1 Kings 20:23-34 (CLICK HERE FOR BIBLE VERSES)
Hi GAMErs,
Today’s passage is 1 Kings 20:13-22. As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first. See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below. Let’s go!
1 Kings 20:13-22 (NIVToday’s passage is 1 Kings 20:23-34. As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first. See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below. Let’s go!
1 Kings 20:23-34 (NIV)
23 Meanwhile, the officials of the king of Aram advised him, “Their gods are gods of the hills. That is why they were too strong for us. But if we fight them on the plains, surely we will be stronger than they.
24 Do this: Remove all the kings from their commands and replace them with other officers.
25 You must also raise an army like the one you lost–horse for horse and chariot for chariot–so we can fight Israel on the plains. Then surely we will be stronger than they.” He agreed with them and acted accordingly.
26 The next spring Ben-Hadad mustered the Arameans and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel.
27 When the Israelites were also mustered and given provisions, they marched out to meet them. The Israelites camped opposite them like two small flocks of goats, while the Arameans covered the countryside.
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.'”
29 For seven days they camped opposite each other, and on the seventh day the battle was joined. The Israelites inflicted a hundred thousand casualties on the Aramean foot soldiers in one day.
30 The rest of them escaped to the city of Aphek, where the wall collapsed on twenty-seven thousand of them. And Ben-Hadad fled to the city and hid in an inner room.
31 His officials said to him, “Look, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful. Let us go to the king of Israel with sackcloth around our waists and ropes around our heads. Perhaps he will spare your life.”
32 Wearing sackcloth around their waists and ropes around their heads, they went to the king of Israel and said, “Your servant Ben-Hadad says: ‘Please let me live.'” The king answered, “Is he still alive? He is my brother.”
33 The men took this as a good sign and were quick to pick up his word. “Yes, your brother Ben-Hadad!” they said. “Go and get him,” the king said. When Ben-Hadad came out, Ahab had him come up into his chariot.
34 “I will return the cities my father took from your father,” Ben-Hadad offered. “You may set up your own market areas in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria.” [Ahab said,] “On the basis of a treaty I will set you free.” So he made a treaty with him, and let him go.
On verses 23-34: The officials of Ben-Hadad King of Aram had no idea whom they were dealing with. They assumed that the reason why the outnumbered Israelites unexpectedly defeated the Arameans at the first battle was because the Israelites were experienced at fighting in the mountains. “But if we fight them on the plains, we will surely have the upper hand,” the Aramean officials reasoned (v23). Little did the Aramean officials know that regardless of where they fought, the Israelites were a force to be reckoned because the Lord was with them.
So in the next battle, the Israelites overpower the Arameans on their own flat home court, killing 100,000 Aramean soldiers on the plains. Another 27,000 Aramean soldiers are killed when a city wall in Aphek collapses on them. The remainder, including King Ben-Hadad, flee. King Ben-Hadad pleads with King Ahab to spare his life. Seemingly without giving it a second thought, Ahab receives Ben-Hadad, who had wanted to destroy Ahab and his people, as one receives a brother. Ahab enters into an economic treaty with Ben-Hadad and lets Ben-Hadad go free. This would prove to be a fatal mistake on King Ahab’s part. Three years later in 1 Kings 22, the King of Aram would once again go to war against King Ahab of Israel and this time would succeed in killing Ahab.
What can we learn from this?
1. Like the Aramean officials, the world is quick to try to rationalize away the miracles that God accomplishes and the amazing blessings He gives to His people. Do not follow that faithless bunch. Instead of continually trying to find other reasons for the blessings and victories God’s people experience, be humble and leave room for God to be part of the explanation why amazing things happen the way they do.
2. Do not be quick to trust someone who has been bent on hurting you. Remember that forgiveness and trust are not the same thing. Forgiveness is relinquishing our right to get even against someone who hurt us and not holding a grudge against that person anymore. Trust is giving that person influence and power over us. We are commanded to freely forgive those who hurt us, since that is how God forgave us. But we are not commanded to trust them automatically again. Trust needs to be earned. To give trust too easily and too quickly, especially to those who have hurt us in the past, can be fatal, as would be in Ahab’s case.
Father, the world around me will try to rationalize You away, but I recognize today that without You the greatest blessings and victories I have known in life would not have been possible. Today I acknowledge that You are the reason why anything good happens in my life. Help me also to quickly forgive those who hurt me, but not to trust them too easily again. May my hope and trust be in You far more than in anyone else. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
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