Ahab who sold himself to do evil in the sight of the Lord

Ahab king of Israel wanted a Naboth’s vineyard

even though there was “a better vineyard” than in (1 Kgs. 21:1-2).

Even though he could buy another vineyard with his money,

he only wanted the Naboth’s vineyard (v. 2).

And the reason was because the Naboth’s vineyard was “in Jezreel beside the palace of Ahab” (v. 2).

It is truly absurd.

Clearly Naboth said to Ahab,

“The LORD forbid me that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers” (v. 3),

Ahab came into his house sullen and vexed, laid down on his bed, turned away his face

and ate no food because of the word which Naboth had spoken to him (v. 4).

It is truly absurd.

When his wife Jezebel asked him,

“How is it that your spirit is so sullen that you are not eating food?” (v. 5)

He told her everything (v. 6).

And this is what Jezebel said to her husband Ahab:

“Do you now reign over Israel?” (v. 7)

It is truly absurd.

It’s as if Adam was led by his wife Eve

 instead of leading her and ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 3:6)

and as if Abram heard what his wife Sarai said and went in to her maid Hagar (16:1-2),

Ahab was led by his wife Jezebel instead of leading her

and eventually made her to get the Naboth’s vineyard (1 Kgs. 21:15).

When Ahab heard from his wife,

“Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth, the Jezreelite,

which he refused to give you for money; for Naboth is not alive, but dead” (vv. 15),

he arose to go down to the vineyard of Naboth to take possession of it (v. 16).

Indeed, there is no countermeasure for him.

Ahab, a man who had no countermeasures,

sold himself to do evil in the sight of the Lord (vv. 20, 25).

“Surely there was no one like Ahab who sold himself

to do evil in the sight of the LORD” (v. 25).

“He acted very abominably in following idols,

according to all that the Amorites had done,

whom the LORD cast out before the sons of Israel” (v. 26).

But when Ahab humbled himself before the Lord after he heard the word of God

through the prophet Elijah, God promised to him,

“I will not bring the evil in his days,

but I will bring the evil upon his house in his son's days” (v. 29).

What is this, if not God’s grace?

            “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain;

but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.”

(1 Cor. 15:10)