Naboth's Vineyard
Cross-posted on grantcthomas.blogspot.com
When I was seventeen or so, I read the book of James a lot which might account for my leanings towards Liberation Theology at times. Mostly I read it s lot because it was short and I could read it in one sitting, but I think what I liked the most about it as a young man, was it told me exactly what to do with my life. I was also drawn to the Sermon on the Mount for similar reasons.
But the rest of the Bible has always been more ambiguous to me. Its more like my life; a continuing story of life with which God interacts, there is always the struggle to find meaning in the story of my own life as well as the stories of the people of the Bible.
As a twenty-first century man, what am I supposed to take away from the story of Naboth's Vineyard (II Kings 21) ? It seems on the surface to be a record of an event in which a King's greed comes back to him like bad karma. Yet there their are prevailant themes of vineyards in the Prophets (Isaiah 5:1-7 comes to mind) and in the Gospels (John 15) and that makes me think that there is more going on than a stubborn man standing up to a bully and not giving up his family's land. If Jesus is the vine and we are branches, what light does that knowledge shed on Naboth's refusal to give up the inheritance of his fathers?
posted by Unknown at 9:06 PM
3 Comments:
so is anyone real ever going to comment? any Seminarians or professional christians want to comment?
Actually, the reference of "not wanting to give up the inheritance of his fathers" stems more from the law in Leviticus that says one cannot sell his land that has been inherited, he can only pass it onto his inheritees. Also, by selling his land, he would have lost much of his place in society. So actually, by refusing to sell his land, Naboth is simply following the law of God. Sometimes we have to be careful about taking passages that were written for the Jewish people and times, and trying to stuff them into our definition of who God is. Not everything in the Bible is going to directly link back to Jesus, unfortunatley. Look at the stories that are around the story of Naboth and the vineyard and you will see that really the writers of this story were trying to emphasis the evil of King Ahab and the kings in general that were not following the law of God, and the consequences of this. No man is above God not even the King. I don't believe the people who wrote this ever intended for it to be construed as some meaning for a follower of Jesus in the 21st century CE.
Share your grapes!
Post a Comment
<< Home