I’ve been reading the Bible in one year, again, and this time doing it chronologically. I’ve just finished the reign of King Ahab, possibly the worst king of Israel (there was one who was worse in Judah, I think). King Ahab represents everything you shouldn’t do when you are a leader of millions of people and hold complete control over their lives. He is also an excellent reason for libertarianism because no matter how foolproof the system may be, there will always someone like Ahab to mess it all up.
So just what did Ahab do that made him such a terrible king? There is a laundry list, but I want to focus on a few incidents in his life.
The first thing was how he reacted when he wasn’t able to buy a vineyard from one of his fellow subjects. He wanted the vineyard because he wanted his own special garden built there or something. Really it didn’t matter because he was rejected as the owner wanted to keep the vineyard that was essentially his inheritance. His property, his choice, after all.
But King Ahab was not happy about the decision. So instead of accepting the man’s decision and moving on, he went up into his bed chamber and sulked like a baby for a very long time. His wife, Jezebel, took notice of this and asked him what was wrong. When Ahab explained the situation, she promptly had the man killed and Ahab proceeded to take the vineyard.
This story illustrates the kind of man Ahab was. He was nothing more than child in a man’s body, easily influenced by his deceitful wife who sleep with many other men besides her husband. Talk about a big wimp. For a man who is suppose to have the skills to rule over millions of people, he sure did not seem to have much sway over his own wife. And he was perfectly willing to allow her to oppress his subjects provided he got something in return.
In another incident, Ahab was meeting with Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, and consulting various prophets concerning going to war. Jehoshaphat asked if there were any prophets of the Lord among them that he could consult, because he was a righteous man. King Ahab’s response was that there was one, but he always said bad things about him so he didn’t like him.
Jehoshaphat responded simply that a king should not say such things. I wholeheartedly agree. When you find yourself in a position of power and authority, you will be faced with many critics and people who will say things you won’t like. That doesn’t mean that they are wrong and you are right. So not only is Ahab a whiny man-child, he is also arrogant and only wants to hear certain things.
Well, this prophet did say something bad, that Ahab would die in the subsequent battle, despite the Israelite victory (I think they won that battle, although they probably didn’t, it was difficult for me to tell exactly what happened over all). So Ahab has King Jehoshaphat ride into battle like a king while he hides among the army as a regular soldier. The opposing army was ordered to target only the king of Israel and so they attacked Jehoshaphat. During the fight, these soldiers figured out that Jehoshaphat wasn’t Ahab, and so they let him flee. Meanwhile, Ahab gets struck by an arrow and dies by sunset on that day. Ancient Greek playwrights couldn’t have written a better ending for this scumbag.
So what was the problem with King Ahab? Well, he was childish, lacked wisdom, believed himself to be always right, and never, ever could take criticism from anyone who spoke the truth.
And I believe that Barack Obama perfectly echoes King Ahab’s personality in many ways. His wife is controlling and domineering and she likes to show off her fancy dresses. She even convinced Obama to let her mother live in the Whitehouse. He himself can’t take criticism, not even jokes about his big ears, as evidenced by his attacks on Faux News (as they shall be forever dubbed by shutting out Ron Paul last year). He is arrogant, believing that he has the will of the people behind him, and he comes off as a child in his dealings.
President Barack Obama is a modern day Ahab, weak-willed and easily swayed by others who are stronger willed than he is.