RTW 2023

So Ahab went home angry and sullen because of Naboth’s answer. The king went to bed with his face to the wall and refused to eat!“What’s the matter?” his wife Jezebel asked him. “What’s made you so upset that you’re not eating?”“I asked Naboth to sell me his vineyard or trade it, but he refused!” Ahab told her.“Are you the king of Israel or not?” Jezebel demanded. “Get up and eat something, and don’t worry about it. I’ll get you Naboth’s vineyard!”

1 Kings 21:4-7

(No one else so completely sold himself to what was evil in the LORD’s sight as Ahab did under the influence of his wife Jezebel. His worst outrage was worshiping idols just as the Amorites had done—the people whom the Lord had driven out from the land ahead of the Israelites.)

1 Kings 21:25-26

• In Israel, of the nineteen kings that ruled, none were good.
• Ahab was the worst.
• But Ahab son of Omri did what was evil in the LORD’s sight, even more than any of the kings before him.
  1 Kings 16:30
• Ahab married Jezebel.
• Jezebel was the daughter of the Phoenician/Sidonian King Ethbaal.
• Ethbaal had taken the throne by murdering his own brother.
• Jezebel was much like her father.
• Ahab was just as evil.
• This evil power couple schemed, stole, and murdered.
• They hated God’s prophets.
• They hated God’s Word.
• They built a temple to Baal in Samaria.
• They erected Asherah poles for worship.
• Jezebel was so committed to her Canaanite gods that she provided room and board for eight hundred and fifty false prophets of Baal and Asherah.
• When she gave orders to slaughter the prophets of the true God, including Elijah, Ahab consented.
• Theirs was a marriage made elsewhere than heaven. They were partners in crime, inciting each other toward ever-increasing evil.
• More chapters are devoted to Ahab than any other king of Samaria.
• Ahab was both an evil ruler and a royal pouter. Twice he is described as “sullen and displeased.” (NKJV) (1 Kings 20:43 and 1 Kings 21:4) The Hebrew words used have the sense of anger, stubbornness, heaviness, and moroseness.
• Ahab was a wealthy king but he could not have what he wanted: Naboth’s vineyard.
• Naboth refused to sell the vineyard.
• Pouting may seem insignificant when compared with the other misdeeds of Ahab.
• Ahab’s constant pouting is a telling insight into Ahab’s character.
• He was a greedy king, driven by a sense of entitlement.
• Greed and entitlement led to his death and the demise of his entire family.

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God sees. God knows. God will make all things right. What am I pouting about that would displease God??