The Desirable Vineyard

Click here to read I Kings 21.

Chapter 21 deals with the greed of Ahab and the treachery of Jezebel. There was a man by the name of Na-both who lived on the Plain of Jezreel. He had a beautiful vineyard and Ahab saw this vineyard and desired it. He approached Na-both about selling it or exchanging it for something else, but Na-both said no. It seems that Na-both knew the rules of inheritance that had been set up by Joshua when the land was divided among the tribes of Israel. The people of Israel were "tenants" of the land and there were conditions about selling that could not be broken accept in the case of extreme necessity, and then the buyer would only have possession until the "Jubilee Year" when it would revert back to the original owner (Lev. 25). But the Jubilee Year did not apply to the King so Na-both knew that if he sold his land to the King it would never return to his heirs.

So he refused and the King pouted. He refused company and food. When Jezbel hears of this, she devises a plan to get the vineyard for her husband. Notice she uses the Kings seal to give authority to her treacherous plan, she uses the leaders of Jezreel as her co-conspirators and she uses religion as the reason for her deed.

Notice her instructions to the leaders of Jezreel:

  1. Declare an eminent doom. Say that a great judgment is coming upon the land because of someone's sin.
  2. Proclaim a "fast" and try, by prayer, to discover who it was that had sinned.
  3. Get some unscrupulous men to falsely testify against Na-both.
  4. Have them accuse Na-both of blasphemy against God and King.
  5. Have Na-both tried, convicted and stoned to death.

The leaders of Jezreel followed her instructions and sent word to her that Na-both was dead, so King Ahab claimed the vineyard for himself. But God was not mocked. He sent Elijah to Ahab. He met Ahab at the vineyard.

Elijah prophesied the following judgment against Ahab for his treachery:

  1. Ahab's family would be destroyed.
  2. The dogs of Jezreel would tare apart the body of his wife Jezebel.
  3. The members of his family who died in the city would be eaten by dogs and those who died in the country would be eaten by vultures.

But Ahab humbled himself and God delayed this prophecy until after his death.


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