However, I paused my reading and began to reflect on the narrative. A story that got my body covered with prickles and made me wonder how much of villains we have in human form. The character of Ahab in 1 Kings 21:1-4 , gave me sudden migraine in such an alarming way. Ahab, who was the king of Israel had royalty, properties, splendor, grandiloquent mansions and any good thing a King in his capacity could ever imagine including any single woman whose attractive coquettish looks pleases his eyes. Yet Ahab never got to learn the skill of quenching Man's insatiable desire for more. His dissatisfaction played out itself as his eyes nearly went out of its sockets when he sighted the vineyard of a common man by name Naboth. The king got jealous, zealous, eager and almost went gaga just to ensure he got the vineyard of this common man. He negotiated money in exchange for Naboth's vineyard but the lay man refused. He offered another vineyard in exchange but Naboth neither flinch nor considered his offers reasonable.
Naboth rebuffed without much ado because he can't imagine a great King with such heavy weight of riches and enormous properties requesting for his piece of land. To this common man, the vineyard isn't just a vineyard as Ahab saw it. It was a legacy, an inheritance passed on to him by his father. He held it in esteem and though just a mere piece of land, he wasn't ready to trade it for anything more or less. Ahab got disappointed and embarrassed. He felt humiliated and got quite disparaged. The only thing he wanted was denied of him. He became restless, suffered deficient appetite and could neither sleep nor drink.
Beloveth, many of us are like King Ahab. God has mightily blessed us even without our request. He bestowed great riches, jobs, properties, and wonderful skills on us to ease our burdens. He orchestrated the lines to fall exactly in pleasant places for us yet we still wallow in absolute discontentment. We ain't satisfied yet with the much we have. We desire the little, and more often than not, the infinitesimal in the hands of another. If permitted, we even go out of our ways to block the good smiling at our friends, colleagues, nneighbors e.t.c. We only want to be the ones with anything called " Good". Others are not created by God, so they deserve no good, right??? Many get bothered at the slight progress of another even though they've been progressing for years.
" Why sleepest thou not"?? What's keeping you awake and furious? What's making your heart burn like the fiery furnace? Hope its not the piece in another's hand that's making you restless ,huh??? Hope it's not the blessing of another? Hope its not the good knocking on the door of your friends??? Don't be an Ahab. Consciously remove your eyes from that vineyard.
Written by Ijeoma Esther Ogbuka.
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