{"id":35142,"date":"2025-03-19T22:00:33","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T05:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=35142"},"modified":"2025-03-11T21:17:42","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T04:17:42","slug":"1-kings-20_13-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/1-kings-20_13-22\/","title":{"rendered":"God Keeps Pursuing You"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 Kings\u00a0 20:13-22\u00a0 \u00a0 (CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 1 Kings 20:13-22.\u00a0 As usual,\u00a0I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.\u00a0 See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

1 Kings 20:13-22 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Meanwhile a prophet came to Ahab king of Israel and announced, “This is what the\u00a0LORD\u00a0says: ‘Do you see this vast army? I will give it into your hand today, and then you will know that I am the\u00a0LORD.'”
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“But who will do this?” asked Ahab. The prophet replied, “This is what the\u00a0LORD\u00a0says: ‘The young officers of the provincial commanders will do it.'” “And who will start the battle?” he asked. The prophet answered, “You will.”
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So Ahab summoned the young officers of the provincial commanders, 232 men. Then he assembled the rest of the Israelites, 7,000 in all.
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They set out at noon while Ben-Hadad and the 32 kings allied with him were in their tents getting drunk.
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The young officers of the provincial commanders went out first. Now Ben-Hadad had dispatched scouts, who reported, “Men are advancing from Samaria.”
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He said, “If they have come out for peace, take them alive; if they have come out for war, take them alive.”
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The young officers of the provincial commanders marched out of the city with the army behind them
\n20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0and each one struck down his opponent. At that, the Arameans fled, with the Israelites in pursuit. But Ben-Hadad king of Aram escaped on horseback with some of his horsemen.
\n21\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The king of Israel advanced and overpowered the horses and chariots and inflicted heavy losses on the Arameans.
\n22\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Afterward, the prophet came to the king of Israel and said, “Strengthen your position and see what must be done, because next spring the king of Aram will attack you again.”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses\u00a013-22:\u00a0 Through an unidentified prophet God tells Ahab that Ahab will be victorious over Ben-Hadad and his armies and that Ahab\u2019s junior officers will be the ones to lead Ahab’s army to victory.\u00a0 So Ahab mobilizes 232 junior officers to launch an attack against Ben-Hadad, followed by 7,000 more soldiers.\u00a0 Meanwhile Ben-Hadad and the\u00a0kings\u00a0allied with him are unsuspecting and getting drunk (v18).\u00a0 The junior officers overcome their Aramean opponents, causing them to flee and sustain heavy losses.\u00a0 \u00a0The unnamed prophet warns Ahab not to celebrate too quickly but to prepare for another attack from Aram (v22).<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?<\/p>\n

1. Why would God give Ahab, an evil king who sinned greatly against God, such a decisive victory over his enemies?\u00a0 I believe it was to show Ahab that God was still trying to win Ahab’s heart, despite all the times Ahab had rejected God.\u00a0 As the LORD would say to Ahab in verse 13: \u201cI will give it into your hand today, and then you will know that I am the LORD.'”<\/p>\n

That’s what God does for you and me.\u00a0\u00a0In His amazing grace, God keeps on pursuing us, all in the hope that one day we would be His completely.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>God keeps on chasing after us until there is nothing left to chase — either we finally surrender to Him or we die and remain apart from God forever.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 This is the second time in\u00a01\u00a0Kings\u00a0where a king is attacked and defeated while that king is getting drunk.\u00a0 These verses warn us against drunkenness and allowing alcohol or other substances to cloud our judgment.<\/p>\n

3. By choosing the young junior officers of Ahab’s army to lead the attack, it shows how much God believes in young people and wants to use young people to advance His kingdom.\u00a0\u00a0You might not be the oldest, the most experienced or the most senior in your family or on your team.\u00a0 But don’t underestimate what God can do through you for His glory and His kingdom’s sake.<\/strong>\u00a0 As 1 Timothy 4:12 says, \u201cDon’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Father, thank You for being a God of such amazing grace – how You still pursue us even after we’ve rejected you and how You choose the weak things of this world to shame the strong.\u00a0 Thank You that You want to use my life to advance Your kingdom and to defeat Your enemies.\u00a0 In Jesus’ name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

copyright \u00a9 2022 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 1 Kings 20:13-22.\u00a0 As usual,\u00a0I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.\u00a0 See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit\u2019s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.\u00a0 Let’s go!\u00a0<\/p>\n

1 Kings 20:13-22 (NIV)
\n13\u00a0\u00a0Meanwhile a prophet came to Ahab king of Israel and announced, “This is what the\u00a0LORD\u00a0says: ‘Do you see this vast army? I will give it into your hand today, and then you will know that I am the\u00a0LORD.'”
\n14\u00a0\u00a0“But who will do this?” asked Ahab. The prophet replied, “This is what the\u00a0LORD\u00a0says: ‘The young officers of the provincial commanders will do it.'” “And who will start the battle?” he asked. The prophet answered, “You will.”<\/p>\n

On verses\u00a013-22:\u00a0 Through an unidentified prophet God tells Ahab that Ahab will be victorious over Ben-Hadad and his armies and that Ahab\u2019s junior officers will be the ones to lead Ahab’s army to victory.\u00a0 So Ahab mobilizes 232 junior officers to launch an attack against Ben-Hadad, followed by 7,000 more soldiers.\u00a0 Meanwhile Ben-Hadad and the\u00a0kings\u00a0allied with him are unsuspecting and getting drunk (v18).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35145,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35142"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35146,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35142\/revisions\/35146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}