Would you like to read James McNaught’s novel Sinking Sand”? click here: Sinking Sand
(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
1 Kings 20:31–43, “And his servants said unto him, Behold now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings: let us, I pray thee, put sackcloth on our loins, and ropes upon our heads, and go out to the king of Israel: peradventure he will save thy life. So they girded sackcloth on their loins, and put ropes on their heads, and came to the king of Israel, and said, Thy servant Benhadad saith, I pray thee, let me live. And he said, Is he yet alive? he is my brother. Now the men did diligently observe whether any thing would come from him, and did hastily catch it: and they said, Thy brother Benhadad. Then he said, Go ye, bring him. Then Benhadad came forth to him; and he caused him to come up into the chariot. And Benhadad said unto him, The cities, which my father took from thy father, I will restore; and thou shalt make streets for thee in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria. Then said Ahab, I will send thee away with this covenant. So he made a covenant with him, and sent him away. And a certain man of the sons of the prophets said unto his neighbour in the word of the LORD, Smite me, I pray thee. And the man refused to smite him. Then said he unto him, Because thou hast not obeyed the voice of the LORD, behold, as soon as thou art departed from me, a lion shall slay thee. And as soon as he was departed from him, a lion found him, and slew him. Then he found another man, and said, Smite me, I pray thee. And the man smote him, so that in smiting he wounded him. So the prophet departed, and waited for the king by the way, and disguised himself with ashes upon his face. And as the king passed by, he cried unto the king: and he said, Thy servant went out into the midst of the battle; and, behold, a man turned aside, and brought a man unto me, and said, Keep this man: if by any means he be missing, then shall thy life be for his life, or else thou shalt pay a talent of silver. And as thy servant was busy here and there, he was gone. And the king of Israel said unto him, So shall thy judgment be; thyself hast decided it. And he hasted, and took the ashes away from his face; and the king of Israel discerned him that he was of the prophets. And he said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Because thou hast let go out of thy hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore thy life shall go for his life, and thy people for his people. And the king of Israel went to his house heavy and displeased, and came to Samaria.”
When armies came against Israel they were actually fighting against the living God. When this happened, these armies were working actively to prevent the Lord from completing His overall plan of redemption. This was grievous act of blasphemy against the Lord and deserved to be punished as such. When the Lord gave Ahab a decisive victory against the Syrians because they boasted that they could defeat the Lord God in the valleys, Ahab was acting as the Lord’s agent in the earth. On the other hand, the Syrians feared that they would be treated as enemies like anyone else would have done. Benhadad and his senior leaders came to Ahab and asked his for mercy. Ahab didm’t see the battle in its true context and thought that he could do whatever he wanted in spite of the fact that the Lord had given the victory. Ahab set the Syrian leaders free. The Lord sent Ahab a message. The man charged with giving Ahab the message was to give Ahab the message in terms that he would understand. This prophet asked a man to strike him with a sword so that he looked as though he had been wounded in battle. The man refused to do what the Lord required and was punished for his disobedience. When the prophet was struck by another man, he covered the wound and told Ahab that he had been charged to keep a prisoner but the prisoner had escaped. Ahab said the prophet should be punished for letting the prisoner escape. This was the was things operated in those days. The prophet let Ahab know who he was and then told Ahab that he would lose his own life for letting his, much more important prisoner escape. Ahab sulked after he heard this message; he seems to have been a bit of a spoilt brat and sulked whenever he didn’t get his own way.
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