Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Kings 21:17
And the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,
1Ki 21:17-19
And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite.
Elijahs mission of judgment
We bend our attention exclusively on the part played by Elijah amid these terrible transactions.
I. He was called back to service. How many years had elapsed since last the word of the Lord had come to Elijah, we do not know. Perhaps five or six. All this while he must have waited wistfully for the well-known accents of that voice, longing to hear it once again. Hours, and even years, of silence are full of golden opportunities for the servants of God. In such cases, our conscience does not condemn us or accuse us with any sufficient reason arising from ourselves. Our simple duty, then, is to keep clean, and filled, and ready; standing on the shelf, meet for the Masters use; sure that we serve if we only stand and wait; and knowing that He will accept, and reward, the willingness for the deed. Nevertheless, thou didst well, in that it was in thine heart.
II. Elijah was not disobedient. Once before, when his presence was urgently required, he had arisen to flee for his life. But there was no vacillation, no cowardice now. His old heroic faith had revived in him again. His spirit had regained its wonted posture in the presence of Jehovah. His nature had returned to its equipose in the will of God.
III. He was acting as an incarnate conscience. Naboth was out of the way; and Ahab may have solaced himself, as weak people do still, with the idea that he was not his murderer. How could he be? He had been perfectly quiescent. He had simply put his face to the wall and done nothing. Often a man, who dares not do a disgraceful act himself, calls a subordinate to his side, and says: Such a thing needs doing; I wish you would see to it. Use any of my appliances you will; only do not trouble me further about it–and of course you had better not do anything wrong. In Gods sight that man is held responsible for whatever evil is done by his tool in the execution of his commission. The blame is laid on the shoulders of the Principal; and it will be more tolerable for the subordinate than for him in the day of judgment. Further than that, but on the line of the same principle, if an employer of labour, by paying an inadequate and unjust wage, tempts his employes to supplement their scanty pittance by dishonest or unholy methods, he is held responsible, in the sight of Heaven, for the evil which he might have prevented, if he had not been wilfully and criminally indifferent. It is sometimes the duty of a servant of God fearlessly to rebuke sinners who think their high position a licence to evil-doing, and a screen from rebuke. And let all such remember that acts of high-handed sin often seem at first to prosper.
IV. He was hated for the truths sake. And Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? Though the king knew it not, Elijah was his best friend; Jezebel his direst foe. But sin distorts everything. It is like the grey dawn which so obscures the most familiar objects that men mistake friends for foes, and foes for friends: as in the old story, the frenzied King of Wales slew the faithful hound that had saved his child from death. Many a time have men repeated the error of the disciples, who mistook Jesus for an evil spirit, and cried out for fear.
V. He was a true prophet. Each of the woes which Elijah foretold came true. Ahab postponed their fulfilment, by a partial repentance, for some three years but, at the end of that time, he went back to his evil ways, and every item was literally fulfilled. But as we close this tragic episode in his career, we rejoice to learn that he was reinstated in the favour of God; and stamped again with the Divine imprimatur of trustworthiness and truth. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
17-19. Hast thou killed, and alsotaken possession?While Ahab was in the act of surveying hisill-gotten possession, Elijah, by divine commission, stood beforehim. The appearance of the prophet, at such a time, was ominous ofevil, but his language was much more so (compare Eze 45:8;Eze 46:16-18). Instead ofshrinking with horror from the atrocious crime, Ahab eagerly hastenedto his newly acquired property.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the prophet,…. Where he now was, when this word came to him, is not certain; nor what he had been employed in for some time past, since we hear nothing of him since the unction of Elisha, other prophets of lesser note being employed in messages to Ahab from time to time; perhaps Elijah, while Ahab was engaged in war with the king of Syria, spent his time in founding or reviving the schools of the prophets, and instructing and training up those that were in them for public usefulness, since we afterwards hear of them; the word that came to him is, by the Targum, called the word of prophecy, as indeed it was, foretelling the destruction of Ahab and his house: saying; as follows.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Ahab’s Doom Foretold. | B. C. 899. |
17 And the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 18 Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, which is in Samaria: behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, whither he is gone down to possess it. 19 And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine. 20 And Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? And he answered, I have found thee: because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the LORD. 21 Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and will take away thy posterity, and will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel, 22 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. 23 And of Jezebel also spake the LORD, saying, The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. 24 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. 25 But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the LORD, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. 26 And he did very abominably in following idols, according to all things as did the Amorites, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel. 27 And it came to pass, when Ahab heard those words, that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly. 28 And the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 29 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.
In these verses we may observe,
I. The very bad character that is given of Ahab (1Ki 21:25; 1Ki 21:26), which comes in here to justify God in the heavy sentence passed upon him, and to show that though it was passed upon occasion of his sin in the matter of Naboth (which David’s sin in the matter of Uriah did too much resemble), yet God would not have punished him so severely if he had not been guilty of many other sins, especially idolatry; whereas David, except in that one matter, did that which was right. But, as to Ahab, there was none like him, so ingenious and industrious in sin, and that made a trade of it. He sold himself to work wickedness, that is, he made himself a perfect slave to his lusts, and was as much at their beck and command as ever any servant was at his master’s. He was wholly given up to sin, and, upon condition he might have the pleasures of it, he would take the wages of it, which is death, Rom. vi. 23. Blessed Paul complained that he was sold under sin (Rom. vii. 14), as a poor captive against his will; but Ahab was voluntary: he sold himself to sin; of choice, and as his own act and deed, he submitted to the dominion of sin. It was no excuse of his crimes that Jezebel his wife stirred him up to do wickedly, and made him, in many respects, worse than otherwise he would have been. To what a pitch of impiety did he arrive who had such tinder of corruption in his heart and such a temper in his bosom to strike fire into it! In many things he did ill, but he did most abominably in following idols, like the Canaanites; his immoralities were very provoking to God, but his idolatries were especially so. Israel’s case was sad when a prince of such a character as this reigned over them.
II. The message with which Elijah was sent to him, when he went to take possession of Naboth’s vineyard, v. 17-19.
1. Hitherto God kept silence, did not intercept Jezebel’s letters, nor stay the process of the elders of Jezreel; but now Ahab is reproved and his sin set in order before his eyes. (1.) The person sent is Elijah. A prophet of lower rank was sent with messages of kindness to him, ch. xx. 13. But the father of the prophets is sent to try him, and condemn him, for his murder. (2.) The place is Naboth’s vineyard and the time just when he is taking possession of it; then, and there, must his doom be read him. By taking possession, he avowed all that was done, and made himself guilty ex post facto—as an accessary after the fact. There he was taken in the commission of the errors, and therefore the conviction would come upon him with so much the more force. “What hast thou to do in this vineyard? What good canst thou expect from it when it is purchased with blood (Hab. ii. 12) and thou hast caused the owner thereof to lose his life?” Job xxxi. 39. Now that he is pleasing himself with his ill-gotten wealth, and giving direction for the turning of this vineyard into a flower-garden, his meat in his bowels is turned. He shall not feel quietness. When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him,Job 20:14; Job 20:20; Job 20:23.
2. Let us see what passed between him and the prophet.
(1.) Ahab vented his wrath against Elijah, fell into a passion at the sight of him, and, instead of humbling himself before the prophet, as he ought to have done (2 Chron. xxxvi. 12), was ready to fly in his face. Hast thou found me, O my enemy? v. 20. This shows, [1.] That he hated him. The last time we found them together they parted very good friends, ch. xviii. 46. Then Ahab had countenanced the reformation, and therefore then all was well between him and the prophet; but now he had relapsed, and was worse than ever. His conscience told him he had made God his enemy, and therefore he could not expect Elijah should be his friend. Note, That man’s condition is very miserable that has made the word of God his enemy, and his condition is very desperate that reckons the ministers of that word his enemies because they tell him the truth, Gal. iv. 16. Ahab, having sold himself to sin, was resolved to stand to his bargain, and could not endure him that would have helped him to recover himself, [2.] That he feared him: Hast thou found me? intimating that he shunned him all he could, and it was now a terror to him to see him. The sight of him was like that of the handwriting upon the wall to Belshazzar; it made his countenance change, the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another. Never was poor debtor or criminal so confounded at the sight of the officer that came to arrest him. Men may thank themselves if they make God and his word a terror to them.
(2.) Elijah denounced God’s wrath against Ahab: I have found thee (says he, v. 20), because thou hast sold thyself to work evil. Note, Those that give up themselves to sin will certainly be found out, sooner or later, to their unspeakable horror and amazement. Ahab is now set to the bar, as Naboth was, and trembles more than he did. [1.] Elijah finds the indictment against him, and convicts him upon the notorious evidence of the fact (v. 19): Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? He was thus charged with the murder of Naboth, and it would not serve him to say the law killed him (perverted justice is the highest injustice), nor that, if he was unjustly prosecuted, it was not his doing–he knew nothing of it; for it was to please him that it was done, and he had shown himself pleased with it, and so had made himself guilty of all that was done in the unjust prosecution of Naboth. He killed, for he took possession. If he takes the garden, he takes the guilt with it. Terra transit cum onere–The land with the incumbrance. [2.] He passes judgment upon him. He told him from God that his family should be ruined and rooted out (v. 21) and all his posterity cut off,–that his house should be made like the houses of his wicked predecessors, Jeroboam and Baasha (v. 22), particularly that those who died in the city should be meat for dogs and those who died in the field meat for birds (v. 24), which had been foretold of Jeroboam’s house (ch. xiv. 11), and of Baasha’s (ch. xvi. 4),– that Jezebel, particularly, should be devoured by dogs (v. 23), which was fulfilled (2 Kings ix. 36),– and, as for Ahab himself, that the dogs should lick his blood in the very same place where they licked Naboth’s (v. 19— “Thy blood, even thine, though it be royal blood, though it swell thy veins with pride and boil in thy heart with anger, shall ere long be an entertainment for the dogs”), which was fulfilled, ch. xxii. 38. This intimates that he should die a violent death, should come to his grave with blood, and that disgrace should attend him, the foresight of which must needs be a great mortification to such a proud man. Punishments after death are here most insisted on, which, though such as affected the body only, were perhaps designed as figures of the soul’s misery after death.
III. Ahab’s humiliation under the sentence passed upon him, and the favourable message sent him thereupon. 1. Ahab was a kind of penitent. The message Elijah delivered to him in God’s name put him into a fright for the present, so that he rent his clothes and put on sackcloth, v. 27. He was still a proud hardened sinner, and yet thus reduced. Note, God can make the stoutest heart to tremble and the proudest to humble itself. His word is quick and powerful, and is, when the pleases to make it so, like a fire and a hammer, Jer. xxiii. 29. It made Felix tremble. Ahab put on the garb and guise of a penitent, and yet his heart was unhumbled and unchanged. After this, we find, he hated a faithful prophet, ch. xxii. 8. Note, It is no new thing to find the show and profession of repentance where yet the truth and substance of it are wanting. Ahab’s repentance was only what might be seen of men: Seest thou (says God to Elijah) how Ahab humbles himself; it was external only, the garments rent, but not the heart. A hypocrite may go very far in the outward performance of holy duties and yet come short. 2. He obtained hereby a reprieve, which I may call a kind of pardon. Though it was but an outside repentance (lamenting the judgment only, and not the sin), though he did not leave his idols, nor restore the vineyard to Naboth’s heirs, yet, because he did hereby give some glory to God, God took notice of it, and bade Elijah take notice of it: Seest thou how Ahab humbles himself? v. 29. In consideration of this the threatened ruin of his house, which had not been fixed to any time, should be adjourned to his son’s days. The sentence should not be revoked, but the execution suspended. Now, (1.) This discovers the great goodness of God, and his readiness to show mercy, which here rejoices against judgment. Favour was shown to this wicked man that God might magnify his goodness (says bishop Sanderson) even to the hazard of his other divine perfections; as if (says he) God would be thought unholy, or untrue, or unjust (though he be none of these), or any thing, rather than unmerciful. (2.) This teaches us to take notice of that which is good even in those who are not so good as they should be: let it be commended as far as it goes. (3.) This gives a reason why wicked people sometimes prosper long; God is rewarding their external services with external mercies. (4.) This encourages all those that truly repent and unfeignedly believe the holy gospel. If a pretending partial penitent shall go to his house reprieved, doubtless a sincere penitent shall go to his house justified.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Ahab’s Doom, Verses 17-29
Elijah is called back to confront Ahab with his evil deed. There is no account of their having met since the contest with the Baal prophets on Mount Carmel. It appears that the Syrian war and this wicked event transpired during that period of time. Perhaps Ahab thought he had got rid of Elijah, and well he might have had he not stooped so low in sin again. The news of Naboth’s murder and Ahab’s theft of the vineyard was given to the prophet by the Lord, with instructions of what the Lord would do as a consequence.
Elijah was to bring the Lord’s charges against King Ahab, charges of murder and theft. He was to be told that in the very place where the dogs licked up the blood of the slain Naboth they would also eat the blood of Ahab Elijah must have confronted the surprised king right inside the stolen vineyard, for the Lord told him Ahab had gone to the vineyard to take possession. Ahab’s conscience smote him at once, for he knew that Elijah always appeared to him at times when he had greatly displeased the Lord. Ahab had failed to change at three golden opportunities; 1) on Mount Carmel; 2) at the first Syrian engagement; 3) after the dramatic victory at Aphek. Pro 29:1 had been forgotten by the king.
Ahab exclaimed, “Have you found me, my enemy?” And Elijah answered that he had indeed found him, and Ahab had been the reason why he had found him again. “Because you have sold yourself to do evil in the sight of the Lord.” What does this mean? That Ahab had stubbornly hardened his neck and refused to believe, though he had so many demonstrations of the power and reality of the Lord God of Israel. He refused to believe, even when he knew God was displeased with him. Ahab showed many evidences of remorse and even superficial faith in God’s word, but kept right on with his sinful way.
Elijah’s further revelation from the Lord to Ahab surely should have made the hair stand up on his head, for it was the horrendous curse of Israelite kings of the northern kingdom. Two dynasties had risen and been destroyed to a man, their bodies being carrion for the wild dogs and vultures. Omri’s dynasty, of which Ahab was the representative, was the third on Israel’s northern throne. Ahab was told that it would happen to him as it had to Jeroboam and Baasha. Every male of his family would suffer the same fate. Well did Ahab know why the Lord had allowed such awful destruction to befall his predecessors, and still he persisted in the same. Therefore he would suffer the same.
Ahab, under the spell of his witch-wife, had provoked the Lord more than any before him to anger. His sins had set a sinful example for the people, and they had readily followed it. For Jezebel the Lord had a worse prediction. The dogs would devour her sin-polluted flesh by the wall of Jezreel. The sin of Ahab and Jezebel against the innocent Naboth exposed their evil hearts openly, to God and men. The king had been willingly pliable in his wife’s hands. Not only had he permitted her Zidonian brand of Baal-worship, but he had also practiced the idolatry of the Canaanite Baals.
Once again Ahab’s dread and fear of Elijah’s God is apparent. It certainly seems he would have repented and begged for mercy. But his humility of heart was for his own selfish cravenness. He tore his clothing, wore sackcloth, slept in sackcloth, fasted, and kept a low profile before the people out of a show of sorrow for what he had done. It would not undo the deed he had allowed his wicked wife to do, nor restore the life of that good man he murdered. But the Lord did bless his remorse of conscience by allowing Elijah to announce to him that the evil things foretold would not occur in Ahab’s lifetime, but would come to pass in the time of his son. Once again is proved the truth of Jas 1:15.
Learn these lessons from chapter 21: 1) godly persons will not violate God’s law for personal gain; 2) good persons may suffer severe persecution, even unto death, but their persecutors will not escape God’s vengeance; 3) the Devil always has his agents to accuse the righteous; 4) the wicked are found out because they persist in their wickedness; 5) even outward piety will receive its measure of blessing.
(Author’s Note: The following study of Second Chronicles, chapter 17, comes here because of its chronological place in this commentary. Though it has no parallel in the Books of Kings, it belongs here chronologically. See the Introduction to the Books of Chronicles at the end of the commentary on the Books of Kings.)
2Ch 17:1-9
Second Chronicles – Chapter 17
Good Jehoshaphat, Verses 1-9
While Ahab was doing wickedly in the northern kingdom of Israel. Jehoshaphat, the son of Asa, was reigning in the southern kingdom of Judah. In contrast to Ahab, Jehoshaphat was accomplishing good things which gained him favor with the Lord. There is in Jehoshaphat, however, somewhat of a paradox. While he evidences faith in some deeds, he seems anxious in others. Though he lived for the Lord and usually served Him he often joined company in evil enterprises which got him into trouble. All in all, though, he was the best king the southern kingdom had had to that time.
Jehoshaphat seems to have started out by relying on physical strength. He feared Israel and Ahab and prepared to defend his kingdom against them by refortifying the the walled cities of Judah and garrisoning troops in them. These defensive measures included the occupied cities of Ephraim which had been in the possession of the kings of Judah since Asa took them from Baasha, when he hired the king of Syria to attack the northern kingdom, instead of calling on the Lord (2Ch 16:1 ff).
But the Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he put Him first in his life, as David his great forefather had done. He rejected the Baal gods so prominently worshipped in the northern kingdom, and followed the commandments of the Lord. For this the Lord established him as the revered king of Judah, and the people brought rich presents to him, making him wealthy and honorable. All this lifted up his heart in the Lord. In this Jehoshaphat illustrates how the Lord’s people may display proper pride. It must be in the Lord and not in self (1Co 15:9-10).
King Jehoshaphat destroyed the altars of the high places and cut down the groves of prostitution throughout Judah. When he was in his third year as king he instituted a unique project. It was a missionary and evangelistic endeavor, a kind of traveling Bible school. It was composed of sixteen men; five princes, nine Levites, and two priests. They were to travel throughout Judah and teach the people the law of the Lord as found in the books of Moses. These teachers went into all the cities of Judah carrying out the king’s instructions. The princes were doubtless pious elders of the land, concerned for its spiritual condition. In them would be vested the civil authority of the king in the venture. The nine Levites were the teachers of the word. This was to have been a large part of their responsibility under the law, and is what all -of them should have been doing in their cities. The two priests must have represented the authority of the law, as mediators for the people toward the Lord. The zeal of Jehoshaphat toward his own people should have grown until such missionary work reached into all the world (Psa 48:10).
2Ch 17:10
Jehoshaphats Power, Verses 10-19
The Lord continued to reward Jehoshaphat with peace. He gained the respect of all the nations around Judah, because the Lord put His fear in their hearts. The Philistines and the Arabians were tributary to him. The Philistines’ tribute included silver, but the Arabians’ tribute consisted chiefly of animals, since their wealth was chiefly in herds and flocks. They were mainly nomadic people of the desert oases. They paid the tribute with seventy-seven hundred rams and seventy-seven hundred male goats. These animals would have furnished a great deal of meat for the people of Judah, or may perhaps have been used in commerce with other nations. Jehoshaphat grew ever more prestigious and great. He constructed castles and store cities to contain his wealth. He carried on commercial enterprises with all the cities of Judah.
Jehoshaphat used his wealth to build a great army, with well-trained captains at their heads. It consisted of five companies, three composed of men of Judah and two composed of men of Benjamin. The contingents of Judah numbered 300,000 under Adnah; 280,000 under Jehohanan; 200,000 under Amasiah. The Benjamite contingents numbered 200,000 under Eliada, and 180,000 under Jehozabad. Altogether the armed forces numbered 1,160,000 men, said to be in addition to those already garrisoned in the fenced cities. It would have required a lot of rams and goats to feed this many men.
Nothing more is known of any of these captains of the army except what is recorded here. It is said that Amasiah, who commanded the third Judahite contingent, willingly offered himself to the Lord. This means he willingly supported King Jehoshaphat in his religious reformation. God desires willing service (Psa 110:3). Eliada’s command was over the famed bowmen of the tribe of Benjamin. All of them stood ready, prepared for war (1Pe 3:15).
There are lessons to be found in this brief chapter: 1) the Lord will heap His blessings on those who walk in His way; 2) those who have the truth should use their means to let others know it also; 3) willingness and readiness should characterize every disciple of Christ.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
1Ki. 21:19. Hast thou killed, and also taken possession?Crime traced back to the true criminal, for he, even more than Jezebel, actuated the deed. God is swift to mark iniquity. See Note on chap. 1Ki. 22:38.
1Ki. 21:20. Hast thou found me?The Vulgate errs, and Luther is thereby misled. Hast thou ever found me thine enemy? from , to come at, overtake, acquire, arrest, seize.
1Ki. 21:21. Will take away thy posterityLit. Extinguish thee before me.
1Ki. 21:29. Seest thou how Ahab humbleth, &c.Even the external sign of Ahabs repentance God regards as occasion for reprieve, though Ahab was so notable and manifold a criminal (1Ki. 21:25-26) He is slow to anger and of great mercy But the sentence would come upon his son, Jehoram, who, met by Jehu, was mortally wounded, and the house of Ahab thus ceased. Elijahs prophecy of Ahabs despicable death was literally fulfilled, as the following chapter shows.W. H. J.
HOMILETICS OF 1Ki. 21:17-29
THE MESSENGER OR APPROACHING DOOM
THE histories of the Old Testament were designed as standing lessons of edification to the church; by them, those who are dead may be considered as still speaking to us. They speak to us of the frailty of man, of the evil of sin and its certain punishment, of the spirituality of the law of God, of the need we have of a Saviour and a Sanctifler; they preach to us, as Paul did to Felix, of temperance, righteousness, and judgment to come, and they make us tremble. He who gives the dew, the sunbeam, the rain, and the snow to refresh and fertilize the world of nature, has given to us the promises, prophecies, doctrines, and histories of His Word to enrich and vivify the world of grace. In this paragraph we learn the effect of the message of God sent by Elijah in producing in Ahab a temporary humiliation; and the effect of Ahabs humiliation in securing a temporary reprieve.
I. That the messenger of approaching doom is divinely commissioned (1Ki. 21:17). The word of the Lord came to Elijah. Daring and fierce as was Elijah, he would never have dared to pronounce this fearful doom on the house of Ahab if he had not been divinely authorized. It is a vast privilege to be the messenger of mercy to the erring, but it also involves the responsibility of sometimes being the messenger of wrath and judgment. Woe be to him who threatens more or less than God commands: in the one case he sins by presumption; in the other, by lack of fidelity. Some men are more fitted by temperament and training to be messengers of doom. The stern and faithful Elijah would not shrink from declaring all the counsel of God.
II. That the messenger of approaching doom comes to us when enjoying the fruits of the sin he denounces (1Ki. 21:18). Ahab got his vineyard, entered into possession, and was enjoying its produce and the prospect of what he intended it to be, when he is startled by the voice of vengeance sounding in his ears. The scene is changed, the very leaves of the vineyard seem dripping with the blood of the murdered Naboth, demanding instant retribution! Every sinner carries in his breast an Elijahan accusing conscience, which in the worst is never wholly extinct. As the serpent in the fable which, while frozen with cold, was torpid and insensible, and seemed utterly bereft of all vitality, yet when brought before the fire quickly recovered its venom and its strength, so conscience may remain dull and lifeless for a season; but when once, through the Providence of God or the force of affliction or the sentence of the law, it is quickened into life, the sinner will assuredly find that it has not lost its energy, and will never lose its sting. The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear? By rendering our moral consciousness so acute and discriminating, God retains a powerful hold of the mind of man, and He has wonderfully adapted His holy Word to act upon our affections, to awaken our fears, and to exhibit before us the sad consequences of guilt.
III. That the messenger of approaching doom delivers his message with fearlessness and fidelity (1Ki. 21:19-26).
1. The doom is pronounced with unmistakable explicitness and fulness. It is threefold in its application. The first had respect to Ahab himself (1Ki. 21:19). The second to Jezebel (1Ki. 21:23). The third had respect to the posterity of both (1Ki. 21:21-22; 1Ki. 21:24). As the sin of one is extended to and shared by others, so is its punishment. The sinner will be made fully aware of the sins for which he suffers, and it is this that will add sharpness to his suffering.
2. The doom was justified by the excess of wickedness committed (1Ki. 21:20; 1Ki. 21:25-26). These words intensify the thought of Ahabs extreme wickedness, and show the reason of the bitter judgments that were pronounced against him. He had become so utterly abandoned to sin and crime as to lose all moral principle and power to resist evil. He allowed himself to be completely governed by his wicked and imperious wife. Her influence caused him to introduce the worship of Baal (1Ki. 16:31), to allow the slaughter of the prophets of Jehovah (1Ki. 18:4), to let Elijah be driven into banishment (1Ki. 19:2), and finally to murder Naboth and seize his land (1Ki. 21:6; 1Ki. 21:15). The justice of God provides that the punishment of the sinner shall be commensurate with the nature and extent of his sin.
IV. That the messenger of approaching doom may not always see the fulfilment of the prediction he is commanded to announce.
1. Threatened doom may produce a temporary repentance (1Ki. 21:27). Under the severe threatening of the prophet, seconded by the sure voice of conscience, Ahab bowed himself to the dust, oppressed by a burden too heavy for him. What could be more foreign to the habits of this proud, luxurious, and tyrannical prince than sackcloth and fastingthan torn garments and the slow footstep and dejected eye of penitential grief? What can be a greater proof of the power of God over the mind of sinners, when such a man is convinced, though he is not converted; is humbled, though he is not renewed. There may be a sorrow of the eyes, but not of the heart; sorrow for the threatened judgment, but not for the sin which provoked that judgment.
2. A temporary repentance may delay threatened doom (1Ki. 21:28-29). It is evident that Ahabs repentance, if repentance it may be called, was partial, transitory, and insincere, accompanied by no change of heart or life; but such as it was it illustrates Gods readiness to notice the first symptoms of return. Ahabs humiliation shall prorogue the judgment: such as was the penitence, such shall be the rewarda temporary reward for a temporary penitence. If a partial penitent may be reprieved, surely a sincere believing penitent will be justified!
LESSONS:
1. Sin cannot remain long without discovery.
2. God gives ample warning before He punishes the sinner.
3. God gives the utmost credit to the slightest symptoms of repentance: He is slow to wrath.
4. Repentance, if not genuine, though it may delay, will not finally avert, the deserved punishment.
AHAB AND ELIJAH (1Ki. 21:20)
The keynote of Elijahs character is forcethe force of righteousness. The whole of his career is marked by this one thingthe strength of a righteous man. And then, on the other hand, this Ahabthe keynote of his character is the weakness of wickedness, and the wickedness of weakness Think of him weakly longingas idle and weak minds in lofty places always doafter something that belongs to somebody else; with all his gardens, coveting the one little herb-plot of the poor Naboth; weak and worse than womanly, turning his face to the wall and weeping when he cannot get it; weakly desiring to have it, and yet not knowing how to set about accomplishing his wish; and thenas is always the case, for there are always tempters everywhere for weak peoplethat beautiful fiend by his side, like the other queen in our great drama, ready to screw the feeble man that she is wedded to, to the sticking place, and to dare anything, to grasp that on which the heart was set. And so the deed is done: Naboth sale stoned out of the way; and Ahab goes down to take possession! The lesson of that is, my friend, weak dallying with forbidden desires is sure to end in wicked clutching at them. The king gets the crime done, shuffles it off himself on to the shoulders of his ready tools in the little village, goes down to get his toy and gets it, but he gets Elijah along with it, which was more than he reckoned on. When, all full of impatience and hot baste to solace himself with his new possession, he rushes down to seize the vineyard, he finds there, standing at the gate, waiting for himblack-browed, motionless, grim, an incarnate consciencethe prophet he had not seen for years, the prophet he had last seen on Carmel bearding alone the servants of Baal, and executing on them the solemn judgment of death; and there leaps at once to his lip, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?
I. I find here, in the first place, this broad principle: Pleasure won by sin is peace lost. That is my first thought. Ah! my brother, it does not need that there should be a rebuking prophet standing by to work out that law. God commits the execution of it to the natural operations of our own consciences and our spirits.
1. Here is the fact in mens natures on which it partly depends: when sin is yet tempting us, it is loved; when sin is done, it is loathed. Action and reaction, as the mechanicians tell us, are equal and contrary. The more violent the blow with which we strike upon the forbidden pleasure, the further back the rebound after the stroke. When sin temptswhen there hangs glittering before a man the golden fruits that he knows he ought not to touch, then, amidst the noise of passion or the sophistry of desire, conscience is silenced for a little while. Like a mad bull, the man that is tempted lowers his head and shuts his eyes, and rushes right on. The moment that the sin is done, that moment the passion or desire which tempted to it is satiated, and ceases to exist for the time. Passion fulfils itself and expires. The desire is satisfied, and it turns into a loathing. The tempter draws us to him, and then unveils the horrid face that lies beneath the mask. When the deed is done and cannot be undone, then comes satiety; then comes the reaction of the fierce excitement, the hot blood begins to flow more slowly; then rises up in the heart, conscience; then rises up in majesty in the soul, reason; then flushes and flares before the eye the vivid picture of the consequences. His enemy has found the sinner. He has got the vineyardAy, but Elijah is there, and his dark and stern presence sucks all the brightness and the sunshine out of the landscape; and Naboths blood stains the leaves of Naboths garden! There is no sin which is not the purchase of pleasure at the price of peace.
2. The silence of a seared conscience is not peace. For peace, you want something more than that a conscience shall be dumb. For peace, you want something more than that you shall be able to live without the daily sense and sting of sin. You want not only the negative absence of pain, but the positive presence of a tranquillising guest in your heartthat conscience of yours, testifying with you, blessing you in its witness, and shedding abroad rest and comfort. It is easy to kill a conscience, after a fashion, at least. It is easy to stifle it. As the old historian says about the Roman armies that marched through a country, burning and destroying everything: They make a solitude, and they call it peace; and so men do with their living consciences: they stifle them, sear them, forcibly silence them somehow or other, and then, when there is a dead stillness in the heart, broken by no voice of either approbation or blame, but doleful, like the unnatural quiet of a deserted city, then they say it is peace, and the mans uncontrolled passions and unbridled desires dwell solitary in the fortress of his own spirit! You may almost attain to that. Do you think it is a goal to be set before you as an ideal of human nature? The loss of peace is certain, the presence of agony is most likely, from every act of sin.
3. And so it is not only a crime that men count it when they do wrong, but it is a blunder. Sin is not only guilt, but it is a mistake. The game is not worth the candle, according to the French proverb. The thing that you buy is not worth the price you pay for it. Sin is like a great forest-tree that we may sometimes see standing up green in its leafy beauty, and spreading a broad shadow over half a field; but when we get round on the other side, there is a great dark hollow in the very heart of it, and corruption is at work there. It is like the poison tree in travellers stories, tempting weary men to rest beneath its thick foliage, and insinuating death into the limbs that relax in the fatal coolness of its shade. It is like the apples of Sodom, fair to look upon, but turning to acrid ashes on the unwary lips. It is like the magicians rod that we read about in old books. There it lies; and if tempted by its glitter, or fascinated by the power it proffers you, you take it in your hand, the thing starts into a serpent with erected crest and sparkling eye, and plunges its quick barb into the hand that holds it, and sends poison through all its veins. Do not touch it. Every sin buys pleasure at the price of peace. Elijah is always waiting at the gate of the ill-gotten possession.
II. Sin is blind to its true friends and its real foes. Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? Elijah was the best friend he had in his kingdom. And that Jezebel there, the wife of his bosom, whom he loved and thanked for this thing, she was the worst foe that hell could have sent him. Ay, and so it is always. The faithful rebuker, the merciful inflictor of pain, is the truest friend of the wrong-doer. The worst enemy of the sinful heart is the voice that either tempts it into sin, or lulls it into self-complacency.
1. And this is one of the certainest workings of evil desires in our spirits, that they pervert for us all relations of thingsthat they make us blind to all the moral truths of Gods universe. Sin is blind as to itself, blind as to its own consequences, blind as to who are its friends and who are its foes, blind as to earth, blind as to another world, blind as to God. The man that walks in the vain show of transgression, whose heart is set upon evilhe fancies that ashes are bread, and stones gold (as in the old fairy story); and, on the other hand, he thinks that the true sweet is the bitter, and turns away from Gods angels and Gods prophets with Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? That is the reason, my friend, of not a little of the infidelity that haunts this worldthat sin perverted and blinded stumbles about in its darkness, and mistakes the face of the friend for the face of the foe.
2. And then, again, God sends us a Gospel full of dark words about evil. It deals with that fact of sin as no other system ever did. There is no book like the Bible for these two thingsfor the lofty notion that it has about what man may be and ought to be, and for the notion that it has of what man is. It does not degrade human nature because it tells us the truth about human nature as it is. The darkest and bitterest sayings about transgression, they are veiled promises. It does not make the consequences of sin which it writes down. You and I make them for ourselves, and it tells us of them. Did the lighthouse make the rock that it stands on? Is it to be blamed for the shipwreck? If a man will go full tilt against the thing which he knows will ruin him, what is the right name for him that hedges it up with a prickly fence of thorns, and puts a great light above it, and writes below, If thou comest here, thou diest? Is that the work of an enemy? And yet that is why people talk about the gloomy views of the Gospel, about the narrow spirit of Christianity, about the harsh things that are here! The Bible did not make hell. The Bible did not make sin the parent of sorrow. The Bible did not make it certain that any transgression and disobedience should reap its just recompense of reward. We are the causes of their coming upon ourselves; and the Bible but proclaims the end to which the paths of sin must lead, and beseechingly calls to us all, Turn ye, turn ye! why will ye die? And yet, when it comes to you, how many of you turn away from it, and say, It is mine enemy!
3. Ay, and more than that: sin makes us fancy that God Himself is our enemy; and sin makes that thought of God that ought to be most blessed and most sweet to us, the terror of our souls. God will not let us alone when we transgress. God in His love hath appointed that sin shall breed sorrow. But wewe do wrong; and then, for Gods Providence, and Gods Gospel, and Gods Son, and God Himself, there rises up in our hearts the hostile feeling, and we think that He is turned our enemy, and fights against us! But oh! He only fights against us that we may submit, and love Him. If He comes to you with rebuke, and meets you when you are at the very door of your sin, and busy with your transgression, usher Him in, and thank Him, and bless Him for words of threatening, for merciful severity, for conviction of sin; because conviction of sin is the work of the Comforter; and all the threatenings and all the pains that follow and track like swift hounds the committer of evil, are sent by Him who loves too wisely not to punish transgression, and loves too well to punish without warning, and desires only, when He punishes, that we should turn from our evil way, and escape the condemnation. An enemy, or a friendwhich is God in His truth to you?
III. The sin which mistakes the friendly appeal for an enemy lays up for itself a terrible retribution.
1. Elijah comes here and prophesies the fall of Ahab. The next peal, the next flash, fulfil the prediction. There, where he did the wrong, he died. In Jezreel, Ahab died. In Jezreel, Jezebel died. The threatened evil was foretold that it might lead the king to repentance, and that thus it might never need to be more than a threat; but, though Ahab was partially penitent, and partially listened to the prophets voice, yet, for all that, he went on in his evil way. Therefore the merciful threatening becomes a stern prophecy, and is fulfilled to the very letter. And so when Gods message comes to us, if we listen not to it, and turn not to its gentle rebuke, Oh! then we gather up for ourselves an awful futurity of judgment, when threatening darkens into punishment, and the voice that rebuked swells into the voice of final condemnation.
2. When a man fancies that Gods prophet is his enemy, and dreams that his finding him out is a calamity and a loss, that man may be certain that something worse will find him out some day. His sins will find him out, and that is worse than the prophets coming! Picture to yourself thisa human spirit shut up with the companionship of its forgotten and dead transgressions! There is a resurrection of acts, as well as of bodies. Think what it will be for a man to sit surrounded by that ghastly company, the ghosts of his own sins!and as each forgotten fault and buried badness comes, silent and sheeted, into that awful society, and sits itself down there, think of him greeting each with the question, Thou too? What! are you all here? Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? And from each bloodless spectral lip there tells out the answer, the knell of his life: I have found thee, because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord.
3. Ah! my friend, if that were all we had to say, it might well stiffen us into stony despair. Thank Godthank God! such an issue is not inevitable. Christ speaks to you. Christ is your friend. He loves you, and He speaks to you nowspeaks to you of your danger, but in order that you may never rush into it and be engulphed by it; speaks to you of your sin, but in order that you may say to him, Take thou it away, O merciful Lord; speaks to you of justice, but in order that you may never sink beneath the weight of His stroke; speaks to you of love, in order that you may know, and fully know, the depth of His graciousness. When he says to you, I love thee; love thou Me; I have died for thee; trust Me, live by Me, and live for Me, will you not say to Him, My Friend, My Brother, My Lord, and My God?(Condensed from A. Maclaren).
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1Ki. 21:17-29. The inevitable doom of a wicked life. I. Does not come without sufficient warning. II. Will be commensurate with the sins committed. III. May be averted by timely repentance.
1Ki. 21:17. Though much wickedness goes apparently without further evil results and without the chastisement of the just Judge in heaven, yet still all will be demanded; and at the Divine judgment-seat everything will be discovered, and everything, to the uttermost farthing, accounted for. The blood of Naboth, which Ahab thought had been swallowed up by the earth, cried to heaven, and found there judgment and vengeance. Like a lightning flash comes the word from heaven into the dark soul of Ahab, and made him feel that no net of human evil can be woven thickly enough to conceal the crime which it veils from the all-seeing eye.Menken.
1Ki. 21:19. Hast thou killed? Individual responsibility for wrong doings.
1. Not transferable.
2. Not to be evaded, though others commit the wrong to which we consent.
3. Unalterably recognised in punishment.
In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, &c. So Aristobulus, king of Jewry, vomited abundance of blood, and soon after breathed his last, in the very place where he had slain his brother Antigonus, and acknowledged it to be the just hand of God upon himself. So Selymus, the great Turk, struck with a loathsome and incurable disease, ended his days at Chiurlus with an untimely and tormenting death, where he had disloyally joined battle against his aged father Bajazet, A.D. 1511. So Henry III., king of France, was stabbed to death by a Jacobin friar in that very chamber where he and his bloody brother Charles IX. had, some few years before, plotted the Parisian massacre.Trapp.
1Ki. 21:20-26. Great wickedness and terrible retribution. I. Idolatry is a great abomination in the sight of God. II. There is no possible sin an idolater may not be instigated to commit. III. The consequences of sin and its punishment extend to others.
1Ki. 21:20. An unwelcome visitor.
1. The question of Ahub. Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?
1. This question indicates past association. Thou! Ahab had frequently met with Elijah before: in the previous chapters we find the prophet and the king in most intimate relationships.
2. The question indicates disquietude on the part of Ahab. Directly the stately form of Elijah appeared to him, the greed, passion, and murder of the last few days crowded in upon his memory. How happy that Christian man whose very presence strikes terror into the sinful heart!
3. This question shows that criminal offenders often pass an incorrect judgment upon men who administer rebuke to them. Ahab designates Elijah his enemy. What a mistake! Had not the prophet been the instrument of benefit to the king and his country? Had he not prayed on Mount Carmel that the drought might cease, and had he not worked at the same time for the extermination of idolatry? What more could he have done, either for the temporal or spiritual welfare of his compeers? And yet Ahab calls such a man an enemy, when he was in reality his truest friend! See the blinding power of covetousness!
4. We gather from this question that the gratification of unholy desire never brings tranquillity. Humanly speaking, Ahab was in the very height of success. He was a king, the long-desired vineyard had come into his possession. What is there to prevent enjoyment? Surely nothing. Yes; God vindicates the oppressed; and though Naboth is dead, he is not forgotten. Heaven will not permit so foul a deed to go unpunished. Hence the monarchs unrest. II. The response of Elijah. I have found thee.
1. Elijah was divinely commissioned to seek Ahab. And the Word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, Arise, go down to meet Ahab, king of Israel, which is in Samaria: behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, whither he is gone down to possess it (1Ki. 21:17-18). How God pursues evil men with mercy! Even punishment is but love speaking with more emphatic voice. Elijah was obedient to the expressed wish of God; he did not plead timidity at standing to rebuke a monarch; but went boldly and faithfully to perform his duty. What a happy pattern of a Christian minister!
2. The reason assigned for the search. I have found thee because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord. The prophet, no doubt, came to rebuke Ahab, and also to be instrumental in his reformation. The king must not be left without some effort for his restoration to purity of character. When ministers know that men have fallen into deep sin, they should at once visit them, to prevent further apostacy, and, if possible, to repair the past. In doing this the prophet may meet with an unkindly greeting, but the ultimate issue will be good.
3. How high social position is frequently degraded. We find here that a king had sold himself to sin. Kings, of all men, should be righteous in their conduct, as their example must necessarily exercise a great influence upon the nation to which they belong. How fearful their responsibility! What a terrible bargain had Ahab made: Sold thyself to work evil!
1. It was a voluntary bargainThyself.
2. It was a mad bargainTo work evil. For how many lives would this be a fitting inscription! To work evil seems to be the life-purpose of many around us. Think of the destiny to which this will lead them! Let the time past of our lives suffice in which we have wrought evil.J. S. Exell.
Great is the power of conscience. Upon the last meeting, for aught we know, Ahab and Elijah parted friends. The prophet had lackeyed his coach and took a peaceful leave at this towns end: now, Ahabs heart told him, neither needed he any other messenger that God and His prophet were fallen out with him. His continuing idolatry, now seconded with blood, bids him look for nothing but frowns from heaven. A guilty heart can never be at peace. Had not Ahab known how ill he had deserved of God, he had never saluted his prophet by the name of an enemy: he had never been troubled to be found by Elijah, if his own breast had not found him out for an enemy to God. Much good may thy vineyard do thee, O thou king of Israel! Many fair flowers and savoury herbs may thy new garden yield thee! Please thyself with thy Jezebel in the triumph over the carcass of a scrupulous subject. Let me rather die with Naboth than rejoice with thee: his turn is over, thine is to come. The stones that overwhelmed innocent Naboth were nothing to those that smite thee.Bp. Hall.
It is Ahabs guilty conscience which forces these words from him the moment he sees Elijah. He has no object in uttering them. He feels that the last man whom he would have wished to see has come suddenly upon him, and found himi.e., caught himin the act of doing a great wrong. O mine enemy, may refer partly to the old antagonism (1Ki. 17:1; 1Ki. 18:17-18; 1Ki. 19:2-3); but the feeling which it expresses is rather that of present oppositionthe opposition between good and evil, light and darkness, through which everyone that, doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved (Joh. 3:20).Speakers Com.
1Ki. 21:25. Woe to the man who, through the power that love gives him over the heart of another, by means of which he might become a ministering angel, is to him as a misleading fiend. How many fires of ruinous passion, of anger, of discord, of unrighteousness, and of hatred might and should be quenched and extinguished by the power of lovethe power of one heart over another, and especially by the mildness and gentleness peculiar to woman; and yet so often, by this means, they are kindled and fanned. This belongs to the catalogue of unconfessed sins of many men, and especially of many women.Menken.
1Ki. 21:27-29. A royal penitent.
1. Humbled by the terror of threatened wrath.
2. Did not seek to repair the wrong he had done.
3. Had the outward signs of sincerity.
4. Was granted a temporary reprieve.
1Ki. 21:27. What gave Ahabs re pentance its worth, and wherein it was defective.
1. It was not merely ostensible, feigned, it was a wholesome dread and fear of the judgment of God which came upon him, causing him to fear and tremble. He bowed beneath the mighty hand of God, and was not ashamed to confess this outwardly, but laid aside crown and purple, and put on sackcloth, unheeding if he thus exposed himself to the scorn of the courtiers and idol worshippers. Therefore the Lord looked in mercy upon his repentance. Would that, in our day, many would go even as far as Ahab did in this case.
2. It bore no further fruits. He retained the stolen vineyard, he desisted not from idol-worship, he allowed full sway to Jezebel. Everything in his house, at his court, and in his kingdom, remained as of old. He did not hunger and thirst after righteousness. Fleeting impressions and emotions are not true repentance. The tree which brings forth no fruits is and remains a corrupt tree (Mat. 3:8). How wholly different the repentance of David (Psalms 51).Lange.
The very devils howl to be tormented. Grief is not ever a sign of grace. Ahab rends his clothes, he did not rend his heart; he puts on sackcloth, not amendment; he lies in sackcloth, but he lies in his idolatry; he walks softly, he walks not sincerely. Worldly sorrow causeth death. Happy is that grief for which the soul is the holier.Bp. Hall.
The repentance of Ahab resembles that of the Ninevites (Jon. 3:5). It has the same outward signsfasting and sackclothand it has much the same in ward character. It springs not from love, nor from hatred of sin, but from fear of the consequences of sin. It is thus, although sincere and real while it lasts, shallow and exceedingly short-lived. God, however, to mark His readiness to receive the sinner who turns to Him, accepts the imperfect offering, as He likewise accepted the penitence of the Ninevites, and allows it to delay the execution of the sentence. Because Ahab humbled himself, the evil was deferred from his own to his sons days (1Ki. 21:29). So the penitence of the Ninevites put off the fall of Nineveh for a century.Speakers Comm.
1Ki. 21:29. Jehovah makes this announcement, not because He will punish the son for the sins of his father, but because He foresees that the son will also do evil in the sight of the Lord, and will, therefore, like his father, deserve punishment.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
C. THE CONDEMNATION BY ELIJAH 21:1724
TRANSLATION
(17) And the word of the LORD came unto Elijah the Tishbite, saying, (18) Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who is in Samaria; behold he is in the vineyard of Naboth which he has gone down to possess. (19) And speak onto him saying, Thus says the LORD: Have you murdered; and also taken possession? Then you speak unto him, saying, Thus says the LORD: In the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, the dogs shall also lick your blood. (20) And Ahab said unto 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 eyes of the LORD. (21) Behold I am about to bring against you evil, and it will consume after you, and I will cut off to Ahab male descendants, even the one shut up and the one left in Israel. (22) And 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, and because you have made Israel to sin. (23) And also of Jezebel the LORD has spoken, saying, The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. (24) And the dead of Ahab in the city shall the dogs eat, and the dead in the field shall the birds of the heavens eat.
COMMENTS
God would not allow the ruthless murder of Naboth to go unrebuked. Elijah the prophet was reactivated (1Ki. 21:17) and sent to meet Ahab in the vineyard which he had confiscated (1Ki. 21:18). That Ahab might realize the full impact of what he had done, the prophet was to open the conversation with a penetrating rhetorical question: Have you murdered and also taken possession? This indictment was to be followed by a pronouncement of the doom of Ahab: In the place where dogs licked Naboths blood, shall dogs lick your blood! (1Ki. 21:19). The execution of this sentence against Ahab was stayed when the king repented[487] (cf. 1Ki. 21:27 ff.). But the subsequent folly and sin of Ahab brought down upon this king a judgment of God strikingly similar to that which is here pronounced against him.
[487] This explains the seeming contradiction between the prediction of Elijah here and the actual events of 1 Kings 22. According to 1Ki. 21:13 Naboth was executed outside the city of Jezreel. According to 1Ki. 22:38, Ahabs blood was licked up by the dogs at the pool of Samaria. It is also possible that the Hebrew bimqom asher should be translated not in the place where, but in place of that. The point would then be that Ahabs blood would be subjected to a similar fate, rather than that the two occurrences would happen at the same spot.
Ahab was shocked at the sudden appearance of Elijah whom he had not seen since the Carmel contest. Now at the very moment Ahab was entering on the fruit of his sin, Gods prophet of judgment appeared! Have you found me out? the conscience-stricken king meekly asked. Ahab considered Elijah his enemy because it seemed that this prophet always had been opposed to him and always had thwarted him. Yet it was not because he was the kings enemy that Elijah had sought out Ahab, but because the king had sold himself, i.e., completely surrendered himself, to do what was evil in the eyes of the Lord (1Ki. 21:20). Ahab, the supreme judge of the land, the representative of God, may have been ignorant of the tactics by which Jezebel proposed to procure the vineyard for him; but he had acquiesced in her infamous crime after its accomplishment, and he was anxious to reap the benefits of it. Thus instead of punishing his guilty wife and those who had carried out her instructions, the king, by his actions, sanctioned and approved the crime. Therefore, the prophetic pronouncement was directed against Ahab.
After he explained the reason for the sentence, Elijah elaborated upon it. The judgment would involve every male descendant of Ahab[488] (1Ki. 21:21). Ahabs house was to be exterminated like that of Jeroboam, the first king of Israel, and Baasha, founder of the second dynasty of the Northern Kingdom. By his actions Ahab had provoked God to anger, and had also encouraged Israel to sin; therefore he must be punished (1Ki. 21:22). Furthermore, the queen must also taste the vengeance of the living God. The dogs would eat Jezebel beside the wall of Jezreel, the scene of her latest crime (1Ki. 21:23). In the prophetic formula used by previous prophets to condemn earlier kings, Elijah closed off his threat against Ahab (1Ki. 21:24; cf. 1Ki. 14:11; 1Ki. 16:4).
[488] The Hebrew reads literally, him who urinates against the wall. On the phrase, the one shut up and the one left in Israel, see comments on 1Ki. 14:10. Behold I am about to bring is the familiar formula by which the prophets threatened imminent judgment. Cf. 1Ki. 14:10; 1Ki. 16:3.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(17) Elijah.We have heard nothing of him since the call of Elisha, as though he had once more retired to solitude. In the mere political service of the preceding chapter, important in the eyes of the world, he takes no part; but emerges now for the higher moral duty of rebuking crime, and avenging innocent blood, in what Eastern tyranny would deem a very trivial matter. Ahabs address to him seems to imply wonder at his unusual appearance among men.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(17) And the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, (18) Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, which is in Samaria: behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, whither he is gone down to possess it. (19) And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine. (20) And Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? And he answered, I have found thee: because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the LORD. (21) Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and will take away thy posterity, and will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel, (22) 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. (23) And of Jezebel also spake the LORD, saying, The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. (24) 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. (25) But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the LORD, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. (26) And he did very abominably in following idols, according to all things as did the Amorites, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.
Observe in this account, how the Lord’s eye had been looking on through the whole transaction. He did not stop Jezebel’s proceedings, He did not stay the minds of the elders of Jezreel; no! nor the hands of the common executioners, who stoned Naboth. In the government of the world, how often do the oppressed cry out by reason of the oppressor! Nay, Reader! look at the cross of Christ! think of that! Paul sums up the account, when he saith, He spared not his own Son. Rom 8:32 . Is the Reader at a loss to explain these things? The Bible fully doth it for him. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. This one assurance answers all inquiries. And oh! what a precious thought is it, that He who will preside there as Judge, is at the same time, the Saviour and Brother of his people.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
1Ki 21:17 And the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,
Ver. 17. And the word of the Lord came to Elijah. ] The day after Naboth’s death came Elijah to Ahab with this sad message, as Tostatus noteth from 2Ki 9:26 . “The triumphing of the wicked is short.”
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Humbled by the Prophets Rebuke
1Ki 21:17-29
Once before, when his presence had been urgently needed, Elijah had fled for his life. But there was no vacillation now. He dared face not only Ahab, but his two ruthless captains. He acted as an incarnate conscience. Ahab had perhaps solaced himself with the idea that he was not a murderer. How should he know what Jezebel had done with his seal! But the crime was not Jezebels alone; it was his also. Thus saith the Lord, Thou hast killed.
Though the king knew it not, Elijah was his best friend, while Jezebel was his direst foe. Sin distorts everything. Let us not be surprised if men hate us and count us their enemies when we charge them with their sins! Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely. Each of the woes which the prophet foretold came true. Ahab postponed their fulfillment for some three years by a partial repentance; but at the end of that time he went back to his evil ways, and every item was fulfilled. God is faithful. He bears witness to His witnesses. His mills grind slowly, but they grind to powder!
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
2Ki 1:15, 2Ki 1:16, 2Ki 5:26, Psa 9:12, Isa 26:21
Reciprocal: Mat 18:12 – into Mar 12:12 – knew
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Ahab’s judgment for his rebellion against Yahweh 21:17-29
Again God told Elijah to "go" (1Ki 21:18; cf. 1Ki 17:3; cf. 1Ki 17:9; 1Ki 18:1; 1Ki 19:15). As a faithful servant, he went to confront the king again. Compare Samuel’s second announcement of God’s judgment on Saul (1 Samuel 15). Ahab was not in Samaria at this time (1Ki 21:18), but in Jezreel (1Ki 21:19). The mention of Samaria was evidently an ironical reference to Ahab’s capital. Murdering someone and taking possession of his property was a capital offense under the Law of Moses (cf. 2 Samuel 11; 2Sa 12:13). It would be a great shame for Ahab to have his blood flow in the streets of his winter capital. It would be an even greater disgrace to have it licked up by wild scavengers, as Naboth’s blood had been (1Ki 21:19; cf. Gal 6:7). God did not punish him exactly this way because Ahab repented later (1Ki 21:27-29; cf. 2Ki 9:25-26).
Elijah was Ahab’s enemy because the prophet was God’s representative whom the king had decided to oppose (1Ki 21:20). Ahab had sold himself (1Ki 21:20) in that he had sacrificed his own life and future to obtain what he wanted (cf. Saul). The wages God would pay him for this would be trouble and death (cf. Rom 6:23). God would remove all human support from Ahab and would sweep him away like so much filth (1Ki 21:21). The Hebrew word translated "disaster" in 1Ki 21:21 (d’h) is similar to the one translated "evil" in 1Ki 21:20 (hd’). This wordplay emphasizes the correspondence between Ahab’s sins and their punishment. God would also cut off Ahab’s dynasty for the same reasons He terminated Jeroboam and Baasha’s houses (1Ki 21:22). As for Jezebel, wild dogs, which normally lived off the garbage in cities, would eat her (1Ki 21:23). Furthermore, all of Ahab’s descendants would experience ignoble deaths (1Ki 21:24; cf. 1Ki 14:11; 1Ki 16:4).
The writer’s assessment of Ahab was that he was the worst ruler in Israel yet (1Ki 21:25; cf. 1Ki 16:30). He was as bad as the Canaanites whom God drove out because of their wickedness (1Ki 21:26; cf. Lev 18:25-30). Nevertheless he was a king over God’s chosen people, though not of the Davidic line. Samson was also very Canaanitish in his thoughts and ways, even though he was a judge in Israel.
Ahab’s genuine repentance when he heard his fate from Israel’s true King resulted in God relenting and lightening his sentence (1Ki 21:27-29; cf. Exo 32:14; Num 14:12; Num 14:20; Psa 106:44-45; Jer 18:6-12). Samson also repented (Jdg 16:28). Not Ahab but his son Joram (i.e., Jehoram) would bleed on Naboth’s land in Jezreel (1Ki 21:19; 2Ki 9:25-26). There is no indication here or elsewhere that Jezebel ever repented.
"The story of Naboth warns against the use of piety and legality to cloak injustice. It teaches that those who support the plots of a Jezebel, whether by silent acquiescence or overt complicity, share her crime. It is a resounding affirmation that injustice touches God, that ’as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me’ (Mat 25:40; Mat 25:45), that in the cosmic order of things there is a power at work that makes for justice. And the story attests that there is awesome power in the conscience and protest of the individual servant of God." [Note: Rice, p. 181.]