I Kings 20
Dear RTB’ers,
An entire chapter devoted to Israel’s King Ahab and his battles with Aram (Damascus/modern-day Syria), with no mention of Elijah or Elisha or Jezebel from previous chapters. It’s hard to understand Ahab’s persistence in his seeming failure to acknowledge the Lord’s work. First he saw the Lord defeating the prophets of Baal at Mt. Carmel. Then an unnamed prophet comes to him and predicts his victory over Aram’s siege of Samaria with a powerful message: Thus says the LORD, Have you seen all this great multitude? Behold, I will give it into your hand this day, and you shall know that I am the LORD. (v. 13b) The writer offers no response from Ahab as to this battle victory brought about from the Lord. Then months later Aram again tests Israel in battle and a prophet again predicts victory from the Lord: …I will give all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the LORD. (v. 28b) Again, no acknowledgement of the Lord’s deliverance. Finally, without seeking the Lord, Ahab lets his enemy go free and is chastised for it, with his own doom predicted. Today’s final word is fitting: And the king of Israel went to his house vexed and sullen and came to Samaria. (v. 43) Vexed and sullen!
What to make of Ahab’s silence with respect to the Lord’s deliverance, especially when these two victories had been foretold? Or perhaps the greater question is why the Lord continued to deliver Ahab and Israel when he/they seem to have abandoned Him and are busy serving the Baal gods? We closed our Avanza video yesterday with the following quote from Paul, …but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8) God’s love for Israel, in spite of their rejection of Him…? And us?
Blessings.
Good thoughts and questions, Fred.
Right there is one answer as to why the Lord gives these victories to Ahab. Yet we should not be at all surprised at Ahab’s “seeming failure to acknowledge the Lord’s work.” We see the same playing out all around us all the time. The real question isn’t so much Ahab (or all “those” people “out there”) but why we ourselves don’t manage to recognize the Lord and His work. How often are we just like the Syrians thinking that God is a god of the hills but not of the valleys (not just geologically, but metaphorically, too)? (I Kings 20:23,28) And how often do we go home vexed and sullen?