The 9th and 10th Commandments
August 7th, 2016
I Kings 21:1-16 Some time later
there was an incident involving a vineyard belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite.
The vineyard was in Jezreel, close to the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. Ahab
said to Naboth, “Let me have your vineyard to use for a vegetable garden, since
it is close to my palace. In exchange I will give you a better vineyard or, if
you prefer, I will pay you whatever it is worth.” But Naboth replied, “The Lord forbid that I
should give you the inheritance of my ancestors.” So Ahab went home, sullen and angry because
Naboth the Jezreelite had said, “I will not give you the inheritance of my
ancestors.” He lay on his bed sulking and refused to eat. His wife Jezebel came in and asked him, “Why
are you so sullen? Why won’t you eat?”
He answered her, “Because I said to Naboth the Jezreelite, ‘Sell me your
vineyard; or if you prefer, I will give you another vineyard in its place.’ But
he said, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.’” Jezebel his wife said, “Is this
how you act as king over Israel? Get up and eat! Cheer up. I’ll get you the
vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.” So
she wrote letters in Ahab’s name, placed his seal on them, and sent them to the
elders and nobles who lived in Naboth’s city with him. 9 In those letters she
wrote: “Proclaim a day of fasting and seat Naboth in a prominent place among
the people. 10 But seat two scoundrels opposite him and have them bring charges
that he has cursed both God and the king. Then take him out and stone him to
death.” So the elders and nobles who
lived in Naboth’s city did as Jezebel directed in the letters she had written
to them. They proclaimed a fast and
seated Naboth in a prominent place among the people. Then two scoundrels came
and sat opposite him and brought charges against Naboth before the people,
saying, “Naboth has cursed both God and the king.” So they took him outside the
city and stoned him to death. Then they sent word to Jezebel: “Naboth has been
stoned to death.” As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned to
death, she said to Ahab, “Get up and take possession of the vineyard of Naboth
the Jezreelite that he refused to sell you. He is no longer alive, but
dead.” When Ahab heard that Naboth was
dead, he got up and went down to take possession of Naboth’s vineyard.
In the name of Jesus, whose blood cleanses away all sin, dear fellow
redeemed children of God,
Years ago I had a job where running errands sometimes took me to a
parking ramp where which had a tire ripper.
If you were going the right way into the ramp the big iron spikes in the
roadway folded down as your car rolled over them. But if you were going the wrong way the
spikes tore into tires and disabled the vehicle. In the movies or on the news sometimes you
will see policemen put down those strips of spikes to stop vehicles they are
chasing.
The 9th and 10th commandments seem to me to be
like spike strips. If anyone is thinking
that they woven and juked and dodged their way through the first eight
commandments, the 9th and 10th commandments stop them in
their tracks. In the 9th and
10th commandments God forbids coveting- in others words sinful
desires for things that God has given to someone else and not to us. These commandments pierce into haughty hearts
and rip away any thought of sinners like you and me making it into heaven on
our own by keeping those commandments.
They remind us again how much we need Jesus. As we look at Ahab’s coveting today we see
that our coveting doesn’t make us happy and our coveting makes God angry.
I think the naughtiest word I ever heard my mom say was “Oh that
stinker!” She might have said those
words talking about us kids and our behavior or she might have been watching a
TV show where the villain came up with a sneaky evil plan. When you read this story of Ahab and Jezebel
taking away Naboth’s Vineyard don’t you just want to say, “Oh those
stinkers!” It all began with
coveting. Coveting that really doesn’t
make us happy.
“Some time later there was
an incident involving a vineyard belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite. The
vineyard was in Jezreel, close to the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. Ahab said
to Naboth, “Let me have your vineyard to use for a vegetable garden, since it
is close to my palace. In exchange I will give you a better vineyard or, if you
prefer, I will pay you whatever it is worth.”
But Naboth replied, “The Lord forbid that I should give you the
inheritance of my ancestors.” So Ahab
went home, sullen and angry because Naboth the Jezreelite had said, “I will not
give you the inheritance of my ancestors.”
This wasn’t the first time that
Ahab had been sullen and angry. As you read through the book of Kings , you
get the feeling that Ahab is not a happy man.
The Bible tells us that he “did more to provoke the Lord, the God of
Israel, to anger than all of the Kings of Israel before him.” All that evil, didn’t make him happy. He wanted to have a princess for his
wife. So married Jezebel, whose father
was king of the Sidonians. But Princess
Jezebel was wicked and cruel and brought God’s anger into Ahab’s life rather
than bringing true happiness. Because of
Ahab’s wickedness, God shut off the rain.
It turned Ahab’s kingdom into a dust bowl so that he could not have the
beautiful crops he wanted. He didn’t
have peace in his heart because he didn’t listen to what God was saying though
the prophet Elijah. Instead of listening
Ahab called Elijah the “troubler of Israel.” Just before these verses, one of God’s
prophet tried to talk to Ahab about something he had done wrong and we are told
Ahab went home, “sullen and angry.”
Jezreel must have been a
pretty place. It was on a hill so it was
a little cooler there in the summer.
There was a nice spring there with cool water. Ahab still isn’t content. He wants a
vegetable garden. He could have planted
a nice vegetable garden anywhere on his vast holdings of land but instead he
wanted to plant a vegetable garden where Naboth’s vieyard was. That gives us an insight into how selfish
Ahab was. In the movie, “The Emperor’s
New Groove”, the selfish Emperor wants to tear down a peasant’s house because
it will make an excellent swimming pool.
Things are a little like that as Ahab wants to tear out a vineyard which
takes years and years of careful tender care before it produces a crop and put
in a vegetable garden where it was easier and quicker to make things grow. The land he wanted belonged to Naboth.
The land had been in
Naboth’s family for generations.
Jezebel’s father the king of Sidon, could have just seized the land from
his people. The King of Israel didn’t
have that right. The king was the
protector of the land but he was not the owner.
God sets things up differently for his people. Each family was to treasure the land for generations
as a reminder that God had given them the land and one day would send a Savior
born in this land. That’s why Naboth
says, ““The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my
ancestors.” Naboth’s answer should have
been enough to see that God had the vineyard in mind for someone else and not
for Ahab. Instead Ahab went home
pouting.
“He lay on his bed sulking
and refused to eat. His wife Jezebel
came in and asked him, “Why are you so sullen? Why won’t you eat?” He answered her, “Because I said to Naboth
the Jezreelite, ‘Sell me your vineyard; or if you prefer, I will give you
another vineyard in its place.’ But he said, ‘I will not give you my
vineyard.’” Doesn’t sound like the coveting something that
belongs to someone else is making him too happy. Coveting sort of does that. That evil craving for something that God has
given to someone else pushes contentment and happiness out of our hearts. In its place comes a foolish stubborn drive
to get something that we think will make
us so happy. But then when we get it,
we’re not as happy as we thought we would be and we are on to the next thing to
try to make us happy. In the end it is a
cycle that doesn’t make us happy at all.
That’s why God say’s “And why do you worry about clothes?...If God clothes
the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the
fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’
or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and
your heavenly Father knows that you need them.”
The pagans like Ahab run after these things. Coveting things doesn’t make us happy.
Did your mom or dad ever
say, “Don’t make me say it twice.” That
was their way of saying they were serious about something. With the 9th and 10th
commandments God lets us know that he is serious about us not coveting. The policemen won’t ever slap the cuffs on
you for coveting but God takes coveting seriously. He is concerned about our thoughts and
coveting doesn’t belong in our hearts and minds. Our coveting makes God angry.
The house that I grew up in
had a milk chute. Years ago when milk
was often delivered to people’s houses, the milkman would leave the milk in
this little chute by the door. We
sometimes used it to get into the house when we were locked out. We would have my younger sister crawl through
the milk chute and go and open up the door for the rest of us to come in. One of the reasons God takes coveteous
thoughts so seriously is that they worm their way into hearts and then let in
the “big” sins, big in sense that they cause harm to others. Look what Ahab’s coveting did. Jezebel his wife said, “Is this how you act
as king over Israel? Get up and eat! Cheer up. I’ll get you the vineyard of
Naboth the Jezreelite.” Jezebel takes
things from there. “So she wrote letters
in Ahab’s name, placed his seal on them, and sent them to the elders and nobles
who lived in Naboth’s city with him. In
those letters she wrote: “Proclaim a day of fasting and seat Naboth in a prominent
place among the people. But seat two
scoundrels opposite him and have them bring charges that he has cursed both God
and the king. Then take him out and stone him to death.” So the elders and nobles who lived in
Naboth’s city did as Jezebel directed in the letters she had written to
them. They proclaimed a fast and seated
Naboth in a prominent place among the people. Then two scoundrels came and sat
opposite him and brought charges against Naboth before the people, saying,
“Naboth has cursed both God and the king.” So they took him outside the city
and stoned him to death. Then they sent word to Jezebel: “Naboth has been
stoned to death.” As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned to
death, she said to Ahab, “Get up and take possession of the vineyard of Naboth
the Jezreelite that he refused to sell you. He is no longer alive, but dead.” Instead of being horrified that his selfish
thought had led to all of this, we are told. “When Ahab heard that Naboth was
dead, he got up and went down to take possession of Naboth’s vineyard.” Whenever we get the idea that our evil
thoughts are really no big thoughts let’s take a look at Naboth’s body with
stones piled up on it. Scoundrels lying,
a family’s reputation ruined, a fake trial, corruption, a wrongful death
sentence carried out maybe even with the people throwing the stones thinking
they were serving God, family land lost- all of those sins were let in by
coveting in Ahab’s heart. It made God
angry. Remember God’s sentence for Ahab
and Jezebel? Say to him, 'This is what the LORD says: Have you not murdered a
man and seized his property?' Then say to him, 'This is what the LORD says: In
the place where dogs licked up Naboth's blood, dogs will lick up your
blood--yes, yours!'"
Coveting thoughts in our
hearts tell God that he doesn’t know what he is doing. “He should have given us more money! He gave that person too much. He should have given me a body that is
healthy and strong! He should have given
me cooler parents, mine are the worst.
He should have given me a wife or a husband that looks like that!” Those thoughts are there in the blink of an
eye. Those awful thoughts so often open
the door for sins that hurt others to come in. Those thoughts leave out of the
equation how our strong and smart God might work blessings in our lives in ways
we never thought possible through things
and people we never thought would be a blessing. Coveting thoughts fail to see the things God
may protecting our souls and bodies from by keeping some of the things we want
far from us. If a scan could see wrong
thoughts inside of me and inside of you sin would light up the screen. We need
a Savior. We need Jesus. Good thing we have a Savior. He blocked up the milk chute of his heart and
coveting out of his heart. He did that
for us. By faith God hands that record
to us and looks at us as though not even the tiniest evil thought had even
entered our hearts and minds. Jesus went
to a cross and paid for not only the evil thoughts but all of the evil deeds
that went along with them. Our sins are
washed away! He gives you strength now
to more and more to say with Paul “I am not saying this because I am in need,
for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know
what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any
and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in
want. I can do all this through him who
gives me strength.”
I always found that the
9th and 10th commandments were the hardest to memorize. Maybe that’s because I thinking that the 9th
and the 10th commandments were not quite as important as the
others. I guess I wasn’t seeing that
because of my sinful nature I have a heart that looks and sounds like Ahab’s
heart. I have a sinful nature all too
willing to follow Jezebel around. Good
thing we have Jesus a Savior who covers us.
Amen.
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