The Legacy of the House of Ahab

Transcript

You know, several years ago, a book was published by the author John Meacham on the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln, and in fact, it was a notable book. It was a Pulitzer Prize winner, New York Times bestseller, winner of numerous awards and accolades, but particularly notable as one article went on to identify, because this thought to have been the 100,000th written work on the life and legacy of this man. And, you know, the article, it went on to postulate, you know, why is that the case? After all, what more can be said about a person's life? I mean, he's a very notable figure, but he lived a span of 60 odd years, and certainly we would have covered everything there is to say about this man. All this led to a very simple, very powerful, what I thought to be relevant assessment among the sisters. And that's simply that legacy. Is not easily defined. In fact, historians. Those dedicating careers to debating the impact of a person's life, defining what they live for, represented their place in the records of history. Often they debate these things because people quite simply are complicated. Nuance, neither innately good or bad. Tonight, brothers and sisters, we will assess the legacy of a man. And while the task we have before us is easier. This is a man God will define for us in no uncertain terms, it is a person, nevertheless nuanced. A person showing us the darkest depravities of our flesh, juxtaposed to this heart of genuine humility before God. It's a person. Compelling a paradox of emotions. Deep levels of disdain and and and horror at the things he does, yet simultaneously, but begrudgingly moments of empathy. It's a man surprisingly prominent in the records of scripture, his name, as brother Jim mentions, it spans many chapters of our Old Testament. The focus of our Bibles, it draws us to understand him. To see his place in the record of God's word is a man who, through his actions and legacy, will not only forever change the fates of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, but represents a living, damaging legacy that resonates to all mankind. And of course, the subject of our consideration this evening. The thoughts to guide our time to come is a look at the reign, the character and the legacy. Of the House of Ahab, now, as mentioned. That's an ambitious task, so what I want to do tonight, is really hone our thoughts around three points. The first is going to be the reign of Ahab. Here, we're going to consider Ahab's Israel. Scripture says he does more evil than all who come before him. So I want to contrast Ahab to these figures who come before him. Scripture is encouraging us to make this comparison, so we're going to do that. For our second consideration, we'll look at the character of this man. Here, we'll ponder his mind in decisive moments, the rationale that he toys with in his spiritual thinking, and that we'll consider the potential bound in his kingship, and in doing this, we are going to reflect on the choice Ahab made. It says he sold himself to a wickedness like no man before God. That's what Scripture says of this man, So as we close here tonight, we're going to end on his legacy, and we're going to close on a simple, pivotal, important question, and that's how is the life of a person who died 3,000 years ago relevant in any way to those of us on this call, as we're going to come to see the principles behind Ahab's story, who he was, the man he is, what he represents, That extends far beyond just a few chapters in the records of kings. So with that, we'll jump right in, and we'll start with this first look at Ahab's reign. I want us to ask that question again of how is he worse than all who come before? You know, as we pose that question, I'm sure we can all think to a number of ways to answer it. Maybe you think to the events of Mount Carmel, maybe you think to his obstinance in the years of droughts or his genocide of the priesthood, and all true things. But I put to you the best place to start, as in most stories, is the beginning. Come with me to 1 Kings, chapter 16. Because in 1 Kings, these words we have on the screen before us, we have our first insights into the reign of this man. We see verse 29, it says, Ahab, son of Amri, reigned 22 years in Samaria. Verse 30, he does more evil in the sight of God than all who come before him. Verse 31, he makes light the sin of Jeroboam. He takes Jezebel the wife, he builds Asherahs, he worships the Baals. Verse 33, again, he does more to provoke God, it says, to anger than all the kings of Israel before him. It says, in his days Jericho is built, and right off the Bat. There's a lot we can derive on who this man Ahab is. You know, we see this milestone grimly displayed that Jericho is rebuilt. You know, centuries ago destroyed, suddenly it's back. We have Jezebel, the role she plays in her husband's legacy, and we're going to touch on both these points as we go. But perhaps the most blatant observation we should make here, it's a simple one. It's simply that Ahab is unique. He's an inflection point in the history of Israel, and the author of scripture, it's purposely drawing us to recognize that fact. It mentions twice, he does more evil than all who come before. And part of how that's emphasized, is by contrasting Ahab to some of his predecessors. We see this in Ahab's connection to his father. Not only are their names linked, he's called Ahab the son of the king of Israel. Most significantly, when we go back to just verse 25 in this chapter, we share the same, excuse me, we see they share the same unfortunate distinction, both having done more evil than all who come before them. So there's a correlation here, that we're encouraged to understand between father and son. And then we have verse 31. It says, he made light the sin of Jeroboam, all this to come to a point, and that's that if we're to understand the wickedness of this man, Ahab, we should first contrast his rule to these figures who come before. So let's start with Jeroboam. This man Ahab made light of in his sin, come to 1 Kings chapter 12. And this is again important to establish because it says Jeroboam made Israel to sin. And if you look at basically every king of Israel from the days of Jeroboam all the way to the point of Ahab, without fail, it will say something unanimous, and it says they walked in the sin of Jeroboam. In fact, the impact of what Jeroboam has done, it's so significant that we're told in 2 Kings, it's because of this moment, because the people of Israel walked in the ways of Jeroboam, God exiles them to the conquest of Assyria. What Jeroboam does directly correlates to the giving up of this northern kingdom. So this is a benchmark moment, and it's one, we're called to contrast Ahab too. And as we come to this chapter, I think we're very familiar with what transpires here, where in light of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah splitting north and south, for fear of this big migration to Jerusalem southward, we see idolatry introduced into the land. And before we look at how this is done, we should step back for a moment, because idolatry is a very interesting thing, isn't it We often see it in the records of scripture, and it's so often that it's something that's very easy for us to brush past, but it's worth revisiting the simple question, why does God despise idolatry? Why does he despise the bowing to the inanimate objects? Certainly that's a factor, I put to you the obvious, the very simple answer, is that this was always a people who knew better. This is a nation who heard the voice of God at Sinai, they understood the fullest extent of his power, they witnessed it in their deliverance from Egypt, they saw it in the fall of Jericho, they saw it in the deliverance of judges, the miracles of prophets, so unlike all those who in ignorance believe these to be gods. Well, far more often than not, idolatry in Israel, it is not ignorance it's the conscious choice to serve self over God, it is an escape, an avenue of self-gratification or self-interest in opposition to God, and that is the heart of what Jeroboam introduces, and there's a few ways he does it. Because you see Jeroboam is actually quite subtle, he's a very calculated individual, and we see this in a few respects, we see it in how he introduces these calves made, what does he say? He says, behold Israel your gods, who brought you out of Egypt. Now that might pull your mind to another parallel account of scripture, it pulls my mind there, and if it pulls you and me, we can be certain it caught the attention of his audience, because that is a direct quote of the words of Aaron of Exodus 32. A pivotal moment in this people's history, it's a very similar count, this golden calf, it's built at Sinai, and there's enormous purpose and why Jeroboam phrases it this way, and drawing this connection, because the intention here is the same. Just as Aaron intends this calf to be a replacement to Moses, to go before Israel as mediator between God and man, so is Jeroboam and the same but he's doing it with Jerusalem. Just as Aaron built this calf with intent to solve a crisis, but not to undermine the worship of God in Israel, we see this in the next verse of Exodus 32, he wants to have a festival to Yahweh, I put to you Jeroboam is doing the same, and we might question that, because after all he says look to your God's Israel, and you think maybe he's advocating some different God here, but the Hebrew word for God is Elohim, both simultaneously plural and singular, so theologically the way Jeroboam positions these idols, it's not technically inaccurate, all this to a single point, and that's that as we contrast Jeroboam's Israel to Ahab, the important distinction we have to understand is that under Jeroboam there was not a full-scale attempt to displace the worship of God in this land, rather it is a means to an end, it's this clever plan to satiate his desires, masking it behind worship of God, and we see this craftiness in so many other ways don't we see it in the placement of these calves, one in Bethel, the other in Dan, places of enormous significance strategically, geographically, religiously, Bethel means house of God, what better place he could have thought to have a new temple, almost like saying you know this is good enough for Jacob, surely it's good enough for us, and of course we have Dan Dan another incredibly significant spot, we think to the record of Judges 18, there was a tabernacle built in Dan, it was established where the grandson of Moses presided in it, he moves the feast one month later, that's a change not unprecedented in the law of God, there's a caveat for it in the record of Numbers 9, and I don't know about you but in seeing these things, in seeing that rationalization, I start to commiserate a bit, you know for much of my life I saw the sins and perceived the sins of Jeroboam as these blatantly abhorrent wrongs, I'll be honest with you, the longer I've lived life, the longer I struggle with my flesh, and the more I find these sins painfully relatable, or so often the transgressions in my life that they never start in the extremist scenario, you know far more often it starts in the little things, choices I've rationalized, lies I've told myself, justifications of behavior I made, mold the word of God to something suiting my desires, that this thinking, that legacy is what Jeroboam brings to Israel, a self -serving pattern of behavior, one that muddles the pursuit of self-interest to the word of God, yet as we come to the end of his reign, while a shift from the worship of Yahweh has transpired on sisters, you could rightly say that God himself, you know, he wasn't yet forsaken, but in the 50 odd years that follow this moment, well the effects of Jeroboam's sin, while crafty in nature of un-sisters, they will go on to be anything but subtle, you see following this moment is a state of moral, political, and spiritual decay as Israel had never before seen, not only does it bring destruction to the house of Jeroboam as God condemned it to be, but in this era are decades of political turbulence, civil wars, internal strife, ushering in one king after another as a revolving door, each more vicious and morally deprived than the next, and it's in this context from this world we are introduced to Omri, the father of Ahab, in the reign of Omri, we'll mention in just seven short verses that our brother Jim read to us in our Bibles, in many ways this is going to constitute a new chapter in the history of Israel, you see Omri is actually one of the most historically remarkable kings and influential kings in the history of this northern kingdom, and we're introduced to him in the record of kings, and he's a commander of the army under the reign of King Eli, and it's this time of enormous upheaval, Zimri, his military counterpart, the leader of Israel's calvary, he starts this rebellion, he takes the king, he seizes him, he takes his life, he clears out his family, seizes the throne. Now Omri doesn't take lightly to this, and he leaves this opposition effort to Alistam, he takes the capital city of Terza, Zimri locks himself in the palace, and after a record reign of just seven short days, he will burn it down with himself and everyone inside, and it's at this ominous moment that Omri takes the throne of Israel, and he's going to proceed to do what no king since the days of Solomon had ever accomplished, and that is establish a dynasty, one that rules in some form or another for the span of four generations, and this is accomplished in a few ways, one he ruthlessly violently quells civil unrest, we see this in the verses that introduce him, the second is he undergoes rapid expansions, in his day he conquers the neighboring nations, this stone on the screen here, it was dug up in an archaeological find in the 1960s in Syria, and it references Omri, the conqueror of Moab, it bears archaeological evidence to this very reference in the record of Kings it references Omri, king of Israel, conqueror of Moab, he will in this time build a better capital in Samaria, some of the most precious artifacts of ivory ever found, in the land of Israel are found in this place in his time, he establishes important political alliances with the Phoenicians, this major Mediterranean power, in fact he's so successful that Assyrian records will for generations come refer to Israel as the land of Omri, those in his dynasty will be called the sons of Omri, he is a significant powerful influential man, all this begs a question, what made him so bad? More evil than all the kings who come before it says, well first king 16 says he followed the ways of Jeroboam and led Israel to idolatry, so we know that's a component, we could also assume that there was seemingly little this man would not do to reach the heights of success, power, and influence achieved, you know we might perhaps best note this in the marriage alliance of his son to Jezebel, it's likely this is orchestrated as a result of his political alliances with the Phoenicians, but by doing so he not only attaches his son to that influence but subjects all Israel to the influence of nations around them, but perhaps nowhere do we derive a more concrete glimpse of Omri's reign, a picture of a day in his life than the words of Micah 6, the words on the screen, it is the only other time the name Omri is mentioned in scripture and God will level it as an indictment against Judah, we see it it reads in verse 16 it says you have kept the statutes of Omri and all the works of Ahab as we read between verse 9 to 15 we start to get a picture of what these things look like, verse 9 fear is associated in the city, verse 11 injustice reigns it describes a day of violence of of lies and deceit of greed, it says in Micah 7 verse 2 the good perish from the earth, that in these words it is a snapshot a description of these days of Omri, is a time of violence, a time of evil, a time where the last pretense toward the commandments of God are starting to fade and it's on this foundation that Ahab assumes the throne inheriting an empire unprecedentedly successful militarily powerful and spiritually corrupted by his predecessors and Ahab will without doubt take this farther than any who came before, he makes it abundantly clear Israel will be ruled as he desires to rule it and he does so in a in a number of ways you know while while many kings took foreign against the command of God Ahab is the first to cede such enormous amount of influence to his wife through marriage to Jezebel the worship of Baal is formalized in this land thus fulfilling his father's legacy of of assimilating this nation culturally and and religiously to the world around them while many kings introduced idolatry against the command of God under under Ahab there's no pretense or or lip service toward worship of God anymore in fact it's quite the opposite under Ahab prophets of Baal ate at his table in a cultural context from sisters that's saying they are part of they're part of his house and his family under Ahab worship of God is rooted out under Ahab genocides of priests are committed prophets are hunted faithful hide in caves it is a dark dangerous pivotal moment in the history of God's people and as if to underscore the depravity we come back to the account of first king 16 to that detail our brother read of Jericho being rebuilt and we perhaps wonder you know why is that included that seemingly random detail isn't in fact it doesn't even say Ahab is the one who who lays its foundation he didn't build that directly I put to you it's included because it embodies a full circle moment in the spiritual state of Israel you see 500 years before as this nation entered the land of Canaan and those walls of Jericho fell it served as this single powerful statement that the days of man's rule were over in in Canaan the way of life never to be returned to for this reason Joshua will curse the city for what it represented not because it was more evil than any other city but because it was the first to fall yet here it stands in Ahab's reign it is a culminating symbol of the immorality that he has permitted and fostered in these days by raising that city it is a mockery of all God has worked to accomplish in this people on paper this is a godless land ruled by a godless king but a person and their legacy aren't so neatly defined and while Ahab is certainly a bad man by any definition to fully appreciate his legacy we need to understand that the nuance of his character and that's not so easily done because you see when we look at Ahab's life you know I personally I look to the blatant things his obstinance towards the hand of God his obstinance to the persecutions of Elijah his stubbornness in these years of drought his rejection of power on Mount Carmel his rejection of his persistence in idolatry he spares the life of Ben Hayden and you know in seeing these things to explain that behavior you know I say he's a wicked man and it's a shame he was and that's easy to do it's easy to compartmentalize people this way good and bad wicked and righteous but if that's all we reduce him to we miss some very important lessons you know have you ever wondered why God tried so hard with this man after all many kings of Israel do wrong but truly few receive the attention of Ahab Elijah's set in his day and you know Elijah can be you know we can perceive him as his presence it's indicative of the the moral the pravity of Israel in his time much as Elijah coming before the second coming of Christ but I would suggest there's something personal to Ahab in his being there Elijah works hard to appeal to this man directly at least three occasions he comes to him there's five in which a prophet of God counsels him and what it seems to suggest is that Ahab had potential to be a king as God desired and there's these flash points there's moments in scripture that seem to to subtly indicate this to us one of the subtle ones is it's Ahab's military victories we see this in in first kings 27 it's an account of the the defeat of Ben-Hadad it's this fascinating narrative it says though all Israel is like two little flocks before the host of the Assyrians they fill the countryside and they're not going to be able to do anything they were victorious you know maybe we think to parallel accounts where the outcomes weren't were very different we think the first Samuel 13 it's a mirror account it says the host of Israel is again like like two flocks before the Philistines they were arrayed with the armies of Saul and what happens the people ran from Saul they hid in caves and in rocks and in so in terms of character you know maybe there's something charismatic in this man that drew people but nowhere do we see the contrast of Ahab's personality his capacity for evil and potential good than the account of Naboth Spinyard now no person is the sum of one moment but but in this story of first kings 21 I'm going to suggest there is much of what we need to know about the character of Ahab and as we look at this notorious account on the screen there's much we can drive you know we can some parallels here to the crucifixion of Christ like Christ the innocent inheritor of a vineyard has been killed Christ echoes this story in his parable of Mark 11 of the the son of the vineyard owner like Christ his death is orchestrated by collusions of both Jew and Gentile like Christ he's accused by two false witnesses of blasphemy like Christ he's taken outside of the city then killed and all this serves to underscore these parallels the scale of injustice that's happening in this moment a righteous man is dying we can note here the influence of Jezebel in first king 16 she's linked to the to the legacy of Ahab and some of the very first statements of his life here we see why in this passage is the fullest extent of her power cunning and influence over the mind of her husband in fact her wickedness it's so potent Christ in revelations 2 he's going to use the name Jezebel to personify sin in the first century ecclesias and just as Christ employs that name in this manner I suggest we do the same if we are to reduce her to one thing in Ahab's life she personifies the voice of sin at work the voice of temptation he will wrestle against and fall to time and again but but specific to Ahab we'll note two things and the first is this exchange with Naboth where a company coming to Naboth he he asked him for his vineyard what does Naboth say he cites the law of Leviticus 25 he refuses to accept the purchase of Ahab on principles of inheritance symbolic of his hope in this greater promise of of God to come so he would not part with that land and then we see something interesting don't we? We see it in the record of verse 4 it says upon hearing his words he departs he leaves and I don't know about you it's easy to to brush over that because the things that come next I want us to pause at that and ask for a second at what point did the law of God stop Ahab from doing anything this man killed prophets this man worshiped Baals even had scriptural precedent he could have taken that vineyard he could have thought back to the words of of Samuel and first Samuel 8 that a king could take the best of his people's vineyards yet here he stands and walks away why is that so well what I suggest this shows is however limited a conscience a small glimpse into the mind of this man it's a glimpse into the mind of a man who however limited knew the law of God and had the capacity however begrudgingly to respect it and the second thing no one very much in relation to this first point is that upon Elijah coming to Ahab after all these things are done upon his condemnation of his house to the to the destruction of Jeroboam is impending removal from the throne we see something remarkable happen don't we it's it's upon hearing this indictment after all the years of sin and wrongs committed what does he do it says upon hearing these words he falls to the ground tears his clothes puts on sackcloth and weeps and God shows mercy what a remarkable thing in this moment we're shown two things the first is the unmeasurable grace of our God grace to a man who timed and again slapped away his open hand grace to a man who though God knows end from beginning knows that this change is not permanent this man's heart he knows that that that though mercy is extended he's still going to give it no condition on forgiveness other than than the genuineness in that moment in the heart of Ahab it is a powerful lesson of how we show forgiveness to others how often do we practice something different how often do we put parameters on our grace or or tangible metrics in which you know if this person proves their worth then then I will give them grace that is not how God shows his mercy to Ahab the second observation what I find to be the simple powerful and truly sad point is that Ahab is sincere our God cannot be lied to our God can't be deceived our God is a God who judges the heart man and what it proves is that for one undeniable moment the heart of Ahab is unquestionable it shows the sincerity God has always required of man shows the sincerity that that perhaps God always knew was buried in there beyond lip service beyond conceptual understanding and in that is the immeasurable tragedy of this man's story because to call this the story of a man who is wicked out of ignorance is wrong this is the story of a believer a man with a choice a man with the capacity to set his heart on God who was so close to grasping salvation he had God's grace in his hands and if he desired he could have held on to it for eternity on three occasions in Ahab's life scripture records of refrain we saw it in first king 16 verse 30 we saw it in verse 33 of that same chapter and we see it again in verse 25 it says there was none who sold himself to wickedness like Ahab did before God who sold himself if there is one statement to define the legacy of Ahab it is that because you see Ahab is in every respect a slave down to the impulse of his flesh with capacity to know good from evil yet unable to deny that voice of Jezebel unable to satiate the call of sin and as we're all too aware that this conversion of first kings 21 that would not last in fact you have to go just one chapter over the sisters and you see the Ahab you know too well it's an Ahab spurning the counsels of God and Ahab persecuting the prophets and Ahab once more ruled by impulse and desire a desire that costs him his life and as he takes his last breath on the field of Ramoth Gilead well with his death that legacy of sin lives on it lives in a hazy eye his son who on his deathbed would choose the god of Baal over the god of Israel it lives in Joram who walks in the ways of Jeroboam it lived in the kings of Judah and second kings eight to eight verse seven who says walked in the ways of Israel and the house of Ahab it lives in Athaliah his granddaughter in her reign of terror over the house of David and we see it in this legacy all those who heard the prophets yet mocked them who knew the word of God but would rather burn it with fire than reconcile it all those who had salvation but chose self-interest who sold themselves to wickedness and in doing so committed Israel Judah and themselves to destruction well in our time we've considered a few things we've considered the nature of Ahab's reign it's contrast to those of his forefathers and how he he pushed that legacy of of self-centeredness to new extremes we considered the character of this man and reflected that though his reign is marked by depths of evil and evil is not the evil seldom seen in the records of our bibles the real tragedy is this is a man with a choice a believer one who knew God one who not only knew him in concept but but could set his heart on him if desired and now we turn our attentions to our final thoughts and that's what does this mean for us and there's much we could say on that question isn't there we could talk about the power of influence all the forces at work in Ahab's life that that seemingly enabled his sin we think to Jezebel his father his forefathers his the lineage of wickedness that that he inherits and naturally you know we might reflect to our own lives and we could talk about the power of influence what influences have we been subjected to what influences have we allowed that that might affect our relationship with God we could talk about accountability and that despite these influences at no point was Ahab not accountable before his God in all ways he was complicit in his silence he was complicit as Jezebel went and took that he owned the choice and the same is true of us we have a tremendous responsibility when we enter a relationship with our God but above all we reflect on the choice of Ahab to sell himself to wickedness you know as mentioned often we we look at this man's story sisters and in seeing its extremes his killing of priests the death of innocent men the the deafness of his heart to God all the countless appeals the alliance with Jezebel the almost stupidity of choices that that make us look at it and it seems so obvious to us that you know we distance ourselves from him but the reality is that Ahab's legacy is painfully relatable because at its heart all this is is the story of a man who struggles with and lost the battle of his flesh a man enslaved to his sin exchanging the promise of something better for the passions of what's in front of him and that's a story by no means limited to Ahab that's story of humanity a story told time and again and the records of this book in front of us well we see it in Esau who valued so little his inheritance of God he sold himself his greater worth his his greater promise to satiate hunger we see it in Judas who sold himself his his friendship his relationship with Christ the salvation bound within it for worthless silver we see it in Pharisees who though some believing knowing that man to be messiah sold themselves and the glory of God so they might have the glory of man that those actions that aspect of our thinking that is the legacy of Ahab who he was what he represents is the embodiment of all these choices the personification of all mankind who exchanged the external eternal for the temporal and that's a struggle living in us that is a daily persistent fight within our flesh to be like Naboth to value more the inheritance of God than what this life can offer us and far more than not far more often than not that battle isn't waged in in in the the obvious decisions exchanging the kingdom God for a vineyard or selling Christ for money far more often than not it's waged in the subtle things seemingly innocent choices we make small ways we we position our lives to to live as we desire to one day we aren't really you know giving anything to God to one day the words of Christ deny yourself and follow me words that mark a disciple and don't apply anymore the life of Ahab calls to mind the words of Christ what does it profit should a man gain the whole world but lose his soul or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul that's a question for all of us in Ahab in this man's story is the example of a man who answered that question in the shallowest of ways and so as we leave here tonight reflecting on that sobering picture of this man's life i'd like us to end on i i think something a bit more positive the words of roman six words bound and hope these are words of a man who beautifully defines and clearly frames this choice we've been thinking of this evening a choice presented to all of us words of a man who like Ahab had much to gain from this world honor prestige a claim in the eyes of man talent he could have offered this world but unlike Ahab counted all things a loss if it meant gain in Christ don't you know says Paul Paul we are all slaves selling ourselves to that which we obey to either sin that leads to death or obedience leading to righteousness thanks be to God that we who were slaves to sin have been set free and become slaves to righteousness for when you were slaves he said in sin you were you were free of righteousness but the fruit you bore was shame in the end of those death but now you are free from sin now you are slaves of God and the fruit of which is salvation and its end eternal life for the wages of sin is death says Paul but the free gift of God is life eternal