1 Kings 21:1-4
"21 Now Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel, beside the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. 2 And after this Ahab said to Naboth, “Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near my house, and I will give you a better vineyard for it; or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its value in money.” 3 But Naboth said to Ahab, “The Lord forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.” 4 And Ahab went into his house vexed and sullen because of what Naboth the Jezreelite had said to him, for he had said, “I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.” And he lay down on his bed and turned away his face and would eat no food."
There is a wealth of teaching about human nature in this ugly story of Ahab's covetousness. Naboth's refusal of the king's request was not made in any spirit of churlishness, but on religious grounds. By the Law of Moses (see Leviticus 25:23-28), he was forbidden to part with his paternal inheritance, and Ahab's demand was an inducement to violate his conscience to satisfy a momentary whim. It is an indication of how pathetically weak and characterless the king was that he should have reacted as he did, like a spoiled child, sulking in bed and refusing to take his food. In other circumstances it would have been merely laughable, but in this case it was fraught with peril, for behind him there stood one who was neither weak nor characterless, the wicked Jezebel, and with purposeful malignity this she-devil set about the ruin of the hapless Naboth. The picture all this gives of Ahab is not an edifying one - weak, indulgent, self-willed, petulant, sadly lacking in any royal characteristics, a shrunken little man even when stretched to his full height. This is what sin tends to do to such men - they become spiritually and morally wizened - and, alas, all too often, the helpless tools of strong, unscrupulous tyrants, in the home, in the community and in the nation. Satan is never slow to make use of sulky, thwarted desires in children of whatever age and the more authority they have the better he is pleased, for the greater will be the potential for doing serious harm!