And the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,
This word belongs to the history of the fall of the house of Ahab in the later years of his life, while Elijah was still a prophet in Israel. It was a time when the evil influence Jezebel had exercised over Ahab from the first continued and bore fruit in deeds of shame and violence seldom equaled in sacred history. For there was none like Ahab, who sold himself to work wickedness as his wife stirred him up.
Its setting was Ahab’s desire for the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite lying hard by the king’s palace. He set his heart on possessing it for a garden of herbs because it was near his house. He proposed to buy it or to give in exchange another piece of land, a better vineyard, or to pay its worth in money. The account shows Ahab’s covetousness and selfishness leading him to claim what he wanted as his right. It was a dominant covetousness that disastrously influenced the fortunes of the kingdom under his successors.
The word came during the years Elijah and Elisha labored together. This was after the idolatry supported by Ahab and the heathen Jezebel had been given a decided check, Baal’s prophets slain, and many in Israel stirred and returning to the worship of God. It came after wicked Ahab seized Naboth’s vineyard as a stern rebuke meeting flagrant evil. That rebuke prophesied the doom of Ahab and the doom of all his house.
The Lord spoke to Elijah after Ahab humbled himself in response to the judgment pronounced against him. He acknowledged Ahab’s humility and postponed the disaster on his house. The threatened judgment would not come during Ahab’s lifetime, but in his son’s days.
The coming of the word of the Lord to Elijah concerning Ahab proves that even a man with as much authority as Ahab had stands under God. No position or responsibility lifts a man above God, whose sovereignty is supreme over all human control. For leaders handling the publishing work, this means they cannot vest control in themselves or drive measures by their own judgment without seeking God’s will, way and counsel.
This word belongs to the history of the fall of the house of Ahab in the later years of his life, while Elijah was still a prophet in Israel. It was a time when the evil influence Jezebel had exercised over Ahab from the first continued and bore fruit in deeds of shame and violence seldom equaled in sacred history. For there was none like Ahab, who sold himself to work wickedness as his wife stirred him up.
Its setting was Ahab’s desire for the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite lying hard by the king’s palace. He set his heart on possessing it for a garden of herbs because it was near his house. He proposed to buy it or to give in exchange another piece of land, a better vineyard, or to pay its worth in money. The account shows Ahab’s covetousness and selfishness leading him to claim what he wanted as his right. It was a dominant covetousness that disastrously influenced the fortunes of the kingdom under his successors.
The word came during the years Elijah and Elisha labored together. This was after the idolatry supported by Ahab and the heathen Jezebel had been given a decided check, Baal’s prophets slain, and many in Israel stirred and returning to the worship of God. It came after wicked Ahab seized Naboth’s vineyard as a stern rebuke meeting flagrant evil. That rebuke prophesied the doom of Ahab and the doom of all his house.
The Lord spoke to Elijah after Ahab humbled himself in response to the judgment pronounced against him. He acknowledged Ahab’s humility and postponed the disaster on his house. The threatened judgment would not come during Ahab’s lifetime, but in his son’s days.
The coming of the word of the Lord to Elijah concerning Ahab proves that even a man with as much authority as Ahab had stands under God. No position or responsibility lifts a man above God, whose sovereignty is supreme over all human control. For leaders handling the publishing work, this means they cannot vest control in themselves or drive measures by their own judgment without seeking God’s will, way and counsel.