Naboth, a Jezreelite, owned a vineyard which was close to the palace of King Ahab. Ahab told Naboth he wanted the vineyard but Naboth refused to sell. He was a godly man, and, having inherited the vineyard, he could not lawfully sell it (Lev 25.23-28; Num 36.7-8). Jezebel devised a fraudulent plan to ensure that Ahab would acquire the coveted vineyard: she got two men to make false statements claiming that Naboth had cursed God and the king. Naboth was taken outside the city and stoned to death (1 Kings 21.1-14), and Ahab went to take possession of the vineyard (vv.15-16). At this point, "the word of the Lord came to Elijah" (v.17). Elijah, endowed with a God-given courage, was to confront Ahab and tell him that he and his family were to be punished by God. They were to be annihilated, for "God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (GaI 6.7). Ahab and Jezebel had angered God and "made Israel to sin" (1 Kings 21.22).
God said to Elijah, "Arise, go down to meet Ahab…speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Hast thou killed, and also taken possession?…In the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine" (vv.18-19). The king was dismayed and apprehensive when he saw Elijah, afraid of the message from God which Elijah might be about to deliver to him. Ahab spoke aggressively to him and said, "Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?" (v.20). Ahab had intentionally and deliberately given himself to commit evil constantly. He did this despite what he had been told of the will of the God of Israel. On Mount Carmel he had seen the effect of the judgment of God on the prophets of Baal: he knew the power of God. Elijah replied, saying to Ahab, "I have found thee: because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord" (v.20). Elijah confronted Ahab and spoke clearly of his sin and of the way God would punish him, Jezebel and his family (vv.21-24).
Despite all he knew and had experienced, "there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up" (v.25). Ahab had married Jezebel, a Gentile and a worshipper of idols. God had warned the Israelites not to marry Gentiles (Deut 7.3), and believers today are told not to marry unbelievers. The instruction is clear and unequivocal, for God says, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers" (2 Cor 6.14). The spiritual growth and service of many believers who have ignored this injunction of God have been severely and adversely affected.
God's message of doom delivered by Elijah had a profound effect upon the king, and he rent his clothes, wore sackcloth and fasted (1 Kings 21.27). Ahab humbled himself, but there is no evidence that he did anything to bring to an end the evil activities of Jezebel or bring Israel back to worship the true God. God responded to Ahab's humbling of himself by saying to Elijah, "because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days: but in his son's days will I bring the evil upon his house" (v.29). Ahab's repentance was superficial, and later we read of him saying of one of God's prophets, "I hate him" (22.8). Many people react to the occurrence of some illness or tragedy in their lives by repenting and turning to God, promising to obey and serve Him in the future, but, as soon as the illness is cured or the worrying events come to an end, they return to live as they did in the past.
Some years later King Ahab died in battle, "And one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria; and the dogs licked up his blood" (22.34-38). Several years after these events, Jezebel was thrown out of a window by some of her staff, and dogs ate her body so that nothing remained but "the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands" (2 Kings 9.35).
It is Elijah the Tishbite
After the death of Ahab, his son, Ahaziah, became king, and "he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother...he served Baal, and worshipped him, and provoked to anger the Lord God of Israel, according to all that his father had done" (1 Kings 22.52-53). Despite all he had seen, in Ahab's reign, of the dealings of God with the nation, and with the prophets of Baal, he continued in the evil ways of his father. After the death of Ahab, Moab rebelled against Israel. Ahaziah did not turn to God for help, and when he was walking on the roof of his palace he fell through the lattice work. He was injured, and, once again, we see the grace of God and His longsuffering (2 Pet 3.9), for Ahaziah did not die immediately but was graciously given time to think carefully about his life. The king sent messengers to consult Baalzebub, the god of Ekron, to see if he would recover (2 Kings 1.2). The angel of the Lord came to Elijah and told him to meet the king's messengers and say to them, "Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron?" (v.3). Ahaziah revealed his lack of faith and confidence in the God of Israel: he dishonoured the God with whom Israel was in covenant relationship. Elijah told the messengers that Ahaziah would not recover, but die, "And Elijah departed" (v.4). The messengers returned to the king and told him what Elijah had said to them (vv.5-6). Ahaziah asked them to describe the man who had met them and they said, "He was an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins". Ahaziah recognized him as "Elijah the Tishbite" (v.8). John the Baptist came, "in the spirit and power of Elias" (Lk 1.17), and he "had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins" (Mt 3.4). Elijah might well have been wearing a garment made from the skin of a sheep or a goat from which the hair had not been removed.
The still unrepentant Ahaziah sent soldiers, a captain and fifty men, to take Elijah prisoner, and, issuing an insolent command to Elijah, the captain said, "Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down" (2 Kings 1.9). The captain may have called Elijah a "man of God" sarcastically. Elijah was sitting on top of a hill, alone with God, separated from the wicked, scheming world below. He was unimpressed, and unafraid of military force, and called down fire from heaven which consumed all the soldiers. The king again sent soldiers, and the captain commanded Elijah, in the name of the king, to "Come down quickly". They suffered the same fate as the first cohort of soldiers and were destroyed by fire from heaven. More soldiers were sent by Ahaziah and, this time, the captain knelt before Elijah and asked that their lives should be spared. Their lives were spared and the angel of the Lord told Elijah not to fear but to go back with the men to king Ahaziah. Elijah obeyed and went to Ahaziah and told him that he would die because he had ignored the true God and had sent messengers to ask Baalzebub whether he would recover from his injury (2 Kings 1.9-16), and "So he died according to the word of the Lord which Elijah had spoken" (v.17).
We read that "our God is a consuming fire" (Heb 12.29), and "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Heb 10.31). The uncompromising holiness of God, His hatred of sin and His severity (Rom 11.22) are shown in the way unrepentant sinners were dealt with in the account of His dealings with King Ahaziah. At the same time, His graciousness and longsuffering were shown in the way He gave opportunities to those who rejected Him to repent and turn to Him. God is unchanging (Mal 3.6). He is love and He is merciful, gracious and longsuffering. He sent His beloved and only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, into the world to suffer, bleed and die as a substitute for sinners, so that those who repent and accept Him as Lord and Saviour could be saved. The wonderful truth is that "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him" (Jn 3.36).
To be continued.
