In the last 3 chapters of 1 Kings, the author highlighted some incidents in Ahab’s reign.
• It shows the failures of King Ahab. He failed, not because God has given up on him; Ahab has chosen to ignore God.
• We see Ahab’s repeated rejection of God’s Word, given through the prophets. It is not that God did not speak; he chose to ignore His Word.
We are going to look at an incident in 1 Kings 20. It is a battle with the King of Aram (Syria), Ben-Hadad. We do not know when exactly this happened.
Read 1 Kings 20:1-12.
Ben-hadad, the King of Aram (Syria, NE), has infiltrated the land of Israel all the way to Samaria, the capital. King Ahab was under siege.
• Ben-Hadad had gathered a coalition of 32 kings, the tribal groups surrounding the region. He has a formidable force.
• 20:3 - He imposes his terms: “Your silver and gold are mine, and the best of your wives and children are mine.”
Ahab was outnumbered and helpless. He submitted promptly: “Yes, they all belongs to you.”
• He thought that would make Israel a vassal state and himself a puppet king. That was quite acceptable.
• But it was too simple for Ben-Hadad. He wasn’t satisfied with a YES so quickly and taunt him a second time (20:5-6).
• “I am going to send my officials and they are going to empty your palace and you're your officials’ houses. I will seize everything.”
His first demand was tame. His second one was an invasion.
• Ahab refused to submit, and with that, Ben-Hadad declared war with Israel.
• 20:10 Ben-Hadad sent message to Ahab: "May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if enough dust remains in Samaria to give each of my men a handful."
• Implied that he has so many men that to distribute the dust remains of Samaria to each one wouldn’t be enough. He threatened to level the city.
Ahab was clearly powerless. Yet into this helpless situation came a prophet of God.
• This nameless prophet appeared three times in the course of this battle and delivered God’s Word. I named them the three words from God.
Read 1 Kings 20:13-21. THE WORD OF PROMISE.
20:13 - Meanwhile (And behold! Suddenly!) a prophet came to Ahab king of Israel and announced, "This is what the LORD says: `Do you see this vast army? I will give it into your hand today, and then you will know that I am the LORD.'"
• Out of the blue, a prophet appeared. He has a Word from God. God stepped in, for the sake of His people.
• The prophet came unsolicited. Ahab did not seek him out nor was he even seeking God’s help.
• The unnamed prophet took the initiative and came with a word of HOPE from God!
So far we have been hearing what Ben-Hadad says. Ahab has been hearing his words.
• 20:2 “This is what Ben-Hadad says…”
• 20:5 “The messengers came again and said, ‘This is what Ben-Hadad says…”
• And now the prophet said, “This is what the Lord says…” (20:13) and then again 20:14 “This is what the Lord says…”
Our common experience, right? This is what man says, and this is what God says.
• Whose word carries the day? At the end of the day, which one holds true?
• Would it be the arrogant words of Ben-Hadad or the sure Word of the Lord?
• God’s Word determines history. Never mind what man says.
The Lord says, “Do you see this vast army?” (20:13) Even the Lord agrees that the enemy’s army is great. Yet “I will give IT into your hand today!”
• The enemy is great but God is greater! Their strength is mighty but the power of God is even mightier.
A church was doing spring cleaning and volunteers come with their own vacuum cleaners. A brother came late and when he entered the sanctuary, he saw 7-8 pp already there with their cleaners doing the work. He found a corner and joined in.
He was happily vacuum cleaning the place for 15min before he realised that nothing was sucked in. It wasn’t working. The plug was faulty and he has no power.
Yet he was happily doing it for 15min because of the noise of the other cleaners. Lots of noise but no power. That’s the Arameans.
The Lord says, “I will give it into your hand today and then you will know that I am the Lord.”
• When the victory comes, no one needs to guess WHO did it. God did it!
• True to God’s promise, Israel had a smashing victory (20:19-21).
The prophet appeared a second time, this time giving a WORD OF CAUTION.
Read 1 Kings 20:22-27. THE WORD OF CAUTION.
• It was a vital piece of intelligence – “next spring the King of Aram will attack you again.” (20:22)
• This was a prophecy. God warned them ahead of time. Past victory was sweet, but vigilance was needed.
Ben-Hadad will be back, so “strengthen your position and see what must be done” (v.22)
• Again this wasn’t solicited. As with the word of promise, this word of caution came by the GRACE of God!
• God gave them an early warning to prepare them and protect them.
As predicted, next spring Ben-Hadad mustered his forces again and gathered at Aphek for war.
• He has chosen a flat battleground this time. His advisors believed they lost the first war because they were fighting Israel in the hills.
• Israel’s God must be a god of the hills (cf. 20:23), so now they fight them on the plains.
Doesn’t this sound familiar? People think that way today, that God has certain territorial control and there are some turf beyond his reach.
• Do we think that way sometimes? That there are some areas in our lives beyond God’s power to help, that He is the God of the hills but not of the valleys?
• This is Aramean mentality. Don’t let such thoughts sip into our minds. God is always sovereign and all-powerful.
Listen to what the man of God says. He came to Ahab a THIRD TIME (20:13, 22, 28)
• Read 1 Kings 20:28-30. THE WORD OF ASSURANCE.
God assured them, a second time: “I will deliver this vast army into your hands…” (v.28)
• You will win the war, even though you look like “two small flocks of goats” standing before the Arameans who “covered the whole countryside” (20:27)
• God gave a WORD OF ASSURANCE. They cannot defeat you, be it in the hills or the valleys.
• “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4)
BUT WHY? Why has God been so good to Ahab and Israel, especially when King Ahab had been so unbelieving of God and the people so rebellious?
• Grace! All of these words – the word of promise, caution and assurance - came by the grace of God. They were God’s gifts to Israel.
• God did it because He loves Israel! He initiated it because He is good.
• They did not deserve it; they could not earn it. All that they needed to do is to believe God’s Word and trust God for it.
That’s the amazing grace of God. Someone once said that to attach the word ‘amazing’ to grace seems redundant. Grace is by definition amazing. There is no ‘un-amazing’ grace. If people truly comprehend God’s grace, they will be transformed.
The works of God’s grace are meant to bring people back to God. Twice the prophet emphasized this.
• At the first battle, the prophet said to Ahab in 20:13 that when you see this vast army being given into your hand today, then “YOU will know that I am the Lord.”
• At the second battle - 20:28 The man of God came up and told the king of Israel, "This is what the LORD says: `Because the Arameans think the LORD is a god of the hills and not a god of the valleys, I will deliver this vast army into your hands, and YOU will know that I am the LORD.'"
• It’s a witness not only to Ahab and Israel, but to the Arameans.
That’s the work of God’s grace. That you may KNOW God and glorify Him.
• A. W. Tozer: “Grace is the good pleasure of God that inclines Him to bestow benefits upon the undeserving. Its use to us sinful men is to save us and make us sit together in heavenly places to demonstrate to the ages the exceeding riches of God’s kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”
CONCLUSION:
We see the GOODNESS of God in this passage. God is the covenant-keeping God.
• 2 Tim 2:13 “If we are faithless, He will remain faithful, for He cannot disown Himself.”
In these two battles, Israel experienced God’s grace and love. God came to their rescue, unasked and undeserved.
• THREE times the King saw the fulfilment of God’s Word given through the prophet.
• The only rightful response for the King and his people is to acknowledge God and worship Him.
• Can they go on living as if nothing has happened?
Can we? Having tasted God’s grace and His love in our own lives?
• Can we go on living our usual way, going through the same routine every day, without any recognition of God’s grace in our lives?
• Can we afford not to pay more attention to the Word that God has given us – His word of promise, word of caution and word of assurance?
