19th-century painting of Jezebel by John Liston Byam Shaw
Ahab and Jezebel: A Cautionary Tale on Greenland
Hubris and arrogance have led to presidential talk of “buying Greenland.” Denmark and the people of Greenland have made clear: Greenland is not for sale. Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielson has repeatedly said: “Our country is not for sale.”
My homiletical mind landed on the story of King Ahab desiring the vineyard of Naboth in I Kings 21. Naboth told the king, “My vineyard is not for sale.” What’s this got to do with Greenland?
The United States already has a treaty in place to build more military installations in Greenland. The agreement allows the US to “construct, install, maintain, and operate military bases all over Greenland as well as “house personnel” and “control landings, takeoffs, anchorages, moorings, movements and operation of ships, aircraft, and waterborne craft.”
let’s make a deal
So why the push? Trump acts as if “Let’s make a deal” is the new name for politics. The president has an overinflated opinion of his deal-making chops. He build golf country clubs in Scotland and Trump motels in multiple countries. Our swashbuckling, deal-making president has faced four bankruptcies: (1991 Taj Mahal; 1992 Plaza Hotel; 2004 Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts; 2009 Trump Entertainment Resorts). He now thinks he can buy Greenland.
The US has purchased land in the past:
· The Louisiana Purchase (1803)
· The Florida Purchase (1819)
· The Gadsden Purchase (1853)
· The Alaska Purchase (1867)
All these land purchases either added more territory to the continental US or resulted in additional states added to the Union.
bullying and threatening
When Trump talks about buying Greenland, he also threatens the possibility of a military invasion. Using the trope of ad baculum (“appeal to the stick”), Trump has mocked Denmark’s dogsled patrols, hinted at an invasion, and The president has said, “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security.” Other American politicians are jumping on the “Greenland Train.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio has plans to speak with Greenland officials about a possible purchase. Democratic Senator John Fetterman supports buying Greenland because it brings “massive strategic benefits to the United States.” Vice President JD Vance said President Donald Trump is “willing to go as far as he has to” over Greenland, deepening the ugly rift between the U.S. and NATO ally Denmark over the strategic Arctic territory.
The national security argument serves as a poor attempt to hide the hubris of Trump. Greenland is rich in precious metals and rare earth elements, crucial for modern technology and energy solutions, attracting global interest for mining and investment.
Trump’s land-grabbing obviously raises comparison with Putin’s war against Ukraine. Putin compares himself to the Russian czar Peter the Great. Peter the Great, is credited with expanding Russia into an empire and a major European power. Putin says he shares the 18th-century czar’s goal of returning “Russian lands” to a greater empire. He claims Peter the Great did not take land from Sweden but returned to Russia land that was previously Russian. Leaders in search of motives always find them.
Legend has it Peter the Great once tired of advisors attempting to express motives for an invasion in religious and high-sounding phrases. He exploded, “Just put down I want more land.” Ah, if you’ve seen one land-grabber you have seen them all.
braggadocio
I don’t put it beyond Trump to soon claim he makes better deals than Thomas Jefferson did with the Louisiana Purchase. His love of braggadocio knows no limits.
· “I understand things, I comprehend things very well. Better than, I think almost anybody,”
· “I know more about renewables more than any human being on earth.”
· “I’ve made 200 deals, 100%.”
· “I’m the best dealmaker.”
Yet President Trump relies more on bullying than on business acumen. “His skills are few,” John Oesch, an associate professor at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, said in an email. “He has relied on power (or perceived power), threats, and treating people very poorly to get what he wants.”
As the media fixates on what they believe is Trump’s “lust” – aka the Epstein Files, they overlook how much greed dominates Trump’s life. The New York Times has documented the tangled web of Trump’s business deals in Lazaro Gamio and Amy Schoenfeld Walker’s “Trump’s Tangled Web of Deal-Making, Policy and Riches.” “This tangled web is a hallmark of the president’s second term, where the lines between U.S. interests and those of Mr. Trump’s inner circle are blurred.” From his embarrassing hawking of baseball caps, Bibles, gold sneakers, and b bitcoins to nebulous deals with the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, President Trump has taking shady deal making to an all-time low.
Trump’s shenanigans with Greenland should be interpreted with I Kings 21. Here the story of King Ahab shines the glaring light of biblical truth on the nasty nature and consequences of greed. The outcome of such royal “dealmaking” is inevitably disaster. A Southern Baptist preacher named Ahab’s story, “Payday Someday.”
My Vineyard is not for sale
The king wanted the vineyard of Naboth. Status and wealth meet a man with no standing and little wealth. Ahab said to Naboth, “Give me your vineyard, so that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near my house; I will give you a better vineyard for it, or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its value in money.” The king wants a “vegetable garden.”
Naboth replied, “The Lord forbid that I should give you my ancestral inheritance.” That should have been the end of the story.
But the desires of the powerful are insatiable. Jezebel employs the secretary of state, the attorney general, and a handful of false witnesses and corrupt judges. She issues an executive order to have Naboth executed.
The text shows no emotions in its flat reporting. So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death. Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, “Naboth has been stoned; he is dead.” As soon as Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, Ahab set out to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take possession of it.
Jezebel uses deception and violence, the evil twins of power, to give Ahab his desire. A man’s life for a vegetable garden – a good deal in the eyes of Jezebel and Ahab.
This becomes a cautionary tale for our reaching, grasping, greedy president and his dreams of an American empire.
May the manifold mercies of Almighty God protect Greenland and all other nations within reach of Trump’s greedy little hands.
