Title:  1 Kings 21:1-19, 22:34-38 and 2 Kings 9:32-33

By:  Dan Pancake

INTRO

This is going to be a little bit of a long story here tonight.  However, I won’t take too long.  This is one of the great stories.  I am glad this is in the Bible.  You will never find this story or anything quite like it anywhere else in any kind of literature.  This is a wonderful story from the Bible.  It is sad in one way, but at the same time it reminds us that God is on His throne and God takes care of everything.

STORY OF NABOTH, AHAB AND JEZEBEL

1 Kings 21:1  And it came to pass after these things, that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, which was in Jezreel, hard by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria.

First of all, you have never heard of that name, Naboth before.  You may never hear it again after this.  However, he is a very important individual.  You have to be pretty important person to make the pages of God’s eternal book.  This guy made it. 

THE PROBLEM

1 Kings 21:2  And Ahab spake unto Naboth, saying, Give me thy vineyard, that I may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near unto my house: and I will give thee for it a better vineyard than it; or, if it seem good to thee, I will give thee the worth of it in money.

First of all, there is a problem.  The king here, which is Ahab; he is evil.  Everybody knows he is evil.  He is evil to the core.  He is led by a very domineering and dominate woman named Jezebel.  We will find out about her in just a few moments.  They have been wreaking their havoc on the land of Israel for some time now.  They are evil—absolutely evil.  You couldn’t necessarily say no to this particular king without something happening to you.  Therefore, Naboth said…

KING WHINES

1 Kings 21:3  And Naboth said to Ahab, The Lord forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee.

1 Kings 21:4  And Ahab came into his house heavy and displeased because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him: for he had said, I will not give thee the inheritance of my fathers. And he laid him down upon his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no bread.

Can you get this?  Here is a guy, a grown man who is a king of Israel—ten nations of Israel, the ten northern tribes of Israel.  He is the king.  He is all powerful in that place.  Anything he wanted, he could just take if he wanted to take it.  He did try to do this the right way first, at least in his mind.  He was trying to make some deal with Naboth about getting his inheritance.  Now, why would not Naboth give Ahab his inheritance?  Well, because as he said, the Lord forbidden me.  This was a parcel of land that had been handed down to Naboth’s family from father to son, for many generations now.  They considered that land the very gift of God and that God gave it to them.  It was not his to give to Ahab.  It was God’s land that God allowed him and his family to live on.  He was not about to give it up.  Ahab was very displeased.  Verse 5:  Now we get to meet this wonderful wife he has.

AHAB’S WIFE, JEZEBEL

1 Kings 21:5  But Jezebel his wife came to him, and said unto him, Why is thy spirit so sad, that thou eatest no bread?

1 Kings 21:6  And he said unto her, Because I spake unto Naboth the Jezreelite, and said unto him, Give me thy vineyard for money; or else, if it please thee, I will give thee another vineyard for it: and he answered, I will not give thee my vineyard.

Could you imagine somebody doing that?  I mean, he is just a whiny guy.

1 Kings 21:7  And Jezebel his wife said unto him, Dost thou now govern the kingdom of Israel? arise, and eat bread, and let thine heart be merry: I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.

I will do it!  You can’t do it.  I will just take care of this.  You just go lay down.  You go do whatever you want to do.  Cheer up.  Get something to eat.  I will take care of this.  Here she does!  Ahab is evil, but Jezebel is twice as evil as Ahab.

1 Kings 21:8  So she wrote letters in Ahab's name, and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters unto the elders and to the nobles that were in his city, dwelling with Naboth.

1 Kings 21:9  And she wrote in the letters, saying, Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people:

1 Kings 21:10  And set two men, sons of Belial, before him, to bear witness against him, saying, Thou didst blaspheme God and the king. And then carry him out, and stone him, that he may die.

1 Kings 21:11  And the men of his city, even the elders and the nobles who were the inhabitants in his city, did as Jezebel had sent unto them, and as it was written in the letters which she had sent unto them.

1 Kings 21:12  They proclaimed a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people.

1 Kings 21:13  And there came in two men, children of Belial, and sat before him: and the men of Belial witnessed against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth did blaspheme God and the king. Then they carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him with stones, that he died.

1 Kings 21:14  Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, Naboth is stoned, and is dead.

NABOTH IS KILLED

That is a sad story up to this point.  Is it not?  It really is.  He is dead.  Once he is gone, he is gone from this earth forever.  His family will grieve him forever.  Amen!  Nothing will replace that.  When you have somebody you love that is take from you, nothing replaces that.  Nothing can!

1 Kings 21:15  And it came to pass, when Jezebel heard that Naboth was stoned, and was dead, that Jezebel said to Ahab, Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give thee for money: for Naboth is not alive, but dead.

1 Kings 21:16  And it came to pass, when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, that Ahab rose up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it.

FIRST PART OF STORY SHOWS EVIL PEOPLE

Now that is one part of the story.  That is the first part of the story.

You can see how evil these individuals are.  Do we live with people in our world that are just this evil?  Worse!  We live in a world where this is even worse.  We see this.  We see it in some places, but not every day.  Nobody really—it happens every day but we don’t see it every day.  We do every now and then see the snakes slither out from under the rocks.  We get to see what they are capable of.  However, this is truly evil.  This is evil.  This is as evil as people can be. 

ELIJAH COMES

Now the page turns…

1 Kings 21:17  And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,

Now there is a prophet in the land.  Elijah has been a thorn in the side of Ahab now for some time.  Elijah stands for God.  At one time, he thought he was the only person in the world that stood for God.  Do you remember that?  He said, “I am the only one left for you, Lord.  The prophets of Baal are 700.”  Do you remember reading about that story?  The Lord said, “I have got 700 that have never bowed a knee to Baal.  I have all kinds of them.” 

1 Kings 21:18  Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, which is in Samaria: behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, whither he is gone down to possess it.

1 Kings 21:19  And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine.

ENEMY OF GOD

Next verse:

1 Kings 21:20  And Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? And he answered, I have found thee: because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord.

Do you want to be the enemy of the man of God?  You don’t want to be the enemy of the servant of God.  Never, do you want to be an enemy of the servant of God.  Sometimes, we have to be very careful about the way we judge things and go on in the name of faith today.  We see all kinds of things.

I saw a guy this morning who was on TV.  The channels have changed on my TV.  I do not get David Jeremiah until 7:30.  However, there was a guy on right before him.  I gotta be honest with you.  He is a tool of the devil in my mind.  I know he is supposed to be representing the living God.  However, all he talks about is money, money, money and possessions, possessions, possessions!  This is what God will give you if you give money to me then God is going to give this to you.  It is evil.  I shouldn’t say anything evil of people of faith.  However, I do not believe that man is a man of faith.  I think you ought to call a spade a spade.  Amen!  That is good preaching too.  Amen!

1 Kings 21:20  And Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? And he answered, I have found thee: because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord.

This has all happened.  Okay?  Ahab—let us talk for a moment about where they are at.  They are in a place called Samaria.  His palace is there.  In this particular time, the palace would have probably been a very beautiful place. 

J. Vernon McGee said, in his commentary; when he was there in this place—he visited that not too long before he passed.  He said while I was there, I stood on the top.  This is on a mountainous area.  He said, I stood on the top in that area.  He said this is one of the most beautiful places in the whole nation of Israel.  He said, you could look down through the valley and you could see the Sea of Galilee.  You could look to the south and the city of Jerusalem is down there sitting on the mountain.  You looked to the east, the Mediterranean Sea is there.  If you look to the north, Mount Hermon is there.  He said, you could see for miles and miles anywhere around there.  He said, if I had a house anywhere in Israel, I would like to have my house right there.  It is a beautiful place. 

Ahab had all this stuff working for him.  He has all this stuff working for him, but it is never enough.  With greedy people, enough is never enough.

Years ago, there was a fellow who preached a sermon called, Payday Someday.  His name was R. G. Lee.  He pastored the Belleview Baptist Church.  When I was first preaching, he was very famous.  He was a very famous individual.  He quit pastoring there in the 1960’s.  However, everybody still knew his name, when I was a young preacher.  I would imagine Karl, you heard about R. G. Lee somewhere along the way, and maybe about this sermon.  It was a tremendously famous sermon, Payday Someday.  He preached on this particular text.  He said, although God delays payment, eventually God pays. 

PROPHESY OF GOD’S REPAYMENT

God pays completely.  He pays His saints.  He takes care of His saints.  He takes care of His children.  When we get to the glories of heaven; He takes care of us.  This life is not very long.  God has blessed us with so much in this life.  Remember, this world is not our home.  We are going to a place that is far beyond anything we could ever dream.  Men are building things today, that I think are more beautiful than some of the things I have ever seen in my life.  However, I tell you, they will in comparison to the smallest thing in the city of glory.  I am also telling you that when people do evil things to God’s people then God is going to take care of that.  It might seem like it is not going to come right away.  In our story, it is going to take years for these things that God promised them to happen.  However, they are going to happen.

1 Kings 21:21  Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and will take away thy posterity, and will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel,

1 Kings 21:22  And will make thine house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, for the provocation wherewith thou hast provoked me to anger, and made Israel to sin.

1 Kings 21:23  And of Jezebel also spake the Lord, saying, The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.

That is punishment!  Is it not?  If you read the next chapter, you will find out that he did some repenting and God said, I am going to stay this punishment from him for a little while.  God is merciful.  Would you say Amen to that?  I see no reason for God to have been merciful to this evil man, but he was merciful.  Are you glad that God is merciful to people that you and I would not be merciful to?  God saves the lost.  Does He not?  I am not saying this fellow got saved.  I just think God delayed his punishment for some time because he repented himself of the some of the things that he did. 

THREE YEARS LATER

Three years have passed.  There was a battle that took place.  If you look in chapter 22, a battle took place.  In that battle that took place, he called Jehoshaphat that was the king of the southern two tribes of Israel to come down and join him in battle.  Now Jehoshaphat was an altogether different person than Ahab was.  Jehoshaphat was a man of God.  He loved the Lord.  He loved the Lord’s prophets.  He loved the Lord’s Word.  He was a very good man.  Also, he wanted to be a good neighbor.  He wanted to be a good neighbor to the king up north.  So, he said, “Will you join me in this battle?”  He said, “I will join you in this battle.”  So, the battle raged. 

Ahab disguised himself so that he would not be seen as the king.  They started chasing after Jehoshaphat.  Here is how good God is.  God let them see that Jehoshaphat was not Ahab and they stopped chasing him.  Isn’t that nice?  Toward the end of this thing, I want you to notice what he has to say. 

Look in verses 34 and 38 of chapter 22. 

1 Kings 22:34  And a certain man drew a bow at a venture, and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness: wherefore he said unto the driver of his chariot, Turn thine hand, and carry me out of the host; for I am wounded.

So, it is three years later.  He is probably feeling pretty good about himself.  He has this vineyard.  He might have even planted a nice vegetable garden here.  That is what he wanted to do with it.  Isn’t that how evil people are?  He just continued on with life.  He might have thought three years later that God has forgotten about this.  There is nothing going to happen about this.  That judgement is not going to come.  However, I am telling you when God says it—you with me?—He does it!  He is not like me and you.  He does not change His mind.  When He says it, He does it.  He commits himself to it.  So, God says, “I am going to take care of Ahab.”  The time came.  So the battle was almost over.  Everybody was just kind of wandering off away from the battle.  Some soldier on the other side had one arrow left, I think.  I think he had one arrow left.  He thought, “I did not use this one.  I think I will just shoot it.”  That is what it means!  When it says he shot it out at adventure that means he did not aim at anything!  He just pulled it back and let her go!  However, God aimed it.  Amen!  It struck him in the only place—his body was covered by armor except for right in the center and it struck him in the one place where it could hit him and kill him and it did.  It absolutely did!  Three years.  There is a payday coming someday for the evil of this world.  There really is.  There is a payday coming.  You and I should not be lethal about that.  We are not lethal about that.  We are sad about that.  Some of these people that payday is coming for are family members.  Some of these people that payday is coming for are people we love very much.  We do not want see them die and go to hell.  The truth is that the only way to go to heaven is faith in Jesus Christ.  He is the only hope of eternal life.

Three years go by…

1 Kings 22:38  And one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria; and the dogs licked up his blood; and they washed his armour; according unto the word of the Lord which he spake.

That’s three years.  God paid off.  Didn’t He?  God always does what He says He is going to do. 

TWENTY YEARS LATER

I am going over to 2 Kings for a little bit here, in chapter 9, verse 30.  I want you to notice something here that is going to happen.  This is estimated to be about 20 years later, after Naboth’s stoning to death.  It is somewhere around that time. 

2 Kings 9:30  And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window.

Jehu is a new king.  He is a wild man.  Drives like a maniac.  That is what they say of him.  At one time, they said, “Who is it?”  They were trying to figure out who he was, just in the previous verses.  He says, “I am not sure who he is but he looks like Jehu because he drives fiercely.  Some of you guys drive fiercely.  Straighten up! 

2 Kings 9:30  And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out at a window.

2 Kings 9:31  And as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, Had Zimri peace, who slew his master?

2 Kings 9:32  And he lifted up his face to the window, and said, Who is on my side? who? And there looked out to him two or three eunuchs.

2 Kings 9:33  And he said, Throw her down. So they threw her down: and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses: and he trode her under foot.

Now here comes Jehu.  He is the new king.  He has just been anointed.  He is a wild man.  He has a bad reputation to be a guy that takes no mercy on anyone.  Probably, a lot of people in this town were scared to death to do anything that would make him mad.  There are a couple of Eunuchs up in this belltower where she is at, up on the wall somehow.  It is up there pretty high.  He says, “Who is on my side up there?”  Those guys were thinking, well I am not going to be “not on his side” because to be, not on his side means I am dead.  I am going to be on your side. 

JEZEBEL IS KILLED

2 Kings 9:32  And he lifted up his face to the window, and said, Who is on my side? who? And there looked out to him two or three eunuchs.

2 Kings 9:33  And he said, Throw her down. So they threw her down: and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses: and he trode her under foot.

He drove his chariot right over top of her.  He went right in and got something to eat.  Now there is a man.  He went right on in and got him something to eat after this.  It did not bother him at all.  These were cruel times.  So, after he had been eating for a little while—I am going to give you the Dan Pancake version—after he had been eating for a little while, he tells some of the people who were there, he said go out there and bury that woman.  She is the daughter of a king.  She is the wife of a king.  When they went outside to find her, they did not find anything left of her but the palms of her hands and the soles of her feet.  How about that?  Why?  Because God said the dogs are going to eat Jezebel by the walls of Jezreel; twenty years later.  God does not forget. 

I do not think God keeps a calendar like you and I think about keeping a calendar.  He just does what He says He is going to do whenever He desires that He is going to do it.  God does not live by the clock and eternity is present to God all the time.  Therefore, when the moment comes, the perfect moment comes for Him to do what He wants to do; He just does it.  That is our God.  Isn’t it? 

WICKED PEOPLE IN YOUR LIFE

You might be living in a condition where you think “Man, this thing is never going to change.  What is happening around me is never going to change.”  You might be working for someone who is an evil boss—a wicked evil person.  Many people do.  Even in a modern age like we live in there are wicked and evil people.  Perhaps some of you work with evil people.  You might work for somebody. 

I used to work for a guy who was so moody, you could never tell what kind of a mood he was in.  If he was in a good mood, he is the best buddy you could have, which was very rare.  If he was in a bad mood then you could not do anything to please him.  He was griping and grumping at you all day.  I quit that job by the way.  Praise the Lord! 

There are evil things that happen all the time.  We may think God is not watching but He is.  We may think that God does not see, but He does.  There are a lot of wicked people doing wicked things out here all the time.

I believe—I told this was going to be a different sermon for me.  I believe there are some things here that are helpful for us in our modern age.  First, I believe that we can see from this story of Naboth and of this vineyard that it is never good to compromise your core values.  Never compromise your core values.

This man that when he told the king that he could not have his vineyard that that would mean his life.  He probably did.  Yet, he willingly said “No.  You cannot have this piece of property.  This was handed down to me by my God.”  Here is what he probably thought.  God will either preserve my land and preserve me, or God will preserve my land for my posterity, my people that are coming after me.  God will take care of me if I stand up for Him.  I still believe that today! 

I believe God will take care of His people if they will stand for Him.  I do not mean that is going to happen in the near future.  I do not mean that is going to happen today or tomorrow.  It may take twenty years for this thing to be carried out.  I am telling you something.  You stand up for God and God will take a better stand for you.  Amen! 

CORE VALUES

Jesus said, if you will own me before all these people, then I will own you.  I will acknowledge you in the presence of my Father and His holy angels.  I would rather have that.  Wouldn’t you?  Core values are important.  We never should take shortcuts.  We never should trade our values off for anything.  There is not enough money in the world to make you trade off what is really important to you as a person.  Your faith in Jesus Christ is the most valuable thing you have.  You cannot trade that off.  Your integrity…

David Jeremiah talked about this morning in his message today—integrity.  It is almost a word that is lost in our world today.   What does integrity mean?  Integrity means I will do what I say I will do even if the circumstance changes when I said I would do it.  He said we need to remember that.  Some people in marriages need to remember that.  Some people in jobs need to remember that.  Some folks in the service always need to remember that.  He was talking about a service man when he said that. 

NEVER ALLOW OUR VALUES TO BE CORRUPTED

The first thing I think we can point out is:  Never, never should we allow our values to be corrupted by whatever is going on around us.

STAND UP AGAINST CORRUPTION

Secondly, we must resist corruption.

We cannot just say that I am not going to be affected by it.  We must stand up against it.  Even if it does not affect us.  you and I have to stand up for what is right.  We have to say what is right.  There is nothing wrong…  We have been living in a time where they have tried to make it where you can’t say anything about anything.  Amen!  The wild crazy WOKE left has been saying if you say anything, we are going to cancel you.  They do not have anything they can cancel me from.  I have already quit.  Amen!  They will cancel you or they will put your name out there as evil.  They cannot do that anymore, by the way.  They have lost all their power—glory to God!  Aren’t you glad of that? 

Listen to me today.  Corruption is everywhere.  You can see it everywhere.  You and I must stand against those things that are evil.  It is still wrong, even though we have family members that are involved in this, it is still wrong to say it is okay for homosexuals to marry.  It is still wrong.  Now, we do not despise those people.  We do not hate them.  We love them very much.  However, it is still wrong to say it is okay to do that.  It is still wrong to say that you can live in sin and still be right with God.  Amen!  It is still wrong.  We should live and believe what we do.  No matter what anybody says we should take a stand for it. 

I am NOT saying go out there as some have done and make a nuisance of yourself.  I do not believe that.  I do not believe we ought to be out on the street corner shouting this stuff.  I do not think we ought to be handling…  I think when the time comes and you are confronted with it; you just have to say, I honestly believe that is not God’s will. 

There is something else I want to say.  We have to stand up and defend everything that is sacred and meaningful in our lives.  We have to stand up for the Lord.  We have to stand up for our church.  We have to stand up for our brothers and sisters in Christ.  We have to stand up.

Naboth’s vineyard was something that he felt that God had given him.  He felt like he had an inheritance there.  It could not be bought or traded away.  He felt like he had to take a stand for what belonged to God and you and I do too.  I have already talked about that already. 

We also need to pray that God will help you and I to have courage to face all the pressure that can be put on people.  I know people can get in situations—I don’t even know where I am going with this but I will go here a little way.  People can be put in situations where people try to force you to do something that you know is wrong or to agree with something that you know is wrong.  They want to argue with you or force into situations.  I do not think you and I ought to sit around and argue with anybody about anything—not even your wife or husband.  That is good preaching, isn’t it?  there are many ethical dilemmas in the world today.  There seems to be all kinds of gray areas.  Did you notice that?  There are all kinds of gray stuff.  Back when I was starting out there was not any gray.  There was black and white.  Somebody up here said…black or white.  Living life and realizing that you and I live by grace.  We are saved by faith and live by grace.  We realize there are some areas that we are not all that sure about.  There are some things that some people might allow in their life that they do.

Let me give you an illustration.  When I first got saved, they said, “You can’t go to movies.  You just can’t go to movies.  That is the devil.  You can’t do it.”  I still have a hard time today.  I watch a lot of movies at home but I don’t go to the movie theatre.  When I go in there I remember those messages I had coming at me.  When we were young, “Don’t play cards!  Cards belong to the devil.  You can’t play cards.”  I don’t care if you play cards or not to be honest about it.  I will say this.  Don’t gamble on anything.  Watch out where you go.  I have heard of people that liked to play cards.  I remember two couples from a church I used to pastor.  They started playing cards together on Saturday night.  They played so late that they could not go to church the next day.  That is a problem.  I believe God will judge that.  Probably did already.  Amen.  That has been a long time ago.  That has been probably 40 years ago. 

TRUST GOD’S JUSTICE

There is something else here I want to say about this story of Naboth.  Trusting God’s justice.  God is just.  God loves the little guy.  Jesus loves those who are picked on and hated.  When He was on the earth, who did He hang around with?  Did He hang around with the up and up people, with the notables, with all the people who considered themselves the leaders in religion.  No!  As a matter of fact they scorned Him.  They said He eats with sinners.  He loafs around with sinners.  What was a sinner?  A sinner was anybody that the Pharisees did not like and threw out of the church.  He loafs with sinners.  Prostitutes washed His feet with their tears and dries them with the hair of their heads.  He is a guy that does that.  That is our Lord Jesus.  Listen.  God’s justice is fair.  He knows what is right and not right.  You just do what is right.  Naboth tells us, you go ahead and do what is right no matter what happens in the near future.  That is easy to say, but hard to do. 

GOD SEES ANDJUDGES ALL ACTIONS

Here are a few observations that I want to leave with you then I will quit.  God sees and judges all actions of good and evil.  He does!  He is in that business.  We can be fruit inspectors.  However, be careful about that.  Remember if we are fruit inspectors, we are looking at Christians.  Amen!  Those fruit inspectors are looking for love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance.  They are not looking for how you wear your hair, what kind of clothes you wear, or where you go for your entertainment.  They are not looking at that at all.  Fruit inspectors are looking for the presence of the Holy Spirit.  If you are looking for that, look for it all you want to.  We ought to have a lot of love, joy, peace, and longsuffering and so forth. 

DIVINE JUSTICE MAY BE DELAYED

Secondly, divine justice may be delayed, but it is always certain.  That story tells us that for sure.  It might be delayed a little bit but it is always certain. 

GOD’S JUSTICE PROPORTIONAL TO THE EVENT

One more thing I want to point out.  God’s justice is proportional to the event that occurred that caused Him to judge them. 

Now Ahab and Jezebel killed an innocent man.  I want to tell you.  He is not the only person they killed.  They killed hundreds, perhaps thousands of others.  They tried to kill Elijah.  Do you remember that?  She was trying to kill Elijah but God took care of him.  Didn’t He?  When God judges people for their evilness, I don’t want to be in their place when God judges.  He is a loving and wonderful God for those who love Him and repent and accept Him as their Savior.  However, I will tell you; one day, He will definitely be the judge. 

Also, all those people in leadership, we have to account of ourselves to God.  I am in a leadership position.  You are too, believe it or not.  In your family, on your job and other places; we are accountable to God for the way we treat other people.  Therefore, be good.

GOD WILL VINDICTE THE OPPRESSED

Lastly, aren’t you glad I am here.  God will vindicate those who are oppressed. 

Naboth had been a long time in the presence of the Lord.  I have to tell you when you get to heaven it is one long day in heaven.  There is no night there.  I suppose God said, Okay, I am going to take care of your enemies, Naboth.  It had been a long time—I will take care of your enemies.  Naboth probably said, God, I just got here but thank you for taking care of those who hate me.  Amen!  God takes care of those who hurt others. 

Somebody said one time, a while back that it is amazing that they way people hurt.  People who have been hurt the most seem to be the ones who are always out there trying to hurt others.  I believe it is a thing of trying to get even of what happened to them.  You never get even with what happened to you by doing something bad to someone else. 

CLOSING

Listen.  God will take care of all those things.  Notice in the book of Hebrews, one last thing.  God says, “Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay.”  I do not know if this helped or did anything good for you or anything.  It does not even matter.  It is the Word of God and we talked about it a little bit tonight. 

I will say this to you.  Our God is still God.  Amen!  No matter what is going on in the world, our God is God.  He is in absolute control.  I do not care who stands against God, God will take care of them someday.  You and I stand for Jesus Christ.  Take a stand.  Do not be afraid to take a stand.  You might be called upon this week to have to take a stand for Jesus, or cower under.  Take a stand.  Own up for Jesus.  What if it costs me my job.  God will give you a better job.  I am living proof that if God takes away a job, He gives you something better in its place.  He always does.  He is a good God.

Come and be saved!