The command was obeyed. “The men of his city, even the elders and the nobles, ... did as Jezebel had ... written in the letters which she had sent unto them.” 1 Kings 21:11. Then Jezebel went to the king and bade him arise and take the vineyard. And Ahab, heedless of the consequences, blindly followed her counsel and went down to take possession of the coveted property. (PK 206.1) MC VC

The king was not allowed to enjoy unrebuked that which he had gained by fraud and bloodshed. “The word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, which is in Samaria: behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, whither he is gone down to possess it. And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Hast thou killed, and also taken possession?” 1 Kings 21:17~19. And the Lord further instructed Elijah to pronounce upon Ahab a terrible judgment. (PK 206.2) MC VC

The prophet hastened to carry out the divine command. The guilty ruler, meeting the stern messenger of Jehovah face to face in the vineyard, gave voice to his startled fear in the words, “Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?” 1 Kings 21:20. (PK 206.3) MC VC

Without hesitation the messenger of the Lord replied, “I have found thee: because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord. Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and will take away thy posterity.” 1 Kings 21:20, 21. No mercy was to be shown. The house of Ahab was to be utterly destroyed, “like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah,” the Lord declared through His servant, “for the provocation wherewith thou hast provoked Me to anger, and made Israel to sin.” 1 Kings 21:22. (PK 206.4) MC VC

And of Jezebel the Lord declared, “The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. Him that dieth of Ahab in the city the dogs shall eat; and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat.” 1 Kings 21:23, 24. (PK 207.1) MC VC

When the king heard this fearful message, “he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly.” 1 Kings 21:27. (PK 207.2) MC VC

“And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before Me? because he humbleth himself before Me, I will not bring the evil in his days: but in his son’s days will I bring the evil upon his house.” 1 Kings 21:28. (PK 207.3) MC VC

It was less than three years later that King Ahab met his death at the hands of the Syrians. Ahaziah, his successor, “did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam.”(1 Kings 22:52) “He served Baal, and worshiped him, and provoked to anger the Lord God of Israel,” as his father Ahab had done. 1 Kings 22:53. But judgments followed close upon the sins of the rebellious king. A disastrous war with Moab, and then an accident by which his own life was threatened, attested to God’s wrath against him. (PK 207.4) MC VC

Having fallen “through a lattice in his upper chamber,”(2 Kings 1:2) Ahaziah, seriously injured, and fearful of the possible outcome, sent some of his servants to make inquiry of Baalzebub, the god of Ekron, whether he should recover or not. The god of Ekron was supposed to give information, through the medium of its priests, concerning future events. Large numbers of people went to inquire of it; but the predictions there uttered, and the information given, proceeded from the prince of darkness. (PK 207.5) MC VC