Title: Deal… or No Deal?
Text: I Kings 21:1-10 (11-26)
Thesis: Our lives are defined by the nature of our choices.
Introduction
Perhaps you are familiar with NBC’s Deal or No Deal game show? Howie Mandel is the host. There is a bevy of beautiful young women on a stage, each is holding a brief case with a monetary amount written on a card inside from a dollar to one million dollars. The contestant picks a case which contains his or her potential prize… as the cases are opened the amounts exposed are then eliminated from the big board. Depending on what amounts remain on the board, a banker phones Howie and offers the contestant a cash deal in exchange for what he or she may or may not have in their brief case.
For example… there are three cases left unopened on the stage in addition to the one held by the contestant. On the big board are four numbers: $1, $750, $100,000, and $1,000,000. Those four amounts remain in unopened brief cases. Which one does the contestant hold? The banker offers the contestant $300,000 for his or her case, which may contain $1, $1,000, $100,000, or $1,000,000. And then Howie Mandel asks, “Deal or No Deal?
The contestant thinks a moment… his or her family members are screaming. The studio is screaming…”Deal!” “Deal!” But you know they are going to go for the $1,000,000 and the contestant says, “No Deal!”
Then comes the moment of truth… the case is opened and the contestant and all the world sees he or she has traded $300,000 for $750.
You don’t always get what you want…
I. We don’t always get what we want.
King Ahab said to Naboth, “I would like to buy your vineyard to use as a vegetable garden…” But Naboth said, “The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance that was passed down by my ancestors.” I Kings 21:1-3
A. Ahab’s reasonable request. Because of the close proximity of Naboth’s vineyard to Ahab’s summer palace, Ahab approached Naboth hoping to acquire the piece of property.
• He offered Naboth a better piece of property in exchange for the vineyard.
• He offered Naboth a cash purchase price.
Land swaps are very much in the news here in Colorado. Near Durango, Colorado the Tamarron Resort is offering exchanging two parcels of private land for a piece of the San Juan National Forest near Haviland Lake. The problem is, the San Juan National Forest land, which happens to be adjacent to the resort owned land is a relatively area popular with hikers, cross country skiers, and equestrians, while the land they are offering in exchange is steep and not readily accessible. Land swap offers are usually better for the proposing party than for the other.
However, Ahab did offer Naboth a better piece of property saying, “I would like to offer you a better vineyard in exchange for the one you own that abuts my property. Or, I’m willing to offer you cash, if you prefer. Name your price.” And then, he may well have asked, “Do we have a deal?”
What is not to like about his kind of offer? However, Naboth said, “No deal!” He flatly refused either/or or any offer. He was not interested in trading or selling his vineyard to anyone under any circumstances.
B. Naboth’s understandable denial.
Naboth’s vineyard was property allotted his ancestors when the Israelites entered the Promised Land. It was an inheritance to be passed from generation to generation, never to be sold permanently.
• Naboth had a sentimental attachment to the property.
• Naboth had a spiritual obligation to honor God’s commandment that ownership of the land stay within the family.
It did not matter what Ahab offered, Naboth’s vineyard was off the market.
What then was Ahab to do?
II. The question is: What happens when we don’t get what we want?
So Ahab went home angry and sullen because of Naboth’s answer. The king went to bed with his face to the wall and refused to eat! I Kings 21:4-5
A. The first thing Ahab did was get angry.
B. The second thing Ahab did was go to bed, turn his face to the wall, and refuse to eat.
Ahab thought he had made Naboth an offer he could not refuse… Ahab tried to get what he wanted by legitimate means. But when he finds out that he cannot have what he wants, all sense of adult behavior and reason evaporates and he is reduced to acting like a big pouting baby.
Alison Amgrim is known and respected today as an outspoken advocate for the protection of children. But, when she played the role of Nellie Oleson on the Little House on the Prairie series, she was the most disliked person on the planet. She was Walnut Grove’s richest and best-dressed young girl. She was also Walnut Groves most spoiled, unpleasant and disrespectful child. As the daughter of the wealthy Oleson family, Nellie was accustomed to having her way because her mother, Harriet, insisted on it. When things went her way, Nellie bragged about it. And when things did not go her way she was capable of concocting the most diabolical of schemes. Nellie could pout and throw tantrums as well as any snobby, bratty, and whiny person.
Ahab was the adult version of Nellie Oelson. Pouting is not pretty in a child and it is even less so in an adult.
People do all kinds of things when they don’t get their way. They can become aggressive and get angry, shout, name call, intimidate or threaten, and belittle… they may even attack and take by force what they want.
Others are more passive in their aggression. They pout, complain, write anonymous letters or make anonymous calls, they go underground to gather a following, or over the other’s head, they may withhold affection, they do end runs, withhold their support, go elsewhere, or threaten to quit. They have learned that they don’t have to actually do the dirty work to get their own way… they have learned that subversion and manipulation are also good ways to get what they want.
Had Ahab been a decent sort of fellow, he would have expressed his disappointment to Naboth, asked that if he ever did wish to sell the vineyard, he keep his offer in mind, he could have thanked him for his time, and gone home.
He could have hummed a few bars of the lyrics of the Rolling Stones’, You can’t always get what you want:
• You can’t always get what you want;
• No you can’t always get what you want;
• But if you try sometime you might find;
• You get what you need.
The furthest thing from Ahab’s mind was the will of God, or the way of God, or the wants and needs of his fellow human being. Ahab cared for no one but Ahab… so he pouted.
When Ahab decided to act like a big baby instead of a grown man, he set into motion a horrible scenario of circumstances.
III. When we react badly, we may set off a downward spiral of destructive consequences that affect others.
Queen Jezebel asked, “Are you the king of Israel of not? Get up and eat and don’t worry about it. I’ll get you Naboth’s vineyard!” I Kings 21:6-16
It was the final exam for an introductory Biology course at the university… the exam was two hours long and blue books were provided. The professor was very strict and told the class that they had exactly two hours to write the exam. Anyone who did not turn in their exam within two hours would fail the course.
Half an hour into the exam a student rushed into the room and asked the professor for an exam booklet. The professor handed him the blue book and stated, you have exactly one and a half hours to complete the exam. You will have to hurry to make it.
The student took the book and began writing furiously… an hour and a half later the professor called time and the students laid down their pencils and placed their blue books in a stack on the professors desk, all but the late student who continued to write.
A few minutes later the student approached the desk and attempted to add his exam to the stack of test books but the professor interrupted him and said, “No you don’t… you did not complete the exam on time.”
The student asked with a sense of incredulity, “Do you know who I am?” The professor replied with an air of sarcasm, “No, as a matter of fact I don’t.” Raising his voice the student asked again, “Do you know who I am?” And the professor with an even greater air of superiority replied, “No I don’t and I don’t care who you are!”
“Good,” replied the student who quickly lifted the stack of exams, stuffed his into the middle, and walked out of the room.
A. People with power have a heightened sense of entitlement.
It doesn’t matter if it is a Nellie Oleson or a King Ahab or a Monty Newton… we all at times have sense of entitlement. We want what we want and we will do whatever we have to do to get it because we think we are entitled. We want to stand up and ask, “Do you know who I am?”
Ahab’s wife, Queen Jezebel, essentially said to him, “Don’t you know who you are? You are the King! You don’t have to pout about anything… you can have whatever you want. I am the Queen… I will get you your vineyard.”
B. People with power may abuse that power to get what they want.
In our story Jezebel arranged for Naboth to be falsely accused of cursing God and the King, and then executed, all legal-like.
Mario Puzo wrote a novel which was made into a film in 1972. In 1974 they produced Godfather II and in 1990, Godfather III. In 1999, we were introduced to the TV drama series, The Sopranos.
Jezebel essentially called up Don Corleone or Michael Corleone or the New Jersey mafia boss, Tony Soprano, and ordered a hit on Naboth. Once Naboth was out of the way… Ahab could have his garden.
Behind every Ahab is a Jezebel or a Harriet Oleson or an H.R. Halderman or a Scooter Libby who knows a scoundrel or two who will do what needs doing in order to get someone’s way.
What begins as a whim, ends with disastrous consequences to others, oneself, and one’s family.
In his New Testament letter, James wrote, “What is causing quarrels and fights among you? Isn’t it the whole army of evil desire at war within you? You want what you don’t have or you want to get your own way, so you scheme and kill to get it… so you fight and quarrel to take it away from them or to get your way. Yet the reason you don’t have what you want is that you don’t ask God for it. And even when you do ask God, you don’t get what you want because your motives are wrong… you want only what will give you pleasure or make you happy.”
A father was walking down the street with his two small sons, both of whom were crying loudly.
A neighbor, overhearing the clamors asked, “What’s going on? Your boys are always so happy…”
The dad responded, “The trouble is, one has a piece of candy and the other wants it.” It would seem that that is always the trouble…
It does not matter if it is set in the ancient Middle Eastern city of Jezreel or modern day Hollywood, Washington D.C., Baghdad, Gaza, Thornton, Arvada, or Westminster. It doesn’t matter if it is Ahab’s home, your home, or my home. It doesn’t matter if it is someone else’s faith community or our faith community. Self-entitlement and the desire to have one’s own way is an evil and destructive force that, when acted upon, results in sin and suffering.
It happens when we sell ourselves to what is evil in the Lord’s sight… it happened to Ahab because he let his own desires get the best of him. It happened because he let his wife influence him. It happened because, little by little, he let his heart wander away from God.
It begins when we loose our commitment to God.
IV. The compounding of disastrous consequences begins with the loss of commitment to God and the well-being of others.
He was especially guilty because he worshiped idols – just as the Amorites had done – the people whom the Lord had driven from the land ahead of the Israelites. I Kings 21:26
The bible is very explicit when it says, “You are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”
The New Testament word is this: Don’t be selfish. Don’t live to make a good impression on others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself. Don’t think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing. Your attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus who, though he was God, did not demand and cling to his rights as God. Philippians 2:3-6
Two weeks ago Bonnie and I were sitting on the patio at Starbucks. Bonnie was enjoying her Carmel Macchiato Frappuccino and I was into my Iced Vente Americano when I looked up and saw a woman pushing a grocery cart, piled high with her what appeared to be luggage, a bed roll, and other assorted things, approaching us. About that time the dog which had been lying quietly under the table next to us began to bark at the woman. She stopped, petted the dog and eventually went inside and ordered her coffee…
I wondered, how did she get to this place in her life? I wondered if she was one of the thousands of women who experience “Bag-Lady Syndrome,” which is a non-medical term for women who fear they will end up destitute and on the streets.
She wasn’t always a bag lady. Her current circumstances may or may not be of her own choosing. But it all began somewhere, sometime. Hers may or may not be a tragic story… but it all began somewhere and sometime.
Ahab’s is a tragic story and his story began when he lost interest in following God with all his heart. It led to a bad choice in marriage partners and slipped on into syncretism and idolatry. And then, one day he found himself throwing a temper tantrum, pouting, and refusing to eat. From there the story goes from horrible to more horrible. You can read the rest of the story in I Kings 21 and II Kings 9 and 10. It is not a story for faint of heart. It is a story in which the details of the actions and consequences of those actions are embellished by the Baptist preacher, Robert G. Lee, in his famous sermon, Payday Someday. You can read it by accessing any classic sermon library.
It is a story that points us down many paths of application… we can talk about greed and the abuse of power. We can talk about the importance of marrying a godly spouse who will encourage you in your walk with God. We can talk about the consequences of our actions. We can talk about selfishness…
But at the heart of it all is the initial choice,
Will I follow God and live God’s way… or not? Deal… or No Deal?
Conclusion:
In the practice of spiritual direction, I find it helpful to do a daily examination of consciousness or self-examination. It is an ancient spiritual practice in which you place yourself in the loving presence of God and review your day.
You thank God for all of the things that God has lovingly placed in your life that day and then you ask God to give you the ability to see reality as Jesus sees it.
And then you rehearse the activities of the day by recalling the “we” experiences and the “I” experiences. (By we, I mean those things you did with Jesus and by I, I mean those things you did without Jesus.)
For example, I might say, “We got up this morning at 6:30… we got ready for work and ate breakfast.” “We arrived at work and observed our morning prayer time.” “We talked on the phone with a lady who was feeling very discouraged and hopefully encouraged her.” “We got in the car to run over to St. Anthony North Hospital… a lady in front of us did not take off when the light changed. I yelled, “Com’on, what are you waiting for?” And so on…
You then acknowledge those times when you were not walking with Christ, ask forgiveness, and pray for God’s help in walking more closely with Him the next day.
The daily examination is a way that ensures you never wander far from the loving presence and influence of Christ in your life.
