 Now Naboth, the Jezreelite, had a vineyard in Jezreel beside the place of Ahab, king of Samaria. And after this, Ahab said to Naboth, Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near my house, and I will give you a better vineyard for it, or if it seems good to you, I will give you its value and money. But Naboth said to Ahab, The Lord forbid it, I should give you the inheritance of my fathers. And Ahab went into his house, vexed and sullen, because of Naboth, the Jezreelite, had said to him, for he had said, I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers. And he lay down on his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no food. But Jezebel, his wife, came to him and said to him, Why is your spirit so vexed, that you eat no food? And he said to her, Because I spoke to Naboth, the Jezreelite, and said to him, Give me your vineyard for money, or else, if it pleases you, I will give you another vineyard for it. And he answered, I will not give you my vineyard. And Jezebel, his wife, said to him, Do you now govern Israel? Arise and eat bread, and let your heart be cheerful. I will give you the vineyard of Naboth, the Jezreelite. So she wrote letters in Ahab's name, and sealed them with his seal. And she sent the letters to the elders and the leaders who lived with Naboth in his city. And she wrote in the letters, Proclaim afast, and set Naboth at the head of the people. And set two worthless opponents opposite him, and let them bring a charge against him, saying, You have cursed God and the king. Then take him out and stone him to death. And the men of his city, the elders and the leaders who lived in his city, did as Jezebel had sent word to them, as it is written in the letters that she had sent to them. They proclaimed afast and set Naboth at the head of the people. And the two worthless men came in and sat opposite him. And the worthless men brought a charge against Naboth in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth cursed God and the king. So they took him outside the city and stone him to death with stones. Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, Naboth has been stoned. He is dead. As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, Jezebel said to Ahab, Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money, for Naboth is not alive, but dead. As soon as Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, Ahab arose to go down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite to take possession of it. Hello, everyone. Dylan Schumacher, Citadel, The Fence. And I read you that story because I think it's super interesting and illustrates a very current and valid point, which is that local leadership matters. We live in a time where we have edicts from far away that they send to local leaders and it's up to local leaders to enforce those edicts. So local leadership matters and local leadership can decide to capitulate with evil demands or they can refuse to participate with evil demands. If the local leaders have received these letters sealed in the king's name that said, Hey, we want you to falsely accuse someone lie and then murder him. And if they would have just said, Hey, that's evil and wicked. So nope, we're not going to do that. Well, then, of course, Naboth would not have been murdered over his property. However, because the local leaders were either weak, cowards, and or evil themselves, or maybe all three, because of that, Naboth's life was forfeit because the local leaders were too, again, afraid or evil or whatever have you to say, No, we will not do this evil thing. And you say, Oh, well, you know, I mean, it's just an old story. And, you know, I mean, that doesn't really happen anymore. And people are smarter or whatever. But then you just remember that the lockdowns happened. And you can say, Oh, well, you know, it wasn't clear at the time and whatever. And there was a time though, when it did become clear, and everybody still complied. My favorite remembrance of that whole time was, of course, when you had American police officers arresting people for going to church, right, because you can't go to church because COVID blah, blah, blah. But those local leaders complied with evil orders from a faraway king. And you have to decide what kind of local leadership you want. The good news is you have much more control over the local leadership in your area than you do about the faraway leadership. And so I would highly encourage you to take that seriously. And remember that local leadership matters. And how you go about protecting or encouraging or denouncing your local leadership could mean your life over your property. Do brave deeds and endure.