Even the worst of sinners can repent and be saved.  Ahab, one of the bad kings of Israel, was a real creep. 1 Kings 21.25 tells us that no one “sold himself to do evil in the sight of the Lord like Ahab.”  He was a spineless, selfish, and self-indulgent schemer.   His wife, the infamous Jezebel, was even worse.  She not only brought Baal worship to Israel, she tried to wipe out the worship of Yahweh. 

Their “crowning” crime was to arrange for false accusations and murder of the innocent Naboth (and later, Naboth’s heirs) just so they could take control of neighbor Naboth’s vineyard and turn it into a vegetable garden.  God sent the prophet Elijah to pronounce condemnation on Ahab and Jezebel –  an awful, just, vindicating punishment that included dogs eating some heirs and birds of the air eating others.  They deserved it. 

But Ahab repented.  He did the standard forgiveness-asking undertakings of the times: tore his clothes, covered himself with ashes, fasted, put on sackcloth.  God was impressed enough with the humility shown by Ahab that he postponed the punishment. (1Kings 21.27-29) We don’t know how long or how real the repentance was; we do know Ahab’s life ended three years later in battle and “dogs licked up his blood” that was washed out of the chariot where he was wounded (1Kings22.38). This was “according to the word of the LORD that he had spoken.”

 Like Naboth, Jesus Christ was also falsely accused by scheming people with evil intent.  Many of the Pharisees, clerics, and Sadducees formed an unholy alliance to see how they could get rid of Him.  Like God had pardoned Ahab, Jesus showed a forgiving spirit at his crucifixion, when he asked His Father to “forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

 The good news is that no matter how bad we have been, how malicious our misdeeds, how abysmal our actions, God’s mercy and forgiveness can cover our sin if we repent and believe.