The Emperor’s New Grove

In Disney’s thirty-ninth animated film, “The Emperor’s New Groove,” self-proclaimed “King of the World” Kuzco (COOS-coh), who had an evil female advisor named Yzma (EEZ-muh), made plans to demolish an entire village to build a new water park. At the highest point of the village he planned on building his new summer home, Kuzcotopia. This was all to be done as a birthday present to himself on his eighteenth birthday.

The plot of ground on which Kuzcotopia was to be built belonged to a lowly llama herder named Pacha. Pacha and his family had lived on that hill for many years, and Pacha had no desire to sell his land; that’s when Kuzco informed Pacha that his intention was not to pay for it but to simply take it for his own. Pacha was supposed to view it as a charitable contribution to the Emperor. Pacha denied Kuzco the land, and Kuzco envied it with a passion.

This sounds like a story straight out of the Bible; a story where a king, along with his evil female advisor, desired a new plot of ground. The piece of real estate desired by the king in our passage of Scripture for today was a vineyard or a “grove” of grapes; therefore, I have entitled our message “The Emperor’s New Grove.” This sermon will address the topic of the slippery slope of envy, or the downward spiral of coveting. If you have ever seen the Disney cartoon, then you will be surprised to discover just how similar the story sounds to our Bible passage.

Ahab Desired Naboth’s Vineyard (vv. 1-3)

1 And it came to pass after these things that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard which was in Jezreel, next to the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. 2 So Ahab spoke to Naboth, saying, “Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near, next to my house; and for it I will give you a vineyard better than it. Or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its worth in money.” 3 But Naboth said to Ahab, “The Lord forbid that I should give the inheritance of my fathers to you!”

Here we see that Ahab, king of Samaria, wanted the vineyard of his neighbor Naboth, because he thought it would make a lovely garden and it was in close proximity to his own house. Now this passage does not come right and use the word “desire,” but Ahab desired this vineyard. I want to take a moment to talk about “desire,” for coveting begins with desire. “Desire” is defined as, “to wish or long for,” to “want,” and, “a longing or craving, as for something that brings satisfaction and enjoyment.”(1) It is also defined as, “the feeling that accompanies an unsatisfied state.”(2)

Desire doesn’t have to be a bad thing, for we can have godly desires. For example, Paul stated, “I desire therefore that the men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands” (1 Timothy 2:8a). Desire, though, can easily become evil whenever it is accompanied by an unsatisfied state, as we heard in one definition. In Romans 7:8 Paul declared, “But sin, taking opportunity . . . produced in me all manner of evil desire.” Habakkuk 2:5 says in reference to an evil man, “He enlarges his desire as hell.”

If we become unsatisfied then we begin having evil desires, or desires not aligning with God’s will and a life of holiness; and if we are unsatisfied by life then we begin to impose our own will on our life circumstances, or our “own desire.” In James 1:14 we are told, “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.” Our own desires result in us taking our eyes off of God, and focusing on things we think are better than what we already have. We get the “grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side syndrome” and then enticement sets in, which leads to coveting. I will talk about this some more in just a moment.

Ahab Began Coveting the Vineyard (vv. 4-6)

4 So Ahab went into his house sullen and displeased because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him; for he had said, “I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.” And he lay down on his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no food. 5 But Jezebel his wife came to him, and said to him, “Why is your spirit so sullen that you eat no food?” 6 He said to her, “Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite, and said to him, ‘Give me your vineyard for money; or else, if it pleases you, I will give you another vineyard for it.’ And he answered, ‘I will not give you my vineyard’.”