land shall not be sold forever; for the land is mine;"* and again, "Every one of the children of Israel shall keep himself" (or, as in the margin, "cleave to ") "the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers." It is probable, indeed, that in such a time of wide-spread idolatry as that which Ahab had introduced, this land-ordinance had been too generally disregarded; but Naboth "feared the Lord." Though he was Ahab's nearest neighbor at Jezreel, he was, as I think we are safe in concluding, one of those who refused at the king's command to bow the knee to Baal; so now, with every disposition in the world to oblige the king, he felt that he must obey God rather than man, and therefore he declined to sell his property. Had he been in debt to clamorous creditors, he might have had some colorable pretext for accepting the monarch's offer, though even then a reversion of the property to his family at the Year of Jubilee would have been insisted on. But he had not even this excuse to plead, and therefore, with leal-hearted loyalty to the covenant God of Israel, he made reply, "The Lord forbid it me that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee." This answer utterly disconcerted Ahab; so that, as on a former occasion‡ when he was reproved by a prophet for his leniency to Ben-hadad, he went to his house "heavy and displeased," or, as we should now say, stubborn and “in the sulks." Like a spoiled child, who has been so much accustomed to his own way in every thing that he knows not how to bear refusal, and lies down sprawling on the floor in the impotence of rage and disappointment, the monarch was actually so much affected that he took to his bed, and refused his food, at the same time declining to see or converse with any of his courtiers. He evidently had no thought of forcing Naboth to yield to his desires, or of laying violent *Leviticus xxv., 23. † Numbers xxxvi., 7. 1 Kings xx., 46. hands either upon himself or on his property. But Jezebel was not burdened with any such conscientious regard for the rights of others; and when she learned what the cause of her husband's moping was, she bitterly taunted him with his scrupulous timidity, and intimated that she would make short work with Naboth and his inheritance. "What," said she, "you the king of Israel! and allow yourself to be thus 'disobeyed and defied by a common yeoman! You have been altogether too courteous and considerate in the offer you have made him. I will give you his vineyard, and pay nothing for it either !” So, taking the royal seal, she wrote letters to the elders of Jezreel, intimating that some dreadful sin had been committed in their city, for which it was needful that a fast should be proclaimed, in order to avert the wrath of Heaven. At the same time she named Naboth as the special object of the king's displeasure, and commanded that two false witnesses should be obtained, who should declare that he had blasphemed God and the king, for which, as she well knew, the law condemned every convicted one to death. To this precious document she affixed the royal seal, and then transmitted it to Jezreel, and calmly waited the result. Nor had she reckoned without her host in the matter; for the rulers of Jezreel, either in dread of offending one whose revenge they knew was terrible, or eager to do a service to one to whom in temporal matters they were so largely indebted, or moved with envy against Naboth, as one whose piety had been a standing protest against their own iniquity, carried out her instructions to the letter. They held their religious service; they went through the form of a trial; and then they took Naboth* and his sons to the common place of execution, and stoned them to death, leaving their bodies * 2 Kings ix., 26. to be devoured by the wild dogs which prowled after nightfall in and around the city. Then they sent and told Jeze bel that her orders had been obeyed. She received the news with undisguised satisfaction. It was nothing to her that God's name had been profaned; that religion had been dishonored; that justice had been outraged; or that innocent blood had been shed. She had obtained her object; for the property of those condemned to death for blasphemy reverted to the crown; and she hastened to carry the good tidings to her husband. "Arise; take possession of the vineyard of Naboth, the Jezreelite, which he refused to give thee for money: for Naboth is not alive, but dead." One might have thought that Ahab would have expressed some condemnation of this awful conspiracy, culminating in such a tragic horror! But no. Like many in modern times, though he was restrained by his conscience from committing murder himself, he had no scruple in availing himself of the results of such a crime when perpetrated by another. He flattered himself that though he had no hand in Naboth's death, he might, as well as another, "receive the benefit of his dying." So, summoning Jehu and Bidkar to accompany him, he drove down from Samaria to Jezreel, and was with them in his newly obtained vineyard, when Elijah struck terror into his heart by the words which we have already quoted. When he heard the Tishbite's withering denunciation, fear and trembling gat hold upon him. His conscience, never fully asleep, woke into stinging activity, and he cried out, in horror, “Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?" To which Elijah replied, with all his ancient valor, "I have found thee: because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord. Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and will take away thy posterity, and will make thine house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, for the provocation wherewith thou hast provoked me to anger, and made Israel to sin. And of Jezebel also spake the Lord, saying, The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. Him that dieth of Ahab in the city the dogs shall eat; and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat." These words, not forgotten for nearly twenty years by Jehu, who merely overheard them,* sunk like lead into the heart of Ahab, and took from him all the joy of his new possession, so "that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly." There was yet some sense of justice in him; and these outward symbols of sorrow were not hypocritical. He did not feign the feelings of which they were the signs. He was humiliated. He was sad. If it had been to be done again, he would not have allowed Naboth to be put to death. For so much let us give him credit. But though his repentance was sincere, so far as it went, yet it did not go far enough. He feared the punishment of his sin more than he hated the sin itself. There was no word of restitution. There was no change in the general current of his life. Yet, to show his gentleness unto him, and to give him another opportunity of coming to his full self, by returning wholly to his God, Jehovah said unto his servant, "Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me? because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days but in his son's days will I bring the evil upon his house." And the evil did come! Let us complete the record by noting how it came, and when. As to Ahab himself: entering into league with Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah and father-in-law of his daughter, he met his old Syrian enemies. * 2 Kings ix., 25. at Ramoth-gilead, where, though he disguised himself, a random arrow mortally wounded him, so that his chariot was filled with blood. They took the body to Samaria. And one washed the chariot at the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood.* As to Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, we shall come upon the record of his death in our next lecture.† As to Joram, the brother of Ahaziah, we read that Jehu, immediately after his anointing by Elisha, conspired against him, and went to Jezreel, where Joram lay sick of wounds which he had received in battle; that there, suspecting perhaps some evil, Joram rose and went out to meet Jehu in this very vineyard of Naboth, where Jehu slew him. As to Jezebel, we learn§ that, immediately after the slaughter of Joram, Jehu caused her to be thrown out of a window of her ivory palace, so that she died; and her body, being left neglected, was eaten up by dogs. As to the seventy sons of Ahab-we learn that they, too, fell under Jehu's avenging and relentless sword; "for he slew all that remained of the house of Ahab, in Jezreel, and all his great men, and his kinsfolk, and his priests, until he left him none remaining." There was much of human passion and cruel policy in all this, for which Jehu himself, as a free agent, was condemned and punished; but yet in and through it all the Lord was carrying out his own retributive providence, that men might know that his justice slumbereth not. The mill of God grinds slowly, but it grinds to powder; and though his judgments have leaden heels, they have iron hands. There is much in this old chronicle of sin and doom which it may profit us to ponder. Let me try to bring out of it some present day lessons of warning and admonition. We are reminded by the incidents which have been before * 1 Kings xxii., 38. † 2 Kings i. || Ibid. x. + Ibid. ix., 14-27. |