Tuesday, June 18, 2024
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Elijah the Tishbite on the road again
Before Ahab could even plant a grape seed in his precious new, nextdoor vineyard, Elijah was in his face.
The Tishbite was back.
The Lord says, “After murdering, do you also take possession? In the place where the dogs licked up the blood of Naboth, the dogs shall lick up your blood also.
I imagine Ahab’s ashen, suddenly discovered face.
Have you found me out, mine enemy?
Yes, answered Elijah.
Elijah’s words terrified his listener. A minor prophet already had told Ahab he would die, but now Elijah the Greater Prophet spoke straight into his face, looked right into his eyes. Jezebel must have been sleeping. But Elijah also had words for her, words from Yahweh, words of death.
The Lord says that because you have given yourself up to doing evil in my sight, I am bringing evil upon YOU: I will destroy you and cut off every male in your line.
Ahab’s family was doomed. Every one of Ahab’s line will be eaten by dogs in the city, or devoured by birds in the field. As for the mother …
And the dogs shall devour Jezebel in the city center of Jezreel.
I think of Moses speaking thus to Pharaoh, surprised by the man’s hubris and how he could so quickly close his ears. But Ahab was family, so to speak. Ahab married outside of Israel, but he was born a Jew, as was Elijah. Genealogy can only get us so far, but Elijah, speaking for Yahweh, aimed his accusations of betrayal toward Ahab, as more or less his kinsman.
Indeed, no one gave himself up to the doing of evil in the sight of the Lord as did Ahab. He became completely abominable by following idols.
Ahab fasted and tore his clothes. He repented and put on sackcloth over his bare skin.
He went about subdued.
As God watched this his heart changed toward Ahab. He relented.
Since he has humbled himself before me, I will bring this disaster only on his house, not on Ahab himself. It will not take place now, but only during the days of his son.
During the next couple of weeks our First Readings will describe some of the details of this destruction. The books of 1st and 2nd Kings are noted for stories of blood, guts and gore. Most of these stories never make it to the Sunday School flannelboards. But they recognize how precious Yahweh considered those ones who found their way to faithfulness.
Through my own liberal eyes I watch the Deuteronomists and their determination to destroy all of those they called pagans, those who worshipped “other gods.” The stories of 1st and 2nd Kings, and really, the books before and after as well, emphasize extermination far more often than evangelization. God created us, watched us fall, rescued us and watched us fall again, and that story repeats itself over and over. God will not be left behind by his creatures, no matter what hubris we may claim.
In this midst of all the blood, God’s original blessing remains. And God intends, with a certainty only God can have, for us human creatures to re-discover and re-claim that blessing at the end of the arc of history, which always, as has been said, bends toward justice.
(1 Kings 21, Psalm 51, John 13, Matthew 5)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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