1 Kings 21:1-10

1 Kings 21:1-10

Weakness and Evil

INTRODUCTION: Ahab was the most evil king Israel would
have. While some kings allowed Ball
worship, Ahab promoted it. His wife
Jezebel was a vicious killer. She is
behind the killing of the prophets of God; she is behind the attempt on Elijah’s
life after the defeat of the prophets of Baal.
And here she is behind the killing of Naboth to get Ahab what he wanted. Ahab is so evil that when Herman Melville was
looking for inspiration for Moby Dick, he chose Ahab for the Villon.

1.
The evil of Ahab
1 Kings 16:31-33

A.
Baal Worship
Isaiah 57:5

a.
Spreading trees and high places

b.
Ravines and over hanging crags Ezekiel 16:20-22

B.
Married Jezebel a Baal worshiping zealot

C.
Jezebel tried to kill all the prophets of God

D.
Jezebel tried to kill Elijah 1 Kings 18:17-19

E.
Ordered Naboth’s death to get the vineyard

2.
Our American culture

A.
Our false God’s

a.
Sex and the sacrifice of children

b.
Wealth, a little more than the rest

c.
Power, no one will tell us what to do

B.
Our Jezebels

a.
False Bible teachers Mark
13:20-22 2 Timothy 4:3-4

b.
Secular thinkers

c.
Political leaders

d.
Supposed scholars

3.
A culture of Christ

A.
Called to be different Romans
12:1-2

B.
Empowered by God to be different

C.
You are the light in someone’s darkness

Conclusion: God has not called us to be little better than
the rest of the world but to stand in contrast to it. We have a hope that will not fail, love they
can not understand, and Jesus shining through us may be the light that leads
them home to Jesus.

Ahab was the most evil king of Israel 21:25&26

He lust after Naboth’s vineyard

He sulks and fumes because he does not get his way

But Ahab’s wife Jezebel was a killer who would get him
anything he wanted at any cost.

This section of 1 Kings is the inspiration for Moby Dick.

In Moby Dick, Captain Ahab wants the Great White whale, (God)
dead.

Are people still trying to kill God off so they can feel
good about themselves?

Some fail because they are weak

Others fail because they are evil

What their itching ears want to hear

False teachers will come who would deceive even the elect

Romans 1 they teach others to do evil

Isaiah
57:5 (NIV2011)

⁵ You burn with lust among the oaks
and under every spreading tree; you sacrifice your children in the ravines and
under the overhanging crags.

Leviticus
18:21 (NIV2011)

²¹ “ ‘Do not give any of your
children to be sacrificed to Molek, for you must not profane the name of your
God. I am the LORD.

Deuteronomy
18:10-11 (NIV2011)

¹⁰ Let no one be found among you
who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or
sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft,

¹¹ or casts spells, or who is a
medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.

Psalm
106:37-38 (NIV2011)

³⁷ They sacrificed their sons and
their daughters to false gods.

³⁸ They shed innocent blood, the
blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,
and the land was desecrated by their blood.

Ezekiel
16:20-22 (NIV2011)

²⁰ “ ‘And you took your sons and
daughters whom you bore to me and sacrificed them as food to the idols. Was
your prostitution not enough?

²¹ You slaughtered my children and
sacrificed them to the idols.

²² In all your detestable practices
and your prostitution you did not remember the days of your youth, when you
were naked and bare, kicking about in your blood.

Deuteronomy
12:2-3 (NIV2011)

² Destroy completely all the places
on the high mountains, on the hills and under every spreading tree, where the
nations you are dispossessing worship their gods.

³ Break down their altars, smash
their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the
idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places.

1
Kings 16:31-33 (NIV2011)

³¹ He not only considered it
trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married
Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and
worship him.

³² He set up an altar for Baal in
the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria.

³³ Ahab also made an Asherah pole
and did more to arouse the anger of the LORD, the God of Israel, than did all
the kings of Israel before him.

Mark
13:20-22 (NIV2011)

²⁰ “If the Lord had not cut short
those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, whom he has
chosen, he has shortened them.

²¹ At that time if anyone says to
you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it.

²² For false messiahs and false
prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible,
even the elect.

2
Timothy 4:3-4 (NIV2011)

³ For the time will come when
people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires,
they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their
itching ears want to hear.

⁴ They will turn their ears away
from the truth and turn aside to myths.

1
Kings 18:17-19 (NIV2011)

¹⁷ When he saw Elijah, he said to
him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?”

¹⁸ “I have not made trouble for
Israel,” Elijah replied. “But you and your father’s family have. You have
abandoned the LORD’s commands and have followed the Baals.

¹⁹ Now summon the people from all
over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty
prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s
table.”

Romans
12:1-2 (NIV2011)

¹ Therefore, I urge you, brothers
and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living
sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

² Do not conform to the pattern of
this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be
able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect
will.