Scripture Daily

Context No. 1893 of 4322 · 1 Kings

Context · Reflection

1 Kings 21:21-29: in context

21Behold, I will bring evil on you, and will utterly sweep you away and will cut off from Ahab everyone who urinates against a wall, and him who is shut up and him who is left at large in Israel. 22I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, for the provocation with which you have provoked me to anger, and have made Israel to sin.” 23The LORD also spoke of Jezebel, saying, “The dogs will eat Jezebel by the rampart of Jezreel. 24The dogs will eat whoever dies of Ahab in the city; and the birds of the sky will eat whoever dies in the field.” 25But there was no one like Ahab, who sold himself to do that which was evil in the LORD’s sight, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. 26He did very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites did, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel. 27When Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his body, fasted, lay in sackcloth, and went about despondently. 28The LORD’s word came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 29“See how Ahab humbles himself before me? Because he humbles himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days; but I will bring the evil on his house in his son’s day.”

Through Elijah, God pronounces a terrible judgment on Ahab, who had sold himself to do evil, stirred up by his wife Jezebel: disaster on his house, his line cut off, dogs to eat Jezebel. There was no king who gave himself to evil as Ahab did. And then something unexpected happens. When Ahab hears the words, he tears his clothes, puts on sackcloth, fasts, and goes about subdued. And God says to Elijah: do you see how Ahab has humbled himself? Because he humbles himself before me, I will delay the disaster; it will come in his son's day, not his.

The astonishing thing here is that even Ahab's humbling moved God to mercy. Ahab was a byword for wickedness, a king who had given himself to evil, promoted idolatry, and connived at murder; if anyone was beyond the reach of mercy, it seemed to be he. And yet, when he heard God's judgment and humbled himself, tearing his clothes, fasting, walking subdued, God noticed, and responded. Because he humbles himself before me, God said, I will not bring the disaster in his days. God met even Ahab's humbling with a measure of mercy, delaying the judgment in response to the humbled heart of a great sinner. There is remarkable hope in this. If even Ahab, who had sold himself to evil, could humble himself before God and find a measure of mercy, then no one is too far gone for humbling to matter. We may feel that we have sinned too greatly, gone too far, done too much evil for God's mercy to reach us; and Ahab's story says otherwise. God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble, even a humble Ahab. The humbling of ourselves before God, the genuine bowing low in repentance and self-abasement, moves the heart of God to mercy, and there is no sinner so great that this door is closed to him. This is not to make light of Ahab's evil, which was real, nor to suggest his humbling was a deep and lasting conversion; it seems to have been shallow, and judgment did finally come on his house. But even that flawed and partial humbling drew a response of mercy from God, which shows how ready God is to show mercy to the humble, and how much a humbled heart moves him. If God met Ahab's humbling with mercy, he will surely meet ours. The way to God's mercy, for the greatest sinner as for the least, runs through humbling ourselves before him; and no one is too far gone to take it.

Do I feel I have sinned too greatly, gone too far, for God's mercy to reach me, or can I take hope from how God met even Ahab's humbling with mercy, that no one is too far gone for humbling before God to matter, and that God gives grace to the humble, however great their sin, so that the way to his mercy is open even to me?

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