Читать книгу Bible Characters - Joseph Parker - Страница 8

Table of Contents

There is a familiar saying: “Every man has his own price.”

Ahab had his, and he sold himself for a garden; Judas sold himself for thirty pieces of silver, and Esau for a mess of pottage.

Ahab sold himself just to please a fallen woman. And so we might go on—citing the men who have sold themselves. It is easy for us to condemn these men, but let us see if there are not men and women doing the same thing today. How many are selling themselves tonight for naught! It is easy enough to condemn Judas, Herod and Ahab, but in doing this do we not condemn ourselves?

We thought that slavery was hard. We thought it hard that those poor black people should be put upon the block, in the market, and sold to the highest bidder; but what do you think of those men who sell themselves today to evil?

Ahab sold himself to evil, and what did he get?

Elijah was the best friend that Ahab had, but he did not think so; he thought that Elijah was his enemy. Ahab was a religious man—that is, he thought he was. He had 850 prophets. “And what king has more? What king does more for religion than I?” So he would have said. There is a difference between religion and having Christ. There are a great many people that have religion but have no Christ in it—that have not a spark of Christianity.

This man was very religious, but he began wrong. His marriage was his first wrong step. He did not care about the law of God. He wanted to strengthen his kingdom. I can imagine they said: “We have outgrown the laws of Moses. We do not want your God; we have got something better. Here are the nations all around us worshiping Baal, and we will worship Baal.”

Ahab’s wife, Jezebel, wanted the patriarchs and the prophets put to death, and they were put to death. Obadiah had a few, but wherever they were found they were put to death. I suppose they said of Elijah: “That man belongs to the old Puritanical school.” He was bigoted and narrow. The idea of only worshiping one God! Ahab was willing to turn away from the God of Elijah, but he did not look to have Elijah reprove him, and thus he was his enemy. Many a man who has a good, praying mother thinks that mother is his enemy.

Ahab thought the God of Elijah was not going to carry out His warning. I will leave it to you if the man who warns you of danger is not the best friend you have got. If I saw a man about to walk over a precipice and he was blind and I did not warn him, would not the blood of that man be required at my hands? Would not I be guilty morally? Jezebel hated Elijah, and she disliked him for his warnings. The man who warns you is the best friend that you have got.

Suppose I am going home at night—at midnight—and I see a building on fire and I pass along and say not a word about it, and the occupants are all asleep and I go right home and go to bed, and in the morning I find that fifteen people in that house were burned up—how you would condemn me! And if in preaching the Gospel I do not warn you about your danger—about your sins and God’s punishment—what will you say to me when I meet you at the Eternal Throne? I do not want you to think that I am trying to please the people by preaching that the just and unjust will fare alike. You may be successful for a time. Ahab had two grand and glorious victories upon the battle field, and he was a very popular man for a while. He built a palace of ivory, and just here I want to speak of one act of that man.

When Ahab’s beautiful palace was finished, he found there was a poor man who had a garden near it. This Ahab wanted. And Ahab came to Naboth, the poor man, and wanted him to sell his garden. But Naboth said he could not do so, for it was against the law of his people. Then Ahab said to him: “I will give you a better place than this, and I will give you a better vineyard than this.” But Naboth was firm, and would not agree to sell his garden.

Many men would have liked to sell to the king. Such would have said: “We know it is against the law, but he is foolish not to sell to the king.”

Naboth said: “God forbid that I should sell.”

Ahab returns to his palace, where he pouts like a child. Jezebel notices him, and begins to speak with him. She asks: “What is the matter?” Ahab makes answer like a peevish child: “I want Naboth’s garden.” And she asks him why he does not take it, and then he tells her. Again she asks:

“Are you not king of Israel?”

“Yes.”

“Well! Then why do you not get it? I will get it for you, and it shall not cost you any thing. I will arrange it.”

Then Jezebel sent that infamous letter to the truculent elders. Those elders were just as bad as Jezebel. They knew that Naboth served the God of Heaven. The instructions of the letter were followed. The two witnesses said they saw Naboth despise God and the king, and so he was taken out and stoned to death. I can see him kneeling there and the crowds taking up the stones and hurling them at him.

Well, when Ahab goes down to take possession of that vineyard there is a message that had come from the throne of Heaven. God has been watching him. He notices all of us, and there is not a hellish act that has been, or is going to be, committed but God knows about it. Elijah stood before Ahab as the latter went down to that garden, and Ahab got out of his chariot and met him. He knew that Elijah knew all, and he did not like to be reproved. Ill-gotten gains do not bring peace. If you get any thing at the cost of the truth or honor, it will be peace lost for time, and perhaps for eternity.

As he walked through that garden, Ahab looked up and said: “Why, is not that Elijah?” He knew it was, and he knew what it meant. Elijah walks up to him and asks: “Hast thou killed and taken possession?” Ahab answers: “I wonder how he found that out. He knows all about me.” And then Elijah said: “In the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth they shall lick thy blood.”

Then Ahab asked the prophet: “Mine enemy, have you found me out?”

Elijah answered: “Yes. Because you have sold yourself to evil, you will be found out.”

A few years before, Ahab had laughed at Elijah, but he now remembered that every thing which Elijah’s God had promised had been done, and he could not get these words out of his mind: “In the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth they shall lick thy blood.” Sometimes just one act, that we can do in a minute, will cost us years of trouble and pain. Little did Ahab think that it was going to cost him his kingdom and cause his whole family to be swept from the face of the earth when he gave the promise to Jezebel to write that letter.

Ahab lived three years after Elijah met him in that garden, and how many times do you suppose those awful words of Elijah came into his mind? He could not get them out of his mind. Jezebel tried to help him, but she could not. He wanted to improve the garden, and no doubt he did improve it; but whenever he walked there the words came to him which Elijah had spoken. Then the time came for the judgment against Ahab to be carried out, and the Bible tells how it was done.