Word for the Week: Leading to Destruction
Ahab said to Elijah, ‘So you have found me, my enemy!’ ‘I have found you,’ he answered, ‘because you have sold yourself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord. He says, “I am going to bring disaster on you”.’
1 Kings 21:20
Ahab, the king, sulked because Naboth wouldn’t sell him his vineyard. Jezebel, despising her childish husband, told him simply to take the vineyard and she would get rid of any obstacles. The process by which this took place rode roughshod over the Law the Lord had given to the people of Israel and their kings.
Ahab began by coveting the vineyard (commandment number 10); Jezebel’s plot involved false testimony (9), misusing the Lord’s name (3), murder (6) and theft (8) – not to mention Baal worship (1 and 2) and not honouring parents and royal ancestors (5). Moreover she misused the king’s power and authority to force others to carry out the plot to murder Naboth. Elijah confronted Ahab in the newly acquired vineyard. But the deed had been done. Naboth had been murdered and lawlessness and idolatry sanctioned. God’s judgment would fall.
There is no sign that Jezebel ever repented, but Ahab, shocked by Elijah’s words, did, in self-preservation, humble himself before God. And God gave even this weak despicable king some respite from disaster.
Ahab was responsible, as a king, for his people; he was a leader who was expected to set a good example and demonstrate God’s love and mercy through upholding God’s laws. He knew the right way to live and to lead, but he chose not to. He had ‘caused Israel to sin’ (21:22). Jesus said, ‘Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied round his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin’ (Luke 17:2) – a strong warning indeed. Elijah’s prophetic words for Ahab and Jezebel were, ‘You won’t get away with it’.
Margaret Killingray
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