Title: Don’t Let Anyone Take Your Vineyard
According to Kings’ chronology, 1 Kgs 16 describes about Ahab taking the throne succeeding Omri. However, God said that the way that Ahab walked was eviler than his father Omri (1 Kgs 16:28-30).
1 Kgs 17-19 describes about Prophet Elijah bringing God’s warning and judgement of no rain for 3 and a half years. Then 1 Kgs 20 records about the battle against Ben-Hadad, the king of Aram (1 Kgs 17:1; 1 Kgs 20:1).
After Elijah proved that God is the only true God who hears and answers, rather than treating him well and listening to him, Ahab (Jezebel) tried to kill Elijah that he had to run away.
After God brought victory against Aram, rather than listening to God, Ahad decided what he wanted to do which made God upset again. Ahab was an evil guy who doesn’t think of God’s work and who doesn’t do things according to God’s way. Now, 1 Kgs 21 records about Ahab desiring the vineyard belonged to Naboth and later he (Jezebel) killed Naboth and took the land anyway. One thing we need to think is why this story is recorded in the Bible.
Naboth’s story is written in the Bible because it can deliver the lessons to us regarding our salvation and God’s kingdom. With this view, let’s look at the main scripture once again (1 Kgs 21:2-3). King Ahab was offering the money to buy the vineyard from Naboth. Naboth refused king’s tempting deal but kept the vineyard until the end. What does it teach us today?
- Naboth kept the vineyard
Can he not just accept the king’s deal and go for comfortable life? Why did he fight against the king so badly? It was because the vineyard was not just his own land, but he inherited the land which God ordered not to sell or buy from and to each other (Lev 25:23). Thus, Naboth said to the king, “The LORD forbid me that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.” However, the vineyard in the Bible often expressed as the church were God and His people are (Jhn 15:1-4).
Jesus said that He is the vine, and His father is the vinedresser, and we are His branches. Therefore, the vineyard symbolizes the church where we took Jesus as our savior and bear fruits (Mat 21:33-41; Isa 5:7; Isa 27:2-3; Jer 12:10).
Acts 20:28 says that Jesus purchased the church with His own blood. Heb 12:4 says that we should fight against sin even to the point of shedding our blood. As Jesus shed His blood to give us His church, we also should shed our blood to protect His church. When we look at 1 Kgs 21:9-10, Naboth was stoned to death. He is the figure who protected God’s church even shedding the blood and even it takes him to the point of death.
- Naboth protected the Word
When he received the king’s offer, he could have bent God’s order a little bit and make excuses saying “In this circumstance, with the evil king Ahab, with the Covid-19, with such and such, what can we do more? What we are doing may not be perfect but the best.”
Jesus became the fulfiller of the Law; thus, the time of Law is finished but the time of grace has begun. If we look at Lev 25:23 and keep it without understanding, it can easily become a legalistic bound for us. Sometimes, the blind faith sounds and seems better. But that’s not the kind of faith that God wants us to have. let’s read Num 36:6-7.
After reading this, we can understand God’s order ‘do not sell or sold your land permanently’ is not just a legalistic order but God has a reason and a purpose. If we see God’s purpose behind such order, then we will gladly and whole heartedly obey and follow God’s Word, even to the point of death because we are confident of what we are buying.
We should regard God’s Word more than anything in this world and we should understand God’s Word so that we won’t hesitate even a second when the moment of martyrdom when we can shed our blood for His church comes to us.
Conclusion: Let’s protect our church
- We must defend the church form the siege of the world (1 Kgs 21:2).
The reason why King Ahad wanted Naboth’s vineyard was because it was near to his palace. Being close to the sinful world is the definition of the church but also something we have to always be careful of.
A church is not a monastery that locates in a remote mountain or place. A church should be located in the world. Therefore, we should know that we are exposed to the waves of sinful current. We must not be affected or enticed by such things.
The mindset of negativity could be one thing that we should be always careful of. Greed could be another thing that we should be careful of. Talking bad about the leadership could be the one thing that we should be aware of.
- We must defend the church from the disguise (1 Kgs 21:4).
When Naboth refused the offer from King Ahab, King Ahab lay down and ate no food. How sorry he could be thinking of the fact that he made the leader of the nation suffer so much because of him, and it seems like he is declining. However, that is Satan’s tactic to mislead us and disguise us. Look at Rev 13:3, even the beast of the last time presented it as the one who had a fatal wound once but after a while, it continues to seduce and gather more people under his power. So, keeping the church is the only and most important thing.
The one who destroys the vineyard, and the church never was a man of God. It was always the one without the Word of God destroyed the church: Pharoah, Nebuchadnezzar, Herod who killed Jesus.
Although it was God’s plan to destroy the Holy Temple due to the sins of His people and to awake them from their spiritual sleep, it will never justify the one (instrument) God used for this purpose. Therefore, for whatever reason, we must not stand in the position to destroy the vineyard or the church.
The Lord's Covenant Church Malaysia 