It is clear from the text that to Naboth, the land represented where his family had come from.  He had not forgotten that “Once they were slaves in Egypt” and that God had miraculously delivered them.  He remembered that the land was God’s gift to God’s people.  This was so important to Naboth that he would defy even the king and call God as his witness, saying:  “The Lord forbid that I should give you my ancestral inheritance.”   

Naboth’s resistance to selling his land also represented the tug-of-war for religious allegiance that was going on during this period.  Naboth’s allegiance was clearly with the God of his Ancestors – the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  If he sold his land to Ahab the King, he would be selling out his religious inheritance.  Naboth was not willing to do that.   

            In last week’s sermon I briefly referred to Ahab and Jezebel because Elijah the prophet was running from them.  Today I want to revisit Ahab and Jezebel because they are icons for how not to behave, and Elijah the prophet will explain why.     

Ahab had inherited something from his father Omri of which he would not turn loose.  A few chapters before today’s reading in 1 Kings, we read this:  “Omri did what was evil in the sight of the Lord; he did more evil than all who were before him.”  A few verses further on we find an almost identical description of his son:  “Ahab son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him.”  Like father, like son.  But Ahab was even worse than his father.   

Likewise, Jezebel had inherited something from her father of which she would not turn loose.  That was the worship of idols.  Jezebel was a Phoenician princess, the daughter of the king of Sidon on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.  Hers was a proud heritage.  Her city was thousands of years old and the Phoenician alphabet is the precursor of almost all alphabets as we know them. The Phoenicians were also amazing sailors, and they carried their culture throughout the Mediterranean world.  It is easy to see why Jezebel would have imported her religion into Israel.  However, it was in direct conflict with the worship of the one true God. Like Father, like daughter.   

Jezebel is considered to be wicked because she supported the prophets of her pagan religion and built for them places of worship in the Holy Land.  Then she killed the all the prophets of the Lord that she could find.  The chief steward in the king’s palace hid a hundred of those prophets fifty to a cave and fed them right under Jezebel’s nose.  Jezebel’s arch enemy was Elijah the prophet, but she could never quite catch him. 

Jezebel is also considered to be wicked because she said to the pouting King Ahab, who was crying because he didn’t get his way, “Do you now govern Israel?”  Then she proceeded to behave as though she were in charge.  She had no regard for the Ten Commandments.  She broke four of them in this situation:   those proscribing coveting, stealing, false witness, and murder.  She knew enough about the laws of the land to be dangerous, so she arranged for false accusations to be brought against Naboth.  On the word of two witnesses, Naboth could have died for speaking ill of God, or for blaspheming.  But quite the opposite was true.  Naboth’s behavior spoke very highly of God.  To Naboth, his land represented his connection with God.  He would not turn loose of that connection and be set adrift to worship the strange Gods that King Ahab and Queen Jezebel had introduced into the land.  It cost him his life.     

Elijah was always showing up and calling Ahab and Jezebel on their ungodly behavior.  Therefore Ahab considered Elijah to be his enemy.  How very sad it is that Ahab and Jezebel had sold out in opposition to God.  Did they not know they could never win that battle?  Ahab’s family had long since sold out its commitment to the one true God. Ahab’s alliance with the Sidonian Princess had sealed that deal even further.   

What if the tables had been turned?  What would have happened if Ahab had reverted to the worship of the one true God?  For one thing, he would have broken the cycle in his own family and would have passed on to his son a life-giving heritage.  As it was, his son Ahaziah turned out just like his father Ahab and his grandfather Omri.   

Do you want your children to turn out to be just like you?  And if like me you don’t have any children, are there others such as nieces and nephews that you are intentionally trying to guide? If you want them to be even better and to go beyond you, are you pointing them in the right direction?  Do those children see you as a person of Christian conviction and principle? Is your connection to God so strong that you don’t sell that out for any reason? Remember that whatever your connection is to God, or whatever your disconnect is from God, that is exactly what you are passing along to those children. Christianity is always one generation away from extinction.     

On this Father’s Day, I encourage you to give to your children and to other children under your influence a blessing of which they will never turn loose.  Give them a blessing that will not turn loose of them.  Keep taking them to church and keep living out the gospel in front of them.  They will be very likely to pass that along to the next generation. And the next generation will rise up and call you blessed.   

Amen.