THE NABOTH INCIDENT

A Sermon based upon 1 Kings 21: 1-29

Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, Pastor

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

November 11,  2012, Discipleship Series #10 of 17

“He had a pistol in his pocket, and he was planning to use it.  He was mad at his wife.  Real mad.  And he was going to settle their differences—for good!  He would just shoot her and be done with it.

Seeing the man’s anger, a friend begged him to settle down long enough to listen to one recorded sermon.  After much protest the man reluctantly agreed to listen.  At the close of the message, he went home, got down on his knees and asked his wife’s forgiveness.  They were reconciled.  On the following Sunday, the man went to church, confessed his faith, and was later baptized (From Payday Someday and other sermons by Robert Greene Lee, Broadman and Holman, 1995).  

It is documented that more than 8,000 people came to faith after hearing R.G. Lee’s classic sermon “Payday-Someday”.   It was Lee’s literary masterpiece.  For more than 30 years he preached this sermon every year at Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis.  Lee preached the sermon over 1,275 times in churches, at revivals, in baseball parks and football stadiums.  I heard him preach the sermon one the last times at Calvary Baptist Church in Shelby, N.C., just before his untimely death as a result of a mugging assault in 1978.  

Near the close of his sermon, Lee wrote these unforgettable words:  “God’s justice does not slumber.  Even though the mill of God’s justice and righteousness grinds slowly, it grinds to powder.  The judgments of God travel slowly, but they always crush completely.” ( p. 48).  

Lee’s expressive language belongs to another era.   It is not easy to preach about judgment or justice today.  Most avoid these subjects.  The feeling is that people have enough to worry about.  People need uplifting, encouraging, and optimism.  “You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar,” the saying goes.   Advancing God’s cause through addressing the requirements for justice is too complex and too demanding.  The idea of judgment is simply too depressing.  It’s seems easier to ignore such talk, unless that is, your name is Naboth. 

THE EXCESSIVE DESIRE TO HAVE

In our text from 1 Kings 21, Naboth is a nobody.  People like Naboth may be somebody to their own family, but they are “nobodies” to the privileged somebodies of the world—the upper crusts, the up and ups, the shakers and movers----those who hold power and position. Naboth did not have big money, personal privilege, nor did he hold any important position.  All Naboth had was a small vineyard in Jezreel, which just happened to be next to the palace of a King.

King Ahab was one of the privileged few who could have anything and everything he wanted.  He was born with a royal silver spoon in his mouth, as part of a family that had great material success.  His Father Omri was one of the select Israelite Kings who made his mark on the history of the ancient near east.  Omri is given a mere 13 verses in the Bible, but he was a king with an international reputation.   Even today, he is one of the very select few of Israel’s Kings who was noticed outside of biblical history.  He was a successful military leader, expanded the borders of Israel, and began impressive building programs in the north which rivaled or perhaps even exceeded Solomon in the south. He was a ‘ruler far more important and dynamic than the Bible suggests’ (NIDB, p. 330).      

Ahab was Omir’s son.  He was a child born into privilege, prestige and prosperity.  Children who are born into privilege often feel entitled to have all the things they want.   They have never lacked for anything, except maybe love.   So to cover the insecurity of not having what they needed most, they feel the constant need to continue to acquire and secure things.  For Ahab, the thing he ‘needed’ was the vineyard next door to his palace.  He wanted to plant his vegetable garden there.  It was convenient.  It was fertile.  Mostly, it was a plot of land which reminded him daily of something he didn’t have.  

Ahab could not stand not having what he wanted, so he approach the owner to make a deal.   “Give me your vineyard, so that I may have it….”  “I will give you a better one for it…”  “Or if it seems good to you, I will give you its value in money”  (21.2).   The business deal is a good and fair offer but there is only one problem.  The land was not merely a piece of land to Naboth.  “The Lord forbid that I should give you my ancestral inheritance” (21.3b).  It was land that had been in Naboth’s family for years, perhaps granted as part of the original “land of promise”.   This may be only substantial thing of value Naboth has in his possession.   “I can’t let you buy it.  It’s not for sale.  I can’t part with it.  It’s worth much more to me than money.” 

Ahab is used to getting what he wants.  He goes home resentful.  He pouts.  He tunes everybody out.  He lies down on his bed as if he is sick.  He will not eat.   He has everything, but everything he has already does not make him happy.   His wife, Jezebel, comes and asks, “Why will you not eat?”  The King tells his wife what happened. “I approached Naboth the Jezreelite to purchase his vineyard, but he said it wasn’t for sale.”   “What?” his wife answers.  “Aren’t you the King?”  “Don’t you govern Israel?” “Get up, eat some food, and be happy, for I will get it for you.”

Ahab’s wife Jezebel will not take “no” for an answer.  Her words of resolve saying “I will get it for you” has all the dogged determination of a woman who married the most available man because she too wants what she wants. So Jezebel schemes and conspires, sending out letters to the leaders and elders of Naboth’s hometown accusing him of treason.  She has signed all these letters with the Kings seal.    Writing for the King, she demands the town elders and leaders to come together and produce two scoundrels who will bring charges against Naboth that he has cursed both God and the King.  They are to take this ‘nobody’ named Naboth out and stone him to death.  After the deed has been done, she sends Ahab to lay claim on the vineyard.  Everyone knows what’s happening, but no one dares say a word. 

There were people who should have become suspicious of what Bernie Madoff was doing.  But family, friends and even regulators all looked the other way.  Bernie Madoff was a somebody. He was giving other people the possibility of becoming somebodies.  They did not take notice of Bernie Madoff’s scheme because it was such a lucrative plan with much prospect.   Greed, success, power and position can cause ‘good’ people to look the other way.  Wall Street gets by with all kinds of things that could not happen on Main Street.  People of position, prestige and power have their own lawyers write laws to give them advantages others can’t have.  Even whistleblowers are largely ignored or called liars.   It should not be this way, but it is.  Because people want what they want, the world gets lopsided on the side of injustice very quickly.  Who wants to stand up and challenge a somebody who has the power either to make you somebody or turn you into a nobody? Who wants to stand with a nobody who can’t pad your wallet?    

THE DIVINE DETERMINATION FOR JUSTICE

This is where Elijah comes in.  When Ahab goes down to seize the vineyard there is someone already standing there.  It’s Elijah the Tishbite.  Elijah would be a nobody himself, had he not already made himself known to the King, challenging Ahab and Jezebel with the “word of the LORD” (17:8).   Elijah is the first prophet of Israel, but he’s not the last.  It was the prophets  God sent to stand with and for the nobodies being treated unjustly and unfairly by the somebodies of the world.  These ‘somebodies’ don’t like prophets. See how Ahab addresses him: “Have you found me, O my enemy?”   Those who treat others like nobodies make themselves an enemy of the LORD.   “I have found you”, Elijah said.

One of the amazing characteristics of the prophets is that they did not differentiate between the religious requirements to love God or the social requirements to love neighbor.  Over and over the prophets, denounced the Israelite Kings not only for “selling themselves” (v. 20) to false gods (v. 26) but also for “doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord” (v. 20, 25).  This is the kind of evil that flourishes when people don’t put God first; they end up putting themselves first and hurting anybody who gets in their way.  It was this neglect for social justice which made Amos, the first writing prophet, to thunder God’s word from his farm in Tekoa saying, Thus says the LORD: For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals--  they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth, and push the afflicted out of the way (Amo 2:6-7 NRS).  This is why, the Bible says, God brought judgment down on Ahab and the nation.  The “neglect” for the nobodies by the somebodies brings God’s wrath and punishment.

The prophet Elijah was known to those in power as the “troubler” (1 Kings 18.7), but the truth is that people who forget justice and righteousness are already in trouble.  People who don’t care will be troubled by God.  People who have the power to get what they want but don’t realize that with privilege comes responsibility will become more than troubled---they will meet justice that will not be on their side, which the Bible calls judgment.   This is what the prophets are about. They are in the business of awakening us to God’s absolute claim upon our lives.    For instance, according to a study by Habitat for Humanity, 80% of the world’s resources are in the hands of Christians.  If that is so, why is starvation still so rampant around the globe?  If Christians have all this wealth, why is our world is such economic turmoil?  Do you know who gets hurts the most when the economy goes sour?  It is the poor, the widow and the defensless. Elijah says it is the desire to have more that both starves the poor and destroys economies for everyone.  Could it be that still today, in a greedy grab to acquire more and more, we keep bad company with those of the likes of Ahab, who always want more without a mere thought to those who have much less?

Through the Prophet Elijah, God warns Ahab what will happen to someone who walks over others to get what one wants.  Greed and selfishness will put you on the wrong side of the justice and judgment of God.  “Because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the LORD, I will bring disaster on you; I will consume you.... Anyone belonging to Ahab who dies in the city the dogs shall eat; and anyone of his who dies in the open country the birds of the air shall eat....He acted most abominably in going after idols….(1Ki 21:20-26 NRS).  In the end, it is not just Ahab who is determined to get what he wants.  God will get what God wants.  And what God wants will be right and it will be forever.  

THE OPPORTUNITY FOR A DIFFERENT OUTCOME

Can people today, who are used to getting what they want conceive of a God who will give them exactly what they deserve?   I wonder.  Most people can hardly even fathom that life is not just about them and what they want.   Few understand the God of Bible as not only the God who loves, but also as the God who also has a flaming love that burns for others.  God’s love burns so hot for all of us that doing right and doing justice is not an option, but a requirement.  God’s will must be done on earth, as in heaven.  The 10 commandments are not 10 suggestions.  The golden rule is the only ‘gold’ that will last.  “The arc of the universe is bent toward justice.”   We will ‘reap what we sow’.  What is done in darkness will come to the light.  “Even though the mill of God’s justice and righteousness grinds slowly, it grinds to powder.”    

I guess we could say that truth has finally become a reality for bicycling legend Lance Armstrong.   Proven guilty of doping, his 7 Tour De France titles are gone, his sponsors are gone, his foundation is gone or going, his reputation is destroyed and one wonders what is happening in his soul this very moment.  Maybe he was a great bicyclist, few would dispute that, but what we all now know for sure, what has finally come out is that Lance Armstrong was never as good as he thought he was.  According to ‘the word of the Lord’ which came to Elijah, most of us are not as good as we think we are.   The only hope for people like Armstong, like Ahab, or like us, is to stop and take a long, long look at who we have become and perhaps most importantly, to take an even more serious that we aren’t who we think or say we are.  The truth hurts, but it could also help.  Ahab could be much more, if he could only hear God’s true word about himself.  It is this ‘true’ word of how things really are that can make us better people.  The Spirit still calls us to listen, to reflect, and to examine our own lives and to realize that God’s love burns hot for all of us.  But it is also a love that will burn us, if we fail to love as God loves.      

The late Chuck Colson told about a man named Jack Eckerd, a gentleman he met while lobbying for criminal justice reform in Florida.  Eckerd accompanied Colson on his speaking tour, always introducing him, "This is Chuck Colson, my friend.  He’s born again and I’m not. I wish I were." Eckerd then sat down, Colson gave his speech, then the two of them got back on a plane and discussed religion.  Eventually, some months later, Eckerd made a decision for Christ.

Shortly afterwards, Eckerd walked into one of his drug stores. He was browsing through the newsstands when he saw copies of Playboy and Penthouse. Those magazines had never bothered him before, but now he saw them with new eyes: he saw them as a Christian. Eckerd went back to his office, called the president of his company, and barked an order: "Take Playboy and Penthouse out of my stores."

The president replied, "You can’t mean that, Mr. Eckerd. We make three million dollars a year on those books."

Eckerd repeated, "Take ’em out of my stores." And thus, pornography was removed from 1,700 stores across America, all because one man became a Christian.

Hearing about this, Colson telephoned Jack Eckerd: "I want to use that story. Did you do that because of your commitment to Christ?" Eckerd replied, "Why else would I give away three million dollars? The Lord wouldn’t let me off the hook."  That’s one way to describe the biblical imperative for justice and righteousness: "The Lord wouldn’t let me off the hook."  Women are not to be treated as boy toys and regaled as sex objects. So Mr. Eckerd decided against using or hurting others, because, as he put it, "The Lord wouldn’t let me off the hook."  (As told in a sermon, Justice: A Biblical Perspective, by Robert Setzer, July 2004).

Where do you need to do what is right in your life?  Where can you make a difference for what is just and true?  Where do you need to love?  In what area of your life, if you dared to look or pay attention, might the Lord not let you off the hook?   There are many ways to take a stand for God’s justice--- a justice that will not exploit others for selfish desires or gain, a justice that will not ignore the plight of the nobodies of this world.   Where do we start to do justice?   It starts with an examination of our own behavior---not just who we think we are, but with who we really are.   As Mother Teresa once said, "Today it is very fashionable to talk about the poor. Unfortunately, it is not fashionable to talk with them."

Fortunately, the rebuke of the prophetic word did get into Ahab’s heart.   We are told in the text that when Ahab hears God’s judgment against him, he tears his clothes, fasted, and he humbled himself.    The word of the Lord comes to Elijah again: "Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the disaster in his days; but in his son's days I will bring the disaster on his house." (1Ki 21:29 NRS).   Yes, God will forgive us for our sins, but even God can’t undo the consequences of our actions.  If we don’t burn with the same love God has, someone will get burned.  If it is not us, it will be our children.  But of course, that gets you off the hook, doesn’t it?   You don’t have to worry about anybody but yourself, right?   How do you think ‘the Word of the Lord’ would answer?  Amen.