And the king of Israel answered
and said, My lord, O king, just as you say, I and all that I
have are yours. Then the messengers came back
and said, Thus speaks Ben-Hadad, saying, Indeed I have sent to
you, saying, You shall deliver to me your silver and your gold,
your wives and your children. but I will send my servants to
you tomorrow about this time. And they shall search your house
and the houses of your servants. And it shall be that whatever
is pleasant in your eyes, they will put it in their hands and
take it. So the king of Israel called all the elders of the
land and said, notice, please, and see how this man seeks trouble.
For he sent to me for my wives, my children, my silver, and my
gold. And I did not deny him. And all the elders and all the
people said to him, Do not listen or consent. Therefore he said
to the messengers of Ben-Hadad, Tell my lord the king, all that
you sent forth to your servant the first time I will do, but
this thing I cannot do. And the messengers departed and
brought back word to him. Then Ben-Hadad sent to him and
said, The gods do so to me, and more also, if enough dust is
left of Samaria for a handful for each of the people who follow
me. So the king of Israel answered and said, Tell him, let not the
one who puts on his armor boast like the one who takes it off.
And it happened when Ben-Hadad heard this message, as he and
the kings were drinking at the command post, that he said to
his servants, Get ready. And they got ready to attack
the city. Suddenly a prophet approached Ahab, king of Israel,
saying, Thus says the Lord, Have you seen all this great multitude?
Behold, I will deliver it into your hand today, and you shall
know that I am the Lord. So Ahab said, by whom? And he
said, thus says the Lord, by the young leaders of the provinces.
Then he said, who will set the battle in order? And he answered,
you. Then he mustered the young leaders
of the provinces, and there were 232. And after them he mustered
all the people, all the children of Israel, 7,000. So they went
out at noon. Meanwhile, Ben-Hadad and the
32 kings helping him were getting drunk at the command post. The
young leaders of the provinces went out first, and Ben-Hadad
sent out a patrol, and they told him, saying, Men are coming out
of Samaria. So he said, If they have come
out for peace, take them alive, and if they have come out for
war, take them alive. Then these young leaders of the
provinces went out of the city with the army which followed
them, and each one killed his man. So the Syrians fled, and
Israel pursued them. And Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria,
escaped on a horse with the cavalry. Then the king of Israel went
out and attacked the horses and chariots, and killed the Syrians
with a great slaughter. And the prophet came to the king
of Israel and said to him, go, strengthen yourself, take note
and see what you should do. For in the spring of the year,
the king of Syria will come up against you. Then the servants
of the king of Syria said to him, their gods are gods of the
hills. Therefore, they were stronger
than we. But if we fight against them in the plain, surely we
will be stronger than they. So do this thing. Dismiss the
kings each from his position and put captains in their places.
And you shall muster an army like the army that you have lost,
horse for horse and chariot for chariot. then we will fight against
them in the plain. Surely we will be stronger than
they. And he listened to their voice and did so. So it was in
the spring of the year that Ben-Hadad mustered the Syrians and went
up to Aphek to fight against Israel. And the children of Israel
were mustered and given provisions, and they went against them. Now
the children of Israel encamped before them like two little flocks
of goats, while the Syrians filled the countryside. Then a man of
God came and spoke to the king of Israel and said, ìThus says
the Lord.î Because the Syrians have said, ìThe Lord is God of
the hills, but He is not God of the valleys. Therefore, I
will deliver all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall
know that I am the Lord.î and they encamped opposite each other
for seven days. So it was that on the seventh
day, the battle was joined, and the children of Israel killed
100,000 foot soldiers of the Syrians in one day. But the rest
fled to Afak, into the city. Then a wall fell on 27,000 of
the men who were left, and Ben-Hadad fled and went into the city,
into an inner chamber. Then his servants said to him,
Look, now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel
are merciful kings. Please, let us put sackcloth
around our waists and ropes around our heads and go out to the king
of Israel. Perhaps he will spare your life.
So they wore sackcloth around their waists and put ropes around
their heads and came to the king of Israel and said, Your servant,
Benadad, says, Please, let me live. And he said, Is he still
alive? He is my brother. Now the men
were watching closely to see whether any sign of mercy would
come from him. And they quickly grasped at this
word and said, Your brother, Ben-Hadad. So he said, Go, bring
him. Then Ben-Hadad came out to him,
and he had him come up into the chariot. So Ben-Hadad said to
him, The cities which my father took from your father I will
restore, and you may set up marketplaces for yourself in Damascus as my
father did in Samaria. Then Ahab said, I will send you
away with this treaty. So he made a treaty with him
and sent him away. Now a certain man of the sons
of the prophet said to his neighbor, by the word of the Lord, strike
me, please. And the man refused to strike
him. Then he said to him, because you have not obeyed the voice
of the Lord, surely as soon as you depart from me, a lion shall
kill you. And as soon as he left him, a
lion found him and killed him. And he found another man, and
said, Strike me, please. So the man struck him, inflicting
a wound. Then the prophet departed, and
waited for the king by the road, and disguised himself with a
bandage over his eyes. Now as the king passed by, he
cried out to the king, and said, Your servant went out into the
midst of the battle. And there a man came over, and
brought a man to me, and said, Guard this man. If by any means
he is missing, your life shall be for his life. or else you
shall pay a talent of silver. While your servant was busy here
and there, he was gone. Then the king of Israel said
to him, so shall your judgment be. You yourself have decided
it. And he hastened to take the bandage
away from his eyes, and the king of Israel recognized him as one
of the prophets. Then he said to him, thus says
the Lord. because you have let slip out
of your hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction. Therefore,
your life shall go for his life and your people for his people.
So the king of Israel went to his house, sullen and displeased,
and came to Samaria. Amen. As I said, it's a lengthy
chapter, but it all fits together, and it certainly demonstrates
to us many good truths concerning God Almighty, but also concerning
Ahab. And in essence, what we have
here is the beginning of the end for Ahab. Here Ahab engages
in rebellion against the living and true God after having received
from God great grace, great mercy, and great kindness. In chapter
21 we will see how Ahab oppresses a man by the name of Naboth in
order to gather or to take his field away from him. And then
in chapter 22 we see them go against the Syrians once again
and Ahab ultimately dies in battle. So God is bringing judgment to
bear upon Ahab. But as I said, the section breaks
down, or the chapter breaks down into three broad sections. The
first is the victory over the Syrians in verses 1 to 30, and
there are essentially two battles here that we will consider. Secondly,
the rebellion of Ahab in verses 31 to 34, And then thirdly, the
condemnation of Ahab in verses 35 to 43. But in the first place,
notice this first battle in chapter 20 at verses 1 to 22. We have the Syrian threat on
Samaria. Remember that Samaria is the
capital city of the Northern Kingdom. Most likely this Ben-Hadad
is Ben-Hadad II, the son of the Ben-Hadad whom Asa made a treaty
with in 1 Kings 15. It's probably his son. I think
that's how we ought to understand his reference to his father.
later on in his discussion with Ahab. But note his demand here
in verse 3. He says, your silver and your
gold are mine, your loveliest wives and children are mine. There's nothing indicated in
the text as to what would have instigated this. It probably
was just a means by which Ben-Hadad was trying to engage in kingdom
building, trying to gain some more product or booty or spoil
from Israel. And the amazing thing is the
response of Ahab in verse 4. The king of Israel answered and
said, My lord, O king, just as you say, I and all that I have
are yours. Now, he probably thought... ought
to be interpreted in this sense. He thought he was going to become
a vassal, a subject to this king, Ben-Hadad. So he offers him this,
probably to try to maintain peace, probably trying to maintain open
access, probably trying to be politically savvy. Yeah, all
that I have is yours. Let's maintain a relationship.
Let's not make this bloody and messy. But then, Ben-Hadad escalates,
and he wants even more at this point. Notice in verses 5 to
6. Essentially, he says, or his
demand becomes more extensive. Now it is whatever is pleasant
in your eyes. It's intrusive because his troops
are going to search your house and the houses of your servants,
and it's going to be immediate. It's going to be tomorrow. Now,
thankfully, Ahab comes to himself and seeks counsel. He seeks advice
in verse 7. And the advice he receives is
good advice. They say, no, we're not going
to do that. If we give everything away to
this man, then our kingdom is going to crumble. Now, probably
in the first instance, when Ahab said yes, it was to maintain
good politics and be expedient and to keep things good on the
surface level with Ben-Hadad. He probably seeks out this council
because he realizes it's one thing for me to promise to give
away everything I have. But if I start promising to give
away everything that everybody else has, I may be facing a coup
in my own kingdom. Right? That would probably be
the reason for his seeking out this counsel. So the elders are
wise in verse 8. It says, do not listen or consent. And so he then sends a word back
to Ben-Hadad. So Ben-Hadad now threatens. Notice
in verse 10. He sent to him and said, the
gods do so to me and more so also. Same language that Jezebel
used, by the way, in chapter 19 with reference to Elijah. But he says, The gods do so to
me, and more also, if enough dust is left of Samaria, for
a handful for each of the people who follow me. So if he would
have just gotten his stuff, he would not have continued the
attack. But now Ahab has stood up to him, and so Ben-Hadad is
now turning up to he. Ahab's retort there in verse
11 is probably akin to, don't count your chickens before they
hatch. You don't know what's going to
happen. He says, so the king of Israel
answered and said, tell him, let not the one who puts on his
armor boast like the one who takes it off. Probably, don't
be so sure of yourself. The dust hasn't quite settled
yet. I don't know why Ahab would have
said that. Doesn't seem like in the earlier
part of the chapter, he was in a position to make such retorts
against Ben-Hadad. But perhaps he's thinking, I
might as well go for broke here. Now, notice verse 12 is very
important because it's going to serve us later when the battle
takes place. Now, it happened when Ben-Hadad
heard this message as he and the kings were drinking at the
command post that he said to his servants, get ready, and
they got ready to attack the city. Now, they were drinking
alcohol. They weren't drinking water and iced tea and that sort
of thing. This indicates a certain degree
of confidence, doesn't it? Ben-Hadad is getting hammered
in his bunker, his command post, with his fellow military leaders. That demonstrates something of
his sureness that he is going to wipe the floor with Ahab and
with Israel. You see, Ben-Hadad has not reckoned
with the God of Israel. Ben-Hadad, like the other Syrians,
have not reckoned with the true and the living God. They have
this pagan conception of God, that you have gods of the hills,
you've got gods of the plains, you've got gods of the storm,
you've got all these different gods working together trying
to accomplish a particular purpose. So, Ben-Hadad excludes the reality
of the true and living God. That ultimately is what's going
to come back and be the downfall of Ben-Hadad and the Syrians. But notice the prophetic word
here in verses 13 and 14. It's a beautiful thing, isn't
it? We have this military threat. Ben-Hadad and the Syrians come
to Samaria, the very capital city of the northern kingdom,
and essentially want everything that is valuable. Ahab initially
capitulates to this. Ahab then seeks the counsel of
the elders. They say, do not capitulate.
Now, Ben-Hadad has threatened military force. I'm going to
wipe the floor with you and Israel. And now, verse 13, suddenly a
prophet approached Ahab, king of Israel. You see, I think we
ought to appreciate before we move on here the unsolicited
nature of this prophetic vision or this prophetic word. In other
words, Ahab didn't seek this out. Ahab wasn't asking God for
assistance. Ahab did not seek the Lord. He
didn't seek a priest. He didn't seek a prophet. In
fact, he is at odds with the sort of main prophet in Israel
at that time, even Elijah. So the prophetic word here is
unsolicited. A second thing we ought to appreciate
with reference to this prophetic word, it works in favor of Ahab. In other words, Ahab is going
to win against Ben-Hadad and Syria. Later on, the prophet's
going to come back and say, oh, by the way, they're going to
return in the spring of next year, similar to what we find
in David, when it was spring, the time of the year when kings
go out to battle. And what's going to happen in that second
battle with the Syrians? Ahab's going to win that as well.
Brethren, this suddenly, a prophet approached Ahab, king of Israel,
saying, and then announcing the fact that Israel would be victorious,
needs to be appreciated in the larger context. Ahab is a wretch. Ahab is a godless king. Ahab
has taken the northern tribes, and he has driven them right
into apostasy and idolatry. He has brought Baal worship into
Israel. He has married a chief proponent
of Baal worship in the person of Jezebel, who is, you know,
a monster in a dress. I don't know if she wore a dress.
or a monster with, you know, mascara. But all of these things
are indicative of the goodness and the kindness of God. It's
unsolicited. It's going to work in the favor
of Ahab. He didn't ask for it. He didn't
request it. And guess what? He certainly
didn't deserve it. Isn't that the essence of grace? We talk about amazing grace. We define grace as unmerited
favor. We can preach grace from these
two battles of Ahab against Ben-Hadad, because he got a gift handed
to him. They were outnumbered, they were
outgunned, they were out, you know, military savvy, everything. They should have lost these battles. hands down. So the prophet comes
and says, thus says the Lord, have you seen all this great
multitude? Behold, I will deliver it into
your hand today. Now notice, and you shall know
that I am the Lord. It's a curious fact. God is going
to demonstrate his God-ness Yes, for the benefit of the Syrians
who have terrible theology, but he's demonstrating his godhood
to Ahab. He is demonstrating his godhood
to Israel. This is how bad they had become,
and this is how bad things were in Israel. I am going to deliver
it into your hand today, and you shall know that I am the
Lord. I mean, a man that leads the
northern tribes in ancient Israel certainly should know the Lord.
Again, there's that knowledge. Probably he had a cognizant knowledge
of God. He knew who Yahweh was, but he
didn't know the Lord in terms of experiential communion with
God. But as bad as he was, he had
failed to recognize that the living and the true God was over
nature, was over battles, was over all things. So now Ahab
wants the particular details, and the prophet spells it out.
So Ahab said, by whom? And he said, thus says the Lord,
by the young leaders of the provinces. Now, some particular translations
almost make it sound like these are military leaders. In fact,
this young leaders of the provinces almost seems to intimate that
they had a military sort of a being. I don't think so. In fact, I
think it's just the opposite. The power of God is going to
be displayed in the fact that you're going to get a bunch of
rank amateurs, guys that aren't skilled in military combat, guys
that don't have savvy and ability, they're going to go out on the
battlefield and they're going to mop up the Syrians. That's going to be the display
of the power of God. You see, if these were crack
military leaders, we would maybe diminish the power of Yahweh.
We would give it all, or all the credit, to these cracked
military leaders. They're probably young men, perhaps
leaders in some sense, but not military. That's the point. What
we are facing is a superior military power led by Ben-Hadad, the specific
group being the Syrians, against Ahab and his army. And the numbers
are completely stacked against them every step of the way. So
then Ahab says, who will set the battle in order? And he answered,
you. Now notice specifically the Israelite
victory. The troops are mustered in verse
15. The drunkenness of Ben-Hadad
is going to play out in verse 18. Notice verse 16, so they
went out at noon. Meanwhile, Ben-Hadad and the
32 kings helping him were getting drunk at the command post. Not
the brightest bulbs in the chandelier. I mean, they may have thought
they were going to wipe up the floor with them without a problem,
but still, it's noon, and they're getting drunk before they go
out to battle. Notice, the young leaders of
the provinces went out first, and Ben-Hadad sent out a patrol,
and they told him, saying, men are coming out of Samaria. Now
note verse 18. This is the ramblings of a drunken
man. This isn't the savvy of a military
leader. So he said, if they have come
out for peace, take them alive. That's understandable. If a man
surrenders, he waves the white flag, he comes out for peace,
take him alive. I don't think that's illegitimate
in military warfare. This next clause is really puzzling,
however. And if they have come out for
war, take them alive? That makes absolutely no sense. I think we're supposed to hear
the whiskey talking and not a cracked military leader. In fact, Ian
Proven says the plan benefits from Ben Haddad's drunkenness
and apparent inability to utter coherent or sensible instructions. It is a tricky enterprise when
an army is approaching with hostile intent to take people alive. You see, you wouldn't expect
that as a troop under his command. If they come out and they're
hostile, if they come out with war on their minds, if they come
out waving weaponry rather than white flags, take them alive? I would imagine some of the soldiers
would have been like, what was that? You see, this drunkenness
was used by God to defeat these armies. Not just the drunkenness,
but every step of the way. Don't you appreciate the providence
of God? You see His wisdom, you see His
counsel, you see His ability to ordain all these things for
His glory. Now notice, very specifically,
the victory in verses 19 to 21, they wipe them out. These young
leaders of the provinces went out of the city with the army
which followed them. Each one killed his man. So the
Syrians fled, and Israel pursued them. And Ben-Hadad, the king
of Syria, escaped on a horse with the cavalry. Then the king
of Israel went out and attacked the horses and chariots, and
killed the Syrians with a great slaughter." See, it was a decisive
victory. There was no question whatsoever.
This was a demonstration to both Ahab and Israel that God Almighty
is indeed the Lord. The prophetic word, as I referenced
earlier, is predictive prophecy. It comes true not even before
the chapter ends. He says, go strengthen yourself,
take note, and see what you should do, for in the spring of the
year the king of Syria will come up against you. You see, this
is one of those instances that we can sort of explain by Cromwell's
maxim. He said, pray and keep your powder
dry. And essentially the prophet is
suggesting that very thing. God has delivered you in this
battle against the Syrians. But they're going to come back. Make sure that you're ready for
them. Make sure that you're prepared for them. Make sure that you
have everything in place. Because you don't want to be
caught unawares, and you certainly don't want it to be the case
that they decimate and they wipe out the northern kingdom. Now
note, with reference to the second battle, verses 23 to 25 highlight
bad Syrian theology. And essentially, what they propose
is wise on the one hand, but absolutely unwise on the other
hand. The wisdom is seen in their strategy. Essentially what they say is
we lost in the hills, but now we have them seriously outnumbered. So if we fight them in the plains,
we won't have that trouble again, right? If you just have a numbers
game, you're going to be a whole lot better off out in the plains. If you're in the hills, Guys
hide, they run, it's easier to evade. But when you're out in
the plains, it's typically the guy who has the most amount of
bodies that's going to win the opposing army. So in terms of
military strategy, that's a good idea. We just need to take them
out on the plains, and there we will be able to wipe up the
floor with that. But the reasoning is faulty,
and here is their bad theology. Verse 23, their gods are gods
of the hills, therefore they were stronger than we. But if
we fight against them in the plain, surely we will be stronger
than they. So do this thing, dismiss the
kings, each from his position, and put captains in their places.
You shall muster an army like the army that you have lost,
horse for horse, chariot for chariot. Then we will fight against
them in the plain. Surely we will be stronger than
they." So you see the wisdom on the one hand, good strategy,
take them out to the plain. But it flows from very bad theology,
and they're undermining or undervaluing the God of Israel. And here again,
Proven says, the king's officials argue that the failure of their
gods in the previous encounter had to do partly with geography,
because the Israelite gods are gods of the hills. The reader
of Kings knows, of course, that this is not true. We know God
isn't the God of the hills. I mean, He is, but He's the God
of the plains, too. We know that He's not just the
God of the hills and the plains, but He's the God of the universe.
Nothing happens apart from our God. You see, bad theology has
consequences. Never let it be thought that,
well, it really doesn't matter what I believe about God. It
most certainly does matter what you believe about God. If you
think like a Syrian, you are going to be a very unhappy camper. Now, it's easy for us to sit
on this side of the situation and say, oh, look at how bad
those Syrians are in the way that they theologize. But you
know, we're like that sometimes, too. Sometimes within the church,
you have Christians that affirm the absolute sovereignty of God. He's over the universe. He's
over kings. He's over governments. But he's
not really concerned about the various things in my little old
life. Or you have the converse. You
have those sorts of people that think, well, you know, God's
all about me. God only cares about my details. And they forget that He actually
is over, you know, the presidents and the governors and the prime
ministers, and that He's comprehensively God. You see, it's not just Syrians
who sort of compartmentalize gods. We can do the very same
thing if we're not careful. We can do the very same thing
to the neglect of the reality of the absolute sovereignty of
God. He goes on to say, the reader of Kings knows, of course, that
this is not true. The Lord is the only real God
there is. and can be active both in the
hills, 1 Kings 18, he certainly demonstrated supremacy in the
hills on Mount Carmel, and anywhere else, 1 Kings 17. How did he
support Elijah? By the brook Caret that was through
Ravens. How did he support Elijah when
the brook Carith evaporated? He sent him up to Phoenicia and
had a widow, a woman there, sustain him. He says, in a world with
no gods or many, the strategy would have had a fair chance
of success. The world that the Aramaeans, the Syrians, actually
inhabit, however, is not such a world, and military planning
will not make it so. You see, they can't orchestrate
how God is going to function, and they cannot compartmentalize
the living and the true God according to their pagan pantheon. Now
notice the specific disparity in terms of the troops. At the
end of verse 27, we're given a glimpse as to what's happening
in these plains. It says, And the children of
Israel were mustered and given provisions, and they went against
them. Now the children of Israel encamped before them like two
little flocks of goats while the Syrians filled the countryside.
It's just kind of like what we saw at Mount Carmel. Wasn't it
every step of the way the deck was stacked against God? Every
step of the way Elijah made it more difficult for God, so that
when God came through, no one would be able to scratch their
heads and say, I wonder if that was Baal or Yahweh. No, it was
stacked in a particular way so that when that fire consumed
the bull, it would be evident that Yahweh is indeed God. And
the same thing is taking place here. You've got Israel, like
two little flocks of goats, while the Syrians filled the countryside. Now, structurally, it's the same.
The attack on Samaria and the attack on Aphek. You have the
preparation for battle, you have the prophetic word, and then
you have Israelite victory. And the same sort of thing plays
out here. Note the prophetic word, again in verse 28. Then
a man of God came and spoke to the king of Israel and said,
Thus says the Lord. Because the Syrians have said,
The Lord is God of the hills, but He is not God of the valleys.
Therefore I will deliver all this great multitude into your
hand, and you shall know that I am the Lord. So the promise
again that deliverance would come. More grace to a very undeserving
man. Now, if you're God, and Ahab
did what Ahab did, wouldn't you kill him? I suppose I would. I would want to eradicate the
earth of such a vile influence upon my covenant people. But
not God. In fact, in chapter 21, we're
going to see even more grace toward this wretched Ahab. I mean, it really is the case. When someone says, oh, that Old
Testament, it's so full of wrath and fury and judgment and anger.
Take them to the life of Ahab. Take them to 1 Kings chapter
20 and 21 and show how God responds to a wretch like Ahab. And then
you can make the connection. God responds to wretches like
that in and through the Lord Jesus Christ in this new covenant
setting. So you need to go to God through
His Son. Because grace is indeed amazing,
and the Old Testament exhibits that to us. It displays it vividly. It holds up to us, Behold your
God, and watch Him in His goodness toward people. So the promise
is there that deliverance would come through Yahweh. As well,
it seems to be a corrective to the bad Syrian theology. I mean, he doesn't say this outright,
but I don't think it's unwise to read between the lines because
the Syrians have said, the Lord is God of the hills, but he is
not God of the valleys. What's God going to do? He's
going to devastate them in the valley. So that they know the
God of Israel isn't some localized deity who has, you know, sort
of control over the hills alone. But again, the take-home message
in all of this is that you shall know that I am the Lord. It's a demonstration to Ahab. It's almost as if we've come
off Mount Carmel and Ahab continues to go in this trajectory of badness
and evil and God continues to extend or continues to give these
overtures of grace. It's almost as if he is saying
to him, come to me, turn to me, know that I am God, know that
I am your Lord, I am the one who's giving you these victories,
bow to me. Davis makes this observation. By the coming victory, Yahweh
will both show goodness to Israel and get glory for himself. The
latter is the primary concern in verse 28. Syrian stupidity
has distorted the truth about Yahweh, casting him in the image
of a humdrum pagan deity. When Israel levels them on level
ground, Yahweh shall have exposed their theological nonsense for
what it is. After disaster number two, that's
their loss in the second battle, the Syrians will have an opportunity
to see the truth, if they will. He says, however, the man of
God stresses the impact the prophecy and the victory should have upon
Israel. And you shall know that I am
Yahweh. Frequently, it is God's professed
covenant people who most need convinced of Yahweh's power and
omnipotence. We may stand within Israel's
camp, but keep lapsing into Syrian modes of thinking. I think that
has application for today. I really do. I don't think it's
a stretch to jump from here into the New Testament and say, yeah,
on the one hand, we affirm the God of heaven and earth. We affirm
the mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, but our doctrine of God
is not biblical. Our doctrine of God is messed
up. We see him over the big things, but doesn't care about the little
things. We see him over the little things, but we don't think he
cares or governs or has ability over the big things. We have
defective views concerning God. We have views that are similar
to Mormonism. We have a God who is becoming,
a God who is progressing. We have a God who is changing.
We have a God who is riddled with passions. We have a whole
host of defective theology within the camp of the professing people
of God. I think Davis is right. Frequently,
it is God's professed covenant people who most need convinced
of Yahweh's power and omnipotence. We may stand within Israel's
camp, but keep lapsing into Syrian modes of thinking. We need to
be aware of that, and we need to be mindful of that, and we
need to realize there is no greater truth in our Bibles than who
God is. It's unfortunate that we come
to the Bible with us in mind. It's unfortunate that we come
to the Bible with ourselves first. We need to come to the Bible
to see who God is. How does Jesus define eternal
life in John 17 3? And this is eternal life. that
they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you
have sent." You see, it's the knowledge of God that is the
best thing any creature can ever possess. We ought not to roll
our eyes or we ought not to think, wow, that's just highfalutin
stuff for the seminarians. We need this stuff in our houses. We need this stuff in our bedrooms
and in our kitchens and in our workplaces. If we don't have
a proper conception of God, If we stand within the camp of Israel,
but we lapse into Syrian theology, we are no better than these fools
saying, well, their God is the God of the hills. If we take
them out into the plains or in the valleys, we will certainly
win the battle. Brethren, that kind of defective
thought has gotten the church into a whole host of problems,
and we need to think better about our God. That's our purpose,
that's our function, that's our role in life, is to think properly
about God. The Israelite victory, verses
29 to 30, the defeat of the 100,000 in verse 29, and then note the
defeat of the 27,000 in verse 30a. It's an intrigue, well, verse
30, then Ben-Hadad flees. But look at verse 30. The rest
fled to Aphek into the city, then a wall fell on 27,000 of
the men who were left. Now, they were opposite each
other for seven days. It was on the seventh day that
they engaged this battle. What does seventh day and walls
falling on enemy forces seem to conjure in your mind? If you
think Jericho, you're thinking properly. Note the similarities. I wasn't having these high meditations
today. Proven really sparked my thoughts
on this whole situation. But note the connection. We have
this scenario where this wall falls on the enemies of God. Again, it suggests to our minds
Jericho in Joshua chapter 6. What happens after Jericho in
Joshua chapter 6? Well, of course, Joshua chapter
7, if you were thinking that, good for you. But in Joshua chapter
7, you have the troubler of Israel named Achan. And what did Achan
do? Achan took things that were under
the ban. Under the ban is the Hebrew word
heron, and it means something that's devoted, and it connotates
devoted to destruction. And so these things were under
the ban, devoted to destruction, Achan takes them. He is then
the Troubler of Israel. He is called out, and then he
is ultimately executed. So on the heels of this victory
at Jericho, where a wall falls on an enemy army, then the Troubler
of Israel emerges and does foolish things. He troubles Israel. What
was Elijah's identifier of Ahab back in chapter 18? Well, it
was after Ahab called Elijah the Troubler of Israel. And then
Elijah said, I ain't the one troubling Israel. I'm giving
you the Jim Butler paraphrase. It's you. You're the Troubler
of Israel. So you see, on the heels of this
great victory, we move now, secondly, by way of a large concern, to
the rebellion of Ahab. You see, the Troubler of Israel
takes something under the ban and frees it. I don't mean freezes
it, but he frees it. He lets it go. You see, this
is the rebellion of Ahab. God gift-wrapped Ben-Hadad twice. two times handed this enemy wretch
that was content to go to Samaria and then to Aphek with a view
of obliterating Israel. God hands this man over to him
two times and Ahab lets him go. You see, the point of the chapter
is actually verses 35 to 43. I think Davis is right. Everything
up to that point is introductory. I mentioned that this is the
beginning of the end for Ahab. The real power in chapter 20
comes at the end of the chapter. This is all sort of preliminary,
and it's setting the stage of the context. Note, in the rebellion
of Ahab, the Syrian plan, simple. We heard the kings of Israel
are merciful. Let's go cast ourselves upon their mercy, and perhaps
they won't kill us. That's what they do, and they're
successful. Notice, verse 32. Your servant Ben-Hadad says,
please let me live. And he said, is he still alive?
He is my brother. Ahab, what are you thinking?
In what possible world does this make any sense whatsoever? The
man shows up at your house asking for your stuff, you capitulate,
and then elders have the good horse sense to tell you, no,
don't capitulate to him. You beat him twice on the field
of battle, and now you've actually got the gall to call him brother?
I don't think he means brother the way an Israelite was his
brother, but a brother king. He is being politically expedient
in this particular instance. More than likely, he wants Syria
on good terms so that it's a buffer between Israel and Assyria, this
invading empire that is growing by leaps and bounds. So he is
functioning here as a politician. So they come, they cast themselves
ultimately on his mercy, and he says, he is my brother. Now
note verse 33, the men were watching closely to see whether any sign
of mercy would come from him, and they quickly grasped at this
word and said, yeah, your brother Ben-Hadad. This is exactly what
they wanted. They want Ben-Hadad alive. They
want to remain alive. So now notice, he says, come
on up into my chariot and we'll have a summit. This was a bit
of a Switzerland. Is that where they, the neutral
or is it Sweden? The neutral place where they
gather together and exchange watches and chocolate and talk
about how they're going to have peace and all that sort of thing.
That's what's happening. Benidad came out to him and he
had him come up into the chariot. So they barter a bit. And essentially,
Benidad says, whatever my father took, we'll give back to you.
And by the way, you can have bazaars or markets in Damascus. Ahab says, good. Sounds great.
So they cut a treaty together. This is his problem. He wasn't
supposed to let him live. And you say, well, that was just
compassion, wasn't it? That was just kindness. Ahab
knew the rules for holy war. Ahab knew as well the example
of Saul, another connection that is certainly one that we ought
to appreciate in the passage. What was Saul told with reference
to Agag and the Amalekites? He was told to utterly destroy
them. And remember, he comes back from battle and Samuel says,
so how'd it go? Oh, it went great. We did exactly
what God commanded. And Samuel says, well, why am
I hearing these sheep and why am I hearing these oxen? You
didn't do what you were supposed to do. What happens at the end
of chapter 15 is that Samuel hacks Agag to pieces because
Agag was supposed to die. But not only does he know the
mandate for holy war, not only does he have the example of Saul,
he knows how Ben-Hadad and the Syrians have treated Israel.
I mean, the king of Israel has a vested interest in protecting
the people of Israel. You don't let this guy go. You
don't let, you know, the arch enemy of your subject people
leave. This was absolutely faulty. And that brings us finally to
the condemnation of Ahab. Now, if we just stopped at verse
34, it really does make sense, doesn't it? I mean, the story
makes sense. You got battles, they win, treaty,
everybody goes home, everybody's happy, everybody lives happy,
right? What's the point of verses 35
to 43? It's the point. That's the point
of it. Davis says, verse 35 opens the
whole thing up again, and in a rather bizarre fashion. Whenever
you have lions killing people in the Old Testament, it's just
good stuff. But it kind of makes you wonder,
why is that there? Davis goes on. Let me exaggerate
only a bit. In 1 Kings 20, verses 1 to 34
are a long introduction to the main section of the story. Verses
35 to 43. He says, and what does one meet
in this climactic section? Another prophet. Interesting,
Ahab cannot get free of the word of God. God is relentless in
chasing this man down with the truth of his word. So notice
this prophetic parable. Now, here I'm going to ask you
to think 2 Samuel 12. What's happening with this prophet
is a 2 Samuel 12 scenario. Remember in 2 Samuel 11, David
commits adultery and murder. And then David lives as if there
was no issue. He just lives and he's moving
and he's having his being. And then a prophet by the name
of Nathan comes along. And Nathan tells David a story. And in that story, a poor man
has a little ewe lamb and a rich man comes and essentially takes
it away to barbecue it for his friends. David gets outraged
and David gets incensed and in verses five to six, he climbs
up the wall and he says, this is terrible. And in verse seven,
Nathan says, thou art the man. This is Ahab's thou art the man
situation. That's what's happening in this
section. But no, the instruction by the
prophet, now some, the Jews suppose that this was Micaiah. He's gonna
appear in chapter 22 and I have no reason to doubt it is. Because
Ahab was familiar with him. Ahab didn't like him. Ahab didn't
want to hear from him. And we might surmise it's because
of this particular section. At any rate, so the instruction
by the prophet in verse 35. A certain man of the sons of
the prophet said to his neighbor, by the word of the Lord. Now,
his neighbor was probably a prophet. Prophets tended to hang out together.
Whether he was or not, I would submit that he was. But he says
to his neighbor, now note, by the word of the Lord, strike
me, please. It's interesting, isn't it? And
the man refused to strike him. Why do you think he refused to
strike him? I don't think it was diabolical.
I doubt he said, well, if God commanded it, I'm not going to
do it. It was probably because of compassion. Probably kind
of kindness. Probably kind of, you know, I'm
not going to hit you. What's the point? We do what
God says. Compassion, feelings, kindness,
our own thoughts, that's not supposed to drive us. It's the
written word of God. He goes on, then he said to him,
because you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord, surely as
soon as you depart from me, a lion shall kill you. And as soon as
he left him, a lion found him and killed him. Again, pretty
awkward, pretty odd, pretty interesting, but here's the point. If God
is going to judge a prophet for not listening to the prophetic
word, He is certainly going to judge the king. In other words,
Ahab is going to fall prey to this prophetic word just like
this man who didn't strike the prophet when he was told to.
That's the point. In other words, verses 35 and
36 are not some odd addition to the narrative in Kings. What
we see consistently throughout the narrative of Kings is the
primacy of God's Word. And that's underscored, and it's
highlighted, and it's reiterated here right for us vis-a-vis a
lion killing a man who disobeyed the Lord God Most High. Now notice,
very specifically, the prophetic parable in verses 37 to 39. He found another man and said,
strike me, please. So the man struck him, inflicting
a wound. That guy just said, OK, whatever you want, here you
go. But it was for this purpose.
Then the prophet departed and waited for the king by the road,
disguised himself with a bandage over his eyes. Now as the king
passed by, he cried out to the king and said, Your servant went
out into the midst of the battle, and there a man came over and
brought a man to me and said, Guard this man. If by any means
he is missing, your life shall be for his life, or else you
shall pay a talent of silver. Now, a common soldier would never
have a talent of silver. So the idea is that you, as the
soldier, tasked with guarding this particular prisoner, if
he gets away, you're going to die. Everybody gets that, right? It's pretty obvious what the
particular emphasis is. Now note, verse 40, while your
servant was busy here and there, he was gone. What a pathetic
response or excuse. While your servant was busy here
or there, he was gone. Look, your job was to protect
this guy upon the threat of death. That's really important. You
shouldn't just be bebopping from here and there, and he was gone.
Now, here's the 2 Samuel 12, 5 and 6, David thing. Notice, then the king of Israel
said to him, so shall your judgment be, you yourself have decided
it. You see, that's what Nathan did with David. He reeled him
in. He told him that little story
about the Ulam, and David got all upset. Well, that's what's
happening here. Ahab says, you've signed your
own death warrant. You knew the terms, you knew
the reality, you knew the situation, you were supposed to guard the
guy, and you were doing thus and thus, and off he went. So,
you know, whatever is going to happen is going to happen. Now
here comes Nathan the prophet. Well, not Nathan, but you see
the parallels. He hastened to take the bandage
away from his eyes, and the king of Israel recognized him as one
of the prophets. Then he said to him, thus says
the Lord, because you have let slip out of your hand a man whom
I appointed to utter destruction, therefore your life shall go
for his life and your people for his people. That's the point. That's the narrative. That's
what we're supposed to take from all of this. Ahab continues to
reject the Word of God. Ahab continues to reject the
grace of God. Ahab continues to resist the
grace of God. And as a result, Ahab is going
to be rejected by the God of grace. That's the purpose of
this parable of the prophet to this particular man. Davis says
Ahab begins by sparing his enemy and will end by destroying his
people. And then verse 43, the king of
Israel went to his house sullen and displeased and came to Samaria. This seems to characterize Ahab
if you look down at 21.4. Ahab went into his house sullen
and displeased because of the word which Naboth, the Jezreelite,
had spoken to him. For he had said, I will not give
you the inheritance of my fathers. You see, sullen displeasure on
the part of a rebel. He doesn't get his way, and he
goes away, and he's sullen, and he's displeased. Matthew Henry
said, he was not truly penitent or seeking to undo what he had
done amiss, but enraged at the prophet, exasperated against
God. So the point of the passage ultimately
is God's condemnation of Ahab, but we need to appreciate it
came after many overtures of God's grace. Now, I realize that
we don't have in here a Matthew 11, 28. Jesus doesn't pop up
on the plains of Aphek and say, come to me, all you who labor
and are heavy laden. But you see, when Ahab witnesses,
not only here's the prophetic word, but witnesses it come true,
he needs to be led to a consideration of the living and true God. He
should cast himself upon the mercy of God. No one can come
to this and say, wow, how in the world could God judge Ahab
for such a thing? We never have a record or a command
where he was supposed to leave Ben-Hadad alive. Again, Ben-Hadad
was an arch enemy against Israel. If Ahab was truly concerned at
least one bit about the nation of Israel, he should have killed
this enemy combatant. He should have killed this enemy
king. He knew the demands of holy war. He knew the bad example
of King Saul in 1 Samuel 15. You cannot come to this chapter
and say, well, you know, that's pretty severe that God's going
to cut him off. Do you see what he did prior to this? Do you
see the grace? Do you see the mercy? Do you
see the kindness? Do you see the goodness? You
see, when men ultimately are cut off by God and brought to
the point of judgment, it is typically after many overtures
of grace, many times where they've heard the gospel, many times
where they've been pleaded with, many times where they've been
pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ, and then ultimately the day of
God's judgment comes, and that is what we see in this particular
chapter. Well, in conclusion, as I said,
the beginning of the end for Ahab, Davis comments, because
Ahab's spineless moderation, both Ahab and Israel stand under
doom. That's in chapter 20. Because
of his heartless oppression, his household will be exterminated.
We'll see that in chapter 21. And because of his thick-headed
obtuseness, his life is forfeit. No other king received such a
literary battering from the sacred writer, but no other king the
likes of Ahab had come along. So in other words, he is a pretty
bad and nasty character. Proven makes again another just
wonderful observation here. You remember how Ahab dies? He's in disguise, isn't he? He's
disguised on the field of battle. Proven says the people's death
will be a long time coming yet, not till 2 Kings 17. Ahab's death
is closer, and it is strangely prefigured in the manner in which
he hears about it. A prophet has disguised himself
as a soldier fresh from fighting the Arameans in order to trick
the king. In 22, 29 and following, Ahab
will disguise himself as a soldier when going out to fight the Arameans
in order to foil a prophet and his God. His strategy will fail
as spectacularly as the prophet's has succeeded. For God is the
prime mover behind all that happens to mortal beings and disguises
only succeed when God ordains it so. That's very, very perceptive. And then, as I mentioned earlier,
the demonstration in this chapter of true theology. I think Davis
nails it in terms of an expositional presentation. Essentially, what
he has in the first section is the marvelous grace of God. That's
what happens. Ahab is a recipient and a benefactor
of the marvelous grace of God. In the second section, he calls
it the display of the power of God.
He ain't just the God of the hills, but he's the God of the
hills and the plains, yea over all things. And then that last
section being on the judgment of God. Ahab has rejected, Ahab
has rebelled, Ahab is ultimately cut off by God in his justice. Well, let us pray. Father, we
thank you for this, your Word. Help us to have ears to hear
and hearts to receive and just that desire to obey what you
call us to, Father. Help us to learn from the death
of this prophet by lion how seriously you take obedience to your Word.
May it never be the case that we adjudge disobedience to be
the right course because of some feeling or some idea of compassion. Help us, God, to be faithful
and obedient to you. Help us to receive the Word with
thanksgiving. Help us to guard our hearts against
the sorts of things that we see in this chapter in terms of bad
Syrian theology and bad conduct on the part of Israel's king.
Go with us and watch over us and grant us grace to glorify
and honor you. We thank you for the gospel,
we thank you for your grace extended to us, your grace applied by
the Holy Spirit, your grace truly delighted in. It is indeed amazing. And we praise you for it, in
Jesus' name. Amen.
