The two stories from I Kings provide great material for a sermon. My sermon did not quite reach the potential of the stories! One more week of the OT Sidekick series. I have enjoyed the stories in this series.
“OT Sidekicks: Ahab and Jezebel”; 1 Kings 21; November 19, 2023; SAPC, Denton; Dr. Richard B. Culp
17 Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying: 18Go down to meet King Ahab of Israel, who rules in Samaria; he is now in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone to take possession. 19You shall say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: Have you killed, and also taken possession?’ You shall say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, dogs will also lick up your blood.’
20 Ahab said to Elijah, ‘Have you found me, O my enemy?’ He answered, ‘I have found you. Because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, 21I will bring disaster on you; I will consume you, and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel; 22and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah, because you have provoked me to anger and have caused Israel to sin. 23Also concerning Jezebel the Lord said, “The dogs shall eat Jezebel within the bounds of Jezreel.” 24Anyone 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.’
25 (Indeed, there was no one like Ahab, who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord, urged on by his wife Jezebel. 26He acted most abominably in going after idols, as the Amorites had done, whom the Lord drove out before the Israelites.)
Introduction: Two more weeks of OT sidekicks, or minor characters, then we begin Advent.
Next week, we finish with the friends of Job.
This week, King Ahab and Queen Jezebel are the sidekicks, although hard to think of royalty as being minor characters.
But, they are sidekicks to the prophet Elijah as they are the foil for much of his dramatic action;
They are also sidekicks in the much bigger story unfolding in 1 and 2 Kings about Israel’s ongoing relationship with God and their waffling back and forth between faithfulness and unfaithfulness.
So a few thoughts on what we can learn from King Ahab and Jezebel.
Move 1: First of all, we notice the justice issues in the story.
a. or more pointedly, we witness the injustice that plays out under King Ahab’s watch.
1. Kings were supposed to have the best interests of their people in mind.
2. if we remember back when the Israelites clamored for a king, their desire was in part to be like the other nations around them,
but also to have a person, a king to take care of them.
2. Kings were supposed to lead the people to victory against the enemy - like King Saul.
kings were supposed to protect the people - like King David.
kings were supposed to lead them to prosperity - like King Solomon
kings were supposed to act as the liaison between God and the people - like King David did.
3. It would be expected of a king to have riches and power,
but the trade-off was the king and queen were supposed to have the best interests of the people in the kingdom at heart.
b. Not only did King Ahab and Queen Jezebel not care about the interests of the Israelite people, they perpetrated injustice and abused their power.
1. Case and point - their treatment of Naboth.
2. King Ahab, who has his primary palace in Samaria, also has a palace in Jezreel.
3. Jezreel is lower altitude than Samaria, so it is probably the warmer, winter home for King Ahab.
4. Two palaces - winter and summer palace, and Ahab wants more.
5. He wants to garden next to his palace in Jezreel, so he needs the vineyard Naboth has next door.
6. In fact, King Ahab makes what seems to be a fair offer: he will either give Naboth another plot of land that is as good or better than this
6. But Naboth cannot give him the vineyard because it is an ancestral inheritance, which means it is supposed to stay in the family.
This practice was tied to the historic twelve tribes of Israel and the land each tribe had.
7. Naboth probably does not want to sell,
and he should not sell his land to King Ahab.
8. King Ahab is upset and depressed that he cannot add Naboth’s garden to his property;
9Queen Jezebel is angry and goes to work manipulating the situation until Naboth is killed and King Ahab can take over the property.
c. What Ahab and Jezebel do to Naboth is a complete injustice.
1. An abuse of their power;
2. a manipulation of the religious rites - Jezebel uses the religious ritual, the fast, to perpetuate a sham and make a mockery of it.
3. The treatment of Naboth is not a capitalistic venture where Ahab’s hard work and understanding of the market lead to his being able to purchase Naboth’s vineyard.
4. This story is about people in power doing what they want with those who do not have as much power.
Queen Jezebel exemplifies this abuse when she asks Ahab: “Do you not govern Israel?”
and the answer they give is, “Yes, we govern Israel, so we can do whatever we want to whomever we want because we have the power.”
5. When all is said and done, neighbor has turned against neighbor;
the one in power has abused power;
the king, who ought to be ensuring justice, acts unjustly.
c. As we watch the story unfold, we are reminded of the responsibility people in power have.
1. Consider where you find yourselves in life and the power and authority you have at work, at school, or in social groups.
2. with that power and authority comes responsibility to others and for others.
King Ahab and Queen Jezebel remind us how the poor can be abused;
how does your life show how power can used responsibly?
move 2: We also see in King Ahab the struggles to keep faith while being seduced to make other choices.
a. Frederick Buechner, the Christian writer, describes the relationship between King Ahab, Queen Jezebel, and the prophet Elijah.
1. “Whereas just about everybody has a cross to bear, King A hab had two. One cross was the prophet Elijah. If, generally speaking, a prophet to a king was like ants at a picnic, Elijah was like a swarm of bees. The other cross was his foreign-born wife, Jezebel, who had gotten religion in a big way back in the old country and was forever trying to palm it off on the Israelites, who had a perfectly good one of their own. Unfortunately for Ahab, the two of them sometimes got to working on him at the same time, one from one side, the other from the other. A case in point was the Naboth affair.” (https://www.frederickbuechner.com/weeklysermonillustrations/2019/7/1/weekly-sermon-illustration-ahab-naboth-and-jezebel?rq=naboth)
2. King Ahab continually has to make choices - follow the God of Israel, or give in to the temptation to chase the Baal gods that his wife has brought with her.
3. In some ways, this whole affair with Naboth is about making that choice.
4. Did you notice that the prophetic pronouncement does not name the sin against Naboth, but Elijah says “You have sold yourself to evil in the eyes of YHWH.”
(https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-11-3/commentary-on-1-kings-211-1011-1415-21a-2; Roger Nam, Candler School of Theology at Emory University)
5. By unjustly taking Naboth’s rightful possession, Ahab (and Jezebel) disobeyed the command of God.
6. it is a matter of faith choices.
b. King Ahab’s path to unfaithfulness is made by to of small steps along the way.
1. King Ahab had built a temple to Baal for his wife Jezebel) (Bernhard anderson, 272)
3. Ahab stands for a king who deeply fell to the temptations of Canaanite idolatry.
c. it is interesting to note that Ahab seems to keep some of his connection to Yahweh.
1. he uses a form of Yahweh in each child’s name and still consulted the prophets of Israel (micaiah for instance), although Ahab calls Elijah a “troubler of Israel.”
2. Ahab is not dramatically turning away from God, but making room for Jezebel and her Baal worship. Tolerance turns bad.
d. Frederick Buechner has a humorous way of describing Ahab’s dilemma:
Buechner describes a heavenly scene that reveals God’s mercy.
somehow, Jezebel, Ahab and Elijah all eventually met up again in Paradise,
Ahab looks around and sees Jezebel and Elijah and says to the heavenly authority: if it weren't for the honor of the thing, he'd as soon take his chances in a warmer climate, and immediately put in for a transfer. https://www.frederickbuechner.com/weeklysermonillustrations/2019/7/1/weekly-sermon-illustration-ahab-naboth-and-jezebel?rq=naboth)
King Ahab reflects the challenge we face everyday in choosing whom we will follow.
Move 3: final thought on communal responsibility
a. Ahab and Jezebel reflect Israel - as the king and queen go, so goes Israel.
b. We live in different times, of course.
1. No king.
2. no mediator between us and God.
3. But it is not enough to say it’s only about “me and Jesus.”
4. we are connected beyond ourselves.
4. Part of discipleship means working to change all the structures that allow injustice to take place.
5. The body of Christ is a community of people called to act in the world.
connections in all directions;
responsibility in all directions;
following Christ in all directions.
Conclusion: Amen.
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