1 Kings 21

Discussion Questions

1. Naboth lived a life of quiet obedience and faithfulness to God, even at the cost of his own life. In our own daily walk, are we committed to unwavering obedience, or are we giving in a little here and there to help ease our way? What can we learn from Naboth about what is ultimately important?
2. When confronted with his sin, Ahab was full of remorse, yet he did not turn to God in repentance. What is the difference between true repentance and generalized sorrow over the consequences of sin?
3. Why do we suffer? How do we make sense of a world where the wicked flourish and the righteous experience hardships? How do we cultivate a rugged, durable faith that will help us weather the storms of life and endure to the end?

Transcript

We study through books of the Bible here at The Village Chapel and this Sunday is no different. Today, we’ll be in 1 Kings Chapter 21. Only two chapters left. If you would like a copy of a Bible, go ahead and raise your hand and someone will come around to hand one out to you. Before we jump into the text today, I want to introduce all of you to a concept that some of you may be aware of called the Stockdale Paradox. If you are familiar with books or podcasts on leadership, my guess is that you’ve heard of this before, but in case you haven’t, let me explain really quickly what it is. It is named after Admiral James Stockdale, a prisoner of war in Vietnam for eight years. He was brutally tortured over 20 times during his 8-year imprisonment from 1965 to 1973. Stockdale lived out the war without any prisoner’s rights, no set release date, and no certainty as to whether he would even survive to ever see his family again. And yet he was able to endure the path set before him.

And along with surviving, he was also a thorn in the side of the Vietnam soldiers. When they tried to shoot videos of the prisoners of war to send them back to the US to convince them that they were being treated fairly, James Stockdale refused to be a part of it even though it made his life so much more difficult because of the punishment he received due to his disobedience. James Stockdale wasn’t just surviving; he was resolute in his principles. Though faced with extreme suffering, he did not back down. In an interview, he was asked what his mindset was as he was enduring the uncertainty of his future along with the difficult reality of being tortured day to day. And this is what he said, “I never lost faith in the end of the story. I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which in retrospect, I would not trade.”

Now when I read that answer, I loved it. Knowing the end of the story helps you to endure the middle of the story when times are tough. That’s a message I can get behind, especially as a Christian. But as the interview went on, there was another answer he gave to a question that I found extremely thought-provoking. The question asked to him was, “Who didn’t make it out?” Meaning what were the men like who weren’t able to endure the suffering long enough to make it home?

“Oh, that’s easy,” he said. “The optimists. The optimists were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving and then it would be Christmas again.” And he said, “Eventually they died of a broken heart.” Then he turned and said, [This is a very important lesson.] “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end, which you can never afford to lose, with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” And this is what came to be known as the Stockdale Paradox. And it’ll be up on the screen.

This is what it says. “You must maintain unwavering faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, and at the same time have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” Now, I bring this up today because the story we are going to read in 1 Kings Chapter 21 is going to do just that. First, it’s going to give us something that we can put our unwavering faith in, a hope that will last no matter how difficult the circumstances we are going through. But the second thing this chapter is going to do, which is just as important, is it’s going to confront us with the brutal facts about what it means to be a Christian on this side of eternity. And once we confront these hard truths, it will help us to endure to the end.

Now, let’s go ahead and read 1 Kings 21, but before we do, allow me to pray: Jesus, thank You for this day. God, thank You for another opportunity to gather as Your people, to sing of Your praises, God, to study Your Word. God, I pray this morning that You would not just give us big heads, but God, You would soften our hearts. Jesus, help us to see You in this text, to live differently, to love You greater and to love our neighbors better. We lift all this up in Your name. Amen.

So, we’re going to be in 1 Kings Chapter 21, and I’m going to read verses 1 through 4 for us. “Some time passed after these events. Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard. It was in Jezreel next to the palace of King Ahab of Samaria. So Ahab spoke to Naboth saying, ‘Give me your vineyard so I can have it for a vegetable garden since it is right next to my palace. I will give you a better vineyard in its place, or if you prefer, I will give you its value in silver.’ But Naboth said to Ahab, ‘As the Lord is my witness, I will never give my ancestors’ inheritance to you.’ So Ahab went to his palace, resentful and angry because of what Naboth the Jezreelite had told him. He had said, ‘I will not give you my ancestors’ inheritance.’ He laid down on his bed, turned his face away and didn’t eat any food.”

So, the text starts off by letting us know that some time had passed between what we read last week and the events we’ll be discussing today. And not only are we introduced to the setting of the time, we are also introduced to a new character, a Jezreelite man named Naboth who owned a vineyard right next to the royal palace of Ahab and Jezebel. And one day as Ahab was taking a stroll, he must have noticed the piece of land that did not belong to him. And he thought, man, that vineyard looks nice, but you know what would make it look really nice? If it was a vegetable garden. He couldn’t appreciate things as they were. He only saw things for what they could add to his own life. I mean, isn’t it ironic that Ahab, who owns a palace and has more than he could ever desire, seems to only want the one thing he doesn’t have? Couldn’t Ahab have just planted a vegetable garden anywhere else? I mean surely, he had the power to move things around in his own palace to make room.

What we see here is that Ahab is guilty of coveting. To covet simply means to desire something that is not yours. And it is the 10th and final commandment in Exodus. Ahab is jealous for what his neighbor has. He doesn’t just want a vegetable garden. He wants it where he can’t have it. As C.S. Lewis put it, “Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man.” You see, at the heart of the sin of coveting is the insidious belief that God hasn’t given me enough, that God has held back from me. It’s the very thought that Adam and Eve were tempted to believe in the garden by the serpent. And when you operate under this assumption, it will cause you to look upon other people and feel you deserve what they have, even if it means you have to take it from them.

One commentator put the covetousness of Ahab like this: [I love this.] “Ahab was like a bear looking to lick a bit more honey, a lion looking for a piece of cheese, an overstuffed bull looking for a bit of grass outside his own pasture.” So, Ahab’s plan was simple. He had a lot of money and power and intended to sway whoever owned that land to sell to him. However, things didn’t go as planned because Naboth adamantly rejected the offer made to him.

Now, to be fair to Ahab, this was actually a pretty good deal. He offered to buy the land for what it was worth or to buy him a more expensive vineyard somewhere else. In the mind of a real estate agent, this is a no-brainer. You either gain a profit or your 3-bedroom house gets traded in for a 10-bedroom house. And not to mention if he sold this land, would he not be in the good graces of the king? Not only would he turn a profit, he would curry the favor of someone whose influence could really help him in a time of crisis. There’s a lot to be gained here if Naboth sells the land. So, what was it that made Naboth turn down this deal of a lifetime? Why reject this?

Well, the reason he rejected the offer was because in the books of Leviticus and Numbers, you know those books that we typically just loath in the yearly… Some of you are maybe in those right now. The people of God are told to hold on to the land that they have possessed and not to sell it. Listen to what do these two verses say: Leviticus 25:23. These two verses will be up on the screen. This is Leviticus: “The land is not to be permanently sold because it is mine [meaning it is God’s], and you are only aliens in temporary residents on my land.”

Number 36:7 says: “No inheritance belonging to the Israelites is to transfer from tribe to tribe, because each of the Israelites is to retain the inheritance of his ancestral tribe.” Here is the basic premise of why these laws exist. The Promised Land was a gift from God to His people. They were to dwell in that land and make it their home. So, to make sure the people didn’t sell away their inheritance, the Lord said that the land each Israelite receives should remain in the family and never be sold, because ultimately the land wasn’t theirs. It was the Lord’s.

So, the reason that Naboth rejected the deal was because he was being faithful to God’s commands. It wasn’t that he wanted Ahab to sweeten the offer, or he was playing hardball. It was that he trusted Yahweh and sought to live in accordance with His Word. Though he could have made a profit, and nobody would’ve batted an eye, Naboth chose to be quietly faithful even when it cost him personally. Though his motives were admirable, Ahab didn’t see it that way. It says that after he was told no, he runs home, lays in bed, cries and doesn’t eat food. This is the kind of reaction you expect from an immature child, not an adult man who was a king. I mean, thank God none of us adults act like that anymore. But what’s interesting is the words used to describe Ahab are “resentful” and “angry,” which are the same exact words used in 1 Kings 20:43 to describe his frustration towards God. In Chapter 20, Ahab is mad at God. In Chapter 21, he has turned his anger towards God’s people.

Now let’s keep reading to see what happens next in the story. Starting in verse 5, and I’m going to read through verse 16: “Then his wife, Jezebel came to him and said to him, ‘Why are you so upset that you refuse to eat?’ ‘Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite’ he replied. ‘I told him, give me your vineyard for silver or if you wish, I will give you a vineyard in its place. But he said, “I won’t give you my vineyard.” Then his wife, Jezebel, said to him, ‘Now exercise your royal power over Israel. Get up, eat some food and be happy for I will give you the vineyard of Naboth, the Jezreelite.’

“So, she wrote letters in Ahab’s name and sealed them with his seal. She sent the letters to the elders and nobles who lived with Naboth in his city. In the letters she wrote, ‘Proclaim a fast and seat Naboth at the head of the people. Then seat two wicked men opposite him and have them testify against him saying, “You have cursed God and the King.” Then take him out and stone him to death.’ The men of his city, the elders and nobles who lived in his city, did as Jezebel had sent word to them, just as it was written in the letters she had sent them. They proclaimed a fast and seated Naboth at the head of the people. The two wicked men came in and sat opposite him. Then the wicked men testified against Naboth in the presence of the people saying, ‘Naboth has cursed God and the King.’ So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death with stones. Then they sent word to Jezebel. ‘Naboth has been stoned to death.’

“When Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned to death, she said to Ahab, ‘Get up and take possession of the vineyard of Naboth, the Jezreelite who refused to give it to you for silver since Naboth isn’t alive but dead.’ When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, he got up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth, the Jezreelite, to take possession of it.” And we’ll stop right there.

The next scene starts with Jezebel asking Ahab what is wrong? She comes home and she finds her king of a husband just lying in bed, fasting, weeping and she says, “What’s wrong?” And he proceeds to tell her about Naboth’s refusal, only Ahab doesn’t report the story correctly. Naboth didn’t say, “I won’t give you my vineyard.” The whole point was that the vineyard was not Naboth’s to sell in the first place. He actually said, “The Lord forbid that I should give you my vineyard, the vineyard of my ancestors.”

And I can imagine the look of disgust on Jezebel’s face as she tells Ahab, “Now exercise your royal power over Israel. Get up, eat some food and be happy for I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.” With this sarcastic exclamation, she seems to call Ahab both a wimp and a crybaby. After all, isn’t the point of being a king that you can force others to do what you want? So, she decides to take care of the matter herself since her weak husband cannot demonstrate power properly.

Jezebel is like Eve in the garden. She has no regard for God’s authority. She will do what she wants, taking the forbidden fruit of the vineyard that is not hers to have while her docile Adam-like husband passively watches her do it. Jezebel leverages the power and influence she has to perform a gross act of injustice. She doesn’t use the position she’s been given to serve those under her. She uses it to abuse them. And this is a strong reminder for us this morning. If God ever gives you influence, which in this room many of you have been given the gift of influence, remember why you have it.

It isn’t to satisfy your selfish desires. It isn’t to trample on others and glorify yourself. You have influence so that you can bless others in general and bless those with no influence in particular. And sadly, such godly character is nowhere to be found in Ahab and Jezebel, and it was not found in the leaders of Naboth’s town either. Because Jezebel hatches a plan as to how she will take the land. She wrote letters to the officials in Naboth’s towns that were made to look like they were from the King himself, and in the letters her heartless plans are revealed.

This is what is to happen. The men are to proclaim a day of fasting and prayer. They’re to sit Naboth at the head of the table, the most important seat. They’re to falsely accuse him of a crime he did not commit, which deserves the death penalty, and they are to stone him to death. And then we read the sad continuation of the story as the corrupt judges of Naboth’s town go right along with Jezebel’s plans. And notice how seamlessly they execute the plan. This shows us that not only were the King and Queen corrupt, but all the forms of government beneath them were corrupt too. Not to mention the guise for the whole plan was a religious holiday – Make Naboth and the people think that this was the Lord’s plan, not our plan.

You see, these local officials were supposed to be the men who protected their citizens. Instead, they cower in fear of the Sumerian mafia. They could have said no and saved one of their own people and instead they did nothing as an innocent man was killed on their watch. It reminds me of what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The only thing it takes for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing.” The word has traveled back to Jezebel and Naboth is dead. At this report, she tells the childish king to get up and take possession of the vineyard. He doesn’t care to know what happened that led to Naboth’s death. All he cares about is that he is getting what he wanted. And it may seem like we’re at the end of the story and the cruel villains have won the day. But let’s keep reading next to see what happens.

I’m going to read verses 17 to the end of the chapter. “Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite. ‘Get up and go to meet King Ahab of Israel who is in Samaria. He’s in Naboth’s vineyard where he has gone to take possession of it. Tell him this is what the Lord says. ‘Have you murdered and also taken possession?’ Then tell him this is what the Lord says, ‘In the place where the dogs licked up Naboth’s blood, the dogs will also lick up your blood.’

“Ahab said to Elijah, ‘So my enemy, you’ve found me, have you?” He replied, ‘I found you because you devoted yourself to do what is evil in the Lord’s sight. This is what the Lord says. ‘I’m about to bring disaster on you and will eradicate your descendants. I will wipe out all of Ahab’s males, both slave and free in Israel. I’ll make your house like the house of Jeroboam, son of Naboth and like the house of Baasha, son of Ahijah because you have angered me and caused Israel to sin.’ The Lord also speaks to Jezebel. ‘The dogs will eat Jezebel in the plot of land of Jezreel. Anyone who belongs to Ahab and dies in the city, the dogs will eat. And anyone who dies in the field, the birds will eat.’ Still, there is no one like Ahab who devoted himself to do what was evil in the Lord’s sight because his wife Jezebel incited him. He committed the most detestable acts by following idols as the Amorites had whom the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites.

“When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, put sackcloth over his body and fasted. He laid down in sackcloth and walked around subdued. Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite. ‘Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? I will not bring the disaster during his lifetime. Because he has humbled himself before me, I’ll bring the disaster on his house during his son’s lifetime.'”

In verse 17, the perspective changes from what Ahab and Jezebel are doing to Elijah, who has received a word from the Lord. Elijah is told to get up and go and confront the King about all the injustice that has taken place. You see, for every Jezebel who tells an Ahab to get up and do injustice, God seemingly has an Elijah to whom He says, “Get up and speak justice.” All of the scandal that had been done in secret was not hidden from the Lord. The King and the Queen thought they had gotten away with it, but they were wrong. The real owner of the vineyard, the Lord Himself, intends to make things right, and here is the message the Lord delivers to Ahab: “In the place where the dogs licked up Naboth’s blood, the dogs will also lick up your blood.”

If you’ve been with us for the duration of the 1 Kings study, you may recognize that this is the same judgment issued to the House of Jeroboam and the House of Baasha. Because of his evil and gross misconduct, Ahab and all of his male descendants are going to pay the consequences of judgment from the Lord. And not only is the judgment pronounced on Ahab, it’s pronounced on his wife Jezebel too. And what we’ll see is that both of these prophecies will come true. In the book of 2 Kings, Ahab and Jezebel thought they committed the perfect crime and got away with it. All they had to do was kill a nobody, but it cost them more than they could ever know.

In verse 25, we get a summary statement of the life of Ahab that we’ve heard numerous times throughout the book. It says, “Still there was no one like Ahab who devoted himself to do what was evil in the Lord’s sight because his wife Jezebel incited him.” And this verse is not surprising because Ahab has a strong pattern of disobedience and rebellion. It’s not really a shock to hear that he was the worst of all of the kings. But the verses that we read after that are surprising because in response to the judgment pronounced, Ahab tears his clothes, puts on sackcloth over his body and it says he fasted. All of these are signs of mourning and sorrow.

I mean, I was expecting the king to defend himself or, at the very least, attempt to kill Elijah. But instead, he has come to terms with his fate. But it’s important to note, that Ahab never pleads to God for forgiveness. Feeling bad over our sin and repenting of our sin are not the same things. Sorrow over our sin with no repentance will lead to a life of self-pity and shame. To truly repent is to turn to the Lord and to turn from our sinful ways. It is to have the slate wiped clean and have the relationship restored.

But in response, even to the sorrow of Ahab, we are told that God sees Ahab and has mercy on him. He tells Elijah that though judgment is still coming, it is going to be delayed. Isn’t it amazing that in the midst of his wrath, God still shows mercy? What kind of God would show such mercy to one who we’re told is the most wicked, the most detestable, of all the kings? Ahab has done nothing to deserve any sort of kind or favorable treatment from God. What kind of God shows mercy like this? He’s the same God that shows you mercy, and He shows me mercy. Though He may not have spared judgment on Ahab, He certainly gave him and his wife more time to come to their senses and repent of their sins, which is nothing but pure grace from God. And this is where Chapter 21 ends.

And now we ask ourselves, how should we live in response to what has been revealed? And there’s three things I want us to see in this text before we leave today. Here’s the first thing I want us to see: “The righteous will suffer, but their reward is eternal.” Because Naboth was faithful to the word of the Lord, he lost his life at the hands of wicked people with the help of a wicked system. How could this be? What is this story showing us about the Christian life? Well, here is the brutal fact that we must come to terms with that we see clearly presented in the Scriptures and the texts we read today. The righteous, those who seek to follow God, will suffer on this earth. Listen to these verses. They’re all going to be up on the screen.

2 Timothy 3:12. “In fact, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” John 16:33, “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world.” 1 Peter 4:12-13. “Dear friends, don’t be surprised when the fiery ordeal comes among you to test you as if something unusual were happening to you. Instead, rejoice as you share in the sufferings of Christ so that you may also rejoice greatly when His glory is revealed.” What are all of these verses telling us? That suffering is not a detour or a wrong turn. It is a part of the journey, and this is so crucial for us to understand because if we have a misunderstanding of suffering in the Christian life, we may be tempted to feel like God has abandoned us or that He has lost control when hard times come our way.

Now to be clear, I am not advocating for pessimism. I am advocating for realism. Jesus never promised us an easy life. He never said that when we commit to following Him, life will become problem free. He offered us His peace, but He never offered us ease of circumstances. In fact, the imagery we are given from Jesus is that we are to take up our cross, an instrument of torture, and follow Him.

Listen to what Elisabeth Elliot says. She knew suffering more than maybe I will ever know. She says, “If your faith rests in your idea of how God is supposed to answer your prayers, your idea of Heaven here on Earth or pie in the sky or whatever, then that kind of faith is very shaky and is bound to be demolished when the storms of life hit it. But if your faith rests on the character of Him who is the eternal I AM, then that kind of faith is rugged and will endure.” I so desperately want for every member of our congregation to have a faith that is rugged and endures to the end.

So, does this mean that the Christian life is merely one of sadness and suffering, that to be a Christian is to walk around with our head hanging low and telling everyone well life sucks, but this is just what it is, I guess? By no means. The picture we have of the early church in the Book of Acts shows us how the people of God stood out because they suffered greatly. Yet they were rejoicing and laughing more than everybody. How do they live like this? How do we live with joy when life gets extremely difficult? What hope do we have to rest in?

Well in Romans 8:18, we see this hope. This verse reads, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us.” Here is what Paul is saying to the faithful, to the righteous who suffer: “Hold on. Christ is worth all that you are enduring. All you have gained in Him is far greater than what you may lose because of Him. Hold on.” In this culture, you may feel tempted to give in and forsake your faith because if you did, you would have more opportunities open to you, more relationships available, better jobs with better pay, less scrutiny from your coworkers. You would have an easier time fitting in at school. Your relationship with your family could be restored. All could be yours if you just gave it all up. All of the suffering would be over. Just sell the vineyard and take the money, forsake the Word of God and take the world they gain. Isn’t that what everyone else is doing?

Brothers and sisters, hold on. The suffering is real, but so is the reward. Like Naboth, our faithfulness to God and His Word may not lead to earthly prosperity. In fact, it may lead to harder times in this life, but it ultimately leads to Christ which makes all earthly things grow strangely dim in the light of His surpassing beauty, worth and glory. We can take heart in the fact that God sees those who are oppressed, and justice is in His perfectly righteous hands. If you are in this room this morning and you are struggling to hold on, you are drinking the cup of suffering to the full right now, and just based off those prayer requests alone, I know some of you are drinking it fully this morning; take rest in the fact that His grace is sufficient in your weakness. That as tightly as you are trying to hold onto Him, He’s holding onto you far tighter. Those whom the Father has given, the Son He will not lose. This suffering is momentary. The reward will last forever.

Though it feels more than you can bear, just wait until you get a glimpse of the weight of glory that is prepared for you. Don’t give up your glorious inheritance for momentary relief. Cling to Christ. Don’t ever let Him go. Let Him take your burdens and receive His yoke, which is easy and light. One day, one glorious day, our faith will turn to sight, and we will gaze upon the infinite beauty of Christ and wonder how we ever thought about giving into the temptations of this world. But until that day comes, we trust in Him, and we hold to Him. “The righteous may suffer but their reward is eternal.”

The second thing I want you to see, which is the counter, is this. “The wicked may prosper but their reward is momentary. The wicked may prosper, but their reward is momentary.” As we read 1 Kings 21, there is an uncomfortable tension that arises out of this story. Ahab and Jezebel seem to have made out pretty well. They have the vineyard. Naboth is dead. Nobody is pursuing legal action against the wicked couple. Punishment is delayed. They have seemingly gotten away with it. What are we to make of it when the wicked who forsake God have no pain until death? They have all they need and seem to be insulated from the troubles of this world. They don’t have the same struggles and hardships that most men and women who follow Christ do. Despite their pride, violence, folly, malice and oppression, they prosper, and they succeed in all that they do. They are always at ease as they increase in their riches, as they casually mock God for not seeing and not knowing their evil.

But as we ask these questions and as we seek these answers, we must know that we are not the only ones who have ever wondered about this. In Psalms, Chapter 73, we see that this is the dominant question of the author, Asaph. Throughout the whole psalm, he’s struggling with the same question we do. Why do the wicked prosper while the righteous suffer? And finally, his confusion gives way to clarity. But only after he worships Yahweh in the sanctuary, only after he seeks refuge in God as his highest good is he able to discern the end of the wicked. And when he does, he comes to this conclusion. (I’m going to have these verses up on the screen.)

This is verses 16 through 20 of Psalm 73. Asaph says, “When I tried to understand all of this, it seemed hopeless until I entered God’s sanctuary. Then I understood their destiny.” He’s talking about the wicked. “Indeed, you put them in slippery places. You make them fall into ruin. How suddenly they become a desolation. They come to an end swept away by terrors like one waking from a dream. Lord, when arising, you’ll despise their image.” In other words, while the wicked may prosper for a moment, in the end their sorrows will multiply, their foot slides in due time. Having run after vanity, they dissolve into dreams. Having worshiped creatures, they fall under a curse, and in the end the bill comes due, and they have to pay.

The conclusion of the psalmist is that the wicked may prosper, but their reward is fleeting. Just as God sees the one who is oppressed, He equally notices the oppressor and He will not let them get away with it forever. But here is what is worth noting because I want to make this personal for us: Are we not all guilty of the same sins of Ahab and Jezebel? Maybe you’re here and you’ve made a living off of lying and manipulation, and it has worked well for you. You are financially stable and have all the earthly comforts you could ever want. Have we not all coveted others’ possessions or relationships in our own hearts and attempted to steal what wasn’t ours? Sure, you haven’t physically killed anyone, but you have lived a life full of bitterness and hatred, which in the Sermon on the Mount, Christ calls murder in your heart. Are we not all guilty of being full of pride because we have failed to recognize that all we have in our life is a gift from God, not a product of our own hard work?

So, because of that, we feel entitled to everything we have and everything we don’t have. And when we’re told no, we sulk and cry like Ahab because we can’t fathom the thought of somebody saying no to us. We let greed rule the outlook of our life when we live every day in survival mode, trying to make sure nothing we have is taken from us. If we read this story and know that Ahab and Jezebel are sinners worthy of judgment, then we have uttered our own sentences too. If you are ensnared in the trap of sin, and you have convinced yourself it’s good for you, or that God is pleased with your sin because you have gained worldly prosperity, please let Ahab and Jezebel be an example to you. You may be enjoying the stolen vineyard right now, but Elijah is right around the corner. For those who are living in unrepentant sin, you share the same fate as Ahab and Jezebel.

God, the righteous judge, sees your sin and will not allow it to go unpunished. Don’t mistake God’s delayed judgment at the end of this chapter for God’s canceled judgment. Delayed condemnation is still condemnation. Though God’s mercy is seen in His initial reservations of the punishment of Ahab, it is still going to come soon enough. As Pastor Jim said last week, “Don’t mistake God’s patience for God’s approval.” Your sin may have provided a fleeting gain, but the price is more costly than you could ever know. The dangerous thing about sin is that it never shows the price tag until you’ve purchased it.

So how are we to avoid judgment? How do we cleanse ourselves from the sins that we committed? How can we who are wicked and condemned be restored? And this leads us to our third and final point. “The wicked and the righteous have only one hope.” For the suffering saint who is a believer in Christ, Christ is the ultimate assurance that we will have eternal life, that the reward is waiting for us. We don’t have to wonder what will happen after death. We can know because Christ has died and resurrected; our salvation is secure in Him. Though we as Christians suffer now, we suffer with supreme confidence and hope. We know that in this world there will be trouble, but we take heart because Christ has already overcome the world. That hope is for those who are suffering is Christ.

He’s not just our savior. He’s also our example that we look to on how to run the race set before us with endurance. Our suffering is never for nothing. It is making glory all the more beautiful as we wait for our King to return. Because of Christ, and only because of Christ, we can endure by grace and grace alone. And for the condemned sinner who has not put their faith in Christ, Jesus offers us a way out of our deserved judgment.

As we read 1 Kings 21, it’s hard not to see the story of Christ foreshadowed in the life of Naboth. The tragic story of Naboth points forward to the day when Christ would come and not have His life taken, but He would freely give it. Like Naboth, Jesus was faithful to what the father commanded Him. Because of His faithfulness, He accrued enemies who sought to put Him to death. He was falsely accused. He was betrayed by His own people. He was taken outside of the city to pay a penalty He did not deserve. He was put to death in the middle of a religious holiday at the hands of the local authorities.

However, unlike Naboth, Christ did not stay dead. He came back from the grave. Unlike Naboth, the death of Jesus was the substitutionary death for all sinners who had put their faith in Him. The blood of Jesus is different from the blood of Naboth. The blood of Naboth cries out for vengeance. The blood of Christ cries out for forgiveness. His blood has made a way for our delayed judgment to become canceled judgment. Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Christ has paid the price for your sins and for my sins. When we come to Him in repentance, we can be forgiven and restored. Not only that, but we have His righteousness placed on us.

And if you’re here and you think that you are too wicked and broken to be saved by God, remember that the same God who showed kindness to Ahab, who is the worst of all the kings, is the same God extending grace to you this morning. He is far better at saving than you are at sinning. Because of Christ, we can sing verse two of one of my favorite hymns with confidence. We have the words up on the screen. It says, “When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of my guilt within, upward I look and see Him there who made an end to all my sin. Because the sinless Savior died, my sinful soul is counted free. For God, the just, is satisfied to look on Him and pardon me.”

Brothers and sisters, we have been pardoned by God because the sinless Savior died in our place. Be encouraged today. If you are suffering and trying to endure, put your hope in Christ. If you feel the weight of your sin, put your hope in Christ. It all leads back to Him. Because of Christ, we can set our hope and faith on the day when all the wicked will be judged righteously, and all the righteous, those who have trusted Christ will see Him in all His beauty with unveiled faces. Church, let’s pray:Jesus, I thank You that You are the King. Our God who has not abused those who are under Your authority, but You have rescued us. Jesus, because of the death of Christ, those who are suffering can have hope and can endure to the end. God, You are the means of grace that we need daily to keep running the race, though it is hard. Jesus, for those who are suffering, help them to trust in You this morning, to look to You this morning. And God, for those who are in this room, and they are feeling the weight of their sin, God, we know that we are wicked, and we know that we need a savior. The good news of the Gospel is that we have one. And He’s more glorious than we could have ever imagined. Jesus, I pray this morning that You would help them to look to You and put their faith, all of their faith, in You. Father, we lift all this up in Your name. Amen.