When people lack thorough knowledge of the Bible, they’ll make some sweeping generalizations that are completely wrong. For example, they’ll say that the Old Testament is all about law and judgment, and that grace comes only in the New Testament. In fact, every book of the Bible proclaims both grace and judgment. Often, both occur in the same passage.

Some people also get the idea that God gives grace to “good” people and judgment to “bad” people. In fact God offers grace to the worst of people: King Ahab of Israel for example.

“Ahab son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of those who came before him” (1 Kings 16:30). Similar assessments appear in 1 Kings 16:33 and 1 Kings 21:25. The latter verse says that his wife Jezebel urged him to do evil. She introduced Baal worship, with its practice of sacrificing babies.

Reading the accounts of Ahab’s reign, we can easily see the evil and God’s anger and judgment about it. Where’s the grace? 

Grace to Ahab on Mount Carmel

Elijah on Mount Carmel / Medieval. Attribution unknown.

Grace essentially means unmerited favor. That is, when God or anyone else extends grace, they offer something good to someone who doesn’t deserve it. No one ever deserves forgiveness, for example, but God commands us to forgive. And he forgives more freely and more completely than any human can.

People who refuse God’s offer of grace come to a bad end, but he offers grace to the most wicked of people. He intends to transform the wicked into the righteous. As we look at Ahab, then, we need to look for all the chances God gave him to repent.

No sooner does the Bible introduce Ahab than Elijah suddenly appears to proclaim a three-year drought. At the end of that time, Elijah proposed a contest on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18).

The 450 prophets of Baal set up an altar, lay a sacrifice on it, and prayed to Baal to consume it with fire from heaven. Nothing happened.

Elijah then prepared his altar and sacrifice­­––and drenched it with water. He offered a simple prayer that God would show the people that he had done everything according to God’s word. Fire from heaven consumed the sacrifice, water and all.

After executing the prophets of Baal, Elijah told Ahab to have his supper. Rain would soon make it too muddy for his chariot to get back to Jezreel Then Elijah honored Ahab by running ahead of the chariot as his herald.

The rain itself was grace, although Ahab had shown more concern for his livestock than for his people. But by that demonstration of power, God gave Ahab a chance to turn away from Baal and become a man of God.

Ahab told Jezebel that Elijah had killed the prophets of Baal, but apparently didn’t put any stress on how God had demonstrated that Baal was no god at all. She decided to persecute Elijah, and the nation continued to worship Baal.

Grace to Ahab in time of war, part 1

In 1 Kings 19, God dealt with Elijah’s depression. He told him to anoint Hazael as the next king of Aram (Syria in some translations), Jehu as king of Israel (putting an end to Ahab’s dynasty), and Elisha as his successor prophet. Elijah left the first two named tasks to Elisha. He had more grace to offer Ahab. If Ahab had repented, there would have been no need to use Jehu to destroy his family.

Note, though, that the first task God assigned involved the king of Aram, Ben Hadad. Scripture does not record what he had done to incur God’s wrath, but he was under a death sentence.

Ahab was apparently his vassal and had apparently incurred Ben Hadad’s anger. In 1 Kings 20, Ben Hadad mustered for war. He ordered Ahab to give him all his silver and gold, and also his best wives and children as slaves. Ahab meekly agreed. But Ben Hadad didn’t want all that stuff. He wanted war. So he announced that he would send men to search Ahab’s palaces and take what they wanted. Ahab refused.

A prophet of God went to Ahab and promised him victory over Ben Hadad. He even gave Ahab the battle plan. That’s grace. Ahab didn’t deserve victory or any kind of favor from God.

That battle happened in hill country. Ben Hadad’s advisors told him that Israel’s God must be a hill God. If he fought Ahab on the plain, then he would surely win.

The prophet returned to Ahab with this message from God: “I will deliver this vast army into your hands” (1 Kings 20:28). In other words, Ahab would win again and was supposed to kill everyone. Including Ben Hadad. Instead, he spared Ben Hadad and made a treaty, which Ben Hadad ignored.

Again, God offered grace to Ahab and an instruction. Ahab disobeyed and trusted in his own cleverness. So the prophet pronounced a death sentence on Ahab.

Grace to Ahab after a murder

Ahab wanted some property next to his palace in Jezreel. He offered to give Naboth, the owner, a comparable vineyard somewhere else or pay money for it. Naboth refused and Ahab sulked.

Jezebel devised a plan to seize Naboth’s vineyard by force. With Ahab’s connivance, she brought a false charge against Naboth, with the verdict and death sentence already decided. Naboth and all his family were stoned to death. When Ahab went to take possession of the vineyard, Elijah confronted him.

Ahab would die a violent death. Just as dogs had licked Naboth’s blood, so would they lick Ahab’s and Jezebel’s. Someone else would make his dynasty like that of two earlier ones. That is, the next king would execute all Ahab’s sons and their sons, if any. He would have no posterity.

When Ahab heard these words, he finally repented. He tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and fasted. Readers might suspect it was all for show, that Ahab was no more penitent now than before. God thought otherwise.

Finally, after years of trying, God could extend grace in response to something Ahab had done. It may not seem like much, but God would give Ahab descendants. Two of his sons would sit on his throne.

Grace to Ahab in time of war, part 2

Death of Ahab / Gustav Doré, 1866

Ben Hadad had agreed to return some cities an earlier king had captured from Israel. He reneged. Ahab decided to go to war to capture them. He enlisted his daughter’s father-in-law, King Jehoshaphat of Judah, to join him. All Ahab’s prophets guaranteed he would return from war victorious. Jehoshaphat, however, insisted on hearing from a prophet of the Lord.

Reluctantly, Ahab summoned a prophet named Micaiah, complaining that he never prophesied anything good. True to his expectation, Micaiah foresaw Israel without a king and the army scattered. He added that God had enticed Ahab to ride to his death by putting a lying spirit in his prophets.

Although Ahab didn’t recognize it, God was offering him one last chance to repent. He could have called off the war with Aram and asked what he could do to gain God’ favor. Instead, he decided to go to battle dressed as an ordinary soldier. Ben Hadad ordered his charioteers to fight only Ahab and no one else, but a foot soldier fired a random arrow that found a chink in Ahab’s armor.

Soldiers returning his body to Samaria for burial stopped at Jezreel, at the place where Naboth had died. They washed the chariot to prepare it for a state funeral. The dogs enjoyed a treat.

The account of Ahab’s life tells of God’s judgment on an especially wicked man. It ended with very exact justice. But only because Ahab had refused God’s grace and forgiveness multiple times.

Image credits:
God is good. Some rights reserved by David Woo
Elijah on Mount Carmel. Public domain from Wikimedia Commons
Mount Carmel. Public domain from Wikimedia Commons
Naboth’s vineyard. Public domain from Flickr
Death of Ahab. Public domain, from Wikimedia Commons