1 Kings 21:28-29

Divine Relentings.

If we were to seek the Scriptures through for a proof that God's "property is always to have mercy," and that judgment is His strange work, where should we find a more striking and eminent one than in this relenting towards Ahab? Consider -

I. AHAB 'S SIN . In this respect" there was none like him." He "sold himself to work wickedness." It was not because of Naboth's murder alone that the sentence of 1 Kings 21:19-22 was pronounced against him; it was for the varied and accumulated sins of a reign of twenty years. Among these were -

1. The sin of schism . He continued the calf worship ( 1 Kings 16:1-34 :81). He kept "the statutes of Omri." Despite the warnings of prophets and of history, he maintained the shrines, sacrifices, priests, of Bethel and Daniel

2. The sin of his marriage . "Was it a light thing to walk in the way of Jeroboam that he must take to wife Jezebel" ( 1 Kings 15:31 Hebrews), in direct violation of the law ( Deuteronomy 7:1-3 ), in disregard of the example of Solomon? To place such a woman, daughter of such a house, on the throne of Israel was to insult the true religion, and to court its overthrow.

3. The sin of idolatry . ( 1 Kings 16:32 .) Samaria had its house of Baal, its altar for Baal. He did very abominably in following idols ( 1 Kings 21:26 ).

4. The sin of impurity . This was involved, as we have already remarked, in the idolatry of that age. "Ahab made an Asherah" ( 1 Kings 16:32 ). Indeed, it is to the impurities of Canaanitish worship that the words just cited (verse 26) refer. The abominations of the Amorites are not to be named amongst Christians.

5. The sin of persecuting the prophets . It is very possible that Ahab himself was no persecutor, but Jezebel was, and he should have restrained her ( 1 Samuel 3:18 ). He was directly responsible for her deeds. She owed her power, place, and influence to him.

6. The sin of releasing the persecutor of God's people . The pardon and favour he accorded to Ben-hadad are mentioned as a part of the provocation wherewith he provoked the Lord ( 1 Kings 20:42 ). It sprang out of his forgetting God. He ignored altogether God's will and pleasure in the matter. See p. 492.

7. The sin of slaying Naboth and his sons . For with this crime Ahab is charged. "Hast thou killed?" I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth; and I will requite thee " ( 2 Kings 9:26 ). Perhaps he flattered himself that that sin lay at Jezebel's door. If so, he is soon undeceived.

Such was Ahab's sevenfold sin. Consider—

II. ITS AGGRAVATIONS . It enhanced his guilt that—

1. He was the Lord's anointed . He was the head of the Jewish Church. Fidei Defensor— this was the highest function of a true king of Israel. His very position reminded him of the gracious and marvellous history of his fathers. To him it was granted to be the representative of heaven to the chosen people. How great the sin when the champion of the faith became its oppressor, when the "nursing father" of the Church depraved and prostituted it.

2. He had witnessed miracles . The drought, the fire, the rain, all these signs and tokens had been wrought in his presence. Unto him they were showed that he might know that the Lord He was God ( Deuteronomy 4:35 , Deuteronomy 4:36 ; cf. 1 Kings 18:39 ). Did ever king hear the voice of God as he had done?

3. He had been miraculously helped and delivered . Cf. 2 Chronicles 26:15 . If he gave no heed to the signs, he should have been moved by the victories God had granted him. These were plain proofs that the Lord alone was God ( 1 Kings 20:13 , 1 Kings 20:28 ). But neither plagues, nor signs, nor victories moved that rebellious heart. He is scarce home from his Syrian compaigns, to enjoy the fruit of his success, than he lends himself to fresh sin, to murder and oppression, He, the executor and guardian of law, connives at the murder of a law-abiding subject. Let us now consider—

III. HIS REPENTANCE . Now that he is found out and denounced, like Felix, he trembles. As Elijah stands over him, and announces the doom of his house, he sees a horrible vision of blood and slaughter. The garden of herbs he has pictured dies away from his view. He sees in its stead his own mangled body cast into the plot of ground where he was then standing. He sees his hands, his feet, his face gnawed by the curs of the adjoining city. He sees his proud consort stripped of her silk attire, suffering a like indignity in the neighbouring ditch. He sees his children, the fruit of his body, stretched in the streets of the town, or in the open champaign, a feast for the jackal and the carrion crow. "Like the house of Jeroboam," "like the house of Baasha," he knew the horrors involved in these words. A horrible dread overwhelms him. He is smitten by sudden compunction. He must get away from this cursed spot at once. He might then have justly said to his charioteer, "Turn thine hand and carry me away, for I am wounded" ( 1 Kings 22:34 ). An arrow from Elijah's lips has pierced his harness through. He mounts his chariot, it bears him through the plain, bears him to his palace—no longer "heavy and displeased," but utterly crushed and terrified. Again he steals to his bedchamber, and turns his face to the wall and eats no bread. In vain the queen assays to laugh him out of his fears. No instruments of music can charm his melancholy, no physicians can minister to that mind diseased. He cannot banish that vision from his thoughts. It haunts him like a nightmare. Can he not avert the doom? Can he not make his peace with Heaven? He has but lately forgiven cruel and persistent enemy; is there no forgiveness for him? He will make the effort. He too will "gird sackcloth on his loins, and put a rope on his head," and go to the great king of Israel. He rises from his couch a sadder and a wiser man. He rends his kingly robes and casts them from him; he assumes the garment of humiliation, he fasts, he prays, he goes softly. It is true his penitence was neither profound nor enduring ( 1 Kings 22:8 , 1 Kings 22:26 ), but it was undoubtedly—

1. Sincere while it lasted . It is a mistake to call it the "shadow of a repentance." There was real contrition—not only fear of punishment, but also sorrow for his sin. We may be sure that, like a former king of Israel, his cry was, "I have sinned against the Lord" ( 2 Samuel 12:13 ).

2. Open and public . His queen, his courtiers, saw the sackcloth, marked the hushed voice, the downcast eye, and knew what it meant (verse 29). " Seest thou how Ahab?" etc; implies that it was notorious. The crime was known of all men; the sorrow and humiliation must be the same.

3. Marked by restitution . The Scripture does not say so, but it does not need to say so. There could be no real repentance, certainly no relenting, on God's part so long as Ahab kept the vineyard. His prayers would have been unheeded so long as there was a lie in his right hand. A "penitent thief" has always restored the theft. Ahab could not recall Naboth to life. But he could surrender the vineyard to the widow, and we may be sure he did so.

But this repentance, this self abasement was observed, was carefully watched outside the palace. As day by day, with contrite heart and bowed head and soft footstep, the miserable king moved among his retainers, the merciful God and Father of the spirits of all flesh beheld his returning prodigal, yearned over him, ran to meet him. He who will not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking wick welcomed the first faint tokens of contrition. The sentence of doom shall be deferred. The same voice which just now thundered, "Hast thou killed?" etc; is now hushed into tenderness. "Seest thou," it says, "seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me? Because," etc. (verse 29). Ahab receives—

IV. PARDON . And this pardon, it is to be observed, was—

1. Instant . The rebellion had lasted for years. The forgiveness follows on the heels of repentance. While he was speaking God heard. Cf. Daniel 10:12 .

2. Free and full . If Ahab's repentance, that is to say, had been lasting, the sentence would have been reversed so far as he was concerned. It was not finally reversed because of his subsequent sin and that of his sons. The guilt of innocent blood, no doubt, could only be purged by the blood of him that shed it ( Numbers 35:33 ), and it is to be remembered that Jezebel was never included in the pardon. But it is probable that God, to "show forth all long-suffering," would have spared the king and his sons, if they had turned from their evil way.

3. Conditional . " Dum se bere gesserit ." This provision is always understood, if not expressed.

4. Forfeited . When Ahab turned like a dog to his vomit, then the sword which had been sheathed awhile leapt again from its scabbard, and he was suddenly destroyed, and that without remedy.

HOMILIES BY J.A. MACDONALD