1 Kings 21:19 Thus says the LORD: Have you murdered and also taken possession? And you shall speak to him, saying, Thus says the LORD: In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs shall lick your blood, even yours.
1 Kings 22:37-38 So the king died, and was brought to Samaria. And they buried the king in Samaria. Then someone washed the chariot at a pool in Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood . . . according to the word of the LORD which He had spoken.
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Our scheduled reading (1 Kings 21-22) yields so many excellent principles that we are going to offer some thoughts in a slightly different way.
1. We learn from the incident of Naboth that abuse of power leads to the removal of the one abusing it. An innocent and righteous man, living in obedience to the law of God, loses his life at the hands of a spoiled king. The Omniscient One immediately calls Elijah into service again to pronounce final judgment upon that king, his wife, and his dynasty (1 Kings 21). Ahab’s subsequently humble demeanor only postpones the inevitable.
2. We learn from the incident at the King’s War Summit--the meeting of Ahab and righteous Jehoshaphat--the indescribable importance of speaking out for the truth, no matter what the opposition, no matter what the cost. Courageous Micaiah, a true prophet whom Ahab utterly despises, sharply and boldly contradicts all the sugar-coated promises of the false prophets, some 400 in number. He firmly resists all pressure to say what Ahab wants to hear. (Even though Micaiah cannot help but lace his message with some sarcasm along the way). Not only does he suffer physical abuse, but he gets locked up (and probably never released). See 1 Kings 22:1-28.
3. We learn from the incident of Ahab’s clever disguise in battle (1 Kings 22:29-35) that nothing is going to thwart God’s pronouncements about the time of a person’s death. Still smarting from Micaiah’s prophecy, Ahab thinks he can outwit God by wearing heavy armor and a different outfit than a king wore back then. It didn’t help. A Syrian soldier, not aiming for anyone in particular, just shot an arrow in the direction of the Israelite troops and scores a perfect hit: Ahab, right between the joints of his armor! He is mortally wounded. And as the old saying goes, “The rest is history.”
Ahab’s many years of sowing wickedness led to his ultimate doom, because as Paul reminds us, “God is not mocked” (Gal 6:7-8). No one treats God with contempt and escapes. This is a solemn warning to every person—every person—who thinks he or she can!
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