Today's first reading - can someone provide some context / meaning?

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Can someone help give some context to today’s first reading - and what there is to take from it? It’s a strange story:

Monday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 365
Reading 1 1 KGS 21:1-16
Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel
next to the palace of Ahab, king of Samaria.
Ahab said to Naboth, “Give me your vineyard to be my vegetable garden,
since it is close by, next to my house.
I will give you a better vineyard in exchange, or,
if you prefer, I will give you its value in money.”
Naboth answered him, “The LORD forbid
that I should give you my ancestral heritage.”
Ahab went home disturbed and angry at the answer
Naboth the Jezreelite had made to him:
“I will not give you my ancestral heritage.”
Lying down on his bed, he turned away from food and would not eat.

His wife Jezebel came to him and said to him,
“Why are you so angry that you will not eat?”
He answered her, “Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite
and said to him, ‘Sell me your vineyard, or,
if you prefer, I will give you a vineyard in exchange.’
But he refused to let me have his vineyard.”
His wife Jezebel said to him,
“A fine ruler over Israel you are indeed!
Get up.
Eat and be cheerful.
I will obtain the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite for you.”

So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name and,
having sealed them with his seal,
sent them to the elders and to the nobles
who lived in the same city with Naboth.
This is what she wrote in the letters:
“Proclaim a fast and set Naboth at the head of the people.
Next, get two scoundrels to face him
and accuse him of having cursed God and king.
Then take him out and stone him to death.”
His fellow citizens—the elders and nobles who dwelt in his city—
did as Jezebel had ordered them in writing,
through the letters she had sent them.
They proclaimed a fast and placed Naboth at the head of the people.
Two scoundrels came in and confronted him with the accusation,
“Naboth has cursed God and king.”
And they led him out of the city and stoned him to death.
Then they sent the information to Jezebel
that Naboth had been stoned to death.

When Jezebel learned that Naboth had been stoned to death,
she said to Ahab,
“Go on, take possession of the vineyard
of Naboth the Jezreelite that he refused to sell you,
because Naboth is not alive, but dead.”
On hearing that Naboth was dead, Ahab started off on his way
down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite,
to take possession of it.
 
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Footnotes at USCCB:

“The story tells how Jezebel manipulates important structures of Israelite social order, law, and religious observance to eliminate a faithful Israelite landowner who frustrates Ahab’s will.”
 
The priest at Mass this morning had this to say about the reading. Ahab wanted Naboth’s vineyard so he could turn it into a vegetable garden - which is a downgrade or under-use of the vineyard. Naboth refuses to relinquish his ancestral heritage and refuses to allow the vineyard to be downgraded into a vegetable garden. He will not accept any offer on it.

Our Catholic faith is our ancestral heritage. We should never relinquish our ancestral heritage or allow it to be downgraded. Watering down the gospel message, ignoring church teaching, and disobedience of God’s law are examples of downgrading our ancestral heritage, our Catholic faith. We must hang on to our faith, preserve its integrity, and pass it on to our heirs intact.

Naboth risked his life (and lost it) in refusing the king his vineyard, his ancestral heritage. We should be willing to take that risk as well for our Catholic faith, our ancestral heritage.
 
Ahhh Jezebel, there are many women like her in today’s society which is a very dangerous thing.
 
It is all about allegiance to God and blind greed.

When God Promised that His people would enter into a land that would yield milk and honey there were very simple tenets prescribed:
  • the land would be parceled according to eleven tribes (Levi being the Priestly tribe would not receive any land as Yahweh God was its inheritance–translation God would provide for them [which He did in the form of the tithing and sacrificial offerings])
  • each tribe would parcel out according to clang/families
    *each family was to retain their portion and pass it down from generation through generation
Now we find Jezebel, slithering to her husband’s aide: get Ahab out of the way and you can have his land with none that would challenge you; greed takes precedence over justice and obedience to Yahweh God’s Command.

Maran atha!

Angel
 
Yes, also many men as Ahab, but men like this need to repent and do penance as did Ahab. These were the readings for today at Mass.
 
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