Talk 14

0:01 Well, we are back in 1 Kings. For those of you who are here for the first time, we'll be making our way through 1 Kings in little blocks of Sunday mornings. And we've got to chapter 21, not quite at the end. We'll get there in two weeks' time. We'll finish 1 Kings, And then we'll go to 2 Kings. So we left it with King Ahab at the end of chapter 20 of 1 Kings. If you've got a copy of the Bible, please feel free to hunt it out on screen or real Bible or whatever way you want to do it. But at the very last verse, which doesn't appear up there.

0:49 We read, sullen and angry, the king of Israel went to his palace in Samaria. So that's the end of the previous story, where King Ahab is grumpy, sullen and angry. That's where we leave it. So now we take up the story in 1 Kings chapter 21. Sometime later, there was an incident involving a vineyard belonging to Naboth, a Jezreelite. The vineyard was in Jezreel, close to the palace of Ahab, king of Samaria. And Ahab said to Naboth, let me have your vineyard to use for a vegetable garden, since it is close to my palace. In exchange, I will give you a better vineyard, or if you prefer, I will pay you whatever it is worth.

1:43 But Naboth replied, the Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my ancestors. So Ahab went home, sullen and angry, because Naboth the Jezreelite had said, I will not give you the inheritance of my ancestors. He lay on his bed sulking and refused to eat. His wife Jezebel came in and asked him, why are you so sullen? Why won't you eat? He answered her, because I said to Naboth, the Jezreelite, sell me your vineyard, or if you prefer, I will give you another vineyard in its place. But he said, I will not give you my vineyard. Jezebel, his wife said, is this how you act as king over Israel?

2:32 Get up and eat. Cheer up. I'll get you the vineyard of Naboth the Jesuit. So she wrote letters in Ahab's name, placed his seal on them, and sent them to the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth's city with him. In those letters, she wrote, proclaim a day of fasting, give Naboth a prominent seat among the people, but put two scoundrels opposite him and get them to bring charges that he has cursed both God and the king. Then take him out and stone him to death. So the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth city did as Jezebel directed in the letter she had written to them. They proclaimed a fast, seated Naboth in a prominent place among the people.

3:18 Then two scoundrels came and sat opposite him and brought charges against Naboth before the people saying, Naboth has cursed both God and the king. So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death. Then they sent word to Jezebel, Naboth has been stoned to death. As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned to death, she said to Ahab, get up, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jesuit that he refused to sell you. He is no longer alive but dead. And when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, he got up and went down to take possession of Naboth's vineyard. Sometimes when kings have nothing better to do, they develop an interest in gardening. Samaria clearly wasn't the obvious place to do that.

4:22 But as is the way with kings, Ahab had a second palace at Jezreel, 28 miles from Samaria. And being a king with great plans and nothing better to do for the moment, he cast his eyes around to see if there was some room for a development project. And there was. The problem was that his estate just wasn't quite big enough to fulfill his vision. But there was a vineyard next door, ideally suited for the fulfillment of his vision for expansion and the creation of a beautiful vegetable garden. And yes, vegetables are grown in gardens, by the way, just in case there's a few, not just in Tesco's, they don't just magically appear, or Sainsbury's either. So Ahab, being Ahab then, suggested the deal to his neighbor Naboth, who owned the vineyard. Pay him a good price for it, or provide him with an alternative somewhere else.

5:38 And to his great frustration and annoyance, Naboth wasn't interested. This is vineyard. It's been in my family for generations. This is the family inheritance. Doesn't matter how much money you offer. Doesn't matter how good the alternative is. The vineyard is not for sale. So Ahab did what apparently some kings, children, and adults who haven't grown up do when they don't get their own way or when their team has lost.

6:12 He silked. sullen and angry he took to his bed he wasn't feeling a bit well man flew maybe he knows what it was and so his wife Jezebel came in she knew that Luke discovered he was lying in his bed what's the matter, my dear? Are you ill? And he told her this sad story, how Naboth wouldn't sell him his vineyard so he could extend his garden and develop this lovely vegetable patch. It's just not fair. Life's not worth living. To which Jezebel responded, are you a king or what? You wimp.

7:02 Or words to that effect. I don't know the ancient languages used here. Of course you should have the vineyard. So cheer up. Have a Snickers. Don't be hungry. You know, cheer up. Leave matters to me.

7:16 Ahab, darling, I'll sort it out just as I always do. And what happens next could be out of the script for the Godfather movies. In its callous indifference to the value of human life, truth, the law in the pursuit of personal gain. And it's all the more grim because we realize that this corrupt behavior was obviously perfectly normal for Jezebel. There is no indication that she experienced even the slightest twinge of conscience. No doubt her dad, Ethobal, the first king of Tyre, would never have stood for this kind of nonsense, allowing some upstart of a grape grower to stand in the way of the will of the king. He would simply have taken the land and eliminated its owner if he had protested. But this wasn't Phoenicia.

8:21 This was Israel where there was God's law, supposedly at least, regarding, for example, property and ownership and the rights and limitations of kings. So she couldn't just drive a JCB through his vineyard and cut the man's head off if he protested. More subtle tactics were required. So she got a hold of Ahab's official palace writing paper, his seal, and sent letters in the king's name to the public officials, telling them what they should do. First, proclaim a fast, organize a big gathering or some kind of reception with Naboth in the seat of honor, thus lulling him into both the public view and a false sense of security and being honored, and then have bribed two unscrupulous agents to bring false accusations against him, that he had both spoken against God and the king. This was, I suppose, the ancient alternative to social media and its power to manipulate public opinion, knowing that the outcome would be swift and terminal. Now, the hypocrisy is staggering.

9:45 Jezebel accusing Naboth of speaking against the God that she didn't personally believe in anyway. And then seemingly adhering to the legal process, because God's law required that there would be two witnesses, two offenses so serious, capital offenses of speaking against God and speaking against the king. So she went with the legal procedure, but it was a sham. It was a mockery, false testimony, and then no opportunity given for defense, no careful examination of the facts, cleverly calculating that the instinctive emotional response of people to the accusations, plus the power of Ahab's name and her manipulation would lead to a swift execution. And so they took Naboth outside the city and stoned him to death. So it was a travesty of justice. It was judicial murder in the pursuit of personal gain, claiming to be in defense of the honor of both God and the king, when it was a complete misrepresentation of God and his justice on behalf of a corrupt monarch.

11:11 And yet the tactics aren't just ancient, are they? These have been repeated many times at many levels in the course of human history. And one day, of course, a day that we will remember in particular this week, taken to the ultimate level, when the religious guardians of the nation's God-given inheritance of their unique relationship with God conspired out of envy and greed to hold on to power, to manipulate the law and public opinion and force the judicial murder of the Prince of Life. This is Palm Sunday. The welcome of Jesus on Palm Sunday turned into the Good Friday murder of the Son of God. This is no mere ancient thing. But what is it about?

12:18 What is this story about? apart from those obvious things that are in themselves important and powerful enough. Well, the action of the drama, as dramatists would put it, hinges on Nabal's attitude towards his inheritance. If he had agreed to sell or exchange his vineyard, we would probably have heard no more about it. In fact, the story wouldn't be even in the Bible. Jezebel's scheming would have been avoided. Naboth's life would have been saved. So why didn't he?

13:03 Why didn't he sell? Couldn't he read the room? Didn't he know what Ahab and particularly Jezebel were capable of? Or was he just being thrown, difficult, unpleasant for the sake of it? You see, in Israel, if you needed to for reasons, for example, such as poverty, you could sell what you had inherited from your ancestors. But Naboth didn't need to, nor did he want to, which was his right. He refused to give up his inheritance. Now, having been brought up, knowing a little bit, only a tiny little bit about farmers and farming life, I have often come across farmers who have a very strong sense of attachment to their land, particularly if it has been in the family for generations.

14:06 And some become very distressed if there is no one in the family who is interested in keeping on the family tradition, keeping the farm going. The idea of the farm going out of the family is painful. But that's not the main reason why Naboth didn't want to sell. There's a deeper reason. And it comes out in his words, the Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my ancestors. You see, for Naboth, this wasn't simply a business transaction. There was a higher dimension. Like many others in Israel, he believed that what he had inherited ultimately came from God himself.

15:00 Now, not simply in a general sense that we all may say the same thing, believing in the sovereignty of God over our lives, but in a very particular sense, because this went way back in history to the time of Joshua leading the people into the land that God had promised to give them. And then the obvious issue came up, how would that land be distributed? So what they did was before the Lord, they cast lots for the land in the belief that whatever lot, whatever portion was given to each tribe and given to each family, ultimately God was behind it. So whatever you received, you received it from the Lord. It was your God-given inheritance in the land, whether it was rich, fertile land on the plains with lots of streams and so on to water, or the more rocky land on the hills. That is where you live. That is where you worked the land. That's where you built your house.

16:11 That's where you raised your kids. That's what you passed on to the next generation. That's how Naboth viewed it. It was in that sense sacred to him. His entire life had been about the inheritance he had received ultimately from God, maintaining that inheritance, developing that inheritance to pass it on to the next generation. It was sacred. The sweat and toil of daily life, all done to maintain and develop that inheritance. No amount of money, therefore, would persuade him to sell it because he had that strong sense of the sacredness of life.

17:07 And so the challenge immediately is, or at least the question, is that how I view life? And my inheritance in life is that how I view the sweat and toil, the thistles, the rocks, as well as the luscious grass and flowing rivers. However rocky or fertile, Do I have that sense that it is sacred? It is all part of developing the inheritance that God in his sovereignty has given to me, however large or small, easy or difficult. This wasn't Something that he had bought, he hadn't won it in battle. It was given, allotted to his ancestors, maintained by each generation, passed on to him. So he wasn't going to give it up. And in consequence, he gave his life for it.

18:29 That's the hinge on which this story depends. And so let's just think a little bit about that this morning. The concept of inheritance, it runs through much of the Old Testament and indeed the New Testament. I've already mentioned Joshua. In the book of Joshua and Judges, it's very prominent. In the beautiful little book of Ruth, as many of you will know, The concept of inheritance is core to the plot line of that book. We also find it in the Psalms where the idea is taken and it is expanded. It becomes a metaphor for something much bigger merely than land and houses and material things.

19:21 So let's look at that. This is Psalm 16, and the words are going to come up on the screen. Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, you are my Lord. Apart from you, I have no good thing. I say of the holy people who are in the land, they are the noble ones in whom is all my delight. Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more. I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods or take up their names on my lips.

19:54 Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup. You make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Surely I have a delightful inheritance. I will praise the Lord who counsels me. Even at night, my heart instructs me. I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

20:24 Therefore, my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices. My body will also rest secure because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay. You have made known to me the path of life. You will fill me with joy in your presence with eternal pleasures at your right hand. It is a magnificent piece of poetry, and I strongly recommend it to you, especially at night when the darkness can creep in and the dark thoughts, to have these wonderful words of David in your mind and in your heart as he considers his lot in life like Naboth, what God in his sovereignty has given. He writes, the boundary lines are fallen to me in pleasant places. Surely I have a delightful inheritance. And he's drawing the language from this story of inheritance and the plots and so on that the people were given.

21:39 Now again, Is that how I view my life? Because sometimes it doesn't seem or hasn't seemed to me that the boundary lines have fallen in particularly pleasant places. There's a few rocks and thistles I think I could have done without. And I suspect you might be the same. We all have imaginations. We all can imagine how much bigger and better life would have been if only, and you fill in the dots, if only we had a bigger house, a nicer garden, better job prospects, drop dead gorgeous good looks, a voice like an angel, brains to burn, connections in high places, significant financial wealth, and on and on and on and on. But the lines have not fallen that way. And then as we consider this, we can't help, like I have, noticing the lines that our neighbor has.

22:45 And if we're not careful, we can become a bit sullen and angry, because that's not my inheritance. That's not my lot. Why did they get this and I didn't? It's a challenge, isn't it? We see Ahab pouting like a spoiled child and the dreadful darkness and destruction that his decision to give into his greed and self-pity led to. This is a dangerous path to follow. It was out of envy that the religious authorities did to Jesus what Jezebel did to Nabal. Learning to see life as David did, the lines have fallen to me in pleasant places.

23:53 As Paul would put it, and he's talking about these kind of issues, sometimes that you have plenty and sometimes you have very little. And he said, how do you cope? Well, I have learned to be content. And the secret to that is that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. But it's something to learn. It's taken me 72 years. I'm still learning. this is not particularly easy.

24:24 It is challenging. It doesn't happen overnight. But the New Testament and the Bible itself, like here, is filled with warnings of what happens when we give in to the other side of it. As Paul would say, those who desire to be wealthy and aren't at the minute, but it's their burning desire, they will pierce themselves through with many sorrows and cause such trouble and damage. Learning simple things like being thankful, saying thanks to God frequently for all that we have, even if it seems very little in comparison into what others have, to express gratitude. But David in the psalm is not primarily thinking of his inheritance in terms of the physical and material. This is a song about our ultimate but security. Oh, to have the security of a man like Naboth.

25:39 Amazing. Prepare to lay his life down for what God had given. Wouldn't give it up. Secure in God. That's how this psalm opens. Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge. And then the next line, you are my Lord. Apart from me, I have no, apart from you, I have no good thing.

26:07 And then verse five, Lord, you alone are my portion, my cup. You make my lot, my inheritance, secure, way beyond the little or much that we have. He's God himself. He is our inheritance. He is our portion. And so David writes, the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. I have a delightful inheritance. So he's using that physical, historical thing as a picture of something much deeper, much stronger.

26:50 A picture of where real security and joy are to be found. And particularly because death itself can't destroy this. See, death is the great destroyer of hope, of expectation, of enjoyment for so many people in slavery through the fear of death. But listen to David, therefore my heart is glad, my tongue rejoices, my body also will rest secure because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay. And this whole section of this poem is taken up by Peter in the very first public presentation of the gospel in the book of Acts, where he quotes this and points to the resurrection of Jesus, because that's what changes the entire game, the entire perspective that God raised Jesus from the dead. And therefore he can continue. You may make known to me the path of life. You will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand, ultimate eternal security, sure hope in a temporary, volatile, uncertain world.

28:27 And so Peter writes to poor marginalized believers in Jesus, praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade, kept in heaven for you. So inheritance is not simply about the physical and material things that we have in this life. It is about the Lord himself who is our portion of inheritance. It is about this eternally secure future that is there for us, kept in heaven for us who are kept by the power of God. And then Paul takes the idea of inheritance in a different direction. In Ephesians one, as we saw very recently, where he prays for the Christians in Ephesus, that we would know the hope to which he has called you, and that's the future, if you like, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people. David also talked about that in the psalm.

29:39 And he thinks about those who like him trust God. He rejoices in that. That's part of the inheritance. People. But now Paul is telling us that actually from God's point of view, what he gets out of this, what he gets out of this vast period of human history is us. You might think that's not much really. And yet that's not how God sees it. The riches of God's glorious inheritance in his people.

30:14 What an amazing thing that is. And we get to the final book of the Bible in Revelation chapter five, we read about this new song that they're singing. Not quite Psalm 16. It goes a little bit further. With your blood, you purchase for God persons from every tribe language and people and nation. Purchased for God. Would you buy me for God as a present? Would you think I'd be, you know, worthy enough?

30:48 Worth it? But that's the language of this. Purchased for God by the blood of Christ, his inheritance in the saints. So that to just expand your mind when you're thinking about the concept of inheritance and what's at stake here. But I want to finally return to Naboth, to his refusal to sell out and to abandon his God-given inheritance, which cost his life. Would we do that? Would we refuse to give up what God has given us in this bigger sense? Not talking about your home or your possessions,

31:43 but your loyalty to Christ. would you be prepared to compromise God in order to make things easier for you do you value the riches and wealth that you have in Christ Do I? Paul writes to the Galatians, I am astonished that you're so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ. And you're turning to a different gospel, which really is no gospel at all. Christ has set you free. And yet now you are submitting to all kinds of religious rules and regulations and religious legalism and attempting to justify yourselves in the eyes of God through what you do, giving up the inheritance won for us by the Lord Jesus. That's one example, but Satan is brilliant at dangling all kinds of enticements in front of us.

33:00 If only we acknowledge his ways and give up the inheritance we have in Christ. And it comes out in some of the conversations I have. One of the great tragedies that I witness is that along with people rejecting rightly the empty traditions and spiritual abuses of their childhoods and youth in churches in Northern Ireland, they also can end up turning their back on the Lord himself, because they've mixed the two up. And it is tragic to listen to people say, oh, I don't bother with any of that stuff anymore. And then you find how they've been hurt. They find how they've been misunderstood or whatever the case has been. And as a result of that, they've just decided to take the whole lot and throw it out.

34:18 And maybe you're feeling like that this morning. This is not easy. There is much that needs to be lost, but there is much that must not be lost. But when you're hurt and when seemingly less painful alternatives are held out to you, it's hard to discern the good for the bad and hold on to what is good. And Paul writes to his young friend Timothy and says, look, guard the gospel. The things that you've heard me teach in the presence of many other witnesses, you teach to others who will in turn pass it on. We owe a huge debt to the failing, sinful, sometimes misguided ancestors

35:10 who did their best to pass the gospel on to us. let's be very careful that we don't as we say throw the baby out to the bath water that we don't end up selling our inheritance because the offer that Jezebel makes is much more exciting much more enticing because Jezebel occurs again in the New Testament in one of the churches offering all kinds of enticements. Let's be careful that that doesn't happen. It's a wonderful psalm. I want to finish with a couple of very simple illustrations. This week for our birthdays, we went to the Andre Rieu concert. Some of you may know of Andre Rieu. And at the concert, we heard the story of a little boy born into a very musical family, but born with very short arms and no hands.

36:20 And at the age of seven, his father gave him a pan flute. Google it if you don't know what a pan flute is. And he worked out how to hold it in his arms because he had no fingers to hold it. And announced to his family, after one day practicing on this, that this is what he was going to make his life about, playing the pan flute. And on Thursday evening, a crowd of seven, eight thousand listened enthralled to his magnificent music. Inheritance. I thought about that as I looked at that, given obvious disadvantages and yet what he did with them.

37:11 And stories like that are inspiring and yet it's a bit imbalanced. Because not everybody in that setting is going to end up as a world famous musician. It's something to inspire us. But there was also something missing in the way the story was told. It was the same thing that was missing in all the magnificent music and musical ability that we witnessed. There was no acknowledgement of the one who created music in the first place. And that was sad. There was no acknowledgement of the eternal dimension of heaven, of eternal joys and compensations and singing and music and gladness and joy eternally in the presence of God.

37:59 That's just not there in the culture. But what a difference it makes. I mean, I may not end up being the greatest pamphlet player in the world, no matter how hard I try, but to know that everything matters, everything matters. Every decision contributes towards that eternal inheritance. Because Jesus told us that. Don't lay up treasure in earth.

38:35 Lay up treasure in heaven. We all have that opportunity, even if it's with coffee or a conversation or whatever, to invest in the eternal kingdom of God. And here's the other simple little story. And please forgive me for telling you this, but it involves me at one stage in my life when I was 19. I received an inheritance. Who's there exciting days? You ever had one? You get a letter from a solicitor to say that someone has left you something on their will.

39:11 And it was the sum of 200 pounds. Fantastic. Well, I was only 19. 200 pounds was not insignificant way back there. Sent to me by a nurse who had looked after me when I was born because my mom was severely ill for about six months. The thought of looking after me obviously had done something to her so there you go. But at that time I was involved. I just started a thing with young people in our mass seeking what would God want me to do.

39:47 That 200 pounds came in and I thought, wow, we could use this to buy chairs. So that 200 pounds was transformed into chairs, a different kind of inheritance. And young people came to faith sitting in those chairs. Young people were prayed for and discipled. And one of the young people, he sat in one of the chairs was Heather. And that turned into an inheritance on a vastly different and expanded scale. And some of them are actually sitting here. All goes back to 200 pounds spent in chairs.

40:31 The time came to end the youth work. My chairs were sold. The money was turned into then purchasing recording equipment so that I was able to record the words of the late Professor David Gooding as he taught on the Gospel of Matthew to a bunch of students that organized up at the university. Those recordings, different kind of inheritance, have grown exponentially in spiritual influence, including providing a framework for the Bible teaching at this year's New Horizon. That's just a wee ad, you know, I snuck in there. Chris wasn't expecting that. Well, that time came for an end for that recording. So the recording equipment was sold.

41:17 The money was used, believe it or not, to buy a guitar. And that guitar, I used it as the guitarist at the very beginnings of Glenavi Church. I know this goes beyond any possible imagination that you already have. Finally, the Lord answered prayers, my prayers in public. Please pray that God would bring real musicians along here. And God did, and they're fantastic. And it's wonderful to see that continuing. But the guitar is still there.

41:52 And it is now retired, well used, impossible to tune, but of the place of honor in the Family Music Museum. Inheritance. those three major steps in turn were part of God building into Heather and into me and into her family what we've been able to share with others there's so many sides to this what perhaps we need is a little God-given imagination. Not the imagination that gets us dreaming about what would happen if I won the lottery. But what can I do with what God has given to lay up treasure in heaven? Now, there's a sequel to this story, which we'll see in two weeks' time. But for the moment, let's pray. Father, thank you for your word to us, for the dimension this adds to life, to know that inheritance is not simply about what we have here, but what we have in you and what we have eternally because of you and because of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

43:14 We thank you for him who was prepared to be judicially murdered by those who conspired out of envy to get rid of him. And that death was a death for the sin of the world. And death could not hold him. And God raised him from the dead. And there is our hope. There is our security. Not in the things we have or don't have, but in you. So may we always place you in our right hand.

43:49 May we find our security, our inheritance in you. May you be the joy of our life that takes us through every stage of the journey. And one day we look forward to you filling us with joy in your presence. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.