“Ahab came into his house heavy and displeased … and he laid him down
upon his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no bread.”
Yet he was the king of Israel in Samaria! He actually had subjects under
him. He was in reality a man who could give law, whose very look was a
commandment, and the uplifting of his hand could move an army. Now we see
him surely at his least. So we do, but not at his worst.
All this must have an explanation. We can not imagine that the man is so
simply childish and foolish as this incident alone would describe him.
Behind all this childishness there is an explanation. What is it?
We find it in the twenty-fifth verse:
“But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work
wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel, his wife, stirred up.”
That explains the whole mystery. The man had sold himself to the devil.
And men are doing that self-same thing every day.
If it were a transaction in the market place--if the auctioneer were
visibly interested in this affair, if he could call out in audible tones
“So much is the price, and the man is about to take it,” people would
shrink from the villainous transaction.
But this is an affair which does not take place in the open market or in
the open daylight. It is not conducted in words. If the men involved in
such transactions could speak the words, the very speech of the words
might break the spell and destroy the horrible infatuation. But the
compact is made in darkness, in silence, in out-of-the-way places. It is
an understanding unwritten, rather than an agreement in detail signed
in the presence of witnesses. It is a mystery which the heart alone can
understand, which even the preacher can not explain in terms, but he can
only throw himself upon his own consciousness, and throw others upon
their consciousness, and call for a united testimony to the fact that it
is possible to sell one’s very soul to evil.
Now we understand King Ahab better. We thought him but little, frivolous
of mind, childish and petty, without a man’s worthy ambition; but now we
see that all this was only symptomatic, an outward sign, pointing, when
rightly followed, to an inward and mortal corruption.
Now, let us look at the case of Naboth and the position which he occupied
in this matter.
Naboth possessed the vineyard which Ahab is said to have coveted. Naboth
said: “The Lord forbid.” He made a religious question of it. Why did he
invoke the Eternal Name and stand back, as if an offense had been offered
to his faith? The terms were commercial; the terms were not unreasonable;
the approach was courteous, and the ground given for the approach was not
an unnatural ground. Why did Naboth stand back as if his religion had
been shocked?
The answer is in the Book of Numbers, thirty-sixth chapter and seventh
verse:
“So shall not the inheritance of the children of Israel remove from tribe
to tribe; for every one of the children of Israel shall keep himself to
the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.”
So Naboth stood upon the law.
In Ezekiel we read:
“Moreover, the prince shall not take of the people’s inheritance by
oppression, to thrust them out of their possession; but he shall give
his sons inheritance out of his own possession, that My people be not
scattered every man from his possession.”
So Naboth was not answering haughtily or resentfully. He was answering
both solemnly and religiously. When money was offered for his fathers’
inheritance, he spurned the offer. There are some things, blessed be God,
we can not pay for.
When Ahab said “I will give thee for it a better vineyard than it” he
knew not of what he was speaking. There can be no better vineyard than
the vineyard of the fathers; there can be no vineyard equal to the
vineyard that is sown with history, planted with associations, solemnized
and endeared by a thousand precious memories. There ought to be some
things which we can not barter. Surely there ought to be some things
which we should never try to sell.
Verily, when we hear propositions made to us that money shall be given
in exchange for certain things, our whole soul should rise in horror and
indignation, and repel the approach of a barter which itself expresses an
infinite, because a most spiritual, injustice. So Naboth’s position was
strong, and he had the courage to answer the king in these terms.
Kings must submit to law. Kings ought to be the subjects of their own
people. Ahab was taught that there was a man in Samaria who valued the
inheritance which had been handed down to him. Have we no inheritance
handed down to us--no book of revelation, no day of rest, no flag of
liberty, no password of common trust? Do we inherit nothing? Did we make
the age as it is, and is civilization a creature of our own fashioning?
And are we not bound to hand on to others what was handed to us intact
and unpolluted?
Let us live in a sacred past, and regard ourselves as trustees of many
possessions, and only trustees, and as bound to vindicate our trust and
have an ample acquittal at the last.
So Ahab lay down upon his bed, turned away his face, and would eat no
bread. But there is a way of accomplishing mean desires. There is a way
of obtaining what we want. Take heart! There is a way of possessing
oneself of almost whatever one desires. There is always some Merlin who
will bring every Uther-Pendragon what he longs to have; there is always
some Lady Macbeth who will show the thane how to become king. There
is always a way to be bad. The gate of hell stands wide open; or, if
apparently half closed, a touch will make it fly back, and the road is
broad that leads to destruction.
Jezebel said she would find the garden or vineyard for her husband. She
taunted him. “Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? Arise and eat
bread, and let thine heart be merry. I will give thee the vineyard of
Naboth, the Jezreelite.” Jezebel threw into the word “govern” a subtle
and significant emphasis.
How will she proceed? She will be ceremoniously religious; she will
proclaim a fast. O thou sweet, white, pure religion, thou hast been
forced into strange uses! “Proclaim a fast;” lengthen your faces; mimic
solemnity; promise your hunger an early satisfaction, but look as if you
were fasting.
It is a sure sign of mischief when certain men become serious. The moment
they appear to be religious the devil is just adding the last touch to
the building which he has been putting up within their souls. When they
talk long words--when they speak about responsibility, obligation, duty,
conscience, compulsion of conviction--they are walking over tesselated
pavement into the very jaws of hell.
They do not mean their words; they do but use them. “The heart is
deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.”
First of all, then, be ceremoniously religious, Jezebel; then trample
down truth. “Set two men, sons of Belial, before him, to bear witness
against him, saying: ‘Thou didst blaspheme God and the king.’” Falsehood
is always ready. A great black lie is always willing to be loosed and to
be set going in the minds of men to pervert them and mislead them. It is
always open to the bad heart to speak the untrue word. Nor is the untrue
word always frankly and broadly spoken. If so, it could be answered in
some cases.
The false word is hardly spoken at all; it is uttered in a whisper.
Falsehood is made to use signs and gestures; even silence is made to bear
witness to falsehood. Truly, again we may say: “The heart is deceitful
above all things, and desperately wicked.” Tell a lie big enough about
any man, and it will be difficult, if not impossible, to do away with
the consequences of the false accusation. People will always be found
to say: “There must be something in it; it may not be just as rumor has
it, but surely a statement of that kind never could have been invented.
Allowing a good deal for exaggeration, there must be something in it.”
Nor is it always possible to get even righteous men to purge their minds
of that damnable sophism. Men who ought to stand up and say “There is
nothing in it” hang down their heads, and with a coward’s gesture let the
lie pass on.
This is how men insult the Son of God, and crucify the Man of truth. They
will not be thorough, bold and fearless, and make the enemy ashamed of
himself for either having invented or repeated a falsehood. Nor may the
man escape because he says he heard the lie. Tell him he may have heard
it, but he is yet responsible for repeating it. He may have no control
over the hearing, but the moment he repeats it he adopts it, and renders
himself amenable to the Eternal Righteousness.
Make the very law an instrument of injustice! First charge this man with
blasphemy and treason, and then take him out and stone him, that he may
die! Do not give him time to speak; do not ask for his defense; do not
give him an opportunity of interrogating the witnesses. But who would
cross-examine two “sons of Belial?” Better almost to die than to taint
the hands and eyes with the touch and look of such children of blackness!
“Then they carried him [Naboth] forth out of the city, and stoned him
with stones, that he died.” It is all over! Jezebel did this. Jezebel--a
woman, a king’s wife--did this. High position goes for nothing when the
heart is wrong. Great influence means great mischief when the soul is not
in harmony with the spirit of righteousness.
Is Naboth quite dead? Yes, he is dead. Take the vineyard--take possession
of it instantly. Now grow herbs, and grow them plentifully. The vineyard
is now at liberty--take it. “Ahab rose up to go down to the vineyard of
Naboth, the Jezreelite, to take possession of it.” But who is that looms
in the distance? Is it Naboth? No.
How comes this man to be here just now--aye, just now? How the end
is marked off into points, and how does providence reveal itself at
unexpected times and in ways unforeseen! Who is this? He looks stern. He
has an eye of fire. His lips are shut as if they could never be opened.
He does but look.
Who is he? “Elijah, the Tishbite.” He has a message:
“Thus saith the Lord: ‘Hast thou killed, and also taken possession?’ …
Thus saith the Lord: ‘In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth
shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine.’”
A sad walk!
Ahab went down to take possession of a vineyard, and a death warrant was
read to him! After all, it is safe to live in this universe; there is law
in it, there is a genius of righteousness, there is a Force that moves on
toward noble issues.
“And Ahab said to Elijah: ‘Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?’ And
he answered: ‘I have found thee; because thou hast sold thyself
to work evil in the sight of the Lord.’” Ahab went out to take
possession of a garden of herbs, and there he stands face to face with
righteousness--face to face with honor--face to face with judgment.
Now take the vineyard. He can not! An hour since the Sun shone upon it,
and now it is black as if it were part of the midnight which has gathered
in judgment.
There is a success which is failure. We can not take some prizes. Elijah
will not allow us. When we see him we would that a way might open under
our feet that we might flee and escape the judgment of his silent look.
In the Septuagint version the twentieth chapter of the first Book of
Kings immediately precedes the twenty-second. The three years without war
is a period which is reckoned from the peace which was so rashly made by
Ahab with Ben-hadad.
It is clear that Ben-hadad has recovered his independence, and is
probably in a position of superiority. It is certain that he has not
restored Ramoth-gilead, as he had promised to do, and his reconstructed
army now seems to him to be sufficient to encounter successfully the
united hosts of Israel and Judah. In the forty-second verse of the same
chapter we have seen how Ahab was rebuked for allowing the enemy to
escape.
It has been supposed that this conduct on the part of Ahab may have been
due partly to compassion and partly to weakness. The judgment of the Lord
was, however, expressed in the severest terms:
“Because thou hast let go out of thy hand a man whom I appointed to
utter destruction, therefore thy life shall go for his life, and thy
people for his people.”
In the third verse we see these words signally fulfilled. The king of
Israel seems to have a good cause when he said to his servants: “Know ye
that Ramoth, in Gilead, is ours, and we be still, and take it not out of
the hand of the king of Syria?” On this occasion Ahab entered into an
alliance with Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, for the purpose of taking back
the city which belonged to Israel. Jehoshaphat made a deferential as well
as a friendly reply, but insisted upon the fulfillment of a religious
condition. Jehoshaphat would make inquiry at the word of the Lord.
Thereupon four hundred prophets were gathered together, and with one
consent they advised that the attack should be made upon Ramoth-gilead.
Surely this was enough to satisfy the judgment and the conscience of the
most religious man, yet Jehoshaphat was not content with the unanimous
reply which four hundred prophets had returned.
“There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth
them understanding.”
All external unanimity goes for nothing when the conscience itself
dissents from the judgment which has been pronounced. There is a
verifying faculty which operates upon its own responsibility, and which
can not be overpowered by the clamor of multitudes who eagerly rush down
paths that are forbidden. Even when imagination assents to the voice
of the majority, and when ambition is delighted with the verdict of
the prophets, there yet remains the terrible but gracious authority of
conscience. Through all the clamor that authority makes its way, and
calmly distinguishes between right and wrong, and solemnly insists that
right shall be done at all hazards and in view of all consequences.
A vital lesson rises here to all who are anxious to know the right way
under difficult circumstances. It is not enough to have great numbers of
authorities on our side; so long as the conscience remains unsatisfied
all other authorities are “trifles light as air.”
Jehoshaphat was uneasy, therefore, notwithstanding the prophets had said:
“Go up; for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king.” He
inquired: “Is there not here a prophet of the Lord besides, that we might
inquire of him?” The word which Jehoshaphat used was the great word,
Jehovah. It was not enough for him to use a religious or sacred term. He
must have the prophecy identified with the awful name, Jehovah; then it
would come with final authority.
The king of Israel knew that there was another man whose very name
signified “Who is like Jehovah?” Ahab frankly admitted that he hated
Micaiah because he never prophesied good concerning him, but always evil.
Observe the madness of Ahab’s policy, and note how often it is the policy
which we ourselves are tempted to pursue. We suppose that if we do not
consult the Bible we may take license to do what seems good in our own
eyes, and we imagine that by ignoring the Bible we have divested it of
authority. We flatter ourselves that if we do not listen to an exposition
of the divine word we shall be judged according to the light we have,
forgetting the solemn law that it is not according to the light we have
that we are to be judged, but according to the light we might have if we
put ourselves in right relations to the opportunities created for us by
divine providence.
We know that if we go to hear a certain preacher he will insist upon
“righteousness, temperance and judgment to come;” and, supposing that
we already know every thing that he will say, we turn away from him and
listen to men who do not profoundly treat vital subjects, or press home
upon the conscience the terrible judgments of God.
What is this but closing our eyes to light, and supposing that darkness
is safety? What is this ostrich policy but one that ought to be condemned
by our sense as well as shrunk from by our piety?
Our duty under all critical circumstances is to go to the truth-teller,
and to get at the reality of things at all costs. Where the truth-teller
disturbs our peace and disappoints our ambition, we ought surely
to learn that it is precisely at that point that we have to become
self-rectifying. The truth-teller is only powerful in proportion as he
tells the truth. Officially, he is nothing; his power is simply the
measure of his righteousness.
But do not men love to be flattered, even in courses of evil? Is it
not pleasant to go to forbidden war amid the huzzas of thoughtless and
irresponsible multitudes?
Jehoshaphat, however, was a just man, and as such he protested against
the sin of the king of Israel, saying: “Let not the king say so.”
Jehoshaphat being so bent upon a complete judgment of the case, Micaiah
was sent for. The king of Israel wished to overawe the despised prophet
by the pomp and circumstance under which he was introduced to the royal
presence. “The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, sat
each on his throne, having put on their robes, in a void place in the
entrance of the gate of Samaria,” and, to increase the impressiveness of
the occasion, all the prophets prophesied before the kings.
A singular addition was made to the surroundings of the occasion which
was intended to impress the imagination and stagger the courage of the
despised Micaiah. A man bearing the name of Zedekiah (“righteousness of
Jehovah”) made him horns of iron. The use of symbolical acts is quite
common in biblical history. We have already seen Abijah engaged in acts
of this kind. He “caught the new garment that was on him and rent it in
twelve pieces, and said to Jeroboam: ‘Take thee ten pieces.’”
The enthusiasm of Zedekiah inflamed all the other prophets to the highest
point of excitement, and they shouted as with one voice:
“Go up to Ramoth-gilead, and prosper; for the Lord shall deliver it into
the king’s hand.”
In this instance the prophets, overborne by the enthusiasm of Zedekiah,
actually ventured to use the name of Jehovah, which had not been used in
the first instance. The excitement had passed the point of worship and
had become more nearly resembling the frantic cry that was heard on Mount
Carmel: “O Baal, hear us.”
Is it possible that there can be found any solitary man who dare oppose
such unanimous testimony and complete enthusiasm?
The messenger who was sent to call Micaiah was evidently a man of
considerate feeling and who wished the prophet well. Seeing that the
words of the prophets had all declared good unto the king with one mouth,
the messenger wished that Micaiah should for once agree with the other
prophets, and please the king by leaving undisturbed their emphatic and
unanimous counsel.
Thus the voice of persuasion was brought to bear on Micaiah, and that
voice is always the most difficult to resist. The temptation thus
addressed to Micaiah was thus double in force. On the one hand, there
were the pomp and the terror of the king who had sold himself to do evil,
and who would shrink from the infliction of no cruelty that would express
his unreasoning and unlimited anger; on the other hand, there was the
good will of the messenger, who wished Micaiah to escape all danger and
penalty, and for once to take the popular side. Micaiah’s reply is simply
sublime: “As the Lord liveth, what the Lord saith unto me, that will I
speak.”
The humility of this answer is as conspicuous as its firmness. Its
profound religiousness saves it from the charge of being defiant. Micaiah
recognizes himself merely in the position of a servant or medium, who has
nothing of his own to say; who is not called upon to invent an answer or
to play the clever man in the presence of the kings. He was simply as a
trumpet through which God could blow His own blast, or a pillar on which
God would inscribe his own message, or a voice which God would use for
the declaration of His own will. It is unjust to attribute obstinacy or
any form of self-will or self-worship to Micaiah. If he had consulted his
natural inclination alone, he would have sought favor with the king, and
the logical effect of his subsequent position would have been that Ahab
would have endeavored for ever to silence him by constituting him the
prince and leader of the four hundred prophets. Micaiah said, in effect,
what was said centuries afterward: “We have this treasure in earthen
vessels.”
Micaiah lived in God, for God, and had nothing of his own to calculate
or consider. Until preachers realize this same spiritual independence,
they will be attempting to accommodate themselves to the spirit of the
times, and even the strongest of them may be betrayed into connivances
and compromises fatal to personal integrity and to the claims of truth.
Now came the critical moment. Now it was to be seen whether Micaiah was
to be promoted to honor, or thrust away in contempt and wrath. It is
easy to read of the recurrence of such moments, but difficult to realize
them in their agony. Yet these are the moments which make history in its
sublimest lines.
It is not too much to say that there have been points of time at which
if certain men had given way the whole economy of the world have been
wrecked.
The king addressed himself to the prophet, saying: “Shall we go against
Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall we forbear?” The answer of Micaiah must
have been a surprise to all who heard it, for he said: “Go, and prosper;
for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king.”
This is an answer which can not be understood in print. It was evident,
however, that Ahab was in no doubt as to its meaning, for the tone of
the prophet was a tone of almost contemptuous irony. If King Ahab had
taken Micaiah’s literal answer, he would have gone forth to the battle
comforting himself with the thought that he was carrying out the will of
Heaven; but he knew in his own soul that Micaiah was not uttering that
which expressed the reality of the case. With anger the king said unto
him: “How many times shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but
that which is true in the name of the Lord?”
Then Micaiah replied in symbolic language, the full meaning of which was
vividly clear to the mind of Ahab; for, turning to Jehoshaphat, he said:
“Did I not tell thee that he would prophesy no good concerning me, but
evil?”
Thereupon Micaiah charged the whole band of prophets with being under
the inspiration of a lying spirit, and thus he put a stigma upon their
judgment and extracted from it every particle of dignity and authority.
But this was not to be borne, for Zedekiah went near and smote Micaiah on
the cheek and taunted him as being the only prophet in Israel. Micaiah
had to bear the sarcasm conveyed in the inquiry: “Which way went the
Spirit of the Lord from me to speak unto thee?”
Micaiah, like a true prophet, leaves his judgment to the decision of
time. He will not stoop to argue, or to exchange words either of anger or
of controversy; he simply says that Zedekiah will one day see the meaning
of the whole prophecy, and until that day controversy would be useless.
Micaiah had to pay for his intrepidity. He was carried unto Amon, the
governor of the city, and to Joash, the king’s son, and was to be put
in prison and fed with the bread of affliction and with the water of
affliction until Ahab returned in peace.
Micaiah thus disappears from history. Of his fate we know nothing; but
there can be no difficulty in forecasting it a cruel death. Micaiah knew
well the meaning of the king’s message. It may be difficult for the
commentator to explain the expression, “bread of affliction and water of
affliction,” but Micaiah knew the full meaning of the terms, and yet,
while their cruel sound was in his ears, he looked at the king and said:
“If thou return at all in peace, the Lord hath not spoken by me.”
Micaiah also made his appeal to the people, and thus committed himself to
the verdict of history, saying: “Hearken, O people, every one of you.”
See whether it is not a moment to be proud of when Micaiah turns away
in the custody of his persecutors, having delivered his soul with a
fearlessness that did not cower or blanche, even at the sight of death
in its most ghastly form. Surely, it is due to history to recognize the
fact that there have been men who have not counted their lives dear unto
themselves when they were called upon to testify for truth and goodness.
The martyrs must never be forgotten.
[Illustration: JOSEPH INTERPRETING PHARAOH’S DREAM. Genesis, xli.]
[Illustration: St. Paul.