1 Kings 21

Today was our REU Day and we spent a fun morning playing various games with the children.  A sister put this comment on her facebook…

RE Day was great fun >_^ God’s little ones made my day.

And I certainly could not agree more! 🙂

But kids being kids, there were also some disagreements and arguments about their things.  Which reminded me of a story that summarises succintly the passage that we are reading today…

There was a father walking down the street with his two sons and both were crying loudly.  A passerby asked, “What’s the matter?  Why are they crying?”.

The father replied… “The trouble with these two boys is what is wrong with the world.  One has a toy and the other one wants it!”

Bible Passage: 1 Kings 21

This was exactly the situation in 1 Kings 21!  King Ahab saw a beautiful vineyard next to his castle and wanted it.  This desire for someone else’s things led him to do terrible things.  A whole nation was affected, a man was murdered and Ahab once again came face to face with the troubler of Israel – prophet Elijah.

I am sure you are familiar with this story but have you thought of what it means for you today?

Obedience Can Be Costly

If we are reading this story for the first time, we may wonder why was Naboth so stupid…. After all, here was his king offering to buy over his vineyard for a good price or even give him a better land in exchange.  Think of all the goodwill he could have obtained from the king if he had done so.

But he chose not to sell.  There could be many reasons for this but I believe this was the significant reason why Naboth did not want to sell the land.  When God initially gave the land of Canaan to Israel it was divided according to families. The ownership of these family plots could not be changed because it was understood that the land really belonged to God and He had given the plots to the various families. In other words, you could not sell the land permanently (because you really didn’t “own” it).

By refusing Ahab, Naboth was being faithful to what God had declared.  It does seem that he was a man that tried to do what is right. He could have found a way to justify his decision to sell and no one would blame him.  He could have capitalise on Ahab’s lust and made a great profit.

But that is not what he did. He stood firm on the Word of God.

And yet… Naboth was rewarded with death!

It just doesn’t seem fair that the guy who did what was right was the guy who was killed.

But we have seen this story being repeated over and over again in history, in our workplace and even in our lives in Church.  There are many who have done what was right and paid for it with their lives or suffered because they made a stand.  It is indeed, not always easy to be faithful when the people around you tempt you, mock you or even threaten you.

You want to be faithful to do what is right with what has been given to you… but your friends let you down… the people you look up to fails you….

But we must always remember this.

This life is not all there is.

Just because Naboth was not rewarded in this life does not mean he was not rewarded at all.

Just because someone dies before their time (in our eyes) means that they have been pubished.

Obedience has a price… sometimes a costly one…. but it is the right thing to do.

Faithfulness, NOT Riches, Brings Satisfaction

It is an irony right?  Some of the happiest people are the ones who have little or nothing.

I have a friend who comes from Bhutan and he is always telling me that although his country is not as advanced as Singapore and his people does not have the finest in life, but it is the Happiest Place in the World and they always claim that they have the highest Gross Happiness Index in the world 😀

This is in great contrast to the more developed countries where week after week, people lined up to purchase lottery tickets or hope to strike it rich in the Toto stakes.  Everyone imagines how much happier their lives would be if they won.

Let’s be candid for a moment. Every one of us would like to have enough money to be able to do what we want without having to worry about the money. Deep down we all believe we would be happier if we had more. We all have a measure of that lust for more.

The Bible talks frequently about contentment. The 10^th Commandment warns us of covetousness.  When we believe riches and stuff will make us happy two things happen…

Firstly, we dishonour God because the lust for stuff begins to control us.  We begin to view everything as a means to an end.  Sometimes we even start to think that our regular attendance of services, our faith, our working for God is a way to get God to give us back what we deserve.  We do not do any of the above becuse of our love for God.  We have allowed Mamom to be our god.

Secondly, we find happiness to be elusive.  It is always just out of reach because we never quite have enough.  The person who is imprisoned by the lust for more will always require something more before they can find happiness.

Ahab’s actions actually allowed me to reflect and think… am I coveteous?  Or am I faithful to God?

We Can Always Justify Our Sin

It is frightening how we can go to extreme lengths to justify to ourselves when our desires dictate our behaviour rather than the Word of God.

We have read about David – a man after God’s own heart – how he lost all sensability because he desired a woman who lived next door.  He committed adultery, deception and murder.  He found ways to justify his sin and desires… just as the many others who have abused their power to get what they want.

I wonder how many times we have gone out our way to justify our sin?

How many times have we ‘cheated’ on our parking coupons just to save a little more money?  How many times have we compromised our purity for quick satisfaction?  How many times have we slandered our colleagues to make ourselves look good in the office?  How many times have we schemed to get what we want even though we know we should not have them?

The list can go on and on… but these are all things that come from our ‘lust for more’.  The only difference with Ahab is the question of degree.

We have an amazing capacity to justify anything! I am sure that Ahab and Jezebel had all kinds of excuses for their behaviour. I suspect they somehow convinced themselves so much that Naboth was the bad guy that they did not even realize that it was their own hearts that were corrupt.

The only way to combat this justification of our sin is to daily measure ourselves by the Word of God. That is why we need to make the effort to read the Bible daily and spend time meditating on His Word.

Instead of making excuses for our lack of obedience we must be willing to admit our sin and repent. The more we attempt to justify our sin, the more sin we will attempt to justify. If we do it long enough our conscience will become calloused until we find ourselves doing things we thought “could never happen to us.”

Ok, I realised that this posting is way too long… so I will leave the rest of my points to the comments section for you to read if you want.  This is a way for me to record down my impressions and remember them.  So I hope that you will bear with me.

But to continue from what I started saying yesterday… there are many recordings of Ahab in 1 Kings.  And the reason they are there is because these are important teachings for us to remember in our lives.  We are the chosen ones of God… but there can be a danger that we become like the Northern Kingdom of Israel where although we know this one True God, our action, our deeds, our thoughts and our minds simply does not match what the Lord God desires from us.

May we not be Ahabs!