1 Kings 21
Naboth Not For Sale - Compromise or Conviction
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1 Kings 21
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. 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.”
But Naboth said to Ahab, “The Lord forbid that I should give the inheritance of my fathers to you!”
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. But Jezebel his wife came to him, and said to him, “Why is your spirit so sullen that you eat no food?”
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.’ ”
Then Jezebel his wife said to him, “You now exercise authority over Israel! Arise, eat food, and let your heart be cheerful; I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”
And she wrote letters in Ahab’s name, sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters to the elders and the nobles who were dwelling in the city with Naboth. She wrote in the letters, saying,
Proclaim a fast, and seat Naboth with high honor among the people; and seat two men, scoundrels, before him to bear witness against him, saying, “You have blasphemed God and the king.” Then take him out, and stone him, that he may die.
So the men of his city, the elders and nobles who were inhabitants of his city, did as Jezebel had sent to them, as it was written in the letters which she had sent to them. They proclaimed a fast, and seated Naboth with high honor among the people. And two men, scoundrels, came in and sat before him; and the scoundrels witnessed against him, against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, “Naboth has blasphemed God and the king!” Then they took him outside the city and stoned him with stones, so that he died. Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, “Naboth has been stoned and is dead.”
And it came to pass, when Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, that Jezebel said to Ahab, “Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money; for Naboth is not alive, but dead.” So it was, when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, that Ahab got up and went down to take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.
Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, “Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who lives in Samaria. There he is, in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone down to take possession of it. You shall speak to him, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Have you murdered and also taken possession?” ’ And you shall speak to him, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: “In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs shall lick your blood, even yours.” ’ ”
So Ahab said to Elijah, “Have you found me, O my enemy?”
And he answered, “I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do evil in the sight of the Lord: ‘Behold, I will bring calamity on you. I will take away your posterity, and will cut off from Ahab every male in Israel, both bond and free. I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, because of the provocation with which you have provoked Me to anger, and made Israel sin.’ And concerning Jezebel the Lord also spoke, saying, ‘The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.’ The dogs shall eat whoever belongs to Ahab and dies in the city, and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the field.”
But there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the Lord, because Jezebel his wife stirred him up. And he behaved very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites had done, whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.
So it was, when Ahab heard those words, that he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his body, and fasted and lay in sackcloth, and went about mourning.
And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, “See how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the calamity in his days. In the days of his son I will bring the calamity on his house.”
New King James Version (NKJV)
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Transcript
Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon RP Church in Southeast Iowa. We want to thank you for listening today, and we pray that you'll be blessed by both hearing God's Word as well as having it applied to your life and your heart.
Our message this morning, as you have just read, will be taken from First Kings 21. But you need to understand what's written on the front of your hand out. First Kings 21. “But Naboth said to Ahab, “The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.”” He said, “There’s a Biblical issue here. We're not just talking about your personal desire, your nice fruit garden and all that kind of thing.”
Well, there are many issues that bring compromise today among a Christian nation, which we often call ourselves. Albert Noller, a professor of Southern Baptist Seminary, spoke this way, “We face Titanic struggles on behalf of human life and human dignity against the culture of death and great evils. Of abortion, that's kill them in the womb. Infanticide, kill them soon after birth. And euthanasia, kill the old people that are in the aged people’s homes. We are in a great fight for integrity of marriage, as the union of a man and a woman.” And on and on he goes. And how they wish we would compromise. How they wish we would just go silent. I’m thankful to be a part of, what is often called, the Covenanter Church. And know that when the King came and told them that this is the way it will be, they stood up and said, “Not in this church. We will not compromise.”
And if you walk around the great fire churchyard in Scotland, you find a lot of grave stones, but over here is a tomb to 4000 covenenters, killed or martyred for their convictions. You find some labeled, some gravestones, which they signed covenants signed in their own blood. And they died. As he said, we must never underestimate what we're up against.
So we're going to take four things. The nature of compromise, what makes it so subtle? The personality of that compromiser to get those that are tempted by the people coming along to tempt them, get a biblical look at them. The price of non-compromise. See, what happened to Naboth when he would not compromise. And then we need to know what salary the compromise people got when they got the vineyard.
So let's hurry on, looking first of all at the nature of compromise. Compromise starts off on minor issues, always minor issues. Some would say lining out the Psalms would be a minor issue. And some might come along and say, “Well we ought to add the hymns.” That would be a minor issue too. It starts with the minors and moves right on to the majors. I've never actually done this. I hope that nobody, none of your children do, but they say if you take a frog and you drop them in boiling water, he'll jump right back out. But if you put him in cold water and turn on the fire, you can boil him to death by heating up the water.
It begins with minors. You say, “Where did my kid get those ideas? They picked up some of the minor things first. They read the books in kindergarten and first grade of having two daddies and the like. And on it goes. Begins in small issues. Well, small issues have big consequence.
Those of us here, many of us are acquainted with the fidelity of the Christian Reformed Church and the areas they're struggling with in their college up at Calvin in Michigan. The banner came into my presence with the announcement of the homecoming gatherings of their football game. And they had one for the 20 year graduates, they had one for the 10 year graduates, they had one for the 50th year graduates, and then over here was a special place for lesbians and homosexuals together, alumni of Calvin College. Minor? Some say it is. Well, a man by the name of Joseph Belz if you haven't met that name, editor of World Magazine, he said, “I'm gonna go up there and talk to the president of that college, because I know he is not of the conviction that's being demonstrated in that article.” And he turned to Mr. Belz and said, “The debate really got underway when the professors at Calvin and other folks in its sponsoring denomination got wobbly on the doctrine of scripture.” That's where the underpins went. Minor?
You come and say, “Well, Genesis may be true. Just a little minor area until it comes to the blood of the Lord Jesus. Like one of my coaches called it, “You believe in the slaughterhouse religion?” Can you take that pressure from your coach and still come out saying, “I sure do.” Then he went ahead to say about a college, he said, “They’re smart enough, they don't first of all go after the Bible department, but they start off out here in our science department. And they start on the subject of creation. And they get people to believe that God had to have a long period of time each day to create the world.”
My God created Adam and Eve, and they looked like they were 21 years of age. He didn't create babbling children crawling around on hand and knees. Surely He can make the world look like it took a 1,000,000 years, but do it in seven days, six days plus Sabbath. It starts on minor issues.
Second nature of compromise, it’d be better than your lie, it is believed. When a man by the name of Samson came to marriageable age, began to look for the young lady, he looked over the believers, he looked over the unbelievers, and then unbelievers seemed to be more pretty. So he started dating this one, and it wasn't long before he turned to his parents. And they said, “Can't you find among the believers one to marry?” And he turned to Delilah and said, “Get her for me. She proveth with me.” That’s the “me too” of Scripture. It starts off with the law. I'll give you a better vineyard. I'll give you a better job. I'll give you more money. The nature of compromise.
Just an illustration. Two little boys raced into grandma's house. They were coming home from the circus. They came in and they rang the doorbell, but they knew she wouldn't care, so they burst in there and here was Grandma standing there and said, “Grandma, we've been to the circus. We saw the lions and the tigers and elephants and the trapeze. And grandma, you're taking off your coat and your hat. Were you at something this evening?” “Yes,” she said, “I was at Prayer Meeting at the church.” And these little six and seven year old boys were dumbfounded for a moment until one of them answered for the majority of America, saying, “Grandma, if you ever went to a circus, you'd never go back to Prayer Meeting.”
Some people say that about the worship of the church. Do you ever go to the worship service? You won't like it. You're not comfortable there. The lie is believed.
Well, secondly, we’ve already read the Scripture of this one, that personality of the compromiser. How important to train, particularly young people, to look at the personality of the person trying to trick them. Eve, you see, didn't look carefully at Satan. Didn't look him in the eye and say, “I'm on the Lord's side. Get out of here.”
For the compromiser, for one thing, has leisure time. Like David, he begins to walk his balconies. And where in America do you find the leisure time more than on our university campuses? They got leisure time. They're there for lectures, but then they've got three hours to prepare for the next one. They got leisure time. And some of our big changes and protests come out of our university settings. They are being brainwashed by situation ethics. “Give me the vineyard because it's near my house. Isn’t that reason enough?” If I’m gonna be a neighbor here, why, you gotta know that I’m gonna come over and do this and this and I don't care if it's the Sabbath day or not. You've got to learn to be a part of the social group out here. It's near my house. Everybody's doing it, is another way to put that. I'll give you a better vineyard.
I had an older man on my session out there in Western Kansas where I served for 17 years. And, this young man came home from some kind of Christian graduate school in Canada and they began to discuss marriage. Man to man or woman to woman and on and on. And he said to Waldo, my elder, “You're too bigoted here. Read this book.” He said, “What is it?” “It's called situation ethics. You need to read it.” I said, “Waldo, what did you do?” He said, “I shoved it back. I just said, “I’ve already got a book on that. I had the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife. What to do in a situation. You lose your job. You lose a friendship. When the Potiphar’s wife says come lie with me and he goes to prison for three years.”” That’s situation ethics. Situation ethics of course is trying to get you to say, “It wouldn't make any difference. Do you keep the job and you might even be a testimony for Christ in it.” Don't kid yourself. Don't be buffaloed by situation ethics, which is part of the personality of the compromiser.
And the last, it's just an observation, notice what the world does when they run into a Naboth. Well, we saw it here, he came into the house having been 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 here, watch for the response. He laid down on his bed and turned his face and would eat no bread.
One of the interesting exposures that you read about, well, you may have not read about it, they probably hid it. But anyhow, the second George Bush was running for president. And one of the cynical news writers said, “Who's the man that has had the most impact on your personal life that you wish to be president that we've had here?” Without even winking his eye, he turned to the news gathered around here, he said, “That person is Jesus Christ. I gave my heart to Jesus Christ when Billy Graham came to visit with my father in his house. He said, “Let's take a walk, George.” And there, on that walk, he introduced me to Christ. I've trusted Him as Savior, and that's the person that's influenced my life more than anything else.” They stood there ready to write things down. Nobody knew what to say next. You probably didn't read about that. That's covered up pretty well unless you read Christian authors in Christian newspapers. They don't know how to respond. Take a look at the people who are trying to deceive you.
Well, third, the price of non-compromise. Let's turn to that portion, need your insert again here. The price of non-compromise verses eight through fifteen. “So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name, placed his seal on them, and sent him out to the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth’s city with him. In those letters she wrote, “Proclaim a day of fasting and seat Naboth in a prominent place among the people. But seat two scoundrels opposite him and then have them testify that he has cursed God and the king. Then take him out and stone him to death.” So the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth’s city did just as Jezebel directed in the letter she had written to them. They proclaimed the fast and seated Naboth in a prominent place among the people. Then two scoundrels came and sat opposite and brought charges against Naboth before the people, saying, “Naboth has cursed God and the king.” So they took him outside the city and they stoned him to death, and they sent word to Jezebel. Naboth had been stoned and is dead. As soon as 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 that he refused to give you.””
The Scripture tells the truth. Often we have a Daniel that gets out of the lions’ den. This Daniel gets eaten in the lions’ den. Often they have a Job that comes down, loses all of his family except him, and he has boils, but he turns and God prospers him by giving everything. But this man dies from the boil. We have to be ready if we do not compromise to face the consequences. And God warned us what the consequences could be. It could be suicide. Could be, if they had their way, those news commentators that heard George Bush give praise to Jesus Christ, might never have written about him again about anything. Just deadness.
The last one here on the area is the price of non-compromise. This is the one we're on, the price of non-compromising. He lost his reputation. “Naboth blasphemed the Lord and the King.” Is that happening in America today? One doesn't have to look too far to find a sad story of the folks, not back east, but over here in Nebraska. My wife and I, when I retired, we went up to visit Pastor Sullivan and his congregation up there, just an independent Baptist Church. Because that was the church that was written up by World Magazine as the pastor, and nearly 20 of the elders, were taken and put to prison because they wanted to have their own school in their church, and they said, “You can't have a school in your church. If you do we’ll lock up the doors and you can't get in for anything until next Sabbath morning, when you can come to worship.” They said, “We're standing with Moses on this, not with Aaron. We're not going to compromise this. And when it was announced that was gonna happen and Monday came, I don't know what the line of information is, but they spread it out to all of the Baptists in the area and they came in and they prayed all night the Lord’s day night until Monday morning at daybreak. And then they opened the doors of the church and there were the policemen. And there were 17 police cars lined up to take them all to jail. And they did. We need to know these people. We need to know the penalty that may come right here in the Midwest. It's not out there. It's not back east. It's among us.
The price may be reputation. “He's blasphemed God and the king,” that's what they said. You’ve blasphemed the king. You didn't obey the government in Nebraska. Well, we could argue all kinds of things, but, anyhow, he was put into jail. Interesting, of course, he always has spies showing up to worship. They said they were there to worship, and so he saw my wife and I as visitors and he said, “Would you stand up and introduce yourself?” I said, “I’m happy to.” I said, “I’m a covenanter Pastor, acquainted with what it is to deal with governments when sometimes they make rules that are wrong.” And you may be into the same situation. And he backed up and looked at us. And then he looked at the congregation and he said, “These men know what Lex Rex is all about.” Oh, I was glad I took Latin. Lex Rex, you know, law is king, not the king is king. That was the issue for Christ, Crown and Covenant. Christ is the King, not law is the king. It was an honor to be involved and recognized as one who with him stood because the law is king, and that’s the Naboth you have here. He said, “The law is king. Why doesn’t the king get out of my garden? It’s not yours. I’m ruled by the law of God, not by your request.”
Maybe the fame was gone. Fame very quickly goes in some circles, but not all circles. Fame could go very quickly in those that are prominent. The vice president's wife was introduced by CNN as teaching at a LGBT, anti-LGBT school. CNN commentator came on January 20th was outraged, he said, “The Emmanuel Christian School,” that’s in Indiana, near one of our congregations there, and the Pence’s are known to them as Christian folks. Their school applicants initialed a pledge to live a personal life of moral purity. Can you imagine doing that to a teacher today? Complete with the understanding that marriage means the uniting of one man and one woman in a single, exclusive covenant union and as delineated in Scripture. The commentary snarled on. Identifies moral conduct that would disqualify employees would be premarital sex, cohabitation, extramarital sex, homosexual or lesbian sexual activity, polygamy, transgender identity, and any other violation of the unique rolls of male and female. “The language is disgusting.” That's what he told us to believe, that the vice president's wife ought to be charged for teaching heresy in her school. Well, they aren’t closing down the school in Indiana. They aren’t coming to close down her school, they are saying, “You better get out of there if you plan to have your husband reelected.” It's among us, folks. It's getting closer. And I'm getting older and have time to read and catch up on some of these things.
The last is the wages of compromise. Let's find out what happens to Naboth. We’ll read that section in the area here. So look at the very last section. It's on the back of your bulletin there. The wages of compromise. “When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, he got up and he went down to take possession of Naboth’s vineyard. And the Word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, “Go down to meet Ahab king of Israel who rules in Samaria. He is now in Naboth’s vineyard where he has gone to take possession of it. Say to him, ‘This is what the Lord says, “In the place where dogs licked up Naboth’s blood, dogs will lick up yours. Yes, yours.”’” 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. I'm going to bring disaster on you.””
This is the last point, which is the wages of compromise. What does he get? Well, he hates the pastor, he hates the elders, they're always calling him bad names. They're inferring he's a sinner. That comes close to every one of our congregations at times. And Ahab said to Elijah, “Have you found me, oh mine enemy?” He sees the church as his enemy. He sees those who proclaim the Word of God as his enemy. That's the wage of the compromiser. He doesn't enjoy it because everybody at church is against the kind of lifestyle he wants to live. He wants variety, diversity, and, we're not anxious to be known as diverse in the terms that the homosexual wants to define us. Thus saith the Lord, “You have murdered.” Let’s find out how he dies, “You have murdered and also taken possession in the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth. The dogs will lick your blood.”
You see it? Any time we take and we compromise and we go into this lifestyle, we find that the Elijah of conscience meets us there saying, “This is just what my mother said, just what my father said would happen.” Always the Elijah of conscious there.
When I worked in a wheat mill handling a hundred pound sacs a few years ago, we had this much distance between the freight cars and little wooden bridge to carry the hundred pound sacks into and stack them in the freight cars. And I mean, I noticed that there was a big sign, made in a post this big, the sign this big, and it was just this high, “Insufficient clearance” was right there on the edge of that bend. Right there on the edge of that bluff where you walked into the car. What’d that mean? It meant anybody is aware that they hit the brakes and you have to go up the outside of the the freight car and hit the breaks up there and stop the car where you want to load your wheat, load your wheat sacs. It meant, that they're like the elder to the church. They stand there and they look at you and they say, “Your lifestyle has insufficient clearance down here to expect clearance on down the way, because on down the way you're gonna be squeezed to death because it'll hit grain elevator.” That's what God in his grace, has a preacher, has men that stand here before the flock of God and say, “Its insufficient clearance. We'll bump you off of this.” Learn to appreciate that. The wages of compromise. He'll blame it on the people. He'll say they're his enemy. He’ll try and get the crowd to think it, but God knows that you have heard this morning that it's not.
Well, his death. It goes all the way over to First Kings 22. I just have one verse there. “A certain man drew a bow at random and smote Ahab the king.” He said, “Well, I’ve got one left, let’s aim at the enemy.” “But it went down and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness.” Evidently got God said, “I'm gonna get that man.” Anybody that yells at those who are not for sale, in time, he will lose. “So whoever is on the Lord's side, let him come into me.” That's what Moses cried in the midst of a majority that said, “What difference does it make? It's minor.” “No”, he says, “Come and stand with me.” “The Lord forbid that I should give the inheritance of my father's unto you.” The inheritance of my father's is how I use my Sabbath Day. The inheritance of my father is how I relate to people, how I relate to women, how I relate to men. That's the inheritance of my fathers. I'm not going to give it up.
The poet put it this way, and I conclude, “It was a sheep, not a lamb, that wandered away in the parables Jesus told. A grown up sheep that had gone astray from the ninety and nine in the fold. On the hillside, out in the cold ‘twas a sheep, the good shepherd sought. And back to the flock, safe to the fold, ‘twas a sheep the good shepherd brought. And why for the sheep should we earnestly long and is earnestly hope and pray? Because there's danger if the sheep go wrong, they will lead the lambs astray. For the lambs will follow the sheep, you know. Wherever the sheep may stray. When the sheep go wrong it will not be long till the lambs are as wrong as they. And so, with the sheep we earnestly plead for the sake of the lambs today. If the sheep are lost what a terrible cost some lambs will have to pay.
Let us pray, “Father God, the Word of God is so clear that even those who are the simple may not be our graduates in education, but Father, You wrote it to the simple. You wrote it to us simple people. Lord, I pray for the lives that are on the wall of compromising, are selling out, maybe they're getting time and a half for overtime for working on Sabbath, who knows how they're selling out? But oh God, that you’d help us to see. We're looking for men and women who will come and stand beside Moses, who is on the Lord's side. And though the tribe of Levi was a very small minority, they were not for sale and they were victorious. Now, God, thank you for the opportunity of the assurance that through the blood of Jesus Christ, that no matter what compromise we have done in the past, we come leaning our full weight upon Calvary, we experience that new birth being shed by the blood of Jesus Christ. In His name we pray, amen.
Thank you for listening, to God’s Word for You, a ministry of Sharon RP Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. We pray that you would be blessed as you grow in your love for God, your love for His Word, as well as your love for His people. Until next week, God bless you.