Good Will Eventually Trump Evil
By Babatunde Olugboji
This week, we will start a series that demonstrates how truth will eventually prevail over evil, using the narrative of 1 Kings 21 as our starting point.
It was the story of a woman known as Jezebel, one of the three biblical bad girls, the other two being Potiphar’s temptress wife and Samson’s treacherous Delilah.
Jezebel married the then Prince Ahab, and eventually she emerged as the power behind the throne. She was the daughter of Ithobaal, the priest of the pagan Baal god. The union between Ahab and Jezebel was an opportunity for Jezebel to spread Baal worshipping in Israel. And under his wife’s malevolent influence, Ahab protected and encouraged pagan rituals, prompting God to inflict a 3-year drought on the land.
This story in 1 Kings was an intricate story of land grab, a sad account of lust, corruption, misuse and abuse of power, idolatry, murder, and manipulation.
The other two characters were King Ahab and Naboth, the owner of a coveted piece of land.
The account of Ahab and Naboth’s vineyard at first reading appeared like a simple story of a ridiculous king with a ridiculous wife doing a ridiculous thing, grabbing a piece of land from his subject with the help of his nasty wife.
But there was much more to the story. Naboth’s vineyard which the king coveted was next to the palace grounds. Ahab wanted to convert this plot of land to a vegetable garden. For some reason, the king who owned much wanted the land of the man who had little.
Have you met people who are never satisfied with what they have? Proverbs 21:26 says, all day long the wicked covet.
Ahab was trying to fill the spiritual vacuum in his soul with material things. Having been introduced to Baal worshipping, he had one foot in the Temple of Baal and another in the Temple of God, he was neither here nor there, neither cold nor hot.
Halfhearted Christianity is dangerous. If you are with Satan, Satan won’t bother you, but if you claim to be with Jesus, but are really with Satan, Satan won’t trust you, Jesus won’t trust you, Satan’s demons will be attacking you, and the angels of God will be far from you.
Ahab wanted the land but Naboth stood firm, and his refusal sent Ahab into a funk. Ahab couldn’t understand that Naboth couldn’t sell the land because it was an inheritance from his ancestors.
The land wasn’t purchased for money, God had given it to them when they entered the Promised Land. The land was God’s promise to them. They didn’t buy it, they didn’t earn it, they didn’t lease it, it was God’s land, so he couldn’t sell it, not even to the king. Naboth remembered God’s law that the land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. (Leveticus 25:23)
Ahab was coveting the land of a man whose generations had worked the vineyard.
My prayer for you this week is that when anyone wants to grab what God has given to you, God Himself will fight for you.
The narrative continues next week.
Have a great week!
Kingdom Dynamics, a weekly column is written by Dr. Babatunde Olugboji, the President, Kingdom House, a non-profit organization in New Jersey, USA.
