God of the Family

The books of 1-2 Kings tell the story of the kingdoms which were the dominant feature of Hebrew history for over 500 years. The story begins a thousand years before Christ with King David. He was followed on the throne by his son Solomon and after Solomon the kingdom split in two: the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. Israel lasted 200 years before being destroyed by the Assyrians. Judah lasted some 335 years before being exiled by the Babylonians. The Jews returned eventually from exile and we trace Jewish history through those who survived captivity. But the Jews were never again a kingdom like Israel and Judah of old.

One of the most evil kings in the north was Ahab who ruled from 869-850 bce. The great prophet Elijah was constantly at odds with Ahab and his foreign queen Jezebel and today we look at a most grim story. The scribes who put 1 Kings into its final form saw this story as a typical example of royalty hurting common people. In fact, before the first king was ever crowned, the great prophet Samuel warned that kings treat people this way (1 Samuel 8.11-17) and the Bible deplores this because when the king is a bad apple, the whole barrel of the nation is rotten.

I’m going to read the whole story as our morning lesson today which makes the text quite long but I’ll make a few comments as we go. Let’s read it in 1 Kings 21.

Later the following events took place: Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel, beside the palace of King Ahab of Samaria. And Ahab said to Naboth, “Give me your vineyard, so that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near my house; I will give you a better vineyard for it; or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its value in money.” But Naboth said to Ahab, “The Lord forbid that I should give you my ancestral inheritance.” Ahab went home resentful and sullen because of what Naboth the Jezreelite had said to him; for he had said, “I will not give you my ancestral inheritance.” He lay down on his bed, turned away his face, and would not eat.

With a very few sentences the storyteller develops a richly textured plot. Already we see the selfishness of the king in his wanting Naboth’s vineyard to make a vegetable garden. My previous church sat in the heart of the Spokane Valley and nearby, built on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Valley, was the former mansion of an eccentric inventor named Riblet. We used to hold Easter Sunrise services at Riblet’s with its spectacular view of the whole valley and the rising sun.

Eventually that mansion and the surrounding property were purchased by one of Washington’s better wineries, the Arbor Crest Winery. The refurnished the mansion became corporate headquarters for the winery and some of the surrounding property was used to grow a variety of grapes.[1] Some of those grapes were an experiment for eventually making champagne. The winery staff told me one time that it would be many years before they knew if the experiment worked. Vineyards take time to develop and the best of them are cultivated for decades, even centuries. There is nothing wrong with vegetables but to destroy a vineyard to grow them is like smashing exquisite crystal to make room for plastic glasses. We should expect better of kings. But King Ahab was like a selfish child who pouts and refuses to eat when he doesn’t get what he wants.

His wife Jezebel came to him and said, “Why are you so depressed that you will not eat?” He said to her, “Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him, ‘Give me your vineyard for money; or else, if you prefer, I will give you another vineyard for it’; but he answered, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.’” His wife Jezebel said to him, “Do you now govern Israel? Get up, eat some food, and be cheerful; I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”

So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name and sealed them with his seal; she sent the letters to the elders and the nobles who lived with Naboth in his city. She wrote in the letters, “Proclaim a fast, and seat Naboth at the head of the assembly; seat two scoundrels opposite him, and have them bring a charge against him, saying, ‘You have cursed God and the king.’ Then take him out, and stone him to death.” The men of his city, the elders and the nobles who lived in his city, did as Jezebel had sent word to them. Just as it was written in the letters that she had sent to them, they proclaimed a fast and seated Naboth at the head of the assembly. The two scoundrels came in and sat opposite him; and the scoundrels brought a charge against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, “Naboth cursed God and the king.” So they took him outside the city, and stoned him to death. Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, “Naboth has been stoned; he is dead.”

As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, Jezebel said to Ahab, “Go, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money; for Naboth is not alive, but dead.” As soon as Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, Ahab set out to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it.

Not only was Ahab a spoiled brat and Jezebel a cunning, ruthless tyrant but together they attacked the most basic principles of Hebrew tradition. We don’t really understand all the details of land possession in those ancient times. But we do know that land and family went together. Attacking one was an attack on the other and to deprive a family of its ancestral land was to deprive them of everything. So when the king and queen committed so basic a crime, the fabric of life was ripped asunder. Elijah then came along to announce God’s judgment on such evil behavior.

Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying: Go down to meet King Ahab of Israel, who rules in Samaria; he is now in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone to take possession. You shall say to him, “Thus says the Lord: Have you killed, and also taken possession?” You shall say to him, “Thus says the Lord: In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, dogs will also lick up your blood.”

Ahab said to Elijah, “Have you found me, O my enemy?” He answered, “I have found you. Because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord, I will bring disaster on you; I will consume you, and will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel; and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah, because you have provoked me to anger and have caused Israel to sin. Also concerning Jezebel the Lord said, ‘The dogs shall eat Jezebel within the bounds of Jezreel.’ Anyone belonging to Ahab who dies in the city the dogs shall eat; and anyone of his who dies in the open country the birds of the air shall eat.”

(Indeed, there was no one like Ahab, who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord, urged on by his wife Jezebel. He acted most abominably in going after idols, as the Amorites had done, whom the Lord drove out before the Israelites.)

It’s a fascinating if grim and bloody story. May God bless us in our reading and response to it.

When we come to a story like this in the Bible, we typically ask what does it mean? But because the Bible means almost anything depending on who interprets it, a better question to ask is this: what lens are we using to examine it? In other words, how do we read this text? What is our interpretive perspective?

Dr. James Sanders,[2] the biblical scholar who has taught me the most about Bible interpretation, insists that we must theologize about the Bible rather than moralize about it. In other words, instead of asking “who was right and wrong?” we are on safer ground to ask “what is God like in this text?” Ahab and Jezebel were clearly wrong and Elijah was right. A moralistic reading would say “don’t be like Ahab and Jezebel or God is going to get you.” But we’ll do better to reflect on the theology of the story and ask what is God like. Think with me about that for a few minutes. What does this story teach us about the character of God?

Is God the kind of God who judges and kills to get even when people do wrong? Is God out to get people? A literal and moralistic reading of this text says, yes, God does do that, and through the centuries, many have spoken for God in this manner, denouncing the evil of various Ahabs and Jezebels and calling down God’s judgment. That message is simple: turn or burn because God is against you.

But such a view of God contradicts a view we have elsewhere in the Bible. For example, the Apostle Paul didn’t ask if God was against us but rather, “if God is for us, who is against us?” (Romans 8.31) After that question, Paul continues in Romans 8 to say: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8.35-39) We read that at almost every funeral because there is no greater assurance of God’s love for us in all the Bible.

But Elijah didn’t give comfort like that to Ahab and the king said to Elijah, “Have you found me, O my enemy?” The king knew that the prophet would denounce him and that God was against him.

Perhaps we think that God was the enemy of Ahab because Ahab did what was wrong and perverted the way things are supposed to be. That was certainly true. Ahab did evil. But is that why God was against him? After all, everyone has done evil! I have. You have. Ahab did. Is one kind of evil better than another? Sometimes, yes. But my evil is not sufficiently less than Ahab’s to guarantee that I deserve grace and he deserved judgment.

Oh, it’s kind of fun to act like Elijah, righteously condemning the Ahabs and Jezebels of our day. All kinds of preachers — conservative, moderate, liberal — do this all the time. But most of such blather misses the point I think. The real question is what is God like?

When we get to the heart of the Ahab story we discover a God who cares about the family. The sin of Ahab and Jezebel was a sin against family. It was an attack on the ancestral traditions of Israel. The God of this story stands against anything which attacks the family because the family is more important than even the desires of royalty. The God of the Bible is the God of family, in all the variety which families can be. This means that what happens in families is very close to the heart of God. This is a demanding standard, my friend. It means our lives and time are not just ours.

Today is our daughter’s birthday. Recently I was looking through some pictures of when she was a kid. For several years when she was in grade school and junior high, I coached her summer softball teams. I did the same for my son’s soccer teams. Both Merrie and I went to as many of our kids’ games and activities as we could. It took a lot of time, sometimes time I didn’t have. Occasionally I could be grouchy about that.

But I had to keep reminding myself that because God is the God of the family, my time wasn’t just my time. My time, at least in part, belonged to my kids. Part of my time belongs to Merrie. That demand on my time originates in the character of God. God is a family God.

If you want to know what God is for and what God is against look to families. God is against what pulls families apart and God is for what brings them together. That’s why the church is most of all a family. We have kids in worship not because they are cute or even because we want to teach them things but because this time, as much as any other time, belongs to them. And we need them and they need us.

We baptized a baby today. Little Sophia Grace is the daughter of Sam and Tracey but she’s our kid too, a family connection originating in the character of God.

We need to quit for today and I’ve left a lot of loose ends. Ahab and Jezebel came to an awful end because by attacking ancestral traditions they attacked the very character of God: God is a family God. So let’s not moralize. But let’s be honest and diligent to examine what this family God is doing and seeks to do in our families and in this church, the family of faith.

That’s why we are going to sing now a hymn about baptism, a hymn that reminds us of God’s family. The hymn’s last verse says:

[1] David and Harold Mielke began Arbor Crest Winery as a brotherly project and a diversification from their family’s fruit-packing business which began in 1910. The corporate headquarters are in the former mansion of Royal Newton Riblet. Built in 1924, this three-story Florentine house is surrounded by an arched gatekeeper’s house, sunken rose garden, open-air pagoda, terraced flower and herb gardens, and a life-sized checker board. Royal Riblet, a tramway design engineer, inventor, and bicycle racer began building his mansion on the edge of a spectacular precipice 450 feet above the Spokane River. He named it ‘Eagle’s Nest’ and over the next 5 years, he carved a swimming pool out of the rock, built a stone pavilion, a gazebo, and a croquet court that he’d turn to a skating rink in winter. He died in 1960, and his wife sold it to the Mielkes, who renamed it ‘The Cliff House.’ It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1979.

[2] Dr. James A. Sanders is Professor Emeritus of the Claremont School of Theology and founder of the Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center. He was the Elizabeth Hay Bechtel Professor of Intertestamental and Biblical Studies at the School of Theology, Claremont, and Professor of Religion at Claremont Graduate School. Dr. Sanders is past president of the Society of Biblical Literature, a member of Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies, the International Organization for Targumic and Cognate Studies, and other scholarly societies. He is the only American member of the United Bible Society’s Hebrew Old Testament Text Critical Project. His book, Torah and Canon, launched in 1972 a new subdiscipline of biblical study called Canonical Criticism.

[3] The Presbyterian Hymnal: Hymns, Psalms, and Spiritual Songs (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1990) hymn 499, “Wonder of Wonders, Here Revealed” by Jane Parker Huber.