1 Kings 21 (Part 1) Bible Study (Naboth's Vineyard) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

First Kings Chapter 21, I believe that it will be helpful

1 Kings 21 · chapter mention

to remind ourselves of how First Kings chapter 20 ended in order

1 Kings 20 · chapter mention

for us to capture the essence of this new chapter that we are

going to delve into together. And so though you are going to

1st Kings 21, I want to read the last two verses of our previous

study, and then we will open up chapter 21 together.

So look at verse 42 of First Kings chapter 20.

1 Kings 20 · chapter mention

And he said to him being the prophet, speaking to Ahab.

And he said to him, thus says the Lord, because you have let

go out of your hand the man whom I had devoted to destruction.

Therefore your life shall be for his life and your people, for

his people. And the king of Israel went to

his house, vexed and sullen, and came to Samaria.

Remember, Ahab was called by God to completely destroy Ben Haddad

and the Syrian Army. He disobeyed by making a

covenant with Ben Haddad. A prophet comes on the scene and

says you disobeyed God. So it's going to be your life.

Your life is going to be the price for this disobedience.

Your people are going to feel the pain of your rebellion.

And the response to that was Ahab being frustrated, annoyed,

gloomy. He makes his way, dragging his

feet back into his home, and you would think that such a

declaration of certain judgement would drive him into his knees.

That though perhaps at first you were ruffled a little bit.

Because that's not the most pleasant news to get for your

future. You would at least sober up by

the time you got into your living room and got right with

God, or at least sought God for clarity, for mercy.

That's what you would think would follow this.

That's what you would think the sequence would be to this

profound judgement looming over a man who deserved it far before

this time. And instead, when you honor the

flow of thought, this is what you discover about Ahab.

Keeping this in mind as the backdrop in verse one of chapter

21, look at this with me now, Nabeth the Jezreelite had a

vineyard in Jezreel beside the palace of Ahab, king of Samaria.

And after this, Ahab said to Nabeth, give me your vineyard

that I may have it for a vegetable garden because it is

near my house. And I will give you a better

vineyard for it. Or if it seems good to you, I

will give you its value in money.

Now, if you looked at this as as an isolated scenario, you may

make different judgements. You may think that some time has

lapsed and now Ahab is thinking about other things.

But it's placement is confirming something very concerning about

this man's character. Again, what's the backdrop?

He received news that death is imminent, that he he's going to

pay a high price for turning his back on a clear command from

God. And what you read here is that

though judgement was pronounced against him, the very next thing

you discover is that he's preoccupied about a garden.

What's this man thinking about real estate.

What's this man thinking about? How to enlarge his estate, how

to advance in his personal projects.

I know you're tempted to do something, because I was tempted

to do the same. And let's jeer at this man.

What a fool. What an imbecile, what a

careless man. Your soul is hanging by a

thread. It's a damnation.

And what are you caught up by? How to make your little land a

little prettier? How to make your possessions a

little bit more glamorous? How to add glory to your house.

And again, you might be tempted to mock such a thing, but you

must be aware, as I am, that this demonstration of misplaced

priorities is not uncommon. How many millions today are

doing the same this very hour? Hopefully not you that they're

so concerned about these earthbound pursuits.

And even after being confronted by gospel truth, maybe even week

after week. Oh sure, they might get stirred

emotionally. They might have a an afternoon

of sobriety, of clarity. But it doesn't take much time

before they go back to their default.

And that is to make their little brief existence about little

trivial things while completely ignoring the confrontation of

truth that demands a decision. So Ahab here is not an anomaly.

Ahab here is a reflection of a universal human symptom that we

are easily distracted, that our concern for matters that are

eternal lasting a very short, very brief.

And Ahab here is proving something that is happening

across the world and throughout generations.

But now he's thinking about this and we read the offer that he

makes to this introductory man, Nabith, right?

We'd never heard of him before. You're not going to hear much

about him. I mean, he appears and he's

going to disappear in the same chapter, less than a chapter.

But he makes this offer. He extends this this invitation

for an exchange. And it's a pretty good one.

So here's this vineyard on the same St. as the palace, and he

just says, hey, look, I'll take your vineyard and I'm going to

even give you a better one. And if you don't want another

vineyard, name the price and I'll give it to you.

There's nothing dishonest about this offer.

There's nothing aggressive about it.

This is essentially profitable for Nabeth.

At least this is something that's sensible.

This is a good thing. Even his tone, it's admirable.

It's it's just somebody who wants to make a deal and you,

you and I might see it that way, but Nabith quickly is going to

show us that he does not see it that way.

In fact, he doesn't even entertain it.

He doesn't counteroffer. He doesn't do anything.

He just shuts it down right away.

So we read here in verse three, look at it with me.

But Nabith said to Ahab, the Lord forbid that I should give

you the inheritance of my father's full stop.

I'm not looking to have a conversation about this.

I'm not looking to discuss this. I'm not looking to hear, you

know, you would think that if he was, if he was unimpressed, that

he would again kind of go back and forth and bargain.

He doesn't do any of that. He squashes it right there and

then. And the question that we have to

ask is why there's nothing inherently sinful about this.

Or is there? This is why you and I need to

know the Old Testament. And we get a clue from Nabith's

answer. What does he say in verse three,

the Lord forbid? Is he just invoking the name of

the Lord carelessly? No.

He is aware of what God's law has to say about this very

matter. So if you want to know what

God's law has to say about this, here's one verse among many.

Numbers 36, verse seven. And this reveals something about

this precious man named Nabith. Numbers 36, verse 7, This is

Numbers 36:7

what the Lord says. This is what He established for

the people of Israel even before they entered into the Promised

land. It says here.

Numbers 36, seven, The inheritance of the people of

Israel shall not be transferred from one tribe to another, for

every one of the people of Israel shall hold on to the

inheritance of the tribe of his Father's.

They can't get any more clear than that God had designated

that whatever land belonged to tribes were supposed to remain

among those tribes. You're not supposed to transfer,

make sales. It's supposed to remain among

your specific clan. And this prohibition applies to

Ahab and Nabith. Nabith understood that what this

suggests is illegal, and he's not going to entertain it.

He's going to immediately shut this thing down.

And instead of expanding more about this law and the wisdom

behind it and how we can apply it, we, we did a whole study in

Joshua. There's a lot of conversation

about real estate and how that applies spiritually, at least in

the new covenant. I want to take the time to

explore what this reveals about Nabeth.

Again, you don't get his lineage.

All you get is his name, the area of his residence, the first

words recorded words at least in Scripture, and his strong stance

against illegitimate allurement to disobey God.

Do you remember what the Lord told Elijah when Elijah felt

like he was the only prophet standing for the truth?

He already learned that there were other prophets being hidden

by Obadiah, but then the Lord decided to highlight even a

greater truth, that there is a remnant of how many who have not

bowed their knee to bail, nor have given their mouths to kiss

him. Here's one of the 7000.

And what's so impressive about this man's faithfulness is when

you consider the wider context that Israel was an apostate

nation. Yes, they got a little taste of

revival through Elijah's ministry there in First Kings

18, but what makes it even more impressive is where this

faithful man demonstrated his loyalty to the true and living

God. He's in Jezreel.

We learned that that's where the palace of the apostate king and

queen was placed. And not only that, I mean, it's

one thing to live in Jezreel, but you're living on the same

St. as the guy, the same St. of the guy who made it very clear

and known on a national level that he does not.

He does not like people who are exclusive to worship the true

and living God. In fact, they've demonstrated

that by killing prophets. And yet this man, without

blinking, without hesitation, has the audacity to invoke the

name of the Lord before this king.

But this man's faithfulness stands out not just in his

willingness to be faithful in times of persecution, but to

remain steadfast in a time of potential prosperity and

opportunity. Yeah, because Ahab doesn't show

up to his front door threatening to take off his head if he

doesn't surrender his vineyard. He offers him a better one.

I mean, think about it. Can you imagine?

I mean, these days, people don't make much of national leaders.

I get it. But but pretend even with even

with leaders. OK, let's just talk about a

renowned person, like a internationally known figure

showing up at your door, showing up personally at your door with

a little entourage and you possessing something that they

are interested in and them making a deal with you is on the

table for something. They might feel the pressure of

that they they might feel just the natural pressure to budget

in because of this affluent individual or this prestigious

man. But more than that, it's the the

the offer. I mean, again, he doesn't

threaten him. He says, I'm willing to give you

something even better than what you have.

You can enhance your life. Whatever you're enjoying now,

you can enjoy it even more. I can make it happen.

I just want this one because it's near to my backyard.

So you have a lot here on the table.

But you know what I see about Nabin?

He refused. Still, you know why?

Because he understood that to be materially wealthy at the cost

of spiritual blessing is absolutely foolish.

I wish most people would think that way, that to be materially

wealthy at the price of spiritual loss is not even in

the conversation. It's absolutely foolish to this

man. And guess what?

It's not just foolish to Nebith. It's foolish to somebody else

who's much more important than this man.

You remember when Jesus gave a sermon and somebody responded to

it? And this gives me great comfort

because it shows me that even when Jesus preached, people were

not listening sometimes. Let me prove that to you in Luke

Luke 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12. Go to Luke 12, and I want you to

see this with your own eyes. Luke 12.

I was going to originally read just a couple of verses from

this text, but it's Friday night.

Where do we have to go? Matthew, Mark, Luke 12, Luke 12

and look here at verse 13. Now Jesus talks about hell

before this. He talks about not fearing for

your life. He talks about God taking care

of you. He talks about persecution and

trusting yourself to the Holy Spirit who will teach you in the

very hour what you have to say. Brilliant eternal truths are

being offered here and here's what you read in verse 13.

Someone in the crowd said to him, teacher, tell my brother to

divide the inheritance with me. Jesus isn't teaching about

inheritances and the Lord of glory discerns exactly where

this question is coming from. So look how the Lord responds in

verse 14. But he said to man who made me a

judge or arbitrary over you, and he said to them, So now he's

using this moment now as a lesson for the whole crowd.

Take care and be on your guard against all covetousness.

For one's life does not consist in the abundance of his

possessions. How many people make their lives

just about that? Not just about possessions, but

abundance of possessions, expansion of possessions,

updated possessions. Jesus is saying clearly to you

and I hey, be on guard for that kind of ambition being your

reason for life. Then he gives a lesson, verse 16

And he told them a parable saying the land of a rich man

produced plentifully. And he thought to himself, what

shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my

crops. And he said, I will do this.

I will tear down my barns and build larger ones and there I

will store all my grain and my goods.

Sounds like Ahab a little bit right wanted to expand his his

crops and his garden. Verse 19 and I will say to my

soul, so you have ample goods laid up for many years.

Relax, eat, drink and be merry. Look what God says about that

kind of an attitude. But God said to him, fool this

night your soul is required of you and the things you have

prepared whose will they be now pause.

Is there anything inherently wrong with projects like this

and advancing in business and promotions?

Not necessarily, but revisit the way this man spoke and realize

that God is excluded from his thinking.

Go back again to verse 18 and he said, I will do this.

I will tear down my barns and build large ones, and there I

will store all my grain in my goods.

And I will say to my soul, I, I, I, I, I just me, myself, and I,

that's what my life is all about.

And the Lord interjects and he says, you're a fool.

Oh yeah. In people's eyes, you might be

successful, you might be clever, you might be well off, but

you're a fool because this very night your soul is required of

you. But look what he says here in

verse 21. It's not just this man in this

parable. So is the one.

So anybody. So is the one who lays up

treasure for himself and is not rich toward God profound?

I know people. I know a lot of people who

believe in God. I know a lot of people who serve

God. Who do you know that is rich

toward God? I think that's a category in

itself. Rich toward God.

Implying what? That you can be poor in your

relationship with God. You can be just giving the

bottom of the barrel toward God. You know, if my heart is moved

to any kind of action, if anything grabs my attention, it

should for you as well is a person who's not rich in this

life but rich spiritually. You know what I mean?

What does it mean for someone to be rich toward God?

I think it means a lot of things.

I think it includes people who are rich with testimonies

because they've invested in prayer.

I believe it's in part Colossians 316 where we're told

there, let the word of Christ dwell in you.

How richly, richly. There's some people that I

talked to when they talk about the Scriptures, it's, it's like

John Bunyan. They said to John Bunyan, if you

cut him, he would believe the Bible.

He'd believe the Bible. And so I look at this and I

think there are so many people in this, in this life who are

stimulated and inspired by those.

You know, you see it on YouTube, these guys who are motivational

speakers and knock you over the head to get disciplined so you

can get rich or die trying. That doesn't move me an inch.

In fact, most of it is cringe actually.

You know what does move me though?

When a man in humility, when a man without advertising himself

is so rich toward God, he just oozes.

He oozes the fragrance of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I want that. I want my life to be about that.

I want to be as close to him as possible.

And here you have Nabith, who has an opportunity to get

richer, but at the expense of disobeying God.

And he says I'd rather keep my smaller vineyard if it means

that I'm going to bless my Lord. And unfortunately, Ahab thought

the exact opposite. So let's come back to our main

text in first Kings 21. And what do we read here?

The reaction of Ahab. You and I are inspired by

Nabith, but not this king we read in verse four.

And Ahab went into his house, vexed and sullen because of what

Nabeth the Jezreelite had said to him.

For he had said, I will not give you the inheritance of my

father's. And he laid down on his bed and

turned away his face and would eat no food.

Is this a king? Sounds like a child, right?

This is a temper tantrum here. So this man again drags his feet

back into his palace. He curls up in a little ball in

his royal bedroom. And when his servants called for

dinner, he says, no, I'm not eating dinner.

And this is the ruler of a nation.

And when we consider it, meditate on it, as funny as it

may be, it's actually revealing about something deeper.

Don't you find it strange that somebody who has so much feels

so strongly about not receiving something so little?

This man is way advanced in comparison to Nabeth in terms of

possessions, prestige, power, and yet he's not content.

You know what you learn from this verse 4?

Contentment ultimately is not found in sustaining stuff.

Is it because you can have. You can be a king and still not

be satisfied. You can be royalty and still

pout. You can still feel that vacuum

in your heart sucking any pleasure you think it's lasting

and the next day it's gone. Because contentment was not

designed to be unlocked in the physical.

And then you look at this and you compare it to what Nabeth

and what he is totally content to remain as he is, to keep what

he has. Why?

Because he has something Ahab doesn't have, a relationship

with the Lord and enjoyment of the truth.

He has his roots established in something that Ahab had a

opportunity to but refused. And So what we have here is

again, a man who teaches us that if you pursue things apart from

God being primary, you're never going to be settled.

Never. And so we've seen Ahab do this

before, have we not? We read it in the beginning of

this study. Go back to the last verse of

chapter 20, verse 43. And the king of Israel went to

his house vexed and sullen and came to Samaria.

And are you seeing him doing the same thing in verse 4, vexed and

sullen. What's what's the similarities

between these two responses that a have had in a short amount of

time? Yes, vexed and sullen, but as a

reaction to what the will of the Lord being known to him.

So back in the end of chapter 20, a prophet said thus says the

Lord, and then you have Nabeth saying what the Lord forbid it.

So both times Ahab's reflex is to God's wishes being known to

him and him being disappointed by it because it didn't honor

his wishes. And this is the lesson about

Ahab at this point. He shows us frustration with

what God revealed. And that's a dangerous place for

your heart to remain in. Listen very carefully, my

precious brother and sister. Offence is a breeding ground for

the seed of temptation to flourish.

Offence is the breeding ground for the seed of temptation to

flourish. If you're not careful.

Aggravation, bitterness, unforgiveness.

Towards people, sure, but towards the Lord?

Mainly when you're unpleased with how Providence has LED you

thus far. If you do not challenge that, it

can eventually impair so much about you, especially your

judgment, which will leave you more attracted to sinful

suggestions to try to solve and to heal your disappointment.

Do you know what I mean by that? When you live long enough

serving the Lord and something happens maybe once, maybe more

than once, and it doesn't line up with your blueprint.

Temptation becomes stronger when you allow your heart to remain

in that place of unmet expectations or God's will

seeming to make life more difficult for you.

If you harbor that you're creating unknowingly, but I'm

making it known now a foothold for Satan saying what do you

mean? Here's what I mean, because in a

moment you're about to read, Nabeth is going to have his life

taken from him unjustly by the order of royalty.

But it's not going to come from Ahab's thinking.

It's going to come from his wife, Jezebel.

When does Jezebel appear on the scene?

We haven't seen her in a bed. She appears on the scene when we

find Ahab with his heart prepared for her scheme, a

scheme that will apparently provide the remedy to medicate

his disappointment. So what do we read in verse

five? Look at it with me, please.

But Jezebel, here she is. But Jezebel, his wife came to

him and said to him, why is your spirit so vexed that you eat no

food? And he said to her, because I

spoke to Nabeth the Jezreelite and said to him, give me your

vineyard for money, or else if it please you, I will give you

another vineyard for it. And he answered, I will not give

you my vineyard. Let's just pause there for a

moment. What about Ahab's explanation

stands out to you look at it again compare it to the actual

conversation that he had with the man and you're going to

notice a difference. Yes, very good.

He omits the Lord from the whole thing.

Look at it again. Look at verse seven.

It says here verse six rather than he said it because I spoke

to name of the Jesuit and said to him give me your vineyard for

money or else if it please I'll give you another vineyard for

any answered. I will not give you my vineyard.

Is that what Nabith said to him? The Lord forbid, the Lord forbid

that I give you what belongs to my father's.

So what do you have here? You have a man who is righteous,

who stands for righteousness, who vocalizes his righteous

conviction. And you have a wicked king who

does what Something you should expect as the righteous

misrepresent him, misrepresents him.

Settle it in your mind today, please, that if you're going to

live for the Lord, if you want to live with the conviction of

truth driving every part of your life, not everybody is going to

agree with it. Not everybody's going to praise

it. In fact, people won't see it at

all and will mischaracterize you.

You're doing the right thing. You're saying the right thing,

You're standing for the right thing.

But what we see here is a reminder that there are people

who don't care. They don't, they don't care that

you serve God. They don't care that you're

living a consecrated life. They don't care that you are

trying to honor the Lord and honor holiness.

They could care less. And I'm reminded with what

happened here to what happened with the Lord Jesus.

Here's what I'm trying to prepare you for.

Serve God long enough and you can expect to be misunderstood.

You can expect to be slandered. You can expect to be lied about.

Happened to Nabeth. More importantly, happened to

the Lord Jesus. Answer this for me please.

When Jesus was cornered in question about giving taxes to

Caesar, Caesar, what was his answer?

Get to Caesar. What belongs to Caesar and who

God? What belongs to God?

Now many people know by heart, virtually every Christian or

churchgoer knows that answer. Even the world knows that famous

phrase. But what many people don't

remember is what people did when Jesus said that down the line

when he was on trial. Let me remind you from Luke 23

verses one and two, we've touched on this before in our

study of Mark when we touched on that very passage, but maybe

you've never seen this before. But again, just because you're a

part of Club Jesus, I want you to be prepared for every

potential attack let down. Shocking things may be shocking

to you, but it shouldn't if you're familiar with the truth.

Look at Luke 23 one and two. Jesus said that so clearly.

And notice what happens when He stands before Pilate.

Then the whole company of them arose and brought him before

Pilate, and they began to accuse him, saying we found this man

misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to

Caesar. Did Jesus forbid them from doing

that? Give to Caesar what belongs to

Caesar. How did they misrepresent him?

He's actually telling us and he's forbidding us to give

tribute to Caesar. So even the righteous, even the

Son of God himself have had his words taken out of context,

misrepresented, lied about. It's part of the package.

It's part of the package. And if you're not going to

soothe your heart, your soul, and knowing that there's one day

coming where the Lord Jesus is going to vindicate everything,

these kind of things will weigh you down in your joy, in your

service. So, so be prepared.

Be prepared for that and when it happens, learn how to take that

and bring it before the Lord, saying, Lord, you know me.

One famous minister said it this way.

I left my reputation where I left my soul in the hands of

God. Navith was misrepresented.

Jezebel asked this question about her husband who was

throwing a little temper tantrum gives us this honest answer, at

least an incomplete one. How does she respond to that?

Look at verse seven. You would think that if Jezebel

was a Good Wife, which she isn't far from it.

You would think if she was a helpmate, the way God designed

wives to be, that her response would be something like, well, I

just sat back today and thought if she was a holy woman, if she

was an if she was godly, she had just a, a, a hint of the fear of

the Lord. Perhaps her answer would have

been Ahab. You know what the the law of the

Lord says concerning one tribe giving their land to another.

This doesn't apply to you. I know you want it, but this is

prohibited. You have to trust God's wisdom

above your desires. He would think that she might

add to that by saying and besides that, Ahab, you already

have so much. Instead of focusing on the

things that you don't have, look at all the things that you've

been lavished with. Look at your robe, look at your

throne. Look at this position that God's

elevated you to. You would think that she would

help him in this way. Instead, she adds gasoline to

the fire of greed and covetousness.

Verse 7 and Jezebel, his wife said to him, do you now govern

Israel? Arise and eat bread and let your

heart be cheerful. I will give you the vineyard of

Nabeth, the Jezreelite. God says it doesn't belong, but

you know what she's saying. I'm going to give it to you.

It doesn't matter what God said. God's not even in that

conversation, but indirectly she is saying that, you know, I was

reading this and I thought to myself, there are many ways to

categorize relationships there, There are many ways for you to

be able to frame your relationships in life.

One of my favorite filters to apply, I brought up over the

years because I think it's one of the most helpful ones, puts

language to how you know what to invest in and what to be aware

of and what to cut off completely.

One of my favorite filters that I apply is this.

Does this person help me fight my temptation or do they fuel my

temptation? I ask that question all the

time. Like when I spend more time with

this person, do I leave that meeting?

Do I leave that time? Do I leave that outing with my

spirit strengthened or with my flesh more flared up than when I

than when I came? Yeah, that's just one filter

among many. Does this person, do they help

me fight for my sanctification? Do they inspire me to be more

godly? Do they do they help me?

Not even directly, just just their presence and the way they

think? Do they help me look to and rely

on the Word or do I get more carnal?

Do I feel my old man resurrecting the more I linger

and engage with them? Have you ever thought about that

with your relationships, your friendships, the potential

spouse that you're talking to? Have you ever thought about

that? If you don't apply such filters

in life that are derived from the Word of God, then I promise

you problems down the road. Problems that you could have

avoided because such a question will help you again.

Know what to cut off know. Know what to limit.

Know what to embrace and invest in in terms of horizontal

relationships. Because you know what's going to

happen to Ahab. Ahab is about to fall off the

same Cliff that many kings before him have and that is

receiving the wrong counsel. This is going to be the turn

around for Ahab's life right here.

We're going to see it in the rest of the chapter.

We're not going to cover that today, but Ahab is going to fall

in the same trap that many notable kings of Israel have by

what? Receiving wrong advice to make a

decision that will be detrimental.

So it just keeps appearing over and over again, and it's no

different here. And unfortunately, the person he

is hearing this from is his wife.

So she's pretty inescapable, right?

Some people jokingly say that back in chapter 20, Jezebel must

have been on vacation because for Ahab to obey those two

instructions from the prophets means that she must have been

out of town. Because here she is again.

It doesn't take her very long to meddle in his affairs and to

cause more problems for him. So his wife.

Here's a realistic picture. Really.

I know their royalty. I know they have to make

decisions that you, I might not have to make, but you're going

to make decisions in life. Here's a realistic picture of

what it means to be unequally yoked.

You have a man who knows better, and he marries a Phoenician

Pagan Princess. Remember, she's not a Jew.

He marries her. And she grew up as royalty,

observing the way her father and her family did things governing

a nation. And when she hears that Ahab

doesn't enforce his authority, it's it's strange to her, like

she has a different way of thinking about things.

So Ahab, though he asked and though he doesn't get it, he has

enough sense to be like, I don't have any authority to demand

this. So I'm just going to go back and

pout about it for a few days. Just about hears this.

And she goes, don't you govern Israel?

Come on, you're the king here. Do something about it.

Where did she get that idea from?

Surely her upbringing, where she came from, Do you now govern

Israel? In other words, why are you

letting this happen since you are the ruler of this people?

Remember Jesus spoke about how Gentiles rule over their people,

right? They lorded over them and he

tells the people who belong to his Kingdom.

That's not how you lead. But here's you have a perfect

example of a Gentile woman who can't fathom a king letting

somebody determine what he desires.

So that's just another, again, one of many examples of what

happens when you get linked up with the wrong lady, brothers,

when you get linked up with the wrong guy, ladies.

So what happens? She says, I'm going to take care

of it. You know, it's not going to be

good. I mean disastrous.

This woman's wicked. You're going about to find out

how wicked she is. Look at verse eight of our main

text. So she wrote letters in Ahab's

name and sealed them with his seal.

And she sent the letters to the elders and the leaders who live

with Nabeth in his city. And she wrote in the letters,

proclaim a fast and set neighbor at the head of the people and

set two worthless men opposite him and let them bring a charge

against him, saying you have cursed God and the king, then

take him out and stone him to death.

What's concerning about that? There are many, many things.

I mean, this is diabolical. This is absolutely horrible, but

the most horrific thing about it is, if you read carefully,

Jezebel, this hater of God, this hater of the truth, is

implementing the law of God to accomplish her murderous plot.

How do we know that? What clues in here do we do we

see are linked to God's truth, at least in the old covenant?

Any ideas? OK, when you blasphemy against

God, according to Leviticus 2416, it's punishable by death.

It's a capital crime in the old covenant.

Yes. Anything else?

Two witnesses, right. So she she even goes to the

extent of honoring the protocol of making a legitimate

accusation by saying make sure there are two of you worthless,

but at least there's two of you one more.

It's a it's a little bit more difficult.

Yes, yes. So even that, and that's what we

find in Leviticus. Absolutely.

So even the way that the capital crime should be punished is

biblical. The fast, absolutely.

The fast. So what you have here is her

calling for a fast in this specific region for the purpose

of disclosing or receiving divine clarity about supposedly

a sin issue in the area. And so she implements a fast.

She calls for these two witnesses and she, she wants to

do all of that so she can get to this, this punishable thing

where she can execute this man unjustly.

It's wicked. And here's what you and I have

to remember. Evil people, evil people feel

very comfortable enacting their iniquity by weaponizing the word

of God, by implementing the Word of God, by applying the word of

God, by quoting the word of God. Evil people are very, very

comfortable taking God's truth and using it in a way to

manipulate others so that they can receive something at your

expense. Listen to this.

If it was true in ancient times, do you think that Satan's

strategy has changed in modern times?

No. There are too many gullible

Christians even today who are disarmed just because somebody

is quoting the Bible. It's it's not enough for

somebody to quote the Bible. It's not enough.

For somebody to hold the Bible. It's not enough.

What are they saying about the Bible?

How are they interpreting the Bible?

How are they applying the Bible? How are they honoring the

context of the Bible? And so this is what we see here.

We see a woman, Jezebel, giving us a warning that there will

always be those who interpret and apply Scripture wrongly to

harm God's people. Nabeth is a servant of God.

And if you think that this is an isolated thing, if you think,

brother, you're kind of you're kind of drawing too much out of

this, let me remind you that this is not the final place

where Jezebel is mentioned. She's not she's not going to

just end here in first and 2nd Kings.

Did you show up somewhere else? Tell me where she shows up.

Revelation. So in the final book of of

divine Scripture, Jezebel shows up not reincarnated.

Let me show you what I mean. Revelation chapter 2.

Revelation 2 · chapter mention

This is one of the seven churches that were addressed by

the Lord Jesus Christ. This church, Church of Thyatira,

the Lord Jesus, says something quite interesting to this one

particular local assembly, and it goes to show that our study

of Jezebel is much more applicable and relevant than we

might have imagined. Look at verse.

Let's read from the beginning. Why not?

Verse 18 of chapter 2? And to the Angel of the church

in Thyatira, write the words of the Son of God, who has eyes

like a flame of fire, and who has feet, and whose feet are

like burnished bronze. Verse 19.

I know your works, your love and your faith and service and

patient endurance and that your latter works exceed the first

positive. That's, that's quite a

commendation. Like I recognize that you're a

loving church. I recognize that you're faithful

in some ways. I recognize that you're, you're

busy, like there's ministry happening and, and not that your

works are actually exceeding, You're actually growing in your

efforts. You're actually growing in your

ministry. You're actually growing in your

impact. That's a good church.

Many people would love to pass their church like that, but

notice verse 20. But I have this against you.

Scary words, but I have this against you that you tolerate

that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is

teaching and seducing my service servants to practice sexual

morality and to eat food, sacrifice to idol.

It's very unlikely that somebody, even at this time,

decided to call their daughter Jezebel.

It's very, very unlikely that this is her literal name.

It's more likely that this is symbolic, that Jezebel had

developed such a reputation for being evil and being an agent

for the Kingdom of darkness and affecting the Kingdom of God,

that whoever this woman was, a real woman in the church

resembles Jezebel in her tactics, in her attitude, and in

her influence. So she's one like Jezebel and

Jezebel, this woman here, notice she calls herself a prophetess.

She's not a true prophetess. Self appointed, self-proclaimed,

self-made prophetess. And what is she doing?

Manipulating the people of God through teaching.

She's in a teaching position, which is a problem on its own,

right, isn't it? It is because God has called for

the teaching role in the church to be for men.

And so you have a woman who's being tolerated as a teacher in

a local church already a flag and more of a flag is that she

is teaching the people through her teaching, whatever her

doctrine is, it's encouraging people to practice sexual

immorality and to eat food, sacrifice idols.

It's very likely that her doctrine was this form of free

grace. Just do what you want.

God will forgive it. It's very, very likely that's

something along those lines. But notice what her teaching is

doing. It's not impacting the world.

It's not giving people false assurance of salvation.

Notice again, and it's teaching and seducing who?

My servants, The Lord is very intentional in the way He

speaks. My servants, my people are being

duped by this woman. So that same spirit that, that

that persuasive, intimidating, authoritative spirit that you

find in First Kings chapter 21 and throughout many chapters is

1 Kings 21 · chapter mention

found here in Revelation chapter 2.

Revelation 2 · chapter mention

And so this is what you and I have to be mindful of, that

there will be people who will take God's word.

And if you're not discerning, if you, if you don't use this as a

filter, if you don't, if you do not like the brains who even

tested Paul after his sermon, then even God's servants can be

tricked. That's a dangerous reality.

But let's come back to First Kings.

We're not going to cover this whole chapter, in case you were

wondering, but we come back to First Kings.

We notice that after the scheme was conjured up, it is executed

and there's something quite insightful about the way the

Holy Spirit words it. First Kings 21 let's go to verse

11. And the men of his city, the

elders and the leaders who lived in his city did as Jezebel sent

word to them as it was written in the letters that she had sent

to them. They proclaimed the fast and sat

neighbor that the as the head of the people and two worthless men

came in and sat opposite him and the worthless men brought his

charge against Nabeth and the presence of the people saying

Nabeth curse God and the king. So they took him outside the

city and stoned him to death with stones.

Then they sent to Jezebel saying Nabeth has been stoned he is

dead. I'm not sure if you see it, but

when I read these set of verses over and over again, a certain

word surfaced for me at least. I don't know if you see it as

well, other actors in this story, Nameless, but very

important still. Who are they worthless?

And it's a second word. Who worthless?

Who men, Men. And not just the two worthless

men that we find here in verse 13, but the men of verse 11.

Look at the beginning of verse 11 again.

And the men of his city, the men of his city, the elders and the

leaders, assuming they're all men.

We've been talking a lot about the wickedness of Jezebel, and

rightfully so. But Jezebel's wickedness is not

the only problem in this whole predicament.

I argue that you have to consider the combination.

Jezebel's wickedness is one thing, but you also have the

weakness of men, the weakness of men, these men here, and the

main guy, Ahab, who is equally weak.

So you have a weak husband, a weak king, a weak leadership in

this particular city, weak men in that city, weak men.

Can I tell you something about a wicked society?

If society is prevailing in wickedness, in great part it's

the outcome of weak men in that society.

If if wickedness is prevailing in a culture, I can tell you

that that's a symptom of something more significant in

that culture. You have weak men.

Weak men, He's saying, what's the connection?

Because when a man does not honor their God-given role as a

gatekeeper and the spheres that he's been called to lead, namely

the local church in the house, you should expect nothing less

than problems to ensue. And overtime, the issues that

arise in those areas will bleed into the wider culture.

So I want to think about it. This whole thing, this whole

idea of chaos, chaos as a result of roles that got designated for

men and women not being honored, goes back to the beginning.

How did this whole thing even start?

What am I speaking about? The mess that we're in, this

universe being impacted by sin. How did this all start?

You had a woman who was being spiritually seduced by Satan,

and not just her being seduced by Satan, but you had her

husband standing idly by and letting it happen.

People forget that part of the whole story.

Is that any wonder why over and over in the New Testament, we're

told about Adam being held responsible, Adam being the

federal head. So as as Satan is having a

conversation with Eve, we read that Adam is there passively.

And this is something for you and I to consider.

Because the chaos that entered into the garden and overall our

world is in great part the fruit of a man and a woman who did not

recognize and honor what God had called them to do separately and

together as men and women. That's why feminism is so

destructive, because the message of feminism, supposedly it's

uplifting woman, right? It's not uplifting women.

It's demeaning woman one and two, it's demonizing men because

in the pursuit of trying to exalt and champion women, what,

what are they doing? They're trying to erase the

gender roles. And now what you have is not men

being encouraged to lead and to protect and provide, but to step

aside and that woman take what God called to be for men to

honor and observe. So whether you delete the idea

of a role or you replace it and you switch the the actors, both

are going to result in the same thing.

And no matter how much the culture might push it and

advertise it and make psycho analytical arguments for it, God

has. God has put in the fabric of the

world a law. So no matter what we do, what

switcheroos we make, what clever ideas, no matter how progressive

we want to be, if we don't honor what God says, we're never going

to know the blessings and you're only going to have issues.

So what are men called to do? They're called to be exemplary

leaders, models. They're called to be sacrificial

providers. They're called to be ready for

this word, strong protectors. Yes, men are supposed to have

backbones. Men are supposed to, at the

right time, wisely protest evil when it knocks on the door of

your house, when it tries to creep into the church, and we're

supposed to give our voices when we see it happening in society.

But you don't have these men protesting Jezebel.

They roll over. Jezebel says that we'll do it.

Sure. What would have happened if they

sided with Nabeth? Because, you see, it doesn't

take all men. All it takes is for a majority

of men, and this is something for you and I to consider

because this is what we're seeing under attack in our day.

More and more are we seeing it attack and we're seeing it in

the church, this blurring of distinctives.

All in the name of what equality?

All in the name of what justice? All in the name of what love.

Call it what you want. If it doesn't line up with God's

Word, I'm not interested in it. I'm going to trust God's wisdom,

and that's what Nabeth did. He trusted God's wisdom, not

knowing that this was planned against him.

So what do we read? These men come, these weak,

worthless men. Verse 15, As soon as Jezebel

heard that Nabeth had been stoned and was dead, Jezebel

said to Ahab, Arise, take possession of the vineyard of

Nabeth, the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money.

For Nabeth is not alive, but dead.

You know, I couldn't help but think to myself, if Nabeth had

just complied, if if he had just said, you know, I know what

God's word says about this, but you're the king.

Yeah, I know you're supposed to have a copy of God's law and

read it every day, but I do love my vineyard.

OK, let's do it. He could have just, you know

what could have happened? He probably could have saved his

life. Not just saved his life.

He could have known a better life, bigger vineyard, maybe

open up a business and sell some of those grapes.

He could have done something for himself, but he doesn't.

And what makes this so heartbreaking is when you

actually continue to read in your Bibles, which you're

supposed to do unless you miss out on greater revelations and

you discover that it wasn't just Nabith who who faced capital

punishment. Go to 2nd Kings.

And I want you to see this with your own eyes in Chapter 9,

verse 26 of Second Kings, Second Kings 926 as surely as I saw

yesterday, the blood of Nabeth and the blood of his sons

declares the Lord, I will repay you on this plot of ground.

Now therefore, take him up and throw him on the plot of ground

in accordance with the word of Lord.

You see that in verse 26 in the beginning, Who else blood was

spilled? Not just Nabeth, the blood of

his sons. So it makes you wonder what

happened. It makes you wonder that in this

trial, Nabeth was falsely accused and his sons were in

attendance, said that that's not true and decided to shut him up.

And even if they didn't protest, even if they were at home while

Nabeth was was there being accused, I'm fully convinced

that Jezebel called for those sons to be to be murdered as

well. Why?

Why do you think? Yeah, because they would be the

the heirs to the land. So being pre emptive and wanting

to avoid potential challenge and protest, check.

Let's get rid of the competition and let's just get straight to

it. Kill the sons, kill the heirs.

So Neva didn't just pay a price for his righteous stance for the

truth. His sons did.

His family did tragedy right? Actually, I can think of a worse

tragedy. Tell me what's worse than this.

You might disagree with me, but I believe that if Nabith had

compromised, what kind of precedent that would have set

for his sons, huh? Assuming that these sons even

died as righteous men, what what kind of temptation would you

have opened them up to Nabith if you had just given yourself over

to disobeying the Lord for just temporary gain?

And your kids witness when they go to the vineyard and they

realize that there's a for sale sign and there's a sold sign on

it. Dad, where did the vineyard go?

The king asked for. But Dad, this is for our tribe

alone. I know.

But guys, come on, It's we're going to get a better vineyard.

What kind of example, what kind of spiritual corruption would

have Navis compromise caused his children?

That to me is greater tragedy than them dying early.

And so I see a man who made a stance and listen, if I was one

of the sons of Navis, as heartbreaking as it would have

been to see my father, OK, if my life would have been taken,

that's another thing. But the witness, my father died.

But to know that he died because he stood for the truth, I'll

take that over him getting a better vineyard, a better car,

better house and the pursuit that he compromised the God that

he claimed to laugh. I know you don't hear that much

these days like that. That's true consecration when

there's a price attached to it. So Jezebel gets the news.

She goes to her husband and says, honey, Nabeth's dead.

How does how does Ahab respond to this verse 16 in our final

verse of our study. And as soon as Ahab heard that

Nabeth was dead, Ahab arose to go down to the vineyard of

Nabeth the Jezreelite to take possession of it.

What a pathetic man. Like if you had any hint of

dignity, any pulse of love left, you would at least maybe ask how

did he die? Or this is revealing that he Co

signed on the whole thing to begin with and he wasn't taken

by surprise. He knew exactly what his wife

was going to do. Either way, pathetic.

And somebody made this observation, and it's a really

good one. When it came to Ahab killing a

man he was supposed to kill Ben Haddad, was he not?

And what does he do? He preserves his life.

And the one man he was not supposed to kill, but to

preserve and protect, he kills. Woe to those who call good evil

and evil good. Ahab is yet another example to

us in a in a long series of studies, another illustration

within the man himself, just him, of how corrupt we can be,

of how corrupt government can be, of how corrupt leadership

can be. But you know what I'm wondering?

Here's the cliffhanger. Where is God and all of this?

Where's God's intervention? Why didn't God step in?

He's going to step in, but you have to come to church to find

out when and how. Let's pray, shall we?

You have a new historical character to add to your list of

inspirational men and women of God.

Nabeth the Jezreelite. Yeah, I love the way he answered

Ahab. I just wonder what it looked

like. Here's this royal knock on the

door and Nabeth answers as yes. How can I help you, knowing what

this man has caused concerning compromise in the nation?

Nabeth, I'm willing to buy your land, give you a better one and

whatever price. And you can just imagine the

entourage and the whole spiel and the impressive presentation.

And he was like, the Lord forbid that I do any business with you.

More importantly, because this belongs to my father's and this

is according to his law. It just slams that door.

I love it. I love it.

I wish he lived a little longer, but the Holy Spirit honor this

man by placing him in the word. Though he had a brief

appearance, it's enough for us to be stirred to realize that

God is worthy to be honored even in what we might consider

obscure commands. So, Lord, we ask you tonight

that you would give us such hearts that whether we are aware

of the price of our obedience or not, that we would give it to

you anyway. And we do ask, Lord, that you

would in this house, raise up strong holy men that will bless

their homes, bless their churches, bless their

businesses, bless any context that they come into contact

with. Strengthen our fathers,

strengthen the new fathers husbands.

And Lord, we do ask that this church would also know strong

helpmates to help their husbands.

We don't want Jezebel's that only fuel the flesh, Lord.

Not just in the context of marriage, but in all our

relationships. We've seen enough kings throw

themselves headlong because of the wrong counsel.

Give us discerning ears. Oh God, make us careful, Lord.

May we take the commands of our fathers and bind them on our

hearts and the commands of our mothers and tie them around our

necks. May we be men and women who know

your words so that even if somebody tries to manipulate us

with the Scriptures, we can smell it from a mile away.

So protect Maranatha Bible Church, protect every church

represented here. May we not tolerate that which

you hate. So Lord, we want to give you

worship because you've spoken to us even from a scene in the

Bible that deals with a vineyard, a king, and a faithful

man. Lord, we love you.

Your word is your voice, and now we give you our voices and song

as we rejoice in your truth in Jesus name, Amen.

Is he worthy? He's worthy.

Let's stand and worship him. So, so good to see you on a

Friday night to gather around the truth of God's Word.

Let's praise Him for a faithful house and praise Him for all the

things that He's going to do through our lives.