Naboth’s Vineyard – finding Christ’s Kingdom in the Old Testament

The vegetable plot and the death plot
In 1 Kings 21, we read the story of Israel’s King Ahab¹ and his desire for a vineyard which lay next to his palace in Samaria. Scripture tells us his reason for wanting this piece of land was rather ordinary: he wanted a vege patch.

So, being the decent man that he was, Ahab figured he would approach the owner, Naboth of Jezreel, and make an offer. The offer was that the king would either purchase the plot or exchange it for one similar or perhaps of even greater value.

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 Kings 21:2)

Sounds like a fair deal. The trouble was, Naboth just happened to be one of the 7000 who had not forsaken God’s Law (cf 1 Kings 19:18).

Year of Jubilee
Under the strictest terms of the Law, this meant land belonging to a family within the tribes of Israel could “sell” the land for a brief period, but every fifty years (the Jubilee year) the land must revert to its original owner. This “sale”, therefore, was more like renting.

Naturally if you sold your property the year after Jubilee you would get a good price for it, because the new owner would have it for nearly half a century, but if the Jubilee year was just around the corner, the land was worth only a fraction of its earlier value because the owner had to hand it back soon.

It was a wonderful system which God gave his people so that the balance between the need to keep their inheritance for descendants and the equally valid need to pursue business and be productive was held in the correct tension. Under no circumstances was the land to be sold off permanently.²

My guess is Naboth knew all this and was, nervously I assume, telling the king he could not possibly sell him the land outright without abusing the God given principles just described.

But Naboth replied, "The LORD forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers." (1 Kings 21:3)

Ahab was not one for observing God’s statutes and, besides, where would he now grow his vegetables?

So Ahab went home, sullen and angry because Naboth the Jezreelite had said, "I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers." He lay on his bed sulking and refused to eat. (1 Kings 1:4)

Jezebel’s solution
He could not grow vegetables and now he refused to eat them. What to do? Enter Jezebel who always seemed to have just the right answer to any problem: off with their heads!

Jezebel his wife said, "Is this how you act as king over Israel? Get up and eat! Cheer up. I'll get you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite."  8 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. 9 In those letters she wrote: "Proclaim a day of fasting and seat Naboth in a prominent place among the people. 10 But seat two scoundrels opposite him and have them testify that he has cursed both God and the king. Then take him out and stone him to death." (1 Kings 21:7-10)

And so the deed is done as ‘the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth's city did as Jezebel directed’ and one of their own is slain. All for a vege patch.

What is God doing?
The tragic story of Naboth throws up many questions for us.

• Why does God allow a good man to die?
• Why does God allow Naboth to be murdered for following the law?
• Why doesn’t God simply kill off Ahab and his evil wife Jezebel?
• What is the application to our life? How do we draw strength from this?

Christ in the Old Testament
I am convinced one of the chief reasons this story has been preserved for us is that is gives us a picture of Christ. It is pointing to him, but to see it Naboth must be compared to Ahab, who, it hardly needs to be said, represents Satan in this narrative.

Actually it is more likely that Jezebel is the true satanic representative in this metaphor considering what is said of her in to the church at Thyatira.

I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first. 20Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. 21I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. 22So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. 23I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. (Revelation 2:19-23)

Examine the table below and you will get a clearer picture of what and who these two represent.

As AW Pink explains, Jezebel in this narrative represents the apostasy which blights God’s people throughout history and to the end of the age. As Jezebel set up an unholy priesthood, so does mankind year after year in any and every country while the gospel is preached and God’s true servants (represented by the 7000 in 1 Kings 19) are persecuted, often to the point of death, as in the case of Naboth.

  Here was a woman who sowed sin with both hands. She not only led Ahab deeper into iniquity, but she dragged the elders and nobles of the city into the mire of her Devil-inspired crime. She made the sons of Belial, the false witnesses, even worse than they were before. She became both a robber and a murderess, filching from Naboth both his good name and heritage. The elders and nobles of Israel were base enough to carry out her orders—sure sign was this that the kingdom was ripe for judgment: when those in high places are godless and conscienceless, it will not be long ere the wrath of the Lord falls on those over whom they preside. At the instigation of those nobles and elders, Naboth was "carried forth out of the city and stoned with stones that he died" (v. 13)—his sons also suffering a similar fate (2 Kings 9:26), that the entail might be cut off.
  Let it be well attended to that this unprincipled woman, so full of limitless ambition and lust of power, is not only an historical personage, but the predictive symbol of a nefarious and apostate system. The letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3 supply a prophetic outline of the history of Christendom. ³

The mystery of God
God has and does allow his people to be persecuted while the good news of the kingdom is proclaimed. They killed the prophets of old just as they killed Jesus. How sobering it is to read his words that we have no right to expect any less.

Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. (John 15:20)

This is the way of the kingdom. How sad it is to hear of those in a position to teach God’s people, resort to an escapist view of suffering. No servant is greater than his master, but if a Christian avoided suffering in this life, he would be according to Jesus.

As sad is it is for poor old Naboth, his story may be there for the singular purpose of reminding all of us of two things: that suffering follows those who labour for the kingdom of God and that this kingdom can be found all through Scripture, even in the book of Kings.
(Taken from a series of sermons currently underway on the life and times of the prophet Elijah. Check Christian Faith mp3 section soon for all 12 messages.)

Footnotes
1. Ahab ruled over the northern kingdom of Israel roughly 50 years after it split away from the southern kingdom (Judah) and about 150 before the Assyrians took it into exile.

2. The law of the Year of Jubilee is described in Leviticus 25. For further reading, see the article in the ISBE.

3. Pink, AW. 1963, The Life of Elijah, The Banner of Truth Trust, pp. 258-259.