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The Vineyard in Jezreel
1 Kings 21:1-4
There is more to what is happening here than just a time when a king coveted another man's property. In this chapter is an unveiling of the purpose of God for His people in relation to His kingdom.
All the activity in this chapter centers around this vineyard. There is something very special about this vineyard. It is the background in which some very important things take place. No one can stay the same because of this vineyard in Jezreel. The thoughts and intents of men's hearts are exposed as they deal with this place. What is special about this vineyard?
IT IS THE PLACE OF THE LORD'S INHERITANCE IN THE EARTH
Psalm 2:8. Lev. 25:23. God had a purpose in creating the earth. The Heavenly Father purposed to give the earth as an inheritance to His Son. By God's design, Christ is the rightful owner and heir of the earth. All of God's interests are bound up with the earth. Habbakuk 2:14 reveals God's purpose is to fill the earth with Himself. That is His objective. This vineyard is a token of that.
In Matthew 20:30-43 the vineyard is shown to be The kingdom of God, the inheritance of God's Son.
Is. 5:1,2,7 speaks of the vineyard as the people of God. We will never understand the importance of this vineyard, nor see its significance until we see that the eyes of the Lord are on this vineyard. It is something He desires and is rightfully His. Naboth sees this vineyard is something the Lord owns for Himself. Song of Solomon 5:1 shows this garden is the place of the Lord's satisfaction. It is the place where the desires of His heart are met. It is for His pleasure. It is for Him.
JEZREEL IS THE LAND OF THE CROSS
Jezreel means "God sows" or "God hath sown." It is the land of God's redemptive purpose. Verse 1 tells us that in the land where God sows, there is a vineyard.
Jesus tells us in John 12:23,24,31 what this land in which God sows is. Jesus is speaking of His cross and the work that He would accomplish there. Jesus is seeking to impact upon those around Him a fuller meaning of the cross. Many things were done at Calvary. There, forgiveness and justification were purchased for us. Yet, in describing His work on the cross in these verses, forgiveness and justification as important as they are, are not mentioned. There is something more in His work on the cross that He wants them to see too.
The first aspect of the cross Jesus is showing in this passage is that at the cross, God is sowing a seed. A very special seed was sown there and with that sowing, a harvest of fruit is expected. If this seed falls into the ground, the outcome will be much fruit.
God sowed the life of His Son at the cross, giving Himself fully to buy back what was lost in the garden. He gave Himself at Calvary as a seed thrown into the ground to die. God wants a harvest from that planting. The fulfillment of this harvest is not found merely in God filling heaven, but it is in a people who bear the image and likeness of the seed that was sown into the ground. Genesis 3 teaches us that a seed will bear after its own kind. God is looking for a harvest from the seed He has sown in the ground. Calvary is the place of a garden, and the seed that was sown there is come to full growth and fruition in the hearts of redeemed man.
Jesus shows us yet another aspect of the cross in these verses. It is found in vs. 31. After His teaching that the cross meant the sowing of His life into the ground like a seed, He goes on to show that the cross is also the place of judgment. In this land where God sows this precious seed, a judgment is released! This sown seed, and the garden in which it is growing, means the casting out of the prince of this world and the judgment of this age. This garden means the demise and the ultimate overthrow of the kingdom of darkness and its prince. THIS VINEYARD MEANS THE END OF EVERY OTHER KINGDOM. The kingdom of God, represented by this garden God has planted, will confront every other kingdom both in heaven and earth.
JEZREEL IS THE PLACE WHERE NABOTH LIVES
This vineyard in Jezreel was home to Naboth. He lived in the land where God has sown. What God has done in the sowing of that precious seed becomes land in which He abides. He is a man who lives in the good of something God has done for him.
The cross is the only place we can live if there is to be fruit in our lives. There is a learning to abide in the good of all that was done for us on the cross. Paul teaches us that God has made us to sit with Him in heavenly places in Christ. Sitting is a position of rest. It presumes a work has been finished. God has called us to rest in a work He has done for us. This vineyard is the place of Naboth's rest, and there He enjoys union and communion with God. It is not the rest of apathy. It is the rest of faith that in the cross, God has removed all that separates us from Him and has brought us nigh by the blood. God's purpose in this vineyard is not realized till man is found living out from the good of all that it means that Jesus' life, as a seed, was sown into the ground for us.
THE PLACE OF NABOTH'S INHERITANCE
There is no contradiction here. This land is the inheritance of God's Son. This vineyard represents the inheritance of the Lord. At the same time, we see that it is also the inheritance of Naboth. Naboth calls this place, the inheritance of my fathers. In this land, the Lord's inheritance and man's becomes one. It is the place of the participation of God and man together in His purpose in the earth. God, in His purpose, seeks to put a man in His inheritance. There is always a connection between what happens with "a man in the land" and the Lord receiving His inheritance in the earth. The vision of the Lord is to fill the earth with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. How will He do that? Will it just fall out of the sky some day? No, the hope of His glory in the earth is bound up with Christ in us.
In Numbers 14:21, we see God responding to the failure of His people to enter in and possess their inheritance, the land of Canaan, the very land Naboth is living in. The Lord swore that as truly as He lived all the earth would be filled with the glory of the Lord. His people going into and possessing their inheritance in the land, would be the means of His filling the earth with the glory of the Lord. The two are always linked. His people are linked up with His glory. It is through them, as bearers of His glory, that He will fill the earth with glory. Even though His people at that time would not go into the land, God has not given up on His purpose. He will still fill the earth with His glory.
God wants a man in the land of His inheritance, and Naboth was that man. He was a visible illustration to his whole nation of what God wanted for them. Naboth saw he had a part in the Lord's inheritance in the earth. The book of Hebrews speaks of God's people in this light. They are called; "partakers of the heavenly calling." Another rending of the word partakers is "partners" or "companions". Through the gospel, the door is opened for us to be companions with the Lord in His heavenly calling. God's Son is not alone in the inheritance. The word of God teaches us that in His redemptive purpose, Christ will have companions with Him in His calling. They will be those who will move together, in union with Him, in the accomplishment of God's purpose in the earth. The land is the Lord’s, and God wants His people to have a part with Him in His kingdom.
Naboth's very presence in that vineyard meant to principalities and powers and to all the hosts of darkness that this land where He was dwelling was the Lord's! By living there, he was holding the property in which God's redemptive purpose would be played out. In this land the Lord had an inheritance, and what Naboth saw in this little seemingly insignificant vineyard was that he was allotted his place in the kingdom of God. This place in the kingdom was what His father's knew and now it was his. He saw it as his Divinely given inheritance, given to him by God Himself. This would be where he would walk out his relationship with God. This land meant more to him than anything else. He wanted to keep it, to walk with the Lord in it, and like his father's did for him, hand it down to the next generation.
THE PLACE OF A TERRIBLE CONFLICT
Ahab and Jezebel, are a picture of the prince of this world, the rulers of the darkness of this world. This king of the land wanted this place where God has sown for himself. Naboth lived in a day of great change and apostasy. At that very time, there was a grasp from the enemy for what Naboth called "the inheritance of my fathers." This vineyard is not only the focus point of all God's interests and desires, it becomes the focal point of hell too. The kingdom of darkness is interested in what is going on in this vineyard. He must have that which is bound up for the satisfaction of God for himself.
It seems that all of hell is moved by this seeming insignificant place. Who would be afraid of a vineyard and a farmer living in it? What's the big deal? Why would God's enemy be threatened by a vineyard? He should go out and find some army to fight somewhere but instead, he seeks out this vineyard with a man in it. Why? This is not just any vineyard - it is the place where God has sown.
So the evil king, representing the prince of this world, comes to Naboth saying "give me the vineyard." This place becomes the ground on which a very great battle takes place. Something has to be settled about this very special land that seems to be bound up with the Kingdom of God itself. The question that must be answered is this; "who in the end, will have this vineyard?"
There is a move from the kingdom of darkness to remove the heir and his inheritance and to take it for himself. The prince of this world wants to take what is so dear to the heart of God, rob him of it, making it his own. Psalm 83:4,12; Matt. 21:33-39. He wants to claim the vineyard and seize the inheritance the Father has given to the Son for himself. For the enemy, it is vitally important that nothing comes to fruition out of this place where God has sown!
Notice the scheme and intent of this evil king. Ahab was making an attack upon the kingdom of Christ. He is looking to confiscate it for himself. He wants to make it part of his own royal palace, property of the kingdom of darkness. Ahab wants to expand his kingdom. He wants to enlarge the place of his dominion; but if he is going to do that, he must take the vineyard. He can't enlarge the place of his dominion because the vineyard stands in the way. Ahab wants to turn the vineyard into another kind of garden. He wants to root out the seed God has planted and replace it with another harvest altogether different than the one God has sown. His desire is to get rid of this precious fruit that is growing from the seed that God has sown. For this wicked King, that seed must never come to maturity. He must get rid of it all together and in its place grow a harvest that will produce nothing for God.
Ahab, seeks to entice Naboth to sell out his inheritance for something else. He gives Naboth an offer that in his mind can't be refused. It is an offer for something in this world. He says to Naboth; let's make a deal! Let's make a trade off. You will be better off with what I give you than with that little vineyard your fathers had.
Naboth couldn't do it. There is no vineyard like that vineyard. There are no grapes like those grapes growing in the land God has sown. This man has an inheritance of his father's that he values greater than anything this world has to offer. To him, there is no land like this land where God has chosen to place His inheritance and he can't give it up for anything. "This is my place in the kingdom of God!"
If Naboth sold his vineyard there wouldn't be anything for the Lord. He knew that his inheritance and the Lord's inheritance are bound together. To Him, it is not for sale! The enemy is looking to remove every vestige of the inheritance of the fathers, the birth-right of God's people, from the earth. It is what is hindering him from expanding his dominion. The temptations of that day had to do with the selling of the inheritance of the fathers. There, in this garden, Naboth and the powers of darkness collided. Ahab wanted this land that belongs to the Lord and this man wouldn't sell out, and because of this, it cost him his life.
THE LAND OF THE DIVINE ORACLE – A DAY IS COMING
In verse 17 Elijah comes with a word to that land. Death will not have the final say! Jezebel's days are numbered. God has not given up on having this earth filled with His glory. He has not, nor ever will relent His dream for His Son. Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. God's word will not return to Him void. There was a word from heaven that declared that even in death, His will will be accomplished. The death of Naboth and this land grab means the over throw and demise of the kingdom of darkness. This death of Naboth, God's heir in the land seemed like the victory of the enemy and the defeat of God, but on the contrary, it meant that even in death God would have the ultimate triumph.
Jezreel is a land governed by a word of power. Whenever God wants to do something, He speaks a word and here in this land comes a word from the Lord. It was a word that spoke of a coming day of judgment on the kingdom of darkness. Despite what Ahab and Jezebel had done, God will have the final word.
The main message of this word is that there is a day coming! It directed everyone's eyes forward to a day when a greater than Naboth would come, who's enemies would seek to steal away His inheritance for themselves and take Him outside the city and put Him to death. But, in this one's death something would be released the enemy never counted on. What Christ's enemies didn't count on is that a word from the Father would lift Him, God's true heir, out of the grave three days later to Sit at the throne at the Father's right hand. His being on that throne would mean the putting down of all His enemies under His feet.
There is a word in Jezreel that cannot go unfulfilled! It was a word that turned Naboth's death into victory. It was a word that spoke of another day when Jesus, God's true heir would come, as the seed of the woman and crush the serpents head. All the attempts of the serpent to rob the son of His inheritance would be destroyed and His inheritance made sure. It spoke of the coming of a day that His enemies did not count on when through His death the prince of this world would be cast down and brought to judgment. That is the message of this word released in that land and its power is meant to bring hope and strength to God's people during this day when it seems the assaults of the enemy against the church are becoming more and more blatant.
No wonder Ahab had to have that vineyard. It was such a small, seemingly insignificant place, but God's eternal purpose in His Son is bound up with it. It was a land governed by a word from heaven. Little did the prince of this world know, as Jesus taught in John 12, the place where God sows would mean his final demise and the exaltation of Christ, the chosen Heir of the earth.
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