Corruption

June 18

I Kings 21-22

Psalm 73:1-3

Proverbs 16:6-7

Acts 14

Corruption

“And Jezebel his wife said to him, ‘Do you not exercise kingship over Israel?  Arise, eat bread, and let your heart be merry; I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.  So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name… ‘Call for a fast and seat Naboth at the head of the people; and seat two vile men before him, and let them testify against him, saying, ‘You cursed God and the king.’  Then take him out and stone him so that he will die.’….Now it happened that when Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, Jezebel said to Ahab, ‘Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money; for Naboth is not alive but dead.’” 

I Kings 21:7-10, 15 LSB

If I changed the names in this story, we could easily mistake this for a news article on Fox News or CNN today.  A man named Naboth owned a vineyard in Jezreel beside the palace of Ahab, the evil king of Israel.  Ahab wanted that vineyard so he went to Naboth and offered to buy it or give him a better vineyard.  The vineyard had been in Naboth’s family for a long time and he was not willing to sell it.  Ahab went home and pouted, laying on his bed and refusing to eat.  When his wife, Jezebel, asked what was wrong, he told her about his conversation with Naboth.  Jezebel had a solution.  She wrote letters to the elders and nobles living in the city telling them to get two men to testify against Naboth that he had cursed God and the king.  She then instructed them to stone Naboth to death.  When it was done, she told Ahab to go take the vineyard because there was no one to stand in his way.  People in positions of power are easily guided by an inflated sense of importance and entitlement.  If they cannot have what they want, they take it.  They believe that their position of authority and power entitles them to get whatever they want and they won’t let anyone or anything stand in their way.  Lying, stealing and even murder are not off the table.  Our forefathers put a system of checks and balances in our Constitution when they formed the United States.  They believed that unchecked power leads to corruption and that to protect the citizens from tyrannical leadership, they needed to create a system where decisions are made by several entities working together.   The belief was that a group of people were more likely to act honorably than one person making decisions alone based on his own desires and ideas. 

Unfortunately, justice is not always ensured because corrupt men can work together to do evil.  In this instance, the elders and nobles went along with Jezebel even though they knew Naboth had not really cursed God and the king.  They followed through on her evil scheme and murdered Naboth.  In the past few months, corruption has been exposed in federal, state and local governments, in the church and in business settings in alarming and sickening ways.  God is pulling back the curtain and exposing the lies and evil that has been going on right under our noses.  We can be assured that God will not be mocked.  Justice is sure.  In this life, or the next, evil will be judged and God will expose and punish corruption.  It’s hard to watch evil seemingly succeed, but as believers we can trust in the absolute righteousness of God that will not let evil win.