There is a familiar saying: “Every man has his own price.”
Ahab had his, and he sold himself for a garden; Judas sold himself for
thirty pieces of silver, and Esau for a mess of pottage.
Ahab sold himself just to please a fallen woman. And so we might go
on--citing the men who have sold themselves. It is easy for us to condemn
these men, but let us see if there are not men and women doing the same
thing today. How many are selling themselves tonight for naught! It is
easy enough to condemn Judas, Herod and Ahab, but in doing this do we not
condemn ourselves?
We thought that slavery was hard. We thought it hard that those poor
black people should be put upon the block, in the market, and sold to the
highest bidder; but what do you think of those men who sell themselves
today to evil?
Ahab sold himself to evil, and what did he get?
Elijah was the best friend that Ahab had, but he did not think so; he
thought that Elijah was his enemy. Ahab was a religious man--that is,
he thought he was. He had 850 prophets. “And what king has more? What
king does more for religion than I?” So he would have said. There is a
difference between religion and having Christ. There are a great many
people that have religion but have no Christ in it--that have not a spark
of Christianity.
This man was very religious, but he began wrong. His marriage was his
first wrong step. He did not care about the law of God. He wanted to
strengthen his kingdom. I can imagine they said: “We have outgrown the
laws of Moses. We do not want your God; we have got something better.
Here are the nations all around us worshiping Baal, and we will worship
Baal.”
Ahab’s wife, Jezebel, wanted the patriarchs and the prophets put to
death, and they were put to death. Obadiah had a few, but wherever they
were found they were put to death. I suppose they said of Elijah: “That
man belongs to the old Puritanical school.” He was bigoted and narrow.
The idea of only worshiping one God! Ahab was willing to turn away from
the God of Elijah, but he did not look to have Elijah reprove him, and
thus he was his enemy. Many a man who has a good, praying mother thinks
that mother is his enemy.
Ahab thought the God of Elijah was not going to carry out His warning. I
will leave it to you if the man who warns you of danger is not the best
friend you have got. If I saw a man about to walk over a precipice and
he was blind and I did not warn him, would not the blood of that man
be required at my hands? Would not I be guilty morally? Jezebel hated
Elijah, and she disliked him for his warnings. The man who warns you is
the best friend that you have got.
Suppose I am going home at night--at midnight--and I see a building on
fire and I pass along and say not a word about it, and the occupants
are all asleep and I go right home and go to bed, and in the morning I
find that fifteen people in that house were burned up--how you would
condemn me! And if in preaching the Gospel I do not warn you about your
danger--about your sins and God’s punishment--what will you say to me
when I meet you at the Eternal Throne? I do not want you to think that
I am trying to please the people by preaching that the just and unjust
will fare alike. You may be successful for a time. Ahab had two grand and
glorious victories upon the battle field, and he was a very popular man
for a while. He built a palace of ivory, and just here I want to speak of
one act of that man.
When Ahab’s beautiful palace was finished, he found there was a poor man
who had a garden near it. This Ahab wanted. And Ahab came to Naboth, the
poor man, and wanted him to sell his garden. But Naboth said he could not
do so, for it was against the law of his people. Then Ahab said to him:
“I will give you a better place than this, and I will give you a better
vineyard than this.” But Naboth was firm, and would not agree to sell his
garden.
Many men would have liked to sell to the king. Such would have said: “We
know it is against the law, but he is foolish not to sell to the king.”
Naboth said: “God forbid that I should sell.”
Ahab returns to his palace, where he pouts like a child. Jezebel notices
him, and begins to speak with him. She asks: “What is the matter?” Ahab
makes answer like a peevish child: “I want Naboth’s garden.” And she asks
him why he does not take it, and then he tells her. Again she asks:
“Are you not king of Israel?”
“Yes.”
“Well! Then why do you not get it? I will get it for you, and it shall
not cost you any thing. I will arrange it.”
Then Jezebel sent that infamous letter to the truculent elders. Those
elders were just as bad as Jezebel. They knew that Naboth served the
God of Heaven. The instructions of the letter were followed. The two
witnesses said they saw Naboth despise God and the king, and so he was
taken out and stoned to death. I can see him kneeling there and the
crowds taking up the stones and hurling them at him.
Well, when Ahab goes down to take possession of that vineyard there is a
message that had come from the throne of Heaven. God has been watching
him. He notices all of us, and there is not a hellish act that has been,
or is going to be, committed but God knows about it. Elijah stood before
Ahab as the latter went down to that garden, and Ahab got out of his
chariot and met him. He knew that Elijah knew all, and he did not like to
be reproved. Ill-gotten gains do not bring peace. If you get any thing
at the cost of the truth or honor, it will be peace lost for time, and
perhaps for eternity.
As he walked through that garden, Ahab looked up and said: “Why, is not
that Elijah?” He knew it was, and he knew what it meant. Elijah walks up
to him and asks: “Hast thou killed and taken possession?” Ahab answers:
“I wonder how he found that out. He knows all about me.” And then Elijah
said: “In the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth they shall
lick thy blood.”
Then Ahab asked the prophet: “Mine enemy, have you found me out?”
Elijah answered: “Yes. Because you have sold yourself to evil, you will
be found out.”
A few years before, Ahab had laughed at Elijah, but he now remembered
that every thing which Elijah’s God had promised had been done, and he
could not get these words out of his mind: “In the place where the dogs
licked the blood of Naboth they shall lick thy blood.” Sometimes just one
act, that we can do in a minute, will cost us years of trouble and pain.
Little did Ahab think that it was going to cost him his kingdom and cause
his whole family to be swept from the face of the earth when he gave the
promise to Jezebel to write that letter.
Ahab lived three years after Elijah met him in that garden, and how many
times do you suppose those awful words of Elijah came into his mind? He
could not get them out of his mind. Jezebel tried to help him, but she
could not. He wanted to improve the garden, and no doubt he did improve
it; but whenever he walked there the words came to him which Elijah had
spoken. Then the time came for the judgment against Ahab to be carried
out, and the Bible tells how it was done.