#32 – Ahab’s Humiliation

Published by Ben Stahl on May 6, 2020May 6, 2020

May 6, 2020

So it was, when Ahab heard those words, that he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his body, and fasted and lay in sackcloth, and went about mourning. And the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, “See how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the calamity in his days. In the days of his son I will bring the calamity on his house.

I Kings 21:27-29 NKJV

In Matthew 27:1-5, Judas acknowledged his sin, threw away the blood money for which he had betrayed Christ and committed suicide. The sorrow of the wicked is an outward sorrow for what has been done and its consequences on life. However, it is not repentance unto life.* It is not a remorse from the heart but outward remorse only. 

We see this in children often and ourselves also if we are honest. A child caught lying will often break down in tears. While this may be a godly sorrow, often times it is simply the response to being caught in an act of willful sin; the child now regrets it but would have been well satisfied if he had not been caught. 

When Ahab heard the condemnation of his sin and the judgment coming soon on his whole bloodline, he put on all the outward elements of repentance: fasting, sackcloth, mourning. None of these outward elements mean someone is actually repenting from his heart and unto the Lord. The Lord sees and knows the hearts of men, nevertheless, the Lord showed His mercy temporarily, in accordance with Ahab’s superficial repentance. 

Many people in our day show the same sorrow as Ahab. We are tempted to repent and be sorrowful because someone caught us in our sin and we knew we shouldn’t have done it. So we put on the appearance of repentance. We read the Bible more. We go to church more. We talk about praying more. All of these things are good, and this is not meant to disparage such activities but rather to say if all of those things are merely outward changes and not a response to the inward change of the penitent heart, then they are of no eternal benefit to us. 

When we come to the Lord like the publican and cry out to the Lord for mercy on us as sinners we recognize that we are unworthy of God’s mercy, filled with sin and unrighteousness, and have our only hope of salvation in Christ alone who is merciful. It is the hour of salvation, and the Word is crying out, repent!

In his commentary on I Kings, Matthew Henry summarizes this picture of the Lord and Ahab beautifully in these words: “This [passage] encourages all those that truly repent and unfeignedly believe the holy gospel. If a pretending partial penitent shall go to his house reprieved, doubtless a sincere penitent shall go to his house justified.”

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*Repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ does with grief and hatred of his sin turn from it unto God with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience (Westminster Shorter Catechism answer #87).

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