Naboth the martyr

S: 1 Kings 21

O: When we list martyrs, we tend not to think of Naboth. In fact, when many of us, lacking the original context, may not even realise Naboth was a martyr. We might think, “Ah, he was a man who didn’t want to sell his land to King Ahab, and so Queen Jezebel had him framed and executed.”

But Naboth refused not because he was merely attached to his land, but because he was obeying the Law of Moses: Leviticus 25:23 says, “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and live as foreigners with me.”

He might well have allowed King Ahab to lease the land – that was permitted under the Law of Moses – but then it would revert to his family in the Year of Jubilee. But Ahab didn’t ask for that – he wanted to buy the land in perpetuity.

So, Naboth was killed because he obeyed Yahweh.

A: Obeying God can carry a real cost. He does not always spare His people from death in this world. Naboth was killed for obeying Yahweh. In the same way, Christians in our own time have been killed for belonging to Christ, such as the 21 Egyptian Christians, along with one Christian from Ghana, whom Daesh executed publicly on video on a beach near Sirte in Libya in 2015. They called on Jesus even as Daesh filmed them being executed. They became an incredible testimony to the world in their martyrdom, so Daesh inadvertently ended up spreading the Gospel!

As Jesus said in Matthew 10: 28, “Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.”

Most of us are not called to martyrdom. But this Good Friday, as we remember Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, let us resolve that we will always stand for Christ and follow Yahweh in both small and big ways.

P: Father, help me to follow you in the little things as well as the big things. Help me to flee temptation and run to you. Strengthen me to obey you whatever the cost. In Jesus’ name, amen.