Advent, day 19. The Vineyard and the King

This is one of the well-known stories: Jezebel arranging Ahab's acquisition of Naboth's vineyard. Elijah is on the edge of it--coming in when the damage is already done. He is our

conduit. If it weren't for Elijah's confrontation, we might not have heard about this. The prophet has a role as voice for the voiceless as well as one who speaks for Almighty God. 

Advent, day 19. The Vineyard and the King.

1 Ki 21:20 Ahab said to Elijah, “So you have found me, my enemy?” “I have found you,” he answered, “because you have sold yourself to do evil in the eyes of the LORD.”

Poor Naboth: voiceless in his posthumous story—

caught in a vice between two evils

a rock and a hard place, a no-win:

defy the king of Israel or Almighty God—

All this fuss over a vineyard

—a convenient spot for a veggie garden

—a legacy of generations, God-established, enforced.

Not Naboth’s, this vineyard, to buy or sell

give or take, diminish or augment:

the land promised from Egypt days—

in perpetuity for simple obedience, no more

no less.

Poor Naboth: in a trap unsolvable, 

unwinnable, inescapable,

not a chance—no compromise

when the king pouted and the queen resolved.

To save his life—and his sons’—

do the unthinkable?

pay with what was not his?

steal from his descendants?

Honour he chose

no blessing or power or glory

but honour:

ignominy, his reward—

stoning, his fate.

So when the king gloated

vineyard-rich and bloated

with pride and greed

no wonder then, his greeting, “my enemy”

The “troubler of Israel” has become

“my enemy.”

On that stolen plot

—still God-designated “Naboth’s vineyard”—

a story foretold of retribution, 

violent, gruesome, final: 

dogs sated in blood,

bloodlines severed for all time.

“My enemy,” says the Almighty.