We skip over the previous chapter, but we note in passing that Jehovah twice rescued Ahab from the hands of the Syrian king. Yet Ahab failed to execute the Lord’s justice against his enemy, and was condemned. We see, then, that Ahab began to fear Jehovah despite being unwilling to defy his wife and serve Him.
So we come to the story of Naboth’s Vineyard. It’s necessary that we understand a couple of things to get a picture of what happened. First, grapevines need to be grown on a hillside so that the each row of vines gets the same full measure of sunlight. Second, we know that the site of Jezreel is on the far end of a long, curving ridge that falls away from the peak of Mount Gilboa. The ridge snakes around, curving away WNW from the crest. The royal palace would have been somewhere on this final hump above the Jezreel Valley plain, so that Naboth’s vineyard was likely on the slope below the city. Current archaeology digs suggest it was the northeastern section of the hump.
Ahab decided this would make a great vegetable garden, so he offered Naboth a deal. The man turned him down, citing what he believed was a sacred duty to keep this ancient clan possession in the family. This put Ahab in a bad mood, showing yet another of his character flaws. Like a whiny child, he went home and refused to eat. When his wife inquired of the cause of this petulance, he told about Naboth’s refusal. Under the Covenant, the man had every right to keep his land, even against the wishes of the king.
But Jezebel cared not a whit about God’s Law, and suggested Ahab wasn’t acting regally. So she promised him she would get the land for him, which put him in a better mood. Then she issued a decree using Ahab’s seal. There would be a day of fasting to the God she despised. Naboth was to be brought up on public charges of blasphemy of God and cursing the King. Both were capital crimes under Moses. She instructed the leaders to secretly commission a couple of false witnesses. Our text refers to them as “Sons of Belial.” While a direct translation implies they were worthless, it should be easy to recognize that it refers to someone who serves (“sons of…”) a worthless deity. It’s no surprise that Belial eventually becomes a nickname for Satan.
It was two men, the minimum necessary for a show trial to condemn an innocent man, under the Law of a God that the man respected, but which no one else present feared at all. Naboth was stoned (buried in a pit under a pile of rocks) and his property became forfeit to the King. So Jezebel told him to go and seize it. As he was doing so, taking stock of what he had gained, the Prophet Elijah showed up.
The Lord had given a word to Elijah about this crime, and told him to deliver a condemnation to the King. When Elijah showed up, Ahab had no doubt why the prophet was there. His question implies that he had been found out, caught red-handed, as we would say. Elijah said it was easy to do, since Ahab had so publicly sold himself to Satan, and it was certainly no secret to God, who knows and tells. Ahab had brought evil to Israel, so God would bring evil to Ahab.
Like Jeroboam and Baasha before him, the Lord would wipe out Ahab’s Dynasty. The Lord had told Elijah that Ahab would die in the same place Naboth had. Keep in mind that there was not a single pet dog in Palestine in those days; all of them were wild and dangerous. They would gladly lick up any blood spilled on the ground. So these dogs would also eat Jezebel at the foot of her palace walls, as well, and anyone of Ahab’s family who died near a city. Men who died in the open would be bird food. Ahab had reached the zenith of evil simply by virtue of having no particular will at all, just obeying his wife.
Those two had engaged in the vile and despicable pagan worship of the Canaanites God had wanted driven out the land in the first place. When Ahab heard this message, he promptly went back to the palace and repented in sackcloth and ashes. He believed just enough in Jehovah’s power to suffer no doubts about the word of Elijah. While we might grant that Ahab had no real change of heart, only fear in the context, that was enough. Notice what God says here: Ahab had humbled himself, and had given glory to Jehovah. So God relented insofar as He would let Ahab die normally, but then bring all the curses on his heir.
Notice that mercy is available for people even when their hearts aren’t pure before the Lord. Plain old fear and reverence is enough to reap at least a measure of shalom God promises to the covenant community. The issue has always been God’s glory.
