"He laid him down upon his bed, and turned away his face, and would
eat no bread."--_1 Kings 21:4._
YOU learn in the Catechism to say, "Thou shalt not covet." Coveting
means wishing very much for what we ought not to have; and God tells
us not to covet, because all faults begin in bad wishes. Now you shall
hear what shocking sin one wish led to.
King Ahab had a grand garden, and he wanted to make it bigger; but the
next piece of ground belonged to a poor man named Naboth. Ahab asked
Naboth to sell him his ground; but Naboth said it had come to him from
his father, and must go to his son, and he could not sell it. Then Ahab
coveted, and lay on his bed and would not eat--caring for nothing but
the bit of ground he could not get.
Now Ahab had a cruel, wicked wife; and when she saw her husband
grieving about Naboth's ground she was determined to get it for him.
So she had two very bad men set on to say that poor Naboth had been
wicked, and must be put to death.
They bore false witness against him, and broke the Ninth Commandment
when they did so; and then, worst of all, this poor innocent man was
really put to death for the crime he had never done--and that was
murder, which breaks the Sixth Commandment. Then Jezebel called Ahab,
and told him he might go and take possession of the ground that he
wanted: there was nobody to hinder him. But he never had any pleasure
in it.
When he went to it, there stood God's great Prophet Elijah, ready to
meet him. And Elijah told him how very angry God was with him and
with Jezebel, and that they should be terribly punished for their
cruel behavior to this innocent man. Then Ahab was sorry, and wept and
grieved for the cruel thing that had been done; but all his sorrow
could not bring Naboth back to life again. And oh! how grieved he must
have been that he had not kept his wishes in order!--for almost all our
faults begin in a wish.