The Vineyard and the Whirlwind

Next door to King Ahab’s palace at Jezreel there was a vineyard, and it belonged to a man named Naboth. It had been his father’s, and his grandfather’s, and his great-grandfather’s — the piece of the promised land that had come to his family when Joshua shared it out, hundreds of years before. And Ahab wanted it for a vegetable garden, because it was handy for the palace. He offered Naboth a better vineyard, or the money, whichever he liked. And Naboth said, “The Lord forbid that I should give you what my fathers left me.” And Ahab — the king of Israel — went home and lay down on his bed with his face to the wall and would not eat. And Jezebel came in and said, “Is this how a king of Israel behaves? Get up. Eat something. Be cheerful. I will get you Naboth’s vineyard.”

And here is how she did it, and it was all done properly, with paperwork. She wrote letters in Ahab’s name, and sealed them with the king’s own seal, and sent them to the elders and important men of Naboth’s own town. The letters said: call a holy fast day, and seat Naboth up at the front where everybody can see him. And find two worthless men to sit opposite him and swear that they heard him curse God and the king. Then take him outside and stone him to death. And his neighbors did it. The elders and the important men of his own town read the letter and called the fast and found the two liars and stoned Naboth in his own fields — because a letter came from the palace and it had the right seal on it. And they sent word to Jezebel: it is done. And she went in to her husband and said, “Get up and take the vineyard of Naboth, the one he would not sell you. Naboth is not alive. He is dead.” And Ahab got up and went down to walk about in his new vegetable garden.

And that is where Elijah was waiting for him, standing among the vines. And Ahab said, “So you have found me — my enemy.” And Elijah said, “I have found you. This is what the Lord says: you have murdered a man, and now you are taking what was his. In the very place where the dogs licked up Naboth’s blood, the dogs will lick up yours.” The king of Israel could kill a man and take his field, and there was nobody in the whole country who could stop him — nobody but one man in a hair cloak who did not belong to him. And Ahab heard it. He tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went about quietly and would not eat. And God saw it, and said to Elijah, ‘Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? I will not bring the trouble in his own lifetime.’ Even that man, even then, got mercy for the part of it he was truly sorry for. But the word came true. Ahab was killed in a battle he had been warned not to fight, and they washed out his chariot at the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked up the blood there.

And now the last day of Elijah’s life, which was not like anybody else’s last day. He knew it was coming, and so did Elisha, and so did all the young men who were learning to be prophets, and nobody wanted to say it out loud. Three times that morning Elijah tried to leave Elisha behind: “Stay here, please. The Lord is sending me on to Bethel.” And three times Elisha said the same thing: “As the Lord lives, and as you live — I am not leaving you.” So they walked to Bethel together, and then to Jericho, and then down to the Jordan, with fifty of the young prophets following at a distance to watch. And at the river Elijah took off his old hairy cloak and rolled it up and struck the water with it — and the river opened, the way it had opened for Joshua, and the two of them walked over on dry ground. And on the far side Elijah said, “Ask me for something, before I am taken away from you.” And Elisha said, “Let me have a double share of your spirit.” It was not greed. In Israel the oldest son got a double share of what his father left; Elisha was asking to be Elijah’s son and heir, and to carry on the work. And Elijah said, “You have asked a hard thing. But if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours; and if you do not, it will not.”

And as they walked on, talking, suddenly there was a chariot of fire and horses of fire between them, and the two of them were parted from each other — and Elijah went up in a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha stood there watching him go, and shouted after him, “My father! My father! The chariots of Israel, and its horsemen!” And then he could not see him any more. And he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two. And on the ground, where it had fallen, lay the old hairy cloak. And Elisha picked it up and walked back to the edge of the Jordan and stood there with the river running between him and the rest of his life, and struck the water with it and said, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” And the river opened, and he walked across on dry ground. And the fifty young prophets watching from the far bank said to each other, “The spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha.” And they came to meet him, and bowed to the ground.