To Whom It may Concern, I have a question for Mr. Vinson.  Who does Naboth, his inheritance (the garden) and Jezebel represent spiritually? Thank you for your time! J____

Hi J____,
Thank you for this question. This question reflects the fact that you are coming to see that God’s Words are all to be understood as having an inward spiritual application which affects each and every person who reads and understands the spiritual meaning of those words. It is a simple question, but in light of all the lies of Babylon, it will take several scriptures to demonstrate what this story is all about.
The first principle we must remember before we answer any question, is that Christ and His Words are Is, Was and Will Be in their application and in their character.  They are never ever to be understood simply and primarily as a story about something which happened in the past, or as prophecy of some future event. God’s Words are indeed stories of past events and God’s Words do indeed reveal future events, but whenever we make either of those aspects of His Words our primary focus, the beast within will be “sitting in the temple of God declaring that he is God” sitting on the throne of God in our hearts, smugly secure in the fact that no one is aware that he is sitting on Christ’s throne in our body and is ruling  over our flesh.

2Th 2:3  Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day [ the day that the kingdom of God and the coming of Christ] shall not come [ Christ will not come in our flesh], except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed [ the “carnal… babe in Christ 1 Cor. chapters 1-3], the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4  Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

They are unaware simply because God has not given them the eyes to see or the ears to hear the mystery that has been hid from the ages that “the kingdom of God is within you.”

Col 1:26  Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

“Christ in you” is the King of “the kingdom within you.” That is what Christ meant when He told the Pharisees that “the kingdom of God is within you.”

Luk 17:20  And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luk 17:21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

And what is it that Christ is so intent on keeping hidden from the multitudes who come to learn of Him?

Mat 13:2  And great multitudes were gathered together unto him , so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.
Mat 13:3  And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;
Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

It is “not given… to the multitudes to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God.” And what is that mystery? Why, it is the fact that all these parables are about the kingdom of God and they are all being fulfilled in God’s elect. The mystery is “Christ in you.” The mystery is that “the kingdom of God”, with which all Christ’s parables are concerned, “is within you.”

Mat 13:34  All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and  without a parable spake he not unto them:

Why did He speak to them only in parables? It was because He had no intention of allowing them to see the mysteries of the kingdom of hea ven which is “the kngdom of heaven [ Christ] is within you.”
Now there are even those who want to forget the “Was” and the “Will Be” character of God’s Words and focus only on the “Is,” only on the present application of God’s Words. This, too, is a snare of the Adversary and is all that is needed to miss out on the Truth of God’s Words. This is true simply because Truth is but one thing. Portions of The Truth are not the Truth because the Truth is “the sum of thy word.”

Psa 119:160  The sum of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting. (NASB)
Mat 24:35  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

Truth is not any part or any combination of parts which leaves out either the present or the past or the future application of the Words of God. Jesus Christ really is “the same yesterday and today and forever.” The fact that He did not reveal Himself as such before the New Testament was written, does not change the fact that He never changes.

Heb 13:8  Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

But not only is it important to realize that Christ, who is His Word, is present, past and future, it is also equally important to notice that He always presents Himself primarily as “Is” secondarily as “Was” And last of all as “Will Be.”

Rev 1:8  I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

The “historical orthodox Christian world” has this order reversed and it is so to their own detriment.
How many ministers in “historical orthodox Christianity” see this story in its Is, Was and Will Be application in their own lives?
This story of Naboth’s vineyard being taken away from him violently by a woman who was in bed with the leader of God’s people is nothing less than the same theme that runs throughout God’s word in parables like this one about King Ahab, his wife Jezebel and Naboth. It is the story of Christ being slain by His own people. Remember, “Jesus Christ [ who is] the same yesterday today and forever” also tells us:

Mat 25:40  And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

And He also tells us:

Luk 13:33  Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.

What this tells those with spiritual eyes and ears is that the beast is within. He is not outside. So when Cain killed his own brother Abel, we have God’s own child killing God’s chosen Son. When Enoch’s life was being sought, it was God’s own sons seeking the life of God’s chosen Son. When the whole world rejected the preaching of Noah, they were rejecting their own brother, God’s chosen Son. So God baptised mankind in the flood of Noah, just so we could see that He will not be ignored:

1Pe 3:21  The like figure [ the flood] whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:

But our initial baptism is only the beginning of our rejection of Christ. “The man of sin is still on the throne “in the temple” of our hearts, still wanting God’s chosen, dead (1 Cor. 1-3).
So after the flood, the principle of God’s own people wanting His elect dead continues. When Ishmael, Abraham’s seed, mocked Isaac, he was mocking Christ. When Esau wanted to kill his own brother Jacob, he wanted to kill Christ. When Joseph’s brothers wanted to kill him, they wanted to kill Christ. When Joseph’s own brothers sold Joseph into Egypt for twenty pieces of silver, his own brothers were selling Christ into slavery and death. When Judah lied to and defrauded his own daughter- in- law and wanted her dead, Judah was lying to defrauding and wanting to kill Christ. When the “Pharaoh which knew not Joseph” wanted to kill all the males of Israel, he was killing Christ. When He refused to “let my people go”, he was withstanding Christ. When Israel rebelled against God in the wilderness, they rebelled against Christ. When Goliath withstood Israel, he was withstanding Christ. When Korah and all the “famous men of renown” withstood Moses and Aaron, they were withstanding Christ. When King Saul sought the life of David, he was seeking the life of Christ. When King David killed Uriah and took his wife, he was sinning against Christ.

Psa 51:1  To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
Psa 51:2  Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
Psa 51:3  For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin [ is] ever before me.
Psa 51:4  Against thee [ Christ], thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

And when King Ahab married a daughter of a Philistine king, King Ahab was rejecting Christ and committing spiritual fornication against Christ. This story of Jezebel killing Naboth for Naboth’s vineyard is the same theme we find throughout God’s Word. Naboth’s own king, who was to “judge righteous judgment”, turned on him and had him slain through the influence of the arch- typical “great harlot” who “causes my people to commit fornication.”

Rev 2:20  Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

“Things offered to idols” are false doctrines “which do not profit those who are occupied with them.” And just look at what is right here where this truth is revealed:

Heb 13:8  Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
Heb 13:9  Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats [ doctrines], which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.
Heb 13:10  We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.

“They which serve the tabernacle” are those Levites who are indeed called out of Israel, but they are not chosen as priests. Since they are “called but not chosen,” they cannot minister to the people with the holy vessels:

Mat 22:14  For many are called, but few are chosen.

Num 18:2  And thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring thou with thee, that they may be joined unto thee, and minister unto thee: but thou and thy sons with thee shall minister before the tabernacle of witness.
Num 18:3  And they shall keep thy charge, and the charge of all the tabernacle: only they shall not come nigh the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar, that neither they, nor ye also, die.

Num 18:7  Therefore thou and thy sons with thee shall keep your priest’s office for every thing of the altar, and within the vail; and ye shall serve: I have given your priest’s office unto you as a service of gift: and the stranger that cometh nigh [ including Levites who are not priests] shall be put to death.

It is those who are “joined to us” but who are not permitted to “come nigh the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar,” who will turn on us to take our inheritance and to kill us.
Our vineyard and our bodies are one and the same in scripture. We must never allow “the land to be sold to a stranger.” We must always keep it within the family.
But we all, as Naboth, will not keep our inheritance. We must lose our inheritance before our inheritance can be redeemed. Naboth knew that he was not to sell his family’s land. If we are forced to sell our land, as we all are, then when the true jubilee comes, Naboth’s ‘inheritance’ will be redeemed and he will inherit much more than a physical vineyard.

Lev 25:10  And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.

This entire account is nothing less than the continuation of the divinely ordained struggle of the seed of the serpent bruising the heel of the seed of the woman.

Gen 3:15  And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

When Cain killed Abel, God gave Adam and Eve (mankind) Seth (Hebrew – “instead of”) to replace slain Abel. And when the great ‘Jezebel’ had Christ slain, God has given to this world His elect and has increased ‘Christ’s seed and has prolonged Christ’s days’ through us:

Isa 53:10  Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

Christ has sent us out for Himself just as His Father sent Christ out for Himself:

Joh 20:21  Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.

Christ has His elect just as He is His Father’s elect and “only begotten Son.” This is how God sees it:

1Jn 4:17  Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

In closing, I will remind you once more:

Mat 25:40  And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

What separates God’s elect from the masses of Babylon is that God’s elect apply His word inwardly. They do not put it all off on someone else. God’s elect realize that “the man of sin, the son of perdition” is within them and is not someone else. God’s elect realize that it is they who must “live by every Word which proceeds out of the mouth of God.” It is they who “turn to see the voice which is speaking unto them.”

Rev 1:10  I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,
Rev 1:12  And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;
Rev 1:13  And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.

So this story about King Ahab, sheepishly following the lead of his spiritually fornicating wife, is not a story for someone else. It is an admonition for me and for you to understand that it is the King Ahab and his wife Jezebel who Is, Was and Will Be in us. It is King Ahab and Jezebel in us who at one time killed Naboth and took his vineyard and now ought to be “dying daily” and “decreasing as Christ is increasing” in us.  But this is something we see as being “behind us.” And yet it is for our admonition:

Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Are God’s elect, in their appointed time, “the children of wrath even as others?” Indeed they were “in times past.” And so it must be. Paul tells us that we are God’s temple:

1Co 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 6:19  What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

And what Is, Was and Will Be the Truth about what is necessary to enter into that temple of God?

Rev 15:8  And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

Until we, like Peter and all the apostles, have denied our Lord, until we, like them, are brought to “weep bitterly” at our own awareness of our own helplessness against our own fleshly desires to preserve and serve our flesh; until we come to see just how sinful is sin with us, “no man is able to enter into the temple, until the seven plagues of the seven angels are fulfilled” in each of us.
Here are the words of the apostle Paul as to how we are to understand all the stories of the Old Testament:

1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

And just look at the next verse:

1Co 10:12  Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

So this is what should be the direction of our spiritual growth:

Joh 3:30  He [ Christ] must increase, but I must decrease.

Those who are truly God’s elect will grow past the natural reaction of putting all of God’s Words off on others. They will grow past looking down on those poor immature, spiritually carnal, spiritual babes in Christ who are still in Babylon. God’s “very elect” are aware that it is not others but themselves who must “keep the sayings of the prophecy of this book” and “live by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Rev 1:3  Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

I hope you now see who Naboth and his vineyard and Ahab and Jezebel are spiritually. But I hope also that more than that, you are now able to see how to apply the “same yesterday and today and forever” words of our Lord when He said:

Mat 25:40  (b) … Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Mike