reformation came to an end. Now here is the point. The people of the church must know the truth but that is not enough. They must also be willing to die for the truth. They needed to say with Savonarola, as he was about to be burned at the stake, You may cut me off from the church militant here below, but you cannot cut me off from the church triumphant above. That is the way that true reformation comes, for if you are not willing to put your lives on the line for the gospel you don t really have the gospel at all. If we are to have a true Reformation in the west we must be ready to pay the price. James Guthrie was a covenanting minister in Scotland under condemnation by the Charles II because he taught that Christ, not the king, was the head of the 12

13 church. An acquaintance of Guthrie came to him and said, Mr. Guthrie, we have an old Scots proverb, Jouk [duck] that the wave may gang oure ye. Will ye no jouk a wee? Guthrie replied, There s nae jouking in the cause of Christ. His head was taken from him but the cause of Christ prospered and if you had the choice right now of being in his shoes or the shoes of Charles II well, it wouldn t be a choice at all. Let s pick up the lesson at verse 17. Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite: Go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who rules in Samaria. He is now in Naboth s vineyard, where he has gone to take possession of it. Say to him, This is what the Lord says: Have you not murdered a man and seized his property? Then say to him, This is what the Lord says: In the place were dogs licked up Naboth's blood, dogs will lick up your blood yes, yours! The classic perfect crime was not perfect after all, for the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite. What a comfort that word is to all who take refuge in the Lord. No one is exempt from the scrutiny and the judgement of God s word. The prophet of God stands over and above even kings and queens. No matter how powerful you are you must still stand within the boundaries of God s jurisdiction. And note this: Elijah didn t confront Ahab because of a news leak. No doubt Jezebel s letters had already been put through the shredder. The locals had been sworn to 13

14 secrecy. The wicked deed had been done in the dark and nobody dared to blow the whistle. But God saw it all. Now some people think that our lesson offers small consolation. The word of God s judgement comes against Ahab but Naboth was still dead and so were his sons. If God has such a passion for justice, why was his justice late in arriving? It is a question a mystery that we see throughout the pages of Scripture. God preserved the infant Moses from Pharaoh but there were many who at Pharaoh s command were thrown into the Nile (Exodus 1:22). Jesus escaped from the clutches of Herod but that didn t stop the slaughter of the toddlers of Bethlehem. John the Baptist was beheaded while Peter was broken out of jail by an angel. Psalm 74 puts it this way: How long will the enemy mock you, O God? Will the foe revile your name forever? Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand? Take it from the folds of your garment and destroy them. I don t have an answer for the timing of God. This much, however, is undeniable: God is a God of justice and it is a justice that he enforces in his own time and for his own good purposes. Vengeance is his and he will repay (Deuteronomy 32:25). In due time their foot will slip. Our lesson 14

15 teaches us that we can expect no immunity from suffering for Christ s sake, but at the time God deems best we will be vindicated. All of God s people are to take comfort in that. Let me give you an example of this sort of comfort. U.K. theologian Chris Wright was speaking at a conference in India. After a session a man, now a doctor of science and university lecturer in chemistry came up to him to tell him how happy he was that Wright would be preaching from the Old Testament. He had become a Christian through reading the Old Testament. This is Dr. Wright s account of their conversation: He grew up in one of the many backward and oppressed groups in India, part of a community that is systematically exploited and treated with contempt, injustice and sometimes violence. The effect on his youth was to fill him with a burning desire to rise above that station in order to be able to turn the tables on those who oppressed him and his community. He threw himself into his education, and went to college committed to revolutionary ideas and Marxism. His goal was to achieve the qualifications needed to gain some kind of power and thus the means to do something in the name of justice and revenge. He was contacted in his early days at college by some Christian students and given a Bible which he decided to read out of casual interest, though he had no respect at first for Christians at all. It happened that the first thing he read in the Bible was the story of Naboth, Ahab and Jezebel in I Kings 21. He was astonished to find that it was all about greed for land, abuse of power, corruption in the courts, and violence against the poor things that he himself was all too familiar with. But even more amazing was the fact that God took Naboth s side and not only accused Ahab and Jezebel of their wrongdoing but also took vengeance upon them. Here was a God of real justice. A God who identified the real villains and who took real 15

16 action against them. I never knew such a God existed! he exclaimed. He read on through the rest of OT history and found his first impression confirmed. This God constantly took the side of the oppressed and took direct action against their enemies. Here was a God he could respect, a God he felt attracted to, even though he didn t know him yet, because such a God would understand his own thirst for justice. He wasn t at that point converted but he got the point of the lesson. Naboth s God is the true consolation of a fragile church in the midst of a hostile world. I never knew that such a God existed! That s a witness. Time is short so I will leave off with one last word. When Elijah spoke his word of judgement against Ahab the king tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and fasted. He lay in sackcloth and went around meekly (v.27). It was not true repentance because true repentance lasts. With Ahab it was simply remorse. In response God acted graciously. He postponed judgement against Ahab. The fact of the matter is, in doing this God granted Ahab an opportunity to enter into a deeper remorse, a genuine repentance. Beloved, use the opportunity God has afforded you by his grace to enter into a deeper, more genuine repentance. Learn to fear him more. Learn to fear men less. And remember, as steep as the cost of following Christ might be, not to follow him bears a steeper cost yet. In Christ s name. AMEN. 16