Ronceverte Presbyterian Church

Stephen Baldwin

OT: 1 Kings 21.1-21a

NT: Luke 7.36-39

The Blessing of Limits (Part 2)

            Last week, we talked about the blessing of limits.  Those things that we don’t have or can’t do or weren’t gifted with…they are limitations, and they are blessings.  God created all of us with limits, for our own good.  That message resonated better at our nursing home service than it did with you all, because they know what it’s like to be limited…and they know that they are still blessed!  Those with greater limits seem to have learned to appreciate what they do have more than most of us.  This is part two of that message.                    There is a void in you.  Something is missing.  You confront this void everyday of your life.  Maybe it involves your family or health or past. It doesn’t matter how often you pray or come to church, you will never escape it. It doesn’t matter how hard you try to fill it, you never will satisfy it.  We are all missing something in our lives. Our future depends on how we handle it.  The yearning to fill it can take over with an insatiable thirst for more.  More clothes, more money, more drugs, more alcohol, more work, more power.  I saved the worst for last.  Power.  We always want more.     

In part, the desire to fill what is missing and discover more is what makes us great.  It led us to explore mountains and oceans and outer space.  It led us to build nations and write constitutions and secure the pursuit of happiness for all of God’s children here on earth. 

Yet the same drive for more also makes us vulnerable.  If we allow ourselves to be fooled into thinking that we can fill our void by our own achievements, then we become King Ahab from today’s story, casting aside the needs of others in an unending quest to satisfy our own greedy desires. 

Ahab was a king from the line of David.  His father ruled for 100 years.  Ahab took the reins after his father died, ruling over the people with his wife Jezebel at his side.  In the story, it’s hard to distinguish one from another, as they feed off one another and act in each other’s name always seeking more and more and more from their people. 

Ahab sees a vineyard near his house which he’d like to turn into a garden.  Never mind that it’s a vineyard, not a garden.  Never mind that he already owns vineyards and gardens.  Never mind that the vineyard belongs to Naboth and was given to him by his father who got it from his father who got it from his father who got it as a gift from God to settle in the promised land many moons ago.  It was Naboth’s birthright, and Ahab asks him to forsake it on the king’s whim.  Ahab sees it, he wants it, and he goes to get it. 

He makes Naboth a handsome offer.  He says, “I’ll trade you your vineyard for a much bigger and better one.  Or, if you prefer, I’ll give you whatever price you want for yours.  You name the price.”  If someone came along and offered to trade you your house here in Ronceverte for a much bigger one they owned at the Greenbrier Sporting Club, wouldn’t you be tempted?  Or if they said to name your price and you could get ten times the value of your property, wouldn’t you be tempted? 

Surely, Naboth was.  But he confidently said no all the same.  He believed that particular land was a gift from God and to sell it would be to betray the gift of God and his family who cared for it for many generations.  So he said no.  To the king. 

In a very un-kingly moment, Ahab goes to his room and cries.  We just thought that was hysterical in Bible Study!  The big bad king goes to his room and sulks when the farmer tells him no. 

His wife, Jezebel, hatches a plan to get Ahab what he wants.  She uses Ahab’s name, calls for an assembly, seats two scoundrels by Naboth, has them accuse him of cursing God and king, and then they kill Naboth. 

Ahab comes out of his room, stops crying, and goes to fill that void  deep down in his soul the only way he knows how.  He goes to get his land now that Naboth is dead.  But when he arrives, God has sent the prophet Elijah…with a message. 

            “Have you killed?  Have you stolen land that is not yours?  I will bring disaster on you.” 

            Harsh words?  Yes.  The king was given power in order to care for and protect the people, not to oppress and kill them.  And God would not stand for it.  God told Ahab as clearly as possible through the prophet Ahab that he would pay for his sins. 

            Are these harsh words also a warning for us?  Yes.  Ahab is not the only self-centered, greedy human being to ever walk the planet.  Jezebel is not the first person to desire power, and she won’t be the last.  This is a warning for those who do hold power over peoples and nations to use that power for God’s good purposes, not for our own.  This is also a warning for us.  We may not rule over lands and countries, but we all have power over others.  And if we use that power unjustly, there will be dire consequences. 

            Friends, there is a limit in blessings.  Instead of trying to fill our voids over and over again with that which will not satisfy, let us learn to be content with ourselves as we are.  God created us with limits.  If that’s good enough for God, shouldn’t it be good enough for us?  Amen.