And the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,
The word came in the later years of Ahab's life, while Elijah was still a prophet in Israel. It answered Ahab's setting his heart on possessing the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite by the palace, for which he offered to buy it or to give a better vineyard in exchange or its worth in money. Ahab was naturally covetous and selfish, and, strengthened and sustained in wrongdoing by Jezebel, he followed the dictates of his evil heart until he was fully controlled by selfishness, could brook no refusal of his wishes, and felt that the things he desired should by right be his. The evil influence Jezebel had exercised over him from the first continued and bore fruit in deeds of shame and violence seldom equaled in sacred history, for he sold himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord as Jezebel his wife stirred him up.
He took and seized Naboth's vineyard through murder and fraud. That seizure revealed a dominant covetous selfishness that disastrously influenced the fortunes of the kingdom under his successors. It fell in the years when Elijah and Elisha labored together after the call of Elisha, when Elijah stood as God's instrument for the overthrow of gigantic evils and for checking the idolatry that under Ahab and the heathen Jezebel had seduced the nation.
The word of the Lord coming to Elijah the Tishbite gave him a message and directed and sent him to confront and meet wicked Ahab. He was to deliver God's stern rebuke and reproof exposing Ahab's crime and to warn of judgment, prophesying and pronouncing the doom of Ahab and the doom of all his house. Elijah promptly carried out the command to go. A message of correction can come from God and must be faithfully spoken even though the speaker may be accused of speaking harshly.
The word came in the later years of Ahab's life, while Elijah was still a prophet in Israel. It answered Ahab's setting his heart on possessing the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite by the palace, for which he offered to buy it or to give a better vineyard in exchange or its worth in money. Ahab was naturally covetous and selfish, and, strengthened and sustained in wrongdoing by Jezebel, he followed the dictates of his evil heart until he was fully controlled by selfishness, could brook no refusal of his wishes, and felt that the things he desired should by right be his. The evil influence Jezebel had exercised over him from the first continued and bore fruit in deeds of shame and violence seldom equaled in sacred history, for he sold himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord as Jezebel his wife stirred him up.
He took and seized Naboth's vineyard through murder and fraud. That seizure revealed a dominant covetous selfishness that disastrously influenced the fortunes of the kingdom under his successors. It fell in the years when Elijah and Elisha labored together after the call of Elisha, when Elijah stood as God's instrument for the overthrow of gigantic evils and for checking the idolatry that under Ahab and the heathen Jezebel had seduced the nation.
The word of the Lord coming to Elijah the Tishbite gave him a message and directed and sent him to confront and meet wicked Ahab. He was to deliver God's stern rebuke and reproof exposing Ahab's crime and to warn of judgment, prophesying and pronouncing the doom of Ahab and the doom of all his house. Elijah promptly carried out the command to go. A message of correction can come from God and must be faithfully spoken even though the speaker may be accused of speaking harshly.