1 Kings 20

1 Kings 20:1

9. Ahab’s First Victory over Syria (20:1-22)20:1-6 Ben-Hadad, the king of Syria, was formerly thought to be the son of the Ben-Hadad mentioned in 1Ki_15:18, 1Ki_15:20. But later research has raised the possibility that he was the same person. He formed an alliance of thirty-two Aramean kings and marched against Samaria . . . with horses and chariots. When the city was in a state of siege, he sent surrender terms to Ahab"Your silver . . . your gold . . . your loveliest wives and children." Ahab meekly and weakly agreed. Not satisfied with Ahab’s capitulation to his first terms, Ben-Hadad next demanded right of entry for his servants and the right to seize anything they wanted. 20:7-12 The elders of Israel were indignant at this second demand and urged noncompliance. When Ben-Hadad was notified of Israel’s refusal, he flew into a rage, boasting that he would strip Samaria so bare that there wouldn’t be a handful of dust . . . for each of his soldiers. To this, Ahab replied that a soldier putting on his armor should not boast as if the victory were already won. This taunt stirred the carousing Syrian and his confederates to action. 20:13-15 At this point a prophet of the Lord approached Ahab, assuring him of victory. God used a small force of two hundred and thirty-two servants of the governors of the districts, followed by seven thousand of the people of Israel, to defeat the assembled armies from the north. The phrase “all the children of Israel” (v. 15b) means all the soldiers in Samaria. A small number of young servants was chosen to begin the battle, to make it all the more apparent that victory was from the Lord and not from the arm of the flesh. 20:16-22 Ahab attacked at noon, when Ben-Hadad and his allies were getting drunk. When Ben-Hadad heard that the 232 men of Israel were advancing, he ordered that they be taken alive. This, of course, gave a military advantage to the Israelites and resulted in a great slaughter of the Syrians. The survivors retreated to their homeland. The prophet of the Lord warned Ahab that the Syrian army would return in the spring.

1 Kings 20:23

10. Ahab’s Second Victory over Syria (20:23-34)20:23-25 Ben-Hadad’s servants attributed their shameful defeat to two factors: (1) The Israelites had won the battle in hill country. Doubtless their gods were gods of the hills. But they would be impotent on the plains. So the Syrians should engage them the next time on the plains. (2) The thirty-two kings who fought against Ahab had apparently proved themselves unskilled in warfare. Ben-Hadad’s servants advised that they be replaced by professional captains. 20:26-30a In the spring, . . . Ben-Hadad marched against Israel again. The army of Israel looked like two little flocks of goats compared to the host of Syria. A man of God told Ahab that the LORD would show Ben-Hadad that He was the God of the valleys as well as of the hills. In the battle, Israel killed one hundred thousand foot soldiers. The Syrians who escaped tried to take up positions on the walls of the city of Aphek, but the walls collapsed, killing twenty-seven thousand of them. 20:30b-34 Ben-Hadad hid in an inner chamber of Aphek. His servants persuaded him to let them go out to Ahab, clothed with symbols of surrender and mourning, and to plead for mercy. In the interview, Ahab stupidly referred to the king as his “brother.” The men of Syria quickly caught that word and said, “Yes, your brother Ben-Hadad!” Ahab ordered that the king of Syria be brought to him. Ben-Hadad promised to restore the cities which had been taken from Ahab’s predecessor (1Ki_15:20) and to allow Israel to establish marketplaces . . . in Damascus (v. 34). Ahab made a treaty on these terms and let Ben-Hadad escape instead of killing him, as he should have done.

1 Kings 20:35

11. Ahab’s Disobedience (20:35-43)20:35, 36 Ahab wanted a strong Syria as a buffer between Israel and the growing menace of Assyria. The incident that follows was an object lesson, acted out by the prophet, to illustrate the folly of Ahab’s action. One of the sons of the prophets ordered his fellow by the word of the LORD to strike him. The man disobeyed him and therefore disobeyed the LORD. For his failure to obey the Lord’s voice, he was destroyed by a lion. If a good prophet were thus punished for sparing his friend and God’s, when God said Smite, of much sorer punishment should a wicked king be thought worthy, who spared his enemy and God’s, when God said Smite. 20:37-43 The prophet found another man who obeyed him by striking and wounding him. Then the prophet . . . disguised himself with a bandage over his eyes and waited for King Ahab. When the king was passing by, the prophet told of being in the battle and of being charged with the custody of an enemy prisoner. He had been warned that if the prisoner escaped, he would have to pay either with his own life or with the exorbitant figure of one talent of silver. The disguised prophet told how he had become preoccupied with other things and how the prisoner had escaped. The king showed no leniency; he insisted that the original terms of punishment be carried out.

Then the prophet sprang the trap. He removed his bandage to reveal himself as a prophet known by Ahab. Ahab had had an enemy prisoner, Ben-Hadad, in his grasp. Obedience to the Lord required that the Syrian king be killed. For his disobedience Ahab would be slain. Campbell Morgan explains: This was the meaning of the parable: Ahab had one thing to do by the command of God, and while he did a hundred things, he neglected the one. What a revelation of a perpetual reason and method of failure! We are given some one responsibility by God, some central, definite thing to do. We start to do it with all good intentions, and then other things, not necessarily wrong in themselves, come in our way. We get “busy here and there” doing many things and we neglect the one central thing. Like King David before him, Ahab condemned himself by his own words. But unlike David, who repented, Ahab became sullen and stormed off to his palace to pout. Instead of asking the Lord for mercy, he continued to incite the Lord to wrath, as we read in the remaining chapters of 1 Kings.