The grass is NOT always greener…
I Kings 21:4- “So Ahab came into his house sullen and vexed because of the word Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him…”
The King of Samaria was throwing a fit because he couldn’t get his way. As the king I can only imagine that he had everything he needed, and about everything that he wanted. However, there was one thing that he wanted, but could not get; and that one thing caused him to throw a temper tantrum like a 3 year old holding his breath until his face turns red. If you read further in verse 4 it says that he would not even eat the food that was brought to him.
I get this mental image of a person laying on the bed face down kicking his legs and and tossing his arms in a fit while his mother is trying to comfort him by rubbing his back. I know that was not the picture, but that’s what I see.. There are a lot of examples of “bratty” behavior that come to my mind when I read this story, but I will try to keep the examples to a minimum to get to the lesson we learn from this story.
Like I said earlier Ahab was the king, and he had other gardens that he could select from. And according to what we see in verse 2 the gardens that Ahab was offering Naboth were better than the garden he wanted. They probably had been kept fertilized and picked clean of all weeds. I’m sure the king had full time gardrn keepers to work for him, and keep his gardens at peak production. That begs the question, Why would anybody ever voluntarily trade a superior object for an inferior one? It was kind of like saying to a used car dealer, I’ll give you my Porsche if I can have that Ford Escort. That would make no sense to anybody, but that’s exactly what Ahab did. Not only did Ahab do that, but we do it almost everyday! Listen to the words of Jesus in John 10:10 “…I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly.” Jesus came to give us His abundant life; He came to fill us up and to make us overflow; yet many times we choose to trade His BEST for our mediocre. Let me say that again, Jesus is offering us His BEST all we have to do is reach out and take it, but many times we choose to settle for the mediocre existence of this world instead of the Abundant life that Jesus offers everday for those who will rest in Him.
Father, I thank you for giving me Your best in Jesus Christ, and I ask that You would give me the wisdom to see that while the offers of this world may be appealing to my flesh the BEST things come from You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
The image above can be found at:
http://humanities.byu.edu/ELC/student/idioms/proverbs/grass.html
Yes, You Can Ministry 