Immerse: Kingdoms Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 230
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IMMERSE
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KINGDOMS
1K
| 20:35–21:8
Then Ahab said, “I will release you under these conditions.” So they
made a new treaty, and B
en-hadad was set free.
Meanwhile, the Lord instructed one of the group of prophets to say to
another man, “Hit me!” But the man refused to hit the prophet. Then the
prophet told him, “Because you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord, a
lion will kill you as soon as you leave me.” And when he had gone, a lion
did attack and kill him.
Then the prophet turned to another man and said, “Hit me!” So he
struck the prophet and wounded him.
The prophet placed a bandage over his eyes to disguise himself and then
waited beside the road for the king. As the king passed by, the prophet
called out to him, “Sir, I was in the thick of battle, and suddenly a man
brought me a prisoner. He said, ‘Guard this man; if for any reason he gets
away, you will either die or pay a fine of seventy-five pounds of silver!’ But
while I was busy doing something else, the prisoner disappeared!”
“Well, it’s your own fault,” the king replied. “You have brought the judgment on yourself.”
Then the prophet quickly pulled the bandage from his eyes, and the
king of Israel recognized him as one of the prophets. The prophet said
to him, “This is what the Lord says: Because you have spared the man I
said must be destroyed, now you must die in his place, and your people
will die instead of his people.” So the king of Israel went home to Samaria
angry and sullen.
Now there was a man named Naboth, from Jezreel, who owned a vineyard
in Jezreel beside the palace of King Ahab of Samaria. One day Ahab said to
Naboth, “Since your vineyard is so convenient to my palace, I would like
to buy it to use as a vegetable garden. I will give you a better vineyard in
exchange, or if you prefer, I will pay you for it.”
But Naboth replied, “The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance that was passed down by my ancestors.”
So Ahab went home angry and sullen because of Naboth’s answer. The
king went to bed with his face to the wall and refused to eat!
“What’s the matter?” his wife Jezebel asked him. “What’s made you so
upset that you’re not eating?”
“I asked Naboth to sell me his vineyard or trade it, but he refused!”
Ahab told her.
“Are you the king of Israel or not?” Jezebel demanded. “Get up and eat
something, and don’t worry about it. I’ll get you Naboth’s vineyard!”
So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name, sealed them with his seal, and sent