"The High Price of Low Living"
1 Kings 21:20
1 Kings 21:20 And Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? And he answered, I have found thee: because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the LORD.
INTRODUCTION: This makes the third message from 1 Kings that I have been led God to preach and it has some important life lessons that I believe He wants to teach us from these scriptures. The story of the life of Ahab can be summed up in one verse that we find in this chapter. In verse 25 is says of this man: 1 Kings 21:25 "But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the LORD, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. This is a case where the old clique holds true: "People get the leadership they deserve." The Bible makes it plain that Ahab was the wickedest king in all of the history of the people of Israel. He has no equal in terms of the evil that he did and the influence for bad that he had upon the national life of God's chosen people. We are also told that his wife Jezebel was a very negative influence on her husband. She was the daughter of a king who was also known for his evil deeds. In this case the old saying that, "The apple didn't fall far from the tree," is appropriate. The point from today's lesson is that all belief and behavior has consequences whether it is for good or for evil. In the case of Ahab and Jezebel, evil behavior brought negative consequences for them and their descendants. The first thing that we notice as we study the lives of this couple is their:
I. THE REBELLION FROM THE LORD
a. Idolatry
1 Kings 16:31 And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.
32 And he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria.
33 And Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him.
b. Immorality
While we have no surviving Canaanite religious texts, the accounts of Baal worship in the Old Testament correspond closely to the existing versions of the Baal myth and what we know of religious practices in surrounding areas. The influence of this religious system on Israel can hardly be overestimated. This myth is more explicitly concerned with fertility, specifically cast in terms of human sexuality. Worship of Baal involved imitative magic, the performance of rituals, including sacred prostitution, which were understood to bring vitality to Baal.
c. Iniquity
Dr. R. G. Lee describes Ahab as a "toad" and Jezebel as a "viper" sitting upon the throne of Northern Israel. Nothing typifies this rotten couple any more than the murder of Naboth which takes place in 1 Kings 21:1-28. The tragedy of Naboth and his vineyard reveals how despicable a woman like Jezebel was. Life was cheap to this woman who had murder in her veins. He father before her had murdered his predecessor and it should not be surprising to us that this woman would involve herself in murder, mayhem and massacre! Later on her corrupting influence is displayed in the lives of her offspring.
II. THE REVELATION FROM THE LORD
a. The prophet
God calls Elijah to go and pronounce his judgment in 1 Kings 21:17-19a. By the way this is the same man that fled from the threats of Jezebel but God found His man and has brought him back out of retirement to a time of renewed usefulness.
b. The potentates
For Ahab... "Thus saith the LORD, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine."
For Jezebel... "(1Ki 21:23) And of Jezebel also spake the LORD, saying, The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.
c. The posterity
1 Kings 21:21 Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and will take away thy posterity, and will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel,
22 And will make thine house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, for the provocation wherewith thou hast provoked me to anger, and made Israel to sin.
III. THE RECKONING FROM THE LORD
a. The timing of God's judgment
Three years after the prophecy Ahab joins forces with King Jehoshaphat of Judah to fight Syria. It is during a battle and while Ahab is in disguise that we read the following:
1 Kings 22:34 And a certain man drew a bow at a venture, and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness: wherefore he said unto the driver of his chariot, Turn thine hand, and carry me out of the host; for I am wounded.
35 And the battle increased that day: and the king was stayed up in his chariot against the Syrians, and died at even: and the blood ran out of the wound into the midst of the chariot.
36 And there went a proclamation throughout the host about the going down of the sun, saying, Every man to his city, and every man to his own country.
37 So the king died, and was brought to Samaria; and they buried the king in Samaria.
Twenty years after the prophecy God anointed a man by the name of Jehu the son of Nimshi to be king over Israel and to execute judgment on Ahab's house. In quick succession we see the death of Joram (2 Kings 9:24-26), the death of Ahaziah (27-29), and the death of Jezebel (30-37)
b. The thoroughness of God's judgment
Do you recall the details of the prophecy about Ahab in 1 Kings 21:19?
"Thus saith the LORD, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine."
1 Kings 22:38 And one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria; and the dogs licked up his blood; and they washed his armour; according unto the word of the LORD which he spake.
And do you remember what the Lord said specifically about Jezebel?
1 Kings 21:23 And of Jezebel also spake the LORD, saying, The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.
What does the Word say about the fate of this evil woman?
2 Kings 9:35 And they went to bury her: but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands.
36 Wherefore they came again, and told him. And he said, This is the word of the LORD, which he spake by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel:
37 And the carcase of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel; so that they shall not say, This is Jezebel.
Finally, do you recall what Elijah said about Ahab's "...posterity?" In 2 Kings 10 we see a letter written by Jehu t0 the rulers of Jezreel referring to "...Ahab's children..." Ahab had 70 sons and in verse 7-11 we read:
2 Kings 10:7 And it came to pass, when the letter came to them, that they took the king's sons, and slew seventy persons, and put their heads in baskets, and sent him them to Jezreel.
8 And there came a messenger, and told him, saying, They have brought the heads of the king's sons. And he said, Lay ye them in two heaps at the entering in of the gate until the morning.
9 And it came to pass in the morning, that he went out, and stood, and said to all the people, Ye be righteous: behold, I conspired against my master, and slew him: but who slew all these?
10 Know now that there shall fall unto the earth nothing of the word of the LORD, which the LORD spake concerning the house of Ahab: for the LORD hath done that which he spake by his servant Elijah.
11 So Jehu slew all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men, and his kinsfolks, and his priests, until he left him none remaining.
c. The truth of God's judgment
What lessons can be learned from this biblical narrative?
1. Whatever God speaks will come to pass. You can count on it! His Word is true!
Joshua 21:45 There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass.
Psalms 119:160 Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever.
2. There are consequences to our beliefs and behavior.
Numbers 32:23 But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out.
Mark 4:22 For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was anything kept secret, but that it should come abroad.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Hebrews 4:13 Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
3. God is not limited by time or circumstances. Whether it is three years in the case of Ahab or twenty for Jezebel or a thousand, it makes no difference to God.
CLOSE: Finally I want to share one more bit of information found in this passage that may have escaped your attention. At the end of chapter 21 something very unusual happens that seems totally out of place and it may not fit into our neatly passaged notions of how God works but in verse 27-29 we read the following:
1 Kings 21:27 And it came to pass, when Ahab heard those words, that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly.
28 And the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,
29 Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me? because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days: but in his son's days will I bring the evil upon his house.
The verse that comes to mind when I read these few verses is:
Romans 5:20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
In closing Charles Spurgeon offers this warning: "If you haven't looked at Christ on the cross, you'll have to look at Him on the throne--with great trembling. The sacrificial death of Christ will be brought before the eyes of all who refuse to accept His free gift of forgiveness and eternal life. In Bethlehem He came in mercy to forgive sin. In the future He will come on the clouds in glory to establish justice. What will we do without a Savior? On the day of judgment there is nothing we can do if we have not trusted Christ."
