>> Jen: Hi, faithful listeners. Welcome to the Bible Explained podcast. Grab your Bible and your cup of coffee or your cup of tea, because we're going to be discussing the last part of First Kings 21 today. So last week in First Kings 21, we discussed the first portion of this chapter, and we talked about how Ahab just decided to take this guy's vineyard
because he wanted it. So we're gonna go more into depth with this story today, but before we do that, make sure to grab your cup of Seven Weeks Coffee, the coffee brand that, uh, supports life in the womb. I think they've raised almost $800,000 for pregnancy centers across the US and they've only been open for two and a half, almost three years
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But speaking of life and death, God is obviously very angry at Ahab for allowing this man Naboth to die and then going and taking his field. So let's read 1 Kings 21:17 through the end of the chapter, verse 29. And I will be reading this as usual. Uh, the web version. Yahweh's word came to Elijah, the Tishbite, saying, arise and go down to meet Ahab, king of Israel, who dwells in Samaria. Behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone down to take possession of
it. You shall speak to him, saying, Yahweh says, have you killed and also taken possession. You shall speak to him, saying, Yahweh says, in the place where dogs lick the blood of Naboth, dogs will lick your blood, even yours. Ahab said to Elijah, have you found me, my enemy? He answered, I have found you because you have sold yourself to do that which is evil in Yahweh's. Sight.
Behold, I will bring evil on you and will utterly sweep you away and will cut off from Ahab everyone who urinates against a wall and him who is shut up and him who is left at large in Israel. I will make your house like the son of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha, the son of Ahijah, for the provocation with which you have provoked me to anger and have made Israel to sin. Yahweh also spoke of Jezebel, saying, the dogs will eat Jezebel by
the ramport of Jezreel. The dogs will eat he who dies of Ahab in the city, and the birds of the sky will eat he who dies in the field. But there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do that which was evil in Yahweh's sight, whom Jezebel his wife, stirred up. He did very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites did, whom Yahweh cast out before the children of Israel.
When Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went softly. Yahweh's word came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, see how Ahab humbles himself before me. Because he humbles himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days, but I will bring the evil on his house in his son's day.
You'll recall in the last episode that we had last week that Ahab allowed his wife to kill this guy named Naboth specifically because Ahab wanted Naboth's field, because Naboth's field was right next door to Ahab's palace. It was a really good location. And Ahab wanted to plant his vegetables in this garden that Naboth
owned. But Naboth, who was at least following some of the Old Testament laws, didn't want to sell Ahab his field because he believed that God had given him this field, and it would have been wrong for him to sell it or to trade it for a better field. So Naboth said, no, I'm sorry, King, I cannot give you this field. And Ahab went home super angry. He was sulking, he refused to eat anything, and he was just throwing
an adult temper tantrum. So then his wife, Jezebel, who is basically the worst person on the planet, she comes up to him and she's like, I will get that field for you. So she stages this mass panic to happen, and has a bunch of people blame Naboth for this mass panic. And then the people go and stone Naboth and then possibly also stone all of Naboth's
children as well. So then Ahab now hears that Naboth is dead, and he happily gets up out of his bed and starts eating his food again, and he goes down to the vineyard to claim it. And he is more than happy to claim this field after knowing that Naboth was dead and after knowing, by the way, what Jezebel had done. So now Yahweh is not too happy about everything that went on, because obviously Yahweh hates murder. And not only did Ahab allow this murder to take place, but he was excited that this
murder took place. And he also went and happily stole Naboth's land after Naboth had died. So it says in verse 17, Yahweh's word came to Elijah, the Tishbite saying, arise and go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who dwells in Samaria. Now, something kind of interesting here. I was sort of wondering, why did God tell Elijah where Ahab lived? Because he says, arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who dwells in Samaria. Why would God say that? Because clearly, Elijah already knew where
Ahab lived. Obviously, he would live in the capital city, which was Samaria. So why in the world would God tell Elijah go see Ahab who dwells in Samaria? Because if you look at the beginning of this chapter, Ahab was not in Samaria. He was in Jezreel. And why in the world would he be in Jezreel? Because he's supposed to live in Samaria. He's supposed to live in the capital city. The capital city is traditionally the place where justice would take
place, right? That's where all the leaders of a nation would gather and live and talk things through and judge the people and put laws in the place. And yet Ahab is off in jezreel, which is 20 miles to the north of Samaria. There's a palace for him in Jezreel. So I looked up some information as to the importance of Jezreel, because apparently the Israelite
kings would gather there. I guess there has been some archaeological finds of, like, pottery that dates back, actually, all the way to Ahab in Jezreel. So for some reason, Jezreel was a spot that the kings would gather on occasion. So there's some conflicting opinions as to what the significance of Jezreel was. But the two that I could find was that Jezreel was either a vacation spot or like a spot that the kings would go to, you know, um, hang out in the winter or something like that. Or
it was a military base. According to this one man, who I believe is an archaeologist, and his name is David Usishkin. Forgive me if I totally botched that name, but, uh, he believes that Jezreel was a military base that the kings would go to. But either way, according to the text that we read today in 1 Kings 21, it's pretty clear that Ahab was not where he should have been. He was not in Samaria doing his job. He was off in Jezreel doing who knows what, trying to get land for
himself. He was not doing his kingly duties. And so when God makes this statement, arise, go down to meet Ahab, king of Israel, who dwells in Samaria. It's almost like he's saying, go and find Ahab, who is supposed to be in Samaria but is off somewhere else. And in fact, that's basically what he says right after this. Behold, he's in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone down to take possession of it. So he tells Elijah where to find him. He says, he's not in
Samaria. He's up in Jezreel taking possession of another man's land. After he killed this man, God says to Elijah, you shall speak to him, saying, Yahweh says, have you killed and also taken possession? Now, this would be some bold things for Elijah to go say to a king. But we do know that Elijah was not a man of meekness. He was a rather
bold man. So God sends Elijah to do this job for him because he knows that Elijah is in fact going to get the job done and is going to say to King Ahab what needs to be said. You shall speak to him, saying, Yahweh says, in the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs will lick your blood, even yours. That's a really strong judgment that God is
giving to Ahab. And one thing you're always going to see about prophecies from God, especially if they're judgment prophecies, there is always time for the recipient to repent in every single prophetic judgment that that God gives somebody. In fact, God gives these prophecies to people so that they will repent. He says, look, if you don't turn back right now, this is what's going to happen. But if you turn away from these sins, then this doesn't necessarily have to happen.
And obviously God here was trying to get King Ahab to repent of this terrible sin that he had just done. So in verse 20, it implies that Elijah has found Ahab because Ahab says to Elijah, have you found me, my enemy? So he calls Elijah his enemy. But in actuality, Elijah was not Ahab's enemy. Elijah was trying to get Ahab to repent every single time that Elijah encounters Ahab, basically. But of course, to Ahab, he believes that Elijah is just somebody
prophesying evil against him. That is what he believes. So Elijah answers, I have found you because you have sold yourself to do that which is evil in Yahweh's sight. So Elijah is saying, you know, I. I have found you because you are doing evil. If you wouldn't be doing evil, I wouldn't be coming and prophesying against you. So stop doing evil and I'll stop showing up.
Behold, I will bring evil on you and will utterly sweep you away and will cut off from Ahab everyone who urinates against a wall and him who is shut up and him who is left at large in Israel. Now, of course, I've said this a hundred times, but the phrase anyone who urinates against a wall just means a man. Any man from Ahab's family is going to be cut off by God, meaning that Ahab is not going to have a posterity.
His dynasty is going to end just like the dynasties before him, just like Jeroboam's dynasty and Baasha's dynasty before him. Now Ahab's dynasty is going to end completely. I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam. There it is, the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha, the son of Ahijah, for the provocation with which you, huh, have provoked me to anger and have made
Israel to sin. And see, that is why God just gets so angry at these kings is because the kings have so much influence that they cause Israel to sin. They actually cause Israel to fall into spiritual darkness. And that is the one sin God absolutely hates. Jesus himself said to a crowd of people, it would be better if a millstone, like a big millstone was hung around your neck and you were tossed into the depths
of the sea. It would be better for you if that happened to you than if you caused one of my little ones to fall into sin. God hates when people cause other people to fall into sin. And He isn't tolerating it here because what happened. You know, Ahab allowed his wife to do something super evil and even went along with it and was even happy about it when it happened. You know, Naboth was killed by all of Jezreel. The entire city stoned
Naboth. Because they went into a huge panic, this panic that, uh, Jezebel stirred up in them, basically. She caused them to be so scared and panic so much that they ended up killing Naboth just so that Ahab could get a veggie garden near his second palace in Jezreel. You've provoked me to anger because you have made Israel to sin. Yahweh also spoke of Jezebel saying, the dogs will eat Jezebel by the rampart of Jezreel.
The dogs will eat he who dies of Ahab in the city, and the birds of the sky will eat he who dies in the field. This is a very typical, um, judgment that God gives to the kings. So far, I'm pretty sure Jeroboam also got this same judgment, and also Baasha got the same judgment. And now Ahab is getting this same judgment that unfortunately, his family members, because he was such a terrible king, are not going to have proper burials the way that Israelites were supposed to have
proper burials. It was considered, uh, a, uh, great dishonor. Something even worse than death at times, to have your body after death just left out in the open for wild animals, wild dogs, or wild birds to come and eat it. It was a horrible dishonor. And God says, because you have dishonored Israel, that is
the dishonor I'm going to give to you. And then verse 25 is very sad because the author here gives a little summary of Ahab, but there was nobody like Ahab who sold himself to do that which was evil in Yahweh's sight, whom Jezebel, his wife, stirred up. So there. That. That proves right there that Ahab knew exactly what Jezebel was doing. And also he went along with it. And he also allowed his wife to lead him into this sin. God condemns that.
He condemns when men allow their wives to lead them into sin because the man is supposed to be the leader of the family. So if the wife is falling into sin, the husband shouldn't be going right along with it and falling into sin himself. Instead, he should be helping his wife grow closer to God and helping his wife, you know, um, get back on a path that leads to good things instead of a path that
leads to sin. So not only was Ahab leading Israel into sin, but he was also allowing his wife to lead him into sin as well. Verse 26. He did very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites did, whom Yahweh cast out before the children of Israel, before the Israelites even went to the Promised Land, the Amorites lived there. And they were doing all of these same terrible things that the Israelites had started doing. And God drove the Amorites out to bring His people in.
And His people were supposed to be following the laws of Yahweh, the laws that led to life and to healing. And yet the Israelites just fell right back into what the Amorites were doing. And God specifically warned the don't do what the nations before you did, because I drove them out. And I don't want to drive you guys out of the land. I want to bless you and take care of you, and I want you to be my people, and I want to be your God. But Ahab, of course, did all that the
Amorites did. Now, in verse 27 here, it says that when Ahab heard the words of Elijah, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his flesh and fasted and lay in the sackcloth and went softly. So he was terrified by the words of Elijah. Because Ahab, deep down inside, knew that God had power. Because Ahab had seen it already displayed to him on multiple occasions, two times in battle. When Ahab went out against the. I think
it was the Syrians. He went out against the Syrians, and the Syrians had an army of hundreds of thousands of men. And Israel's army was about 7,000 people. Yet God completely saved Israel from the Syrians twice. Ahab saw that. Ahab saw God completely destroy baal. Ahab saw God, uh, bring the drought and then take the drought away, bring tons of rain. Ahab saw all of these amazing miracles that God had done. And yet Ahab never truly turned his heart toward
God. But he knew that God had power, and he knew that Elijah was telling the truth, that he was going to have the same fate as the other kings before him. So he humbled himself, he put sackcloth on, he fasted, and he was actually sorry over what he had done to Naboth and for taking Naboth's field right out from underneath him. And God saw all of that. So he goes to Elijah and he says, see how
Ahab humbles himself before me? Because he humbles himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days, but I will bring the evil on his house. In his son's day. So God relents slightly. But notice that he tells Elijah this and not Ahab. God makes Ahab sweat a little bit. Ahab had no clue that God relented a little bit for him, that these bad things wouldn't happen until after Ahab was already dead. Ahab had no clue. And God allowed him not to know because Ahab was
in fact a wicked man. But yet, because God is so merciful and he sees heart changes, he will show mercy to people. And so he shows mercy to Ahab here. A little bit of mercy. I would not say that God completely relented because Ahab does die. And Ahab's son also is not able to take the throne. And everything God said would happen to Ahab ends up happening. The dynasty of Ahab is totally cut off after Ahab dies. So God relented slightly just because of Ahab's heart change
in that moment. So how much would God relent if more people truly changed their heart? Not like Ahab here, who only changed his heart at the very end when he knew bad things were going to happen to him. And yet God showed this much mercy to Ahab with that small heart change that he had. How much would God change our country, change our culture, if more of us truly changed our hearts? Because God, it says in scripture, God loves to show mercy. And sometimes I think man, God is too merciful.
Because right here when I'm reading this story, I'm like, ahab deserves all these things. You know, Like, I wish God would have just done it, regardless of whether or not Ahab humbled his heart. But God is very just, and He's very merciful as well. And He is going to give people what they are due, whether it's on this earth right now or if it's in the life to come. And we don't know how God judged Ahab in the life to
come. But because of God's mercy, he did relieve some of the suffering of Ahab here on this earth. I really enjoyed reading this particular chapter and studying it. It was a fascinating chapter to me that just showed how evil Ahab and Jezebel really were. And yet, in spite of this, God was still so merciful to Ahab in the end. Now we don't see Jezebel at any point in time ever change her heart, repent or fast, or put sackcloth
on. She didn't care. She didn't believe in God. She was a baal worshipper through and through. And, uh, what ended up happening to her was exactly what God said would happen to her, that her body would be eaten by the dogs. She would not have a proper burial either, and she would die a very horrific death, quite honestly. And that's because she was a very wicked person. Now, the other interesting thing I forgot to mention about this chapter is that, you know, Jezebel
was a baal follower. She wanted to completely get rid of Yahweh from Israel entirely. Yet you can see how terrible of a person she was. So which is the right religion? Following Yahweh or following a, uh, god like baal? Because the people who follow Yahweh in the Old Testament are people like Elijah, are people who are bold and have so much strength and are doing good things to other people, healing other people and bringing good news and helping people and
performing miracles. Those are the Yahweh followers. What are the baal followers doing like Jezebel? Killing people, stealing from people, um, staging mass panics so that a riot takes place. Killing God's prophets, manipulating people, causing people to sin. That's what the baal worshippers would do. So, just based upon actions alone, what is the correct religion? The religion that steals, kills and destroys, or the religion that gives, heals, and helps?
I think we all know the answer to that. Anyway, faithful listeners, I will see you guys all tomorrow for an episode from Second Corinthians. And then on Wednesday, we'll be in First Kings 22, which is the last chapter of Kings. And so, um, this week and next week will be our last weeks in First Kings. And the week after that, the first week of February will be in Second Kings. So I hope you're looking forward to us moving into second Kings, and I know I am, because second Kings gets real, real
crazy. Faithful listeners, have a fantastic and wonderful rest of your Monday. I will see you guys all tomorrow. Happy listening. And God bless