What does God think of'Eminent Domain?
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| English: ELIYAH VISITS KING AHAB AND THE BA'AL PROPHETS 1 MELAKIM 21 KINGS (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
But Naboth replied, “The LORD forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers” (1 Kings 21:3).
A number of years after God’s defeat of Baalism at Mount Carmel, King Ahab looked out from his palace in Jezreel and saw a vineyard that he thought would be ideal for a royal vegetable garden. He approached the owner of the vineyard, a man named Naboth, and asked him to sell it, and made him an offer.
Naboth refused Ahab’s offer, and for a very significant reason. When the Lord initially gave the land of Canaan to the nation Israel, He had the land divided into family plots. These family plots were inalienable; that is, one could not sell them permanently, one could only lease them. However, in the year of Jubilee, every 50 years, all the land reverted to God as the original owner, and after that year God gave the plots of land back to the original families (Leviticus 25). Naboth told Ahab that this vineyard was part of God’s original gift to his family, and that he did not have the right to sell it. Moreover, he did not choose to lease it to Ahab. We can see from this that Naboth was still faithful to the original covenant God had made with Israel. His faithfulness would cost him his life.
Ahab knew the Law, and he realized there was nothing he could do. Depressed, he returned to the palace and sulked until his pagan wife, Jezebel, decided to take matters in hand. Back in her home country of Tyre, there was no such law as the Jubilee, and the rulers could take anything they wanted. Jezebel ordered some compromising and faithless elders of Jezreel to do away with Naboth. They were to hire two scoundrels to give testimony against Naboth, accusing him of the capital crime of cursing God (Leviticus 24:14). This was done, and afterwards Ahab took possession of Naboth’s vineyard.
Elijah the prophet confronted Ahab. He told the king that because he had done this, God would destroy him. As the dogs had eaten the stoned body of Naboth in the field, so the dogs would lick up Ahab’s blood, and Ahab’s royal line would not endure. Scavenger dogs would also devour Jezebel.
Although the property laws in ancient Israel had some unique aspects because of the Jubilee, there are still important analogies between today’s story and what we see too often in the modern world. “Eminent domain” means that the civil government can appropriate any property it chooses, and pay for it whatever it pleases. Does today’s lesson indicate how God views this practice?
