Enemy Mine

Corn at the Roanoke Annual Conference

I’ve got a story to tell this morning and it’s not a pretty one. It involves lying, deception, abuse of power, corruption at the highest levels of government, greed, oppression, and murder. I’ve got your attention now, don’t I? Here’s the strangest thing—it’s a story from the Bible. Are you surprised? Now, you won’t find it in most children’s Bibles. They may have made a Veggie Tales tape about it, I’m not sure. But it’s there and there’s a lesson in this story, not only for the rich and powerful but for all of us who forget who we are and what we’re supposed to be about as God’s people. You want to hear more?

The story begins a long time ago when the people of Israel were ruled by kings. Well, actually that’s the first mistake we can make in telling this story. There were kings in Israel but the real ruler of Israel was not the king but YHWH, the God of Israel. At least that was the understanding in the book of I Samuel. In that book the prophet Samuel worried that the people would get this interpretation wrong. Ever since they had come into the Promised Land there had been people saying, “We need a king like other nations. We’re being oppressed by other nations around us. We’re not united. We need a king!”

But Israel was not like other nations. They were one nation under God and God was not about to let them forget the true source of their protection and strength. Samuel spoke for God and said, “You really don’t want a king, people of Israel. A king will take your sons and send them to war. A king will take your daughters and make them servants in the palace. A king will take the best of your land, your vineyards, and the best part of your harvest. When a king gets power, he will abuse it and you will be his slaves.” [1 Sa. 8:10-18]

But the people said, “No, we want a king so that we can be like other nations.” So Samuel, with YHWH’s grudging approval, anointed the first of Israel’s kings. But these kings were not to be like the kings of other lands. They were to be stewards of the land because they didn’t own the land, God did. They were to be protectors of the people because the people didn’t exist to serve the king; their duty was to serve God. Kings were to be the guardians of justice, especially for the poor, because there was no other power to aid the powerless.

The first king was Saul and Saul was a miserable failure. Three chapters after he is anointed king, Samuel was announcing that he had been rejected by God for not obeying God’s command. The next king was David, the greatest of Israel’s kings. He made Jerusalem his capital and united the twelve tribes. He was a strong ruler and leader who loved God. But even David made some fantastic blunders. One day he was out on the roof of his palace when he should have been with his troops in the field. He looked down at the neighboring house and saw a woman bathing. His desire got the best of him and he took her into his house and when she became pregnant as a result of this encounter, he had her husband, one of his faithful soldiers, killed to cover up the crime. What Samuel said seemed to be coming true—the king will take your sons and send them off to war and take your daughters as servants in the palace. The king will take what the king wants.

King Solomon was great and wise, but he had his flaws, too. He allowed his foreign wives, (yes, that’s wives plural—the Bible says he had 700 wives and 300 concubines)…he allowed his wives to turn his heart away from the worship of the God of Israel. Sowed the seeds for the division of the kingdom and used conscripted labor to build his great public works projects.

There were others we could mention, too, but our story today is about King Ahab, king of Israel. Ahab married a foreign bride, too—a princess from Phoenicia by the name of Jezebel. That’s an unusual name. Not too many girls today are named Jezebel. You’ll find out why in just a minute.
Jezebel’s main problem was that she just didn’t fit in with Israelite society. She was a follower of Baal, the Canaanite nature god, and Israel, of course, was ruled by YHWH. So she tried to make the worship of Baal the established religion and ran into the prophet Elijah who embarrassed and then killed the prophets of Baal at a fire competition on the mountaintop. Jezebel didn’t like this, of course, and she vowed to kill Elijah and she must have had some pull in the palace because she put the fear into Elijah and he ran off to the wilderness to escape her. Ahab was pretty quiet through the whole affair.

Well, Ahab got him a new winter palace down in the Jezreel area so that he could escape the winter chill at the regular palace in Samaria, which was up in the mountains. Ahab was down checking the place out when he noticed a plot of land right next to the new palace. Ahab had dreams of becoming a gardener so he said to himself, “Now that little plot of land would make a nice little vegetable patch. I can put in some zucchini and squash, maybe some Better Boy tomatoes along the edge of the plot there. It’s a shame there’s a vineyard on it. I’ll just have to go buy that piece of property.”

So he sought out the owner, a man by the name of Naboth. He was very cordial and made Naboth a generous offer. He said, “I’ll give you a better vineyard or I’ll pay you a very fair price, just let me have that piece of property.”

But Naboth knew that the land was not his. It was God’s. And the Israelites had some strong beliefs about the land. Since it was God’s it could not be sold long-term. In order for families to be able to have security down through the years, the land was to revert back to the original families at least every fifty years during the year of Jubilee. Naboth wasn’t going to jeopardize his family’s security by letting someone else have the land—even if the someone else was King Ahab. “No,” he said, “YHWH forbid I should give you my family inheritance.”

Well, this put Ahab in a blue funk. He went back to Samaria and lay down on his royal bed with his face to the wall and sulked. Jezebel was passing by his room and said, “What’s up?” and Ahab told her the whole story, emphasizing what a fair deal he had made. But Jezebel, remember, was from a different culture. She didn’t care about fair deals at all. Where she came from kings were kings and when they wanted something they took it. That’s how her father always behaved. So when Ahab finishes his little sob story about how he really wanted the land but Naboth wouldn’t give it up, Jezebel says, “Who is the king of Israel?”

To which Ahab responds, “Well, that’d be me.”

“Well, you’re going to get that plot of land. Just let me handle it.” And she goes off to arrange Naboth’s downfall. What she does is pretty awful. She uses Ahab’s seal to set up a public fast in Jezreel, Naboth’s hometown. Now this is a religious event that she intends to use for her own purposes. A religious event that is designed for the worship of God that she is going to use to her own ends. So now we’ve got abuse of office, abuse of the king’s religious authority, why not perversion of justice? She arranges for Naboth to be seated in a very public place at the fast and for two scoundrels to sit next to Naboth and to loudly accuse him of cursing God and the king, which, of course, Naboth would never do. But it only takes two witnesses to seal a man’s doom and even though it’s a fast with no food around, Naboth’s goose is cooked. They take him outside and stone him to death. What’s murder when you’ve gone this far?

Word gets back to Jezebel, she goes in to Ahab and says, “Problem solved. The vineyard is yours. Why don’t you go check it out?” Ahab doesn’t ask any questions. Doesn’t even seem curious about how this was arranged. He may not be willing to break the law, but he doesn’t have to. He’s got plenty of people, including Jezebel, who are more than willing to do it for him.
I told you this was a sad, sorry story. We’ve seen the worst side of human beings so far in this tale. We’ve seen people who follow their own desires and understandings without any regard for what it does to other people, to the social order, or to their relationship with God. Looks like old Samuel was right. Kings, with no limits on their power, will forget that they are not the rulers of Israel and will assume that Israel exists to serve them.

But that’s not the end of the story. Elijah shows up. Remember Elijah? Elijah the prophet shows up just as Ahab is checking out his new vineyard and planning where to put the potato patch. When Ahab sees him he knows it means trouble. He says, “So you found me, my enemy?” Elijah represents God for Ahab, and God was the last person Ahab wanted to hear from.

Elijah doesn’t mince words. He says, “You have killed and you have taken possession of this vineyard. The Lord says, ‘I will destroy you and your house.’”

Now this sounds like bad news, and it is. But there is a note of grace here because Ahab repents at this point and wears sackcloth and goes about dejectedly. (That part came easy because he was a pro at sulking). When God sees this, God relents and does not destroy Ahab immediately. Eventually, however, both Ahab and Jezebel and their whole house meet violent ends.

Wow! What do we do with a story like that? We could say that there’s a lesson here about how power corrupts and how absolute power corrupts absolutely. But that would be a little too easy and it would be easy for us to believe that this message is not for us, because most of us do not believe that we are powerful people, even though, compared to many parts of the world we are.

We could say that the moral here is that the grass is always greener on the other side of the palace wall and then go on to talk about how we should be content with what we have and not be greedy. But I don’t believe this is an object lesson on greed. Besides the fact that there are a whole lot of other sins on display here besides just greed, the fundamental sin is not that Ahab wanted a garden, but that he had forgotten whose land he was coveting.

Naboth, you see, knew that he was a caretaker of the land, protecting his family’s inheritance and God’s designated means of offering security to the people of Israel. Ahab, on the other hand, saw the opportunity to possess something and he didn’t understand why Naboth wouldn’t trade one possession for another. In Israel though, the land could not be possessed forever, it was to be cared for and passed on.

Ahab was confronted by this when Elijah showed up. He called him his enemy. The word of the Lord came as a threat because he had forgotten what he was supposed to be doing and whom he was supposed to be serving. Since his desire was focused on something he wanted to possess, he had misplaced his desire for God so he could only see God as a threat now—an enemy.

We know that feeling, don’t we? It’s very easy to get wrapped up in the desire to possess things or to control people or to use people. Especially in a culture like ours that presents objects and even people as things to be consumed, as answers to our needs. If I just had that face cream I could have clear skin and I would no longer feel like the ugly duckling of the 8th grade classroom. If I could be friends with Dickie Foster I would no longer feel inadequate and boring. If I just drink this drink or smoke this smoke or eat this food I’ll fill up the empty spaces in my life, I’ll conquer my fears, I’ll get past the wounds, I’ll forget about the pain. If I can just associate myself with this brand name or that Nike swoosh or this make of car, maybe I won’t have to worry about what my real identity is. Sound familiar?

This is the stuff our culture feeds us. But when Elijah comes he reminds us that what we’re really meant to be are stewards of an identity that God has given us already. And the identity we have been given is that we are God’s people, God’s children. The desire we are meant to have is for God. And the things around us and the people around us are to be enjoyed as the means of God’s grace coming to us. Christian community is a means of grace that opens up a window on God. Bread and wine become more than food and drink to be eaten and used up—they are a means of grace, a window on God. The world around us, the people we meet, the work we do, can all be a means of grace, and a window on God.

But only if we acknowledge that God is coming to us in each of these ways and that the God who reaches out to us is not our enemy, but our salvation. God is not the source of our destruction, but the ground of our existence. And we know this because we have seen God. We have seen God in many ways, but most powerfully and most definitively in Jesus Christ. In Christ we have know that the God who calls to us is love. Always love. Always love.

There’s also a message for us here about strength, something that is appropriate for us to talk about on Fathers Day. What the people of Israel wanted in the midst of the decay and falling apart of their nation was strength and they looked for a king to display that strength. What we look for in our leaders, in our fathers, is strength. But it’s not just physical strength. It’s not about being powerful, because we all know how easily power can be abused. What God calls for the king to be is a strong man directed toward good ends. A strong man who will protect and guide and instruct others in the ways of justice. A strong man who will serve the people and who will recognize to whom true strength belongs.

Fathers, we are called to be the same for those who depend on us. Strong, yes, but strong and directed toward protecting and guiding and instructing. We are not made strong to get our own way. We are made strong to serve. There is no better image of what God desires for fatherhood than a man who has bent his heart towards God and who loves out of that knowledge.

Who is this God who meets us in the garden? Is it the God who is an enemy of all that we have done? Or is it a God who put us in a garden to begin with and who calls us to care for all the gifts that we have been given? That is the God who is the parent to us all. Thanks be to God.

I Kings 21:1-21a (NRSV)
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.
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.
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"