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Fall of the House of Ahab
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The leaders obeyed this command. “The men of his city, the
elders and nobles ..., did as Jezebel had ... written in the letters
which she had sent to them.” Then Jezebel went to the king and told
him to take the vineyard. So Ahab went down to take possession of
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the coveted property.
The king was not allowed to enjoy what he had gained by fraud
and bloodshed without hearing from God. “The word of the Lord
came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ‘Arise, go down to meet Ahab
king of Israel ... in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone down
to take possession of it. You shall speak to him, saying, “Thus says
the Lord: ‘Have you murdered and also taken possession?’”’” The
Lord further instructed Elijah to pronounce a terrible judgment on
Ahab.
The guilty ruler, startled at meeting the stern prophet face to
face in the vineyard, expressed his fear: “Have you found me, O my
enemy?”
Without hesitation the messenger of the Lord replied, “I have
found you, because you have sold yourself to do evil in the sight of
the Lord: ‘Behold, I will bring calamity on you. I will take away
your posterity.’” The house of Ahab was to be completely destroyed.
And the Lord declared concerning Jezebel, “‘The dogs shall eat
Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.’ The dogs shall eat whoever belongs
to Ahab and dies in the city, and the birds of the air shall eat whoever
dies in the field.”
When the king heard this terrifying message, “he tore his clothes
and put sackcloth on his body, and fasted and lay in sackcloth, and
went about mourning.
“And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,
‘See how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has
humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the calamity in his days.
In the days of his son I will bring the calamity on his house.’”
Ahaziah Follows the Ways of His Father and Mother
Less than three years later King Ahab met his death at the hands
of the Syrians. Ahaziah, his successor, “did evil in the sight of the
Lord. ... He served Baal and worshiped him, and provoked the Lord
God of Israel to anger,” as his father Ahab had done. Judgments