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 20:22–30, “And the prophet came to the king of Israel, and said unto him, Go, strengthen thyself, and mark, and see what thou doest: for at the return of the year the king of Syria will come up against thee. And the servants of the king of Syria said unto him, Their gods are gods of the hills; therefore they were stronger than we; but let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they. And do this thing, Take the kings away, every man out of his place, and put captains in their rooms: And number thee an army, like the army that thou hast lost, horse for horse, and chariot for chariot: and we will fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they. And he hearkened unto their voice, and did so. And it came to pass at the return of the year, that Benhadad numbered the Syrians, and went up to Aphek, to fight against Israel. And the children of Israel were numbered, and were all present, and went against them: and the children of Israel pitched before them like two little flocks of kids; but the Syrians filled the country. And there came a man of God, and spake unto the king of Israel, and said, Thus saith the LORD, Because the Syrians have said, The LORD is God of the hills, but he is not God of the valleys, therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thine hand, and ye shall know that I am the LORD. And they pitched one over against the other seven days. And so it was, that in the seventh day the battle was joined: and the children of Israel slew of the Syrians an hundred thousand footmen in one day. But the rest fled to Aphek, into the city; and there a wall fell upon twenty and seven thousand of the men that were left. And Benhadad fled, and came into the city, into an inner chamber.”
Ahab’s reign was a critical reign in the northern kingdom of Israel’s history. When Jeroboam became king, he established the golden calves and told the people that these calves were the Lord God Who brought them out of the land of slavery. He established a new priesthood, one that was not approved by the Lord. The Lord was patient and gave Israel and their kings many chances to repent of their sin and return to worshipping the true God of heaven. However, Ahab gave up any pretence of worshipping the Lord and began to worship the gods of the surrounding nations in exactly the same way as those nations worshipped their gods. The Lord sent two of His mightiest prophets during this reign, Elijah and Elisha, and allowed them to perform amazing miracles because this was a time of spiritual transition. The Lord also gave Ahab extra opportunities to see His power and might during times of battle. Benhadad came and the Lord used his arrogance as a chance for Ahab to see that the Lord is the true God of the earth. After one great battle, Benhadad was extremely angry and looked for further vengeance. He decided that the Lord was the God of the hills and that was why his army lost. He replaced all the kings who led his former army with trained army generals and sought to fight his battle in the valley because, he assumed, his god was superior in the valley. When they came to do battle again, Benhadad had a huge army but Ahab was supported by the God of the whole earth. Even though Benhadad believed that he had sufficient intelligence about the Lord to win, he didn’t know enough and his army was decisively beaten again. Benhadad left the scene of the battle and hid in his room.
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