To whom much is given...

While Ahab rushed to take possession of the land he had had stolen from Naboth, Elijah was having an encounter with God. Ahab may have thought that he could get away with this crime, perhaps if he had stayed at arm’s length others would bear the guilt and he would be spared. Maybe God didn’t even know. If he thought this he was severely deluded. Nothing escapes God’s notice; he understands our motivations as well as our finished acts. He knows exactly what is going on in our hearts and minds and he will ensure justice is done.

The last time Elijah was in Jezreel  Jezebel told him that she intended to kill him and he ran for his life. Since then he had been in the wilderness of Damascus waiting on God’s latest instructions. Now, God spoke to him and told him to go to back. Elijah obeyed, there was no fear this time, no disobedience he had rediscovered the confidence that came from knowing he was in the centre of God’s will. He went to Jezreel and he met Ahab in the vineyard that he had taken from Naboth.

The message that Elijah gave Ahab left no room for debate. God placed the responsibility for Naboth’s murder clearly on Ahab and he was going to be judged because of it. Jezebel would not escape and neither would any of his descendants. When Elijah arrived Ahab addressed him as his enemy, in a sense he seemed to say ‘not you again Elijah, what do you want this time?’ Elijah responded by saying his appearance was due solely to the evil that Ahab had committed.

Not long before Ahab may well have been congratulating himself on his latest acquisition but before he had even had a chance to plant his first row of beans everything was being taken from him. His ill-gotten gains were of no use to him now, not only would he lose the vineyard but he was to lose his life, his reputation and his inheritance in the land. Elijah declared that Ahab had sold himself to do evil. This was no momentary lapse; it was a calculated plan to do what he knew to be contrary to the will of God and what would result in the death of a righteous man and his family. Ahab had become a slave to sin. Ahab had sold himself to his sinful desires and now could no longer resist the impulses to do those things he knew to be wrong. He may have thought that he could act as if God did not exist, he may have believed his own skill and craftiness would protect him from eternal threat and he may have believed that he would be spared the judgment he deserved, but he was wrong. God had sought him out and sent Elijah to deliver the message. His sins and his past had caught up with him. What he had sowed he was about to reap.

Elijah didn’t hold back when he pronounced God’s judgment on Ahab. He was going to be swept away, not only him but his entire family, every descendant. Jezebel too would feel God’s wrath and she was going to suffer the further indignity of being eaten by the scavenging dogs that roamed the city. Elijah told Ahab that he had been guilty of not only provoking God’s anger by the sins he had committed and the evil practices he had introduced to Israel, but he had caused the nation to sin as well. By his marriage to Jezebel he had introduced idol worship and even if this was not a new thing to the people of Israel he, by his support of his wife had sanctioned the practice, in a sense giving the people a license to that which was contrary to God’s will. But these crimes were not new and it was only now, after the murder and dispossession of Naboth that God declared his judgment. The question that Elijah asked Ahab went straight to the heart of the matter: ‘have you murdered and taken possession?’ Naboth was stoned outside the city walls and left there to die, the roaming dogs would have licked up the blood that was spilt and now God is telling Ahab that the same fate will befall him.

God is always the champion of the weak and powerless and expects his people to act in the same way. But Ahab murdered the weak and took from him something that was entrusted by God himself. God’s righteous indignation had been stirred and now he told Ahab what the consequences of his evil were to be.Instead of protecting the citizens of the country and safeguarding their rights Ahab allowed his desires to so affect his judgment that he conspired in an act of murder. When God places men or women in places of privilege and power he expects great things from them, to whom much is given, much is expected. The fact that a person has been used in the past or enjoys status or position does not protect them from the consequences of their sin. God is ever ready to forgive our failure and sin but when we will not willingly turn from it he will hold us accountable. It is true that Ahab’s sin was at the extreme end of the scale but in his day a king had almost an unfettered right to do as he pleased the people and resources of his country. At least pagan kings did. God demanded a much different standard from those that represented him. Jezebel’s actions were almost understandable given the times and the circumstances in which she lived but Ahab had no such excuse. Whether the kings of the surrounding nations acted that way or not was irrelevant, Ahab was appointed by God to shepherd the nation of Israel in the ways of God. He had failed in his task absolutely and this failure was shown up by the way that he had treated Naboth, a loyal and righteous citizen who was powerless in the face of the King.

God often entrusts his people with privilege and power and he expects that they will use it in the defence of the poor and the broken hearted. He assumes that his people will assist the poor and bring relief to the needy. He is provoked when those who are called by his name do those things that add burdens to the struggling or oppress those who are powerless. God will hold to account those that bring his name into disrepute by their behaviour toward those in need of justice.